Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

I know many people have their own opinions and beliefs on ghosts and the paranormal. I used to be kinda skeptical about them but now I believe, ever since I moved in this house only four years ago and that’s when I started to realize that my first encounters were real, and these spirits were freaky, but friendly.

My house was built in 1921 and it’s had it’s troubles. Been on fire once and quite a few people have died living in this house throughout the years. It is said that two women (one in her mid 30′s or 40′s and an old 80 year old), a little boy, and a dog have been killed. I don’t know much about the people’s stories but I do know that the dog suffocated in our bathtub, breathing through the drain, while trying to escape the fumes when the house was on fire. There’s probably more deaths that happened and more ghosts that wonder our halls. It doesn’t matter though because all I know is that most of these trapped spirits remain.

My sister Sami’s first story was when I was sleeping on the second floor sharing a room with her. She woke me up frightened and shaken telling me to come and sleep with her. She mentioned that she kept on hearing squeaks and footsteps walking back and forth in our room near where her bed was. I didn’t really believe her but I felt sorry for my older sister and came and slept with her. Not five minutes later I hear her yelling, “Stop it! Go away!” As I sat up I asked what was wrong and she claimed that her old music box started to play out of nowhere and after she told it to stop she and I heard what sounded like footsteps stomping off as if it was mad. That’s when I started wondering about ghosts and spirits cause in that five minutes of sleep, I dreamed that I danced and sung to that tune.

After my sister told her story to my dad, he investigated our cellar and found a burnt antique umbrella and some old jars. He also found some old rocks that seemed to have had a special design on them. He thought nothing of it and left them there. Then after that, he went to go check out our attic. To get to it, you have to go in our long closet and jump up into this hole. He didn’t find anything but I believe these two investigations were what released the spirits, because a whole bunch of weird happenings started to occur. We would see various black figures walking in between rooms, hear knockings on all of our doors and open them to see nothing, and sense the most eerie feeling of someone staring at you or following you.

The dog spirit would run back and forth on the second floor or run up and down the stairs, and we would go up to see if our dog Willie got up there and would find nothing, just our cats sleeping peacefully. My dad claimed he saw a boy poke his head out from the stairwell and quickly run up. We chased after it to only see my adult brother laying upstairs sleeping. My two cats would suddenly watch nothing in the corner of the room and stare for a long time then would run off.

There was one personal encounter I had two years ago. I had gotten up for school and realized it was still too early, so I decided to go pet my cat Lew who was laying on the fourth or fifth step up. I petted her not even for a minute and she went berzerk. Her ears sat straight up, eyes widened, shaken, and claws out and looked behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw this black figure peaking out from the door up at me and a second later it vanished. I was terrified and couldn’t even move for five minutes before running through the house and out the door heading to school early.

There was one that was really frightening. My dad dreamed one night that he got up out of bed and saw a woman figure sitting in the chair and she came up to him and hit him in the head. Dazed, he woke up to find an actual woman figure sitting in the chair but she didn’t budge. He blinked and she was gone. The next day he asked my mom if she was sitting there and she replied, “no, of course not.”

I have OCD. I have to shut off all the lights not needed on necessarily and to shut cabinets and doors. One night, I was still up at 12, I decided to go get a snack and I made it quickly. I closed all the doors and cabinets in the kitchen and went to the restroom. I came out and all the cabinet doors were open and the light was on. The next day I asked everyone if they were up at all last night and they all said no.

Sometimes when I go to put a damp hoodie or shirt in the dryer, I’ll leave the room for one minute and come back and the door to the dryer would be open and my clothes would be soaked.

My dad just got rid of the stuff he found in the cellar not too long ago and all the weird occurrences stopped happening. Although we still feel a presence in our home, we no longer experience encounters as bad as the previous. I love the paranormal and ghosts and I plan to be a ghost hunter some day. From not believing to loving it and wanting to be a part of it is a big step in three or four years. I am turning 16 this October and if any of you want to question or comment about my stories please do.

Written by Heather Lee Heim, Copyright 2009