Your True Tales
February 2005 – Page 13

The Haunting and the Fire
by Kandice

I wanted to share a most recent and disturbing experience. Last Thursday morning, I woke up at a little after 5 a.m. choking from the smell of smoke. The smell was so thick and I had such a hard time breathing that I really believed my house was on fire. I jumped out of bed and began to check the house. It was fine, so I checked the neighborhood. I actually bundled up and walked the streets in my PJs, I was so concerned that someone's house was burning and I was afraid they were asleep. I didn't find any house on fire and, in fact, when I was outside, I didn't see any smoke and the smell of fire faded considerably.

Now to yesterday. My mother had been visiting a relative in Arkansas, where I grew up. While she was there, my childhood house caught on fire. The thing that is so strange is that the house is one that my mom actually designed and built about 19 years ago; I was about eight at the time. No house had been there before and it was on quite a bit of land.

It was when we moved into that house that I had my first "real" experience with my ability to see people who aren't physically in the room, i.e. I think the guy I saw was dead, as most are that I have see, but I'm not sure. At eight years old, I was terrified after every night spent in that room I would become paralyzed, immobile in bed while a man was clearly seen outside my window, even though I was on the second floor. This man was very violent and, in fact, caused me many years of trauma and fear.

My mom didn't believe me when I complained about the scary man in my room and how I couldn't move, so finally one day she said she would prove to me that there was nothing wrong with my room. Remember, I was only eight and this house was her pride and joy. After a night in that room, the same thing happened to her. She couldn't move in the bed, a fact that has her convinced that it has something to do with magnetic forces. She saw a young girl in the window instead of my angry man.

She did let me move out of that room. After we moved, four other families have tried to live there and all moved. I know that one family complained of an infestation of scorpions that wouldn't go away no matter how often treated by a bug guy. Anyway, the house burned down. The house caught fire Thursday afternoon, about 1 p.m. The fire started in my old bedroom and burned through the roof, making the house unsafe to stay in. That night, when told about the fire, my mom – who doesn't believe in anything "strange" (she calls it all stupidstitions) said out loud to my aunt, "I am glad the family is okay, but I wouldn't mind if the house burned to the ground."

Friday night the fire reignited and the house is completely gone.

It was after all this and an extensive talk last night that my mom admitted to me that the guy who owned the land before we bought it, and why we got a good deal, was because the man that owned it before commited suicide. I'm not sure if he was on the property at the time though. I know he was about the same age as the man I saw in the window, but I don't know if they look alike.

At first, I was relieved that the house is gone, but know I feel like its a mystery that I will never solve. I would like to know if whatever was in that house just wanted the house gone and the property back and, if so, why my room, why that one room?

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