I rented a Haunted House (lights, activity)

[SailCT]

I rented a haunted house for a year. I was recently divorced and I was in a hurry to find something. I forgot to google the address before I moved into the house. Once I was there I could tell things weren't quite right in there. There was definitely a presence in the house. Later I found out that there had been a arson murder in the house in 2006. That two guys were charged; one copped a plea deal the second one went to trail and got off with a hung jury. I just used to Sage it on a regular basis and that keep the weirdness at bay, most of the time. Anybody else???

[HappyDogToday]

I lived in a haunted apartment for 10 years. In fact, it's right across the courtyard from the one I am in now. Somehow I knew when I moved in that an elderly woman had died there. It wasn't until 3 years in when we brought a puppy home that she began to reveal her presence.
Things disappeared and reappeared all the time. Doors opened on their own. Pictures turned on the wall. And then she appeared as a full body apparition.
After that I asked her to stop scaring me and she did. My dogs would watch her walk by and I think she hung around to watch over them, but she was low key.
I thought when we returned here after 7 years that she might come down the courtyard and pay us a visit. Nope. I hope she crossed over as I kept encouraging her to do.

[Vasily]

House I grew up in seemed to have three areas of activity: a small side room off the dining room (dad would see shadow figures going into it, and one night my mom and sister called me into the side room because there was the sound of a woman sobbing coming from the corner of the room); a sick room built over the kitchen (one night my brother woke up because the bed was shaking and he saw a small dark figure trying to climb onto the bed - when my sisters shared the room, they had a number of bed shaking experiences too. there were a number of incidents like that, including my hearing my name called when there was no one there); and the attic. I always kept my eye on the attic door when I was in the bathroom. Years later, my sister was poking around in the attic and found part of it had been walled off; she showed me when I was visiting -- inside were old Victorian era toys, an old chalkboard on the wall, and evidence of a fire.

When I moved out on my own, two friends and I rented an old farmhouse on the other side of the river. There was pretty much constant activities: shadow figures, cold spots, feelings of being touched and watched, lights sparkling in the corner of rooms, footsteps, unexplainable sounds of things dragging and screams, names being called, some poltergeist activity. My friends and I worked different shifts, and they had found this house so we went over there one evening; the power was out. We were upstairs with flashlights when it sounded like a bunch of people came in downstairs -- and then a woman screamed. We ran downstairs, and there was no one there. And that was before we actually moved in. The house is BTW now a day care center.

I'm retiring in a week, and plan a trip back to my home town to try and research the histories of both houses. If I succeed and find out anything interesting, I'll post here.

[Natnasci]

I love this time of year, since these stories seem somehow spookier.

The house I grew up in was build in the 1920's. I lived there from my birth, late fifties, to 1977. The house had a basement, main floor, and an upstairs where some bedrooms were, including mine.

I would hear someone walking quite heavily across the one of the rooms. I was usually in the living room when I heard it. I just assumed it was a sibling, but it still freaked me out since I was sure I was the only one home. I would go to the bottom of the stairs and shout out my siblings names one by one. No answer. At first I would be brave and run upstairs to take a look, but never found anyone. Later on, I was too scared.

It wasn't the house settling, since I was very familiar with the sounds of the house. It was definitely heavy deliberate footsteps.

I never discussed this with my sibling until I was an adult and out of the house. The look on their faces was priceless. They had al experienced the same thing. Should of asked my parents, but didn't. Now it's too late to do that, since dad is dead, and mum has some memory issues.

[Natnasci]

I rented an apartment back in the 1980's. It was new building, with a young couple managing it.

Three odd things happened there.

One night while half asleep in bed, I felt breath on my ear and someone quickly saying " DAVID! ". My name is not David.

Another night, I awoke suddenly and felt compelled to look left, through the walk thru closet into the bathroom. I saw a man standing there. I gasped loudly waking my partner, who turned to look at what I was seeing. They also gasped. It dissipated, but we still thought an intruder might be the reason. Nope, door locked, nothing to be found.

The last thing was I was sitting on the couch talking with my partner when we heard my keys on the table beside the couch make a rattle. We both turned and watched the keys move about two inches.
We just looked at each other and said " Wow! "

I'm sure this can all be explained away, but it still stays with me.

