Let me start off to say that although I’m a huge fan of horror and ghost stories and the like, when it comes to real world situations I’m a major skeptic. I’ll do my best to come up with an explanation before labeling it paranormal. Even so, the following are my accounts of a few weird things that have occurred to me in my home in Arkansas of 7 years.

Nothing really over the top frightening, but things I can’t explain away.

I’ve lived alone for most of my life, except for the occasional girlfriend, and it takes a lot to spook me. I am living in my first home, and have remodeled it for most of the time there. I know it’s common to attribute remodeling as a trigger for a haunting, but strangely most of the activity occurred before and after I was done.

I’ve never had anything move or break that I couldn’t explain, nor seen any apparitions. Still, I do believe there is something out of place at times in my home. Most of the activity occurs in the two back bedrooms. My home is a 1500 square foot ranch, not super old, like built in the 70’s. I made a lot of improvements throughout, making it almost a show house. But the first strange thing that happened was within a first few weeks of moving in.

From right off the bat, I begun having the common ‘I’m being watched’ feeling so often reported in haunted homes. It only happens when I’m in bed alone. Now, I’ve been in the military, and lived in apartments most of my life with no strange feelings. But this place was different, and I remembered thinking, “Oh great, you just bought a haunted house.” Also, as soon as the lights go off, it’s like the sounds in the house go into overdrive. Creaking, popping, those kinds of sounds. Nothing you couldn’t explain by attributing to the house settling or something like that, but you rarely hear those sounds until you’re in bed and its dark, and for about half an hour it’s like every brace in the house decided to settle. The phone calls most times I was able to shrug off, the being watched feeling thinking it was my imagination running wild, but one night in particular it was overbearing. So much so that I turned on the lights.

Normally, I like it dark and quiet when I sleep, but this night creeped me out. Then, quite early in the morning, like 2-3 AM, the phone suddenly rang. Well, I wasn’t about to get out of bed to answer it, but when the answering machine picked up the message it sounded really weird. Since I was awake anyway, I walked to the living room to listen to it. When I played the message back it gave me chills. It was a voice, but speaking gibberish. The sound came through clear, but there were no words. Best way to describe it was it sounded like the Tasmanian Devil from those bugs bunny cartoons, but creepier. I listened to it several times trying to figure out what the heck was going on, until I went back to bed and eventually slept for an hour or two. Unfortunately the phone was a magnetic recorder, so I couldn’t save the tape or else I would have.

Hot Spots I know cold spots are commonly attributed to spirits. I’ve never felt any in my house, but there have been a couple times when I was sitting at my computer in the living room when I felt a warm spot on my leg. They are very distinct, like someone placed something very warm against my skin. No pressure, but warmth. Never experienced that anywhere else.

Sounds that woke me up.

There were three times weird sounds woke me from my sleep.
First, I heard what can only be described as a very nasal growl. It seemed to be right against my ear. When the first one sounded, it woke me up and I thought maybe my snoring did it until the sound occurred again after I was up. That was another night I slept with the lights on.

Second time, I heard a shuffling right under my pillow. I was so convinced that there was a mouse or bug under there, I stripped the entire bed and searched everywhere for the culprit, but found nothing.

Lastly, one night I suddenly heard tapping on my metal headboard. Not overly loud, but very distinct, sounding like tap-tap-tap-tappity-tap-tap-tappity-tappity-tap…. I wasn’t really scared, just curious. It continued for a couple minutes then stopped, and I fell back to sleep.

Bed Shaking.

This is actually pretty recent. I have my house on the market because of a job opportunity out of state. Strange things have suddenly picked up again; I don’t think they want me to leave! The other night I was lying in bed, almost asleep when it began slowing shaking front to back, like someone had their hands on the footboard and was slowly rocking it. I wasn’t scared for some reason, more fascinated by what was happening. I remember forcing myself to lay perfectly still, even holding my breath to make sure I wasn’t doing anything, but it continued for a few minutes. Couldn’t explain it, nothing on the table next to the bed moved so it wasn’t a tremor. It’s very common to see flashes of movement out the corners of your eyes in the house, shadows and such, but you never can see them head on. You could attribute this to your eyes themselves, but it never happens to me anywhere but my home. Also, there have been a couple occurrences where late at night I thought I could hear voices, but could not make out what they said.

One last weird thing to share. Shortly after putting the house up for sale, one day I walked into the kitchen and saw like 10-15 flies hanging out. This really shocked me. You occasionally have a fly or two buzzing around, but never this many. I thought maybe someone left the door open too long during a home showing and a bunch snuck in, so for the next two hours I went on a fly hunt. Afterward, I put it out of my mind until the next day when I came home from work and once again the kitchen was filled with frigging flies. Now, this occurred all week, and there were no other showings during this time. All the flies were the same species and same size. I thought maybe some dead animal was caught in the vent pipes or something, but I would have smelled something. No, just a bunch of flies swarming in the kitchen and a couple other rooms. I bought fly strips, and was able to kill some and open the door letting the rest fly free. In that week I must have tangled with over 100+ flies easily. I’m talking real Amityville Horror here. They didn’t attack or anything, just seemed to hang out on the windows and counters. It was the freakiest thing I’ve ever encountered, and still cannot determine any explanation for it.

Well, there’s my handful of stories about my home. It’s not sold yet, so I may still have some new ones to share. There’s almost nothing that a good skeptic can dismiss for one reason or another that has occurred, but from my minds eye, this house just ain’t right.