Thought I had a home intruder last night.

Are we all just going to overlook that the story itself was really well written? Lol I was so into that story as it progressed!

YESSSS!!!!!!! I was holding my breath the whole time!

The topic is scary enough on its own!!!!!

Ooooh hahahaha I was like WTF DOES HE NOT SEE THAT?!?!

I'm so gullible! :laugh:

And that folks is why I sleep with my karambit

Well given you saw nothing as you stalked your intruder, and your dogs reaction, I vote mouse or raccoon or python. :-0) Maybe it needed to wash the food it stole from the kitchen. I used to have a light in my kitchen that turned on and off a lot especially at night. We replaced switches, wiring but nothing helped. My mother in law stayed one night at our house, swore we had ghosts even tho she did not believe in them and never came back to our house. About 5 years ago we got a new fixture - no more issues.

So, a light fixture made your mother-in-law stay away? I hope you sold that on ebay with the story to go with it. That adds value.

Unfortunately it met a hideous death when it was introduced to the end of my sons hockey stick, hence the need for the new fixture. Yes my MIL refused to come to my home ever again, after that night and that's the excuse she always used.

Duuuuude defensive weapons need to be good to go at all times or there's no point! Also sorry about your ghosties.

One day I was at home alone, and I very clearly heard a door close and footsteps in the house. This happened to me at work once, too. I work overnight, and am often the only one in the building.

Spooky!

That story was sounding vaguely familiar- until the part where you did actually check your wife was in bed.....

Here's a picture of the bathroom.

We all know that paranormal activity shows up on cameras as blobs, or streaks, or other things that can't be explained by science.

Behold, ghost-free bathroom:

Look more closely at the reflection in the 2nd window for a few seconds. Once you let your eyes relax you'll see it.

That story was sounding vaguely familiar- until the part where you did actually check your wife was in bed.....

Yes!! I thought this was going down the Oscar Pistorius route for a moment too...

This reminds me of the time my brother and I slept in the basement. It had been so hot that summer that even with the air conditioning on sleeping was a misery. The basement was still fairly cool, though. I was about 12 or 13 which would make my brother 9 or 10.

So there we are, sound asleep, when we were awakened by the sound of someone tapping at the window. At first I wasn't sure it was real, but it kept repeating, 4 or 5 knocks of insistent tapping. Well...I wasn't real keen on this, to say the least. I'd been gotten a copy of the audiobook Jerusalem's Lot by Stephen King at the library, which I'd really enjoyed, and had led me to get the book 'Salem's Lot which turned out to be about vampires. Naturally, vampires have to be invited in, so if you're asleep they'll knock on your window to wake you up and get your attention.

Certainly I don't expect any of my friends or my brother's friends to come to our window in the middle of the night. Even if they wanted to, and were successful in sneaking out, how would they know we were sleeping in the basement that night? Clearly, under the circumstances vampires make the most sense.

I check with my brother to see if he's awake. Oh, yeah! He's awake...maybe I can pull rank and get him to check the window. His response is unambiguous: NFW.

So it's on me. A Big Brother job. We're in the basement so the window is just above grade level. There is a set of horizontal blinds (closed) obscuring the view, so in order to see who or what is tapping I'll have to go right up to the window and pull the blinds up. I crawl over to the window which puts me below grade. I get over to the window and am crouched underneath it, reaching towards the cord that controls the blinds with one shaking hand when it happens again. Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!

I pull back my hand pretty quick and sit there evaluating my options. Open the blinds within arms reach of the vampire, separated by only a thin piece of glass? Nah....go back to bed and forget about it? Fat chance...Somehow coerce my brother into taking over? Yeah, right. What to do?

As I'm crouching there it happens again. Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Right then I decide to open the blinds. I'll open them suddenly, that way I'll startle the vampire. Before I lose my nerve, I reach up and grab the cord to the blinds and pull. The blinds go up, making that inimitable sound that blinds make when they are ripped open suddenly. What do I see?

Nothing. No vampire. No cold, skeletal hand. No friend playing a joke, either. Nothing. Slowly I stand up so I'm head height with the window and peer out into the right, my nose pressed to the glass. I strain my eyes and try to make out the dark shapes in the yard, looking, perhaps, for a vampire.

Tap! Tap! Tap! Geez-Louise! I can feel the glass moving against my nose! I pull back instinctively and scan the window for the tapper. Finally, I see it.

Right at ground level, barely discernable amongst the debris on the ground, is a toad. He's obviously not a Mensa member, because he's hopping against the window, headbutting the glass each time. Tap! Tap! Tap!

I let the blinds close and head back to bed. I don't recall what I told my brother it was. Probably the truth, though if I'd been a proper big brother I'd have reported "Vampire. Scared him off."

