I've Seen Many Things ~ Ghosts & Paranormal Experiences

By: Derek Casey

When I was young my grandparents on my moms side lived in a very old apartment house. My grandmother was full blooded Cherokee and believed very much in ghosts. She lived in the very last apartment in the up stairs. My aunt and her son lived in the first apartment on the right at the top of the stairs.

Granny and Suzie (my aunt) always told my mom that the house was haunted, but mom never believed them. Granny would always baby sit me. Me and Arlin (my first cousin) would play in the hall.

Me and Arlin would always hear something walking around dragging a leg (at least that is how it sounded). The screen door would open and close at the foot of the stairs, and we would hear it coming up the stairs. One day we heard it while playing in the hall.

Then for the first time we can recall we actually saw a dark figure go into granny's apartment. It moved like it was having trouble with a leg.

Then one night granny was watching us both because Suzie was getting married. Grandpa was in the living room watching wrestling (he loved it), uncle Larry was sitting in the kitchen dining room eating with granny, and Arlin was in there as well. I had been watching TV with grandpa and went to get something to drink. On my way to the kitchen I saw the bathroom door opening and closing and the light going off and on! The light in the bathroom was an old pull string light.

I ran to granny and told her what was going on. Larry stuck his head out of the kitchen and saw it as well and ran back to granny. Granny was not afraid for some reason and walked into the huge single bedroom and towards the bathroom speaking to the thing (a ghost or demon I don't know). She told me to stay in the kitchen, it wanted to speak to Arlin! I sat to where I could see what was going on and I saw Arlin jump three feet into the air. I know there was nobody else in the apartment because I was in the living room and nobody came in.

Well, they finally moved out. The next lady that moved into that house wasn't there very long until she told her daughter that she wanted a rope and a handgun because they were going to kill her. So her daughter got her a rope and a gun. She tied the rope to a steam radiator. She jumped out the widow shooting back into the apartment. Nobody ever moved into the apartment after that.

The funeral home bought the house and it is now the funeral home.

Then me and my mother moved into a house that was very old as well. It had a front door that was mainly glass. When it would storm at night you could see the outline of a man standing in the door, just when it stormed.

One night we went to bed and it stormed. We always dead bolted and locked the door. I heard the door open! When I got out of bed the door was open. I shut the door and locked each lock back. The next morning I told mom she forgot to lock the door and it opened in the night. She told me she had locked the locks before she went to bed.

A little while later I was in the bed and something came into my room! I tried to scream but couldn't. I got up and ran to my moms room. She doesn't believe in ghosts and she says it's just my mind playing a trick on me.

That summer me and six others were playing flash light tag. We were all hiding in a building out behind the house. We all heard somebody behind the building we were all hiding in. Then we saw my friend Troy with the flash light come from the front of the house. He said who ever is behind the building is it! Well, we all came out of the building and ran to meet him. Then we saw it again. We all jumped the fence into the cattle field and ran after it. We ended up in an old graveyard none of us had any idea was there!

A few weeks later me, Chad,and Brian were sitting on a wall on the side of the driveway. There was a light there and we had it turned on. Something walked upright behind us between us and the light because it's shadow passed over and in front of us. Now, I forgot to mention this house is out in the country, and we had no neighbors for about a mile. We all jumped up and turned on our flash lights. There was nobody there. We moved from there not soon enough for me.

My grandmother always said she'd be looking out for me after she passed. Well, she passed about nine years ago. When I have problems in life now I get help from her in my sleep. She comes to me in my dreams and talks to me. I know this is a long story but it is all totally true.

I can go into an old house and just feel that there is something there and when I ask if the people that live there ever have strange things happen they will look at me and say yes. I believe some of us draw spirits and can tell when there is something in a place or home. It has happened to me too many times in my life for me not to believe.

This story is long but it is all true. I have seen many other things in places where friends live, mainly out of the corner of my eye and when I look at it it's gone. I had a pit-bull that drowned in a swimming pool. When I lived at moms I would see something dark about her size by me out of the corner of my eyes a lot. She always protected me and mom in life. I feel she is still protecting mom now after death. I have other small encounters as well but the ones I told about are the best ones. There is also a place I deer hunt that has a small graveyard at the end of a field. I have watched deer walk out of their way coming into the woods from this field. They will walk all the way around this graveyard but never into it.