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Old House In The Forest

 

My childhood home was almost a hundred years old. Deep set in bush land, far back from the road. Hard to get to unless you followed a snaking driveway up through the eucalyptus and ferns and camphor laurel. Stashed, almost secret, deep into the thickly forested hillside. Six foot pythons living in the ceiling (once we found an eleven foot shed skin).

When we moved there, I was four. I remember a giant mango tree in our back yard, older than the house. Standing beside my mother in the outdoor laundry I watched a little boy, all dressed in white, kicking through the fallen leaves at the base of the tree... Searching for something. He never looked at me, or even looked up. Being a little girl, eager to be friends, I ran to my room to adorn myself and be pretty for him. I put on my colourful plastic bangles and rushed back out... But he was gone. I asked my mother, still washing clothes, in plain sight of the tree, where the boy went. She looked at me strangely and asked what boy I was talking about. She hadn't seen him. It's worth mentioning that there was only one way into our property, as it was cased on three sides by thick bush land, acres deep. It's possible, but unlikely, the boy came through the woodland. Less likely still, that he approached without us seeing. Impossible that he came by the road because he would have had to come through our garden, in plain sight.

My little brother's room was at the back of the house, by a winding path, overlooking the hill and the forest. He was two when we moved there. By four, telling me of footsteps up the path at night and whispering in his window. He was a quiet kid, not one for make believe or attention seeking. He told me he saw a lady running up the path sometimes, but she was there and then she wasn't, and he wasn't sure if she was real.

By six I was absolutely convinced that our house was haunted and considered myself rather an authority upon the matter. One night as we were being put to bed, and I was being tucked in, my little brother knocked on my door, white, eyes wide, shaking, terrified. He was always a quiet little guy... I believed him when he said he heard voices in his window. That night the voice had said his name. He was so frightened I told our parents he could sleep in my room, with me. And he did. To this day he backs the story of that night up. He's twenty nine now. I believed him then and I believe him still.

It's strange, as kids, I never thought our parents took us seriously. Only as a teenager, after they divorced and my dad sold the house, did I find out that only did they believe us. They were spooked by the house as much as we were.

My dad built a verandah onto the kitchen and knocked out the old back door. Before he knocked it out, you could smell kerosine burning in the kitchen at night. But only in one place. Liquid kerosene smells different to burning kerosene, and there wasn't even any kerosene in the house. After he knocked out the door it never happened again.

One night in the living room we heard a gunshot outside the back door. I remember mother and father looking at each other, something passing between them. My dad loaded his gun and turned the lights out. They told me to stay inside and be quiet. Dad searched but there was no one there. We had kelpies, and none of them had made a sound.

Another strange thing was how when I walked the kelpies as a little girl, before school. There was a place on the hill, at the edge of the forest, where they would bark and bark and refuse to go any further. In my own childlike way, I understood someone lived there with us and they were lonely. I gave him a name and left him food and paintings I had done. I liked to think I brought him comfort. Maybe I did. It was a strange house...

Years later, when my family had split up, one night dad lay in bed with my stepmother. She was on the edge of sleep when she saw a man standing in the doorway to the bedroom, in silhouette. Aboriginal looking. Looking back at her. She quietly asked my father if he could see him too. Softly, in the dark, she heard my father reply, "Yes. In the doorway." Dad sold the house not long after that. He said it didn't feel right.

Truth is stranger than fiction and I ended up renting the same house a few years later, from the man my father sold it to. I was searching, with my boyfriend at the time, for a house in the forest, where I could have a garden and a cat. Everything was out of our price range and I suggested we go for a drive through my childhood neighbourhood. My old home was up for rent, and affordable.

It felt totally odd moving back in, the fact it was haunted was not the least of it. I will never forget the first night we spent there, before the power was switched on. Sitting in the kitchen, it was mid-winter, freezing (for Australia), the wind howling through the forest around the house, my kitten curled up in my lap. Through the huge glass sliding doors that overlooked the yard, a translucent white shape floated up the stairs and across the verandah. I was rigid with fear, praying that I had imagined it. When my lad looked at me he said, "You saw that too" Luckily he was a steely as I was. We slept in the centre of the house, surrounded by candles. Spooked, but that was before everyone had a mobile phone and no way were we walking three km into town.

Oddly enough, when his two best mates moved in, the one who had my brother's old room said he heard footsteps on the path outside his window every night. I never had the heart to tell him about the night my little brother heard his name whispered through the window.

As my little cat grew, he would hiss at things I could not see. My pet python would strike at things I couldn't see. Once, I was looking after a bird for a friend and was holding it, for it was hand reared. Without warning, the bird panicked (the cat was nowhere near, not even in the same room) and,fluttering, shrieking and flying at the windows. Eventually it found its way out and flew away.

