If You've Got It, Haunt It

There was no shortage of paranormal happenings in the duplex, that was for sure. Most things, though, happened so often that they stopped being strange. They were things that happened to most people. I would hear voices, I never felt truly alone, and things would not be where I left them.

One event, however, has been something that has stuck with me even to this day. It must have been a year or so before we moved, and while I hadn't worked up the courage to sleep in the dark I had recently braved coming out from under my covers. I mean, in the back of everyone's mind they know that hiding under the covers wont actually keep them safe from monsters. Since I was growing up, I figured it was time to stop being so afraid at night.

Before I continue, I'd like to remind you what the layout of my room was:

One night I was sleeping, with my back to my room so I couldn't see any monsters coming for me. However, at some point in the middle of the night, I had woken up feeling uncomfortable. I knew I had to change positions somehow, but simply moving my legs wasn't doing the trick anymore. So finally, after years of only facing my wall, I turned over.

I had made the mistake of keeping my eyes open when I did.

My small brain had reasoned that if I could clearly see that there was nothing else in my room with me, then I would be able to sleep just find. Except when I turned over and faced my fears, I found myself looking right at the very reason I had spent all those years facing the wall.

When I turned over I saw a very clear figure peeking out at me from the other side of my dresser. Even now I can close my eyes and see it just as clearly as I had then. I saw a head and shoulders, but after that the figure was hidden by my dresser, as though they were on their knees and leaning over.

I stared at the figure for only a few seconds before it ducked back behind my dresser. Thinking maybe my brothers were playing a trick on me I jumped out of bed and ran to that empty space, but nothing was there. It was as if the figure had gone through the wall and disappeared.

By some miracle I managed to get back to sleep, this time from under the safety of my blankets with only a small hole to watch my room incase the figure returned.

The insident faded into the background with all of the other creepy things that happened in that house. I was, at the time, convinced that I was just an imaginitive child. I thought, maybe after having such back luck at creating an imaginary friend that I had finally found the creativity to visualize one and make him. real.

After we moved out of the duplex and into the blue house my family and I were all standing around our new kitchen and talking about how creepy the duplex was. It was only then that my dad informed me of a piece of information he was given after we had moved into the duplex.

Apparently there had been a man who had lived on the other side sometime before we moved in who had taken his life in the room right next to mine.

I don't know how he did it or how long it had been between his death and us moving in. I've never been good at researching that kind of stuff. But it seemed to explain most of the things that had happened inside that house.

While I don't normally tag her in my posts, I thought that sixpenceee would like this story:

I think I was 8 or so when my dad found out that his mother was dying. As we lived across the country from each other, I never really got to see my grandparents on my dad's side often. The last time I'd seen her was when we went to visit Ohio for Christmas. I was six-years-old then. But not a single holiday or birthday passed where I didn't hear from them. It didn't matter that we couldn't see them, I knew my grandparents loved me.

We didn't have a lot of money, which also prevented us from flying out to visit, but my uncle was able to fly my dad out to see my grandma. I remember being so angry that he was the only one who could go. I didn't understand money or how much of it was needed to fly a family of five from Oregon to Ohio. All I understood was that the last time I would get to see her ever was Christmas when I was six. I wouldn't get to say goodbye.

So dad went to Ohio. He saw a Notre Dame pregame (we are a college football household and Notre Dame is our team). He got to visit with his whole family and he had a great time. I'm glad he got to go. And after hearing about his time there I wasn't angry anymore that I couldn't go. My needed to be with his family, and I, even though I was his daughter, could still manage to not be a brat and complain that I couldn't go.

Anyway, a few months later I woke up and turned over in my bed so that I was facing my room instead of the wall. Sitting in the wicker chair next to me was my grandmother. I could see the detail of her face, of her hair, her smile when she turned and looked at me, but she still held that kind of rainbow watercolor feel the things in the manufactured house had. And the smile she gave me was so big and warm and full of love. But then I blinked, and she was gone.

I didn't really think anything of it until the phone rang a few hours later. My uncle had called to tell my dad that my grandma had passed away. It wasn't until he got off the phone and told us that I understood; I had been upset that I couldn't say goodbye to my grandma, so she came and said goodbye to me. And I was reminded again of how, no matter how far apart we lived, she loved me.

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I just moved and am still in the process of putting the new place together. But I had a bit of time so I thought I'd share another tale with you.

I believe this was the first summer after we moved into the duplex. We didn't have air conditioning so my family and I combated the heat by putting box fans in our windows. It didn't do much during the day, but nighttime was a complete bliss with all that cool night air flowing in.

If you recall my brilliantly artistic representation of my room in the duplex my bed was under my window, which meant that I was right under the fan while I slept. I had been asleep for a while, long enough that my parents and brothers were all fast asleep as well, when I was awoken by something slamming into the palms of my hands.

