A Carolina Haunting

My family has lived in quite a few houses over the period of my lifetime. The house in which the scariest things of my life happened is in Spartanburg, South Carolina, off of Reidville Road.

We moved into this house when I was about 7 and lived there until I was about 10 or so. My dad was reluctant about moving into the house because of its old age and many needed repairs, but we ( my dad, step mom, and I) were quick to buy. We fell in love with its odd design and acres of backyard. It was the kind of place you could feel history just seeping out of. I was happy as a lark and looking forward to running around the massive backyard and exploring the old sheds situated around the property.

The inside of the house was what catches your attention though. The whole entire house was built crooked. You could sit a ball on the kitchen floor and it would roll quickly to the wall. Also, there were 2 kitchens, quite close to each other. That never made sense to me. My room was at ther very front of the house, off of the living room. My parents' room was a through the dining room and across a hallway, so I was pretty spooked having to sleep all by my lonesome in the front of the house. I eventually adjusted though and we all enjoyed our new humble abode. That is until strange things started happening.

My dad was a guitarist and singer for a local bar band at the time and had practice 3 nights a week late at night, leaving my step mom and I at home alone. We would often hear things when he was gone from a long, unused back room of the house. We just shrugged it off as the house settling, from night being lived in properly for so long. When I say that I am refering to the odd old couple that lived there before us. They had painted the windows shut and ALL the doors except the bathroom were jammed and stuck. It was as if they lived in the dining room, kitchen, and living room only.

After living there for a while my parents had a baby, Christopher, and he occupied the room beside my parents'. One night, right after he had come home from the hospital and was sleeping in his crib, I was taking a bath while my dad was at band practice. I was laying in the water when I remembered to tell Tina about a missed phone call from earlier and jumped out of the tub and wrapped up in a towel to go tell her before I forgot again. I walked out of the bathroom out into the hall when a movement caught my eye from my brothers room. It was fairly dim in his room so all I could see was a dark shadow standing over his crib. Assuming it was my step mom I said "Tina....Tina....Tina..." but "she" never turned. Just then I heard her laughing on the phone in the living room. My heart froze and I hauled my butt into the living room freaking out, saying someone was in the baby's room. She went pale and hung up the phone and made me walk into the room with her. There was no one there. I remember to this day the clarity of the dark figure and the way it was leaning over my brother's crib. We told my dad and of course he didn't believe me or her so we all just kind of let it drop.

After that I began seeing stuff out of the corner of my eye everyday. I would tell my parents and they too had been seeing things, too. We all kind of doubted each other's accounts until one night we were all sitting in the living room watching TV when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look at Tina and Dad and they were looking at each other and at me. We had all seen it at the same time for the first time ever. From then on we believed each other's experiences.

We soon after bought a little cocker spaniel (Ginger) from a family friend. She had a bad habit of chewing on our shoes and what not so at night we chained her up by the kitchen door at the back of the house. One night, again, we were all watching television in the living room when I saw Ginger run through the living room and into my room. My dad yelled for her to get out of there and Tina started whistling but she never came. Instead, we heard Ginger's chain jingle in the kitchen and I looked in there to find her tail wagging and giddy from being whistled for. We saw this apparition frequently. It became another part of everyday life for us and we soon got used to it.

The longer we stayed there, the more terrifying the experiences got. Paint began chipping of the wall and hitting my dad in the neck at insanely fast speed. The chips would leave little red splotches from hitting him so hard. I was scared for my dad but guilty of being grateful it wasn't happening to me. This all changed late one night while we were all sleeping in bed. I woke up to a rustling by my door. I figured it was a mouse so I was just grossed out but wanted to sleep. I closed my eyes and started drifting off until I heard my toys being shuffled around. I wasn't sure whether to be scared or not until I heard something pick up my doll house and drop it. I screamed loud enough to wake the dead. My parents obviously didn't hear my because I lay in bed for a good 20 minutes listening to whatever it was drop my things, moving slowly around my bed, toward the side I was laying on. Finally I just clenched my fists and squinted my eyes and ran like hell into the parents room. I jumped on their bed and scared the crap out of them. I was so scared by that time that it was hard for me to talk I was shaking so bad. My dad went and checked my room and nothing was there. My toys were tilted and moved though. I knew then that I had been awake. Needless to say I didn't sleep in my room that night. My dad set mouse traps the next day. Nothing ever caught in them.

My dad said things happened to him that he still will not tell me. One thing he told me is this. If it gets worse than this, I am glad he won't tell me anything else. He was lying in bed one night while my step mom was working late. He was facing the door so he could see into the hallway and his head was facing the wall that my brother's closet as on the other side of. I used this closet for my dresses since I didn't have one in my room. He was lying with his eyes closed when he heard someone shuffle on the carpet into the bathroom and the end of the hallway. Assuming it was me, he got worried when I didn't come out for quite a while. He called my name and I never came out so he got up and looked down the hallway to find the bathroom door open and the lights off. He went back to bed a spooked and just lay in bed awake for a while. Just when he was convincing himself it was all in his sleepy head he heard a loud thump on the wall above his head, in my brother's closet. He though it was me getting a dress to wear to school the next day. He just listened to make sure I didn't bother the baby when he heard something slide down the wall. It sounded like a crunchy, rustling sound sliding to the floor, the same sound you get when you slide your head down the wall. He walked into the room and searched the closet to find nothing and checked to see me in bed. Even today when he tells about it, his eyes water. He said he had never been so scared in his life. This is doubly scary for me since my dad is such a skeptic.

We eventually moved out of that house and I haven't had an experience since, about 8 years ago. I know the normal thing would be to be happy it is all over for now and feel relaxed but in some really weird way I am sad about it. My little brother sees and hears things now and I can't. I really hope I get to visit that house again. If anyone else has any stories about the Spartanburg area please let me know. I am very interested.

Thank you.