The Old House (5)
Beth Simpson, PA, USA
November 2000
The old house I'm referring to would be the house my Mom & Dad bought back in 1968. We went through the city records and dated the house to be built back in the late 1800's.
My Mom told me that a week after they moved into the house she told my Dad,"I wish that we had never bought this house!"
I was born in that house back in 1970. I lived there for 25 years. Since we moved I DO NOT miss that house at all. (You would at least think it would hold sentimental value to me-but it doesn't.)
On to the story.....
The time that scared me the most was the night I went to bed before everyone else. It being a school night and me being the youngest (I have three brothers) My brothers got to stay up a little longer than me. Let me explain here that the attic was finished off and my one brother had his room up there. My youngest brother slept in the middle bedroom. My oldest brother at this time had all ready moved out of the house (Lucky him!).
I was only 8 or 9 at the time but no matter how old you were in that house you still wanted the hall light on at night. I could faintly hear the TV on downstairs so when I heard the footsteps I thought someone was coming upstairs. Only the sound of the TV didn't get louder as it does when someone would open the stair door. I listened more closely and realized that the footsteps were coming down the attic stairs. They came down the stairs and down the hallway and stood at my doorway (I did not have a door in the doorway because it opened inward and would hit my bed. Therefore my dad took the door down and my mom put up a curtain to give me privacy.
When I had my room light out I could see the shadows of people when they go by my room. I could see a shadow of someone standing at my doorway. Naturally, I thought it was one of my brothers trying to scare me, as they always liked to do. So I started to call out my brother Bryan's name (for he was the one who had the room in the attic). I kept calling his name but he was not answering. So I started calling out my other brothers name,"Jeff-Jeefff-JEFF stop scaring me!!!!" No reply came. Not a sound. Not even a breath -- Nothing! At this point I was scared,so I closed my eyes shut tight and started praying. When I opened my eyes the shape was gone! It was about 5min. later and I heard someone coming down the attic steps again! I heard it come down the hallway again and it stopped in front of my doorway again. By this time I was TERRIFIED!!!! There was no way I was getting out of my bed to find out who was standing at my doorway!!!! It being that they had the TV on and the stair door closed they couldn't hear me yelling from my bed for them.
It wasn't long until mom and dad and my brothers came up to go to bed. I didn't say anything to anybody that night (I was just glad somebody was upstairs with me) I just kept praying that God would give me peace and help me to get to sleep.
The next day I told my mom about it. We prayed and it never happened again.
Years later a man came to our house and said he wanted to talk to my mom and dad about buying the house from them. He wanted to remodel the place and sell it. My parents didn't do this, but before the man left he told my mom that his parents used to live there. My mom said that she remembered that his last name as being the same as those of the people that lived there before us. He began to tell my mom about the time when his brother and him slept in the back bedroom (the same room as I slept in). He told mom that one might when they were suppose to be asleep, his brother closed the door to the room and they started to play with their race car track. Hoping that their parents wouldn't hear them. All of the sudden someone jiggled the door knob. Thinking it was there dad they quick jumped into their beds. When they didn't hear him any more they got back up and started playing with the race track again. This time he said they heard footsteps and the door knob jiggled again. So they thought they would get one back on their dad. His brother ran to the door and quickly opened it - thinking it would scare his dad. Except nobody was there. He looked down the hall and nobody was there. His brother and him ran downstairs as fast as their little legs would carry them. When they got down there their parents were both sitting there watching TV. They told them what had happened and asked their dad if he was trying to scare them. He said,"Boys I've been sitting here with your mother all evening and neither of us went upstairs."
We both had the same experience. A little different in that they had a door and I had a curtain up. But nevertheless we were both scared out of our wits.