Whenever we hear of haunted houses, it usually entails a long history of strange
and unexplained disturbances but this story is quite different and inspired by true events.
I won't be mentioning any names or an exact location
but I will tell you that it happened in the mid-nineties somewhere in North Devon, England.
We were a family of four
and had lived in the house for around eight years without any paranormal events
so it was very surprising to experience this on the very same day we were moving out.
The truck wasn't quite large enough to fit all of our things so we ended up squeezing everything
else into the car which meant that there wasn't enough room for all of us to travel together.
I was asked to stay behind while my parents unloaded everything from the car into the
new house which wasn't too far away so I had no reason to suspect that I would have to wait long.
I was left with a single key to the front door that I locked as soon as they left
and my mother instructed me to keep all the windows upstairs closed
because the neighbor's cat kept wandering onto the property and getting into the house.
One of the things that surprised me though as I went into my old room was seeing a mirror hanging
on the wall that I had never seen before as it had been previously hidden from view by the wardrobe
that was there. Knowing that the mirror had been there all these years without my knowledge
was kind of strange and it only provided a blurred out reflection due to all the dust. It appeared
to be firmly secured to the wall which I guess is why my parents decided to leave it there.
After locking all the upstairs windows and making sure there were no uninvited felines
inside the house, I waited patiently for the sound of my dad's car pulling up on the driveway
but three hours later, I was still waiting and it was already getting dark.
Remember, this was back in the nineties and cellphones weren't all that common just yet
so there was no way of contacting my parents and I remember feeling extremely bored at the time.
A cellphone would have been a real lifesaver back then for more reasons than one but I would
have settled for my old hacky sack or even one of my sister's Tamagotchis to kill the time.
Unfortunately, most of the lightbulbs in the house had been removed
except for the one above the staircase which I turned on although I decided to
stay in the living room because the temperature upstairs was a lot colder for some reason so.
About an hour later, it started to rain and I was feeling hungry. I regretted not taking
anything to eat with me although I didn't expect to be waiting this long so I went into
the kitchen to see if there was any food that had been left behind in one of the cabinets.
As I searched the kitchen, I couldn't ignore this thought in the back of my mind
of being left out. I hadn't even seen the new house yet and the fact that my
younger sister got to see it before I did kind of bothered me a little.
After realizing there wasn't any food in the kitchen, I returned to the window in the living.
As I contemplated several scenarios as to why my dad hadn't arrived yet,
I heard something moving around the house.
At first, I suspected it was the sound of the trees blowing in the wind
outside until I saw something that sent a cold shiver down my spine.
The sight of someone passing in front of the window caused me to
huddle into a corner where I waited motionless and completely terrified.
I then heard tapping on the glass from the kitchen window but I couldn't bear to look
to see who it was and instead just imagined the same dark figure staring through the window.
After the tapping stopped, it got really quiet, at least for a while.
The sound of shattered glass coming from upstairs caught me completely off guard. I suspected that
someone assumed the house was empty and decided to break in for whatever reason, a thought
that became even more horrifying as I began hearing footsteps descending the old staircase.
With no curtains or furniture, even the slightest sound would reverberate through the entire house
and there were very few places to hide so I immediately snuck into another corner
facing away from the hallway to avoid being seen.
As I anticipated the horror of coming face to face with an intruder, the loud footsteps suddenly
came to a stop at the base of the stairs likely blocking my only exit through the front door.
I could hear the wind now probably howling through a broken window upstairs
chilling every room in the house.
I was in a state of panic at that point, until suddenly,
I could hear footsteps again but this time heading up the staircase.
Now I was faced with a dilemma because the intruder was probably going to wait until
the rain stopped before leaving the house and could decide to head back downstairs at
any moment. I wasn't keen on the idea of running outside and down the street in the pouring rain
but I no longer felt safe in the house so I cautiously headed towards the front door.
As I approached the door, the risk of being seen seemed extremely likely
but I thought if I was fast enough, I would be able to escape and call for help.
The desperate knock on the door sent me running back to the dining room
as I immediately assumed that the intruder had an accomplice and was waiting to be let in.
After anticipating the sound of more footsteps on the stairs,
I heard a voice at the door. I couldn't make out what was being said but it sounded desperate.
Then I heard knocking on the living room window so I slowly
peeked around the corner to see if I could get a glance of who it was.
The poor lighting only provided a silhouette and I still wasn't sure who was outside,
although I did begin to think it was strange that no one had come down the stairs yet.
I positioned myself for a clear view of the front
door which is when I witnessed the letterbox slowly begin to open.
That's when I heard my dad's voice calling my name.
I didn't hear a car pull up on the driveway or see any lights.
I quickly opened the door and was surprised to see my father completely soaking wet from the rain.
Ironically, he asked me why I took so long to answer the door
which is when I told him about the intruder upstairs.
He seemed strangely convinced that I was making it up
and despite pleading with him not to go upstairs, he went anyway
only to discover that no one was there. We both searched the whole house and found nothing.
No signs of a break-in, windows, and doors were all closed and locked and the carpet was dry.
The sound of shattered glass came from the old mirror that smashed despite never falling from
the wall and there was no plausible explanation for the loud footsteps I heard on the staircase.
When I asked my dad why he delayed so much to pick me up, he went on to explain that the car
got boxed in by the truck at the other house and had to wait until everything was unloaded before
he could leave and to make matters worse, the car broke down just a few blocks away.
To this day, I still get a sense that my dad doesn't believe me and thinks I was just too
ashamed to admit that I smashed the mirror out of frustration because I was left alone for so long
but I knew what I experienced was real and it's
something that has stayed with me even after all these years.
As for the person who passed in front of the window facing the backyard,
we later confirmed it was the neighbor looking for his cat.
However, the events of that night came up shortly after in a conversation with my dad and I asked
him why he wasn't afraid of going up those stairs after telling him that there was an intruder
in the house. What he said next just left me completely speechless and shook me up pretty good.
He told me that he wasn't afraid because just as he was approaching the house,
he saw me in the window upstairs. He tried to wave to get my attention but he said I
had this strange ghostly expression on my face so he gave up and knocked on the door instead.
The smashed mirror on the wall, loud footsteps on the staircase, and an apparent doppelganger
in the window upstairs were enough to keep me away from that house never to return.