The Corner of My House
Jen, Nevada, USA
February 1998
The youngest I can remember that anything really started happening was when I was 4. And most of all the things that went on seemed to center around the south east corner of the house. Upstairs and downstairs. But on a few occasions it happened elsewhere. At this time I was sleeping upstairs. Every night when I was younger, from age 4 to about 12, I remember waking in the middle of night around 2 to 3 am, and hearing noises in the kitchen. Noises like dishes being taken out or put into the cupboards, silverware being taken out or put away, and chairs moving across the floor. Every time I would hear it, I would get out of bed and look down the hall towards the kitchen. Nothing would be there, no lights or anything. Just pitch black. And the noises would stop. Only to restart a few minutes later. Also during that time I developed a severe fear of fires.
On my way to my bedroom I always had to pass the stairwell going to the basement. I was scared that if I looked down there I would see fire. Also I would smell wood being burnt sometimes too. So when ever I passed the stairwell I would close my eyes and run past. I use to have nightmares of fires almost every night, and would wake up screaming. When I was that age my safety things were the night light and having my door closed. When I was 12 I moved into the bedroom directly below that one in the basement. My first night down there, I was standing by my dresser next to the door putting things away, then I heard someone violently shake the door. I stopped what I was doing and listened to see if someone was out there playing a trick on me. Didn't hear a thing. Then just the door knob was shaken like that. I then opened the door expecting to see my brother there. There was no one there. Just blackness. I was scared to death. I jumped in my bed and pulled my covers over my head and didn't move till my mom came to wake me up in the morning for school. I asked her if someone had been down there, she told me that no one had. A few days later I was sitting in bed looking at a book about ready to go to sleep, when I heard someone say clearly, "Hi!". No one but me was in my room. Again I hid in my bed all night long (I always thought that if I couldn't be seen then I was safe). It was very shortly after that, that I moved back upstairs with my sister. One of the things I noticed upon my first night there, was that the noises in the kitchen didn't happen anymore. I knew that by the fact that my sister HAD to have the door open. Probably a BIG factor in why I couldn't sleep. I started having a real hard time sleeping. Sometimes it would take until 2 or 3 for me to fall asleep. On night while laying in bed, and it was WAY late, trying to go to sleep, but still wide awake, I heard someone walking, almost kind of dragging their feet, down the hall and right into my room to stop at the foot of my bed. I turned and looked, but no one was there, just good old blackness.
The next morning I got up before everyone else did and was in the kitchen looking at the paper. Right then I heard all these dishes fall into the sink. I thought that my mom must had done them the night before and they'd fallen out of the dish drainer into the sink. But when I looked, there were no dishes in the sink. And there was no other dishes by there that could have done that. Until then I hadn't "SEEN" anything. About a few weeks later, I had woken up at 3:05 AM, I remember that because the clock was right next to me and I always look to see what time it is. And I was sleeping on my stomach so I had to totally flip around to do this. So I looked at that then sat up in bed, rubbed my eyes, and looked towards the door, (which was right in front of me) and there it was. It was a figure of a human. It looked like it was made of smoke. And it had no feet. But it had no eyes, just what appeared to be black holes for eyes. It was looking right at me. But for some reason, I wasn't afraid of it. I had rubbed my eyes a little more, and when I looked it was still there. In a way it freaked me out just because it WAS there. So it was then that I developed the theory of, "If I just cover my head and go to sleep, then when I wake up, it wont be there!" Which in this case proved to be true. Every night, though I would hear the footsteps come in and stop at the foot of my bed. I never saw the figure again. But there had been times I would see this brilliant white light ball go floating from my parents room down the hall. That seemed to scare me more than anything. It was when I was about 15 or 16 when I moved back downstairs.
It was in the winter and of course, my window was NOT open, and this is in the basement. But every night at around 1 am there would be this breeze that would go through the room. I am not talking wind, like blows stuff all over, but something that would blow and make things sway just slightly. And always had the scent of something old and musty, and of dirt. Our basement was totally finished too. It was at that time when I started having horrible dreams. Some would be twisted. And they were so bloody. I had lost of dreams about wars, and people dying. Every night it seemed that I had these dreams. One day when I came home from being with my friends, it was about 3 pm and it was totally sunny outside and I was happy and in a good mood. I went down to my bedroom, and when I opened the door, this feeling just washed over me,a feeling of dread. And the room was WAY darker then the room I was in on the opposite side of the door. It looked like it was evening in there. I just left and ran upstairs.That night when I was downstairs, I was heading into my room, I opened the door first without turning on the light, and had totally brushed off the incident earlier, it felt like someone was there. Right next to me on the other side of the door. And the darkness in the room seemed to be alive almost as if it would swallow up the least bit of light. I ended up sticking my hand in the door just far enough to turn on the light to go in there and I only went in when I had to. There had been a few nights when I was in my room and I started hearing knockings on the wall. The wall that I heard them from was the was that was an outside wall. I am talking about the cement basement walls. At first I thought that we probably had mice in the walls or something like that. But it had a rhythm to it and then would fade away then start again. I had been really good about this, and hadn't tried anything to get rid of it till this had happened..
Once again, late at night, I am asleep, thought this time I woke up because I felt like someone was choking me. And in my room at the other end of my bed was this glob that was kind of round, that was smoky but sickly green. I pulled my covers up over my head and tried to ignore it, but it wouldn't let me. I felt the same choking feeling and when I looked at it was closer and still coming closer. I flipped the light switch on next to me and ran out of that room. Even up to this day I will NOT go in that room. A funny thing that had happened later, is that when I was talking to my older sister, she was telling me about when she use to sleep in the upstairs bedroom. She told me about this time when she was laying flat on her back in bed with the radio on and listening to it, she felt something like someone scraping their nails down her back. She hurt for a very long time after that. I have moved out from that house, and one thing I had always noticed in there, was that it was cold and emotionless. And that there was always hate everywhere there, and fighting going on and abuse. I had tried very hard to tell my mom about this, but she ignored me. My grandma and a few cousins believe me because they have seen stuff too. Why it happened exactly? I don't know. But I do know that since I have been out, my heart is alot warmer to people, and I have learned how to smile again.