Several Stories

The first time I was absolutely positive there was something else out there I was completely alone.
I was 21 and living with a man who later became my husband. He was working with his sister and I babysat her 3yr old son. They had left that morning around 7am. As I lay back down in the living room on the floor (don't remember why) I heard the little boy, named Cozy, singing in one of the back bedrooms. It was a song from Sesame Street, and he was always singing, so I called for him to come and lay down with me before we got breakfast. As the singing started down the hall, I remembered that he hadn't been feeling well and had gone with his mother. I was "alone" in the apartment. I had my eyes closed and when I realized it wasn't Cozy, I squeezed them tighter still and started praying for whatever it was to NOT lay down beside me! My head was right by the hallway and I heard the little feet walking inches from me, they continued through to the kitchen, and stopped in front of the sink, where the singing also stopped. Total silence. I jumped up and ran for the door, flung it open, and stood outside.

We lived in a little town between Houston and Galveston, Tx, and it was midsummer. Hot all day, I would not go in the apartment til my boyfriend got home around 6pm, and even then I wouldn't go in without telling him about it.
He said at the time he didn't believe me, but I found out years later that he did, he just didn't want to admit it.

His family had some freaky things follow them around from place to place.
About 8 yrs later, he and I were getting divorced due to his drug use and his best friend being into witchcraft and satanism. He said he did a couple of spells on me and our children, but he didn't tell me what they were for. I assume protection as he didn't want the divorce and in his own way was very protective of us.
Anyway, when he left I got two kittens from a neighbor, both white, and named them Figaro and Toulouse. I am a very light sleeper and therefore kept them out of my room when I went to bed.
There were two doors between my bedroom and the living room and I made sure every night that they were both shut before I turned off the light to sleep.
When I settled down one night, I felt something jump on the bed (I had a king size waterbed and it sloshed a lot) and start walking up and down the other side. I immediately thought it was one or both of the cats, but when they jumped on anything I was sitting or laying on they would immediately come to my face to be loved on. This didn't happen. So I got up, turned on the light, a little freaked now, and looked on the bed...nothing. I went into the living room, and both cats were asleep on the couch. I went back to bed and it happened again! This time I just lay there, scared, but taking it because whatever it was didn't hurt me, just sloshed the bed a little. It was wierd because it really felt like little cat feet walking. This lasted about a month and abruptly ended one night, to my relief.

This next one was the biggest thing to happen, to me at least, and was in the summer of 2002.

I used to work nights and would come home wound up, so I would sit in the back yard and smoke, talk with my 2 dogs and cat, and just relax before heading off to bed. [About a week before this, I had been doing just that when the cat and one of the dogs looked above my head (we had eaves that came out about 5 feet from the outside wall of the house) and stare. This went on for about 2 minutes, then they followed something with their heads to the edge of the house (about 15 feet), then both just stopped and looked at each other. I laughed, but nervously.]

This night, with the animals hanging out around me, I was reading a book and so was looking down into my lap. I caught movement in my field of vision in front of me. I looked up and saw our bench swing swaying from side to side. It was a heavy thing on one of those really big old metal swing set frames (took 4 people to move it) and not easy to move. I thought maybe the dogs had chased a cat onto it and it had jumped off, making it go side to side instead of back and forth. But the dogs were asleep to my right and the cat was underneath my chair. He was looking right at the swing too, though, so I knew it wasn't just me. I looked up and it abruptly stopped, no slowing down, just dead stop. I stared for a moment, then the movement started again, side to side, slowly at first, then gaining speed, til I could hear the low squeal of the chains being pulled to the max. I was frozen. I wanted to go in, but I didn't want whatever it was to follow me inside. The cat was just as frozen as I was, but the dogs went right on sleeping like usual. It happened like that about 4 more times, the abrupt stop, slow buildup and abrupt stop again. I let about 30 minutes pass between the last stop and me going inside. I told my mother about it and she thought it was maybe my dad (he had died about 4 months before). I still have the swing.

My latest experience involves my daughters (twins), although I didn't know it at first.

When we moved to the house we presently occupy, I started losing my keys. I have always been a little scatterbrained when it comes to keys, so I didn't think much about it. I always find them. Then I would lose them for days at a time. My kids ride the bus to school and I didn't work at the time. Still didn't think much about it. The weird thing was I would find them where they couldn't have ended up, not without someone moving them. The first time they were behind the garbage can in the kitchen, somewhat logical because I left them on the kitchen table, about 4 ft away. The second time they were in the front hall closet in a shoe. Now that was strange, especially because I had gotten in the habit (given their predeliction for walking off on their own) of putting my keys in my purse as soon as I took them out of the door. The kids laughed about that one. This last time they had been lost for 2 days (longest time yet) and I KNOW for a fact they had been in my purse, because I had announced to the house and the kids "I'm putting my keys in my purse so I'll know where they are." Maybe it was a challenge. My daughter found them in the fireplace.
She recently told me that there is a little boy with no shoes on that follows her around the neighborhood and likes to watch her play. It makes sense if that is what is hiding my keys, because it seems more playful than malicious.