My Scary (True) Story

The story submitted by Chris stirred some long forgotten memories from my childhood.  This is a true story (but not an entry in our scary story contest):

When I was about 12 years old we moved from our mobile home into a brand new house my parents had custom built.

My younger brother and I shared a bedroom for the first couple years.  We had a set of bunk beds.  Our bedroom was right across the hallway from the bathroom.

Not too long after we moved in weird things began happening.  We had a door in our basement that opened into the garage.  This was usually the way everyone came into our house - they'd walk through the garage, and into the basement.

Well there would be many times when you'd hear the door open and close, but no matter how long you waited no one would come upstairs.  A thorough search of the basement would turn up nothing.  It was as if someone came in but never came upstairs.  There was never a second sound of the door opening, as if someone was leaving, there was always only the one.

We also had a pair of birds in the basement who would begin to sing when someone came near, and many times after we'd hear the door the birds would begin to chirp like they saw someone yet no one would ever be there.  There was even a couple times when you could hear muffled voices talking to the birds but you could never make out what they were saying, and when you'd go into the basement no one would be there.

Then, other things started to happen.  I remember my brother telling me that he woke up one night and looked towards the bathroom and he saw someone standing in the bathroom door looking at him.  I told him it must have been a dream, but a couple days later he told me it happened again.  So I told him that the next time he saw it, to wake me up.

Well a few nights later he did and when I looked towards the bathroom I saw him too - a tall figure wearing an overcoat and hat.  He was big - filling almost the entire doorway, yet somehow there wasn't any fear.  It was just as if someone was watching over us, protecting us. And he was staring right at us, not moving and not saying anything.

There were other things too.  I remember when I was a little older, I moved into a basement bedroom and one night I was woken up by this incredibly shrill noise - either howling or screaming and it was coming from the utility room in the basement.  I was terrified!  It only lasted a couple minutes then stopped.  I only heard it the one time and never again.  The weird thing is the utility room was right below my parents bedroom yet they say they never heard anything.

A few years later, after we had moved out my brother asked me if I remembered any of the stuff that went on in that house.  I told him I had forgotten until that very moment, so we discussed it for a while and came to the conclusion that the house was haunted by some evil spirits, yet the figure in the bathroom was our recently deceased grandfather and he was there to watch over us and protect us.

He then went on to tell me that, after I moved out weird things began happening again.  This was after we'd moved a thousand miles away to a new town and new house.

He was in the basement of the "new" house and he was about 17.  He remembers similar things happening yet again.

In the basement of this house, the bathroom was adjoining one bedroom so that you could walk right into the bathroom from the bedroom.  There were also other similarities.  You see, in this new house, we had a basement door that opened into the back yard, and the birds were again in the basement.

He said that on a few occasions he'd look over towards the bathroom and see "grandpa" standing there, again watching over him.

He also told me that he heard a shrill howl or scream coming from the laundry room in this house that lasted for about 2 minutes one night and it scared him pretty badly.

He told me that there were times when he heard the basement door open and close and someone talking to the birds but no one was there again.

And when he moved out, my youngest brother moved downstairs and also had some weird things happen to him.  I remember him telling me about the figure in the bathroom door, and someone talking to the birds when no one was there but all of  a sudden it stopped and never started again.

I'd say that if these were "hauntings" then we experienced them for about 20 years as a family, but not sure why they would have stopped all of a sudden.  And even more confusing is how the "ghosts" or whatever you want to call them followed us such a distance.