Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

From the time I was about 4 or 5 yrs old, I’d had some sort of experience that children just shouldn’t have to live through alone. Unfortunately, grown ups usually don’t believe any of it, or just say that we are mistaken.

I remember at a very young age, I woke from a sound sleep.. when my eyes opened, I saw an imaginary fire on my wall. For years I feared a house fire and felt drawn to watching anything with fire on T.V. or on the news. I prayed every night to God.. “please don’t let my house burn down”.

At the age of 8, on the only night I didn’t pray, an arsonist poured kerosene in the front hallway in an attempt to hurt the people that lived upstairs. The house was burnt to a crisp and a woman and her six month old baby were killed. During the fire, you would think that I would’ve had a nervous breakdown, watching my nightmare come true. It was total chaos on my front lawn and out into the street with all of the screaming people, fire trucks, and neighbors. Yet I heard a voice tell me “it will be fine”, and I remained calm.

I have to add that this house had a lot of paranormal activity. I always seemed to be the one that could see or sense them so they always picked me. One night in the tub, the door, of course, was shut and I knew to look at the bottom where the light to the hallway shines under, and I saw 2 small “shadows” of feet. I stopped for a second and the door flew open! Nobody was there and I screamed bloody murder! My mom flew in there and calmed me down, heard what I had to say and still told me it was the wind!

After the fire, we bought a beautiful two story single with a full attic. And in this attic, I could hear “someone” walk around at night when everybody was sleeping. And of course, when I told my mom, she told me it was an old house and that the floor was settling. That was not true. You know when you hear footsteps. There is no mistake! I had to pretend they were angels so that I could feel better.

One night my dog was trying to get under my bed so frantically that it woke me up, and I could tell something freaked him out. He was a big Shepherd mix, and he did not fit! But boy was he determined!

Two more significant things happened. In the 6th grade, I believe I came face to face with my “upstairs” neighbor. She was sitting on my pile of stuffed animals and she was only like grey and white “shades” I guess you could call ‘em. She seemed to be wearing a straight jacket because her arms were wrapped around herself and I couldn’t make out the outline of them. Her hair was white, unbrushed, and shoulder length. The freaky part was that her eyes were two black holes and so was her mouth. She had her mouth open and her expression was like she was begging for something. You know, like her eyebrows were up kinda, it’s hard to explain.

This one here was terrifying. Now there was a statue of Mary praying on a shelf in the hallway. One night I was dreaming that this statue was smashed to pieces and all of the sudden, with this horrible evil feeling, it reassembled and came real fast and real close to my face. I woke up scared to death. That evil feeling had been in my dreams before and it was not pleasant.

The very next day, my little brother threw a pillow and the statue actually fell to the floor and ended up in pieces just like in the dream! Oh my God, I ran over to it and picked up the pieces so fast so my baby bro didn’t touch them. I felt like something bad would happen to him! and for an 11 yr old girl, this was horrifying! I mean, my mom wouldn’t believe me, and I did not want to tell her for fear of getting her involved and letting them get at her. I felt like they had chosen me. I still wish I knew why.

There was another night as I lay in bed, I could hear my mom and dad downstairs watching T.V. The attic door was right outside my room and I could look right at it. I heard the door open, and it didn’t even move. Then I heard it close. Still, no movement. Well, low and behold, don’t I hear footsteps slowly creeping down the stairs towards my parents, and, you guessed it! I can see no one! My mom did hear it though, she walked to the bottom of the stairs and called up to me asking if I was outta bed. I was so afraid to yell to mom that there was a ghost on the stairs headed their way, that I just said “no”. There was that fear that “it” would hear me and run back up to get me or run at my mom and pounce on her. This was a horrible way to live. I was just a kid, man. Dealing with a situation like that alone is beyond reason.

At the age of 15 years, in a different home, I was dusting my shelves that held my stereo and my nick knacks, the closet was behind me, and I sensed something very angry behind me. As I turned to see what it was, it rushed past me and broke a little ceramic deer right down the middle. Then, just as quick as it showed up, it was gone. This was the one and only thing that happened in that particular house. Now that was weird.

Written by Dawn Gombos, Copyright 2009