In August, 2012, we left our home in New Jersey to visit my wife's relatives in Cape Town, South Africa. We stayed at her brother's house as he is at sea for three weeks out of four and has plenty of room.
Soon after we settled there, we began to sense "activity". I would see movement past doorways out of the corner of my eye and things like that. Little did I know how active that house would turn out to be. Things began to get interesting when my daughter, who was 10 years old and sensitive to these things, had a fright.
She was in her bedroom when she heard heavy breathing in the hallway and footsteps coming toward her door. Then the door started to open. There was no one there, of course. My son, 13 at the time, verified her story, saying that he too heard the breathing and the footsteps. My daughter would not sleep in that room for the rest of our stay.
That event confirmed my suspicions and I left it at that. Then one morning, just before sunrise, I found myself suddenly wide awake. My eyes popped open, and standing directly in front of me as I lay in the bed was the silhouette of a rather large man. My brother-in-law was home at this time and I wondered if it was him, coming to get something from the room as it was his room we were using while we stayed there.
Although the figure appeared quite black against the background, I could see that he was tall and broad with close-cropped hair. But what really struck me was that I could clearly see the stark outline of what was none other than a military-style field jacket. These jackets were popular when I was younger and I know their look well.
As the figure was looking down at us in the bed, he suddenly shook his head quickly as if he didn't know what to do at that point. He turned and walked to the back of the room. I tried to follow him with my eyes, but lost him in the darkness. There was only one way out of that room and that was the doorway right in front of my face where he had been standing.
Daylight came quickly and the house was instantly abuzz with conversation. The children had heard the footsteps and the breathing again, and were telling the grandparents. I looked toward the back of the room and nobody was there. The bedroom door was closed. I said, "Wow."
My wife said, "Wow what?"
I said, "I'll tell you later," as my brother-in-law was really at the door this time. I looked at the clock. I had awoken at exactly 5:00 a.m. It is no surprise that a spirit should have taken up residence there as the house is empty most of the time.
As we brought the last of the bags to the car, I said goodbye out loud to the spirit of my brother-in-law's house. I think that the poor bloke was confused with all of the mayhem that we brought there (though he was considerate enough to wake us up), but he's got his peace and quiet back now.
