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My First Experience - Haunted Stair Well

 

Allow me to begin by saying thank you for reading my story and for sharing yours. Also, please bear with me as I feel it's important to include the events leading up to my very first paranormal experience.

I live in a condo (a glorified apartment complex) with separate outside entrances. In front of my building is a set of concrete steps that lead to a wooden landing, there you find wooden stairs up to the two units above me and another set down to the two units below. I live on the middle level, right off the wooden landing. I generally smoke on my balcony, but late at night I would go out the front door to avoid waking my boyfriend and/or son (the sliding glass door to the balcony is old, heavy, and loud).

Anyway, one night around 4am I was sitting right outside my door on the steps that lead upstairs. I heard what sounded like a pebble hit the landing above me. I looked around but didn't see anything, so I assumed it was the building settling, finished my cigarette and went inside. Approximately three or four days later, up late again, I went out for my last cigarette before bed. When I was about halfway through I heard another pebble hit a stair above me. This time I actually found a tiny rock on the second stair from the top, and I was certain that it was somehow tossed there.

I was creeped out enough that I went inside and didn't smoke out there for almost 2 months. Then, the last time I went out there alone it was also right around 3:30am, but this time I sat outside on the top concrete step. I was reading face book posts on my phone while I smoked. Suddenly I heard the door knob to my condo turning and I figured my boyfriend or son had woken up, saw I wasn't there and was coming out to look for me. I stood up and looked around the corner, but nobody came out and the knob was no longer making a sound. I looked back at my phone and roughly 10-15 seconds later I heard the knob making noise once again. This time when I looked up I could actually see it rattling and turning back and forth. I waited for the door to open but it didn't. I started to get an eerie feeling because nobody was opening the door but the knob continued to turn. All of a sudden it just stopped, and at the exact same moment I heard two deep, raspy, and labored breaths in my right ear. It sounded as though whoever or whatever was struggling to breathe was just inches away from my ear.

I immediately bolted inside and found both my boyfriend and son sleeping in the living room (just inside the entrance) right where I left them. What makes this even more weird is the fact that neither of my dogs barked. They always bark whenever anyone approaches our door, let alone jiggling the knob like that! I just sat down on the end of the couch, half- frozen. Just when my heart-rate had slowed to under heart attack range, I looked at my door and began to panic again.

Under my door (there's about a 1/2 inch gap where the thick black weather stripping is missing) I saw a shadow of what looked like someone's feet standing there, blocking some of the stair well light shining through. I closed my eyes tight and when I opened them they were gone. I haven't been out there in the middle of the night since.

I was wondering, can't spirits go wherever they want? Because it gave me the impression that it was trying to get in but couldn't. Could the stair well really be haunted? I don't know why but that seems so strange to me.

Also, I didn't really believe in hauntings until about a year ago when I saw a few episodes of Ghost Adventures and began to do some research. Do you think this happened because I now believe? Do you feel like a person who has a paranormal experience is more likely (than those who haven't) to have future experiences?

Thank you so much for reading, I hope it wasn't too lengthy/boring.

Blessings!

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Comments about this paranormal experience

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, Curiously-Scared, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

TruthInDarkness (4 stories) (259 posts)
-1
13 years ago (2011-08-19)
Hi Curiously-Scared. I'm thinking that it probably wasn't trying to get into your home. I think it was merely trying to get your attention. The labored breaths that you heard from the spirit might have been a warning for you to stop smoking. Maybe this spirit somehow knows about future health problems that you're going to have if you don't quit smoking. It is said that time is not linear in the spirit realm. In other words, past, present, and future kind of blend together.

Try going out there late at night without smoking. The spirit might either not make itself known or have a different reaction. Post the results here.

LOL. I just read BadJuuJuu's comment. As you can see, we agree. Please quit smoking. It might save your life as well as save you lots of money since you won't be buying cigarettes and might avoid hospital bills.
Miracles51031 (39 stories) (5000 posts) mod
+2
13 years ago (2011-08-08)
Moongrim - I'm seriously confused here. And when I say seriously, I mean seriously. It could be the fact that I only had 3 1/2 hours sleep last night, but I'm struggling with this comment you made. "Ghosts can go just about anywhere, but they often need to be invited into a spot that is owned/rented by a person."

I rented for 8 years of the last 10 years (I'm not going to go back to my late teen and early 20s). And not one time did I extend an invitation to any ghosts to come into any of the homes my children and I moved into.

