Dream House

My Name is "Blank" and this is my story...

I call it the Dream House. Ten years ago my family and I moved into a rather large home. We considered it a mini mansion, if you will, with four bedrooms, three and half bathrooms. Through the red door you entered into a large elegant foyer with a glass crescent table where my mother had all her crystal figurines on display. And as you stood, a heavy enchanting chandler holding fifty candlesticks hanging steadily twenty feet above your head. A large all white ballroom stood ahead of you. To your right the master suite. To the left you pass the enormous tiled kitchen, the breakfast area, the dinning room, a hallway of a laundry room in itself that held two extra refrigerators and finally the den. Then... There were the stairs.

These very plain-carpeted stairs led up to the upstairs suites. Once you padded up the stairs you were presented with another small living room with rooms on either side. The upstairs' suite shared a hallway bathroom with separate vanities. And in the upstairs' bathroom stood a plain door that would pass for another linen closet. However, you may notice something different about this door. Larger stronger brass doorknob, painted completely white, not like the wood paneled cupboards. It was heavy and hard to push open. An extreme pull to my curiosity, being eleven years old. It couldn't be the attic? That was downstairs above the garage.

I pushed the door open and was puzzled, I found a light switch and illuminated a small wooden room. I looked and saw that there was still the pink insulation. It was cold and smelt of fresh sawdust and old wood. Even as I walked barefoot into the room, I dragged the dust on my feet. An extra room, I guess? I was also wondering why the heavy door? It was just like the heavy doors you use to go outside or in the garage. Who the hell installed this?

Now being done with the room, I turn to grab the door and walk out but something stopped me. On the inside of the door was a dead bolt lock suggesting to keep something from getting into this "panic room" from the outside. I had no idea what to think, I left and tried to ignore it.

Throughout the years my parents, two older sisters and I lived there strange things kept occurring. As for anything I brought up to my parents, they always laughed and brushed it off since they just used the panic room for extra storage. They were in love with their dream house and were blind to anything a preteen would say. How could they? It was their dream house.

So I tried to ignore it, but there were some things I could not ignore. For Christmas my parents bought me a brand new two-speaker stereo. Not to mention that my room was closest to the "panic room". I installed the new stereo on my built-in set of desk and shelves that were built on the same wall that matched the other side as the panic room. While enjoying the beat it bumped during the day as I worked out, I experienced unwanted usage at night. Often I woke to my stereo randomly turning on by itself.

I jumped in the middle of the night to this sound of the radio changing from station to station. It made no sense. I was constantly having to get up in the middle of the night just to turn this silly thing off. The stations weren't even programmed to what I would usually listen too. I never paid attention to the station, I would wake up to being so tired. Usually my older sister would sleep with me. I found myself waiting up for her until she was done from work just to be able to fall asleep. Still the stereo would randomly turn on in the middle of the night. I finally asked my older sister why this could being happening. While half asleep she said it was probably because of the plane's radios passing by at night. Even though a part of me knew that wasn't true, I tricked myself to believe it. I found myself being twelve years old still sleeping with a night light and even I couldn't feel comfortable sleeping alone. I was shiat out of luck when my older sister moved out to go on with her own life.

I found myself waking up in the middle of the night not realizing why. I would wide awake for no reason and was fearful of staying awake and both falling asleep. I noticed it would always be around 3am when I would wake. I would repeat a pray my older sister taught me, for god to protect me and eventually fall asleep. I eventually got to a point where I couldn't fall asleep without the TV on. Whether it was the Deadliest Catch playing or prepaid programs to baby teaching channels, I wasn't comfortable unless the TV was on.

That was when I was terrified when I would wake around 3am again to find that my TV was turned off. Keep in mind I had never programed an automatic energy saving turn off system on my TV. I would like to believe that my middle older sister who took the room next door came in and switched off my TV herself. I was always afraid to ask her the next morning. When I awoke in the middle of the night, I would immediately struggle to find my remote which I purposely kept under my pillow for this very reason to switch on my TV as fast as I could. The light and the sound kept me calm.

True, I knew this was ridiculous so there were nights I tried to sleep without my TV. One night I at least kept my night light on. And of course... I awoke around 3am. At this exact moment my eyes shot open in time to see my pink make-up bag FLY off my vanity, bounce off the counter and hit the floor. I froze! It must have just have fallen cause I didn't have it properly sitting on the shelf. Sure. Sure that was it. Since then I never kept my makeup bag on the shelf so it wouldn't "fall". I found myself many nights waking for no reason and being frozen solid of fright. I was always relieved when I would wake up in the morning with the natural light making my room pretty again.

Along the way of living in that dream house I constantly experienced my stereo turning on by itself, my TV turning off and the dogs barking for no reason. I'll even admit that I would go downstairs just to sleep on the sofa. My patents would find me in the morning, annoyed thinking I was this weird teenager.

Even as I got older I hated being alone. When coming home from school I would again be home alone for about an hour or two before anyone would come home from work or school. Constantly while I was doing my homework I would hear something stomping around upstairs especially above the den... Where my room was. When I was brave enough I would run upstairs to check if my sister had come home early. I would never find anything; however, once... I found foot print indentations in the carpet leading to my window. I could never figure out the meaning and honestly didn't want too.

As I would stay upstairs long enough I would hear banging of pans and cupboards clanging and banging from the kitchen. I was smarter to know that no one was home. Sometimes I was brave enough to run back downstairs and others I wasn't and would just hide in my room until someone got home. When I was brave enough, I was just in this silly game of cat and mouse. Either I was down in the den listening to what was upstairs or in my room hiding from what was banging around in the den.

