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The Grinning Man

 

I'll get the miscellaneous information out of the way first:

My soon-to-be husband and I moved into our current residence approximately one year ago. So far as I know, there was only one previous family who called this house their home and nothing sinister has ever taken place on the premise. The house is a newer construct in a quiet residential neighbourhood. Though I am not a sceptic, I have never had to deal with anything paranormal. The past couple weeks have definitely been a new experience for me.

Two weeks ago, I thought I heard a voice while I was sleeping. Asking my boyfriend if he'd said anything, I got no response. As he was obviously sound asleep, I decided I was dreaming and rolled over towards the closet (which is situated behind my bedroom door, which always remains closed). Though I considered getting up and drinking a glass of water, I stopped moving when I saw a fuzzy white form near the closet door. A sweater that I have hanging there moved as it passed underneath it. Within moments, the shape had disappeared. Confused but not scared or concerned, I convinced myself I was dreaming and went back to sleep.

After that night, I have been consistently waking up between 3AM and 4AM. Sometimes, it is because of noises. Other times, the room just doesn't feel quite...right. Three nights after first seeing the fuzzy shape, I woke up to the sound of something falling or someone stumbling-at least that's how it sounded to me. In the same place as the previous 'sighting', I saw the shape of a tall man. He was shadowy and seemed oddly formed. Slightly frightened this time, I turned to press my face against my boyfriend's back (he did not wake up at all) and urged myself back to sleep.

Four nights ago, after continuing the pattern of waking up between 3-4AM, I was startled awake because the temperature plummeted in my normally hot room. Though it is usually humid enough in the bedroom so that I can't sleep without an industrial fan blowing at full strength, and though it is the middle of summer, the temperature became absolutely frigid. I was shivering and my skin was cold to the touch.

Upon opening my eyes, I saw what I assumed was the same man, better formed this time and wearing a grin that set my heart pounding like crazy. Amusing as it is to me now; I jumped up and tried to punch him. He vanished at once. For a long time after, I shivered and my heart raced. I was much more scared this time because even though I actively tried awakening him by poking and speaking to him, my boyfriend did not wake up. Because this is unusual for him, and because it was now the third time he hadn't awakened to help relieve my fear, the emotion grew until I was ready to cry. I planned to stay awake until the sun rose, but exhaustion eventually won out over fear and I slept.

After that night, I finally talked to a few close friends about the nocturnal happenings. The first person I spoke with was my husband-to-be, who engaged in a long conversation with me about theories, possibilities and things we could try to do. He was curious about the fact that I said he seemed to be in a deeper sleep than usual when this went on because normally, he will wake up if I leave the bed or say something. I immediately felt better-the conversation loosened a knot of nerves I hadn't been aware of.

The next day (after having that first talk) I was online at work, talking to a friend on my laptop computer. We were discussing what had been happening and I told him I was going to start looking up who the man could be, what he wanted, etc. With as little information as I had, however, I wasn't feeling confident I would find anything on him. My friend suggested "shadow people" because I implied that the first two times I saw him, he was shadowy and not fully formed. As I was about to reply that the third time, he was fully formed and not like a shadow at all, the temperature dropped and my computer keeled over. It was plugged into the wall, no 'low battery' warning came up and it did not overheat (I keep it propped on a store-bought stand that prevents overheating, and when I touched the bottom, thinking that was the cause, it was cool to the touch).

Now I work alone in a small drive-thru store that is perpetually five to twenty degrees warmer than the outside air. Unless I walk into the cooler, it just doesn't get cold in there. I felt like a drop of ice water slid down my spine and I quickly turned my computer back on (started up perfectly, no problems) and logged back online. What disturbed me most was when I got back into conversation with my friend, the first thing he said was "Sorry for disappearing on you-my computer completely flat lined. Thought it was a power outage at first but nothing else was affected. It was kind of weird." Yes, and even more weird that the same thing happened to me thousands of miles away at the same time...

With as unimpressive as these occurrences are, I have been willing to pass them off as dreams, imagination, coincidences, etc. The only things I keep coming back to that convince me maybe I'm not just imagining things are the temperature drops in places that are consistently uncomfortably warm, the strangely malfunctioning computer (s) and the sheer burst of uninhibited terror I felt when he smiled at me. I know that doesn't seem like that should be the biggest thing here, but it is the point I keep coming back to, in my mind and when I speak with any of my friends about it. I almost don't care why he's hanging around, but the intimidating leer of The Grinning Man haunts my thoughts now, even while I'm awake.

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

TruthInDarkness (4 stories) (259 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-09-07)
Researching the property is a great idea. It's actually much easier than what has been said; generally speaking. Google 'property assessor' for your city/town. It will be a government site not a private business. You can usually do a search by street name and house number. Some cities/towns actually list who owned the property and how much the sold it for. If the property assessor site doesn't list owners' names, you ought to be able to find out via public record at a site such as Intelius (http://www.intelius.com/property-check.html).

I have an alternate take though. I think that this spirit might be attached to you or an object that you always have with/on/near you. Do you have any jewelry that has been passed down or that you bought second hand? Do you have some sort of keepsake that you always carry with you?
rookdygin (24 stories) (4458 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-18)
daylen,

Taz conjurers with my name and 'poof' I appear. 😉

This is the ritual he was referring to...