In my sleep, I had managed to turn onto my back (at the time I was strictly a side sleeper, so I would have never been on my back or stomach) and put both of my hands up in front of me just in time to catch the fan as it fell from my window.

When I opened my eyes I felt and arm come around me and my grandfather's (who had died a few years before) voice tell me that everything was alright. That was the only time, up to that point, that I had ever encountered a spirit that I knew.

Besides my "Rainbow People," I can't recall really experiencing anything out of the norm in our manufactured home. However, the next home I lived in, the duplex, proved to be a lot more active. After all, I received a visitor my very first night there.

I believe I was either five or I had just turned six when we moved into the duplex. Given how big my brothers and I were at the time it seemed huge. Now I'm sure it would feel cramped. Anyway, we had to be out of the manufactured home by the next day. The move was very sudden and my dad had to spend the entire night moving things to our new home. Since I was just a little thing I got the luxury of going to sleep at 9 and not having to help at all, since I was pretty weak and useless.

Here's the layout of what that room looked like (shhhhh, it's a quick sketch!):

Yes, very pretty and artistic, I know, but this is going to have to be the representation for my stories that take place in the duplex, so get used to it. Anyway, this room really was large so there was a lot of space between my bed and the bin full of stuffed animals.

I was trying to sleep (facing the wall and under the blankets because that's the only safe way to sleep when you're a child) when I felt something hit the back of my leg. I was used to my cat, Cookie, crawling up in bed with me and setting in the crook of my legs so at first I thought it was her. And then I remembered that our cats were outdoor and indoor cats and they had not yet been brought to the new house. Very slowly and with great caution I started to pull the blanket down from around my head and peek over at the foot of my bed.

Staring right at me were the marble eyes of a stuffed panda that I knew for a fact was sitting at the very top of my stuffed animal bin when I had crawled into bed. Naturally, I did the only thing a five/six-year-old could do. I opened my mouth and let forth a blood curdling scream.

Over the years I have replayed this event in my head many, many times. My door had been open just in case I called out for my mom. This means that I was able to see her and both my brothers come running up the stairs to try and figure out what had caused me to scream so loud. While I would have loved to blame my brothers for this act of terror neither of them were quick enough or quiet enough to have thrown my stuffed animal at me and gotten away without me noticing them.

I don't know how my mom convinced me to stay in my room that night, or really any other night. That room would hold some of the scariest moments of my life over the next few years. I should have made my brothers switch rooms with me right then, but I didn't. I mean nothing like that had ever happened to me before, so why should I expect it to happen again, right?

Part of the reason I started this blog is because I wanted to know if there were other people out there who shared my experiences. Or maybe you've just been holding on to a paranormal experience. Maybe there is an urban legend where you live that you have actually experienced some truth in. Whatever it is, I would like you to share it with me. Either tag me in your posts or send me your stories through fan mail or messages and I will make sure to share them.

I'm going to do my best in order to retell these stories in the order that they happened. But I know for a fact that my first memories of ghosts include "rainbow people."

So, my entire life my family has joked that paranormal activity had never happened to them until I was born. I assume that means that things had happened before this memory, but I haven't yet been told anything in particular.

Anyway, I think I was turning three. Most people don't remember this age, for my third birthday I got a Pocahontas themed bedroom, and I remember waking up on my birthday, running into my parents' room, and jumping on my mom while I screamed about my new room I was getting. We lived in a manufactured home at the time, and besides that morning, every morning I can remember being there consisted of rainbow people.

I used to wake up before everyone else, and often times I was the reason my parents woke up. Until they were up, however, I just walked around my house doing my three-year-old thing, but I remember not being alone. I saw the silhouettes of people very clearly. Men in fancy hats and women in big dresses. But they weren't white figures or shadow figures. They were swirling with color, like someone was swirling watercolor in a clear glass. I remember talking with them and interacting with them like I would anyone else who had walked into our home.

I was never able to have imaginary friends while I lived in that house. It wasn't for lack of trying, and it's not like they ran away or anything. I just preferred my stuffed animals and my brothers; with them I had no need for imaginary friends. And besides, as far as I know kids don't actually see their imaginary friends, no matter how perfectly they can describe them, at least that's been my experience. The one time I tried to have an imaginary friend I couldn't picture him so it didn't work out.

I only ever saw my rainbow people at the manufactured home. I stopped seeing them the day we moved into the duplex. I don't know if they belonged in that home or maybe they just didn't want to deal with the spirits of my new home. Either way, I think those were the most pleasant spirits I have encountered, if that is what they were.

I've never heard anyone else mention rainbow people, so I'm really curious. What could they have been? Was it simply the imagination of a three-year-old? Were they spirits? Has anyone else seen rainbow people before?