by Traci H.
I was sitting on the couch in my living room watching TV. My family dog, a loving and faithful German Shepherd was laying on the floor in front of my feet. It was around 3:00 a.m. in the house - all quiet and everyone else was asleep. Out of the blue, I got a weird chill. Then, that strange feeling came over me; you know the one you get when you feel like your being watched. My dog got up, lowered her head and began to growl and pace back and forth. The hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. I sat there for a moment trying to shrug off that chill and watched my dog. She was visibly upset about something and I wondered if someone was walking around the house outside peeking in the windows. This would explain the strong feeling I had of being watched. Suddenly the hairs on my arms raised and I was covered with goose-bumps...and a feeling of irrational fear came over me. I knew something strange was happening, and I really didn’t like it one bit.
I am one of those people that really have a fear of ghosts; I find them unsettling and I don’t like weird things happening around me. I called my dog back over to me and ordered her to come lay down next to me again. My dog was my protector at that moment, and I knew that whatever I was feeling she was feeling the same thing; so I knew it wasn't my imagination. Finally after a couple of seconds, the dog finally came over and stood beside me, but would not lay down as ordered. I even tried to push gently on her back end, to get her to lay down; but she just refused to do so. I believe she felt that she needed to be on her guard and protect me, so I finally gave up trying to get her to lay down. It made me feel better to feel the warmth of her body standing next to me. There were a set of French doors that separated the living room from the foyer, and the stairs leading upstairs to where the bedrooms were. These French doors were closed tightly and latched, so there could have been no breeze flowing through this doorway. It was right around Christmas time and there were a set of Christmas bells hanging over the door on the living room side. Suddenly, those bells shook hard as if someone had grabbed them, and shook them hard. I was absolutely petrified! I felt like I could hardly catch my breath. My dog stood there absolutely erect, like a statue with her eyes fixed on the door still growling. Then all of a sudden, our family cat came streaking into the living room from the kitchen hissing; and dashed behind the couch. Even my cat freaked out! Then as suddenly as it started, it went away. It was just gone…no, I didn’t imagine this, and neither did my dog or my cat!
Another time I must tell you about...about what was in my bedroom. It was in the middle of the night; I don’t know what time it was, but I was in a deep sleep. I woke up abruptly and felt that strange familiar feeling again (the one where it feels like someone is watching you). I admit this house really gave me the creeps; and it always had from the day our family had moved in. I had always sensed the spirits in this house, and I always had an underlying feeling of unease because of this. At night I always slept with my window blinds up so I could get enough light in my room from the street light;, so any time I woke up in the middle of the night, I could pretty much see everything clearly in my room. Also, I never, ever sleep with my closet door open. Making sure the closet door is tightly closed, has always been a normal, nightly ritual of mine. My dad use to tell me there was nothing in the dark that isn’t in the light. Well, I wasn’t ever really whole heartedly convinced of that.
Anyway, I was always a very light sleeper - any little sound would wake me up. This night I am writing about, I was in a deep sleep and woke up quite suddenly; immediately, I opened my eyes. I don’t know why I woke up so abruptly, but I did. As my eyes came into focus, I looked around my room and then I looked down toward the foot of my bed; and what I saw frightened me so badly, that I was paralyzed! There was a man standing at the foot of my bed staring down at me! I tried to breathe, but it was hard. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them widely again (wondering if I was still dreaming or something), but I promise you, I was fully awake at that very moment. The funny thing then was, that I had such a fear of the dark that I had situated my bed in my room next to the wall, with the light switch; so, if I woke up in the middle of the night, all I had to do was reach up and flip on the light without having to get out of bed. I laid there looking at this man just standing over my bed, staring at me. I was so terrified, that I couldn’t even bring myself to lift my arm to turn on the light switch! I knew it wasn’t my dad, nor one of my brothers, either. My bedroom door was still closed. I know it wasn’t a shadow, because it was completely solid. I saw this man as clearly as I see this computer in front of me. It was too dark to see his face clearly; however, I do remember that it was a very tall man - much taller than my father. My guess would be that he stood at least 6’2, or maybe even taller...and he was thin. Finally, after what seemed like a very long time (Probably just a few minutes I guess. I have no idea how I managed to get up the courage to finally move), I bolted upright in my bed and flipped on the light! I didn’t take my eyes off that spot where this man stood; however, as soon as the light came on, there was nothing there. It was gone. I swear, as God is my witness, I know what I saw; and I know I was not dreaming. I saw that man standing there.
These are just a couple of experiences I have had throughout my life. There have been others before. And there have been others since; even as recently as just the last couple of weeks... but, none that were quite as terrifying to me. I do think that for some reason, I seem to attract this type of strange activity, because nobody else in my family has ever had anything weird happen to them (to my knowledge anyway). As I said before, and I’ll say it again, I don’t like it one bit; and I really wish these kind of things didn’t happen around me, because first it scares the heck out of me...but, also because nobody ever believes me when I tell them about it!