Not My Brother

I just wanted to share a set of odd occurrences that still baffle me, and slightly creep me out. I am definitely open to any ideas of what this thing was.

I would have been between the ages of 5-7 at the time (a time in my life when supernatural things started happening to me, but I really didn't realize this until much later on.) and I lived in a 4 bedroom, ranch style home that was built in the 70's. Originally it was an area where Air Force families lived. Most of the neighbors were elderly retired Air Force officers and their spouses. The house was not big, but it was a decent size for our family of 5 at that time. My dad worked a lot and my mom stayed home with me and 2 brothers.

I will try to explain the layout of the house so you can kind of picture what I saw, and how I saw it. When you first walked through the front door there was a step up into the living room, which was a little larger than most of the neighbors', because it was converted from a garage into an extension of the living room and half bath. If you went straight, you would walk into the kitchen/dining room. A little to the left in that room was a place for the washer and dryer and the back door. Back in the living room, to the right, was a long dark hallway that led to the bedrooms. Towards the beginning of the hallway, on the right, was a smallish room, then a full bathroom, also on the right side of the hallway. At the end of the hallway was a door to my room, so with my bed in a certain position, I could clearly see the length of the whole house. There were also 2 other bedrooms to the left of the hallway.

At the time this took place I obviously played a lot with my older brother, who is only 13 months older than me. My younger brother would have only been a baby so he wasn't any fun. I remember walking down the hallway one day, on my way to my room, and seeing my older brother dart past one of the open doorways. Not that strange if my brother was home, but he wasn't. He was staying over at my grandma's house. Besides me, there wasn't anybody that size at home.

Starting then I would see this figure of my brother on a constant basis either darting past doorways of empty rooms or peeking down ahead at me from the top of the doorway. I saw it so often when my brother was away or outside, that my mom finally took me to visit an eye doctor. They found nothing wrong with me (probably because it had nothing to do with my eyes). I only learned I had 20/20 vision.

I don't remember when I stopped seeing this thing, but it didn't stick around too long, maybe only a few months. I never saw it at night. And another strange thing is that, unlike my healthy-looking brother, whatever I was seeing had a purplish green hue to its skin and its hair seemed dim compared to my real brother's black hair.

I never felt scared or terrified of my brother's look alike but needless to say, I get a little nervous when things dart past my peripheral vision. I wouldn't want to see it again in my adulthood.

Another strange thing that would happen around that time was that at night, when I was in my bed facing the open door, I could see a tall lamp we had that was by the half bath at the other end of the house turn on and off. I would also see the half bathroom light flick on and off. I once told my dad about it because it did disturb me, and my sleep. He investigated and found no reason for it. I'm not too sure if he even believed me, but he told me whenever it happened to just pray in Jesus name, and it would stop. I soon got a chance to try it out, and it worked. I would say a little prayer, and the lights would stop turning on and off by themselves. Eventually it stopped all together. I know there could have been a power short or something, but that doesn't explain my feeling of distress and dread towards it.

The last and final thing on my mind right now as I type was a few years later in the same house. I guess I would have been closer to 12. Thanks to my grandma (y mom's mom) I was starting to become very interested in the paranormal and supernatural. I would tell all of my family members how badly I wanted to see a ghost, and would watch anything to do with the subject.

One day I went to my room to lay down for a bit. I think I had some kind of nightmare because I remember waking up panicked. I felt a slight burning sensation on my back. I immediately got up, and went to the the bathroom. Lifting the back of my shirt, I saw in the mirror 3 vague red scratch marks across my back. I was so terrified I thoroughly recanted ever saying I wanted to see a ghost.

That's all for now, but I still have plenty more to share. Sorry this is much longer than I intended it to be, but I hope you enjoyed or at least found my stories intriguing. Until next time, God Bless you, and thanks for reading!