That was quite a long time ago. In honor of that occasion, I have composed a haiku, modifying some of the details, thus cleverly disguising the nature of my fear while still maintaining the emotional impact of the experience. If I ever forgive my brother for making me go to the window BY MYSELF perhaps a will add a second verse, juxtaposing the existensionalism of man with the bonds of brotherhood, thus lending a sense of verisimilitude to the narrative.

Ready? <Clears throat>

Frozen pond
Jumping frog
Stupid reptile.



Thank you.

I ADORE this thread! Had to make myself a tea once I got into it so I could continue reading with maximum pleasure. haha

Two stories involving the night my Mum died. ( neither involve me ) I've not been that lucky. haha

1: My older sister gets a call at 3am. ( why is always 3am that *kitten* goes down? ) Mum had died earlier that day. Sister picks up the phone:

Sis: Hello?

-silence-

Sis: HELLO?

Woman: Where's my daughter?

Sis: Sorry, who are you?

Woman: I'm sorry, I just want to speak to my daughter.

Sis: I think you have the wrong number...and its 3am!

Woman: I know I'm really sorry.......Is my daughter ok?

Sis: I'm sorry I have no idea...

-awkward silence-

Woman: Just wanted to hear her voice again. -silence- ( sister is severely creeped out ) ...Ok. Goodnight.

* Hangs up *

Weird huh? Apparently this woman sounded quiet, and calm. A little upset but not in a panic at all, almost monotone.

Story 2!:

Also the evening after Mum passed. Her sister ( my Aunty Susan ) and her boyfriend are sitting on the couch,when her BF offers to make a cuppa. So he gets up to go to the kitchen. He's in there doing his thing, when he sees my aunt passing by the kitchen, and go into the loo. He asked her if she was Ok, she smiled ( warmly so I hear ) and walked passed him. He returns with the tea and apparently dropped it to the floor when he came back into the room to see my aunt on the couch. Only seconds had passed in the time before seeing her walk into the loo,and being back in the living room.

" How did you get back so quick? Didn't even hear a flush! " - She was confused and said she hadn't moved an inch since he left the room. He insisted " You walked by me!! I asked if you were ok and you smiled and nodded??? "

This actually turned into a huge argument until they realised that there's a possibility it wasn't her walking by him. :-) ( FYI my Mum is one of 12 sibings, with the most of my aunts looking very alike. ) And although my aunts boyfriend was in the family for a year, he still hadn't met Mum as Susan is estranged from us, or was at the time. So he wouldn't know the difference!

- - - - - - -

I haven't beefed these up in any way, and they also never happened to me. But wow, I love hearing these stories.

My SIL's (my brother's wife's) grandmother passed away, and the night of the day she died, my brother woke up to their bedroom lamp (which had been said grandmother's in her old house before she downsized) turning on and off. It had a 3-way bulb in it and was not controlled by a switch, so it was going low, medium, high, off, low, medium, high, and so on. My brother even heard the clicking of the knob on the lamp as it turned. He got up, unplugged the lamp, and went back to sleep. He plugged the lamp back in the next morning, and the next night it happened again. Since his wife didn believe him about the first night, he woke her up, and she witnessed it. She said, "We know you're here, Grandma. We love you and miss you already," and the lamp turned off. It never happened again.

OP, oh my I would've been freaked out, too! Has that skull always been in the right corner of your window? At first I thought it was cobwebs but I zoomed in on it and it's definitely a skull!
Are you sure no one got into your house? Was anything stolen or different? Someone could have always gotten into your house before you locked it up for the night, hid out somewhere and come out once you guys were asleep. (Hate to change the pace from paranormal to, well, normal haha )

We're in a relatively crime free area (knock on wood) and I keep things locked 24 hours a day. That said, nothing was missing.

I put the skull there just to be silly. It's a little ceramic glow in the dark skull I got at Disney land like... 25 years ago.

I'm always one for a rational explanation to everything. However, especially late at night, my mind really likes to dabble in the irrational. When it was all done, and I was laying in bed, I could just feel icy pinpricks down the nerves in my back - hair standing up on neck - as if something was watching me through the window.

Something that wouldn't be there if you looked - but still, just maybe, if you turned your head fast enough you might catch it in the corner of your vision... So you turn slowly, very slowly, with held breath, hoping it's gone by the time you fix your eyes into the darkness through the window.

And it's gone, never there, of course. ..but even then, maybe just in the back of your mind, you can make out two black circles, just slightly darker than the rest, like sunken eyes watching you from the night.

Ridiculous, of course. Just a bit of seeing what you expect, or spots in your vision. floaters.

Still. funny how even a non-superstitious person like myself can get a little carried away, that late at night.

Have you ever checked your house for EMF (electro magnetic something…. blah) emissions? I have heard that sometimes high EMFs can cause feelings of being watched, etc, although that doesn't explain the light going on and off, unless there is faulty wiring. Old wiring is a frequent cause of EMF problems (but your house isn't all that old).

On the flip side, many ghost hunters claim that high EMFs can fuel paranormal activity. :laugh: :devil:

Anyway, just a thought.