When I was growing up, I lived in a small town in the southwest US. The house was built in the early 1900s, and I know from when my dad and grandpa excavated the basement that it had been built on a formerly existing structure (ie Native American ruins). My grandparents lived in this house their entire 55 year married life, and they were the only ones to live in the house. My uncle and father grew up in the home and never had any experiences growing up.
To explain the story, I will have to explain the basic layout of the home. It was a one story home with a basement, with your normal bedrooms and living rooms upstairs. In the basement there is an L-shaped storage room with shelves, another square storage room, and a coal room complete with chute, all of which radiate off a central open space which holds the furnace and some extra freezers and storage space.
I have a certain pattern when I have to go in the basement. I stand at the top of the stairs, turn on the lights, walk down the stairs, grab what I need, and sprint like a madwoman back up the stairs, shutting the door behind me as I turn off the light. Keep in mind that I’m almost 29 and I still can’t go down there without getting the heebie jeebies. And not for ANY reason EVER will I go into that coal room. I have seen into it once, but never gone in. My father and mother have no problem going in, but I cannot bring myself to set foot through the door.
The weird thing? All four of my siblings say the same things. Not one of us, for any money, will go into that coal room, and we all without exception hate the basement with a passion. I don’t know what’s in there. I don’t know if there’s even anything in there. But there is such a feeling of sheer terror that comes over me that I get goosebumps just thinking about that room.
On a possibly related note, when my grandma got much older, I stayed with her for about a month. We listened to the radio or talked all the time, and the house was rarely completely quiet. In the last few months of her life, we found out the reason that happened was because she heard voices all the time, including voices that told her she was going to die, including dates (which were inaccurate). I’m not sure it was related, it could have been dementia, but personally, I’m not so sure.
Subject: WWW Form Submission
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 13:22:53 -0700 (PDT)
To: obiwan@ghosts.org
From: Anonymous
Location: The American Southwest