I had recurring dreams of a little girl with dark eyes and a sweet sad face, always in the forest, in the same place where my kelpies would bark as a child. She never gave me any insight into the house or herself, she would only look at me and then I would wake. I don't know if the dreams had anything to do with the house, but when we moved (plainly I did not renew that particular lease) I never had those dreams again. Like a switch was shut off. I did a cleansing and prayer to goddess to bless the ground and dwelling before I left that house for the last time. It was a beautiful house to grow up in... But it had a history as viscous as tree sap.

I never researched it, I don't want to, it's finished for me. But I hope that my prayers for the lost spirits were heard. May they be held in light.

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The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, Nectarvore, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Nightwish13 (2 stories) (19 posts)
 
9 years ago (2014-11-12)
firstly sorry about the loss you encountered there... Now that house sounds amazing... I would have lived there always... I find it interesting how the house keeps getting brought back into your family's life in one way or another... It could mean it wants you to know something... I understand you don't want to research it... But me personally id investigate the history and the haunting... But that's me... I love the paranormal... And love experiencing it and reading personal encounters. Thanks for the great story... Be safe and well.
sonita562 (2 stories) (4 posts)
 
9 years ago (2014-11-07)
Wow your story is so creepy. I can't believe you moved back in would have been so terrified. I wonder what's the history on that house.
Nectarvore (1 stories) (226 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-07-20)
As for the snake... I couldn't tell you... She escaped. You never truly own a snake. They will stay with you only as long as they care to. I've owned several... They do that. The DPI were not impressed (the people who you're accountable to with licensing + resale + escaped snakes...) haha
Nectarvore (1 stories) (226 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-07-20)
Pavan_B... Hey, rad, I only randomly checked in on my story after ages of not even thinking about it, haha. Nope, never went back to that house. In an odder than odd twist tho, my littlest brothers best friend ended up living in that house... His parents bought it from the aforementioned landlord, the guy my dad sold it to... One night, my little bro slept over... His best mate begged and begged for a ghost story, right? So my bro tells him... At the end, his mate, is like " Man. That is mad. Where did all this happen?" My brother replies " Here." He said he's never seen a kid go so rigid with shock... Hilarious.
pavan_b (2 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-05-31)
Hey Nectarvore!
Thanks for sharing this creepy story...
Loved the way you narrated it!
Looks like you are an animal lover... The python stricking part was the best... This is the first time i've heard something like this... I know its not relevant here... But how big is the python now?!;-)
And did you visit that place ever again?!
And sorry i'm late! Lol.
Nectarvore (1 stories) (226 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-10-01)
Valkicry, hello:) I only just saw your response. Yes, my pet carpet python (same breed as the ones that lived in the ceiling, but bought from a breeder- they are bred in captivity with a favour toward unique and beautiful patterning, favourable temperament and are free of the parasites wild snakes carry) her name was Snapdragon:) She was coiled up around a low hanging candelabra and suddenly struck out in attack when there was nothing there. Twice, then a third time. Weirdest thing I ever saw a snake do (I am a lover of snakes, have had a lot as pets, and that is something that snakes only do in response to prey or attack toward them) this was totally unprovoked. No one was near her. Also, interesting point about the spirits being aware of one another... It's not something I ever considered, but thinking about it, they must have been. My ex lad reckons sometimes the small, gentle, lonely ones presence would be replaced by (not accompanied by) the sinister one that would scare the animals. Not sure, myself, most of my experiences were centred purely around the benign one.
Nectarvore (1 stories) (226 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-09-29)
Spirit waiting... I meant to conclude that the missing things would show up, sometimes weeks later, in places they could not have been put. Once, my ex boys heavy silver Thor's hammer pendant was on the shelf above the bed. I heard it slide off the shelf and onto the floor. We looked all around the bed and underneath but it was gone. Overnight. A week later it showed up beneath a cupboard in the study, a hallway separated the two rooms. There is no way, you know?
Nectarvore (1 stories) (226 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-09-29)
Elf stone... Yes, we were very careful with our kitten, lol, a delectable little morsel to a snake that big. When we found that eleven foot skin, my ex lad went white, grabbed the kitten and sat in the centre of the room with a spear. Lol. I laughed. He is Scandinavian, six foot four and fearless. Except for snakes apparently.: (
Nectarvore (1 stories) (226 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-09-29)
Spirit waiting... It was quite interesting to experience the house with a second time, with the discernment of being a little older. My boyfriend at the time was deeply into the occult, so he had his own relationship with the house and the spirits within it. It's difficult to know what he brought with him, he was a bit of a vortex for lower astral attention, but he felt also that there was an active and coherent spirit of a little girl in the house. I want to reiterate here that I know, with all my heart, that it wasn't the little stepsister I had, who died there. When you know someone in life, you know them in death... And I never sensed her there... Which is a good thing:). My ex boyf said he could feel only that there were two, very different spirits. He felt also that the child's spirit would flee when the dark one came. It must sound nutty, but being a nurturer, I tried to show kindness to the little one... I did a meditation to help her pass over. It felt like she had been there for a long time. Also, living there a second time, I was made aware of how many things went missing... Necklaces, little precious things, as though she wanted my attention. I was always careful not to indulge my fascination with it... That kind of thing can become obsessive, especially when you are young and lonely and spiritually in tune. My ex lads best friend swears that an earth wight, a dark elemental, followed him up the long driveway in the dark as he came home one night. Reckons it was making a soft, aboriginal faery kind of muttering noise. Very odd.
elfstone810 (227 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-09-27)
Nectarvore, thanks for sharing a thoroughly creepy and well told story. I'm very sorry for your loss.

