Do you ever find yourself in the middle of telling a story about part of your life to someone, and then realize that what you are saying sounds like a complete and utter lie? The words coming out of your mouth are describing a true moment in time of your life but it sounds absolutely crazy. I guarantee that when I am older I will be that person telling all of the tales of my youth to anyone that will listen. It has been a crazy ride thus far and it doesn’t show signs of slowing down any time soon.
My entire adult life, I have been a fan of all things horror. My favorite movie genre? Horror. Even as a kid I devoured every creepy book I could get my hands on. I read all of Stephen King’s IT at a young age but then had to sleep with it outside of my room just in case Pennywise decided to make a guest appearance and leap out of the book. I have also always believed in the paranormal. My belief stems partially from my own personal experiences, partially from close friends and family experiences and partially because I do not believe that when we die there is nothingness on the other side. As we get closer to Halloween, I would like to not only share some of my personal experiences but those of my readers as well. Please do feel free to submit any stories you have and with your permission I will happily share them on my blog. If you do not feel comfortable having your story out there just let me know and I’ll keep it to myself. The following story happened to me in 2008.
I was living in a small rental house in a suburban town close to St Louis MO. My household consisted of me, my boyfriend of four years at the time and our three year old son. My boyfriend worked late. Most of the time he would not come home until about 10pm, so it was typically just me and my son at home. I put my son to bed at about 7:30 and settled in on the couch to enjoy whatever show I was into at the time. From this vantage point I could see both the front and back doors. I could see my son’s bedroom door. As stated, this was a very small house with a pretty open floor plan. Around 9pm I was sprawled across the couch watching television when suddenly the couch started shaking. I quickly looked around the room and everything else appeared to be still. My two cats leapt off of the couch and darted around frantically. Leaping off of the couch myself, I looked around and everything was fine. I touched the couch and nothing was amiss. I sat back down and all was still. As I sat their wondering what in the actual hell had just happened to me, I heard the sound of breaking glass coming from my sons room followed by screaming and crying. I crossed the living room floor in about 1 second and flung open his door. He was sitting up in bed in hysterics. He held his small face in his hands crying and crying. I grabbed him up in my arms and started to survey his room. His room was the equivalent of a nursery. The closet was small with no door. His bedroom consisted of a dresser, the bed, and so many toys. In other words, I could see every inch of that room. There was nothing out of place. There was nothing on the floor, there was nothing broken. Holding him in one arm I opened the curtains fully expecting to see the window broken and shattered. Both windows were fine and locked. By now I am starting to really freak out but first I need to calm my sobbing son down. I held him and rubbed his back until he stopped crying, but even after that he wouldn’t say a word to me. I asked him what happened and he wouldn’t tell me. He wouldn’t say anything. I asked him if he had a bad dream. He shrugged his shoulders and just held me tightly. After a bit, I asked him if he was ok and ready to go back to sleep. He nodded, so I tucked him in, gave him a big hug and left the room softly shutting the door behind me. I then ran around the house. I checked both doors, I checked every window and I searched for whatever had fallen to the ground shattering in the process. There was nothing. Nothing was broken, nothing was out of place. All of the doors and windows were locked. This search did not take me long and in a few minutes I was back on the couch feeling completely unsettled. I picked up my phone to begin texting my boyfriend to ask him to come home early when my son’s scream pierced the silence of the house and he began crying again. I ran to his room, and found him largely in the same position as the first time. He was holding his face, shaking his head and crying again. I knelt down next to him asking him what had happened expecting more silence but instead he screamed, “There’s a man!” I’m sorry, what!? My head whipped around and I saw nothing. I asked my son very calmly where exactly he saw the man. He pointed to the corner of the room by the bedroom door. “What did he look like?” I asked. He told me that the man was tall, black all over, with a tall black hat and red eyes. Now I am internally screaming but trying to remain calm for my son. There was no way anyone had come into that room without my knowledge, or left it for that matter. I checked both windows again. Both are locked. I call my boyfriend and ask him to stay on the phone with me (Later I wondered why on earth I didn’t call 911 but at the time it all seemed so weird and I was absolutely certain there was no one in the house). I brought my son into the living room and proceeded to search the house again, keeping him in my sight at all times. Again, there was nothing amiss. Everything was in its place and there was absolutely no one in my house. When my boyfriend said he couldn’t leave work I told him we were coming to him. I put my son in the car and drove the 10 minutes to his work to wait until he got off. I filled him in on what happened and I could see in his face that he thought I was nuts. After we all went home we searched the house thoroughly and didn’t find anything. He still felt there was some kind of explanation for it all. A small earthquake?
A few basically uneventful weeks go by. By basically I mean I started to notice things out of place. Things that had happened since we moved in but I had written off to someone moving them around. One day I come home from work to find my boyfriend quite shaken. The first words out of his mouth when I opened the door were, “I believe you now”.
He had the day off and was on the computer browsing the internet. The computer was in that same living room. He could see the front and the back door. The house was quiet. Then out of nowhere someone said Hello. He froze. He heard it again. He went to the front door and there was no one there. He went to the back door. Same result. No one there. He went back to his chair and heard it again. Hello. Simple, concise and definitely from inside the house. This was not a question but a statement. This time he could tell it was coming from the back of the house. He went to the back door which was directly across from the stairs to the basement. As he looked out of the back door the voice echoed out again. It was coming from the basement. Freaked out he went downstairs but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Time passes and more small odd things happen. The next truly noteworthy event happened a few months later. After picking my son up from daycare, I pulled up to my house only to find a police car parked out front and a police officer walking around my house. I pulled into the driveway and asked him if there was a problem. He asked if I lived there. I told him I did. He asked if anyone was at home. No officer, I’ve been at work since early this morning and my boyfriend hasn’t been home since 9am. Is something wrong? The next thing he said chilled me to my bone. “We have received 5 911 calls today from a phone number at this address.” I started babbling, “Officer, we don’t have a home phone, nor do we have an alarm system. We haven’t been here all day. Please come inside and look around if you would like!” (24 year old me was not as wise as 39 year old me, now I would have called to verify he was actually a police officer even if he was driving a squad car). He walked me to the door, came inside, looked around and saw that no one was locked inside my house. I asked him what I should do. He said if it happened again they would come back out. Then he left.
We moved out not too long after this as our lease was up. The house itself has since been torn down. We moved on with our lives. A few years later I was recounting this story to a friend of mine who suggested we google some things. A few key words later and I was staring at “The Hat Man” and countless stories that matched my own experience that first time. Google that term yourself and dive into that rabbit hole for some very creepy things that have happened.
If disbelief has creeped into your mind while reading this dear reader, please know that every word of this is true.Send me your own creepy stories of the paranormal from your life.I live for that stuff.