I did, however, invite one little girl ghost to go with us. The invitation was only to her and I made sure I was clear in my language. No loopholes, no misunderstandings, no "oops, I thought you meant me" from any other ghosts LOL.

Every home my children and I lived in had ghosts. Most of those stories have been submitted here. But I never invited these ghosts into our homes.

So I'm asking in a completely honest and sincere way, how did you mean your comment? I'm not trying to initiate an argument cause I'm just way too tired for one tonight 😆
BadJuuJuu (guest)
+2
13 years ago (2011-08-08)
Um, ghost whisperer? Really? Wow Moongrim, condescending much?
Moongrim (2 stories) (871 posts)
-3
13 years ago (2011-08-08)
So now folks are claiming that the wee ghostie is here to tell you to not smoke eh? Methinks that the wee ghost whisperer is wasting his/her talents on this website...

Ghosts can go just about anywhere, but they often need to be invited into a spot that is owned/rented by a person.
The presence of the ghostie may or may not have anything to do with your smoking, particularly when you consider how many folks who encounter ghosties are not smokers.
But if I had to descend into the self same hyperbole I'd comment along the lines of: "You can see the ghosties because of your smoking, you're already half dead from it's effects...' cue theme music here...
HappySpirit (187 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-07)
For what it's worth, I'm going with BadJuuJuu on this one. It's very possible the spirit is trying to get your attention to tell you to quit smoking. Unfortunately, spirits ARE limited in how they communicate and often they frighten when their intention is to comfort, warn, say hello and so forth. No lecture here either - that's just what comes through for me as a "hit". In addition to checking out former tenants, did you have a close relative who died of a smoker related disease?
JamesRobiscoe (419 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-08-06)
Curiously Scared - That's quite a number of incidents that you want to connect, and they may connect to one agent and they may not.
We tend to assume all spirits exist under the same "rules" but there is no evidence they do. More evidence indicates they do not. A spirit out to damage us may be held back in some instances because of our inner goodness or because a shield (as it were) has been placed around us by ourselves or another. A protective or warning spirit, as BJJ suggests, may try to divert your attention from what you're doing. A spirit may be attached to a place or may wander (as if) freely.
It's progress to open your mind to what lay beyond the veil of illusion this world is, but it's good to arrive at a moderating level, which can happen when you get your new perspectives in place. It doesn't seem wise to lose the good in this life seeking after the next.
Keep us posted, okay? ~ James
PandaBear (guest)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-06)
Ya I bet it is! Either that or you just had an intruder (I think that's how you spell it) But the breathing in your ear, well that's just plain creepy. But the shadow may have been a robber or something who had climbed in the window and then realized you were there and climbed back out, but seeing that I have no idea what your house looks like, I can't give you an accurate answer, sorry. Has anything happened since then? If not then it was most defiantly an intruder! Xxx ❤ ❤ ❤
BadJuuJuu (guest)
+2
13 years ago (2011-08-05)
Well, what stands out to me, is that this only seems to happen while you are smoking. First pebbles thrown, then the door knob rattling, then the breathing. The reason why the breathing seems significant is that it's heavy, raspy breaths.
My father was a smoker, died of lung cancer. His breathing his last year was very heavy and raspy, kind of like what you describe hearing.
The point I'm attempting to get to is that this ghost could be trying to get you to quit. Scaring you into not smoking outside, hoping you may stop altogether. One of the things I say a lot is that ghosts have limited means of communication, and sometimes the means thay have available scares the living.
Maybe you could try to look into former tenants, see if anyone could have died of lung disease. If so, it may be them that's haunting your stairwell.
Btw, I really hope this post doesn't sound lecture-ish. Not my intent at all, just sharing my impression of this account. I'm not one to fuss over someone else's vice, provided they don't fuss over my stash of Twinkies. 😆
zetafornow (4 stories) (447 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-08-05)
Hi curious:

Quite an experience and sounds as if you are very freaked out over this, and rightly so. Now, I am never one to dismiss anyone's paranormal experience as I know how I feel when I have told my experiences to "non-believers". Quite frankly, that is why I came to this site because after confiding all of my experiences to someone close to me (and I have only confided to a couple of people), my experiences were shot down and I was made to feel like a crazy kook! So although some might say that this happens late at night, when you are alone and maybe a little creeped out to begin with, I do believe your experiences and I believe you will see and hear more.

Certainly your stair well could be haunted. I also believe that a door really cannot stop a spirit if they wish to enter so I think this entity maybe as frightened of you as you are of it. Try talking the next time it happens. Explain that you live there now and this person is no longer welcome. Good luck! Zeta.

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