My Haunted Home

I don't think I would ever classify the house I live in now as haunted. Having grown up in my mom's current home in Winfield, where it was a strange day when you DIDN'T see an apparition walking down the hall, pretty much any sort of suspected paranormal activity happening here would pale in comparison.

I can't deny it, though. Over the years since we've owned the house, there have been a few things going on that we were never able to fully explain away.

It first started before we even moved in. My son and I were still at my mom's house, but Aaron was ready to move out of his house in Charleston. Before he could, the house needed some major work. Aside from desperately needing a new roof, we also had to clear out the rest of the previous owners' belongings, tear up all the old carpet, lay a new kitchen and family room floor, and paint. Aaron, often accompanied by my dad, would come over to the house in the evenings after work to get as much done as possible.

On at least one occasion, both Aaron and my dad swear they saw a UFO. They were taking a break out on the front stoop. Our neighborhood is pretty high up on a hill, so we have a fair view of the Hurricane Walmart out our front door. It was in the sky above this area where they noticed the glowing orb. Inside the house, things were a little spookier...

My dad was working alone one evening, after the carpets had been pulled up. He was in one of the bedrooms painting and heard the distinct sounds of kids running through the living room, laughing. He assumed that we had brought Luke over and that it was he who was causing the commotion. However, when he stepped out to meet us, he discovered that he was still alone and had been the entire time. I have yet to hear the sounds of the children in the house, but later on, I'd have my own experiences.

Living Room, where the sounds of phantom children running were heard

After the house was in livable condition, Aaron moved in. Luke and I came about a year and a half later. We moved in the summer before Luke started preschool. That winter, Aaron got a new job. As part of his training, he had to be out of town for a week at a time several times over the course of a few months. That left me and Luke home alone....but not entirely alone.  Around this time, Luke had been having trouble sleeping. He's always had night terrors, but they seemed to have gotten worse. This is also around the time when he started wanting to sleep in our bedroom. Or, he would wake up at night, turn on all the lights, and shut his door. The logical part of me tried to explain his behavior by the changes that were going on. We hadn't lived in this house all that long, plus Aaron was away a lot.

But then I started seeing things. When Aaron was away, I would sleep in my office/bedroom. I usually kept the door partly open so that I could hear Luke if he got up in the night. And, of course, we were keeping the hall light on for Luke as well. Lying in bed on several occasions, I could see movement in the hallway through the crack of my door. It looked as if there was a person standing in the hall, peeking in at me through the crack. Even though this shadowy figure was much taller than Luke, and Aaron was out of town, I'd still always get up and check...never finding anything.

Things reached a peak one weekend while Luke was spending the night at my mom's house and I was alone. As I walked past his room and peeked in, I nearly had a heart attack. I saw what appeared to be a dark, shadowy figure standing beside his bed. That night, I grabbed the sage. As I saged every inch of the bedroom and the hallway, I firmly told whatever it was in there that we were going to come to a compromise. It was welcome to stay in the house if it wished, but under no circumstances would it EVER show itself to my son or invade his personal space (the bedroom) again. If it did, I would do everything in my power to make sure it was banished from here.

That seemed to work, lol. Luke's sleeping habits started to get back to normal, and I never saw the dark figure again. Every now and again I'll hear a noise I can't account for, or something will go missing, only to reappear nearly right in front of me. Many times as I'm sitting on the couch in the family room, I'll swear I'll catch movement coming from the living room in my peripheral vision...but I can never get a close enough glimpse to see if it is anything. I honestly don't know if there is anything in this house and if there is, where it came from. However, I'll be keeping my eyes and ears open and letting you all know of any potential activity that may occur in the future.  Happy Haunting!