My House on Phoenix Way
Steve, CA, USA
October 2003
I had moved into a brand new house in Early 1996. It was a big two story, with 4 bedrooms and could have been a 5th bedroom but we used one as a computer room.
My Mother had cancer since a few years before we moved in, and while we lived there slowly died from it. In early 1997 she died. Also around this time I was most often alone in the house as my Dad worked 250 miles away in Las Vegas and my Brother was always out. It seemed like after that the house had what seemed to me like the beginning of poltergeist like activity, but quickly changed into something much worse.
My first experience happened one day when I was home alone, my Dad had gone away for a few days and my Brother was quite often away from the house since he had just gotten a car. I was sitting in the computer room and got a strange feeling as if something was in there. My dog was laying on the floor looking around with her one eye that wasn't toward the floor. She seemed kinda spooked. I looked back at the computer screen and out of the corner of my eye I saw a small pencil which was on an aquarium nearby quickly hover into the air and hit the blinds on the window. I jumped and looked at where the pencil, which had just been on the other side of the room, was now laying. My dog jumped up, her ears up and her eyes wide, looked towards the sound of the hit blinds.
I don't know why but that incident just kind of went off my mind. I scratched my head and looked back at the screen of the computer. For some reason I wasn't scared of what happened. After all it was just a pencil. But things started getting creepier. The house would stay cold quite a bit after the incident and quite often you'd hear things.
Another night I was alone in the house, I was upstairs in my bedroom and very clearly heard the door from my garage into the house shut. This was very eerie as my Dad was out of town and no one else was supposed to be there. It was enough to also get my dog barking, from the same room, as she would always do when someone was home. I got up and we hurried down the stairs to find no one. Now this door is very heavy and it not only shakes the house a bit, but its very loud. Unmistakable. I looked around near the door. I had everything dark down- stairs. I looked into the computer room to see very quickly what looked like a shadow and then it just disappeared. This freaked me out bad and I called to my dog and we both ran up-stairs and stayed in my room till morning.
After this happened not much else went on, although I could still feel like something wasn't right with the house and for the most part it was cold. Most nights I would stay up late on the computer since I had home school and most of the time I would be finished with my work and not have to get up early. Every night it seemed that I would walk out of the computer room and feel as if something was following me. I would walk out of the room and flip on lights as I went along and didn't shut them off until I was out of the room. The feeling got to be so bad my pulse would race very quickly and my breathing was very fast pace. I would most often find myself running through the house and up the stairs to my bedroom, looking back as if I was ready to see something chase me. It was a horrible feeling every night and I get shivers just thinking about it. As soon as I entered my room I felt safe, like it wouldn't enter.
Most every night I would awake to also hear footsteps, sometimes running, sometimes walking up the stairs. My Dad also told me that he heard such things. We would often hear our pool table being used downstairs, doors closing in the master bedroom, and other strange noises that we could never find out what was doing them. The house would very often creek as if someone was walking upstairs, enough to make us turn down the TV to listen. Upon checking if anyone is there, nothing. These footsteps and sometimes the sound of the shower door closing happened in the master bedroom. My Mom's clothes and items she kept where in a closet in the master bedroom where quite often we would close the closet door only to find it open or vice versa. Me and my brother tested it often to, and without fail it did it every time. The whole bedroom had the worse feeling. I would go in and constantly be looking around waiting for something to appear, I knew something was there, and in the closet the feeling only got worse.
One night my Dad and my Brother where sitting watching TV and they say they both looked at the kitchen for some reason. As if they saw something. Nothing was there. Then very quickly, what they called a black shadow moved across the room, by the TV, through the pool table to end at our birds cage in the corner, knocking it completely off its perch. They say it happened so quick that it seemed like a shadowy air just jolted across the room. They both looked at each other and asked "What the hell was that?" The way they said it made me think of how I often felt this feeling of being followed and the shadow I saw briefly in the computer room. The worst was yet to come for me though.
It was a summer night and me and a friend were out in front of the house till late into the night. We were talking about UFO's looking up into the unusually clear summer California night. I then went to the subject of how many things that happened in the house. He always believed me and always wanted something to happen in the house while he was there. Always seems like when you start thinking about this stuff, paranormal things always happen. We were getting tired as it was about 2:30 am or so and he was getting ready to jump on his bike and take off. We both looked up towards the house, thinking about everything that went on, and up at my brother's room, which was slightly illuminated from a hall light I left on. Faintly we both saw a shadow walk from my bothers room and out into the hall to disappear heading towards the master bedroom.
We both shivered and looked at each other. He looked pale. We both knew I had to go back in, and of course I was all alone there. I tried to con him into staying the night but he just insisted now, loosing his bravery of wanting to see something in the house, that he go home. He took off after I looked through the house and made sure no one was there.
I was terrified at the very thought of having to stay alone. I stood at the door, a shiver went through my entire body. I immediately thought to go to my bedroom as I had always felt safe there. I called my dog leaving every light on in the house and retreated to my room as quickly as I could, even passing the very spot where no more than an half hour before we had seen the shadow. My room was infarct on the same hall and my brothers bedroom right next door. I played some video games trying to get my mind off everything and finally around 4:30 am got in bed. I don't know why I turned off the light but my room always had felt safe and I was tired. My dog lay in the corner away from the door and opposite my bed. I got to sleep only to wake up about 30 minutes later to what sounded like banging on the walls in the master bedroom. I lay with my eyes wide open almost crying from fear.
