The House in Australia -- From My Friend 'A'

'A' had lived in Australia with her family, in her youth. There were several strange occurances in one of the houses they lived in. I have merged them into one section.

One night, her father awoke to a vision of a long-haired girl in their room. She was hovering over the parent's bed, with a faint smile on her face. She was colorless, and slightly hazy. He felt that she was about 18 years old. She either disappeared, or he lost sight of her. 'A' didn't say if the girl ever reappeared. Later, they heard that a young girl had either killed herself, or was murdered, on that property. Her body had been discovered in a well that A's family didn't even know existed. It was hidden, and overgrown with ivy.

'A' herself was afraid of her room, choosing to sleep every night on the floor in the hallway, rather than in her bed. She kept seeing visions of strange figures dancing around a fire.

Her older brother was also afraid of his room, especially his closet. Once, a series of loud shuffling sounds was heard coming from inside his closet. When the closet was opened, after the sounds had stopped, all the things in his closet had been moved around, and were stacked up in strange ways.

One night, there was a thunderstorm. A's brother was afraid, and couldn't sleep. The father was out, and wouldn't be back until much later, so the mother elected to stay in the brother's room, so the boy could sleep. After a while, she felt that there was someone behind her. She looked, but no one was there. Then she felt cold air on her neck, in a rythmic patturn, as though someone were breathing. The windows were all shut, and there were no drafts in the room. As the breathing continued, she became more upset, and was very glad when the father finally came home. She wanted to move out.

The mother had a further incident happen to her, which made them finally decide to leave. She was on her way to the basement, to get some things. As she started down the stairs, she suddenly lost her footing, but just managed to regain her balance in time. She said she had felt a hand suddenly give her a shove.

They moved out of the house, because it was becoming troublesome to almost the entire family. They put the house up for sale, and immediately moved to another house. It was a fairly new house, as well, only about 12 years old at that time. They think that something else may have been there before that house, though. No one else ever stayed in the house for very long, and A thinks it still stands vacant to this day.

Other than the usual bumps and unexplained noises, there were no other major events in that house that A can recall right now. However, when her and her older sister were riding their bikes down a path to the local soccer field, they came upon a murky cloud hovering near the ground. As they approached, in quickly lifted up and flew away into the woods.

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The Girl's Voice -- From My Friend 'A'

A's family moved to Nova Scotia, after Austrailia, and lived in a succession of old houses. Old houses in Nova Scotia almost all seem to have strange occurances. One of the events which stands out the most in her mind, is one which took place in a house on a quiet road near Peggy's Cove. It happened early in the morning of November 1st (she says she knows that makes it sound a bit suspicious and corny, but it did happen). The area that she lived in was mostly taken up by summer homes for retirees, so there were very few, if any, children nearby. At 2:33am, she began to hear a child's voice calling from her backyard. It sounded very hollow, and the child seemed to be a little girl of about 6 or 7. She kept calling "No Mommy, please don't go, don't go". The voice lasted for about 5 minutes or so before stopping. 'A' lay awake for about an hour, expecting the voice to start crying again, but she never heard it after that.

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The Attic -- From My Mother

She told me the details of this occurance, but I'm going to have to ask her again...

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The Door -- From 'PM'

The house that 'PM' lived in had a reputation for being haunted and having strange occurances, even before his family moved in. The house itself had been moved from it's location, to a less water-logged one (it had been beside a river). The owners had a daughter, who came home late one night, and couldn't get in the front door, so came in through the basement. Something down there shocked her so badly she was hospitalized, though they didn't say for how long. Things like that. When the family of 'PM' moved in, the mother had a priest in to exorcise the place. It didn't work very well. One night, 'PM' was coming down the narrow staircase to the kitchen. This house was an old victorian style house, with a large staircase going to the sitting room, and a large entrance. This staircase was rarely used. Instead, they tended to use the small, curved servant's staircase, which led into the kitchen area. The kitchen also had a way outside, but it was through two sets of doors, which were kept closed at night. The windows were almost never opened in the kitchen. As he rounded the corner, down the stairs, the wooden door to the staircase slammed shut in his face. That door was never closed, unless they themselves closed it. It had never closed by itself before. The windows and doors in the kitchen were closed, and if there had suddenly developed a draft, it couldn't have closed the door. 'PM' didn't try the door. He decided to turn around, and go back to bed. I, myself, never had a strange occurance in his house.

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The Nightmares -- From 'PM'

'PM' also suffered from nightmares, which he only had in that house, never in other buildings. They always involved some nameless thing, which he could not recall upon waking, but which he knew was trying to get him. His dreams were often overlaid on the actual world, like a projected movie. His parents eventually had to keep his weapons under their own bed, so that he wouldn't try to use them. He tried a few times to get these weapons, even from under their bed, in his dream-state. His father had to protect him a few times, when he tried to fling himself down the staircases to escape whatever it was that chased him. It leered at him from corners and stood on his bed, yet never bothered him in his collage dorm room, only in his own room.

