The Dogs Sense It
My dog Sadie was a mongrel pit bull mix that was afraid of nothing in this world. Suz's dog Ballard was a large husky/shepherd that would follow Sadie anywhere.
We turned on the light and opened the door that led upstairs and tried to guide the dogs up, but they would have no part of this. They refused to move, and for the first time in her life Sadie seemed scared and confused.
Then, our cat Amy (the consummate hunter) made a cautious trek up the steps. She stopped just before she reached the top, and then to our shock and horror, stood transfixed, her head moving to and fro as if she were watching something moving rapidly move from one end of the room to the other. The crashing sounds continued.
"Go up," Suz said.
"No!" I said, feeling cowardly but justified.
If it had been any kind of small creature, Amy would have had no problem catching it and bringing it back to us to show off. Instead, she just stood mesmerized at the top of the stairs. We finally coaxed her down, closed the door and locked it.
I don't think I slept that night either.
The Knocks
The next day, we talked about moving, but there was no way we could afford it. Although we both would have described ourselves as atheists, we considered asking a priest to bless the house. We were afraid to tell anyone about it, lest they think we were crazy.
The noises continued the next few nights, and during the day I cleared stuff from the room in the barn.
On Monday morning, I heard a knock at the door. This seemed odd, considering we lived so far from a road, and it was almost impossible for a vehicle to come to our house without our hearing it. So, I went to the door. Nobody there.
I heard a knock at the back door.
"They must have gone to the back because I was slow answering the front door," I thought. So I checked and - surprise! - no one there either.
Now I was really spooked. It was the first manifestation to take place in the daylight. Whatever this presence was, it was becoming bolder - more desperate to get our attention. I walked around outside the house, and it was clear that there was nobody within a mile.
I decide to work in the garden, not wanting to stay in the house alone. After a time, I looked back toward the house and was horrified to see dark smoke pouring off the roof of the kitchen. My heart leapt. It flashed through my mind that perhaps I had left the stove on or that the toaster was malfunctioning. Somehow something was wrong and I rushed into the house in a panic thinking that the house was on fire.
I ran into the kitchen... everything was normal. I checked the entire house, but there was no sign of a fire or smoke. Mystified, I went back outside and there was no sign of smoke anywhere.
I began to freak out even more. I was home alone and was afraid to go back into the house by myself. To help clear my mind and settle my nerves, I decide to continue cleaning the barn.
That's when I started to figure things out.
Page Three >A Bizarre Coincidence
