Halloween Week: A door, a computer, and two toys.

Well, most of you know that I come by the parnormal in my books quite naturally—or is that paranaturally.  :D  Anyway, if you don’t know what I mean it’s that the paranormal is actually quite normal in my life.  And it all started when I was in the fourth grade.  You can read that story here. 

Well, here’s another experience I’ve had.  Let me tell you it’s been hard having to choose which ones to tell, but I think this is a good one.  I’ll also have another story Thursday on my personal blog, so make sure to check it out.

Anyway, my husband and I bought our first house when we were twenty-one.  We’ve lived in it now for 8 years and mostly it’s a great house.  But it’s one of the oldest in our neighborhood and it’s only had 2 owners.  My family and the people who had it built.

The gentleman and his wife who had it built raised their two daughters and a son here, then eventually retired, and, as all ways of life, died.  We’re not sure where the wife died, but we do know the husband died in a hospital.  Not in the house. 

However, since we moved in, we’ve had strange things happen.  Their daughters' room, which is now my daughter's room, was originally used as a storage room, until we unpacked everything.

The first few years were quiet.  It was just a quant little house.  But after I got back from the military and we moved all my stuff into the storage room, strange things started happening.   And they all centered on that room.  We’d hear things fall over and break, but we’d go in there and nothing was disturbed.  

At night, I would swear I heard a woman laughing and when I looked out my bedroom door to that room’s door, I’d see a shadow cross from one side of the door to the other, then disappear.  I started sleeping with my door shut.

We eventually cleared out the room and used it as the game room.  But I never felt comfortable in there.  If I was in there alone, I’d feel sick.  Or like someone was watching me.  I eventually refused to go in there by myself.

As soon as I started doing that, a toy of my sons started going off for no reason.  It was a Thomas the Train toy mountain that would make choo-choo noises when a certain button was pressed INSIDE the cave of the toy. 

We moved it on top of his closet because we thought he was playing with it and lying about it--he was only four or five.  But it still went off in the middle of the night, as if a child was playing with it.  We even removed the batteries.  It still kept working.  We eventually tossed it out and things became quiet again.

Except the creepy room and the shadows walking in front of the door, or the occasional woman’s laughter coming from it when it was quiet.

When I found out I was pregnant with my daughter, we had no choice but to give her that room.  I was hesitant, but it’s not like we could just move.  That would be silly.  So, we cleaned out the room and set it up as her nursery.

Things had been pretty quiet for a while and while I painted and cleaned and primped the room, I felt fine.  I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel like anyone was watching.  Nothing.  So I felt pretty at ease when we first put her in that room when she was six-months old.

Then almost immediately things started happening.  The leapfrog catepillar toys she loved would start playing by itself.  We removed it from the crib, thinking she was rolling over on it and hitting buttons.  We placed it on her toyshelf on the other side of the room. 

It still went off on it’s own.  Again we removed the batteries.  It still played.  So we got rid of that toy as well.  And things were quiet for almost two years.

Until recently.  The front screen door started opening every night and then shutting.  As if someone was walking through the door.  It happened every night for 2 weeks between 9:30pm and 11pm and I thought it was just the wind tugging on it—it is old after all.  I would remind myself to lock it after everyone was home for the night, but I never remembered until it did it.

Finally one night I did remember.  I locked the door, making sure it was really shut.  Then deadbolted the regular door, thinking nothing of it.  Then at the same time as usual the door opened, then shut. 

I immediately went to check the door and it was still locked. 

Then, that night my daughter woke up SCREAMING at the top of her lungs.  I went in to see why and she was just standing at her door, which was open, like she couldn’t leave. 

I placed her back in bed and sat with her until she went back to sleep, but I started getting that weird feeling like someone was watching me.  And it was coming from her closet.

Then my desktop computer started turning on every morning at 6 something.  We checked the settings and they were fine.  Nothing was set to make it turn on at that time

Every day for another 2 weeks the door opened by itself, the computer would turn on and off, and my daughter woke up screaming.  I finally gave in and let her sleep with her light on, but she still woke up every night.  Then she started tearing apart her room during naptime.  Starting with the closet.  She’d pull everything out.

When I asked her, she just said she didn’t like the closet.

Frustrated and tired, I shoved her toy box in front of the closet door, so she couldn’t open it.

It seems to have worked.  She no longer tears apart the closet and in the last week she’s slept through the night.  The screen door still opens and shuts, but the computer isn’t turning itself on and off.

While all this could be coincidence, it’s weird, so I’m going to start my own paranormal investigation. I’m going to be getting a tape recorder and video camera to watch it when no one’s around and/or asleep.    I might be surprised by what I catch.

Happy Halloween, every one.