A lot has happened in the last few weeks. My boyfriend got evicted from his home and because my mom has a huge heart and a spare room, she let him come stay with us. my mom was originally going to sleep on the couch but my boyfriend suggested we move to the basement and she stays where she is. We have a lot of stuff anyways and it’d be more convenient for her to stay there and just move my room. We don’t have everything set up yet because as I said before, we have a lot of stuff. but my boyfriend set up our bed, our TV, and our shelves with all our movies and games. It’s coming together nicely. But I’ve been noticing some weird things. My bedroom has been in the basement before, when I was around 16. the only weird thing that happened was hearing the floorboards creak at night. but then again, our house was built in the 1880s and it’s a basement.
It started with the creeking, it kept my boyfriend up sometimes and he eventually told me about it. I asked my mom if she could talk to my dad about getting up at night and being loud when using the washroom which is sadly, across from the door to the basement. my mom said that since she’s moved in she’s been awake all night, and that my dad would go to bed at around 9 because of work. I also started to realize that my dad thumps when he walks, so his steps sound a lot heavier compared to what me and my boyfriend have heard. We chalked it up to just being the pipes moving the old wood or my cat. though, I was still creeped out. I’ve always been the type of person to assume something is paranormal before anything rational.
The second thing we noticed was a smell. My boyfriend pointed it out the first night down here but I didn’t notice it until I was sweeping around the head of our bed and almost gagged. We once found a dead mouse in our shed, so I know what death smells like. this was different. like when meat gets old and it has that blunt smell, but also the smell of mold. I got my dad over to check it out but he didn’t find anything, he also couldn’t smell anything. So we light candles. But again, still freaked out as it only seems to smell at night.
The third thing that was weird was the tapping behind the walls. our one wall I can understand, there’s a crawl space for storage there. but it was narrow and only want in one direction. behind that was dirt. you can see it in the crawl space. but when I was alone and my boyfriend was at work I heard a pitter patter behind the wall right behind me. I tried recording it but all you could hear was my breathing. I only heard it that one time, but because of the other weird sounds it made me unsettled. I don’t lean against that wall anymore.
Now, it’s been two weeks since we moved down here. and for the last 4 days I’ve heard a whispering at night. It’s just when I’m about to fall asleep. I’ll hear the name “Elijah” right in my ear. I’ll wake up in a daze then hear nothing for the rest of the night. the next day, nothing. but when I’m about to fall asleep again I’ll hear it. “Elijah”. My boyfriend does sleep talk, but I’ve known him for years, and as far as I’m aware he doesn’t know anyone by the name of Elijah. Or at least he doesn’t anymore.
Last night was when it got worse. I’ve never been so afraid. My boyfriend says it was sleep paralysis, like what happened when I was a kid. but I never saw anything like this. I would just lay there numb until I fell back asleep. I was just about to fall asleep, until I heard the creaking upstairs. Just the floorboards or the pipes I reminded myself. then I heard the tapping behind the wall. must be mice. but then I heard the whisper in my ear. for some reason it was different this time. it sounded playful. and I wasn’t half asleep, I was fully awake. I looked to my right and saw my boyfriend. he was definitely asleep, not even snoring. I looked across the room to see if the sun had come out yet from the fire escape window. and that’s when it caught my eye.
I couldn’t make it out at first. it was too dark. from the right side of the bed was a lump. I could tell it wasn’t the blanket or my boyfriend feet. the blanket was pulled up and tucked under his legs, which were right beside mine. I dont know why, but I didn’t move. I just stared. it didn’t move either. then I heard the tapping again at the walls. it scared me so I shot my head over to see what it was before my brain registered what it could of been. I looked back. the lump was gone. then I heard it again. “Elijah”. I looked to my left. at the end of the bed, right near the crawl space, was a head. It was still. It was too dark to make out any features, but even if it wasn’t, I feel like whatever it wasn’t didn’t have features to see. my heart was beating as fast as it ever has. I saw its head extend. it looked like it was opening its mouth. or whatever hole it had in place of a mouth. out from its throat it croaked
“Elijah”.
That’s when I screamed. I grabbed onto my boyfriend in fear and he shot awake. out of habit he flicked on our lamp while holding onto me. I looked over, expecting the thing to be crawling towards me. but it was gone.
I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. even though I’m so tired, I don’t want to hear that name again. My boyfriend has tried to convince me but I refuse. so he took me out to get a coffee and a turkey sandwich. That’s when I told him everything. I told him about the squeaks, about the tip tap behind the wall, about the whispering in my ear. what he said made me almost cry.
“That’s funny, when I was a kid I had an imaginary friend called Elijah”. I told him that was fucking weird but like I said earlier, he said it was probably just sleep paralysis.
We went home, and eventually around 4 PM I passed out. I was too tired to stay awake. around 3 hours later I heard talking. usually my boyfriend watches TV while I sleep. but when I opened my eyes the TV was off. everything was off. except the light to the crawl space. that’s where the talking came from. that’s where “it” was. I sat up and the bed squeaked. but that didn’t interrupt the whispering. I leaned over as far as I could, peeking into the dirty crawl space that was half filled with my boyfriend storage. there he was. he was looking up to a dark figure. although the light was on, the corner was pitch black. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I did hear one sentence that made my blood run cold. “I said no, Elijah”.