I looked up at where the noise was coming from, and was wondering if it might be the landlords upstairs, doing something. I took my hand off of her breast, and the noise abruptly stopped. I looked at her, and seen she didn't notice the weird sound. She was still watching TV. I decided to test it and put my hand back on her breast. The noise started up again, louder than ever. I took my hand off again, and it stopped again. I started to giggle, and told Stacey to look at something. I pointed at where to look and listen, put my hand on her breast again, and it started. I took it off again, and it again stopped. I made a little joke out of it, improvising a rap beat (at least the best a rap-hating metalhead can do), taking my hand on and off rapidly, the noise following perfectly. We both laughed for a while, and I shouted "Ok, enough." To this day, I wonder if they heard the scratching or me yelling at around 3 am.

I also asked the landlords if they've ever known any previous people who lived there, a man named Jack and a Vietnamese woman in particular. They told me no, that they've only had the house a short while. I never gave any explanation, in fear of being evicted by reasons of being koo-koo.

Another time, Stacey was in the shower, across from the bedroom, when I had just finished a chapter in a book, and was waiting for her under the bedcovers nude. It was almost 1 am, and the lights would be going off soon. I asked her to hurry, for I was getting really horny. All of a sudden, we heard a very loud, almost booming lady's voice say: "Yo!". It echoed throughout the bathroom and bedroom. Stacey came running into the bedroom almost hysterical, not even bothering to turn off the water. It sounded like it came from right outside the bathroom door. Well, as she finally reached the bed, the light went out, and I don't mean how it normally dims.. It went out abruptly. As soon as the light turned off, we heard a very loud crash from the kitchen. Imagine my fear, if you will. That voice, her running into my amrs, the light shuts off suddenly, and then a crash from the kitchen. I'm sitting there, naked, in the dark, trying to protect my love. I jumped up, turned the light back on, ran into the dark kitchen to see where the noise came from, put that light on, and seen what had happened. On the counter, the large round plastic ashtray (which I still have to this day) wobbling. It didn't fall off the counter or anything. Judging from what we heard, it sounded as if the ashtray were lifted about a foot above the counter and dropped! I shouted at Dawn to leave us alone again. We didn't have any more problems that night, but it didn't matter. Neither of us slept after that incident.

There was also one time when I came home from work about 5 pm, to find Stacey On the back porch, shivering. It was December, and she had no jacket on. I knew something was up. She told me that she was waiting for me to come home from work, and she decided to read a book I recommended. She said she was in the middle of a chapter, when it suddenly got cold. Out of the corner of her eye, she said she seen what looked like a person walking behind her, but all black, no features. It was very quick and swift, and when she turned to look, there was no one there. Putting the book down on the kitchen table, she heard a clicking noise, and seen the doorknob to our apartment turning slowly by itself. More out of fright than courage, she opened the door quickly to see nobody there again. She bolted up the stairs and outside, until I got home.

Melissa, one of Stacey's friends, was having trouble at home with her mother, and wanted to stay with us. I didn't like the idea at first, as 1) she was only 17, and that's harbouring a runaway, and 2) she had a big yellow slobber factory of a golden retriever named Ozzy. We warned her about the strange things happening in our home, but that made her all the more anxious to stay with us. I had a long talk with her mother for approval, got it, and told her that she had to take full responsibility for the dog, and since we had no other bedrooms, that she'd have to sleep on the floor in the living room (we had no couch, only chairs). She agreed, and all went well for the first couple of weeks. Ozzy was very well-behaved, and housebroken, and Melissa was a good kid.

One night, Stacey and Melissa were in the kitchen talking and listening to the radio, and I was playing Ultima 5 on my computer. I had just drank a beer, and had to go to the bathroom badly (If I were a super hero, I'd be Weak Bladder Man). I got up and went into the bathroom. The lightswitch had just broken on us, and so I left the door open a crack so I can see and aim. As I'm urinating, I notice something out of the corner of my eye. At first I thought it was a shadow, but I looked up on the wall and seen it wasn't. It was very hard to describe, almost like a blob made of black. When I say black, I don't mean darkness black. I mean blacker than any shadow you can imagine. It was this amorphous shapeless thing that looked pure black, but two dimensional. It suddenly climbed up from the wall to my right onto the ceiling! I tried to force myself to finish pissing, and ran out the bathroom door. I wound up getting myself all wet and running with my pants unbuttoned, penis hanging out, pee all over me, in front of Stacey and Melissa. I was not as much embarassed as I was terrified, and explained what I saw. Melissa was the first to open the bathroom door, and of course, nothing was there. I think she thought it was just the beer, or a shadow in the darkness, or just my imagination, but I still can remember it as I type this, and to this day, I cannot go to the bathroom with the lights out.

