Noises, Eyes, and Scary Trees (Oh My)

From: Dianne (ravyncat@yahoo.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Amarillo, Texas
Source: Form Submission

Well, here is another one. I hope these aren't getting too annoying--it's just sort of satisfying to be able to 'tell' people about weird crap and not be laughed at. You can laugh all you want after reading this, I don't have to know. (Some other submissions from me: A Scary Texas Barn, A Deer's Revenge, A Haunted Birthday Party, and a Tale From a Haunted Texas Apartment).

I've been describing my haunted barn, so now I think I'll talk about the house...It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, largish ranch style house. The house is in "Rolling Hills', which is a suburban area about 5 miles north of Amarillo, Texas. The house was built sometime in the early 70's.

Only two other families have lived there, and noone has died there. The house had a reputation as 'The Divorce House' before my parents bought it, because everyone that had lived there ended up divorced. This is true.

My parents divorced within a year of buying the house. My Mom remarried , and that marriage also ended in divorce. While I lived in that house, I never had a sucessful relationship (longer than about 4 months), and neither did my sister. My brother also had several rocky relationships. Some of that may have been teen angst, but it still seems weird.

We moved into the house in 1976 when I was 3. Me and my brother, who was 2, shared a room. Directly across from our door was my Mom's door (Dad didn't really live there that long). Down a short hallway was my older sister's door.

I remember waking up terrorfied several times as a small child. I remember a "thing" coming out of my closet and walking up to look at me. It was strange, sort of like the dog robot off of BattleStar Gallactica. (Foxy? or was that the little boy?) I was very small because I was looking through the safety bars of a baby bed. (My brother and I didn't get real beds until I was 4).This "thing" told me in my mind that it's name was "Lucy" and that it watched over me. Well it scared the crap out of me! I remember closing my eyes in utter fear, and then strangely just going to sleep.

My brother always saw something scary on our door at night. I never saw it even if I slept in his bed. We always slept with our door open so that Mom could hear us if we were in trouble, and the hall light made it show up in the paint on the door. He continued to see whatever it was until we repainted the house when he was 13.

My brother also saw red eyes looking in the window at us. He saw them halfway up the window. What's creepy, is that from the outside of the house to look into the window at that height you need to be about 7 feet tall...if you're standing on the ground.

Both of us woke up scared and ran to our Mom's room several times. I remember sleeping on the floor in front of my Mom's door when it was shut, because that felt safer than my room. I did that so often that she made a joke of it.

Several times we both saw weird lights shining through our window. All these weird events were so common that we made a journal of them when I was about 7.

When I was 9, my sister went away to college, and I got her room. Creepy things continued to happen. I had the most terrible nightmares almost every night. They got so bad that I could only sleep with the light on. I slept with my light on every night until I was about 14. I still sleep with it on if I have bad dreams. I admit, I have a very strong fear of the dark. I also had a dread of my closet. I didn't like it, and still don't.

When I was about 11, my Mom and my soon-to-be Stepdad went out on a date and left me and my 10 year old brother alone. It was a school night, so I was doing homework in my room. In the hall outside of my room were two mattresses which were leaning against the wall. You had to push them up or duck under them to get down the hall. My brother was playing in his room.

I heard footsteps walking by the front hallway--one of it's wall's was also a wall to my room. I thought this was strange because noone had opened the door, but figured that it was my brother. He came running into my room then, and asked if I had heard the footsteps.

I still thought he was playing a prank, until we heard them again. We both ran out my door, ducked under the matresses and ran into my Mom's room. We didn't try to see what was walking by the door--it was around a short corner, shaped like an L with the hall.. We just ran without looking back. We ran to my Mom's room because her door had a lock on it, and a telephone.

We locked my Mom's door and wedged a carpet roll and furniture against it. (My Mom was redecorating her room and had just got a water bed--that's why there were matresses in the hall.) We heard the footsteps walk up the hall, and then the door rattled like 'they" were trying to get in! I was crying by now because I was terrorfied. My brother screamed at it to go away. Whatever it was never said anything and we never heard them go away. The door rattling did stop though.

