Teen Life and Up

This story is true, it is up to you on whether you want to believe or not.

This starts out at the age of 17, in the year of 1997. I was a Junior in High school. And I'm going to admit that I was a real jerk. I was one of those popular preps/jocks.

My friends and I would always pick on people. It starts off as one day while I was laying on my bed, I heard a voice whisper, "psst, hey." At first I thought it was my older brother. But the wierd thing is, I didn't hear anyone go down the stairs. I got up, looked around and found nothing. But it gets worse. The very next day I was up stairs in my parents room on their computer. I was home alone. I loved looking outside the window while the Internet was loading (the Internet was very slow at the time and fast speed wasn't used that much). Well I happened to look out the window, and saw a man in a tight blue shirt and tight blue jeans, and a nice greased up hair do, looking at me. It was odd because this was around winter and he didn't have a jacket on or anything. He was right across the street. He was smiling and waving at me. He pointed to his right which was my left and as I looked to where he was pointing, I could see that my neighbor across the street on the west side was looking at him through her window too.

Her and my parents were very good friends. She saw that I accompanied my window. She waved and signaled that she'd call me later. I nodded my head and waved my good bye. When I looked back at the man, he had his hands on his hips, while still looking at me and still smiling. I smiled back with a confused expression. I shut my curtains. And began to walk my way out of my parents room, when I paused and decided to go back to the window. When I got back to the window, I pushed part of the curtain down so my eyes could get another look. To my surprise I didn't see the man, I didn't even see the house he was in front of, or any of his surroundings. I saw a pair of eyes staring right into mine. They were very pale, it was as if they were dead. I jumped back in surprise and tripped over the computer chair. I quickly got back up and ran to the stairs where I tripped and fell down them. I got up and made my way to the phone regardless of pain, I began to dial 911. I paused in the process and thought about it. I asked myself, "would the police believe me?" I quickly dialed the rest. I told them someone was outside stalking me. I know it sounds a little lame but that was all I could think of.

They sent someone over and checked around the place and of course found nothing. I was scared and embarrassed at the same time, but luckily I had my neighbor who was a witness.

About a week later I calmed down. My friends and I began doing our weekly pick on at school. We would find a gothic kid, very smart intelligent kid, or a kid who was in special education, and pick on them. We would walk by call them names and maybe slap them across the head or shove them with our shoulder while walking by.

My friends were picking on this one kid who was a Goth. He wasn't like the rest. He would never hang around them. He would always be by himself. And he never wore any of the popular Goth clothing. I joined in. I got in the last words and slapped his books out of his hands. He gave me a smirk and said, "that man thats haunting you isn't going to stop." I froze in shock and fear. I was speechless. He walked away with satisfaction. I went through the rest of school saddened. I remember crying all that night with multiple emotions. I stopped picking on other kids after that event. About a month later, things got worse.

While I was in bed trying to sleep I heard the words, "Thats it, get over here!" I jumped out of my bed and ran into the kitchen. This happened several times in different rooms I tried sleeping in. I didn't want to sleep with my parents because they were friends with my friends parents, and they would tell them in their daily conversations. I also didn't want to sleep with my older brother because he'd tell too.

I would always hear a growling noise in my backyard at night whenever I took my dog out. The longer my dog and I stayed out, the louder it would get. My girlfriend even experienced it. My dog would bark at where it was coming from and do his business on the porch. And the usual would happen like the doors opening and closing, lights flickering, voices, nightmares, and poundings coming from the walls. I didn't want to tell my parents what was happening because There is no way they would believe me.

I was beginning to think I might have been going crazy. But I thought to myself, "How does that explain my neighbor seeing that man? And my girlfriend hearing the growling noise? Or how that loner gothic kid knows about that man? Thats when I decided to get some answers.

I tracked down the gothic kid and picked him up by his shirt collar. I threatened to do violent things to him that I do not want to go into detail with. He smiled and said nothing. This didn't benefit me. I fell to my knees, buried my face into my hands, and cried. I begged him to help. He walked away laughing.

More events began happening.

My car windows were broken out the next day. It was almost impossible to break them because my car always stays in the garage. Someone would have to get into the house to break them. Even the police were confused, they couldn't find any signs of a break in. I had to use my college money to get it fixed.

These hauntings continued even a year later when I was a Senior. I got use to pretty much the most of them by now. Some would still freak me out and send me running the other way. Like the time I went down stairs and I would see an old man looking at my window with the curtains closed. Of course I ran the other direction.

I graduated and apologised for my behavior to the kids I picked on and the teachers I gave grief to. Since I didn't even have half my college money, I decided to join the Army Reserves because of the college deals they make. Now I was a very cocky kid, I thought we would never get into another war. So I thought I was completely safe becoming an Infantryman. I could have fun firing off a gun. Well about a couple months later, on the early morning of 9/11, I was asleep in my apartment when I awoke for no reason. The time was 3:39 a.m. I looked over to my door and saw a woman that looked to be in her 30's. She looked happy. She said her sister is going to be with her soon. When my eyes adjusted and I noticed I could see through her, I took off running out of my apartment. I ended up staying at a Starbucks drinking coffee (luckily the place had no customers, so they put all the coffee on the house). I stayed there for the rest of the night until I saw the twin towers on the news.

Now I was scared, not only about the ghost I saw, but I was scared that I would be sent into battle.

A few months passed and I was to be sent to Fort Bennings, Georgia for more Infantry training. I thought I was as good as dead. Rumors were going by that we were going to be sent to the Middle East. We got the official word that we weren't going anywhere. I was able to calm myself down. A couple years passed by and I hear the tensions between the U.S. and Iraq on the news. I finally get official word that my Unit will be sent to Kuwait. I had less than a year in the Reserves.

We were sent to Kuwait but I never got into Iraq. We stayed in Kuwait even after U.S. troops invaded. And I finally served my last day. Of course I felt bad about leaving my buddies, but I'll choose my girlfriend over them any day.

About a week after I got home I moved in with my girlfriend and I heard my Unit got sent into Iraq. I had a nightmare the very first night with some of my buddies. They were running for their lives from the Grim Reaper. They were all caught and dragged away. They cried in horror. I tried to help but it was one of those nightmares where you move slow. And as you can guess my three friends serving in Iraq died. They fell victim to an IED about four days after the nightmare. I heard from another friend that they died on Saturday. Which was real odd because I talked to one of them through the phone on a Tuesday. I was able to attend to their funeral. The father of one of my friends said that his son is happily at home right now. When I was invited over to the parents of my friends house, we kept hearing the radio in his room turned on. We sat in a long silence and listened. Finally his mother walked in and turned it off. It kept happening in the whole hour I was over. It stopped when his father finally said, "Can you please turn that down!" Then it stopped. I hear from my parents that they're going through weird things in the house that we used to live in.

I now live happily in Utah with my girlfriend and nothing has happened yet. I still wonder about most of the stuff I experienced. Like how did that gothic kid know about the hauntings? And why did I see that woman in my apartment?