When I was a young teenager around 13 or 14, my cousin Judy and her family had rented a home on the Tennessee/Georgia line. This was a huge house with plenty of bedrooms for Judy and her 4 siblings. It had a wraparound porch and three fireplaces. It was a gorgeous old home; probably built in the early 1920's if not earlier; and there were huge oak and maple trees complete with tire swings in the front yard. Judy, who was 2 years older than me, instantly hated that house. She said that it scared her. Her mother passed it off as that adolescent dislike of anything and everything.
After about a month in that house, Judy had changed. She was always sleepy and cranky, always jumpy and looking over her shoulder like she was scared. When I asked her what was wrong she insisted that it was the house. She said that there were strange voices, odors and unexplainable movement from furniture at night that she was almost unable to sleep at all. When I tried to be rational, she snapped at me and demanded that I go and see for myself.
That night, I arrived with a small tape recorder and blank cassette tape (something one of my classmates told me to do) and readied myself for bed. Just after 11 pm, I awoke to the sound of fingernails tapping rhythmically on a wooden table. Figuring it was just Judy trying to save face, I rolled over and went back to sleep. A short time later, the radio alarm clock sounded, blaring some static-filled rock tune. I turned it off thinking again that it was just Judy pulling another prank. Later still, I awoke freezing cold. All of the blankets were piled at the foot of the bed. Judy was sitting with her back to the headboard and her knees curled up under her chin and her arms wrapped around them. She was staring glazed eyes at the dresser mirror where there was this faint, fog-like mist reflecting in it. Again, thinking it was all Judy's doing, I gathered up the covers and went back to bed.
Finally, very late in the night I was again awakened to the sound of someone calling my name. It was very distinct and not something Judy could pull off especially considering she lay next to me sound asleep. I shook her awake and she heard it too. We sat there listening for what felt like hours then it just stopped and there was an uneasy stillness in the room. Suddenly, the bedroom door slammed shut and the dresser drawers opened and slammed closed of their own accord. A guttural growling sound filled the room; getting louder and louder until it was echoing throughout the house. When it finally subsided, we could hear beating and knocking on the bedroom door. It took us a few moments to realize that it was Judy's mom trying to get in to us.
When her mom finally got in Judy and I were in tears. Somehow the door had locked itself and it was one of those old locks that require a skeleton key to lock or unlock. Her mom wanted to know what we had been doing to cause such a raucous. When we began to tell her about all of the odd events, she shushed us and emphatically stated that "There are no such things going on in this house!" No sooner had she gotten the words out of her mouth the rocking chair in the living room just outside of Judy's bedroom began rocking. I mean rocking so violently that it was pounding the floor. After that, the kitchen and living room lights began to flicker on and off.
Judy and her family moved from the house the very next day. The day after Judy and her family moved, one of her brothers found the tape recorder and began listening to the tape. There were at least 3 different voices heard and no one could decipher what language the voices were speaking in. Judy threw that tape in a brush fire after listening to it and said that those were the sounds she'd been hearing since day one.
On a side note, that tape recorder NEVER worked again. When my dad took it to a repair shop, they could not find a thing wrong with it; it simply would not work.
I had forgotten about that night and that house until this past weekend. My spouse and I were driving around looking for a place to hunt when we stopped at a 4-way stop. A chill came over me and my feet began to burn as if I was suddenly standing on hot coals. I felt light headed, nauseous and weak when he said "Man, look at that house. It's like its staring at us. Gives me the hee-bee-gee-bees." When I looked to my left, there it was like a nightmarish blast from a long forgotten past.
I called Judy when we got home and told her about seeing that old house. Judy, now almost 35, was extremely upset at the mention of that house. She made it very clear that she did not want to discuss that house or anything that went on behind its doors and she made me swear to never bring it up to her again.
By:
sdaughtery@unum.com
Fri Apr 18, 2008 3:21 pm
