Geekade’s Scariest Moments: Haunted House
And now for something a little different. While most of our Geekaders shared moments from films, books, or video games that scared them, Evelin here decided to share a story from her life. Beware, it’s spooky.
In the year of 1998, my family and I moved into the first house my parents ever owned. It was the perfect sized house for 3 children. We all had our own rooms and there was a large front yard with 2 trees and space for an above ground pool. In the midst of all the excitement my older sister, younger brother and I were able to convince my parents to get our very first puppy: Bingo.
Months passed…school started…rooms were just starting to get decorated to our own perfection. My parents had some of our relatives over one weekend. I was in the living room playing with my cousins on my Nintendo 64 when I overheard their conversation regarding the house. Apparently my parents found some disturbing items deep in the basement belonging to the former owner. All I know of the person living there before was that it was some old lady…not sure if she moved…could no longer live in the space on her own or died. I didn’t really concern myself with such things when I had my cousins to beat in Mario Kart. But I did remember hearing the word “Santeria.”
One day my parents sat all of us down and said they were planning on doing some construction to the house. Updates. New kitchen. New bay windows in the living room. Bathroom downstairs. Expand my brother’s bedroom upstairs. And finish the basement downstairs into an apartment to rent, but still leaving space for our washer & dryer—it was so nice to finally have one of those, just for us.
My sister and I were always fond of scary movies. Chuckie, Krueger, Jason, Alien… just to name some 80s/90s classics. Anything involving ghosts, aliens, nightmares were always on our radar, regardless of the lack of sleep that soon ensued. So we considered ourselves “experts” of the paranormal. We knew what to and not to do in those kinds of situations. Don’t walk towards the creepy sound. If the lights go out, run. Don’t play Ouija and try to summon someone, or something. The basics. But we forgot one thing…not really a rule per say…more like a precaution. Renovating a house might disturb something or someone that doesn’t wish to be disturbed.
It was the middle of the night. Everyone was in their own rooms, in their own beds. Bingo was sleeping beside mine. A habit I happily accepted. The house was in mid-construction. Dry wall exposed. Furniture in disarray. Projects in mid completion. When a CRASH woke all of us up. We all thought that perhaps one of us had fallen or dropped something downstairs. But there we all were. In the hallway in our pjs. After a quick inspection done by my mother holding a broom and my sister holding an iron, they found that nothing fell. Nothing broke. Nothing showed signs that it had made that loud crashing sound. Confused and a bit shaken up, we all went back to bed. My siblings and I slept in my room that night.
We didn’t think all too much about that night. We told our friends and family in passing…like a joke we all laughed…until it wasn’t all that funny anymore.
Throughout the years that we lived in that house, all of us kept switching rooms. Like a game of musical chairs. The one I liked the least was the one right next to the staircase. You could hear anyone or anything walking up and down those stairs. It was the worst at night. It was the worst when the footsteps would stop at the top of the stairs. It was the worst when Bingo would start to growl and bare his teeth. It was the worst because I knew everyone was asleep.
During the day, my mom would be home alone with Bingo. She worked nights, so she would wake up around 11/Noon, cook dinner and leave it on the stove for us, do some housecleaning and get ready for her work day. Sometimes something would get in her way. It was minor, but it was irritating. She would put a load in the washer and notice it wouldn’t start. She thought one of us probably broke it. This was when we all started doing our own laundry on our own, after all. But during a closer inspection, she found out the machine was actually unplugged. Not an easy feat since you’d have to move the entire machine within the cramped space it was in, and you’d have to really wiggle it and pull on the cord. She brushed it off… the first time.
During one of these days, she was coming up the basement stairs when she heard the house phone ring. We had 2 house phones mounted on the wall. One downstairs in the kitchen and one in my parents’ room upstairs. She picked up the line and was about to speak when we heard that someone already picked up the other line and started talking. She hung up and figured my sister was home upstairs. Till she realized it was a school day and she was alone in the house, or at least that’s what she thought. She spent the rest of her afternoon at her friend’s house across the street until she had to go to work.
Having a large yard has many advantages, like being able to ride your bike for a few hours. My brother would go around in a large square. Passing the apple tree, passing the large bushes, passing the peach tree, then going along the house. The house had 2 entrances in the front; the main entrance on the far left, and one on the far right that leads to the staircase upstairs. The right side had 2 doors; a clear one that leads into some small mudroom and another wooden leading inside the house. When we passed this side entrance, my brother and I saw 2 very strange things; something we first thought was just our eyes playing tricks since we were going so fast on our bikes. But we saw it again, or rather, we saw him. A small boy staring at us…the door opening and closing on its own. We didn’t go inside the house till everyone was home.
My grandmother flew from Nicaragua and stayed with us for a few months. We began to tell her of some strange occurrences in the house. She told us to pay them no mind, that they just want to be noticed. A few nights later my mother woke from her sleep. She felt a strange need to look outside her door. She noticed it was open. From her bedroom bed you have a clear view of the hallway leading past my room, my brother’s room, and the staircase. And right outside my brothers room, she saw someone standing by the door staring at my brother. He was 6 or 7 at the time. It was an old lady dressed in a nightgown. My mother thought it was strange that my grandmother was up and walking around. She called out her name but received no response. She shrugged her shoulders and went back to sleep. The next morning during breakfast she asked my grandmother why she was awake so late last night. My grandmother was so confused. “What are you talking about? I was asleep all night. Are you sure you weren’t just dreaming?” My mother made sure to always keep her bedroom door open after that night, just so she can keep an eye on my brother. But that didn’t help what was going to happen later.
Living in a house you believe to be haunted can make it rather difficult to go to sleep. My dad didn’t believe too much in ghosts so he always slept well. My mom thought of them as just pests. My sister had friends from California she was instant message till dawn and I had my dog Bingo by my side, protecting me. But my brother…who did he have? In my opinion, I feel like that small boy had something against my brother. He appeared to my mom a few times and tried getting my brother in trouble. But things became evident when my brother would start to cry at night because voices were coming out of his pillow. Something was p
ulling his hair and someone had shoved him off his bed. He didn’t sleep too well for a while.
We moved out of the house eventually, not necessarily because of the haunting, but we were relived to be free of it. Not too long after, I found out that another family moved in. We had moved to another town, so it was quite some time when I was back in the area visiting a friend, I felt like walking past our old house. Such a drastic change they’ve made! Then entire front yard was paved over to create an obscenely large driveway and the apple tree has been cut. I began to walk away quickly. I can only imagine what they might have gone through during those renovations. I can imagine, but I’d rather not.
Evelin is the E half of BE Cosplay. They can be seen wearing some amazing outfits at conventions all over, and their videos can be seen on their YouTube page, or right here on Geekade.
