My Soon To Be Old House
Eve, CA, USA
September 2003
My family and I have lived in the same house for almost sixteen years (we've been renting all this time) and next month we are actually going to be moving into our own home. So before we left, I wanted to make a note of some of the supernatural stuff that's gone on here over the years, and here it is.
This house was built sometime in the 1940's, and so it is not very large, but it's pretty cute and not in that bad of a condition. I don't know how long the landlord has owned it, though. One thing I do need to make a special note of is my brother's room, which was once a garage, and then converted to be used as an extra room. So my brother has that room, my parents have the first one as you enter the small hallway, and my sister and I share the one at the end of the hall, next to the bathroom.
But, my sister and I once shared the room that is now my brothers. We didn't have that room for a very long time; maybe a year, and I was glad to move out of it. It seemed that every night, I would hear whispering that had no logical explanation. My sister was (and still is) a very heavy sleeper, and falls asleep quickly, whereas I always seemed to be tossing and turning. The whispering I could get used to, but one night I wasn't properly cocooned in my blankets and I distinctly felt someone, or something, grab hard at my leg. I was too scared to even run out or scream. There are a few creaky steps down into that room, and if it had been anyone else in my family coming down to literally pull on my legs, I would have heard them. On one occasion, there was even a rotten, stinking smell that we couldn't find the source of, no matter what we tried.
Even when my sister and I moved into our current room, that other room still bothered me. For a period of almost two years, I was unable to fall asleep for two or three hours after going to bed, and many times I heard things coming from that room. There were voices, either two or three of them (I believe it's two males and one female), always talking. It was not the whispering I'd heard before; it was actual conversations, although I could never figure out what was being said. Several times I got out of bed, thinking it was someone's TV or radio left on too loud. It was definitely coming from that room, but no matter how close I got, the talking wouldn't be any more loud or understandable than it would have been if it were from a radio (and there was never any light from the TV). To distract from the sounds I started to turn on a fan or my own radio (low) at night, and eventually I also was able to fall asleep within a reasonable amount of time since turning in.
For several years (throughout junior high and high school), nothing seemed to happen and so I didn't think about it much. But just about in my second semester of (community) college, weird things started to occur. Things in my room would be in different places (and not things that my sister would bother with).
I had a small statue of the Virgin Mary on my dresser that I kept facing straight out (if you were in front of the dresser). Nearly every morning upon waking, I would discover the statue turned a total 90 degrees so that it was looking more toward the windows than the wall where the closet was. A more recent item being moved are these cute, plastic Care Bear figures I keep on top of my stereo. I like to have them arranged in a specific formation, and yet when I wake up, they are moved, a couple of them switched, and facing in different directions. The same thing happened in the living room with pictures we kept on the mantel above the fireplace.
Within the last six months, I have noted a reoccurrence of unexplainable voices (and sounds) and I've also been having "feelings" of not being alone when I should. I have been to other places (friends' houses, public places) where I believe I have 'sensed' spirits, but I never really felt anything in my own home until just a couple of months ago.
It was evening, about 8, and I had been in my room. I walked out and went into the kitchen to get a glass of water and as soon as I stepped in, it was like I had been smacked into an entirely different atmosphere. You can feel when someone else is in a room, and although I could not see anything, I know I was not alone. In my mind I had a quick flash of a woman in about her 30's, standing at the sink, leaning against it, relaxing, and looking out the windows at the evening. I got my glass of water (luckily I had a glass on the counter; I don't think I would have been able to get one from the cupboard next to the sink) and I didn't feel watched, but I did feel as if I was disturbing something I shouldn't.
The voices I've heard have almost always been while I am alone in the house, and in the shower. Several times I was in the shower and heard voices, both male and female, from outside the door. Thinking it was my parents back from the store or wherever, I would call out. They wouldn't answer, and when I got out, I would find they hadn't returned, and no explanation I could think of for hearing people. Just a couple of weeks ago, I had another voice experience that did scare me quite a bit. I was in the shower and feeling quite cheerful, so I was singing loudly (though I'm not very good at all!). My parents were out looking at the new house. As I turned off the water, I was still singing to myself (but quietly), and I heard a male voice from behind the closed door say quite clearly, "Who's singing?" Thinking that it was my dad, I felt embarrassed and shut up right away. Putting my towel around me and locking the bathroom door, I turned off the bathroom fan and said "Are you guys home already?" There was no answer and so I peeked out. I couldn't hear anything, and a quick inspection of the house revealed I was still the only one there. A few weeks before this, I had been going back and forth between my room and the laundry room, washing and drying clothes. While coming up the few steps, I heard a female voice from the living room say, "Hello?" When I got to there, there was no one.
Although I will be glad to finally have my own room after so many years, I will miss this house and wonder if the next people who live here (whether the landlord rents it out again or sells it) will experience any of the same things I have. I do have scarier stories than what I've said here, but after reading some of these others... I'm too scared to type them right now!