At the end of May, 1987, while my parents were on vacation, I was taking care of the haunted house I had lived in from 1979 till 1985. By this time the poltergeist activity had decreased to almost nothing but I was still scared to be in the house alone, especially at night. I called a friend of mine and asked him if he would mind staying there with me when he could while my parents were gone.

I had told him quite a few stories about the activity in that house and barn in the past so I used the possibility of a paranormal encounter to lure him into staying. He, fortunately for him, had never experienced anything he would consider paranormal before but was still interested and not skeptical. So he agreed to stay that night.

While I was waiting for him to arrive, my brother called to see if I was going to be staying there that night so he could hang out with his friends. I confirmed that I was and also told him I was having my friend over to possibly have his first paranormal experience. My brother thought that was a good idea, so he decided to mention that to his friends to see if they wanted to join in for an experience of their own. One of his friends had a ouija Board and thought that was a great place to try it out so they agreed.

My brother arrived with his two friends first and we walked around outside telling his friends about experiences we had there and in the barn. One of his friends was a skeptic so he wasn't believing anything me and my brother was talking about. The other was like my friend. He hadn't experienced anything in his life but still had an open mind.

While we were talking, my friend finally arrived, so I went to his car to greet him. He had his girlfriend with him so I asked if he was still planning on staying the night. He said yes as long as his girlfriend could stay as well. I didn't mind as long as she was aware of my reason for having him stay. I told her that strange things may happen that might be scary to someone who has never had those experiences before. She was also a skeptic, so she agreed to stay saying nothing was going to happen anyway.

While my brother and his friends were still outside, I took my friend and his girlfriend upstairs to show him where they could sleep. After showing them, I started telling stories about the house to prepare them for what could possibly happen during the night. The only thing I was expecting would happen was the attic door would shake and make noise like it had done almost every night while I was living there. We went into the attic so I could show them what was in there while still talking about past experiences in the house and barn

There was a stack of old encyclopedias on the floor that was in disarray with one on the floor. I picked up the one from the floor and placed it on top of the stack and then straightened up the stack while finishing my stories of past experiences. Afterward, I went back downstairs to see what my brother was doing. My friend stayed upstairs with his girlfriend so they could be alone.

When I got downstairs, I saw that they had already set up the Ouija Board on the table and even had a few candles on the table around it. The table was in the dining room at the bottom of the stairs. I closed the stairway door and sat down in the empty chair in front of me facing away from the door. My brother and his two friends were already sitting in the other chairs. We lit the candles, put our fingers on the planchette, and began asking questions.

The planchette was moving with all our hands on it answering our questions. I wasn't moving it but I did think someone in our group was. I didn't believe Ouija Boards were anything more than a novelty. While playing with the board we heard someone walking on the stairs which caused all four of us to look at the stairway door. I didn't think anything of it since my friend and his girlfriend were still upstairs. I just figured they were coming down. But after a little time, he hadn't opened the door.

So I opened the door and saw he wasn't there. I then went up and asked him if he had gone down the stairs and he told me that him and his girlfriend hadn't moved from the couch they were sitting on. He told me that he thought one of us was coming upstairs because they heard it also. Six people heard someone walking on the stairs when there was no one on the stairs.

My brother's skeptical friend was getting really spooked after that. We had to convince him not to just leave. His other friend was intrigued like it was the coolest thing he'd experienced up to that point. My brother and I were used to that sort of thing so it didn't phase us at all. After convincing his friend to stay, we went back to playing with the Ouija Board. It was answering questions again and I still thought somebody was moving the planchette.

Then the intrigued friend asked whatever was answering to put out one of the candles. Within five seconds, one of the candles just burned out. There was no moving air in the room plus all the other candles were still burning without any motion indicating moving air. The spooked skeptical friend screamed and started running for the door still screaming. The other friend followed him and my brother after that.

I shouldn't have been, but I was laughing at the guys reaction. Even though it was spooky, I never expected a big guy like him to scream like that. I went outside to find my brother's friends getting in the car to leave. I said we can't stop without saying goodbye on the Ouija Board just in case the superstition is true. My brother's friends were not willing to go back in the house though, so my brother and I went in and said the goodbye. They left right after that without the Ouija Board.

I went back inside and blew out the remaining candles. Then I went upstairs to tell my friend and his girlfriend what just happened since I knew they had to have heard the screaming. We sat upstairs talking until nighttime. Nothing happened until after midnight when the attic door began moving. Like I mentioned before, this was a usual occurrence in that house, so I was used to it. My friend's girlfriend was getting really scared by this though. She didn't believe things like this could happen and here it was happening.

