Ghost Stories

Friend's House

A good friend ofmine owns a sizable portion of land in Tazewell, TN. Before hismother died recently, Mike lived in a house on his cousin's landwhich borders his own, in exchange for "keeping an eye onthe place". He had lived there for several years, and wasn'tplagued by strange happenings, but he had his share.

Let me start bysaying that this particular house has no real history ofparanormal activity that I can tell from the people I've talkedto. There have been numerous incidents involving the houseexperienced by my friend, his wife, her mother and brother, andmy friend's 2 year old son, myself, etc., etc.

These particularincidents involving myself started about four years ago, while Iwas staying overnight with Mike, having finished a project wewere working on too late to drive back to Knoxville (my home). Ibedded down in a sleeping bag next to a softly glowing wood stove(during the dead of winter). Sometime during the night I wasawakened by someone coming through the dining area toward thekitchen and into the bathroom. I paid it no mind, except toplayfully berate my friend for waking me up as he answered a callof nature. When he said he hadn't been up, I thought he wasjoking at first. I told him what I'd heard and seen; he asked hiswife if she'd been up. She said no. This was the first of twoincidents before their child was born. (Did I mention we were theonly three in the house?)

A few weeks later,I was back up at their home. After finishing work, we stood intheir living room as I took my leave of them. I faced the diningarea where I'd seen/heard the person come through a few weeksbefore. Looking at Mike and his wife, I could see the doorwayperipherally, and noticed movement from the left door jamb. WhenI looked directly at the doorway, something seemed to duck backbehind the wall to the left. We of course investigated, butnothing was there. I mentioned again the incident of a few weeksearlier, and Mike said his wife, Janie, had seen something in theinterim. She woke up late one night and saw an old woman standingover their bed. Janie seems to be unusually sensitive to thesekinds of things; she's had experiences enough to make one wonderhow she hasn't gone crazy.

Their young boy,Gavin, apparently saw someone or something just after he'd turnedtwo. Janie's brother was home babysitting one afternoon. Gavinwas sitting on the living room floor playing, Jimmy was readingon the couch. Jimmy said Gavin started laughing suddenly, andJimmy looked over at him. He said Gavin was staring through thedining room doorway (see a pattern here?) through to the kitchenand waving, like someone had come in the back door. Jimmy got upand checked, no one was there and the door was locked. Gavin hadjust learned the patented "child wave", the opening andclosing of a fist in the air. A few weeks later, Jimmy came inthe front door with Gavin in his arms. Although the door betweenthe living room and dining room was never closed, it was when hecame in. Gavin started laughing, looking toward the closed door.Light from the dining room was visible under the door; when Jimmywalked toward it, he saw a shadow block the light. He went toopen the door, thinking it was Janie or Mike; he got the dooropen about an inch when it was shoved back toward him. He shovedharder, and the door opened, revealing....you guessed it. Nothing.

Many more minorthings have happened, but because there were so many I can'tremember 'em all. This is my first story to the list, hope Ihaven't hacked anybody off because of the length. Over the past20 years or so, I've experienced and heard a lot of differentunusual things. Most people aren't receptive to this kind ofthing, and if they are, they're skeptical at best, so it's a joyto find a forum like this.