I have never extensively shared my encounter stories outside my family and close circle of friends. Mostly because I find either people don't believe or think I am just making up a great story. After reading people's experiences on this site I think most people are open to the idea that these events really do happen. I beg the readers pardon if this story is too long but I have many years and events to describe in one post. First off the time period is between 1998 and present. All the encounters happen in my family's home in Colorado. It is a ranch style house (for those who are not familiar it's a long open house with a first floor and a basement.) Most the activity centers around the north corner of the house (guest bedroom) or my bedroom in the basement (under the guest bedroom).
I want to start out by telling all the readers that I am putting in all the events that I can not logically explain. I am sure that a few books fell off their shelf by mere accident and not by the presence of a spirit but these events that I am going to share I can not make any reason out of them besides that of several spirits who reside in my home. Enough with the boring details now on with the story.
The first event takes place when I was in 8th grade. I was walking up my driveway looking at the mail that I had just collected when I heard my front door slam. I looked up to see a shadow move across our front door window. Being a fair distance from the door I thought nothing of it. My mother was usually home when I arrived home and I thought it was just her. When I reached the door I found it locked. "Ha, ha" I thought to myself "very funny-locking me out". I expected my mother to jump out and scare me as I unlocked the door, but no one was in the front room. I called out to her saying she wasn't funny but no one answered. So I went back to her bedroom and then to her study but no one was home. I immediately grabbed a knife thinking that someone had broken in and was still in the house with me. After an extensive search of the house no one was there but me. At the time I chalked it up to my mind playing tricks on me but as time went on the ghost encounters became more aggressive.
Some time after 8th grade my parents remodelled our basement so my brother and I could have our own rooms down there. They knocked out most of the wall creating two large common rooms and two bedrooms for us. Once it was done my mother showed it off to all her friends, so I was used to coming home to people in the house. One day after school I came home and announcing my return. Stopping to hear if anyone had called back I heard two ladies talking in the basement. I ran down the stairs thinking my mother was on another one of her "tours". The ladies were talking in my bedroom so I rushed down the stairs and to my room. When I entered my blood ran cold, no one was there. But until the moment I came in I heard voices. Feeling very unnerved I left.
Feeling very uneasy with this situation I began to put a mask collection on my wall. I was always told that some cultures used masks to keep spirits at bay. In total I put about 14 masks above my bed, it might have been a little drastic but I was scared. For a while nothing happened but one afternoon I was left a message that I had crossed a line. I came into my room to find that all but 3 masks had been ripped off the wall and thrown to the other side, one mask broken in two. My fist inclination was to blame my younger brother, but he had been at school with me all day. I then asked my mother if she had taken my masks down but she said she was out of the house. Needless to say I took the hint, packed all but the three masks away and apologized to empty space hoping to make peace.
About a year and a half went by without any large activity, there were the occasional creaks in the night but nothing more of the two ladies. At this point in the story I must tell everyone that the rest of the encounters all happened between the hours of 2:00am and 3:00am (always). I have not figured out why this time of the day and not others. So at this point in life I had become at ease with the possibility that there were two ghosts in the house. I was to find out that there were a few more guests in the house that I had yet to meet.
One night I had fallen asleep on the family room couch upstairs with my dog. Around 2:00 am I heard the sounds of footsteps in the back where the guest bedroom was. I woke up heart pounding. Two beats went by and then all of a sudden the footsteps turned into a full blow run; something was running through the house right at me. I could hear it getting louder and I could see the glass cabinets shaking in the moon light. I know that I am not dreaming because my dog bolted off the couch and ran toward the sound. Once the sound reached the couch I heard the sound of sneakers on a gym floor, that high pitch skid and then silence. My breath escaped through my throat, I can see nothing in the room with me. I slowly get up and make my way to a light switch and spend the rest of the night in a restless sleep.
It was at this point that I confided in my mother- my father doesn't believe that ghosts exist. She hadn't heard the sound but she had said she noticed that the closet doors in the guest bedroom would always be open in the morning and she would always close them only to find them reopened later in the day. Knowing that we were at school she just thought it strange but with my story she felt that there was something in the house.
Feeling that someone believed me I set off to try and make contact with any of the ghosts. Either the two ladies or the newest ghost who I felt was a little boy (don't ask me why I felt it was a little boy it just sounded like a little boy running through the house.) I started out very simple, leaving a pen and paper out hoping they would leave a note. As I researched more I found that people could catch sounds on recorders so I set some up some in my room, nothing happened. There was no pattern to the events and it seemed that every time I tried to get "hard evidence" they become more reclusive. So I gave up trying and once again things started to get weird.
Now I was a junior in high school and was soon to have the most events happen to me sequentially than ever before. It started out as a small event and worked itself up to much greater encounter. One night I was awoken to the smallest sound. The best way I can describe it is when you turn your radio on to the lowest setting before you can not hear it any more. You can hear the sounds but you can not make out the words. Being groggy I hit my radio alarm clock several times; when the sound did not stop I unplugged the whole clock. Settling back into bed I could still hear the sound. I turned on my light trying to find the source of the sound. After some searching with my ear I found the source of the sound to be coming from a tiny little soap stone figure I had on my bedside table. I thought I must be going mad, so I moved it to the base of my window. The sound moved with the figure. Sitting there I had no idea what to make of this situation, I could not make out any words that were coming from this little statue but I could tell it was a man's voice. Feeling that this was not the weirdest thing that has ever happened in the house, and knowing I had to get up in 4 hours for school; I moved it to the far end of my room and went to sleep.
