In October 1996 I moved into an old federation style house in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australian to join a household of 3 older male friends. Since I was the fourth flat mate I had to take the only room left which was upstairs. There were 2 bedrooms on the second floor and a small store room with a little door that was next to the top hallway when you reached the second level. I had the room closest to the storeroom and my flatmate Tod occupied the room at the end of the hallway. The two other boys, Mike and Jason occupied the downstairs and never came upstairs unless either I, or Tod had a phone call and they brought up the phone.

As I had just moved in to the house, I was trying my best to be friendly and do as much as possible> to help out around the house. I became the cook and the cleaner of the household and we all got along fine. It wasn't until I had been living upstairs for a few months that I got suspicious about the storeroom at the top of the stairs. I had to vacuum upstairs and on my way down to get the vacuum cleaner I would walk past the storeroom and the door would be shut. When I returned to the second story I would notice it would be open. The carpet was very thick and to open the door, which would only open out towards you, you had to really pull it. There was no way it could have been done by itself or with a draft. The latch was very secure. I found it strange, all that was in the storeroom was some toys that belonged to Tods daughter who didn't live with him. No one opened the door because there was no need to go in there. I decided to store the vacuum cleaner in the room though afterwards to save me having to carry it up the stairs each time I needed to clean.

After I started "borrowing" the room for the vacuum cleaner both Tod and I noticed that the door would be open on returning upstairs when both of us had taken a mental note that it was shut when we went downstairs. We were constantly on at each other for leaving it open when neither of us had touched the handle.

Stranger things followed. I started to wake up in the middle of the night and be totally paralyzed. I would see a transparent pink outline of a lady who would be bending over me trying to comfort me. I was so scared after that night that the next night I had Tod sleep in my bed with me so I could wake him up if it happened again. The same thing happened with the lady appearing, I tried my hardest to wake up Tod but he wouldn't. He freaked out when I told him what happened and said he couldn't believe a ghost was standing right over him. I slept in his room after that and only stayed short periods in "my" room during the day.

Later events were still to appear that were paranormal. I was alone down stairs watching television and I heard the front door open and footsteps walk behind me in my armchair. I said G'day Larks, (a friend who just walked in whenever he arrived). I got no answer so I looked around and there was no one at all in the house. It was like the footsteps had come in through the front and gone straight through and out the back door. I went out the front and waited for my other flatmates to come home. I told them what had happened but they were skeptical and I didn't pursue it. I felt cold all the time I was in the house and I knew I was being watched. My kitten which I found as a stray would go mental for no reason and hide in places I couldn't get to him at certain parts of the evening.

The final thing, before I moved out of the house and out of the state, was when Tod and I were down stairs watching TV. We both heard heavy footsteps upstairs walking from the door, to Tods room and then back to the storeroom door. We both looked at each other and although we were anxious about it just accepted that there was something else occupying upstairs and not just us. The house is still rented out and is in Gordon Avenue in Newcastle, New South Wales. I haven't been there since I left and I don't intend to go back.

Submitted from: Danielle, Western Australia