I used to live in a house in Hattiesburg Mississippi, the town that keeps the University of Southern Mississippi from heading for Mexico on a drunken rampage. The house I lived in was a rental property that was begrudgingly rented to a group of college students only because my mother also rented there. She and an older student occupied rooms on the first floor, while a few of us took over the top floor. There were two bedrooms up there, but one of them had been padlocked off to hold the antiques from the house. Two guys shared the bedroom, but I opted to take the space created by the railing of the staircase as it came up through the floor, and then the wall and door of the second, padlocked bedroom. I had enough space there, if you can believe it, for a twin bed and a dresser. It was also right close to the bathroom, a large one, that was the third and last room (my little spot wasn't really a room) on the upper floor.
My bed then was right next to the stairs, which did the usual "U" shape as they came up from the lower floor. Anyone coming up those stairs had to pass by me if they came up after I went to bed. It was college, so I wasn't complaining about the accomodations. It wasn't anything permanent, and in truth, I've had worse places to call my own!
One of the other guys who stayed there worked nights at the local Pizza Hut. I got used to being awakened briefly as he came home, banging the front door shut, and then made the inevitable stomping sounds on the stairs. The door and stairs just couldn't be made quiet, apparently.. I always found it easy to get back to sleep, even if it was a little annoying.
Some nights it would seem to me that I could hear things rustling around in the padlocked room. I became frightened over time when it was clear that I really *was* hearing things! To my relief, though, it turned out the room had a breach, and squirrels were getting in. One night my friends and I actually had to chase a flying squirrel around our house to catch it and let it go outside. Eventually we captured it under one of those plastic clothes baskets. It took some time, though, as the ability to glide gave this squirrel a whole other way to avoid us.. We called the landlord and he promised to do something about it. If he did, he did it while I was away. Anyway, I continued to hear those sounds for the time I stayed there, but I could always tell myself that it was squirrels..
Then one night I heard the front door bang open, and the heavy tread of footsteps on the stairs. Up they came.. I had actually just put my light out to go to sleep after reading an assignment, but I decided I was tired and I was going to pretend to be asleep and not hail my housemate. Up up came the steps, a little heavier than I had remembered them being before. And then they stopped! Because of the way my bed was arranged, it sounded as if the steps stopped right next to my head. That would have been a step or two away from the top of the landing. I waited a second and considered asking my housemate what was up, but a little discrepancy was starting to bother me. I didn't smell any pizza. If you've ever worked at a pizza restaraunt, or known someone who did, you probably know that when you get home, you totally reek of pizza! But whoever was now standing inches away from my nose was *not* stinky.. in fact, I couldn't smell or hear anything. Why wasn't I hearing breathing?
Well you must know how this story goes, as it's a classic type of haunting activity. Usually people don't actually stay so close to the stairs, though, so I got a real close up experience. Because of my questions, and the nagging doubts left over from having entertained the idea that the room behind the padlocked door was haunted.. and also because this wasn't my first experience with a haunting, I was just terrified. I could not open my eyes for anything and I simply laid there pretending to be asleep, until forty-five minutes later my housemate did come home, slamming the door, stomping up the steps and reeking of pizza. If the ghost was still there, my housemate walked right through him.
Anyone else ever experience the staircase ghosts? They don't seem to do much else than come in and walk up the stairs. It seems a little, I don't know, embarassing. I mean, I imagine the spectral "haunting society" get togethers where ghosts tell each other what they've been doing, and then the one guy has to say, "I'm a staircase ghost." I imagine the talk gets quiet and the other ghosts just stare at him with expressions of "you total loser.." until they pick the conversation back up again and act like he never said anything..
Amazing story. The ghosts that I have in my house make all the sound effects to go along with their actions. I have walked up the stairs and down the hall and I can hear their footsteps right beside me or coming toward me...We have a wooden floor. The difference is I have never felt afraid of them or threatened by them.
I feel as if I've experienced all three in my travels.
