The Divorce House

[steady patio]

My name is Erin, and this is my story about a strange house I lived in with my family for a time, and the hauntings we experienced.

I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and got married when I was 18 in 2002. My husband Jason went to college for computer programming but when he graduated there weren’t any jobs for him there. We decided to move to California with our 2 yo son, but only stayed for a year and a half before moving again in 2008 to North Carolina where Jason had family living nearby. In 2009, my son was 5 and a half when I got pregnant with my daughter and we bought this home in the Raleigh area.

It was a 3 bedroom home in a busy neighborhood just behind the Bagwell cemetery, it was common here to see old churches with small cemeteries beside them so it didn’t stand out as anything to worry about. My second pregnancy was very difficult and gave me pubic symphysis pain. I had been in constant pain no matter what I was doing or how I positioned myself, so I spent a lot of time reading to escape. Soon enough I was home alone when my son would start school and Jason was out working. It became usual for me to take naps from getting worn out from the pain, which is where the strange occurrences started as I heard a child’s voice whisper-yelling “hey” in my ear before going to sleep. Though I usually just brushed it off as me being half awake.

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These occurrences became more apparent one night, I had made dinner and cleaned the kitchen, making sure I turned off the oven before winding down with my son and Jason in the living room, but later the oven clicked as if it was still on so I checked and somehow it was on again, it was like it turned back on by itself. Shortly after, the microwave started up as well, beeping randomly like someone just kept hitting the “+1 min” button. Jason and I watched as it reached all the way to 99 minutes, and only stayed at 98 minutes for a few seconds before the button was pressed again. We just unplugged it and found a microwave with knobs instead which seemed to fix that problem. Then whenever I tried to bring it up, Jason dismissed the event as the microwave being busted and never wanted to discuss it. This was the beginning of what I thought to be the spirit of a child haunting the house. As time went on, this child seemed to only show its presence to me mostly, hearing it running around upstairs, jumping on beds, and making my son’s toys go off at random, all while I was completely alone at home. I had to throw out any toy that made noise and tell my son it was broken while Jason was very dismissive about anything supernatural going on.

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In 2011, my daughter was almost 1 and my son 7 when my father passed away. I saw a childhood friend of mine at his funeral and she mentions how she needs to get away from Alaska, so Jason and I offer to let her live with us in an empty family room upstairs. After a week of her living here she told me “You know your house is haunted, right?” I laughed nervously and said yes, then she told me a woman came to see her and said she’s watching out for me. It made me feel nervous about it but I hid it from Jason since he wouldn’t believe me anyway. Within a month of her telling me, I woke up to the soothing touch of someone rubbing my lower abdomen, the kind of touch your mom would give you if you had a stomach ache. I had woken up just enough to realize what’s happening and I looked over at Jason who was facing away from me, sound asleep. I was shocked, the touch lightened and since I didn’t want to wake anyone I just lay there quietly before falling back asleep.

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Since my friend didn’t work until 1pm and my daughter went to nap around 9-10am, they were both asleep when I sat in bed to read. It was very sudden when I heard loud whispering, like 10 people around me whispering at the same time. I looked around to find the source of the whispers but I only saw a woman standing just outside my doorway. She was 5’10 with a long dark blue dress with a glow from underneath the fabric. I saw the side of her face and it looked like she was speaking extremely fast, like a movie on fast forward. I knew she wasn’t my friend since she was shorter with a different build, so as my mind tried to make sense of what was going on, I called out to her hoping not to be alone in this but nothing happened so I tried screaming even louder, but still no answer. Since my fear response is to fight, I plan on fighting this blue dress lady in my house as I get up from my bed. I paused though, because the moment I got up the noise had stopped, and looking in the doorway, the lady had disappeared. I checked down both hallways and I saw my friend and my daughter both slept through the whole thing. I went back into bed, sitting awake as I waited for both of them to get up knowing that event wasn’t a bad dream. It wasn’t long after this when my friend moved back to Alaska.

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About a year and a half later I’m home with my daughter who’s almost 3. Since she isn’t much of a talker, I listened and followed her when she said to me in the kitchen “Mom, come.” She led me up the stairs saying “My friend. My friend, my friend has got a bleed. He’s got a bleed on his arm, a bleed on his leg, and he scares me.” When we got to her room, she looked around and saw nothing and went back to playing. I was confused and asked “Where is your friend?” She says “He went outside.” I told her that he has to stay outside and she replied “Okay mommy.” A little while later my husband and I separated, so I’m home with the 2 kids, 9 and 3, with no one else living here. I had to clean the bathroom one night and my daughter cried out “MOM!” I took a look inside her room from the bathroom next to it and she whispers “There’s someone behind the door.” I was nervous, wishing someone else could be there to do this, and I pulled the door away from the wall with nothing behind it. My daughter was very calm now and said “They’re gone” then rolled over to sleep. The same thing happens later that week, my daughter screams for me and I run in. This time she says “There is someone behind my doll house.” This dollhouse was as tall as her and was far too heavy for her to have moved across the carpet herself, yet it was clearly pulled away from the wall. I just picked it up and shoved it back into the corner, and she thanks me then goes back to bed. I got so afraid at that point I didn’t sleep for hours.

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It was a cold winter and I left the master bathroom faucet dripping so the pipes wouldn’t freeze while I was at work, and when I get off I had gotten nearly a dozen voicemails from my son saying the living room ceiling was leaking and he had to turn off the master bathroom faucet because it was fully turned on and flooding the bathroom and half of the master bedroom, which was above the living room. I had the home insurance people come by and one of the workers comes talk to me and she says “I can’t explain it, the pipe under the sink was frozen and the water had been turned on fully for what appears to be hours.” The only time this could have happened was when I was at work, my son at school, and my daughter at daycare, leaving the house empty. The worker believed it wasn’t anything intentional but couldn’t figure out how it happened, so marked it down as an accidental flood, which caused $10,000 worth of damage. We moved out soon after and I brought a plant to the neighbors across the street as a parting gift. The man who lives there said “I really thought you were going to make it.” I looked at him confused and he continued, “I call that the divorce house. Couples move in and within 2 years they get divorced and move. You guys lasted 5 whole years. I really thought you were gonna make it.”

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My ex-husband moved back into the house and has the kids on weekends, where my daughter comes back home looking pretty down. I asked “What’s wrong?” She sighed and said “My bloody friend is back.” I gave her my mother’s cross necklace and assured her she would be watched over, which I hoped would make her feel safer. Her “bloody friend” wasn’t brought up again and after a couple weeks I asked a general question, “How were things at your dad’s?” She seemed nonchalant and said “Everything’s fine.” I brought up our earlier conversation and said “Well a couple weeks ago you were upset.” She just looks at me funny and says she has no idea what I’m talking about. She forgot the whole thing in just a couple of weeks. As of now she’s 13 and knows the stories but still has no memory of them happening. My ex-husband sold the house around a year later, when he admitted to me he knew it was haunted but he didn’t want to make us scared of living there.

[thorn jacinth]

What a story.