Panting From Under the Bed
Henry, MN, USA
February 2010
I used to live in an old Victorian house when I was younger. During the Great Depression, it was used to house many unemployed people, and being quite old, I suspect it to be haunted. A few seemingly paranormal events occurred to me while in the house.
Of course parts of the house that were unfinished like the basement were creepy, but other than the few events I'm about to describe, I never seemed to notice anything unusual.
The first time something significant occurred to me was when I was reading in my parents' bedroom. I was home alone at the time, and reading some novel atop the bed when I began to hear a peculiar noise. The noise was very quiet, and it seemed to be coming from under the bed. At first I brushed it off as maybe some noise coming from outside, but it grew in volume and I realized it was panting. This alarmed me and I froze in place, holding my book in my lap and listening further. The panting was getting louder, and sounded more like someone imitating an animal panting rather than an animal or person actually doing it. Eventually the panting grew to an immense volume and intensity and I had enough. My body unfroze and the adrenaline took over. I flew off the bed in a mad dive for the door, opened it and booked it down the hall where I paused to make sure no one or thing was behind me. After about a minute of staring at the doorway I gathered up my courage and went in to investigate, where I found nothing around the room or (this took a while to check as I was very frightened) under the bed where the noise seemed to be coming from.
A year later, I had forgotten about this incident, until it happened again in MY room (which was above my parents room). I was doing something on my bed, again it could've been reading or playing a Gameboy game or something (it was quiet) when I began to hear that distinctive panting I had heard before in my parents room coming from under my bed. Again I froze, listening in to make sure it wasn't some other noise, and again it grew louder and louder. This time I didn't wait around as long, and I jumped off my bed and ran down the stairs, closed my door (my bedroom was in the attic) then went down the stairs to the kitchen where my sister was talking on the phone. I was a little flustered by what had just happened, and I didn't go back up to my room for quite a while that day!
Now I like not jumping to conclusions and remaining as logical as possible, but I have no idea what could've been making that noise those two days! The noise was only coming from under the bed in both instances, and the first time I was home alone and the second time my sister (who was the only one there other than me) was two floors down talking on the phone! I do suspect it to be some kind of ghost as my parents room has always seemed a little strange, as I will detail further.
This event took place when I was young, probably ten, and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit but I was quite the scaredy-cat. I was sleeping with my parents in their bed (I know I was a little old) when I woke up at around day break. I looked across the room to where my parents massage table stood (they're both massage therapists) and I saw what appeared to be a misty, multi-colored figure floating in mid-air! It appeared to be hooded, but other than that there was no limbs or face that I could recognize, more like some reclining mass resembling the shape of a person wearing a hood. I froze in horror and just stared at it, though it didn't seem to notice me, and it slowly faded away. I just went back to sleep some minutes later after that (it was gone) but I know I wasn't asleep when I saw it, though the figure could've been my mind playing tricks on me, I doubt that.
What I'm about to describe was something recurring that did frighten me quite a lot, and I'm not sure what it means. I write it more in hopes of having my question answered on what it is, as it could be some psychological phenomena and could be dismissed as such. I used to sleep in my parents room quite a lot as I was scared to sleep alone. Whenever I did though, and I was trying to fall asleep, the same thing would always happen to me. It's kind of hard to explain, but when I closed my eyes, I would see strange and scary faces which usually looked demonic "floating" around. This was not my imagination (as far as I know) conjuring up images, like when I imagine something like a polka-dotted elephant, but it appeared to be just within my eyelid, or if it was dark enough floating around right in front of me. The faces like I mentioned previously were quite scary, and would always seem to move around, looking quite angry and opening their jaws as if to swallow me. This has ONLY happened in my parents room in my old house, nowhere else where I have slept, whether in my old house, new house or anywhere else. This of course could be my mind playing tricks on me, but I leave my email address in case someone could explain to me what was happening, paranormal or not, as I always got a strange sense from my parents room and the floating faces were quite frightening!
Thanks for reading my stories!