My Aunt's Haunted House

(A picture will be here as soon as I can scan it)

Sure, it looks innocent here, but I tell you, this house is haunted.

Ever since the first time I stepped into this house, it creeped me out. Even though I was only 3 or 4 at the time my Aunt owned it, I still remember the bad vibes it gave off. I remember only wanting to stay outside on the patio instead of sitting inside the house.

The house was a pre-Civil War house in Huntington, Connecticut. A lot of the houses around there are really old and carry a lot of history along with them. This house is no exception.

While I am not familiar with any of the house's histroy, the events that occurred while my Aunt's family inhabited it are enough to chill your bones.

The first instance when the presence of the house's former inhabitants was known was before the family had even moved into the house. My uncle went to the house to clean, fix anything that was broken, and complete any other preparations necessary before the house would be ready to move into. During this week, he was woken up every night at 2:00 in the morning to the noises of slamming doors, wailing, and chains being dragged up and down the stairs. When he would get up to investigate, the noises would cease. He would find the attic door open with the light on, and after he turned off the light and closed the door, the disturbance would quiet for the remainder of the night. Somehow he managed to keep his cool, but by friday night, he was at his wits end. After being roused from sleep every night for the past 4 nights, he was not in a good mood. He stormed up to the attic and started spewing out every swear word he knew (and this was quite a few, mind you) at the top of his lungs. Apparently the spirits understood some of it, because they never pulled those stunts again.

On another occasion, a guest inquired about the house's history, so my Aunt went to the local library to get an old copy of the town register to find about the former inhabitants of the house. One night, as she sat up late reading it, she began speaking the names aloud. As she pronounced one of the names, sounds of heavy breathing began to emanate from the doorway of her bedroom. Thinking it was her daughter, she got up to investigate. However, when she checked on her daughter she was sound asleep in bed. On her way back to her own room, she noticed the door to the attic open, as well as the light in the attic lit. She shut them off and decided she had done enough reading for one night. After she got into bed and was trying to fall asleep, the breathing began again, only this time it was coming from the foot of the bed. Because she was already creeped out by the earlier experience, she sent her husband to investigate. When he went out into the fall he found what was to become expected. The door to the attic had been opened again, and, as usual, the light was blazing.

Another story my Aunt likes to tell involves her and their neighbor, the former owner of the house. One day, after eating lunch together, they sat talking in the kitchen. After a while they started to notice that during the breaks in the conversation they could hear two other voices carrying on their own animated discussion. Soon the voices grew louder and they realized that the noise was coming from underneath their feet. As they paused to listen, the voices grew slightly softer, but were still audible. However the floorboards muffled the voices and they were speaking at such an elevated speed that none of it was intelligible. The neighbor asked if the kids had been released early from school, but my aunt did not think so. They then proceeded to do a room to room search of the house, but, of course, it was empty.

There were also numerous times when the rocking chair in the living room would begin to rock by itself, or upon entering the kitchen, all the burners on the stove would be fully lit and blazing away at the highest setting. My Aunt also said that it was impossible to keep all the doors to the rooms closed. And these were doors that didn't even have easy-open doorknobs, mind you. They were old-fashioned latching doors that required a thumb button to be pushed in order to open the door.

If your skin isn't crawling by now, you should probably check your pulse.