Cottage Experience
Anonymous, USA
July 2006
When I was about 10 years old, I was at my cottage with my cousins. There were 6 of us all sleeping in one room, on one bed. My parents were to sleep across the hall from us. The bedrooms were at the end of the hall, and there was a closet right between the two. The 'floor plan' provided was done on paint, so its not the best, but it is just there to help you see more clearly what happened.
My cousins and I were sleeping in our bedroom, and my Aunt had just tucked us in. One of my cousin's and I had drunk a Red Bull just before, so we were not tired at all! We said that after the other 4 cousins had fallen asleep, we would talk.
5 minutes passed, and my cousin and I were pretending to sleep, I quietly whispered "is anyone still awake?", thinking only my cousin would answer, but no one did at all. I thought it was strange that everyone had fallen asleep so fast, but I soon forgot about it and tried to fall asleep. Someone was snoring, I didn't know who, but it didn't matter to me. I opened my eyes, and noticed that the light in the hallway was on. My head was aligned with the doorway, so I could see my parent's door. It was closed. I heard voices from the living room, they were talking about cakes, then I heard footsteps, although the voices continued. I saw an almost transparent image of my grandfather walking to the door down the hallway. He turned and smiled at me, then kept walking forward. At first, I thought it was normal, but I then realized that the closet was there, and I would have been able to see its door if it had been open. I thought some more, and came to the conclusion that he went into my parents room and I didn't notice.
After trying to get to sleep once more, I realized something that scared me; My grandfather wasn't at the cottage that weekend, and there wasn't any way that he could have gotten there, because we drove to my cottage in his car!
I think I only fell asleep that night because of the effect of the caffeine on my little body. The drink before bed wasn't a good idea, because at about 4:00 in the morning, I woke up and had to go to the bathroom. I had forgotten my strange encounter, and went. As I was washing my hands, I heard someone speaking as if they were on the phone "Mom?! MOM ARE YOU THERE?!?! MOM!!!!" they sounded frantic, and hung up the phone. I wondered who it was, because I didn't recognize the voice. I went back to bed and thought about what I had heard. I fell asleep again, and told my cousins what had happened when I woke up in the morning. They looked at me like I was crazy! I asked what was wrong, and they told me that we did not have a phone at the cottage!
As we left that day, I sat in the back seat, scared and confused. A month later, I heard the same voice asking for his mom at my cousin's house, and I thought that maybe someone, or something, was following me. I didn't sleep that night. I never told my parents about that, or any adult, because I knew they would not believe me, but all my friends do. And especially another one of my cousins, who saw the same ghostly figure of my grandfather. He was standing on the landing of the stairs, looking up at the hallway, the ghost looked down and smiled at him, then continued walking. The reason I find these events particularly strange, is during both occurrences of seeing my grandfather, he was alive and well, but not at the cottage.