The Haunting

Strange Appearance

For the most part, the next decade or so had been largely uneventful.

Sure, the feeling of being watched and waiting for someone or something to pop out never went away, but the unease had loosened its grip on me. I assumed it's hold had been weakened since I was out of the house.

It had mainly been little things - like music boxes or snow globes going off in the middle of the night. That would lead to me putting them back in their boxes and storing them in the basement. At least if they went off down there, I'd be less likely to hear. Eventually, I just refused to have any more.

They'd always creeped me out, for obvious reasons. I never bought them for myself, they were usually gifts. My grandmother in particular liked to buy me stuff that made music. God bless her, she had no idea how much she was traumatizing me.

But, as I said, for the most part, there was peace.

It was really nice to be able to relax a little. I let myself get comfortable - happy even.

I moved on with my life, and actually let myself live my life. It was great, to not have the fear controlling me all the time. 

Eventually, I got out into the dating world, had gotten married and had a few kids.

Then, all of a sudden, for no apparent reason I can think of, it started again.

It started small, and has gotten worse over time.

For a short time, I even considered maybe it was me.

Maybe I was crazy after all. 

How else could I explain it?

First it was just footsteps and the sound of doors opening and closing.

Then the feeling of being watched and followed came back. But even worse than before, not that I had thought that would even be possible. Apparently it was. 

It was a feeling that's never really left me again. Everywhere I go, it's like there's something looking over my shoulder. Or standing right behind me. 

One night, it got really creepy.

My husband and I were on the couch watching a scary movie after the kids had gone to bed. We had the lights off - as you do when watching a horror movie at night. But then we saw something, beyond the T.V.

He noticed it first and nudged me.

My heart stopped and my body went cold.

There, on the steps, stood a figure. It was perfectly still. But it was definitely a person. It looked like they were hunched over slightly, with their long hair covering their face. 

The two of us sat there, looking back and forth between each other and the steps.

Waiting.

Watching.

But nothing happened. 

After a few moments, I whispered for Robbie (A/N: Name changed for privacy reasons.) to pause the movie. He did, and we continued to just sit there and try to figure out what was going on.

Eventually, he called out to the person. "Morgan?" (A/N: Name changed for privacy reasons.) For him, there was no other explanation other than it was our six year old. But me being me, I wasn't so sure. He called out a few more times, but there was never a response. It was like whoever - or whatever - was on the steps didn't even hear him. 

After what seemed like an eternity, but was really probably only a minute or two, the figure turned around and disappeared up the steps.

"What was that?" He was clearly nervous from the way his voice shook.

All I could do was shrug. 

Then he made me go up and check on the kids. I could tell he was too scared to go up, even though he refused to admit it.

Begrudgingly, I got up and went upstairs. I didn't really want to go look either.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I flipped on the light, but there was nothing there at the top. With a glance back over at Robbie, he made a shooing motion to urge me to continue. 

Sighing, I made my way to the second floor. The boys' room was in front of me, so I did a quick peek in, but all was quiet and as it should be. 

Morgan's room was to the left of the stairs, and I turned to face it as the shut the door to the boys' room. It took everything I had to walk towards her room. 

I'm not really sure why. It wasn't like I expected to see something hovering over her, like I had happen to me, with that blue disembodied face,  when I was about her age. 

In the back of my mind, I kept trying to tell myself that it was her on the steps. And even if it wasn't, I didn't know why I thought I was going to find in her room.

Maybe it was the fear that if everything was normal in her room, and she was asleep, that I couldn't easily explain away what had happened.

But when I got to her room, she was there in bed, under the covers. I softly called her name a few times, but she never acknowledged me.

I went back down and just shook my head to Robbie. She was sleep, and didn't look like she'd been out of bed at all.

He was still trying to tell himself it was Morgan. That she had gotten out of bed and came downstairs. She must've just gotten back under the covers.

But she had never sleepwalked before that night. Nor did she after - if it had actually been her.

One thing was for sure, though, we were both in agreement we were going to watch the rest of the movie with the lights on.

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Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading! I really hope you enjoyed this installment.

There's only a few more updates before the story will be complete! It's sort of sad. 

BUT, if anything else happens to Charlie after the book is completed, I will post another update. So it's important for you to add the book to your reading list, otherwise you won't know there's an update!

Anyway, if you liked it, I'd appreciate it if you would vote, add to one of your public reading lists, and comment!