At this time, (1984-ish) there was not a 911 service set up in Potter County, and I was too young to think of police . I called my Nana, who lived in town, but didn't have a car. She thought we had a burglar, and told us to call the police.

For some reason I didn't. (stupid, I know. I really have gotten smarter with age!) I tried to call my Dad, but he was not at his house. I even tried to call the bar my Mom was at, but they just laughed at me.

We stayed locked in that room all night--we got scared about 8pm. Luckily, my Mom's bedroom is attached to a bathroom! My brother and I fell asleep, and were awakened about midnight by my angry mother and stepfather. They never believed our story, and thought we made it up because we didn't like them dating. Nothing was stolen or out of place in our house. When they came home though, the front door was wide open. And they had locked it when they left!

As a teenager, I continued to have nightmares. Many of these involved large 'demon' dogs. The memories of these dreams are still very clear, and still scare me. One of these dreams occurred near our basketball goal and a line of apple trees in our front yard. I never liked the apple trees--and now my Mom admits that she doesn't like them either. She won't walk on that side of the driveway (it's a big U ).

Everytime I park in the front yard I feel compelled to run to the front door and get inside as quickly as possible. I always feel like something is running up behind me to hurt me! Even during the day, I feel watched by something in the apple trees. ( I used to get off work about 1am, and getting from my car to the front door was always creepy. I would always feel relieved that I had made it inside. Also the few times I had to be at work early--5am or so, I felt watched as I ran from the porch to my car. I would open the door, jump inside, and slam and lock the door. I didn't feel safe until I was out of the driveway.)

I had night terrors when I was 14-16 years old. My parents heard me screaming and came rushing into my room on several occasions. I would be sitting up in bed, terrorfied, and confused. I never remembered what had scared me, though once I remember hearing myself scream.

When I was 17, something started to make a scratching sound in my wall. It sounded like a mouse. My brother also heard this. Once we tried to stab it by repeatedly nailing a long nail in the wall where the sound was coming from. We never hit anything.

This sound eventually moved up into the ceiling and settled into the corner over my bed. It was an annoying scritching sound, and the cats could all hear it. I used to worry that it would dig through the plaster and fall on me while I slept. Sometimes the sound of a largish--at least cat sized--animal could also be heard walking above my ceiling. Now this could have been a racoon or a squirrel, we never checked because our house doesn't have a proper attic, just a 3 ft tall crawl space. "It" stayed a long time though. I heard it on and off untill I was about 24.

During my first summer visit from college in 1992, I heard footsteps again when I was alone in the house. I would get up and check, but find noone. Several times my door would slam shut--while my window was closed--and once the doornob twisted and it started to open. I asked it to please go away and leave me alone. It listened and my door quietly shut.

I moved back home when I was 20, and my little brother left town for college. At night, I often heard the sound of a basketball being dribbled outside my window. The basketball hoop was out there, next to the scary apple trees. We even had a flat basketball sitting by the goal, but I still wonder who felt compelled to play at 3am with no lights?

One last creepy thing occurred in 1999. I was sleeping and having a nightmare about 'werewolves'. (Which are what my 'demon dogs' have evolved into...but that's another story.) I was dreaming that one was trying to claw it's way into my room through my window. I could hear it's claws scraping the glass and the wood under my window. I woke up scared, and could still hear the sound! All three of my cats were sitting on my bed and staring at my window! They heard it too! The scratching lasted maybe a minute after I turned on my light, and then stopped. I'm a wuss, and did not check to see what it was. The next day, there were scratches in the wood panelling under my window. No footprints were on the ground underneath.

This is so long! I'm sorry, I'm a frustrated novelist at heart. Good job!, if you've read it all. My Mom still lives in that house, and I still have scary experiences even though I've moved! Figures!