My Terrible Experiences

This happened to me when I lived in Monterey Bay, California, not more than four years ago. It was the summer so it was a cool 60-70 degrees by the ocean around that time of year and my wife had gone on a private vacation to San Diego so I was all alone in our old, Victorian house located just off the coast of the Pacific that we had just bought for a pretty fair price. It was in the 2 weeks that I was alone in that house that my experience takes place.

It had been two days since my wife left that I had my first ghostly (or demonic for that matter) encounter.

I was in our study reading a book in the huge armchair we had that had a fireplace on the left of it and a large window with curtains that you could just barely see through on the right of it. I had the window open to let in a little of the fairly cool ocean air. I was sitting by myself, reading when I caught something very strange out of the corner of my eye. I turned to the right and I practically felt my heart give out. I could see, pretty clearly, two arms seemingly clawing at the curtains from the outside of the window. It was only two seconds of staring at the arms, with a probably comical look on my face, that I shut my eyes and ran out of the room, shutting the door behind me.

I waited in the kitchen for my heart to start beating again, I heaved a great sigh and went to the door of the study, armed with a bat, ready to catch the intruder I thought was in my study.

I slowly walked to the door and put my ear up to it, listening to hear if anybody was still there. What I heard could not have been human. It started as a low groan and proceeded into a huge, barking growl, back to a low groan, and to heavy shriek which contained itself pretty well inside the room for such an old, thin house. I opened the door very quickly only to find my book laying open on the floor, across the room from the chair, with its pages flapping wildly in the cool breeze. I glanced over at the window only to see a face, with dark, menacing features, staring back at me through the curtains. I stood stock, with my heart beating loud enough for the neighbors to hear, as the face in the curtain vanished completely into thin air.

Four days went by without anything very important happening. It was when I went into the very large attic that I had the most frightening experience to date. I had gone up there to look for some old books I hadn't unpacked that my wife told me to bring down. The door to the stairs that led to the attic was at the end of the hall on the second floor of the house. I had a flashlight with me and was proceeding up the stairs. It was when I had my head just above the landing that I saw it. The silhouette of a young woman shadowed against the window behind it. My heart leapt up into my throat. It wasn't until I put my flashlight on it that I realized it was merely a model of some sort sculpted out of clay or wax to fit the appearance of a woman. I gave a great sigh of relief and proceeded to the landing.

I looked through some boxes and found the books I was after, keeping a keen eye on the model, whose body was facing me and head facing the window, eyes shut and relaxed, as I searched. I took the box in my arms and turned to go down the stairs when CRASH!. I ran into a pile of boxes containing some old clothes of my wife's. The books flew across the floor and I hit the ground like a rock. I gathered all of the books up in my arms and, turning to go down the stairs, took a last glance over at the clay model, and turned to go down the stairs. Before I had reached the top step I had stopped. I turned around slowly and looked back at the model. I couldn't believe my eyes. The model was now turned, with it's eyes now open, staring at me. I took off down those stairs so fast that I think I left my stomach back up in the attic. I shut the door behind me, took out my skeleton key and locked the attic door.

My next, and last experience took place the day before my wife got back from her private vacation. I was back in the study again (no longer afraid of it as much now) reading when I felt a huge rush of extremely cold air from the window. Now remember; this is the summer in California. The temperature could not get any higher or lower than between 60 and 80 degrees. I went to the thermostat, shivering, and saw that it was 30 degrees in our house! I quickly shut all the windows (disregarding the one in the attic) and turned the heater on full blast. After 20 minutes it wasn't getting any hotter so I decided to go check the heater system down in the basement (big mistake!).

I got out a flashlight and went down the stairs to the basement. I managed to find the heater in no time and, fumbling around in the dark, managed to figure out that the heater was working properly. I turned around and saw something to this day I still remember in the most vivid way. These two red eyes staring at me from the foot of the stairs and coming towards me in the dark. I must have blocked the next five minutes out of my mind because I found myself in a closet on the second floor! The very moment my wife got home I told her we were moving.