I’ve had my fair share of ghost encounters, but none more than when I was fortunate enough to live in Germany. We resided on a military installation, in a building which had been ravaged during WWII and rebuilt from the dirt up. It stands to reason a fair number of people may have died there, or at least held memories of the place in death.
When we first moved in, I didn’t notice anything save for the rogue kamikaze bird who assumed my balcony doors were open when the light hit them just so. But then my husband left for his first deployment, and whatever resided in my apartment decided the time to play was upon us.The first instance involved my child. Actually, several did. But this first one showed me that whomever was present meant no harm. I slept peacefully one evening after my daughter had exhibited signs of crankiness all day, only to be woken by a solid thump to the forehead. A physical thump, as though someone had flicked me with their finger. I immediately checked on my child and found she had a raging fever.
A few months later, I began hearing noises above me from a storage area unused by anyone. Have you ever heard a kid bounce a rubber ball on hardwood or tile? That’s exactly what the sound was. Everyone I told played my tale off as nothing big until one evening when a friend was over. We were watching a movie and a new noise started. It resembled a popcorn pusher that toddlers have with the balls that pop as they roll it along.
The damn thing followed me room to room. And then my damn friend took off and left me there alone.
After that, the incidents escalated and it became a common occurrence for me to see shadows sneaking around a corner, or hear footsteps running through my place. Things became so routine, in fact, that I let my guard down. And then, the man came.
Dead summer. Burning hot outside, and no air conditioning in the apartments. I sweat while I slept because the three fans I had were all trained on my daughter. A finger moved my hair and a voice whispered a name in my ear.
I shot straight up in bed, and the room was so cold that my breath frosted in front of me.
My husband came home shortly after that, thank goodness, and things were peaceful save for the bouncing ball. Then he left again. A new presence presented itself above me. Every morning at four o’clock, a man’s heavy work boots would hit the floor above my head, traipse into the bathroom, then the kitchen, out the front door, and down the main stairs. I counted the stairs he took, to be sure, and discovered, much to my surprise, that I wasn’t somehow hearing an echo from below. The man was descending and walking straight past my apartment from the vacant storage areas upstairs.
One morning, I got up and followed the motions. We had an intercom system which had a button to illuminate the hallway. As the boots passed, I flipped the switch and…
No one was there.
But, by far the creepiest experience I had there is this: One fine morning I stood in my kitchen, washing the dishes while my infant son slept on the couch. My daughter was fast asleep in her room and my husband had just come off a twenty four hour shift and collapsed in our room.
My son began to cry, and so I grabbed a towel and peeked around the corner. I saw my husband sitting on the couch and rubbing the baby’s back. Oh, good, I thought. Let me finish this pan and I’ll grab him. Not one minute later, I rounded the corner, the words already coming out of my mouth. “I’ve got him, honey, you go on…”
The living room was empty, save for the kid on the couch, with an extra pillow propped up to keep him in place. Confused, I immediately went to my room and asked my husband why he’d put the extra pillow down, but he was passed out in the same clothes he’d worn the night before. The man I saw was shirtless.
If you like creepy stories, and would like to read another from the very depths of my dark imagination, you can check out Siege of Shadows. It releases October 29 with Silver Publishing! I can be reached at http://lindsaysbooks.webs.com, http://ichbineinteufel.blogspot.com, on Facebook, Twitter @infidelqueen, or by email at [email protected]
Happy reading, and thanks for hosting me today, Alexx!
Siege of Shadows Blurb:
A neighbor, arrested, covered in his wife’s blood. A wolf stalking her. To top it all off, the new neighbor is trying to kill her—in her nightmares.Billie is having one hell of a time with the new guy on the block. She can’t decide if she hates him or wants to take him to bed, for starters. And every time she dreams about him, she wakes up with dried blood on her body.There’s only one explanation, but even Billie thinks she’s crazy for believing it. No way is her neighbor trying to kill her…
