My old high school buds Tom and Derrick had rented a house near the University of Maryland in College Park. They would both ride their bikes to class and make art and jam on various instruments in their spare time. They had a jam room with guitar, bass, drums and synthesizers. I would stay at their place and we would just chill and try to record something decent in the studio.
I had this little tape recorder I bought from RadioShack. I brought it over thinking we could record some of our jams and maybe even some paranormal activity. My friend Tom told me how weird stuff had been happening in the house. For example, they would see smoke just appear and disappear from seemingly no where. As with most college attendees, they would occasionally partake in the devil’s lettuce. This smokey apparition didn’t seem like the craziest thing to happen.
So we decided to try out the recorder for spirit hunting. I did the classic “who is living here?” “Can you tell us your name?” But nothing came out in the recording other than myself.
One night me and Tom were jamming at the house by ourselves. Tom tells me he needs to go pick up his girlfriend in Virginia, about an hour away. So he leaves out the front door will I stay alone just playing the guitar.
I hear Tom outside on the phone the whole time I’m playing. 15 minutes go by and i still hear him talking outside. I go to the door to see why he hasn’t left yet. As soon as I open the front door, I stop hearing Tom on the phone. I see that his car is gone also. I go to close the door and turn around to see white smoke appear right in front of me. It quickly disappeared into the air.
Thinking how strange that all was I decide it was probably all in my head. Maybe I was just hearing things. I keep playing guitar until my other buddy, Derrick, shows up.
I tell Derrick about what happened and he did not seem too phased. Him and Tom both have seen their fair share of weird stuff. They seem to be sort of a magnet to the paranormal.
Derrick gets on bass and I play my guitar. We are jamming for a good 10 mins when I hear a voice. “Stop” it said. I think how weird that is and how it sounds just like my buddy Tom. Then i hear it louder “STOP”. It was Tom. I knew it was him because it had the same distinct, nasally tone. But it couldn’t have been him, he was still an hour away in Virginia.
Derrick and I both stop playing. I ask him if he heard that. He said “Yea”. I ask him “What did you hear?” He says “it sounded like Tom yelling ‘stop!’”
Tom eventually came home and we talked about what happened. We were all pretty weirded out about the whole thing. It didnt keep us from having a good time and recording some good music. I think the fear and mystery might have added a bit of flavor into our own productions as well.
Tom and Derrick continued to live in that house for another year and the strange occurrences didn’t stop. Tom told me he had been karate chopped by what felt like a child. He had seen the same little boy in 1800s clothing appear in a misty haze several times in that house.
All of these strange things must have really messed with Tom. He fell on hard times after he dropped out and him and his girlfriend broke up. He also witnessed a giant triangle UFO with an entire group of people at an outdoor rave in Virginia. This along with other pressures seemed to have caused him to spiral emotionally. He had always been a strange guy in the most hilarious and charming way. It was really hard seeing him fall on such hard times.