You know, I never really believed in ghosts. I never saw them or heard them. My friends tried hard to get me to believe by trying to scare me and say, “It’s a ghost!” Still I didn’t believe. Not until now of course. This is my story. This is the night that made me believe.
It was July 16th of 2014. I was just getting back from visiting my friend Max’s house. As I walked in the door, everything was as it always was. The living room and kitchen a mess, the smell of burnt crawfish etoufee, and the yelling of my mother and father.
I lived in Hackberry, Louisiana, so of course, my father worked at the energy plant. It was a very stressful job for him and made him cranky, then which made everyone cranky. There were only 5 of us that lived in our two-story house. Myself, my mother, my father, my sister, and my brother. Since my mother and father fight and my siblings don’t want to do anything but make a mess and play, I have to take care of these things. So like usual, I clean the living room and kitchen and go to my room to do my homework.
As I was going to my bedroom, I couldn’t help but hear the argument that my parents were having. This time the argument was different than the usual ones. They were arguing about some shadowy figure that attacked him upstairs. He described it as being tall, stocky build, curly hair, and was wearing a track suit.
At that very moment, my mother turned at me and yelled, “It is very rude to listen to adult conversation that doesn’t concern you! Head to your room at once!”
I’m just thinking, “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere’s else!” so I arrive at my room, take my homework out of my bag, and start working on my algebra. About 2 hours later, when I’m laying down watching YouTube on my smart TV, the power goes out. Keep in mind it’s now 10:30 at night so it’s almost pitch black. So I started calling for mom and dad. No one is answering. I keep doing this but no one answers. I realize they probably are already at the box upstairs trying to fix it so I get up and go to my door.
I open the door and proceed down the hallway. I reach the stairs and proceed to go up. I get 4 steps in when something grabs my arm from behind. Startled, I scream. Turns out it’s dad.
“Dad, where is everyone?”
“I’m not sure but I heard your brother scream and I can’t find him anywhere.”
This is when I start to panic. “Do you think someone has broken in?”
“No, all the doors are locked and the system didn’t pick up any activity for the past 3 hours.” After he says this, we hear a creak in the floorboard. We turn to the hallway and see mom with a candle in her hand. She has blood covering her from head to toe. My dad starts to slowly walk to her.
“Sarah? Are you OK?” She says nothing. As he is 5 feet away from her, I see it. The black shadowy figure that dad was talking about. We all stay still and don’t make a sound. A minute passes and we are all still at the same spot where we have stopped. Nobody moved an inch. It was as if we were statues. Then, the shadowy figure wraps it’s long, slender fingers around her neck and pulls her into the darkness. We didn’t even scream because of the shock and terror we were in.
Dad runs back to me and we run up the stairs. We run to my brother and sister’s room and we get in. They’re both hiding in the closet with a flashlight. We go over to them and tell them what happened. They broke down and started crying. We tried to get them to calm down and even tried to muffle there sobbing but it was too late. The shadowy figure was walking up the stairs. They hide under the bunk bed frame in the room and me and dad hide in the closet.
It’s quiet now. Only the sound of my rapid heartbeat. We here the footsteps again. It stops at the door. Nothing happens. Minutes pass and still, nothing. Then the door swung wide open. I start to breathe too loudly but dad’s hand covers my mouth. Unfortunately, my siblings were doing the same thing. It heard them. The figure grabbed the bed frame and threw it across the room. It grabbed them by their legs and started to walk out the room. I swung open the door and chased after it. Somehow even though it was walking, it was still faster than me running. It turned the corner and as I got there, they disappeared. My dad catches up to me.
“We have to go. We have to leave and call the police.”
“But what about mom? And Ethan and Brie?”
“We have to leave and call the police. If we stick around right now, there is no telling what’ll happen to us and we’ll never find them! Trust me Jason. It’s the only way.”
I nodded. I wanted to look for them but I knew he was right. We started to sprint down the hallway, going for the stairs. We make it to the stairs and the most disturbing thing happens. The door is gone! How!? We sprint to the other side of the house to the back door. The same thing. It was just a wall. Nothing more, nothing less.
I say, “We’re f****d! We can’t get out!”
“No we’re not!” Dad says. “The basement door is still there. We can leave through the basement!”
I calm down and we go to the basement door. It’s been ripped off the hinges. The stairs are slicked with blood and there is a light illuminating the darkness below.
Scared, I say, “Dad, I don’t want to go down there!”
“I know, I don’t want to either but it’s the only way we can get out of here. Just stay behind me and follow OK? We’re gonna get out of this and find everyone. I promise.”
I nod and follow behind him and we go down to the potential hell hole that lurks below.
We arrive in the basement and there is a blood trail. The blood trail goes the same path we have to take to get to the door. We follow it and we find them. There bodies hung by the jaws on meat hooks. We gag and cry. I hear the most chilling and demonic voice I’ve ever heard in my life.
“So, you finally made it to the end. Bravo. Most people would’ve giving up by now.”
We turn and see the shadowy figure.
“Why would you do this to us? Why us?” I say.
“Every person, every family who has owned my house has always suffered the same fate. This is my home, and you’re intruding on it. I died in this house in 1874 and I can’t leave. So why not kill every person who steps foot in this house? I have nothing better to do,” says the figure.
“You are a monster. A disgusting and vile mistake of a person,” says my dad.
“Enough talk, let’s play,” says the figure. My father runs towards the figure.
“Dad, no!” It was too late. He swung and missed. He then got impaled by a pitchfork.
“Jason, run,” he says. The final words he ever spoke. Before I run towards the door, I knock over 3 barrels of gasoline and grab the matches. I light on at the door and throw it into the puddle of flammable hell. It lights up and I leave. I get to my dad’s truck and drive it to town and get the cops. We come back and the building is lit completely aflames. My father, my mother, my brother and sister. Gone. Forever. Taken by a long dead spirit. Maybe since the house is gone, the spirit can leave. I don’t know anymore. So much has happened in one night that I can’t process it. I get taken to the police station.
I wake up the next day to questioning and I answer them. All of them. I told them about the spirit, the doors, my family. They thought I was crazy and they locked me up. After an investigation, I was proven not guilty. I was then put in foster care and went to therapy. It’s January 30th, 2018. Almost 4 years since this night happened. I’m 20 years old and live on my own now. I still have trouble sleeping at night and I still have nightmares. I look over my shoulder every day in the fear that the figure will come back for me. Nothing has happened since that night. No strange occurrences or noises. Just life. I will always remember that night. It will never leave me.
After what happened, my friend Max was there for me. He felt guilty and thought that he jinxed me but I told him it wasn’t that. We’re still best friends and we’re going to college together now and we’re studying culinary arts. Life is good now but, sometimes I can’t shake the feeling that someone is still watching me in the shadows.
This was the night that I lost everything.
This was the night that made me believe.