I’m fascinated by haunted houses. Not for me to explore, but for me to hear the true experiences of others.
They usually begin with finding their dream house . . . and ends with it becoming their worst nightmare. This isn’t a spoiler alert. It is how these stories seem to happen. You’ve heard them, too.
I can relate. Plus, I’ve heard hundreds of stories. I’m always disturbed when they involve children, but small children seem to be able to see “the other side” so much more clearly than adults do. I prefer for kids to be kids and not be burdened by the creepy stuff that attaches to houses . . . and to people.
It’s easy for me to say to research a home before moving in. Sometimes the timing isn’t right and there are always incomplete records and there’s that Pandora’s Box concept of not sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong . . . or open up something you can’t undo.
All right, I’m curious and I’m also chicken. And it’s easier to hide your head in the sand and keep telling yourself, “It’s only my imagination.”
Well, that works for a day or two.
Darla and her young son just moved into a house that was provided by her employer. She was recently divorced and wanted to make a new life for herself and her son. Her brother helped them move in one Saturday. He noticed how his nephew kept staring at the closed closet door.
“Hey, Nate, what do you see?”
Silence. He tapped Nate on the shoulder. “Nate, look at me.”
The young boy seemed to be in a trance. He called his sister.
Darla finally got Nate’s attention. He said, “There’s a boy in the closet. Can I give him a sandwich?”
Bob, Darla’s brother, went into the bedroom to look inside the closet, but the door was stuck.
Darla started having second thoughts about the house, but she couldn’t afford to move and didn’t want to seem ungrateful to her boss. Getting the house was a big help to her.
Darla worked for a real estate company and she learned the house had always been a problem. The company bought it at auction to flip it, but no one was interested in buying it and renters stayed just a couple of months and moved out.
She went way back into the newspaper archives and found an article about a young boy who was chained in the closet and starved to death. She brought it to the attention of her boss, Dan.
“I had no idea. But that explains things,” there’s another house that is available for you to move in out town a ways.”
Darla declined the offer. She was going to help the spirit of the child find the light.
After the house was blessed and a psychic came, the house felt lighter and more comfortable. The spirit of the child was sent to the light and Darla and Nate had no problems. Darla eventually bought the house.
I don’t know if I would have bought the house. I don’t like the idea of a child being chained and starved in a closet. I wanted to know more about the incident. Why the child was chained and what happened to the parents.
It was back in the 1940’s when a young couple and their young son moved into the house. This young couple wasn’t ready for marriage and definitely not equipped to be parents. They would chain their son to the wall in the closet when they’d go out drinking and dancing at night.
One night the young man got into a fight at the club and was stabbed to death. The woman ran off with the assailant. They were apprehended a few weeks later and both were arrested, tried and convicted of murder. The woman never mentioned having a son, so no one checked the house.
After the trial, the landlord went into the house to prepare it to be rented. He found the young child chained to the closet wall . . . dead.
This is one of those incidents that haunt you. I kept thinking about the poor child and debated whether to tell this story or not, but learning the truth, I had a better understanding of Darla’s decision to buy the house after taking care of the child’s spirit.
Nate remembered the little boy in the closet. It wasn’t a traumatic experience for him.
Thanks for stopping by,