The noise got louder as if it jumped the next room into the guest bedroom. I could only listen, absolutely terrified, as it moved to the hall and to my door. My door shook, the pounding on it seemed like it would knock the door off the hinges. My dog now in an opposite corner, her ears up and growling. I had left a light on in the hallway and could see feet, standing at the door. The noise went on for about one minute. I felt as if I was going to faint any minute but some how I kept. Then it stopped. My door was locked. Then I saw the handle move and then forced around as if the being was mad about it being locked. I heard the banging on the door again along with it trying to still open the door. I then felt an even more overwhelming feeling of whatever this was, was wanting to kill me. This thing was here and now at that point wanting to kill me. I just cried silently as everything came to a stop again. The feet gone.
I thought it was over. I lay there paralyzed in fear drenched in sweat and tears. I blinked. Then, near the door, it stood there. My heart almost jumped out of my chest. It stayed still, a large being. It was a man at least somewhere 6.3- 6.5 or so and its shadow was huge. As I looked at it, it seemed to be holding something sharp. Through the light comming through the side of the door from the hallway, the object it was holding looked as if it was dripping something. I felt totally overwhelmed with the feeling of death and this being the last second of my life. It then started to walk toward me, I tried to yell as loud as I could only to have my voice caught in my throat and the thought in my head of no one being there to hear it even if I did. I slowly reached towards the light in my room, it still making its walk towards me. Shaking violently I turn on the light, to be laying once more in the room all by myself. The room was horribly cold and even more so on my sweat drenched clothes. I lay there shaking, breathing heavy, my heart racing. A feeling of death still in the room. I slowly look away from the door and at my dog, she's in the corner, her tail to the wall. She walks to me as I call her name, my voice still jumpy. I pet her, and feel her heart pounding quickly, her legs shaking violently.
I just lay there, thankful it was gone, trying to catch up with myself. It was now getting light outside and I was still terrified but not as bad. I got up my legs felt as if I was going to fall, and walked to the door. I slowly opened it not fully knowing what could be out there. I opened it all the way, and peeked out, no one was around. The hallway, just as cold as my room. As I looked at my door I saw small traces of what seemed to be blood. I looked at the plaster walls nearby and also very small traces. I didn't have the guts to go into the master bedroom where the sound started and so I ran downstairs, my dog quickly following me. I grabbed the dog leash and ran outside not even locking the door. I stayed outside the whole rest of the morning, until I saw my Brother pull up.
He looked at me strangely as to why I was sitting outside in my pajamas with the dog. I just couldn't tell him. At around the same time my Dad pulls in as we were all supposed to go out as soon as he got home. He saw us sitting on the sidewalk curb. We got up and went in. Them both looking at me strangely and wanting to know exactly what went on. I was last in and felt a presence still there as I had always. My Dad mentions, how eerily cold it was in there even for this house. Me and my Brother sat downstairs watching TV as my Dad went upstairs to unpack his things. He noticed small amounts of blood through the closet and bedroom. Just about everywhere the banging had occurred a small amount still lay there. He came down stairs, "Did you have an accident? I saw some blood around, what happened?" I told them to go back upstairs with me as I was to afraid even then to go back up myself. I went back to my room, the door still open. Looked at the floor where it was standing and saw small puddles of what also appeared to be blood. Now of course dry. They stood there, waiting for an explanation. I sat on my bed, pale from even trying to remember and told them all about it.
Although strange, they never thought I was lying, as they both had weird experiences other than the few small ones I mentioned above. Nightmares about someone killing another with a large knife, shadows in their rooms, weird smells from that closet that smelt like something rotten only to have it disappear later, voices that seemed to be talking from another room and even sometimes in the same room, often calling their names. Beds looked like they were sat on or even laid on after they were made, things would end up missing never to be found or somewhere way out of place, and all three of us noticed a small doll in the guest room would often move from place to place every so often you'd be in the room and look at it.
I lived in the house from then on for about 1 year, with about the same activity, never seeing the large shadow again. I still saw smaller ones and not the clearly. I finally got out the house around the middle of 1999 when me and my Dad moved to Florida. Often I will think about all that happened. In many ways I thought some of it might be my Mom's spirit roaming about, and maybe it was her once in awhile. I still couldn't figure out why she would stay behind. I pray to God though that if she is there that whatever that dark evil spirit is in that house can not harm her kind spirit in anyway. I wonder what had happened to the people that had lived there after us. We had never found out any history of the land. The house was brand new so if anything it was the land. I have since never had any paranormal experiences, but to this day still have nightmares about that night. Every bit of it is still implanted into my mind and even sitting here thinking about it makes me look about my room for shadows. I moved back to California about 1 year after living in Florida. We drove by the house once. Its for sale, so something bad must have happened to the new owners since they loved the house.
I still, just driving by, get a strong feeling of evil there.
Thank you for reading! Happy Halloween!