I knew We Weren't Alone

Member Article

Submitted By: Debra
Submitted On: July 5, 2004

I moved into this rental house August 2001. It was a one bedroom with kitchen, bath, large dinning room and large foyer plus a large living room. Since I needed three bedrooms, I turned the dinning room into a bedroom, used the living room as another bedroom and used the foyer as the living room. The house was built in the early 1800's and was brick. The present owners had done some renovating by adding siding and lowering the ceilings. Unexplainable events happened in this house from the time we moved in until the time we moved out. We lived there for exactly a year and moved because we bought a home, not because of the activity there. I actually was sad to leave it. I loved this little house. It had soul........as my brother said.

The First Night

The first night in the house the kids and I slept in one bedroom. This was the only thing to do since it was so late by the time the furniture had been moved in and all the bedding has been set up in this one room. This room had a fireplace, a door that lead into the living room and a door that lead into the other bedroom. I had a very uneasy feeling there that night. So much so that I just locked both the doors to the room and slept with a hunting knife. This feeling wasn't coming from being in a new location or from being alone without any other adults. I've lived alone before with and without children. It was a feeling that something just wasn't right. But I can't put my finger on what was setting this sense off.

The Front Porch Light

The first first thing I remember that caught my attention after a day or so of living there was the front porch light. It was motion activated and I at first thought that maybe a dog or something of the sort was setting it off. I can understand this happening a couple times each night if a neighbors dog would cross the beam while walking through the night. But was really odd was it would turn off and on every evening, over and over and over and over. Just as soon as it would go off, a minute or two later it would come back on. This would continue for hours. It became so annoying because my bedroom was on the front of the house that had a window that looked onto the porch and the lights would keep me awake.

After about two nights of this, I decided to stand by the front door which had a window and watch for the animal that was setting this off. When the light came on I never saw what it was that set it off. No dog, no cat, nothing. I kept standing there for nearly an hour watching each time as the light would be activated and come on. Always the same outcome. Nothing in sight.

I went outside at night and tested the sensitivity of the light. Walking straight up on it from the yard you had to get to the porch before it would come on. So, there couldn't be anything activating it out in the yard that was unseen due to the darkness. You could even walk up on the porch from the side and get to the door without it coming on. This strange activity continued for about two weeks and then stopped and the light began to operate as it should.

My Computer

I had my computer set up in my bedroom. Coming home from work in the evenings I would find it on and the hard drive booted up. The first couple times I thought I had shut everything down, but thought to myself "well, maybe I didn't". I then made a mental note to myself after it happened a few times. "Yes, I am shutting the computer off". And again, I came home with the computer booted up. This happened for only a short while. Just something to get my attention.

The Smell of Perfume

Shortly after moving in my daughter kept coming to me telling me she smelled perfume. I of course brushed this off and didn't have my "paranormal thinking cap" on. This happened many times. I asked her about the smell. Did it smell like flowers, was it a sweet odor or spicy? She never could distinguish which it smelled like. I finally smelled it on day from the bathroom while walking into her bedroom. It was a light perfumed Talcum Powder smell.

All Lights On

I would always leave the house for work in the mornings and made sure the lights inside the house were off. And living so far from Nashville, in the winter when I left the house it was dark. So, had I left any lights on in the house I would have noticed it. Although this didn't happen on a regular basis, I would sometimes comes home and find 'all the lights' on in the house. I can understand leaving one or two on by leaving in a rush in the mornings and not noticing. But never every light. I'm talking of all the lamps, ceiling lights, everything that could be turned on was on. And one time this happened the front door was standing wide open.

Foul Odor

My daughter had her 14th birthday in September. Since we'd just moved in in August we had to postpone her party until the first of October. I allowed her to have a slumber party in which she invited seven of her girl friends. The night went well and they stay up all night long. The next morning they were in the kitchen cooking pancakes for breakfast. I was still asleep and my daughter came to me and said there was a bad smell in the kitchen. I got up and went into the kitchen and there was the most foul stench in there. The girls told me that it just all of a sudden came in the kitchen. They'd been in there for a while because two or three of them had already eaten. There were so many girls they were having to cook the pancakes four or five at a time and said they didn't smell it until just a few minutes ago. I looked under the washer and the refrigerator, the cabinets for the possible cause of this stench. I thought maybe a mouse was up under one of them, but couldn't fine it. I even went outside to see if the smell was coming in from the outside, but it wasn't. No sooner than the foul smell came, it left in the same way. This made me a bit nervous for I knew what foul smells are associated with. This smell was like something rotting.

Bathroom Door Slams

The bathroom was off my daughters bedroom. She was sitting on her bed one day and the bathroom door just slams open. It hit so hard that it made a mark on the cabinets that sit behind it. She came into my room crying telling me what had happened. This really scared her and she started sleeping with me after this. It was nearly a month before she started to sleep in her room again.

The Kitchen

Noises could be heard coming from the kitchen from the other parts of the house. It sounded to me like someone in there rummaging around. I would wake up in the mornings and go in to find all my cabinet doors open. Questioning the kids, I thought maybe they'd done this during the midnight feeding frenzies. But, it happened quite often and the kids assured me it wasn't them.

The Knocking

Two separate occasions my daughter and I heard knocking coming from the back of the house. We were in the living room one night watching television and heard knocking. I got up and looked out the widow of the living room which looked towards the back of the house and could see no one. This was a controlled knock. It wasn't from the wind blowing a tree and hitting the house. While my daughter and I were getting ready for bed one night we heard the knocking again coming from the same location. I didn't bother to investigate. I figured if it was anyone, they would eventually come to the front door where the lights were on in the house. Why would they go to the back of the house and knock on the door in the dark? If it were family (which it wasn't) they would've come to the door. If it were unknown visitors they would have come to the front.

Crashes Heard

While in my bedroom I heard a very large crash. It came from the kitchen area. I went in their expecting to find some horrible mess to have to clean up and wondering what the heck it was. I couldn't find anything out of place. I checked the house completely and everything was in order. What ever made the sound was quite large because of how loud it was.

Something Comes Up Behind Me

My daughter was still sleeping with me at this time (because of the bathroom door slamming open) and she had gone on to bed before me. We had been watching television. After about ten minutes I go on to bed and she's already asleep. I get in bed, laying on my left side with my back to the bedroom door which led into the living room. After a few minutes I had this horrible feeling come over me that something was behind me. Out of reflex I guess, I pulled the covers over my head and grabbed my daughter. I stayed like that I would estimate at least five minutes until the feeling was gone and I felt safe to come out. This wasn't a good feeling at all. I now wish I'd had the courage to turn around and look.

The Fabric Softener

My daughter had dropped a fabric softener sheet in her floor and I'd asked her several times to pick it up. So, just to see how long she would walk over it, I left it. While sitting on the couch and talking to my sister on the phone, I could look into my daughter's room and see the fabric softener sheet lying in the floor. It had been there several days. The sheet lifted itself off the ground about a foot and set itself back down. No, it wasn't a breeze.

The Apparition

My daughters best friend spent the night with us and they were in the bedroom watching television. They were sitting on a love seat my daughter had in her room that sat in front of the television. She saw a full bodied apparition of a woman come out of the wall, walk right past the love seat and disappear. She explained what the woman had on. A dark dress with a little white collar and the length was half way between her knee and ankle. She doesn't recall any shoes or feet and stated she had her hair pulled into a bun.