Ghosts of Duval Street

When I was younger (I'm 19 now) we moved into town (we had lived out of town, on a property to that point) The house we moved into seemed fairly normal, around a hundred or so years old and had a few extensions. For the first year or two nothing out of the ordinary happened. Then things started to get weird.

The first thing I noticed was that when my mum used to go and pick up my step-dad (now passed-on) from the pub, there would be this strange scratching noise on the wooden floorboards. It sounded like something with huge toe-nails walking across the living room. We didn't have any cats and the dog was always outside (being a German Shepard, he was to big to come inside, unless it was an extremely cold night.) I had often walked into the living room, and turned on the light, too see what was there. I couldn't see anything. One night I noticed a 'face' on the wall, which seemed to have a reasonable explanation - the outside street light reflecting off a surface. When we got blinds that covered the window, and it was still there, it was eerie to say the least.

This is the night I will never forget -

I was asleep in bed, when all of a sudden I felt someone, rather something pushing my face into the pillow, trying to smother me. Half asleep I reached up and felt this scaly 'old womans' arm holding me down. And a feeling of depair/evil. Then it went away. The face was staring at me from the wall.

Later that night I turned to the wall where the face was, and it said 'shes back' then this scaly arm was holding me down once more. Eventually it went away, and I turned toward the bedroom door. In the doorway, was what I could best describe as an 'angel' a white ghostly woman, radiating white energy. I knew that somehow she was there to protect me, maybe even my guardian angel.

Needless to say after this I ran to my parents bedroom screaming, as you would when your like 10 or 11. My mum said that it was all in my imagination etc etc. Interestingly it was after we moved away some years later that I asked her about it. This is what she said to me.

She didn't say anything to me at the time, cause I would have been too scared. But she had known the place was haunted. She said she had seen two ghost kids, once on the verandah, and once in the hall next to my room. She said she wasn't frightened of them, but she never did see the old lady or the face I had seen. Nor heard the weird scratchy noises on the wooden floor.

I once told this story to my grandmother a year or two ago, and she had said that when her father died, she saw his apparition next to her bed. She saw this as comforting, rather then frightening.

After my grandfather died, my aunt visited my grandmothers house. As she walked in she swore she heard/saw him laughing on the lounge, watching the TV (most likely the cricket) The next time she visited she commented, 'no ghosts here this time'.

My German Shepard had to be put down a few years ago, due to old age and health problems. The very same day he was put down, a small stray terrier we named 'bingo' followed my brothers home. He stayed with us for quite a few years after that. He would always avoid the area our German Shepard had been put down, even when we tried to call him. We firmly believe that bill, our German Shepard, had sent him to us, because we had said we would never have another dog.

All the above is absolutely true, to any sceptics out there - I know I probably can't convince you. But I honestly believe in the paranormal. Especially as I witnessed it first hand. My real father refuses to belive me, which is his choice. But I stand by what I saw, and think maybe the ability to 'see' ghosts runs genetically in my family.

This is also the first time I have told this story outside family and trusted friends. Perhaps out of the fear of disbelief, and possibly out of the fear of whatever I saw, coming back...

Dan.