It is a well known fact in my social circle that Kyle’s house is haunted.
Kyle’s house sits in the very southwestern edge of New Lenox, almost in the country town of Manhattan, IL. Prior to 1996, his neighborhood, like most of the area, was all farm land.
I grew up in an older neighborhood not far from his. When the “city people” started moving out to the suburbs, the first place they started building new houses was around our neighborhood. We lived in a small neighborhood that was made up of only six streets, and by the time we moved, there were two cookie cutter neighborhoods built directly around ours. It looked pretty stupid. All of these homes were decently large, all of which were 2 and 3 stories, but in the center of the neighborhood were these old low ranches with more yard apiece.
Anyway, when they started building these houses, I would go exploring. They’d overturned all the farm land, and literally everything under the thin soil was clay. This was good for me, being a little kid. The rain would create huge rifts in the clay hills, and I’d jump over them, pretending I was an archeologist. It was an alien terrain full of secrets. One day my sister discovered a cluster of indian arrow heads in our neighbors backyard. I was so excited to hear that news, and I immediately ran out to the under-construction neighborhoods and dug up my own collection. Soon after, and four blocks away, Kyle’s neighborhood went up.
Now I’m not sure when all of this began, but it has been an ongoing thing for as long as I’ve known him. I first started hanging out with him at this house during or freshmen year in high school and he confided in me that he thought his house was.. “weird.” There have been very odd things happen in his home that are not unlike any other story: lights going on and off, TVs turning on by themselves, whispers and nonexistant people are heard talking, and general feelings of ill-will. The center of the activity comes from the upstairs spare bedroom.
Kyle’s dogs would not go in that room, and when they did, it was to bark at the walls. Kyle has heard its doors open and close by themselves, and has seen it in action once before.
One night I was going to sleep over, and I was a little afraid. It was 4:30am, and I needed to get up at 8am for work. (Dumb, I know.) Everyone was asleep upstairs, and I was going to crash on the couch, all alone on the main floor. I opted to put in the DVD of Titantic, so I could fall asleep to it and wake up at to watch the end. I thought it was clever, plus is gave me some background noise so I couldn’t think about ghosts. Before I layed down, I turned off the fan and turned on the lights. When I woke up, the lights were off and the fan was on, exactly the opposite, and not only had my movie been turned off, but I was lying there listen to the Motown music station. At some point during that night I also woke up because of a curious event. I woke up, wide awake, because I heard a huge, distinct cracking noise, like someone had taken a branch of a tree and snapped it right above my head. A month or so after, his mom fell asleep on the same couch and awoke because of the same experience.
One night we were in his basement, home alone, and we heard the dog barking frantically. Worried that there were burglers or something, we both bolted upstairs only to find the dog hiding under the coffee table, ferociously barking at a TV that had turned itself on.
Two summers ago, a group of us were hanging out in the office and it was about 1:30am. The doors were closed because we were smoking, and we weren’t supposed to be smoking in the house because his sister was pregnant at the time. Kyle got up to get a drink, and when we opened the office doors, he heard something. He described two men talking to each other, which stopped when the door opened. We all huddled together, Kyle included, in the office with the doors closed. I noticed a cool breeze coming in under the door, strong enough for it to blow out my lighter when I tested it. Freaked out, we all left, except Kyle. I called him from my car to apologize, and I heard, behind his voice in the phone, two other men mumbling in the rhythm of coversation.
Kyle has heard unexplainable music and the smell of insence coming from the living room area.
Kyle’s little sister now has a baby boy, the cutest little fucker ever, named Landon. Landon’s room is the oddball spare bedroom. When he was just a few months old, there was a strange repeated incident that occured with the baby monitors. This story freaks me out just remembering it. Me, Kyle, Kyle’s boyfriend Cody, and Kyle’s mom were the only ones home that night. Elyse was out, so Kyle’s mom was babysitting Landon. He had been asleep peacefully and quietly for a long time, until about midnight. Kyle’s mom was in the living room. Me, Kyle, and Cody were in the office when Kyle’s mom burst in, frantic.
“You have got to come listen to this monitor! There’s something upstairs.”
So we walked out into the living room, where the baby monitor was, and sure enough, there was a heavy, steady breathing coming out of the thing. You could hear Landon alseep in it as well, with his little baby hiccups and soft gargeling, and there was loud ragged breathing over his. We all stood in shock, listening, for a long time. Kyle thought maybe the monitor was on the wrong channel, that maybe we were hearing and older kid on someone else’s monitor, but after switching through channels of static, that was not the case. That night, someone was in the room with Landon. Kyle bravely went upstairs to check on him. We heard the door open, we heard the weird breathing stop, we heard Kyle walking, we heard him close the door, and that was that. There wasn’t a damn thing upstairs.
Landon still sleeps in that room, and he is almost two now. He’s starting to talk. He knows a few colors, he knows everyone’s names, he knows the names of food.. You know, things that are important to babies. He also knows the word “monsters” and he, very recently, as in last week, told his mom there were monsters in his room. Here’s how it happened: Landon told Elyse there are monsters. She asked where, he pointed at his room. She asked if there were more than one, and he said yes. He told his mom he tells them to go away. Trying to change the subject, Elyse asks Landon if he wants her to rub his hair. (It’s relaxing, right? =D) He says, “No, people.” and rubs his own head. Elyse asks what he means, and he says “People, Landon’s hair” and makes the same rubbing gesture. Elyse asks what people, and he tells her, “the monsters.” WTF? SERIOUSLY? Here’s a kid who is not even two having ghosts rub his head while he’s asleep.
There’s a million more stories, but I’m done for now. –Laura F
Totally silly, and awesome
