My Haunted House

Let me state right up front, that all of my "On the Road" tales are true stories about my life. Although I've considered experimenting with fictional stories, all past reports, including this one that I am about to write, are real accounts of events in my life.

In the early '90s, I was in the market for a new home. Having found a house that was desirable to me, both in size and price, I made an offer on a bank-repossessed home, situated on a busy highway in my hometown. The house had been vacant for more than two years, and needed some work. Being a "do it yourself" kind of guy, that was of little concern to me. The price was more than appealing.

My three children and I had been staying at my mother's home, while I worked to make our new house habitable. After a month or more of preparing the new house for occupancy, it was time to move in. I moved in first, as I was anxious to start making the house a home. There were still a few minor jobs that needed addressing, before the home would be comfortable for my family.

As long as I live, I'll never forget the first night that I stayed in my new house. I had partially furnished the house and was thrilled about spending my first night there... alone. Or was I? As best as possible, I will attempt now to describe the chain of events that took place, once in my bed in my second floor bedroom.

It was around one o'clock in the morning, when I had finally retired for the night. Within minutes of getting comfortable, and just starting to fall asleep, a strange feeling came over me. I opened my eyes to see the image of a man slowly walk across my bedroom from the far corner to the doorway, and then exit the room. I was startled.

Being the reasonable man that I am, I discounted the event as having been a dream. Although somewhat shaken, I turned over and fell asleep.

A short time later, I awoke to an indescribable feeling of someone or something pulling me out of my bed. The force was real and it was scary as hell. I felt like I had to hang on to something for fear that I would be pulled out of the bed. The feeling was so intense that I not only felt it externally --as if something was pulling on my physical body-- but also inside of me, as if an energy of some sort was attempting to completely overtake me.  I spent the remainder of the night on the sofa in the living room.

The next day, the recollection of that event was still vivid. I spent the next few nights on the sofa.

Once my children joined me in our new home, the strange events, although different, continued. One morning, after a peaceful night's sleep, and upon entering the kitchen, all of the cupboards and drawers were wide open. Another event which took place during the middle of the night, involved a conversation between two people in the den.  Although you couldn't see anyone or anything, the muffled sounds were obviously voices of people talking.

Even though there were many occasions where abnormal activities were witnessed in my home, the events were typically small, insignificant anomalies that I dismissed as being coincidental. Hallway lights were found to be on in the morning, which had been off during the night. Many nights, there were sounds of someone walking on the first floor, when all of us were upstairs in bed. These oddities were common, and somewhat frequent.

My children were aware that our home was "different", but we never really talked much about it. One son used to come into my bedroom fairly frequently during the night, to report that there were strange noises in his bedroom --mostly centered around his closet. My daughter mentioned on more than one occasion, that she had seen an old woman in a rocking chair, in the upstairs hallway. I think that she may have been joking about that, however.

Because none of the occurrences seemed to be threatening in anyway, I wasn't concerned about anyone's safety and I didn't feel as though we needed to vacate the home. I had my own theories about the events taking place, as I was familiar with some of the home's past history --the knowledge that my home had been built in the late 1800s-- and the realization that probably more than one person had died in the house.

In the Fall of 2000, we moved out of the house, having purchased a new home closer to my job. While my haunted house was on the market and once again vacant, two final occurrences took place that helped to confirm what I had already known.

The first event which occurred a month or so after we moved, involved one of my adult sons. He had left some of his personal belongings behind, when we first moved.  He went back to the vacant house on a Thursday evening to sort through his belongings, which were in his bedroom closet. While in the bedroom bagging up his belongings, a strange presence came over him. Consequently, he left the bags in the center of the room, and left earlier than he had planned.  On Friday, he returned to collect the bags and was surprised at what he found. All of his belongings had been removed from the bags, and were lined up around the perimeter of the room against the walls. Everything, that is, except for a wooden plaque bearing the image of a crucifix. The plaque was in the center of the room, apparently untouched. He gathered his belongings and quickly left the house.

A few months later that winter, I received a phone call late one evening from a friend of mine, the Police Chief from the town where my haunted house was located. He stated that he was sitting in my driveway, and a light was on in an upstairs bedroom. He was concerned, because he hadn't noticed any lights on, prior to this evening. He further stated that he had checked all of the doors, and everything was secure. He had been watching the property for me, as it was vacant. While we were talking, he told me that the light had just gone out. In describing the location of the lighted room, I was not surprised that it was in the room that my son had occupied while we lived there. I explained to the Chief that I had put a light on a timer at the house...but truthfully, I hadn't.

Did our home have intruders, or were we the intruders? Our house sold the next year.

Fact or fiction? You decide. I'm interested in your feedback!

~Safe Riding~


-The Chief