Forget ghosts! There is *nothing* scarier than an eleven foot long cast off python skin in the ceiling! 😲
spiritwaiting (42 stories) (843 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-09-27)
Nectarvore, being young and losing a sibling, whether blood or by marriage is difficult. Going back to the house is one thing, but living in it again is very brave I might add. Sorry for the loss, and I'm sure time has healed that wound. Well hopefully it has. I understand why you wouldn't want to do any research, some things are best left in the past. I will add though, with what was going on the second time, maybe the spirits recognized you somehow, and said hmmm she wants more?
valkricry (48 stories) (3257 posts) mod
 
10 years ago (2013-09-27)
Nectarvore, thanks for sharing this account. I must admit, more then the ghosties, the mere idea of snakes in the ceiling crept me out. (Snakes are my one true phobia.) Anyway, I had no idea that pythons could strike. I always thought they just sort of enveloped things. 😕 Obviously our shared tales can teach more than just paranormal things! Lol
I am sorry that you lost your step sister while there. But happy that she had moved on into the light. I hope that reads as I meant it.
Being nearly 100 years old, the house probably experienced many things and absorbed a lot of different energies. I really don't think that it is as unusual as people think for more than one spirit to co-exist in a place. Whether they are aware of each other or not, I'm unsure.
Nectarvore (1 stories) (226 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-09-27)
Dan. Thank you. Yes, it was a long time ago and the heart heals:) and yes... My eleven foot friend living in the roof must have been the grand high matriarch of carpet pythons...:)
DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-09-27)
Nectavore, thank you for your reply, sorry to hear about the passing of your step sister in the home I can understand how it holds sad memories for you.
I sincerely thought it would be in queensland what tipped me of was the python snakes etc and that would be more suited to a rainforest climate, 11 foot? Geez!
You are correct with the residual energy associated with the indigenous people and there treatment at the time, no doubt some of there energy is still imprinted into the land.😢 Hopefully they have all moved on to the light now,😊 thank you again for sharing with us here! 😊

Dan
Nectarvore (1 stories) (226 posts)
+1
10 years ago (2013-09-26)
Hi Dan:) The house was in Queensland on the Sunshine Coast. Yeah, it's interesting, the multiple entity nature of it, I felt intuitively the presence of two spirits in that house. A little one, benign, probably a child. And a dark one, old and a little bit scary. The rest I would put down to possibly residual haunting. I had a beautiful childhood in that house, but truly, I don't wish to revisit it because it held a lot of sad memories for me toward the end. I didn't include it in my story, because it wasn't essential information, but I had a little step sister pass on in that house. She was three. That was before my dad sold it. In retrospect it wasn't wise to move back in to that house... I suppose part of my decision was to affirm that she had crossed over into the light cleanly... (she had... The dreams of the small dark haired girl were a different child, from another time)... Maybe the earth itself that the house was built on held some serious ley line crossings or something lol... The whole indigenous history of Australia leaves a lot of places vulnerable to hauntings and residual energy due to the colonial era. If people were more in tune, I'm sure there would be a lot of sites they wouldn't build on:)... All I know is that the house was built during the First World War and that the previous tennants in the seventies got raided by the cops a lot... I guess due to its secretive location it was a good haunt for hippies as well:)
DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)
 
10 years ago (2013-09-26)
Nectarvore, interesting accounts it certainly sounds as though you had an interesting childhood, I love the layout you have provided with the whole nature theme.
From what you have mentioned there seems to be a large history associated with the home quite a few different spirits seemed to be attached to it in someway either that or the land itself. I would be jumping all over the chance to find out the history, but I can understand why you want to just let it be. May I ask what state this house was in? I am from Perth myself.😊 Thank you for sharing.

Dan

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