Bathroom Spirit

by Michel Cromwell

This happened in 1976-77 while I was living in a two bedroom house in Manhattan Beach, CA with two other friends. No one did drugs or anything like that so what happened definitely wasn't any kind of hallucination. Annie, one of my roommates had come by one night and said that she had a difficult time going into our bathroom, which had doors leading to it from both bedrooms. She said she felt extremely uncomfortable. Neither Cindy nor I had ever noticed anything, but then we spent little time in the house at all since we weren't far from the beach. Annie suggested we have a seance to see if anything was in the house.

None of us knew what we were doing, but Annie knew someone who did and invited them to come to the house on a Friday night. I was pretty open to it, although extremely skeptical about anything happening, and so was my other roommate. Anyway, on one Friday night three guys showed up with Annie, and though I don't remember how we got everything ready, I do remember that the guy who took the lead, had us make sure all the windows were closed, we put a towel against the base of the bathroom window (to make sure there were no draughts) and then he lit a large candle which he made sure was firmly in the holder we had provided. He stood and watched if for awhile and then set it down in the empty/dry bathtub (no shower). We closed both doors and all went out into the now candle-lit livingroom. He had us all hold hands and I can't remember what was said other than this man trying to speak to whoever or whatever might be in the house. He asked for a confirmation that someone/something was in the bathroom - he wanted the candle, which was brand new, to be extinquished, and he was trying to either get this thing out of the bathroom or at least allow it to leave. I don't remember much else that was said after that.

Nothing seemed to happen for awhile, but then this rather creepy (and for lack of better words) low inaudible buzzing/humming started. It was more like it was some kind of low electrical current flowing through all of us - as if you could hear it and feel it "within" your body and therefore it also seemed that you were hearing it outside your body as well. I found it very uncomfortable and wanted to break the connection, and in particular wanted to let go of my roommate's hand who was sitting on my left of the sofa. I think others were feeling the same sensations as I was because it wasn't long after that I started hearing others in the group whispering and the connection/humming stopped. None of us felt very comfortable and even our conversation seemed forced. We all were feeling like something not quite right was happening. Finally, Annie said in a whisper "look at Cindy" who was my roommate sitting next to me. I was almost afraid to look at her, but as I turned my head she had this dead, vacant stare and was looking towards my bedroom (you could see the bathroom door from where she sat on the sofa. By then I had dropped her hand and was calling her name. I started to feel a bit frantic when there was absolutely no response or even slight blinking of her eyes. She didn't acknowledge hearing any of us.

Suddenly, she bolted off the couch with Annie and I right behind her. Before she could open the bathroom door the leader of the group stopped her and then proceeded to open it slowly. There was this cold air that "wooshed" out of the room and felt as if it went right through our bodies as we clustered around the open door. As if we'd just let something/someone out of the room. The candle, to our shock was not only out, but had been knocked over, candle holder and all! Just from how it looked we knew there was no way it could have fallen over on its own, something/someone would have had to lift it and lay it on it's side.

Then Cindy, who hadn't uttered a word until then said "We finally let him out." None of us had a clue what she was talking about, and when asked who "he" was, she had no idea. She said she just knew she had to get to the door and let "him" out.

I was almost terrified to have these guys leave, since they were the ones who had sort of unleashed whatever this was on us. There was no other occurance after that, and for weeks we had no idea who "he" might be. But then one afternoon as Cindy and I were sitting out on the steps talking about the seance we saw our paperboy who was about 15 years old, coming up the street. We thought if anyone might know anything it could be him. We stopped him and asked him about the house. He told us that no one had lived in the house for very long since a guy had overdosed on heroin in the bathroom about six years prior. We both just knew that we'd let this guy out of the bathroom. I have no idea why or how he was finally freed from the bathroom, but it wasn't long after this conversation with the paperboy that we decided to move out of the house. During our move, someone had made the observation that the numbers on the house were 1313, and that we were the 13th house from either end of our block. Not that that seemed any big deal...but it was a bit creepy. This house was only about a block off of Manhattan Beach Blvd. and I have no idea if any other events have happened at that same location since we all moved out and went our separate ways.