A Haunting in Minnesota

Recently my parents like most retirees spent some time in Arizona to get away from the cold winters and snow we have up here in Minnesota. Due to the length of time they were gone I stayed in the house about 3 nights a week for a month and checked in during the day to take care of their pet cat and handle their bills etc. Our situation at the time was that my husband was away for 3 months training for a new job out of state and we had just moved back to MN and I was going between my parents' house and my father in law's house who lives about an hour away from my hometown as we didn't have a place of our own yet.

I grew up in that house with several brothers. In fact the day my parents adopted my and my twin brother was the day we moved in to that house. One of my older brothers died in the house when I was 13 and it was a few months after his death when I personally started to experience things. I never talked about "that scary stuff" until house sitting for my parents this past winter. It all came out when I called my brother who lives nearby and asked to come over near the end of my stay alone because I had finally cracked. All my other remaining brothers live out of state.

I recently had knee surgery and was doing my regular physical therapy in the basement (it's finished off and carpeted and great for that kind of thing) when I suddenly heard "Hello" being said. At first I didn't think it was unusual because my brother dropped by all the time after work (he works about a mile away from my parents house) on his way home to visit for a little bit, and it was about that time of the day.

I had the DVD player going with my exercise video playing so I barely heard it at first. I paused it and yelled upstairs that I was in the basement. Nothing happened and I thought it must have been some background noise in the workout video. So, I unpaused it and started up again with my exercise and almost right away I heard a very loud male voice yell it out and to me it sounded just like my brother coming through the front door. I paused it again and walked up the stairs to talk to what I thought was Drew stopping by. But when I got upstairs no one was there and the kitchen lights had been turned off. I just turned around and went back downstairs, I was creeped out but was determined not to be that scared kid again. After all I was 27 now. When I got downstairs I saw the cat hiding under the chair with his tail barely sticking out. Then I knew it couldn't just be me because the cat was not skittish. He is an outgoing cat that is always running around or sitting right next to me talking and rubbing against me. He's usually the first one up the stairs too but he hadn't even followed me. As soon as I was back downstairs the yelling happened again, loud and very clear and it was coming from behind me at the top of the stairs. I didn't even look up and ran over to where the cat was. I started to get shaky and grabbed Cocoa and just sat in the basement with music playing and all the lights on for awhile. The cat who usually had too much energy to sit still just let me hold him for close to an hour.

That night I slept in my old room on the top floor. As usual at night I had the front porch light on and a couple of others to make things look like normal to those driving by outside. It just makes me feel better when I'm home alone to do that. In the morning all the lights were turned off that I had left on. This happened every morning the days I stayed there. Just a few other random things I would hear would be the toilet flushing or someone walking down the stairs. Sometimes things would be moved where they hadn't been previously (that was more annoying than scary I admit). What would make me terrified were the voices that sounded like my family calling out to me or just general chatter that sounded like they were coming from another room. Those days I spent there were so hard for me. The day that I finally lost it and called my brother Drew was the week before my parents came back from Arizona. I got up that morning and as usual the lights I had left on were off and I just tried to ignore it. I went to the bathroom to use the loo and shower like any other morning. When I got in there and sat on the toilet I saw the towel hanging up across from me on the bar was covered in streaks of blood and there were even a few drips on the floor. I couldn't even speak let alone scream and just sat there paralyzed. I got myself together and ran out of the bathroom. I didn't shower and I just dressed myself as fast as I could and called Drew and asked if I could come over. As soon as I got there I just started to cry and tell them I thought I was losing my mind. Both my sister-in-law and brother just stared at me. Then they had me sit down and we talked for a long time about what had been happening to me and they shared stories about what they had experienced there. The one story of theirs that stands out in my mind is when they were dating and were playing pool in the basement and heard the hairdryer going in the bathroom upstairs. They went up to check it out and the noise stopped as soon as they got on the landing of the main level. Then my mom and dad came in through the front door right at that moment and said they couldn't park in the garage because all the boxes from the side shelves were stacked up in the center of the garage floor. Now all the boxes were full of things and quite heavy. Drew said they all just looked at each other and never talked about it again. In fact my dad just walked away and went upstairs to his bedroom. After hearing about that I was so relieved this stuff wasn't happening to just me.

The next afternoon I went back to the house and got the courage up to go to the upstairs bathroom to where the towel was. I didn't want to leave it for my mom to find. It was still bloody like I had remembered and I took it down to the washing machine and threw it in. It came out totally clean, no stains, nothing. I folded it up and put it in the linen closet. That was the last time during that month I was alone there. I promptly drove to my father in laws where I stayed the rest of the week.

When my parents got back from their trip I sat down with my mom for a few hours and we talked about what had happened while they were gone. She was very supportive and that was the first time since I was a child that we openly talked about our experiences in the house. My dad however, does not acknowledge anything to do with hauntings and he is still in denial. He is not ready to deal with it yet. But my mom, brother, and myself talk to each other all the time now and it makes dealing with it better.