WHAT DID THEY WANT? I have always been interested in the paranormal. As a child, I played with Ouija boards and had seances. Things always happened but because there was nothing really substantial, I just dismissed it as coincidence. As I grew into my 20’s, my belief and curiosity in the paranormal just grew. In 1995, my husband and I purchased a home in Maryland. We thought nothing of the fact that the home had housed eleven families over the course of 50 years; none remained in the house longer than 6 years. Our first bout with a ghost occurred in the first month. My husband and I had gone to bed as normal. I found myself waking up at 3:10am. I heard a woman humming in my kitchen. It didn't scare me. Actually, I found it comforting. Kind of like when you grandma bakes and you hear her humming songs you have never heard before. As I lay there and listened, I just stared at the ceiling. At that point, I could feel my hair gently being lifted off of my face. I got very scared and threw the covers up over my head. The next morning I was talking to my husband. I just asked him a simple question. “Have you ever dreamed something so vivid that you think it really happened?” My husband, who WAS a total non-believer, just got this look of terror on his face and asked me, “why?” I began to tell him what I heard. Before I even got it out of my mouth, he said that he heard elderly lady humming in the kitchen. Because my husband and I awoke at different times in the night to hear this, we knew it had to be a ghost. When we discussed the prior nights events, we were terrified. We dressed quickly and proceeded to head out the door to go to work. Entering the basement to go to the garage, I noticed an incredible stench that filled the room. I raced out of the house. I had run out of the house so fast that I left every door hanging wide open. As I got to the car outside, I turned around to watch my husband come out of the house. When I turned around, I noticed that the door to the house was shut again. (I didn't shut it) My husband just walked outside complaining about the stench. We were so upset about what had happened that we came home at lunch to check the house. Everything was in order and no stench or smell of any kind remained. I guess the best way to describe the stench is to say that it smelled like strong sulfur or a horrible septic backup. A few days later, my husband woke up in the middle of the night from a bad dream. He sat up in bed and looked around to get his bearings. When he did, he heard an elderly lady say to him, “It’s alright honey.” He laid down and threw the covers over his head. (You know how protected you are by having covers over your head- ha ha) Anyway, not long after that incident, my husband and I were sleeping. He woke up to someone caressing his neck with his or her nails. Thinking it was me; he just lay there and enjoyed it. Well, the pressure got heavier and it began to hurt. My husband said, “Stop” out loud to me. The scratching continued except this time it was malicious. He sat straight up in bed and yelled “STOP IT” to me. I was asleep on the other side of the bed facing the opposite direction. He went to the bathroom and saw the scratches on his neck. I would like to say that my husband was the only person targeted in the house but that would be wrong. Both my children were targets also, although, I am not sure why. My oldest daughter (6) was sleeping one night. She came to my room 4 times because she “had a bad dream”. The next morning I asked her what she was dreaming about that kept her up. She said that 2 people were in her room. One was a man who was mean and the other was a little boy. She said the man was mean but the little boy was nice. He wanted to play with her. She was the only person to “see” anything. My youngest daughter (5) was in bed one night when her sister was at her grandparent’s house. She came out to the living room to her father and I and told us that her sister pushed her out of bed. The bed was a double bed and it was pushed up against the wall. It was impossible to fall out of that bed. Especially, since my youngest was sleeping against the wall and does NOT move when she sleeps. Anyway, we tried to console her but she was convinced that she was pushed out of bed. I got really mad with all of this activity around my kids and “yelled” at the ghosts. I told them that I don't care what they did to me but they MUST leave my kids alone. That night all “activity” that occurred, happened outside in our backyard. Although, no storms were present our hot tub cover that locked down was torn off the tub, all the kids toys were sprawled all over the yard and it looked like a hurricane had hit outside. Another incident that occurred happened indirectly to me. I think that the ghost was showing displeasure. I had sat down to watch A&E. They have Haunted Castles weeks sometimes, at least they used to. As my show was starting, a vase sitting on a shelf behind me hurled down the staircase to the bottom of the stairs, crashing and going into a million pieces everywhere. At this point my husband and I were terrified because we had no idea of what to do to stop it. A friend of mine knew the situation and decided to try to help. She brought me some Holy Water and a blessed cross to work. She is Catholic and I am not but I thought what the heck, right? I took these items into each room of the house. After my ritual, we never experienced another incident in that house. I have had experiences in my new house in Texas but they are other stories. For example, my baby girl who is 2 talks to “the people” and my husband’s grandfather who passed this year. Also, my dog sits downstairs and barks at the upstairs all the time. This leaves me with many questions. Is it possible to have good and bad spirits in the same house? Do children and animals have the ability to see things adults can't? Can ghosts follow you? Thanks for listening. If anyone has any answers or comments to my questions, please email me. Contact me here: nicolefolsom@yahoo.com Submitted From: Nikki, TX, USA