Then one night I had this dream. I was asleep in my bed and something woke me. It was some kind of knocking. I found that it was coming from the shelves that were built into my wall. The knocking continued and I came up to the desk and knocked back. My knocks were mimicked. I could hear a young girl screaming for help. I frantically tried to find a way to break my desk open or some kind of secret door. My desk eventually opened up and I saw the girl. She was way down in this hidden tunnel under my desk. She had long black dingy hair and a dirty white night gown. I saw her see me; she was terrified! She kept shrieking "HELP! HELP!" I looked down at her shocked, first trying to figure out how she was down there and for how long. Who had put her there? She kept screaming and finally my eyes shot open in the middle of night. My heart was pounding and I looked over at my desk, all sound with my TV and computer. I thought about the dream for days, but never figured out what it could possible mean. I seemed it would better just to forget about it.

Then I had another dream. I was in a grocery store and a little girl found me wanting to play. I smiled as she took my hand. I knew in my dream she was no threat. We found a child section and started to have tea party. We were sitting having fun, but I soon started to realize the little girl kept looking behind me. I can remember her expression to this day. She soon couldn't focus on our tea party anymore and I asked what was wrong. She said, pointing, "Who's that girl?" My heart dropped. Not again. I got up to turn and there she was. The girl in a white night gown with the long black messy hair that reached to her hands. Only this time she was smiling at me, with her head tilted to the right. My heart dropped and I couldn't take it anymore. I screamed at the top of my lungs "NO! NO!" I kept the little girl to my side protecting her and grabbed cans off the shelves and threw them in vain. The cans just went right through her. As I did she only got closer to me. Smiling more wickedly, knowing I couldn't do anything.

I screamed finally waking up with my older sister next to me. "Do you want me to close the door!?" she said. Next thing I knew she jumped out of bed and switched on the light, and I watched her slam the door shut. She ran back to the bed and asked over and over if I was ok. I finally calmed down and when I could catch my breathe I asked very confused "Why were asking me if I wanted you to close the door?" She answered "Because when your dreaming and yelling your head was turning everywhere but the doorway..." We never brought it up again.

I hated this house. Hated being alone, tiring of hearing doors slam shut that I would just stay on the sofa like nothing happened and keep doing my homework.

Once from coming home from school, and like always I would be home alone for a little while, I dropped my bag and did as I always did, heading towards the fridge to get a snack before I started homework. I grabbed and apple and accidentally dropped. I chuckled to myself, trying to grab it on the way down until it hit the floor. I bent down sighing, reaching for the damn apple when I saw something drift under the fridge door. A long maroon skirt that reached to the floor drifted under the door. I shot back up and looked towards the dinning room. In less than second I saw a pilgrim girl. A few years older than me with a pale face. She had no expression negative or otherwise. She looked at me and was gone.

My breathe was gone as I looked around and back towards the dining room. What...the...hell! Even though I saw her for a split second, to this day her image is burned in my brain. She had a traditional white bonnet; however, it had a cute lace trim. Her dress was a faded maroon color with little white flowers dotted all over it and she had a while apron sewed to the dress not really for cleaning reasons but for show. Trust me she was no maid. The "apron" also had the lace white trim. I couldn't see her feet because the dress went all the way to the floor. My goodness.

I didn't get a bad vibe from her, it was just...confusing. I then saw her a few weeks later. I was sitting at the bar of the kitchen while my middle sister and her boyfriend were watching TV in the den. It was a fun night. I was eating and laughing while we watched a movie and as I turned to take another bite, I saw "her" across the kitchen. Only her head this time coming from the same place where I had first saw her. She was looking at me as just her head floated halfway through the kitchen as it faded away over our island. I just stared.

I was in a zone that was broken when my sister finally noticed and asked if I was okay. I looked back at her and slowly answered "Yes". I didn't just want to tell her what happened, I mean who would? "Hey guys, I just saw a floating head, what's for dessert?"

The next and last encounter I had with the pilgrim girl was when I had a friend over after school. We were on the sofa laughing more than doing homework. It was then I noticed my girlfriend distracted by something while looking over at the bar.

I didn't want to ask but I shook her and asked anyway. I heard what I already knew. I always thought that if I didn't talk about it, it wouldn't be real so I never spoke of the pilgrim girl. But my friend described seeing a young girl, probably about fourteen, with a reddish dress. I rolled my eyes and finally told her everything. It got to the point where she didn't want to come over anymore so we just went to her house.

As we were riding the bus to school one morning we spoke of the girl and asked each other questions like where was she from, who is she, how did she die, was she good or bad etc. We even came up with a name for her. Samantha. For some reason it just felt right to both of us.

Now catching our interest, we tried to do some research to see if we could find the history of what the land used to be before our neighborhood was built. Of course only being middle schoolers we had no idea what to look for and couldn't find anything. I thought of doing some more research now being older, but I honestly don't see the point. I want nothing more to do with that house and now it's somebody else's problem.

We eventually lost the house during the recession in my freshmen year of high school. The 2004 recession did a double whammy on us since my mother was realtor, my dad was mortgage broker. He soon lost his business. To this day... It was the worst year of my life! My beloved lab that grew with me since I was four passed away. My parents were ready to divorce over all the financial stress. And my father was first diagnosed with prostate cancer. Later that year mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. A lot for a young teenager.

To this day, that house and those years in high school give me an ache. My parents did separate and my mom and I moved into a cute little apartment. As soon as we left, my dad's cancer was treated and hasn't come back since. My parents stopped fighting and after a year they actually got back together, and since then I noticed the relaxed relationship they had. Mom had some minor surgery and is now in complete remission. They even allowed me to get a puppy to heighten my spirits and have something to give all the love I had. After the financial loss, my parents were still able to surprise me with a truck my junior year!

Everything immediately turned around once we left that retched house. And to this day I will never go back to that "dream house".

Thanks for your time to read my story, all comments are welcomed ☺!