[mondayafternoons]

An apartment we lived in for apr 2 yrs-- the area that was most active was the vanity area (a type of small middle room between the bedroom and the bathroom, it was basically a small room with a sink and a large mirror and caliber that had two doors so you could close it off to either or both the bedroom and the bathroom). Since it was adjacent to the bedroom, It seemed like for whatever reason that was where most the activity was. When either my daughter or myself would go on the desktop computer, with our back to that doorway that butted up to the vanity room we would always or most of the time feel like someone was standing in back of us. So it made it uncomfortable and to do that and there were a few times the presence was so strong that my daughter came racing out of there and once when she went out, and I was there alone I went on the computer and the feeling of someone behind me was so strong I was afraid to turn around and walk back out. I did it in a damm hurry and left the apartment and came back later. I can't remember if it was my daughter first or me hat said we felt like it was a man, an older man around fifty.

Once we tried on new clothes we got and were in the vanity area looking in the mirror. What happened next we both just couldn't believe it-- as we were looking in the mirror we heard a distinct click click noise that is made when someone takes your picture--- and there was no tv, radio, cell phones there- nothing. We both stared at each other and said he took a picture of us. It was kind of sweet, what a friend or relative does in the moment when they want to capture a special moment. But... we were just in awe and couldn't get over it as we both instantly said it sounded as if someone had snapped a couple pictures of us. Plus that apartment was always really quiet because it was really insulated and oddly had no windows on the side that was next to the walkway-- it was like a cave, just stucco and a door. The windows were only on the side that faced outside if that makes sense, and since we were on the second floor there was not really any noise outside the windows.

We grew accustomed to "Tom" as we called him--his presence didn't feel sinister, rather somewhat lonely and maybe like he was thinking of us as kind of his people, since he hadn't yet moved on from that place. When we left I actually felt kind of sad about leaving him behind, I didn't want him to feel sad we were leaving and so I said bye to him out loud and that I hoped he would be okay.

[HappyDogToday]

What a story! Wonder why he was afraid of her instead of finding comfort in her visits.

[Andieluvscats]

The house I grew up in certainly was haunted. I remember vividly to this day...I was in the basement and I heard a loud thump bang as of something had fallen...I was standing under my bedroom. This was only 1 floor house and basement..So I go up there thinking like a large book fell from the bookcase but nothing was on the floor..nothing fell..

[SailCT]

Originally Posted by SailCT

I rented a haunted house for a year. I was recently divorced and I was in a hurry to find something. I forgot to google the address before I moved into the house. Once I was there I could tell things weren't quite right in there. There was definitely a presence in the house. Later I found out that there had been a arson murder in the house in 2006. That two guys were charged; one copped a plea deal the second one went to trail and got off with a hung jury. I just used to Sage it on a regular basis and that keep the weirdness at bay, most of the time. Anybody else???

obviously I was NOT going to renew it; but there were four instances where things moved or turned on by themselves. One thing was a remote control version of my actual car would always be on the floor when I got home even though I always put it up on a coffee table when I left. I looked at it more carefully and realized that if the "on" switch was left on that it could move with a surge of battery power so then I switched it into the OFF position. Then it did not move at all off the table after that so I thought that had corrected it and was the explanation.

Then one night I was just dozing on the couch and I was fully awake and I was scared out of my mind as I watched it move about 4 feet across a small carpet and onto the wood floor. I really could not believe what I was seeing!

Then as I got close to moving out there were two instances where I found a burner on the top of the gas stove fully going like on 10! One of those times I discovered it after feeling the hairs on my arm singe. Since it was early in the am and the sun was bright I could not see the flames. The second time I just smelled the gas and noticed it was on. Remember the woman died in an arson-fire set with gas on the stairs by two drug dealer's henchmen so pretty weird.

Then the weirdest and scariest instance was one really nice, sunny, lazy late spring morning; woke up with my girlfriend next to me. We had just started waking up and moving around slightly and all of a sudden the 48 inch screen TV at the other end of the bedroom clipped on; right away I am thinking that the remote is in the bed and one of us leaned on it; as we are feeling around for it. kind of like ok where is it don't want to crush it; then I spot it about 8 FEET AWAY sitting on the far night table. I was like HOLY CRAP!
Creepy!!!

[katharsis]

Thanks to everyone for such great stories!! Perfect for Halloween weekend!