Winchester: Phasmophobia

It was almost Christmas time, and 2010 was almost over. The weather was getting well into the 40’s-50’s during the day and mixed with the breeze from the beach and continuously rainy days, it made for an even colder feeling. I love cold, gray, and rainy days where you didn’t see any sunlight at all. Not even the small sliver from behind a cloud. Just gray for miles and the rainfall in the distance like smoky gray paint being smeared down a canvas that was the horizon of the ocean. They blended together for an endless array of deep gray. Having to wear a sweater all day and be cozy by a fire. It gave Christmas time more of that Christmassy feeling.

My husband was about to get home from his 6 month long deployment. My parents came to stay with us again. We were to spend Christmas together and all be there when my husbands helicopter landed on the island. It was December 22nd. A cold, and very rainy morning. The sun hadn’t been seen for almost a week. The sky was a mixture of grayish white with every other shade of gray. The darkest gray clouds seemed to look purple and black. The rain fell, and steadily. You could see your breath merely by standing at the front door. The house was freezing. I remember my mother in particular was affected by the cold of the house. The floor was like ice she would say. Piercing into her body from her feet. It was incredibly challenging to get entirely warm. We did not light a fire in the fireplace that morning as we had to leave, but could not wait to get one started upon our arrival back home.

The thunder was crashing and the rain was pouring down like most of the days. I had honestly never seen it rain so much in San Diego in the past few years we had lived there. These past few months had enough rain in it to equal out to the rain in the past years of living there. I noticed there was a puddle of water on the floor in the living room. The rain was leaking into the house from the side of the yard. It was as if I had a small pond in the corner of the living room. This was odd as it never happened before. It was quite the frustrating delay. We had no time to think about it until we returned. We had to get going. We packed up the kids in jackets, and hat and left. We drove to the island to pick my husband up. We had to drive on the Coronado bridger to get to the Naval base on Coronado Island. That drive was, as always, a riveting, yet terrifying drive. It is a two lade bridge. Cars go to the island in one lane, and cars go to the mainland in the other lane. This bridge was very narrow, and it always seemed difficult to stay in my lane as I had a large lifted truck that always seemed way too big for the bridge from the driver seat. People drove fast on this bridge and it was horrifying seeing as how hundreds of feet under us was the deep bluish black sea with sharks swimming below. I myself have a fear of going under the water, so this was extremely unnerving to me. To make matters worse, the thickest fog I had ever seen blanketed the earth and the bridge. I could barely see the front of my truck, much less the side of the bridge and car in front of me. That drive seemed to last forever.

We finally made it there and back safely. As we pulled into the driveway, I saw a small child peeking out from the curtains in my daughter’s bedroom. It was as if someone was awaiting our arrival. I of course did not say anything to anyone about this for I know I was the only one that saw it. My children could have perhaps, but they were busy playing in the back seat. The children showed their father around the house as he had not been in it yet. How excited they were. We indeed started that fire, and fixed the leak, and had a wonderful Christmas as a family.

Small things would happen. The crying child in the dead of night while everyone was sleeping, things falling, knocks and taps. My mother had in fact heard these things. I mentioned to her that I thought there was something there. Someone actually. Someone that can not always be seen, and not of the living. She would always have an explanation like, maybe the kids did it, or maybe someone bumped it etc. She is not much of a believer of ghosts and haunted houses, or perhaps she did and thought I was afraid and was trying to comfort her daughter. I do not know for sure. Everyone I would mention the happenings, friends seemed terrified. They had a case of Phasmophobia. The fear of ghosts. Everyone seemed to think of it as this evil thing, and too scary to talk about. “How can you live in that horrible place?” they would ask. If they believed me at all, they had a case of fear. No one wanted anything to do with it. I will admit, first hearing and seeing these things for myself in my own home, I was a bit frightening. After going through it on a daily basis, and nothing but innocent childish things going on, I wasn't really afraid anymore. I was merely intrigued by it. Still, I thought it best to just keep my experience to myself.