I live in a 'haunted' house. It's not really haunted, because we're the ones who built it. As far as we know, no one has died on this spot for over a hundred years. This has all been wild forest and pasture land up until now, and there is no evidence this rocky ridge was ever part of a settlement of any kind, including Native American.
But as long as we've lived here, weird things have happened. Long after construction was over we heard workboots moving around, as if the walls weren't up yet. We hear radios and tv's on in other rooms and go to turn them off, and find silence. I have heard glass very definitely shatter on two occassions, but thorough and repeated searches never revealed anything having broken, except the second time I found a glass shard innocently laying on my clean stove, no other glass in sight. It matched my glassware at the time, which was a puzzle because none was broken, although in the time since they've all cracked and have been thrown away. Even the dog raised his head and growled one afternoon at heavy footsteps coming down the stairs behind me while I was laying on the couch. The dog's hair stood on end, and his eyes were fixed on something as the footsteps stopped midway. I told him it was nothing, go back to sleep, and he did.
The girls and I often felt like someone was hanging around, and it set our nerves off. We learned to leave tv's on for the static, which seemed to make the feeling cease. We'd leave the tv on all day and mute it. Sometimes I would come home to an empty house while they were at school and have a scary experience. One time, as I unlocked the door and opened it to come in, I heard every door in the house slam real hard, one by one, in quick succession, as if someone were racing around slamming all the doors. It ended upstairs. I was terrified and wouldn't go in for awhile, and sat in my car. When I got my nerve back up, I stepped in and grabbed a long handle broom and very quietly crept through the house, keys and purse in hand in case I'd want to run back out. Not one door was shut. I used the broomstick to push the doors all the way open to make sure no one was behind them, and went through every room in the house, every closet, the whole basement, every bathroom. ALL the doors were open, even the closets. The house was quiet. Nothing was there. I turned on the tv and said, Ok, I'm home!
Over the years at other times that we've each been home alone, we've all heard footsteps coming around the deck and automatically went to the door to open it and see who was there. No one. One of the girls heard 'me' typing down here and thought I had come home, and came out of her room to look over the banister and say hi. I wasn't home, and the desk was quiet, the computer was off. We have all heard people talking in the next room, what sounds like music or a game on tv or radio, a door open like someone walked into the house (but the door remained closed). We've also smelled hot wires and searched the house several times feeling walls for hot spots and coming up empty. I could go on and on, because we've lived here nearly 15 years.
I decided this was one of several things, perhaps all of them, who knows. 1- the girls and I were causing poltergeist activity. I was remarried, the girls were step sisters, and goodness knows we were all a little tense getting used to one another. 2- one of more of us has a 'shadow', someone on the 'other side' or some other dimension which feels compelled to hang around with that person. 3- we had a pan-dimensional being on our hands who was very attracted to static, and always seemed to settled down once we provided it. 4- we built this house on an ancient rocky mountainside that attracts a lot of lightning activity, and, according to some paranormal theories, is able to 'record' events and replay them.
Over the years we got so used to the weird stuff happening that we'd just say "It's the ghost" and go on. Nothing ever bothered us, we never really felt threatened.
As the kids got older and started going to work, the activity level changed somewhat. My oldest would come into the driveway thinking Dad was standing around outside in the dark, and come in to find him watching tv. This 'shadow' showed up several times waiting for her to come home from work. When the youngest moved out, a lot of the activity slowed down, although some of it was definitely still happening. When the oldest moved out a few months later, it seemed like all the activity ceased completely, and when I asked her a few weeks later whether the new place she lived had any activity, she said the little dog would go nuts about something upstairs for no reason. Her bedroom was upstairs. (She has recently moved again, can't wait to hear if it went with her again.)
I've had a very quiet 9 months. No weird noises, no weird feelings.
My youngest moved back in this last weekend. Over the last couple of days the noises have started up again, even though she might be gone to work or college or hanging out with friends. From my bathroom after a shower I thought I heard someone in the kitchen putting things on the counter and moving around. Came out to find no one but me here. While I'm on the computer with the headphones on, I hear someone come in the door and walk across the house. No one but me here. Today I feel very strongly like I should be turning on the tv, which I haven't done in months now, not being a daytime tv watcher.
I think my oldest daughter has a shadow person, and I think my youngest attracts a sort of tempest activity or produces it in combination with me. I also think some of the things we do around here replay themselves whenever the tension in the house rises.
My oldest has said in the past that she thinks the house misses us when we are gone and leave it empty and quiet, but my 9 months of empty nest were wonderfully quiet with just me here and my husband at work, so I don't think that's it.
If we ever sell this house, the next family is going to run screaming.
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