This story a part of the True Ghost Stories page on Obiwan's UFO-Free Paranormal Page. Please do not copy or distribute without permission from Obiwan and/or the original author!
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 11:14:08 -0700 (PDT)
To: guestbook@ghosts.org
email fxchase@america.net
I suppose it should be mentioned that although I have had frequent occurances with the things construed as "supernatural", I do not actively participate in matters of the occult, or ouija boards, or anything that might "invite" some of the things I have experienced. I went through a number of years, as someone else put it "a magnet" to strange occurances. I'll try to be as brief as possible with my first story though it will be fairly lengthy.
Unlike most of the stories I have read and heard over the years the house in question was actually new when we moved in. It was in a smallish suburb of Atlanta, called Stone Mountain, GA which some may be familiar with. Apparently the area did have somewhat of a colorful history, it being one of the original locations of the KKK (sadly) as well as a history of practice in the occult, mainly witchcraft and devil worship. I actually saw some strange things, though not supernatural, dealing with devil worship when I was a child so the urban legend theory doesn't necessarily apply here.
The house was in an as of yet complete subdivision. One of the most peculiar details of the neighborhood, was a distinct lack of trees where once was a very thick forest. The bulk of the trees remaining were only on the ouskirts of the neighborhood and around the golf course. Oddly, one dead tree stood opposite our house diagonally across the cul-de-sac, which was sort of creepy as it was. On a side note, recurring dreams revolving around the tree were experienced by a friend who stayed with me for a couple of weeks. He repeatedly had dreams of myself and all of our friends hanging from the tree. Oddly enough, and this is just a theory that came to me, he is a black individual, which somewhat makes me believe the activities of the house including the dreams might be associated with the history of the KKK mentioned earlier. Just a thought.
The things that happened here, as they typically do, mainly occured when one was alone or the only one awake at the time. My mother was the first to claim to have felt and heard strange things in the house. Of course I was 18 at the time, so of course I thought she was just being irrational. She eventually got to the point that she would not stay in the house alone, and soon I reached the same point. Ironically, the only people who experienced these strange things were myself, my mother, and my friend who had the dreams.
My mother began by insisting that many nights when she was alone or was awake late in the night that she would hear footsteps running across one end of the house to the other on the second floor. The expanse of the sound was from one end of the attic to the other wall of the attic which went behind the upstairs rooms right over her bedroom. Occasionally she heard doors opening and slamming in succession as well.
I had never really heard this myself until they were out of town and an ex-girlfriend had stayed over. We had been in my parents bathroom in the jacuzzi (not what you are thinking) and for some reason had just stayed in their room to watch a movie and eventually slept in their bed. She had gone to sleep after some dumb fight and that is when I heard the same thing my mother had described. It wasn't so much a running pace as a very abrupt walk of heavy footsteps. I ruled out the cat being the culprit due to the fact that he was asleep next to my feet. Of course I tried to wake my friend up, because I am a pansy when it comes to these things. She heard nothing (of course it had stopped) and nothing more happened that night. But the worst had yet to come.
I was laying in bed late one night with the TV on trying to sleep. I had been sort of down lately since my girlfriend had moved to Idaho and I missed her pretty badly. Anyways, I was laying there with my eyes closed trying to sleep but just teetering on that edge when I heard what sounded like a whisper from a couple of feet away. I ignored it, thinking it my imagination when I heard it again, this time seemingly two inches away from my ear. The worst part was that the whispered word was "Chris" which is my name! I freaked and jumped up and turned the lights on (like that helps). I went to the attic (which was a door off of my bedroom...hated that) to smoke a cigarette since I couldn't smoke in the house and stayed up most of the night with the lights on. On questioning, no one had come in my room that night.
About a week later, I was once again laying in bed late and again right as I began to doze off, I heard the whisper of my name in my ear again, slower and more obvious than before. My mother had told me to answer the voice (don't know why) and I felt like an idiot but did. Nothing. Then I hear the doorknob rattle and I came out of my skin. I jumped out of bed and fixed my eyes on the sound only to see my cat grabbing at the doorknob wanting out. My heart...well you know the cliche.
Usually the cat slept locked in my room so he couldn't wander the house but he was unusually anxious to get out. He kept meowing in that frantic cat style and I walked over to the door, while standing sort of behind it and opened it just enough to let him out. He tucked his head around the end of the opened door and froze solid as he dropped down like they do when they see a bird or something. I was annoyed with him and sort of tapped him on his butt with my foot to make him get out and he tore away from the opening and hid behind the door popping his head around the corner.Of course I thought there was a moth or something so I peek around the corner as well to see what had him all freaked out. That was it. Right outside my bedroom door was a small hallway that opened into the top landing of the stairs leading to the foyer.
I still can't completely describe what I saw. A transparent, grayish sort of white "mist" on what would have been the second or third step down from the top of the landing. There was a huge window above the door that you could see Stone Mountain from when standing from the top of the landing, so needless to say I assumed it was the moonlight shining through the uncovered window. Then it moved. It became more evident that whatever this was was turning the corner at the top of the landing a mere six feet away from me. It appeared to be that of a very blurry woman wearing something long and flowing, sort of like a hoop skirt but tattered and torn. I was focused more on the what would have been the midruff area of this cloud. The whole thing transpired in a matter of 6 seconds before I closed the door and locked it (like that helps) and turned on the lights and stayed up all night. I never saw the "woman" or heard "her" voice again after that night, though other things did happen. This is already too long so I'll send more later.