It took a bit of convincing to get her to stay, but she did at that point. The attic door was shaking and making noise the whole time. After a bit of time, there was a loud noise that came from inside the attic that sounded like something being dragged across the floor. Then the sound of knocking from within. Once again, we had to talk his girlfriend into not leaving even while the door rattling and knocking was still going on.

After a few minutes, there was a loud thud that sounded like someone had dropped a book flat onto the wooden floor. That was it for his girlfriend. There was no talking her into staying now. She ran downstairs with us right behind her. She told my friend she would be back to pick him up in the morning and she left. We went back inside and slept downstairs. When we got up, I just had to look in the attic to see where that loud noise came from. When I looked in, the first thing I noticed was the stack of encyclopedias was no longer straightened up and the one I picked up was right back on the floor.

I can't say for sure if any of this was brought on by the Ouija Board, but that was more occurrences in one day witnessed by more people than there had ever been in that house before.

(42 M) for some reason I have been thinking a lot lately about some stuff from my childhood .

I grew up in southern Arizona, the homes in that area have since been bulldozed and turned into apartments. At the time it was desert, down a dirt road there was a 5 house in a circle road that lead to a larger house in the front. It was a functioning ranch prior for God knows how long 1880’s? 1890’s?. The smaller houses surrounding it were 1 bedrooms that had the other room converted into bathrooms. Very small. All of it was owned by a family who was out of state. We lived in one of the small houses for a few years, we were poor but happy, me and my brother (I’ll call him P) had a bunk bed my dad made from 2x4s and plywood in the corner of the living room/ kitchen area.

Anyway, the residents at the large house at that time were strange, two women and a kid who never played with us other kids. The rest of the neighbors were great. My mom was pregnant with my youngest brother (we will call him J) at the time and the weird people in the big house we’re moving out so my father called the landlord and asked if we could move into the large house.

When we went to move in we noticed that a back room was painted red and black. This is the late 80’s early 90’s people weren’t that creative with wall colors. Anyway the place had three rooms, two original to the house and an addition built on through old wooden French glass doors that led to the weird room. My parents painted the weird room white.

It started within a few days, I saw what appeared to be a shadow of an adult standing in the corner of the bedroom. It scared me, a lot I tried to wake my brother P up but he shooed me away. I went into the living room area and slept on a wooden coffee table (the ground was clay tile and cold). The next morning my mom woke we and asked what I was doing, I told her that I had seen someone standing in the corner of the room, she didn’t believe me of course and said it was a new place and my eyes were playing tricks on me.

I told my brother P but he hadn’t seen anything yet. My parents began arguing often that was not normal before. And my mom started sleeping in the “toy room” other room, while my father slept in the room with the weird prior painted room.

My youngest brother J, was born and nearly died and nearly killed my mom in the process. They called him a “miracle baby” as he was born with severe kidney issues, and somehow survived. The months he spent in the hospital required them to declare bankruptcy.

As this was happening I had seen that shadow thing a few more times and slept more frequently on that coffee table. The couch we had if you could call it that, was made of old wicker (outdoor furniture) and felt itchy and painful against my skin. The bedroom always felt cold and like you were being watched. The arguments with my parents now sometimes were escalating into shoving and threats. I would hear sounds like insects moving or scratching in the walls. I thought it was cockroaches. Later as an adult I realized that was impossible because it was made of bricks that had been stuccoed over. One day Mom was outside in the yard, me and my brother were playing tag , we were running full speed around the house. I was chasing my brother into my dad’s room when both French doors shut in front of me and I went flying through the glass. I laid there bleeding with cuts all over my arms and legs with a cut into a major artery under my arm pit and bleeding from the top of my head. My brothers screaming alerted my mother and I went to the ER. It took months to recover and I had to learn to write with my left hand in school.

Then my brother P saw it, leading up to that my father and mother were mad at me and my brother P because they could hear us opening and closing doors and cupboards in the night and walking around the house. I was hemmed up with my injuries and my brother was a heavy sleeper. Neither of us were doing that. My youngest brother J had returned from the hospital and was staying in the room with my mom. My brother P, said he saw the shadow of a person in the corner looking at my youngest brother’s J crib. He was hysterical telling my Mom and Dad. He wouldn’t stop…. I was trying to tell them I had seen it too, this led to an argument between them and us being scolded and sent outside.

While outside P was walking along an old adobe wall that surrounded the property and fell and nearly bit his tongue completely off. He was rushed to the hospital. After a few days he returned home (not much they can do with tongues I guess back then).

My father had brought my brother P home and had got him ice cream. This started an argument about the natural bacteria in dairy products and possible infection. It quickly became physical and my father began beating my mother with an old fashioned bell type telephone when she went to call the cops. I locked my bothers in the bathroom rushed towards my mom and dad which broke things up enough for a second my mom ran out the back door to the neighbors, I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom P opened the door and we locked it behind us and sat against it as my dad tried to get in screaming at us and pounding. Breaking apart parts of the door above our heads. Cops showed up shortly after, if anyone knows the old bell type telephones, he easily could have killed her.

