The Nightmare House

by Thomas Hickey
(Corning, NY)

Last September I moved into the house of my ex-girlfriend. I lived there for about 6 months with her and her three daughters. Now I will only speak of the occasions that I personally experienced there. Before moving into this house I had previously visited the house twice. The first time was to get the belongings of the three girls and the second time was to move stuff into it. Both times I felt a thick atmospheric feeling like I would imagine living in a high gravity would be like. I also remember not feeling comfortable there.

Now in September I still felt that sensation but just used excuses to get out of the house. The first paranormal experience I had involved the front door opening by itself. I would always lock the door at night, and I had locked it that night as well. Me and the two older girls were talking about the things going on in the house, then the door opened by itself even though it was locked. The door handle turned and the door slowly opened up. There was no wind and it never did it before or since.

The next experience I had took place in October. After a couple of experiences the girls told me about, I waited until everyone else was gone for the day and wanted to experiment. I asked whoever is in the house to show me something. Well at that moment I heard a noise in the kitchen, as if someone had thrown something across the room and into a wall. I went into the kitchen to take a look and found one of the girl's pet's water bottle twenty feet from the cage. No explanation for it - rabbits can't throw 20 feet, and it slammed into a refrigerator!

All through September and October I was constantly feeling tired and worn out for no reason. I felt like I had no energy. In November I started to notice a behavior issue with the youngest child, she took on a mean and nasty streak, like she was possessed or something. When she would do something she always had this nasty look on her face like she was testing you. There was no explanation for her behavior. It wasn't just me either, she would pick one of the three of us there at the time and focus on that person till she got them angry, and it felt like she was enjoying it. One day I remember she got into a fight with the 12 year old and she had a weird grin on her face. It actually bothered me because I never saw her do that before. Now she always had a record of instigating fights but she seemed like she enjoyed causing misery a little too much if you asked me. One minute she would be this monstrous little devil and the next she would be a perfect angel. I know she was a very spoiled child, but that still doesn't explain her behaviour

At some point in November all sorts of things started going wrong. All the bills were going to collection at my old house, her house was going to foreclosure. Appliances started breaking down and so on. Then one night my ex-girlfriend and her middle daughter got into a physical altercation about her wanting to sleep in the living room. You see the oldest and the youngest were both sleeping out there. The middle child said she was scared to sleep in her room. This child started laughing at her mother as she screamed at her. I jumped up out of bed to break it up. This made my ex put the youngest in the bedroom that she was supposed to be sleeping with. After the youngest started sleeping in that room again she become a holy terror. Her behavior went off the charts, her malicious streak got worse, and she became violent on a daily basis. I used to think it was because she hit an age where she would rebel.

One night on one of her good days she came to me and said that she feels like someone is in her bedroom with her at night. I didn't really say anything. Then a couple of days later she said it feels like someone is getting into bed with her. Now that started to creep me out. I used to check on them when they were in their rooms for the night to see that they were in bed and such. One day I checked on the youngest and it looked like someone was sitting on the edge of her bed. It also felt like there was more than the two people in the room.

The next day when my ex and her three girls were out of the house, I challenged the house and whatever it contained to stop bothering the 6 year old. I said what is wrong with you why are you picking on a helpless child. Why don't you pick on me. Well after I made that mistake the house became almost unbearable to be in. I constantly felt like I was being followed throughout the house. I would wake up the next day with scratch marks on my torso that weren't there the night before. I started seeing the shadow people the others were seeing. It was a dark black mass almost like a cloak, that you would only catch a glimpse of out of the corner of your eye. I never got to look at it directly, I always seen it out in quick flashes. When I went to look for it, it would be gone. Now also at this time I started feeling out of sorts. I started having thoughts of suicide, and oppression. I felt all sorts of emotions I shouldn't have felt.

Because of a childhood mishap, suicide was never an option for me. I have a strong belief against it. I never thought about it before and haven't since. I also started to cry for no reason, I would lock myself in the bathroom and just start crying.

Now around this time I also notice that the dog we had would come into the bedroom and stare at the master bathroom. She would sit on our bed and just stare at the large mirror in the bathroom. I also noticed that when the shadow figure was moving about, she would hide in the blankets of the couch or in one of the back bedrooms. I also started to feel like I was being watched and followed. I would go do laundry and it felt like someone was walking right behind me and no one was there.

One day after a fresh snow fall the 6 year old came to me and said Tom whose footprints are those outside. I looked and they weren't mine. It was a heavy snowfall and there shouldn't have been footprints where no one walks. So I checked them out. I wear a size 13 and they dwarfed my own feet by a good 4 to 5 inches. Like I said it snowed heavily the night before and no one went out back during that winter.

Now around this time I would also have this feeling like I was suffocating, it felt like someone was squeezing the air out of my body. Now around January I unintentionally started distancing myself from the four other people emotionally. I just felt so out of sorts and uncomfortable being in that house. To this day I wish I told them how I felt and what I saw but it is too late. My last day in that house really had nothing paranormal about it. My ex and I got into an argument about the 6 year old. She was sent to her room one day and when I walked past her room to get some clothes from the laundry room, she threw something out the door and it hit me. She I picked it up and yelled at her and put her on her bed. My ex told me she was handling the situation and we got into a huge argument about it and I left. She has since moved to Texas and won't speak to me anymore. We reconciled for about 2 months, but then she ended the relationship. But the thing is there was something going on in that house that was pushing all of us apart. Something was scratching me at night. Something was sucking the breath out of me. I was definitely seeing large black masses moving about. Something was causing the children to act that way. But now it is too late and here I sit typing my story one more time.