Paranormal Story Archives
September 2002 – Page 10

Footsteps in the Hallway
by Marissa A.

This true ghostly experience happened in my mother's house in Adelaide, South Australia. My mother lived in a big house with my half brother (aged 10) and my step-father. It was a government housing trust home, so many people lived in it before they had. It was a typical trust house for the suburb they lived in: high ceilings and polished wooden floorboards. In mum's house, she had an L-shaped hallway starting at the front door and ending at the door leading to the back room of the house. (I have to set the scene so you understand the story.) As you enter the front door of the house, you are faced with a doorway that leads to my half-brother's room, and adjacent to that room is the lounge room. Then you'd come to the L-bend in the hall and that leads past my mum's room, the kitchen and bathroom entrance ways and finishes at the door to the back room where the dog sleeps at night with the door closed. 

It happened mid-April 2000. I was visiting my mum and decided to stay the night. (I lived two hours away with my partner.) That night I slept in the lounge room, my brother in his room, my parents in their room and the dog in the back room. I was lying on the mattress shivering, which was bizarre as it was warmer weather and I had a quilt covering me. I tried to go to sleep, but for some reason I just couldn't. Then I heard footsteps. I knew it wasn't my half-brother as he tiptoes down the hallway, and I knew it wasn't my step-father as I could hear him snoring in the next room, and I knew it wasn't my mother as her footsteps are quieter than the ones I was hearing. As for the dog... these weren't dog footsteps.

The footsteps sounded as if they started from the front door. They made three or four steps, then stopped. I was too afraid to have a look because by this time I had put the quilt over my head and closed my eyes. I felt as if someone was standing at the doorway staring at me - you know how you can just "feel" a presence or you just know when someone is staring at you; that's how I felt. About 30 seconds later, I heard the footsteps again. They sounded like work boots - heavy! They took about four steps, then they started to speed up to a jog... then I heard a SLAM! It sounded like the back room door had been slammed shut. I was totally freaked! I knew for a fact that the door leading to the back room was already closed, as that's where the dog sleeps at night. I think I had about an hour sleep that night! 

The next morning I asked my mum if she'd heard anything unusual last night. She told me about the ghost in the hallway. She said it only plays up when she has friends stay the night. I was angry that mum never told me that before, but she assumed that since I was family that the ghost wouldn't mind me staying. I guess she was wrong!

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