“Did You Hear That?”
Ever since I can remember I have always loved horror movies. I enjoyed the adrenaline rush you’d get after a good jump-scare and I always thought that they were fun to watch. My favorite type of horror movies growing up were always the ghost stories. I was intrigued by the idea that some people are not truly gone after they have died and in fact sometimes haunt the living. It interested me so much I went out and bought myself a Ouija board. I didn’t know much about contacting the spirit world, however I wanted to try. I remember begging my younger sister to play with me. Unlike me, she wanted nothing to do with ghosts, however I finally convinced her. We sat there patiently waiting for any kind of movement or sign, but there wasn’t one. We played with the board multiple times after that and still nothing exciting happened. Soon both my sister and myself lost interest in the whole thing. That’s when peculiar things began to happen.
My younger sister and I shared a room for most of our childhood. It wasn’t a large room, however, it worked for us and fit our two beds comfortably. One night as my sister and I are falling asleep we hear scratching coming from the closet door. This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, though, because our cat had a tendency to hide in the closet and as a result would accidentally get locked inside. Due to my sister and I being very tired, neither of us got up right away. I think we were both hoping the other would eventually break and just get up. After some time I said, “Abby, let the cat out of the closet.” She groggily responded, “You’re closer.” Unfortunately she was right, so I groaned and pushed myself up off my bed and walked over to the closet. At this point the scratching had been continuous, however, as soon as I got closer to the door it stopped. Thinking my cat had heard me coming, I opened the closet door expecting to see her come running out, but nothing was there. Confused, I looked deeper into the closet trying to see if she had hid somewhere. To my surprise the closet was empty and now fear had begun to set in like a crashing wave. I knew for sure that I had heard scratching because my sister had heard it as well. So what was making that sound? I quickly stepped back and exclaimed to my sister that the closet was empty. She sat up and looked at me puzzled. I repeated myself and then walked to the light, turning it on, trying to find a reasonable explanation but there wasn’t one.
The next morning, my sister and I told our parents what had happened. They immediately blamed it on our imagination and the fact that we were always watching “those” scary movies. So that’s what my sister and I convinced ourselves had happened. However, the activity in my house soon became more frequent. The drawers in the room I shared with my sister began to open on their own. We noticed one day while we were cleaning our room that the top drawer of the our dresser slid open by itself. We immediately yelled ghost and made a huge joke out of the entire situation, as a way to calm our nerves. This occurrence became more frequent and we decided to again look for a reasonable explanation, but once again there wasn’t one. The drawers would open slowly sometimes, whereas other times the drawers would slam open with such force the noise would startle you. That wasn’t the only strange activity that was occuring. We began to hear tapping on our window at night. Now this occurrence scared my sister and myself so much that we would always run to get our parents, thinking someone was trying to kidnap us. Each time they checked, nothing was there. Things like this went on for a while until one night I finally saw something.
I woke up in a cold sweat and decided to get some water. I slowly slipped out of bed and began walking to the kitchen. It was a dark, long walk to the kitchen, and at the time I was terrified of the dark. I constantly felt as if I was being watched, especially at night. So I wanted to get there as fast as I could in order to turn on the light in the kitchen. Once I made it to the kitchen and successfully got myself some water it was time to walk back to my room, in the dark. I walked quickly to my room and soon hopped back into bed. I then turned off the light in an attempt to go back to sleep. As my eyes began to adjust to the darkness, I still felt as though someone was watching. I rolled over in my bed, now facing my open door. That’s when I saw someone standing in the hallway. It was a tall figure and at first I thought it was my dad. I quickly asked, “Dad, is that you?” When I got no response I was frozen with fear. My body felt as if it had turned to stone. The figure was tall and had the shape of a person, however, I couldn’t make out the face due to the darkness. It was almost as if the figure was darker than the blackness that surrounded it. I then pulled the covers over my head and called for my parents. I was petrified and I somehow hoped my blankets would protect me from whatever it was.
My parents ran into my room alarmed by my call and asked what was wrong. I frantically explained what I had seen and my Dad searched the house immediately, thinking someone might have broken in. But once again they found nothing. My dad then lectured me about how it was all my imagination and I was just scaring myself. I wanted to believe him but I really didn’t. I was scared of my own house and I just wanted all of the weird activity to stop. At this point I was convinced that ghosts were real and I was scared. However that all changed one night.
My Great Grandmother and I had a great relationship. I remember when we used to go and visit her in Yuma when I was younger, she was always feeding stray cats. However as she got older she came to Tucson to be closer with family. My sisters and I would visit her daily and she loved seeing us. However she was very old and we all knew that, which is why we spent so much time with her.
I had a dream one night of my Great Grandmother. It was just the two of us and we were sharing a McDonald’s Happy Meal, her favorite. I remember that she told me how much she loved me and my sisters and grateful she was to have us in her lives. I remember her kissing my head and telling me how much she loved me but that she had to go. I remember crying and asking her not to leave, but she said she had too and that she would see me later. So she left. Next thing I knew I was startled awake by my house phone ringing. I got up and walked to the phone but I had this feeling that I already knew what the call was about. As soon as I answered the phone I heard the frantic voice of my Aunt asking to talk with my Mom. I knew immediately that my Great Grandmother had passed away. I could just feel it. I remember not understanding fully how or why I knew what I did but I soon came to my Mom for advice.
I told her about the dream I had and that it was almost as if she was saying goodbye to me and surprisingly she believed me. She went on to tell me that she too had dreams of loved ones who have died and that they felt so real. It was the first time I actually felt like my parents believed me and I felt relieved. In a way I finally felt like I got the proof I needed in ghosts and I felt happy and okay with it. The truth is life is crazy and sometimes the least expected thing happens and we just have to roll with it. I spent all this time fearing the unknown when really the unknown is quite beautiful and I just had to look at things differently.
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