The beginning was subtle. We arrived home from seeing the fireworks on the 4th of July and noticed that while we were pulling into the driveway, that the basement light was on. My husband told me I left the light on. I told him I hadn’t been in the basement to leave the light on. I told him he must have left it on the last time he was down there. He said it was 3 days since he was down there, and he would have noticed it on when he got home from work during the night, as he was going down the driveway. Our next thought was that someone must have come in through a window while we were gone. He nailed the window in the stairwell shut from the inside.
The next time the basement light was on in the evening when we came home, the door to the kitchen from the basement was ajar also. Thinking someone had once again gotten into the basement and went into the house, we checked the house and there was nothing missing. This time, my husband put a hook on the door from the kitchen side.
Now things were going to get very interesting. The next incident was going to involve the door. We were in the kitchen when we heard the basement door start rattling. We thought someone was trying to get in through the door, so he walked over to it, unhooked it and flipped on the light switch to find no one there, and the window still sealed shut. He thought it must be a draft in the basement. How could it be when there was no windows open?
On another occasion, while we were talking in the kitchen, the basement door was rattling again, only this time it was long enough that when we turned, we could see the door straining against the hook as it moved back and forth. Once again, there was no one there when the door got flung open.
One weekend while my Mom and Dad were visiting, my father was watching a football game on television and he told me that my husband was home because he just saw him in the kitchen walking to the basement door. I went in there to check. There was no one in the kitchen, the basement door was still locked, and the front door was still locked, too. He was very adamant that someone was in the kitchen.
I told a friend that has been my friend since 6th grade about the incidents. She thought that was strange, but I got the feeling that she really didn’t believe it. She came over 2 days before we had a Halloween party to help me get the house ready. We were cleaning in the kitchen when the door started rattling again while we were standing 5 feet away from it. I saw her face look unbelieving when she watched it move back and forth against the hook. We finally had a witness now that was not my husband or I. She told her husband about it, but I don’t think he believed it.
The door that goes to the upstairs started swinging open at night after we went to bed. At first it was just a little ajar. My husband once again said it must be a draft. After pushing it back in place in the morning, not much thought went into it. The door started swinging wide open after we went to bed. It was getting irritating. So, my husband pushed the foot stool in front of it so it wouldn’t be able to swing open. The next morning the door was wide open, with the footstool pushed along with it. He decided he could nip that problem in the bud. He nailed the door shut. For many nights, this worked.
One evening, after I finished the dishes, I was walking back into the living room, past the upstairs door, when the nail popped out and hit me on the upper right arm as I was walking by. I was really upset by that.
A friend needed a place to stay, so we explained the things that had happened there, and offered the upstairs to her. She said she wasn’t afraid. She moved in, and things went smooth for a while, but one night I woke up to hear her talking. I thought it was funny because I thought she was talking in her sleep. I woke my husband up to hear it, and then there was a male voice that was answering her. In the morning, we told her about it. She said she must have been talking in her sleep. I asked her how she answered in a male voice then. She said she didn’t know. She moved out while we were gone.
I would not go to bed before my husband got home from work. I hated leaving the living room. I felt like I was being watched when I was in the kitchen. I wouldn’t even do the dishes once it got dark because my back would be turned to the basement door. I started checking the newspaper for homes for sale. We bought the first one we looked at and moved to a different town shortly after. We had only lived in Martin for a year and a half.
The interesting thing is that the house was very old and had an addition put on. The original part of the house has a door in the basement that has been cemented shut, and was supposedly used in the Underground Railroad. It was supposed to have connected to a farm that was next door and burned down when my husband was 7. It was the original house on the property.
Since my husband’s family owns the house, we ended up back there again several years later. Our 4 sons were occupying the 2 bedrooms upstairs. One of my sons came downstairs and asked me if I heard a lady crying. I said I didn’t. He wanted me to come upstairs and listen. I didn’t hear anything. My youngest son said he saw a see-through person upstairs.
I bought a trailer and moved my sons and I out of there. Their father is no longer my husband. He lives there now. He says things are pretty quiet.
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