In the mid 1970's, my parents bought a house in Canoga Park, located in the San Fernando Valley. The house had a history unknown to them at that time. I was born several years after, and this is where my true story begins.
The house is a standard 1950's ranch style with a large backyard and swimming pool. There was also an olive tree that was planted there in the 1800's. The location of the neighborhood was built on the land sold off by Workman Ranch located about one mile from the house. A remnant of Workman Ranch is now a small park called Shadow Ranch.
I had my first experience when I was about three years old. I waked into my bedroom turned the light on. I saw a shadow on the floor. What I saw looked like a curled up person in a fetal position. After about 10 seconds, it just swirled away. I didn't feel scared at the time. I just stared at it. I still remember it as clear today as I did then. The Shadow Person looked like an almost 3 dimensional shadow. It was dark and had the outline of a man. After this event things started to get more regular, strange, and frightening.
Over a period of a several months, I started to get increasingly scared to sleep in my bedroom due to having a general feeling of uneasiness. Thankfully, after lots of crying, my parents allowed me to sleep in their room. I decided to sleep at the foot of the bed on the floor. I made my makeshift bed and fell asleep with my feet toward the doorway. One night, I was awoken in the middle of the night having a pinpoint burning pain on the bottom of my foot. Looking up and toward the doorway with the hall light on, I saw a Shadow Person leaning against the doorway staring at me.
This lasted for about 10 seconds. This time was different. I got a very scared feeling. A feeling that would subside and continue.
Many small and creepy things happened for several years after that. One example was seeing the "bunny ears" on the old TV sets move in circles while I was in my parents' room alone. At the time, I never really told my parents about the Shadow People I saw, and why I was scared. During that time my mom had my brother.
Another frightening event happened when I was about six or seven years old, and my brother was about four. On the top of the door of my room was one of those orange Nerf basketball plastic hoops that had a foam orange ball. One day my brother and I where alone in the room trying to see who could make more baskets. Somehow, the foam ball got jammed in between the top of the door and plastic hoop. There was a table next to the door, so I stood on it and tried to reach the ball. The next thing I remember was my dad lifting me up and getting my head out of the plastic hoop on top of the door. I was way too short at the time for my head to reach on top of the door even while standing on the table. Whatever it was in that house tried to hang me. This is when I started to tell my parents about me feeling scared in the house, but not about the Shadow People.
There were many minor occurrences for a couple years after that. There was also a reddish stain on the ceiling in the corner of my parents' room as long as I could remember. That stain was bleached, painted over, and respackled many times, but the stain would always come back. We eventually moved out of that house shortly after my sister was born. As I got into my teenage years, I would talk to my parents about the things I saw and experienced in the "Old House" as we call it.
My dad is not very open minded about "ghosts", but even he admitted that the house was "weird". My mom told me how shortly after moving into the house, one of the neighbors told her the story of the house my parents just bought. Apparently there were three drug dealers who liked to party that lived in the house in the 1960's. One night during a party, someone they owed money to came in with a shotgun and shot the three people and killed them. Apparently, at the time my parents bought the house, realtors didn't have to disclose if people where murdered in a house.
I still think about the events of the "Old House" from time to time. I even drive by it once in a very blue moon and sometimes think if the subsequent people who bought the house experience anything. I even wonder if the house was ever for sale, if I would go in and check it out. I think the memories of my old house will suffice for now.
Any comments or questions are welcome. Thank you for taking the time to read my true and honest story.
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