A Ghostly Response?

A Ghostly Response?

About five years ago, I happened to be living in a certain area of Southeastern Massachussetts. Late one weekend night, a few friends and I happened to be hanging out with nothing much to do. Conversation bounced around for a while on what our options might be, then someone mentioned visiting a "haunted house". Of course our ears and interest all perked at that suggestion. Hey, it was late at night, early springtime, we were young and bored..so off we went.

Since I was fairly new to the area at the time and had basically no idea where this "house" was, I took my own car (accompanied by my roommate and my boyfriend at the time), and followed the car of my friend who had come up with this escapade (who also had a few other passengers). While driving there, I experienced a strange feeling of growing uneasiness..it wasn't really a bad feeling, but just unnerving enough to give me goosebumps. The story my boyfriend told as I drove along didn't help any.

I guess, from what I had been told, the house had been haunted for quite a while by the ghost of an old woman who had once lived there. She was rumored to be quite the cranky old girl, even in spirit, and had driven out the last few families that had lived there after her passing (I'm not sure how true this story actually is, so bear with me, okay? This is what I was told). Eventually the house was left to its own devices, unlived in. A security system was installed in the house to prevent people from breaking in to "sight-see", and I kind of believed that at the time. Before we had embarked on our journey to the house three of our party members said that they had "broken in" there on one certain occasion..but didn't stay long. Voices, footsteps, and strange floating lights drove them out right quick. I wondered secretly why they wanted to go back!!

After about a 15 minute drive, past a beach, and into a very quiet wooded area, I saw my friend's car slow, then stop. We were halted at the base of a hill and in the headlights I could see the sloping upgrade of an overgrown driveway leading into the trees, but barred with a security chain.

At this point my nerves were on edge to the extreme. I didn't know what I was jumpy about, but it didn't feel very good. In the shine of my headlights, I saw my friend jump quickly out of his car, take a quick look around for safety reasons, then unhook the barrier chain from the poles. He motioned me to drive in with a wave of his hand as one of his passengers in his car took over the driver's seat. As I passed by him he whispered "Turn the headlights down!!!", then rehooked the barrier chain and ran to his own car, and from there we slowly made our way up the hill towards the "haunted house".

There was total silence in my car as the three of us drove up the hilly driveway. Rounding a slight corner and entering a circular drive, the house came into view. It was a beautiful house..but very dark. Darker than it should have seemed. The only light I could see was from, yes, the security system lights flashing dimly from somewhere near a front window (to protect the house from hooligans such as us, I guess!). The trees surrounding it seemed to press in on my car forebodingly, and I felt my uneasiness step up another level. It felt like we were unwelcome visitors here, and I didn't like that feeling very much.

One thing I did notice as I drove up to the house, though, was that on the top level there were three windows. I don't know why I noticed this, but I did..there were two larger ones to the right and left and a slightly smaller one in the middle. They were all unshaded, I noticed, from the depth of the blackness within them.

We stopped our cars and killed the lights. The guys in the car ahead of me piled out, whispering to each other, and as they did, my roomie and I and my boyfriend followed suit. The night was still, chilly, and quiet..a typical early spring night with a clear sky and enough starshine to see by. From where I stood, looking through one of the large, lower level windows of the house, I could see that it was unnoccupied..there were absolutely no furnishings within and the windows seemed dim with a coating of dust. And I also knew, immediately, that I wanted NOTHING to do with the house at all. I was terrified without reason. My throat suddenly went dry, and I hung at the side of my car as the guys dispersed to roam about the house like a pack of curious dogs. My roomie stayed at my car with me, making it a point to ask if I was okay (she looked worried), and all I could do was nod. I don't think I've ever felt such a feeling as I did that night. I didn't want to leave the car. I just wanted to get out of there, and fast.

There was one point where my boyfriend got too near the house..and I sorta blurted out "DON"T TOUCH IT!! Don't touch it..she doesn't want us here!!". (Yah it sounds silly, but that was how things felt to me. If I have ever gotten a message from some "otherplace", it was at that moment). I don't know what my boyfriend heard in my voice, but he backed off. My roomie looked at me strangely, too. The other guys were around the back of the house at the time, and I heard one of them hollering about seeing a flickering light that skittered between upper level windows. My boyfriend ran off to see what the commotion was about, but returned later without seeing anything. My roomie claimed to have seen a shadowy figure in an upper level window, but I didn't see anything there when she pointed it out to me.

I just know what I saw. And I'll tell you. After I had told my boyfriend to back off from the house, and he had left to go find the rest of the guys, my attention had somehow turned towards the upper three front windows again. In the extreme state of anxiety I was feeling (and this is going to sound really silly to you..I apologize), I felt the need to send a "message" to whatever was in the house, let it know we didn't mean any harm...and for it to send me a sign of it's existance (my family, believe it or not, has a psychic streak...thanks Grandma!). I kept my eyes on the upper three windows, and THOUGHT I saw a flicker of movement within the middle one. I mentioned this to my roomie but she said she didn't see anything. So I just blew it off for the moment, blaming it on strained eyes, frayed nerves, and not enough sleep.

Soon enough the guys came charging back, pumped up and yakking about what they'd "seen". We all piled back into our cars, and I felt somewhat relieved to be getting out of there. When I flicked my headlights on, though, so that the light shone on the house and reflected off of the front windows, I thought my heart was gonna stop.

The middle, smallest window on the top floor, between the two larger ones, had a shade drawn across it. Between the two patches of deepest black was now one of pale gray.

I think my jaw must have dropped down to the floorboards. Excitedly I tried to point out the windows to my roomie and my boyfriend, but neither of them had noticed the upper windows on the drive up, and just kept urging me to get the car going to follow the other guys before we got caught being where we weren't supposed to be.

Driving away, though, I couldn't help but smile and feel something like awe. Whatever foreboding feelings I had had before visiting the house had totally dissappeared after seeing the "drawn shade" in the middle window. My friends and I stopped at a nearby beach after this encounter to talk the adventure over, and one of the guys in the first car noticed as well the drawn shade before we left! Both of us were extremely excited over what we had seen, and not scared at all..so I'm not alone!

So was the flicker in the middle window REALLY a shade being drawn in response to my unasked question, or just a trick of the eyes? Could someone be residing in a supposedly unoccupied house, and be playing tricks? Of course the answer COULD be yes, but...I kinda like the idea of a spirit laughing to him/herself as they scare the living daylights out of innocent passersby...perhaps waiting for someone to come along who understands.

~*~Rayven~*~

P.S...As a footnote..I've visited the house on other occasions and have not ever again felt the type of anxiety as I did the first time around...it was quite the opposite, actually. I have not seen the house for about five years now..so I don't know what has become of it.

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Jenny