Another Scary Tale from Paige Ryter

When my husband were but newlyweds…having been married less than a year, we bought an older home from a retired couple, in Cary, NC. They had six children—all grown and moved away at that time, even though the home was a small home with only three bedrooms, one of which was the size of a nursery. But for us, it was perfect. I was five months pregnant and after being married for a little over a year, gave birth to our son. Two years later, I had a daughter, and thirteen months after that, another daughter. After our youngest daughter was born, strange things started happening in our home.

My husband would stay up later than the rest of us, because he wrote music at night, after putting in a full day as a computer programmer-type. He worked downstairs while the rest of us would be asleep upstairs. One night, he was eating something in the living room, which was separated from the dining and kitchen areas by three stairs. All of a sudden, dirty silverware fell off the counter in the kitchen, but no one was around. He chalked it up to an unseen and unheard truck nearby, but I knew better. A few nights later, he heard someone running upstairs, sounding like a child, but when he went upstairs, all of us were asleep.

Since I was watching children and working full-time, I used to take naps on the couch after the children were all walking. I could put up gates for the kids and take a short nap while they played beside me. My husband would work on music in a different room, keeping an eye on everyone, and all was happy. One evening, I woke up from my nap and a face was in my face…the face of a man. It only lasted a split second, but it was scary. I didn’t recognize the man, but he was staring at me, while the children played nearby, ignoring all but their toys. A few days later, I spoke to my next-door neighbor, who knew the family that lived in our house before we bought it. The old retired father that had lived in our house most of his life, had just died a week or so earlier, and the more I thought about it, that was the man whose face was in my face that evening after my nap. We moved not much after that, but not until I also saw a woman in white walking down the stairs. I was glad to leave that house.