To: obiwan@ghosts.org
From: Absinthe (absinthe_wormwood@yahoo.com)
Date: June 15, 2001
Subject: The yellow house
Location: Southern California, USA
When I was 11 years old my family moved into a big, brand-new, yellow house in Southern California's High Desert. The house had not even been completed when we first moved in, and workman would come in every day to put the finishing touches on the house. In spite of its newness this house was as haunted as any Victorian-era home on the East Coast. Though this may sound terribly cliché, it was rumored that most of that area had been sacred land to the Native Americans. That isn't as far-fetched as it may sound. That small valley was indeed inhabited by several tribes of Native Americans. The entire valley always had a strange energy to it- far more strange than any energy I have ever felt anywhere else. The Native Americans, being very in tune with the energy of the land, surely must have noticed this. It stands to reason that this valley would have been sacred to them.
It was my little sister, Elaine, who is two years younger than I, who first began to notice that our family wasn't alone in the house. She would tell me about seeing disembodied hands resting on doorknobs and strange figures appearing in her room. I scoffed at first, knowing that Elaine was fond of drawing attention to herself.
Soon after we had moved in, though, I couldn't help but see why my sister felt the house was haunted. Every room in the house that faced the back yard had an evil, stifling feeling to it- Elaine's room being one of the rear-facing ones. The kitchen also faced the rear of the house. I remember before we got blinds for the windows facing the backyard I would be terrified to get a drink of water in the middle of the night. One night I had a dream that I was in the kitchen and I felt compelled to look out the window. When I looked I saw what looked like a person walking behind the back wall of our small backyard. I stood petrified as the "person" turned and looked at me. The face was completely dark and I didn't notice any features except two large, evil-looking silver eyes.
I believe the first time that I actually saw an apparition in that house was when I was 12 or 13 years old. I had just taken a shower and gotten into bed. I fell asleep with the towel still wrapped around my head. I woke several hours later and reached up to pull the towel off my head when I saw it. Right next to the bed, no more than a foot away from me was a large black shape with the same evil, silver eyes as the "person" in my kitchen dream. I immediately reached up to turn on the lamp on my headboard, but it had vanished completely.
Through the years, my sister and I both witnessed many, many other paranormal disturbances. Though our parents never noticed anything odd, many of our friends had seen or heard our "housemates" on several occasions. At one point, a large, empty room in the house dubbed the "gameroom" became so unbearable that no one ever went in there, and when they did they didn't stay long, due to the very strong feeling of something awful watching in there.
We had two resident ghosts, and many "transients." Our residents we called "the Man" and "the Lady." Though I only heard her once, according to Elaine, the Lady would walk through the house, calling for my sister and I. She was always very discreet and never caused any trouble. She was only ever heard by my Elaine, myself (once- and that was enough), and Elaine's boyfriend, David.
Our more infamous resident, "the Man," made appearances not only to my sister and I, but to several of our friends as well. One evening as I was walking from the living room to the kitchen, I saw a man who I thought was my father standing in the gameroom. He was wearing a bright red shirt and blue shorts. Just as I turned away from him I heard my father calling me from upstairs. This confused me, because I was standing right in front of the stairs and he would have had to go around me to climb them. I asked him if he had just been in the gameroom, and he said no, that he had been upstairs all evening. I searched all of the downstairs area, but I was alone. I immediately called my psychologist (whom I had been seeing for my "night terrors") and told him about the man. He couldn't find any way to explain what I had just seen. When I told my friends the story they just looked at me oddly. Finally one of them said, "I know there's a ghost in your house. I see him all the time," The others just nodded their heads and began to tell me the stories of their sightings of the Man.
For months something terribly evil took residence in my bedroom. I am almost positive that it was a demon. As I was trying to fall asleep at night I would feel a horrible, evil presence emanating from one corner of my room. It was so strong I could almost feel it as a physical sensation. My sister stopped coming in my room all the time, as she used to. One night I woke to find yet another horrible apparition hovering close by. I stormed out of my room trembling with terror and anger. I went into my parents' bedroom and woke my father. "Get up. You're coming with me this time!" and I dragged him into my room. "Do you feel this?" I asked angrily, "Even you can't deny that there's something evil in here!" He stood there for a moment, then said, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to leave!" We waited a moment or two, but the presence did not leave. He tried again. "That doesn't work, dad," I sighed. I had prayed to God every night to protect me from this thing, but it appeared regardless. He sat on my bed and looked at me. "I always knew that there was something special about you," he said, "And I guess they can sense it, too. You're here for a reason and they're trying to stop you." I was stunned. I always knew that my father had dealt more with the supernatural than he had ever let on, and this comment was completely out of character for him. We hugged and he went back to bed.
Another night I awoke to find the dark brown, see-through figure of a man in my room. I sat up in bed and screamed, but he didn't vanish as all the others before him had. When I saw that screaming wasn't getting rid of him, I threw a pillow at him. That didn't make him leave either, though I believe he finally was realizing how much he was freaking me out. He began to back up and put his hands up as if to say, "Hey, calm down! I'm not here to hurt you," but still he wouldn't vanish. Finally I worked up the nerve to go around him and out my bedroom door. I stood in the hallway with my back to the door calming myself. When I felt enough time had passed that he was probably gone, I turned to go back into my room, only to find him still there. I turned back around and ran down the hall to my sister's room, where I spent the remainder of the night. I never saw that particular guy again, and I am fairly certain that he was not our resident ghost, "the Man," or that evil, nasty thing that had plagued me for all those months.
Another odd thing about our house was the fact that something in there was very particular about whom we invited over. One of my best friends, Nick, and my sister's boyfriend, David, would both complain that they were either too hot or too cold while they were in the house, even though everyone else was comfortable.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Many, many other strange things happened to my sister and I the 12- 13 years we resided in "The Yellow House." About six months ago my parents finally sold it. When I asked if they had mentioned to the new owners anything about our house's "peculiarities" they just said, "Of course not!"
That house is not the only place I experienced odd things- far from it! Perhaps I will submit other stories about my other freaky experiences.
-Absinthe