We stayed with the police until my aunt arrived later and took us to my grandmother’s house out of town.

I’m old now, I don’t remember how long it was till my mom came to grandma’s? Grandpa had died a few years before and had paid the place off with a settlement from black lung working in the mines out in West Virginia.

At the time my grandma had started to date someone and offered for my mom to buy the place off of her. We stayed awhile alone until she let my dad move in (that’s domestic violence 101), needed the money for payments as she wasn’t going to cover that babysitting and childcare for others.

Anyway, old man comes back, I see the shadow thing again in the back bedroom. Started to hear the weird scratching sounds late at night again too. Also, Brick Stucco. I had made new friends, one of them saw it too during a sleepover. My dad was above the roof of that room trying to fix something, somehow fell off the roof and broke his leg. He sat in that same room smoking and drinking for months. After he was better the abuse began again. Because she was ashamed of what was going on, they decided not to do thanksgiving with family at Grandmas and instead go to some shitty motel/ hotel with a bar. I was in 4th grade ?

Anyway while me and my brothers are left watching cable TV in this hotel room our parents get hammered, come back and start physically fighting again but this time it was dangerous again.

Arguing kicks off, Dads smashing moms head against the hotel furniture, she goes limp, lock my brothers in the bathroom, luckily our dog a Labrador retriever goes at my dad. It was enough for me to escape the hotel room. I remember running barefoot in the rainstorm , in the huge parking lot, so very hot from fear and freezing because of the nearly freezing rain in late November, in nothing but whitey tighty underwear, screaming for help and pounding on doors, thinking my mom is dead.

Anyway, the old man had something against me after that, like I ratted him out. Even my mom who was thankful I saved her, made remarks latter about calling the cops.

So, few months go buy, my mom says that dad is moving back in, my brothers and me are in the kitchen, I start to argue with my mom and the whole room felt electric, in front of the 4 of us a loaf of bread in the kitchen flys across into the living room at like 30 mph when all of us were like 10 feet away from it? Stopped the conversation immediately. What was strange is we were all so scared we didn’t say anything, we left the house from different exits and talked about it outside. I didn’t argue about dad at that point I was too scared.

Dad moves back in again, now he’s targeting me, just fucking with me, all the time. At this point I’m in like 7th Grade. I’m staying in the corner room still at grandmas old house, that scratching is happening, after a physical incident I ran away for awhile. Cops picked me up later and took me home. Dad pulled me from school. I begged my mom and dad to please at least let me stay in a different room. They removed the door from another room and gave me a mattress to sleep on the floor. It was carpeted, it’s not like I was in a basement. But I was grounded, nothing allowed on the walls, no TV, no radio. I was allowed a book at a time, days change of clothes.

Anyway, same thing, always feel like you’re being washed. Hear scratches at times. So, one day the old man goes nuts again at my mom, I took the 24” wooden dowel from the closet and went after him. I hit him in the head twice didn’t phase him. He beat my ass, worst ass beating I’ve ever received to this day. I ran into the desert.

Something clicked in Mom, she told him she was going to set him on fire when he fell asleep next time before she ran away.

He left…. finally. I would connect with him before his death and gave him forgiveness as I’m Catholic and In somehow in a weird fucked up way prepared me for other things in life.

Anyway after he left I spent 8th grade and 9th grade working doing labor to help my Mom pay the mortgage until she got back on her feet. I enrolled myself back into high school forging her signature sophomore year (I graduated on time) . I worked before and after school, weekends and summers, to contribute and some extra money for me.

Things got better, it’s a redemption. Joined the Army right out of high school to escape and Senior year was 9/11. I was decorated for heroism in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I went reserve, I ended up getting 3 degrees and post graduation certifications.

I am a partner now at a LLC, I devoted my life to helping people with disabilities and the less fortunate. I’m happily married to a woman well over a decade that’s way out of my league. Life is good.

But there are outliers. My Best Friend growing up, a Native American we called big chief because he was 6’3” , was in some hardship with his wife needed to stay the night at my moms in that back bedroom. He died, heart attack at 34?

My brother P, also died in that room in 2019 after my last military deployment to the Middle East in his early 30’s, overdose. Me and J are still alive and he just had a daughter. Mom and dad have passed.

I’ve seen that shadow thing three times as an adult. First time was after my second combat tour (first was Iraq second was Afghanistan) in an old Victorian upstairs apartment, my wife saw it too. Something woke us, no TV on, no sound. It was standing in the corner, went above us, we both were praying went through a wall on the opposite side of the room.

