Resident Spirits

I have read a few accounts on this site, and must say that I found a few of them rather unsettling, and certainly very intriguing.

At the time of these experiences, I was 29, now 32, living near London. To be precise a small leafy suburb near Croydon. Having recently separated from my then girlfriend, I found a nice house share with excellent rail links into London for my job.

I shared the house with the Landlady, a kind retired teacher, who was quiet and charming in a somewhat eccentric manner. There was to be, later on, another tenant who was rather shy, but a good addition to the household. After getting to know the Landlady, I shall call her Anne, I discovered that she had not so long ago lost her husband. She had moved on pretty well and had started to develop good friendships with gentlemen around her own age. Looking to move on with her life and to enjoy what it had to offer.

I guess that is enough background for now, and I shall start with when events started to become a bit unusual. After a couple of months, I was alone in the house for a couple of weeks while Anne was visiting family abroad. She trusted me with the upkeep, and I was not going to disappoint her. Apart from having some friends over for some poker games and whatnot, it was just me in the house.

Sitting in the lounge late at night, around 12.30am, I was watching a movie. In the corner of my eye, I saw a white-lit ball shaped object, fairly large by the curtains which partitioned the conservatory and dining room. As soon as I turned to look at it, whatever it was had vanished. Feeling somewhat unsettled, I turned the TV off and went to bed.

Weeks had passed, and I had started a new relationship, I shall call her Michelle. We both started staying round each others homes quite regularly. It was round mine though, that I found her behaviour increasingly strange. She seemed very reluctant to go downstairs. Upon asking her, she just said "Oh, I am fine up here" I thought that Anne or the other tenant had done something to upset her. This she firmly denied. Following a few more occasions where she refused to come downstairs, I finally snapped. I said I felt like a prisoner in my own home. Why cannot we not sit in the lounge or use the conservatory etc? It was then that she confessed all.

She said that her and her late Grandma were both very susceptible to ghosts and spirit activity. When she first visited she felt very cold, and had later noticed a thick fog on the stairs, and also on the upstairs landing. She also wondered who the old man was. She saw 'him' sitting in the dining room, just staring out into the garden. She had soon realised that there was only myself, Anne and the tenant in the house. And didn't want to mention this to me for fear of shocking me.

I felt relieved that at last I knew what the problem was, but also a mixture of disbelief and shock. Can this really be true? She seemed so sincere and almost embarrassed by this, so I took her word for it and hoped that whatever it was that she saw wouldn't be harmful. A few weeks had passed, and Michelle had shared with me a lot of her experiences. She also showed me a couple of photos, with a large amount of orbs in them. One of them was her at a family party, she was sitting down with all her family. And mainly around her was literally dozens of orbs, Different colors and sizes. Having already mentioned the suspected orb that I had witnessed, we had the idea of taking pictures on my phone. We sat in my room, faced the mirror and took a series of photos. ALL of the ones that she took, had an orb which was next to her face. The ones I took had none. This sent a chill down my spine, but fascinated me. After showing Anne the photo's she just looked quizzical at them, but wouldn't admit to any suspicions of them being otherworldly.

Things soon took a turn for the worse though, as the 'man' seemed to sense that Michelle had this gift and perhaps saw her as a threat.

We were both asleep in my room, when I woke up hearing her talking. She sounded angry and from what I recall, asking someone to leave her alone. I turned around expecting her to be talking in her sleep, but she was awake. I felt afraid, and I grabbed hold of her. Trying to comfort her and take in the situation as best I could while still half asleep. Whatever it was, she says it was the man ghost, it soon left and the room felt more normal if that makes sense. She was quite upset by this and didn't stay round mine for a few weeks.

The next time she stayed round, it happened again. This time it was worse. I remember waking up hearing her confronting it again. She was saying all manner of things trying to get it to leave. But it was applying pressure to her throat somehow, and she couldn't speak very loudly. I was gripped in absolute terror. I was totally petrified, I could feel the room was so cold, and enveloped in a very strange darkness. Like a form of black mist. Although I was cold, I was also sweating very much. My body was literally covered in sweat, much like from a fever. The only thing I could do was grip her hand tightly and pray to myself. I just had the strongest feeling that if I looked over to the wardrobe area, I would see something completely horrifying. I shut my eyes as hard as I could and continued to pray.

After what seemed like ages, it left. We both felt terrified. She said that he/it was standing right next to her, and she had woken up with the sensation of someone putting their hands on her throat. I noticed the time was after 3am. We laid there for a good hour or so afterwards, with the lights on, before trying to get back to sleep, which I don't recall happening until early daylight.

In the morning, before she left, I brought Michelle into the study room, where there is a picture of Anne's deceased husband. Now, Michelle had never gone into here before, and her face went very pale when she saw the photo. When she confirmed it was him, I had a cold shiver run down my spine. After Michelle left, I told Anne about what happened. Although she was concerned, she just reiterated that in all her years in this house, she had not once seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. And furthermore, that if her husband had come back to haunt, that he was a very kindly soul who would never hurt anyone. I did not mention to her the photo that Michelle saw.

I started staying less and less in my home, spending almost a week at a time at my girlfriends. And the time spent away, made me slightly more confident. One day I was alone in the house, and it was probably only around lunchtime. I was upstairs, in the hallway where Michelle said there was usually a thick fog. I loudly called out "There is nothing here, come on, if you are here, show yourself" At that very moment, as soon as I said that last word, a loud metallic bang came from downstairs. Scared, but thankful that it was daytime, I raced downstairs. After checking around, I saw that a heavy metal tray had fallen of the dining room table. Now as this tray had been lying flat on the table, this made no logical sense. Already feeling considerably scared, I felt that now, this ghost was making its presence clear to me as well. It heard me and reacted to my challenge.

The remaining nights that I had spent in this house, were frequently unsettled. I noticed that I was often waking up just before or after 3am. Feeling anxious, cold and not alone. On a couple of occasions, I heard heavy breathing from the corner of my room, where there was an antique study table and chair. Understandably, Michelle at this point refused to spend another night there. And it was not long before I was handing my notice in to Anne and moving out.

One last thing before we left, Michelle was helping me pack. She was alone in the room as I was carrying some heavy bags downstairs, and she came running down after me. The ghost had 'whipped' her arm, she had vertical red streaks on her arms. As we walked down the road, towards the train station, a strong sense of relief came over me.