The Old House (4)
Elyse, PA, USA
November 2004
The old house was a big one. To help you better understand where things happened, I'll tell you what it looked like. The front door led into the sunroom where my mom kept her many plants. The door from there led into foyer. If you turned to your right you would see the living room; to your left was the stairs leading to the second floor. Around this area is where most of the things happened. Leaving the foyer you'd see the dining room, the bathroom, the computer room, and the kitchen. The computer room was where the steps to the basement was.
The upstairs was a big hallway. Straight ahead was another bathroom, next to that was the exercise room. Turning to your right at the top of the steps was my mom's room. Go down the hall a little more and you'd see three doors. The one to the right led to the attic. The one in the middle was my room; the one on the left was my brother Josh's room.
The basement always reminded me of a maze. There was a room at the very bottom of the steps that had been added in for my brother Jeramiah. There were doorways leading to the washer and dryer, and to two storage areas where I kept my pet turtles at the time.
Most of the upstairs was haunted. If you were to walk up the steps you would likely feel this dread and fear of what you might meet when you got to the top. I never went up those steps if I could help it. Instead of sleeping in my room, I slept on the couch in the living room because I felt safe there. We had many ghosts in the house. There were the evil ghosts who lived upstairs around the attic area, and there were the more protective ghosts that lived downstairs. I believe that they tried to keep the evil ghosts at bay while we were downstairs.
One of the most memorable experiences for me was when I was a little girl. I had fallen asleep on the couch watching something on TV. When I woke up I was in my room. At that moment I didn't feel fear so I tried to go back to sleep. But, as if whatever was outside my room knew I had awoken, I heard clawing at my door. The problem with this was, we didn't have a dog. We only had three turtles living in the basement, and a fat, lazy cat who didn't bother with such things. I'm not sure how long it went on, but the clawing seemed to go on for hours and I was afraid to move. I had this fear that whatever was outside would see me and attack at any movements I made. So I refused to move as I waited for it to stop. It wasn't until I heard my mother's door open before the clawing stopped. Though I never heard this sound again, I still call it the ghost dog.
My mother had quite a few experiences herself. She seems to be the person that the ghosts were most attracted to. She told me of a few.
No one was home the night it happened. My mom had gotten home late and had fallen asleep on the living room couch. When she awoke she heard someone walk into the room and sit in the chair next to the couch. Forgetting no one but herself was home, she started talking to them, thinking it was my brother Josh. She kept her eyes closed until she realized no one was talking back to her. When she opened her eyes, no on was there.
Another time she was sitting in the foyer and happened to look up from her desk into the mirror. She saw an old man walking up the steps. Though we aren't sure, mom and I think that the old man and the presence in the living room are the same person. Mom said she didn't feel threatened by him so I think that the old man was our protector from the evil spirits that lived upstairs.
My brother Jeramiah had his own experience as well. He slept in the basement and said that he often felt someone pulling his blanket off of him in his sleep. I can't remember if he said it scared him or not. My other brother Josh, whose room was right next to mine, also said that he could hear sounds outside his door even though no one was there when he opened the door.
I don't know the story of the house or what might have happened there in the past but I hope to one day. We have since then moved to many other houses and never met another spirit. Every time we pass the house I can't help but wonder if the people who live there now have met the ghosts and if the old man is protecting them, too.