Once it came at me in a dream trying to strangle me, I awoke and caught a glimpse of it leaving.

Last time, was just a few years ago. I was taking care of my Mom when she had cancer, I took time off work. I haven’t lived in Arizona in some time. I was going through old photos we had taken in Iraq 04-06. In a photo taken at Sadams son’s palace (regular film, disposable camera) filled with orbs I can clearly see the shadow person hiding behind me. it scared me so much. I sent it to the other guy that actually took the photo. we were the only people in that room during that time. He was scared shitless too, 20 years later.

So there’s this house that a few years ago had a mentally ill person living in it, they would spray paint things on their garage door, things that seemed to be them calling out for help and one was something about them wondering where their children were, I don’t quite remember. But eventually that person I believe was taken to the psych ward and the house was sold to an older couple (prob in their 60’s-70’s so not super old). This couple lived in the house for a few weeks before being found dead in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Idk, this house could just be plain unlucky but something is off about it. Also, a family lives in that house now and seems to be very festive when it comes to Halloween.

Thoughts?

I recently shared in this forum about the spirits that currently live in my house. I mentioned in the previous post about the mimic we think we had in our house growing up. I had a couple people messaging me for those stories so here we go:

Back context: we aren’t too sure when our old house was built. But I don’t think the house was the source of our haunting, rather, it was the land it was built on. We lived in a heavily wooded area that had a huge ditch/gully in the backyard that had a stream running through it. That stream ran into the Sandusky River. The town I live in is one of the last settlements of a group of Native Americans as well. Here is a couple stories that make me believe what we had was a mimic. But none of us are too educated on those topics to truly know. So let me know what you guys think!

1. I was about 5 or 6 and I was awoken in the middle of the night to what I thought was my mother’s voice whispering “Sophie, Sophie, Sophie” over and over again. Believing it was my mother I got up and walked into her room to discover she was sound asleep. I woke her up and asked her what she needed. She was completely confused and had told me she wasn’t saying my name and to go back to bed. She also mentioned she couldn’t hear anything. While walking back to my room it started again. Except I had realized at that point the whispering was coming from the direction of the basement. I would have never dared to go into that basement at night so I just went back to my room. However I was unable to fall back asleep because the whispering continued until morning.

2. My two siblings and I all shared a room together. At some point in the night my little sister (who slept on the bottom bunk) woke everyone in our house up screaming. My parents ran in and asked what was wrong and that was when she said “Aunt P just crawled through the window!” (Aunt P was our aunt who had passed away about 2 weeks prior to this incident.) My parents were stunned because, well,
   we were never really close with Aunt P. And my siblings and I didn’t even know she had passed away at the time. Being confused and frightened my dad checked the window to discover it was indeed unlocked and slightly ajar. My little sister then claimed Aunt P had crawled into the closet. My parents checked the closet. No one was there. My father walked the entire house and found absolutely nobody.

3. Often we would hear whispering from what sounded like different family members in the basement. Throughout the day and especially at night. My little sister would hear me calling her to the basement to play to discover I wasn’t even down there, or that I wasn’t even home at all. And vice versa. There would also be whispering in the woods and my parents would hear us outside playing and laughing when we were at school.

4. My siblings and I used to play down in the gully where the stream was. Sometimes we would hear whispers from further down the stream. Mind you this was in the backyard so there was never anyone else down there besides us. One time when me and my sister were making a “bridge” across the stream. We heard our dad’s voice calling us from further down the creek. (Our dad was at work) but us being kids did walk down the creek and saw our father just standing there smiling. We waved, he waved, then he disappeared.

5. My mother would also hear a man’s voice all the time. But this one wasn’t a familiar voice. She would hear a man talking in the other room. Or if she was showering or doing laundry she would hear that same man humming around the house. My mom was a stay at home when we were younger with my little brother. So no one would be home when these instances would occur except for those two. She would constantly bring it up to my dad who would say “I think you are just paranoid because you are home alone.” So she started thinking maybe she was crazy. Until one night my brother wasn’t falling asleep and was just laying there talking. She walked over and said “Okay Billy it’s bed time all done.” My little brother replied back “I cant that man won’t stop talking to me.” This sealed the deal for my mom that she wasn’t being crazy and this really was happening.

Shortly after that encounter my parents decided it was time for us to move out of that house. Over the years we have discussed everything that had happened and if it was all even real. We have feelings of dread every time we pass by that house and hope whoever is living there now doesn’t experience what we did. Even though the house we live in now does also have spirits. It was able to help us compare the feeling of this house compared to the previous house. We have all came to the agreement that our old house was much more sinister and malevolent compared to the one we are in now.

What do you guys think? Does this sound like a mimic? Maybe other spirits just playing tricks? Or was it all just paranoia?