When I was very little, my dad often had to explain things that were unexplainable. Our house was first lived in by an older woman, who also died there. Apparently she wore thick perfume and only went out of her house to go to the grocer. When Mom and Dad moved in in 1989, they said everything seemed just as it should be until about two years later. They started experiencing things that made the cat hiss and the dog growl.
One night, my pregnant mother, dad and the cat and dog were all in the living room, below the master bedroom. Suddenly, everyone seemed to shift in their seats. They all heard heavy footsteps coming from above. “It’s probably the dog,” dad says. But the dog was laying under the coffee table, ears perked and looking confused.
A few months later my older brother was born. He was a happy healthy baby. One day, dad was feeding him in a high chair in the kitchen, taking pictures. My brother was pointing and laughing at something no one could see, but then started crying for seemingly no reason. When my dad developed the pictures, there was very clearly an old wrinkled face coming from the wall, just beside where my brother was pointing in the pictures. On the photo where my brother started crying, the face was gone, but the picture developed weird on that side where the face had been.
After i was born, I always had a sinking suspicion that there was someone else in the house with us. At the top of the stairs, across from the landing, there is a big old mirror. One day i heard a scratching at my door. I thought it was the dog, but it was up too high to be the dog. I opened the door, and could smell a thick perfume. , i looked around, and for a moment in the mirror, i caught a glance of an old woman in a pink dress and a white shawl standing directly in front of me. I couldn’t see her, but i could smell her.
Shaken, i closed my door, and sank to the floor. I said out loud, but not too loud, “I won’t bother you if you don’t bother me.” and i could smell the perfume again. i looked over my shoulder with mirrors, but didn’t see her again.
Not long after, i was getting ready for my first date. I was checking my appearance in the stairway mirror, then felt a draft even though it was spring and the air wasn’t on. A cold shiver went through me, and as it did i could see a white cloud move around me. My date later asked me to wear less perfume next time, although i had not put any on that night.
The most activity from the house i have experienced in years has been shades ruffling or an occasional heavy door closing on its own.
Dad still lives at the house, and says he doesn’t feel lonely at all.