We purchased our home in 2004 and moved in with our children completely unsuspecting of any other-worldly inhabitants.  Our home is two stories with the bedrooms all upstairs.  At first, we didn't notice anything out of the ordinary but slowly we began hearing things that gave us pause.

I have always had trouble sleeping being a bit of an insomniac.  One night as I was on the couch, watching something mindless on TV, I heard someone walking around in the kitchen behind me.  At first I was just confused but that quickly turned to unease when I heard something fall in the kitchen.

Someone was walking around my kitchen and just knocked something over!

Swallowing down the large knot of fear that formed in my throat, I stood on shaky legs and walked around the couch towards the kitchen.  Feeling very unnerved, with my hair standing on end and my heart beating fast, I hesitated to enter the kitchen.  As I was peeking around the couch, my body trembling with fear, I was scared that there really was an intruder in my house.  I grabbed the bat we keep by the front door, took a deep breath, raised the bat and ran into the kitchen, flipping the light switch as I went.  My arms were up and I was ready to swing.

The kitchen was empty...

Feeling quite shook up and confused, afterall I knew what I heard, I replaced the bat and decided to head to bed.

Over the next few years, soft footsteps walking back and forth in the upstairs hallway became a frequent occurance in the middle of the night.  But beyond that, we never saw or heard much to cause concern.

Until we began demolishing the kitchen and bedroom downstairs and a bathroom upstairs!  This activity definitely woke something up.

One afternoon I decided to come home to my empty, half tore apart house for lunch.  I was in a rush so I came in and began pulling out the making for a PB&J.  As I started to make my sandwich, I very clearly heard someone whispering upstairs, like someone was up there trying to be quiet.  Instantly I got very mad..
 Afterall, this could only be my son upstairs skipping school!  So I march up the stairs yelling for him and telling him to get his butt out here now.  I was a little suprised when he didn't respond.  So I searched his room...found nothing.   Searched the other rooms, including the bathroom... found nothing...  At this point I was more annoyed than anything so I went back downstairs yelling behind me that I just don't have time for this today.

I finished making my sandwich and decided to use the bathroom before I left.  As I turned the corner to go into the downstairs bathroom I felt and heard a loud stomp on the floor directly above my head.  This stopped me short and my heart started to race.  I was staring up at the ceiling and yelling in my stern mom voice "Who is up there?  You come down right now!" 

I heard foot steps walk down the upstairs hallway and stop just at the top of those steps.  There is a wall that begins about halfway up the steps, so I couldn't see anything from where I was standing.  I fully admit that I was feeling very uneasy and scared right now.

Then I heard something step onto the first step, loudly, as if my husband was stomping his work boot on the step.  BANG!   and it stopped... BANG another step... BANG   and it stopped again.

My heart was racing, my cheeks were flushed and I was sweating.  In full fight or flight mode now, I was frozen into place and breathing heavy.  I couldn't see anything yet but one or two more steps would bring him into view.  Just as I was taking a deep breath in, I heard another loud step down.  One more step and I would be facing whatever this nightmare was.  I had already checked the entire upstairs so I knew there wasn't someone there.

BOOM..BOOM  It sounded as if someone took both of their feet at once and jumped up so they could slam down on that step so loud and hard that the house rattled.  Yes, everything around me shook.  In a panic now, I almost peaked around the wall to see who...or what..was on steps... But in the end, panic won out.  I turned away, grabbed my sandwich and ran from the house.

Halfway back to work I realized my kids would be home long before me today... How could I expect them to face this all alone....

See  Part 2  (coming soon) - to see what happened next.