Recipe for a Home Cleansing/Shielding... (allow for two or 3 days to complete)

Day one: Open all curtains window and doors with screens installed, let fresh air and sunshine into the home. Have all closets, cabinets and other 'dark spaces' open so that as much natural light as possible can enter those spaces. After 2-3 hours take a broom and 'sweep' out each room (this is symbolic and you do not have to really sweep) focus your thoughts on sweeping (pushing) out all negative energies / entities /thoughts. Close home up after completing each room of your home... Please do not forget your garage if you have one. (Optional) Light incense (sandalwood or Dragons-blood works well for me) and let aroma fill the home, and/or play a tape that contains your favorite Church songs before you begin sweeping.

Day two (or three): Once again open all curtains, windows and doors. Take a White candle (Optional) to the center most point of the home, sit on the floor and place candle in front of you. Light the candle (visualize a white ball of light) and then focus on the flame... Visualize the flame (white light) filled with positive thoughts, energy. (Say a prayer at this time if you so desire... Ask for cleansing positive energy to fill the candles flame/white light). Hold this 'image' in your mind and then visualize the flame (light) slowly expanding outward, visualize it filling the room your in, every corner and 'dark space'. Continue to visualize it expanding...it's outer edges pushing away (burning away) any and all negative energies/entities out and away from each room in your home. Once you have visualized this flame (light) filling your entire home, picture it expanding to your property lines. Hold this image in your mind for a few moments then visualize 'anchoring' this flame (light) where you are sitting which is the center most point of your home. Once you have done this. Take a deep breath, relax a few moments and then blow out the candle. (If you didn't use a candle just let yourself relax a moment or two.) "

Now you can create a shield for yourself using the 'home shield' technique but instead of focusing on your home visualize the 'flame' simply surrounding you instead of your home... Best time to do this is after a nice shower using a rosemary scented soap (rosemary is good for purification and protection.)

Thank you for sharing and please keep us updated...

Respectfully,

Rook
libertybelle (14 stories) (207 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-18)
Daylen, did you and your fiance purchase the house or are you renting it?

The reason I'm asking is because you might want to conduct a chain of title search to find out who the owners were over the years.

Sounds daunting, I know, but just running the chain of title is not that difficult. You can go to your local courthouse or wherever else they might have the indexes concerning real estate.

You begin with the Grantors' Index and see who sold the property to the people you're renting from, or the people you bought it from.

From there you can track any previous owners as far as you wish. You may well come to a description of the property as a land description with no buildings on it.

Take a lot of notes as to who might have lived there for the last century or however far back you think the entity might go, then see if your local libraries have old newspapers on microfilm, so you can check hem for any references to previous owners who lived there.

I know it sounds complicated, but it really isn't too hard. The main thing is to trace the chain of ownership as far back as you can, then get some advice from someone who is familiar with your local history.

Good luck, and keep us posted.
TerriLewis123 (1 stories) (93 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-17)
Hi Daylen, I liked your story. Spooky grin. Maybe someone just wants to make sure you believe. Hope he doesn't bother you anymore.
Daylen (1 stories) (1 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-17)
Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. It's good to see similar opinions and advice is very much appreciated. 😁

[at] Bacchaegrl- Yes, he was in color which is why (after researching them a bit) I discounted the shadow people theory. His teeth were white enough to see in the dark and he was wearing dark clothes, but he wasn't just "black" if that makes sense. I was pretty focused on how chilling that grin was to make out any type/style of clothes. And of course there was my instinctive violent (and kind of embarrassing) reaction that caused him to vanish before I could do much else... 😳

[at] bigryan & taz890
Thank you for your advice-I do pray every night and occasionally during the day when I either feel nervous, upset or in need of guidance. Not to say that I am particularly religious, but I am faithful (if that's possible). I hadn't considered it being a demon-from what I've read about them, I'd expect much worse juju. 😆 I will most likely be looking up a cleansing if he happens by again. For now, it's been quite a few days and nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Hopefully he was just a curious visitor stopping by.

Thanks for reading!
taz890 (12 stories) (1380 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-17)
hi there daylen have to agree with bacchaegrl on this one you more than liklly will get the "it's a demon" messages to this story but I some how don't think it will turn out to be that at all.

It does sound like a nasty spirit has decided to torment you by frightening you when it can.

Try contacting rookgin on here he has a clensing ritual he has added for people to follow I'm sure he would be happy to tell you how to go about it.

Hope this ends soon for you
Carl
bigryan020192 (4 stories) (26 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-17)
i very much doubt you can put these down to dreams or imagination because you can usually defferenciate dreams to reality. I don't know if you are religious but have you considered a preist to do a cleansing? You said your not too bothered that its there so what about a prayer? You could get help from a profesional ghost hunting team or ask a psycic to come for a day or night to make sence of whether this presence means you any harm, that is whether you want to know the truth or not... Let us know what happens next.
bacchaegrl (506 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-08-17)
OOH! How eerie. That grin is what would send me over the edge. That is rather amusing that you tried to punch the spirit. At first, I thought shadow person as well. Did you see him in color? Is that how you know he was grinning? Did you take note of any particular style of dress? I would be so focused on the scary grinning, I probably wouldn't get much detail. It's odd that he seems to be around you when you talk about him. This may lead some people to the conclusion that it is a sort of demon. I wouldn't go there just yet. Maybe it's just a malicious spirit. Please keep us updated if you see it again.

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