A Twisted Wish

I know I'm not the only one when I say this. Since I was young, I've always dreamed of having a paranormal experience. I'd watch all the horror movies, and I'd enjoy them even if they gave me the worst nightmares of my life. I'd read stories on how these people have seen ghosts or were attacked by demons. I coveted their past; their shaken emotions and quickened heartbeats... I lusted for that. I've tried the movies, the books, I even tried the Bloody Mary trick. How I longed to catch a glimpse of something inhuman without having to dream! It wasn't until I was in middleschool. I was at a family party when my dad told me that he'd seen a few freaky things that happened while I was still a baby.

It'd been a couple of months after mom gave birth to me, and dad was sitting on the couch, watching me as I cooed and nagged in my crib while mom was out with God knows who. He fell asleep for what seemed to be only a few minutes. What woke him up was, in fact, a sound from me. Although it was more of a sound a baby makes before it begins to cry. His eyes shot open and the first place he looked to was my crib, only to find me missing from it. I made another sound and he looked down, realizing I was on the floor on my back. It scared the crap out of him, and he quickly grabbed me and never let me go the rest of the day.

The incidents didn't end there. It was another day, I was back in my crib, and daddy finally found the courage to let me alone even for just a few moments. He went outside to take out the trash, hoping I'd be fine alone. When he came back in, he froze at the sight of a blackened shadowy figure standing, bent over my crib. It turned it's head toward my dad as if only noticing him for the first time. The two had a contest then. Who would look away first? It suddenly vanished from sight, and dad's fears came back again.

Dad proceeded to tell me of other incidents that didn't include me. In the first, dad had was walking home from a close by family party one night, I was still a babe and was out with my mom at the time. When he entered into the house, he turned on the light to the mudroom. It switched off on it's own, and when he checked the switch, it was turned back down. His first resort was the bedroom. When he jiggled the handle, it wouldn't open. He could hear laughter, or more, snickering of a couple of people on the other side of the bedroom door. Daddy pounded on the door, thinking my uncles were playing a joke on him, but the laughter continued and dad stormed out of the house, back up to the hill where the family party kept going. As it turned out, all of my uncles were still at the party, drunk. There was no way that they could've ran back up the hill fast enough without stumbling everywhere. Dad would've still beaten them.

One paranormal prank in particular became routine for my dad. Whenever he'd want to go into the bedroom, he'd have to jiggle the handle, walk away for a few seconds before the lock clicked itself and he was able to open the door. He even told one of his friends about it, who teased him for being paranoid. One day, his friend, we'll call him Tom, finally worked up the guts to do it. Dad held the door open for him while they walked out of the room. He made Tom look at the lock (to verify that the door was in fact, unlocked when they closed it) and even let Tom close the door himself. When Tom tried to open it again, the door was locked! Dad told him to jiggle the handle as if to signify that he wanted to come into the room. Tom did so, and then stepped back like dad said to. The lock clicked again, and they were able to open the door.

Dad made sure he specified when these things started happening, which was only after I was born. He also told me that they had the family bless the house and annoint it with holy water. We still moved out. Ater hearing these things from my dad, I was overcome with a small fear, but that fear was soon replaced with an excitement. These things actually happened to me! It was a twisted wish that was finally fulfilled.