The House That Never Settled

520 37 1
                                    

Told by autumnkeely

When someone sells you a home for a reasonable price, it's usually too good to be true, but also too good of an opportunity to pass up. My aunt, of a young age at the time, had three kids of her own and a husband to support, came into a spell of luck when she received a single-wide trailer for free from a relative. With not much of a choice or an alternative place to stay, she took the trailer without thought and moved it alongside her mother's house.

The trailer was bleak, worn-in and hardly a place to raise a family, but as a starter home it was manageable. My aunt's husband was often away for work, leaving the three kids alone with my aunt. The house didn't give off any unnatural energy but what would come from a seemingly dull place to live would turn out to be far different than expected.

It started with normal, unsettling noises like creaks in the floorboards, unexplainable noises, but nothing too much of a concern, as it was usually quiet in the home and noises like this weren't alarming to hear in such a silent atmosphere.

But as my aunt settled into the home, things took a slight curve. At night, she began to hear banging, pots and pants on the brink of falling, silverware clanking, unexplainable noises that couldn't come from outside, as there were no neighbors other than her mom and dad next door that slept soundly at night. She began to worry, frightened even. This woman wasn't usually scared. Reality, for her anyway, could be scary enough, but she had to admit the chill in her bones couldn't be denied. She played it off as she always seemed to do in a distressing situation.

At one time, she laid in the center of her bed, covered in a quilted blanket up to her neck. One by one, her crusted eyes opened, trying hard to focus in the dark room lit only by the light from the frame of the bedroom door. She saw someone sitting on the edge of her bed looking at her, the eyes of a stranger stopping her jilted heart. It was a man with a black, top hat and seventeenth century clothing. She clutched onto her blanket, blinking and yet the menacing image in front of her stayed staring. She closed her eyes once again, praying to God this man, or monster, would go away. Soon enough, when she opened her eyes once more, the image disappeared. That was the last time she stayed in that room. Every night after, her and her kids slept in the living room with the lights on. She thought about moving in with her mom but decided she couldn't move in with three kids into such a tiny house. She lay many nights wondering about that man and it didn't go long until whatever lived in the house made itself known again.

There came a time of a serious drought in southern Louisiana and one one particular hot summer night,  my aunt and her family slept in the living room. My aunt fell asleep on the couch to the sound of a hissing fan that her children surrounded themselves by as they slept on the floor in sleeping bags. My aunt woke up, astounded that she had slept until at least midnight, which in the past couple of days had been almost impossible to do in the house. She tried to fall back asleep but just as soon as she closed her eyes, the biggest drop of water hit her straight on the forehead. Remembering that there was a drought, she was immediately alarmed, fighting back the panic that ceased to exist before moving into the trailer. The next morning, there was no sign of any leaks, any remains of water or anything that could remotely explain what had fallen on her forehead.

Not long after, her oldest son asked her, "Why were you and Dad holding hands in the hallway last night?"

Let me explain that her husband was not home that night since he had been at work. Let me also say that my aunt and her husband at the time were NOT lovey-dovey and hardly showed affection (which probably explained why they are divorced now). They weren't affectionate, much less affectionate enough to hold hands in the dark in a hallway. Maybe these spirits had a level of hatred that there wasn't such a happy couple living in the trailer anymore. Or maybe it was jealousy that they weren't alive to live in the trailer. No one really knows to this day.

My aunt told her son nothing as he was a young child. Instead, she packed up her things and soon bought a new place to live. She explained this to her parents who later called the relative that sold her the trailer. Our relative, who didn't believe in the paranormal, grew silent but then answered that the previous owners had told her 'the trailer was only settling', in other words she had been worried enough to ask around.

There were rumors the trailer burnt down months later. As for as my aunt, she would prefer to think whatever was in the house burned down with it.

Real Life Paranormal Experiences Part 2Where stories live. Discover now