The Coughing Man And The Scissors

I moved into a rented house by myself over a year ago and I have had some very strange occurrences happen in this time. The activity can happen any time of day or night and happens in all different areas of the house. I love the area that I live in and I actually do really like the house but a couple of strange occurrences of late are causing me a bit of unease...

I quite often hear footsteps that sound like they are either going down the hallway towards the bedrooms or up the hallway towards the kitchen area. Sometimes they are heavy footsteps which sound like they are made by an adult and sometimes they sound like a child running. Countless times I have got up to make sure there isn't actually anyone in the house and every time there is nobody there.

Quite a few times that I have heard the footsteps I have had either one or both my cats sitting with me. On every occasion the cats ears prick up and they become alert staring at open doorways like they're seeing something I can't see or they are waiting for someone to enter the room we are in. It freaks me out but I'm glad they can hear it too as I know it's not my imagination or the house making normal house noises.

Another sound I hear quite frequently is a male coughing and always seems to come from one of the spare bedrooms. I hear it most often at night, around 4am. It is almost like a person that smokes heavily has woken in the morning and is having a good cough to clear the lungs. This can happen a few times a week then not happen for weeks on end. I finally got the courage to open the door and peek in one morning after hearing the coughing and found myself looking at an empty room.

A weird experience that unsettles me happened one morning a few weeks ago and I was getting ready for work. I jumped out of the shower, dried off and went to find my nail scissors to give my nails a trim. I searched high and low and much to my annoyance could not find them even though I'm sure they should have been in the bathroom. I gave up as I was running late for work and just thought I would buy a new pair later on.

I went out the front, locked the door behind me and jumped into the car. That's when I saw something on the porch near the doormat glimmering in the sunlight. I got out of the car to see what it was and there were my nail scissors about a metre away from the doormat... How they got there I have no idea and the fact that I was looking specifically for them that morning, well, it just freaked me out big time!

About a week ago I was getting dressed in my bedroom and I heard very clearly what I can only describe as a deep guttural barking sound. I froze on the spot and it made the hairs on my arms prickle. It sounded as if it was coming from the kitchen area and I finally mustered up the courage to move to see what it was. Nothing was actually there but I really felt watched and very uncomfortable. A few days later I was recording video of my cats playing on my mobile phone. The recording goes for about 20 seconds. Upon playing it back, about 4 seconds in I heard the exact same deep guttural barking sound I heard before. While recording the video I did not hear this sound at the time. The TV was not on, there was no music playing. It was just me, the cats and a quiet house. I have played it to a friend and she said it was one of the most disturbing noises she has ever heard.

As I said I do actually like the house and the area I live in but the last couple of experiences with the scissors and the horrible barking sound have really unnerved me!

Thanks for reading my story.