I often heard that spirits come from the tormented souls of children, especially when it came to poltergeists. I personally never believed in entities to that degree… until I moved into this house.
This unassuming townhouse in the middle of Bethlehem, full of people that were my family. The little girl that lived there with us was my cousin. She was going through a lot as well as her brother, my other young cousin. They were both on the autism spectrum.
There was so much stress in this house, yelling, arguing and screaming. Soon it became more than that, when the feeling of uneasiness began to creep on us all. It was often in the dead of night, the girl would start screaming and throwing a tantrum as she normally would. Nothing we said or did placated her.
She’s single-handedly created so much havoc in this house, that I often found myself staying in the basement just to have a little peace. Even there, the uneasiness was palpable. I used to sleep down there, and when I woke up in pitch blackness I would see what I thought was a silhouette of a person.
That alone would make anyone uneasy, but I was committed to having my own personal space in the basement. I stayed there for weeks before too many sightings of this silhouette made me nervous to sleep downstairs.
I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me, until my ears started picking up sounds that shouldn’t have been. I would hear it… I would hear something whispering, footsteps creeping towards me. My heartbeat pumping out of my chest almost made it hard to hear.
I remember hearing the footsteps coming down the stairs in this pitch black basement, with only a little night light in the very corner so that I wouldn’t trip on my way to the bathroom. I sat up at the first creek of the floor board, I waited and heard another one.
I was terrified, “no one is there” I thought to myself, “it’s an old house”. Until…BAM! Something loud seemingly fell at the bottom of the stairs. I bolted out of my bed, and gathered my courage to run to the light switch on the other side. Of course I found no source of the sound or where it came from.
It was a hard couple of days for me trying to sleep upstairs on the living room couch, my new sleeping arrangement, and hear this child screaming with no reasoning as per her condition.
One late evening I had just finished talking to my brother before heading downstairs to grab a snack. My mother was holding on to the fridge handle with both hands, and as someone with tan skin looked she was seemingly pale.
I asked her what was wrong, she replies a bit hesitantly “there’s something in the basement, I tried to wash clothes and something yelled!”. “Sure mom” I say, because she is the type of person to exaggerate most things. “Really! There’s something there!” She protests, but I walk off chuckling to go back upstairs.
In this house we kept the lights off to save power, except for the occasional few to make sure we can actually see. I walked through this dark living room to make my way up the stairs and thought nothing more of it.
I take my first steps with one hand on the railing, when suddenly goosebumps spread throughout my body. In a moment an unimaginable sound whipped past me with an audible screech! Wind and all, I felt this thing… it felt alive! In my horror and surprise I nearly fall in place with a scream before catching myself on the railing.
I run back downstairs to my mother to confirm that she was right, there’s something in this house. We walk arm in arm throughout the house back to the safety of her room.
Only a few days later and the next sighting happened. My mother and I decided to watch movies that night and I could hardly keep my eyes open. When I open them again I saw him, the silhouette of a man in a black hat. In my half dazed state I pointed to him while looking at her and said “Can you see this man? He’s watching us right now.” I can still remember the horror in her face.
When I woke up completely I had asked her if I was dreaming or did the conversation actually happen, to which she confirmed it did and asked to stay next to me, for fear of being alone even in the same room as me.
Throughout all of these happenings I found myself moving throughout the house as if I was trying to avoid the uneasiness that followed me. Now I slept upstairs, in the small room that the girl had been in. I had a friend come out of state to visit me, tour the town and generally spend some part of her summer in a new place.
My home was susceptible to blackouts, oftentimes with no warning. Unfortunately it happened yet again while she was here. To make the best of our time together we lit candles, grab books and spent the night talking and laughing. We listened to my siblings and cousins run throughout the house before being told to go to bed, as it was well beyond their bedtime.
My brother was asleep in the next room, and the house was now quiet except for the sounds of me and my friend talking. I told her about my stress and uneasiness of this house; it led our conversations well into midnight. Then it began…
I listened to footsteps coming up the stairs, I can tell when it’s my siblings steps, but these steps were different. I get up from my bed to go to the door and look down the stairs, ready to yell at whomever is there to go to sleep… but no one’s there.
My friend, who is concerned by my silence asked me who it was. I turned to her to tell her that I thought it was my siblings but it’s dead silent downstairs. There’s no way they would have gotten up the stairs and down again so silently, as the stairs would not allow it due to the old creaky wood.
I awkwardly close the door and head back to my seating area before I hear pacing in the front door, and now my friend hears it too…
I yell towards the door believing it’s my brother, “hey, you better not be pranking us!” While I walked to the door yet again. I swing it open quickly expecting to find him there and nothing in the dark hallway was seen.
At this point we are both uneasy, and both settle into bed. We joke that the next time there’s a sound my friend should be the one to grab the door, and we laugh uncomfortably hoping that no other sounds creep through the silence. That was until a knock at the door…
We couldn’t understand how someone was knocking on the door, there was no footsteps no sound, just a sudden knocking at the door as if it was a real person wanting to come in. We look at each other before she tells me “you forgot to lock it!”. Before we could laugh at the absurdity,
‘BOOM’!
The door had been struck by something large and heavy as if a person fell into it. I nearly jump out of my bed in fright, and my friend who was just as surprised, was in disbelief. I immediately call my brother and ask him if he’s the one doing this, to which he replies that he’s in bed, but that he will come over right now.
We are shocked when we hear him through the wall in the other room, he was actually getting out of bed and walking towards our room. It ruled him out, our siblings were in bed as well when he inspected the halls for us which ruled them out as well.
With our room now crowded and stress levels subsiding, we slept the rest of the night in comfort knowing that we were together. It was a hard nights sleep for me though, I knew that whatever this was would only get worse.
I left to go to college, I never did go back into that house. My family moved out of there into a new home shortly after. I can’t say that it followed them because they never mentioned anything of it after, but the stress never did leave them… and I never looked back.