An Intense Haunting
I was not a believer in paranormal activity. In
February, 1998, however, that all changed.
I moved into a first-floor apartment with my fiancée Kathy, who was
pregnant at the time with the first of our three children. I also have two
daughters from a previous relationship. It was my youngest daughter, who
was three at the time, who was the first to experience something
disturbing. She had an unnatural fear of the walk-in pantry in our
kitchen. Every time we would sit down to dinner, she would point at the
pantry and say it was "bad." She would never go into the pantry or even
walk near it. At the time, we just brushed it off as nothing - a childhood
fear. I work with children and know that sometimes their little
imaginations just run wild.
But as I think back on it now, it might have been my oldest daughter
Melissa and my niece who brought this "thing" into our home. One day I
caught them playing with a Ouija board... in the pantry. I wonder if that
is how all this started.
My son John was born in May of that same year. From the time he was born
until about two years of age he could not sleep through the night. He
would constantly wake up screaming and crying to the point where he didn't
even recognize us, even with his eyes wide open; he always seemed to have
a confused look on his face.
One night while he was crying, we went into the room to see what was
wrong. Little John was pointing at the back of the door saying, "That's
bad." Naturally, we were concerned and consulted a doctor about this
behavior. The doctor said it was simply night frights. I, too, thought he
was just having nightmares. But Kathy sensed something else was happening.
She felt there was "something" in the house as she had previously lived in
a house that was haunted. I didn't believe her.
From that point on, however, even stranger things began to happen in that
house.
One evening we were all sitting in the kitchen for a normal family dinner,
making everyday conversation. Suddenly, the entire kitchen started to glow
blue, as if there were lightning inside our house. It just kind of flashed
before our eyes. We sat there with our mouths open, looking at each other
with confused expressions, wondering what the heck caused that.
On another occasion, I was out at night and Kathy was up alone watching TV
in the front room. She heard footsteps coming from the kitchen, then saw
small moving shadows. She thought the kids were up and running in the
house, but when she got up to put them back to bed, she found them sound
asleep in their room.
One night she was asleep in bed when suddenly someone pulled the pillow
out from under her head, waking her up. She looked around, but no one was
in the room. Yet another night she swore she saw the shadow of a small child
next to her, and when she turned to look again, it vanished.
Kathy experienced most of this phenomena. Whatever it was used to throw
toys at her legs while she was leaving the kids' room. No one was in
there. The children began to complain that they were being " picked on"
while trying to sleep. Doorknobs would turn by unseen hands. Keys could be
heard turning in the locks, and no one would be at the door. The shades on
the windows would rise up and spin out of control when no one was near the
windows. These are just some of the unexplained things that happened over
the years in that home.
After our second child David was born, one night Kathy heard him moaning
in his sleep. He was lying in his cradle, which was in our room. She had
fallen asleep and I was in the front room watching a TV show on, of all
things, ghosts. When she was awakened by the baby's moaning, Kathy began
to get up but lay back down when she saw what looked like me in the dark
standing over the baby, looking as though I was getting ready to pick him
up.
But the baby continued to moan. After a few more minutes, she sat up in
bed again and saw that the shadowy figure was still there. At that point
she called out my name: "John...?" No response. She called out twice more.
When I didn't answer, Kathy panicked and jumped out of bed. The shadow
disappeared just that quickly.
Kathy ran out of the room and found me asleep on the couch. She was crying
and frightened. "Someone was over the baby - doing something to him!"
I tried to rationalize what she saw. Perhaps she was half asleep and
imagined it or she was dreaming. Then I recalled that while I was watching
those ghost stories on TV, I had said to myself that I wish I could see a
ghost. After everything we have been through, I will never utter those
words or think those thoughts again.
As our family grew, the strange disturbances continued. While I was
working, Kathy was home with the children; she was feeding our youngest
child Jessica, who had just been born. Suddenly, little John, who was now
three, heard a man's voice calling out "John" in a whisper from the
outside hallway. Kathy distinctly heard it too. John started to open the
front door and run out, thinking it was me, but Kathy stopped him because
she looked at the time and knew it was too early for me to be home from
work. She went to the door and opened it cautiously. No one was there.
Through all those years, Kathy and the children seemed to be the focus for
this supernatural energy. I had remained skeptical because I had not
experienced anything directly. The turning point for me started one night
when Kathy was out late. I was watching TV when I heard the keys turning
in the front door lock. I thought it was Kathy and decided to play a trick
on her - try to scare her. I turned off the TV and hid by the side of the
door so I could jump out and scare her once she walked through it.
I stood there alone in the dark, waiting for her to enter. But she never
came through the door. I was certain I heard the keys in the door and
wondered what was taking her so long. I decided to open the door, but to
my surprise there was no one there. Instead of scaring her, I only
succeeded in scaring myself. So I went to bed. From that point on I
started to become more aware of the odd things happening in the house.
One summer night, we came home from shopping and the whole house was very
warm. I started walking through the house opening doors and windows. When
I walked into the kids' bedroom, which is just off the kitchen, to open
their window, their entire room was ice cold. There is no way this one
room could be so very cold while the rest of the house was so warm, I
thought to myself... unless there was something in there. I had heard
stories about rooms becoming cold when there was a " presence" in them. I
didn't believe it until then.
One night the kids woke up crying. I went in their room and lay in bed
with them until they fell back to sleep. I began to doze off myself, but
was startled fully awake when I heard clear as day someone whisper in my
ear: "John." It sent shivers down my spine. On other occasions I could
feel the presence. I would watch TV late at night and would go into the
dark kitchen for a snack. Suddenly, I would get the chills - the kind you
get when you feel like someone is watching you. I would get so spooked
that I would turn back and forget about the snack.
Kathy had a friend who was what you would probably call a "healer." She
practiced spells, not for evil but for good.
Unbeknownst to me, Kathy had told her about the things that were going on
in our home. This woman cast a spell of protection on everyone of us who
slept in that house. I didn't become aware of this until I mentioned to
Kathy that finally our children were sleeping through the night and hadn't
awakened crying for a few weeks. That's when Kathy told me what she had
done.
Her friend also suggested it would be in our best interest to get the
family out of that house as quickly as possible. What she sensed in our
home was evil and mean - and would eventually hurt one of us.
As those four years went by, the last year and half in which I personally
experienced the phenomena transformed me forever and changed how I view
the unknown. I now know there are such things as ghosts, demons or
paranormal whatever you want to call it. As we were moving out of that
house, we talked to our upstairs neighbors. Strange things were happening
to them, too.
We haven't had any problems since we got out of that place.