Probably the most terrifying thing that happened was this:

It was about 3 or 4 am, and Melissa, Ozzy, Stecy, and I were all asleep. The smell of smoke awakened me, burning my eyes. I suddenly heard a knock at our door in the kitchen. I put a robe on and answered it. The landlady, Liz, was standing there with her little 3 year old girl (I really don't remember the girl's name). She explained that the boiler was backing up or something, and that she needed to fix it. I let her in, her child hiding behind her, holding a little duck hand puppet/doll. I shut the door behind her, looked to see if anyone else had been awakened by the smoke or knock, seen that everyone was asleep (including Ozzy). The landlady and her girl went into the boiler room next to my bedroom, and started fixing it. I then went back to bed and closed my eyes. Just as I was about to go under, I heard her little girl give a horrified scream and run up the stairs. I got up again, asked Liz what was wrong, and she said that maybe the dog had frightened her. I looked, and seen that the dog was still asleep (even after that girl's screech!) I looked out of my door and seen the girl huddled at the top of the stairs in the laundry room, shaking. I shrugged and went back to bed again...Only to be awakened again by another round of knocking on the door. I answered again, and there was Liz again, this time without her daughter. She said she was sorry to bother me, but she said her daughter had left her puppet/doll in the apartment, possibly dropping it when she ran upstairs. She said that the girl cannot sleep without it, so we started to look around. After looking everywhere the girl could have been, I checked the dog, thinking maybe Ozzy grabbed it. No, he was still asleep, a small pool of drool under his snout. I told Liz that it has to be somewhere in the apartment, and that when I found it tomorrow, I'd give it back to her. Liz said ok, and goodbye again, and went upstairs.

Yet again, I tried going back to sleep, only to be awakened by the sound of a low rumbling, then Melissa's voice screaming "BIIIIILL! Get IN here!" I run out into the living room and see Ozzy, the happiest dog in the world, growling at an empty corner of the room, running towards the corner, yelping, and running back to his master Melissa, who is still laying down on the floor, the puppet/doll propped up right next to her head, as if looking at her. The dog continued the growl/advance/retreat routine a few more times before he just stopped and whimpered. I immediately snatched up the doll and threw it on the kitchen table. It was bone dry, so we all knew that Ozzy did not have it at all. His snout is a waterfall of slobber. It was as if the presence in our home had taken the doll from the child, scared her badly, and waited for all of us to be asleep, and prop it next to Melissa's head in a very evil looking position, then sticking around to watch the horror she had caused. Melissa said she woke up from hearing Ozzy growl, turned her head, opened her eyes, and seen this doll-thing staring her right in the face. That's when she cried out to me.

Melissa went back to live with her mother shortly afterward, and still lives there, getting along great with her mom! :)

Well, there's more things that happened, but the details are so long, and I'm getting tired. I just want to wrap this up by saying that Stacey and I have since moved to Florida, and are getting married next year. We have a roommate named Andy, his girlfriend's name is Bonnie. We've been in this house now for over 2 years, and nothing strange has happened to me, but the funny thing is: I have never told anyone in Florida our little story, and about 3 months ago, Bonnie told me that the very first day we had this house, Stacey and I stayed at our previous one overnight to collect our Security deposit, Andy and Bonnie were here, and that that first night, she was in the shower, and swears to me that they had heard the front door open, and three people (dinstincively 2 females and 1 male) enter the house, laughing and talking like they were coming home from having a good time together. After the shower, they came out into the living room, piled full of boxes of belongings, and the door was still locked, and they were the only ones there.

All in all, I had to get this out. I am now a very strict believer of the paranormal. I thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you believe what I had written, thank you again. If you didn't, I don't care. If anyone wants to know about some of our other dealings with the Ouija board, say so, and I'll post more about Sal, Dawn Lom, and others not mentioned, like "Mother", and T.J. Bill