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The Cat Who Wasn't There -- From 'PL'

'PL' was a landlady of mine, who took care of, and lived in, a victorian 'mansion' bought by her parents. The house had more or less been turned into apartments. There was a seperate apartment in the back, but the rooms upstairs were not seperated from the downstairs, where 'PM' lived with her young daughter and boyfriend. I was subletting one of the upstairs rooms. Also attached was a large attic, with a staircase leading up to it. There was a mock turret on the corner of the house, and in the attic, the turret had been lined with fabric. There were three people who had rented the place before I got there; one had been in each of the two upstairs rooms, and the third lived in the attic. There was a wandering cat who would come into the house to stay for a while. It liked to come into the attic and sleep on the guy's bed. One night, he heard the cat come into the attic, and felt it jump onto the bed beside him. He reached down to pet it, but there was nothing there. I can't remember if 'PM' said he stayed in the attic after that, or not. The only strange thing which happened to me in that house also was a cat which wasn't there.

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The Arm -- From 'PL'

In the section of the house where 'PM' lived, the living room was seperated from the hallway with a set of glass doors. Her boyfriend and daughter were sitting in the living room, watching TV. The boyfriend saw something outside of the doors, and for a moment, saw a woman's slender arm. 'PM' was either out of the house, or in her room, but in any case, her arms were not that slender.

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The Lady -- From 'PL'

I was coming down the stairs to the lower part of the house, where I was met by 'PM', who had a strange look on her face. She asked me if I had just been downstairs a bit earlier. I hadn't. She told me that she, her daughter, and her boyfriend had been in the livingroom. They noticed a figure walk past the door, and stand in the downstairs part of the turret, near the staircase. It was a pale figure, wearing a long grey dress, with their hair piled up on top of their head. As I was pale, and tended to wear strange, dark clothing, they thought (or hoped) it was me. Thought, at the time, I had a small 'mohawk' hairstyle, so wouldn't have had enough hair to pile up on top of my head. The figure had disappeared after a while. I never saw such a figure while staying there.

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The Man In The Corner -- From 'PL'

When 'PL's daughter was about 2 or 3, she used to be seen sitting in the livingroom, staring up at one of the corners where it joined the ceiling. She would occasionally nod, as if asked a question, and she would speak to it. One day, 'PM' became curious enough to ask her small daughter what she was doing. The girl pointed up at the corner and said "Talking to him."

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The Footsteps -- From Me

My grandparents and uncle lived in another victorian 'mansion', which had been owned by one of a set of twin brothers. The other twin had a house which was either exactly the same, or the mirror opposite, and which was next door. I never spoke to the people in that house, so I don't know if anything strange happened there, but there were strange things in my grandparent's one. One night, I couldn't sleep. We always slept in the Pink Room (there were a few named rooms in the house, probably given by the children) when visiting. I left the Pink Room, because I could not sleep there. I tried sleeping in the old claw-foot bathtub, in the bathroom for a while, but soon left. I went to my grandmother's room, and woke her up. This was the first time I had heard her act cranky, as she snapped that I should go sleep on one of the cots downstairs. I left to go sleep on one of the cots in the TV room. Soon after I entered the room, it became loud with sounds coming from the walls. I tried to lay down and sleep, but the sound was too loud and scary. It sounded like several people were walking quickly up and down on the insides of the walls. It didn't sound like the house settling, because I had slept in the house many times, and never before heard these loud sounds. The cot was beside the wall, and I could hear the footstep sounds progressing, and it sounded like they were going in various directions, with their paths crossing. I could only stand it for a short time, before I had to go back upstairs, to the Pink Room again. The next day, I told my mother about the sounds. She told me about the time when she was a kid, and had tried to stay up in the old "maid's" room (now a playroom), in the attic, with her brothers overnight. That is the story of the attic, as stated earlier.

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The Strange Cat -- From Me

When I was subletting a room in 'PM's house, I spent a lot of time painting up in the attic, or in my room. One day, I was just sitting on the edge of my bed, when I saw a cat run past me, coming from the side of the room with the closed windows, and heading towards the side of the room with the door. There hadn't been a cat in my room, and this cat looked nothing like the cat that was in the house, anyway. I never saw it again after that.

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My Cat -- From Me

When I was younger, I had a cat named Spitty. It lived for a fairly long time, but then got sick. My father took it to the gravel pits at the end of the subdivision area, far behind our house. There, it 'died' and was supposedly buried. They wouldn't tell me where he was supposedly buried, so I couldn't visit his grave or anything. They only told me he was going for a drive with dad. Some time later, we got a young cat and took in an older cat from a neighbour. Both of those cats were outside the night I saw Spitty again. My bed was next to the wall opposite my bedroom door, which at the time was always open. I had just come back from the washroom, and looked back at the door as I got into bed. In the doorway, was Spitty, sitting and looking at me. He looked paler, and I could see him clearly. He sat there looking at me for a minute or two, and then vanished. I never saw him again.

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