My Haunted House

I remember growing up in the biggest house in our neighborhood. It was the only two-story house on the entire block amongst single-story homes. When we first moved in, I was so excited to know that I would finally have my own room for the first time since birth and it was exciting. I loved having an upstairs bedroom. Running up and down those carpeted red stairs was amazing. It was by far the biggest house my family and I had ever lived in. My dad jumped on the opportunity to get this house; he said the price couldn’t be beaten. The cost was lower than all the single-family homes he had seen. But he didn’t ask why. He just signed the papers, and we had our big house and our own rooms. To me, my room was huge. Maybe it was or maybe it was just huge because I was small. Either way, I loved it. Everything was so great there. The neighborhood was quiet, and it was a short walk to my school. Perfect. But then it wasn’t.

After about 3 months of living in our new home, strange things began to happen. Weird noises at all hours. The sound of someone walking up and down the stairs at night. Doors and drawers began to open and close by themselves. The sound of a little boy crying. And shadows, so many times, just shadows. Some may believe we just made it up. But there were some that knew the truth; including some of my sister’s friends that would come over just to see for themselves. And sure, enough they wouldn’t come back. They would tell my sister the following day what they had seen or heard. She would just tell them, “I told you so.”

One late night while I was in my upstairs bedroom with my door open, I saw a bright light coming up the stairs. I was young so I did the only logical thing I could think of, I hid under my blanket. Monsters can’t get you if you’re under the blanket. The light was so bright, when I did decide to look out from under my safety net, I saw the light at my doorway. It was an old woman in a white gown, surrounded by the brightest light I had ever seen. She was hard to look at, but I couldn’t stop looking. She began to walk back to the stairs and as she did, she gestured for me to follow her. She kept gesturing the entire time I was watching her go down the stairs. Then just as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone. I was lying in my bed shaking in fear. I then had the courage to scream as loud as I could. When my parents came into my room, I told them what I had seen. They looked at each other then stayed with me till I fell asleep again. That was the only time I ever saw the old woman, but not the only thing I had seen.

I remember a young boy, about 5 or 6 years old. He would sit on the bottom step, with his face in his hands, crying. He never said a single word, all he did was sit and cry, and he sounded like he was in so much pain. At times he’d slowly walk around the halls but mainly just sat on that bottom step. I wish now that I could go back and try to communicate with him, maybe all he needed was help. I guess I will never know.

Each of us had our own different experiences, my older sister would hear voices, and once when she was in her room, she saw and heard a black snake slithering and hissing. She screamed and since I was right next door to her, I was the first one there. My parents checked her entire room and never did find any sign of a snake. And with no holes or cracks and up on the second floor, it was hard to believe a snack made it in there. My mom was a skeptic, and even when she had seen or heard anything she always had a logical explanation for it. When the kitchen door slammed shut right next to her, it was the wind, even if there weren’t any fans or even a window where she was at. If she saw something move on its own, she had a reason for that too. Wish I remembered her exact words but come on lady you know you knew the truth. If she heard voices, it was the house settling. Okay...

My dad, I’m not too sure what he heard or saw because he chose to ignore it altogether, that is until one day. My father is a bit of a neat freak with a side of OCD. So if he had a routine he stuck to it as if his life depended on it. One routine he lived by was every single time he was about to shower he had his entire outfit laid out on the bed for when he got out of the shower. He'd lay out his pants, shirt, socks, underwear, wallet, watch, and belt. All right next to each other. Also, he never and I mean never, had pants, or shirts of any kind in a drawer. Even his belt had a hanger in his closet. Well, one morning he had gotten out of the shower as per usual; just to find his layout completely gone. This enraged him. He yelled for my mother, and they had a huge fight over it. They looked in the closet after mom said he probably forgot to lay everything out. Sure mom, it's dad we're talking about. They searched both of their closets and still nothing. So, he went in his drawer to get out different underwear and socks. Low and behold the ones he laid out were in there together with his pants, belt, shirt, and everything else. He was so upset and insisted he didn’t touch his stuff and pointed out the fact that everything was now wrinkled and he hadn’t put shirts or pants in a drawer since he was a little kid. We were all questioned and yelled at as well. Of course, none of us had touched his stuff. We knew we’d get it good if we did.

After about a year of living in that house, my parents decided they needed to ask the landlord about the strange happenings. My dad was pretty vague on the phone because he needed to see the man in person to see his face when he answered. It turned out the landlord forgot to mention that a family had been murdered in the house a few years back. He acted like it was nothing big and apologized for “forgetting” to tell my parents about it beforehand. Well, my dad got his deposit and last month's rent back and we packed up to move out.

Finally, in our new and non-haunted house, we were getting all unpacked and situated. We were almost all done unpacking when my mom had noticed she had forgotten her coin collection that she had for years. She had them hidden in the master bathroom above the light fixture. And since we got out so fast they were forgotten. My mom made my dad go back for them. He didn’t go alone. My sister’s boyfriend tagged along in case there were any problems. I wasn’t there so the events that happened next were described by both my dad and my sister's boyfriend. Once they arrived at the house it was already dark out and a little late. My dad didn’t have the keys anymore so they had to get in through an opened window. They both went in and my dad went straight for the coins in the bathroom. That’s when it happened, what they described as loud whispers and screeching. The sounds of heavy footsteps upstairs. All the doors and drawers began to quickly open and shut. The lights would slightly flicker on and off, like when a battery is dying but still tries to work, which was strange since the electricity was already turned off. They both said they ran out the front door and headed straight for the car and didn’t look back. They went straight to the new house where we were all waiting. They both looked and sounded so scared.

I don’t know who moved into that house after us, but we were just glad to be out of it. I hope that the family that passed away there is finally at rest, and have moved on. All I know is that I will never question anyone that says they have ever heard or seen anything strange in their lives.