It was from this point that I met the fourth ghost, that of a teenage girl. This spirit never showed itself nor did she make any of the loud movements of the other house guests. I can only say I knew she was there and I felt her very close at times. It was not a hostile feeling but one of curiosity. There were times I knew she was in my room and as I began to drift to sleep I felt a finger touch my cheek. Even though I was scared to death from this I never woke up nor made any sudden movements. I began to feel more sever cold spots in the house. Most the time I thought it was just a draft but on many occasion I began to shiver and feel cold while taking a hot shower and no amount of warmth could make it go away.
I desperately wanted to see one of the ghost guests and would ask them always very politely if they would show themselves to me, never to any avail. But one night I saw something that I can not fully explain. I had just locked up the house for the night and was walking downstairs (in the dark) I saw two orbs shoot over the banister (one was a copperish light- the other silvery white). I stopped to see if a car had come up the street and made a reflection off some light but there was no one outside. It could have been a trick of light but I felt that I had my first glimpse at a real ghost. Unfortunately it is from here that events started to become frightening, almost to the point where I wouldn't sleep in my bedroom.
I had now gone off to college and was only home on the holiday breaks. I still knew that I had my ghosts at home (and one ghost at college, story for another day) and had returned home several times to no events. In some way I felt that they were upset that I had left and they wanted nothing more to do with me, this was not the case. One night freshmen year (first year of college) I woke up in a complete panic, I couldn't move! Worse yet I couldn't breathe and I felt as though someone was choking me. I can not say with certainty if I saw a dark shadow over me or if it was my eye adjusting to the dark of my room but I did know that I was running out of air. Just before the point of pure panic it stopped, I gasped for air and ran to my bathroom for some water. While looking at myself in the mirror I could see the faint lines a finger makes disappearing around me neck. Now I will buy the argument that I was having a nightmare about someone choking me and in a fit to stop this actually started to choke myself, but I felt that I was awake for most of this event. Feeling threatened by the situation I moved myself upstairs to the couch for the rest of my break.
This did not stop anything from happening; I could still hear things moving in the night, always off on the periphery of my hearing. One night I told myself that I was being silly and that I should move back down to my room. I got my bedding material, walked over to the downstairs and flicked the light off. The moment I turned around a white hand shot through the darkness right at my face. Up until that moment I had never had an urge to scream but I nearly did at that moment. Instinct took over my brain and I flicked the light on faster than I knew I could only to reveal an empty stairwell. I felt that I was being "ganged up on" but in retrospect I think I was being warned by the young girl not to go back downstairs.
Years later my younger brother would tell me that he too heard weird things while I slept upstairs. He heard a man yelling at someone and loud thuds in my room. My only theory is maybe an angry spirit had passed through the house and the permanent residents didn't like his presence. I will never know.
The last two major events happened my last year in college and were the most frightening events that have ever happened in my life. I had returned home for my long winter break and, in traditional fashion, dumped everything I had in my suitcase on my floor (every room should be a little cluttered). My floor was covered in all the graded papers that I had shoved in my back pack in my hurried attempt to get out of school. That night as I began to doze I heard the sound of someone stepping on a page, and then again. Slowly the sound of crinkling pages began to make its way to my bed. I held my breath hoping it would stop but the steps grew ever so close. Bearing it no longer I switched my lamp and relocated myself back upstairs. Feeling frustrated that I couldn't stay in my room I was determined that nothing was going to move me, or so I thought. We all have moments in our lives that affect us so greatly that we can still feel the emotions we felt the moment the event took place, this is one of mine.
My clock read 2:10 am; I know this because it was the first thing I saw when I was woken up by the sound of two ladies talking. It had been eight years since I heard them but now I was sure that there were two people talking in my room. Groggy and not knowing what was going I sat up in bed and asked who was there. The conversation stopped at once. Becoming more alert I started to ask again. I had just started to form the word when the loudest scream erupted from the foot of my bed. It was so loud and so shrill, I have never to this day heard such a scream and I hope to never again. But here it was at the foot of my bed and rushing towards me at an unimaginable speed. I grasped my lamp and flung the light on in a fit of panic. I couldn't stop my body from shaking, my eyes were welling up with tears and I could feel the adrenaline surging through my body. I couldn't let go of my lamp, I was too terrified to let go of that light. I don't know how long I stayed that way; eyes darting, looking for some form to emerge from the shadows to makes that final blow. But nothing ever came, nothing made a sound and I didn't sleep for two days.
No one else in the house heard the scream, not that it surprised me. Most of my family could sleep through a freight train rolling through the living room. But I never let on how much this event marked me. To this day I do not sleep in that room without some form of light on. I know it may seem childish but I feel that there is something in the dark now.
Nothing major has happened since then. I am well out of college and have brought my future wife home for the holidays. She knows the stories I have told her but she has never seen anything weird happen. When we come home we sleep in the guest bedroom. Sometime late at night I hear closet doors rattle and crack open ever so slightly. My fiance also heard the doors shaking and though it freaked her out it didn't scare her away. I feel that my connection with my house guests have become strained over the years. I can not feel them as strongly as I used to but in some ways it might be for the best. Maybe as time goes on I will have more stories to tell you of my four guests who have never left. I know this has been a very long story and I want thank all those who have read it to the end. It is good to know that other people have had experiences like mine and that I can read them and relate. I am also very glad that I am finally able to share this story after all these years.
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