The House on Nelson Street

The story begins in the summer of 1975 in Spokane, Washington. I had just graduated from high school, and frankly was very happy to be out. At this particular time, none of the kids in our family had left home. However, my parents had just sold their home up on the "South Hill", and the house they were building would not be finished for another six weeks. It was at this time that they decided that they would live in a nice hotel in downtown Spokane with my youngest brother and only sister. As for my other brother and myself, my parents set us up in a rental....an old house on Nelson street on Spokane's north side. Of course for two teenage guys this was like a dream come true. All we could think of was "Let the party begin!".

When my brother Mike and I moved into the house, we quickly decided who would get the downstairs bedroom....him. I opted for the attic, as I thought it would be kinda cool to sleep up there for some odd reason. When we moved in, we had the usual stuff.....my stereo, some posters and nick-naks that teenage boys are known to adorn their rooms with. One of my treasured items was an Indian cachina doll (spelling?) that my brother had given me as a gift a few years earlier. You know the kind, it has a head kind of like a totem pole with sharp teeth and feathers sticking out. It was made out of wood painted black and was in a "dancing" position with one of it's legs lifted off the ground. I always thought it was cool looking until one night. So here I am on this particular summer evening trying to get some sleep on fold-down bed that was up in the attic. It was difficult to sleep earlier in the evening because of the heat in the attic. The old house was not air conditioned, and the most I could do to cool off was open the window in the attic. Finally asleep. Then approximately 3 or 3:30 in the morning, I woke up to something very strange. The room is glowing a "pulsating" lime green color. I can't see the outline of any of the furniture in the room at all, only the green pulsating light. I decided, surprisingly rather calmly to look around the whole room and try and figure out what was going on. My eyes shifted to where the dresser was supposed to be, and there is the damn doll glowing green right in the middle of the light! By this time, I was absolutely terrified! I knew I had only two options. One would be to make a dash for the stairwell that led down to the main floor of the house. I decided against this, since the stairwell was very steep...almost straight down. I knew If I did run for it, in my terror, I would probably break my neck falling down the stairs! Or, I could remain perfectly still, and hope that what ever it was in the room with me would not figure out I was there. As I tried to control my breathing so whatever "IT" was wouldn't see the sheets moving up and down and know I was there, something else began to happen to the Indian figurine....The damn thing began to move! Ever so slightly at first, but then the wooden arms and legs very clearly began to move. At this time, sheer panic came over me, but I continued (somehow) to lie perfectly still. I knew that I was in the presence of evil, so I began to pray the "Lord's Prayer" over and over as beads of sweat began to trickle down my temples....not only from fear, but also the heat in the attic. I didn't know what was coming next, and I was to terrified to scream out for my brother. He wouldn't have heard me anyway, because I knew his bedroom door was closed, and to complicate matters even more, there was another sound barrier between him and me.....the door at the bottom of the stairwell! Slowly.....oh ever so slowly I pulled the sheets from my chin, to my mouth, up to my nose until my head was completely covered. I didn't want the thing to see any movement from me whatsoever. Once the sheet was over my head tightly, I felt that little space under the sheet was like a suit of armor. Although, I cold see the green pulsating light outside the sheet. But now I was trying to figure out if that cursed little piece of wood was going to walk on top of me or something. That prospect caused every nerve in my body, especially my legs and my feet, to become "ultra"sensitive, as I knew that if I felt one little brush against my body, I was going to "TEAR" out of that room screaming. Eventually I fell asleep again, saying the Lords Prayer and Hail Marys (I'm catholic).

When I woke up the next morning, I lay there in bed, looking around the room and pondering what had happened the night before. I got up , told my brother the story, and took that God forsaken little piece of voodoo trash (I was mad) out on the front lawn and threw gasoline all over it, and TORCHED IT! I might add with great delight. When I thought about the suffering that it caused me the night before, it made me even madder. Anyway, I actually slept up there for the remainder of our time there, and never had another incident. Although to this day, I wasn't sure if it was the attic that was haunted or the damned doll! This story might sound like a tall tale, but I promise you it is absolutely true.(Unfortunately) .