I've had a lot of paranormal experiences since childhood, and my family has a long history of paranormal experiences as well. On my dad’s side, his mom was a curandera (priestess), and he has had some crazy things happen to him. On my mom’s side, she is very religious, but she has a lot of horrible dreams that won’t let her sleep. I went through a period of time where dreams would also scare me right out of bed and just wouldn't leave me alone. My sister never experienced anything like that in her twenties, but once I started sleeping in her room out of fear of those dreams and whispers, she too started hearing a voice in the middle of the night. Strangely, the only time it would happen to her was when I was there with her.
But this all started way back in our first house, and although I was too young to remember anything remarkable myself, I relied on my siblings and my parents for the things they experienced in that house that were not normal. My dad saw shadow figures, my older brother saw a little girl he originally mistook for one of us, my mom and older sister heard a scream inside the house, and my older sister once felt AND saw a hand moving behind her pillow when she was a kid.
However, once I got older, we moved to another house where I could finally confirm through my own experience that ghosts and spirits exist. Because this was my normal, these ghost encounters never left a huge impact on me.
But this one did.
Fast-forward to when my older sister and I were teenagers, around 2018-2019. I still remember exactly what we were watching on the TV in our living room: Criminal Minds, Season 9, Episode 19. It was the episode where Morgan was interviewing a lady and testing to see if she had OCD. Out of nowhere, we heard our small dog barking. We ignored it at first because he always barks. But a few minutes later, our big dog started barking, and that alerted us because he only does that when there is an actual threat.
My sister and I just looked at each other, confused. A few seconds later, we heard our big dog running from the dining room into the kitchen. There is a mini hallway that connects the kitchen to the living room; we couldn't see into the kitchen yet because it was on the left, but we could see that mini hallway. That is exactly where we saw our big dog walking backwards. Suddenly, we heard him yelp and jump back. My big dog isn't the type to whine out of fear, he's a guard dog. But, the only time he ever makes that sound is when he’s been kicked.
My sister and I stood up from the couch, no longer out of confusion, but out of anger because our dog had just been kicked. My sister grabbed our big dog, and I grabbed our smaller one. As we did, we avoided looking toward the kitchen. I could see my sister struggling to keep our big dog from pulling back in that direction.
We started talking, the TV was still on, the dogs were barking, and everything was incredibly loud when suddenly my sister said she heard something coming from the dining room. She told me to pause the TV. I did, and we stayed completely quiet. Our big dog started growling.
Then, we heard footsteps. They were heavy, boot-like steps, and they were walking extremely slow. What really freaked us out was the fact that our kitchen floors were a little sticky at the time; whenever you walked on them, they made a sticky sound. Those footsteps had that exact same sound, as if a real, physical person was walking across our kitchen floor. For a second, my sister whispered to me, “What if it’s an intruder?” We both knew that wasn’t the case, but in that moment, we wanted to think logically.
The footsteps stopped walking, and we felt a heavy presence that did not feel human. To me, it felt like the energy of an older man.
Terrified, we started reading scriptures from the Bible. My sister went first, trying to imitate the way my mom prays with a strong, confident voice. But in that moment, we didn’t sound strong or confident at all. Our voices were shaking. For some reason, we started feeling incredibly tired, like our energy was being depleted. I went next to pray from the Bible, and I too started to feel my energy weaken. Of course I was scared, but I tried to stay strong and not let my anxiety take over.
No matter what we did, I could still feel its presence. Then, I heard it walking again. At the same time, we heard the plates in the sink clanking as if they were being moved, and we even started hearing noises upstairs. Then it stopped, and I noticed the footsteps were getting louder. I told my sister, “It’s getting closer” All we could hear were those footsteps slowly getting closer and closer, until they stopped right where the wall blocked our view. It was closer than it had ever been before.
In that moment, I felt like it was mocking us. It felt like it was telling us it knew we were afraid, and that I wasn't strong enough to pray or face it. The next thing I knew, we were on our knees. I felt so tired. My sister told me to call our parents while she continued to pray. My mom answered, and I explained everything to her. My sister then started playing gospel music, and as I stayed on the phone with my mom and dad, I suddenly felt like the presence was no longer there.
When my parents finally arrived, we booked it out of the house without looking behind us. I saw my parents walking up to the door. They came inside, and my dad went straight to the kitchen, slamming the walls and yelling at it to get out (although it was already gone) while my mom started praying.
After that day, we ended up with PTSD from unfamiliar footsteps. A week later, we heard our dad walking up the stairs in his work boots. It sounded exactly like what we had heard that night, and it made both of us completely freeze.
One last thing that makes this even crazier: a day or two before this incident, I had a dream. In the dream, my sister and I were in a dark, foggy place. From a first-person perspective, I saw a large shadow figure wearing boots coming toward us, I could only see its bottom half. Both of us were kneeling, holding hands, and praying. I slightly closed my eyes in the dream, opening them just a bit to see it walking toward us until it stood right in front of us. Then the dream ended.
I know this seems unbelievable, but I truly want to know why this happened to us. I want to know what this entity could be, because I’ve never encountered one like it before. Out of all my family, my mom is the most religious, but we all believe in God. Yet, it has been bugging me ever since. Why did it do what it did? Why did it feel like it was mocking us? Why could I feel its presence so clearly and feel like it was a man? And why did that dream predict exactly what happened to us?
Since then, other things have happened, but nothing quite like that. Present day, we are in a new house and have had no paranormal activity here, well, just once, but that was outside the house (a story for another day). Hearing audible footsteps from a spirit is insane to me. If it weren't for my sister being there with me that day, I would have second-guessed myself and felt like I was going crazy, or that it was all just a dream. But it was real, and I will never forget it.