Smoke Without Fire

From: 
Story type: Ghost
Location: Rental house, very rural area, set back deep in the forests of North East Texas
Source: Form Submission

Hello, my name is Sarah, I'm now 38. This happened when I was a child, I think that I was about 8 years old at the time. My parents had rented a very old house that set way back, deep into the pine-woods of North East Texas. My mothers side of the family lives in that area and my father had found work in the area, but also had to travel for his job at times. We drove to our newly rented house for the first time late at night and I remember feeling frightened, because there were no street lights to guide our way down the old oil-topped roads that seemed to never end. It was so very dark and the tree's had grown thick over roads making it seem as though we were driving through a long tunnel.

Our family consisted of 4 children and my parents. I'm the oldest, then I'm followed by my 2 sisters and the youngest, being my brother. My sister and I shared a double-size bed in a bedroom that was just off of the dining room. Since I was a small child, I've always had trouble falling asleep at night, I guess that you could say that I'm a night owl. Even to this day, my normal hours to go to bed is around 11:30 to 12:00 at night. Anyway, back to my story...my mother (unfortunately) was and still is a heavy smoker and that factors into my story, which I will get to here in a minute. When my dad had to be out of town for a couple of days for his job, it meant leaving my siblings and my mother in the house alone.

At night my mother would always leave the dining room light on so that if any of us children needed to use the bathroom down the hall, we would have a light on to see our way. Our bedtime during the week was at around 8:30 pm so that we could get up in time to be ready to meet the school bus each morning at 7:00 am at the end of our long drive way. One night, and as usual, I couldn't fall asleep; my younger sister had already drifted off, as well as everyone else had in the house.

It was very quiet and very still throughout the whole house. I tried closing my eyes, hoping that I could also fall asleep, but it didn't work. So I lay there under the covers, feeling bored and wide awake. It was getting to be very late, but I still couldn't fall asleep, so I just looked around the dimly lit room, studying the different things, toys, books, etc. that were on shelves, thinking about things that a child thinks about.

Then I noticed something moving, something that was kind of "floating" into our room from the dining room. It looked like cigarette smoke, except it seemed to be a little thicker and more dense. Being bored and thinking that my mother had left one of her cigarettes burning in an ash tray in the dining room before going off to bed, I began to watch this "cigarette smoke" float its way very slowly into our room. It was moving so slow, that it almost seemed that it wasn't moving at all, but it was. I had a lot of time to think while watching it. And, as I watched it, I started to realize that this was unusual, very unusual, my mother had gone to bed hours ago and a cigarette can't burn for hours! I realized that this "smoke" or whatever it was, was not just floating aimlessly, but was coming very slowly straight for our bed and it was actually already at our bed, when I began to realize that it couldn't be cigarette smoke!

I became so frightened! I pulled the covers up to my chin so tight and just froze and it, this thing, this dense smoke came to rest right above me! It then seemed to become somewhat cigar shaped and aligned itself up with my body and it has stopped moving! I began to rationalize and said to myself, this is just cigarette smoke from one of moms cigarettes that she left burning in an ash tray. So I inhaled this huge breath, puckered my lips and blew upwards into the smoke as hard as I could. I looked up through the smoke, hoping so much to see it bellow and take on other shapes as cigarette smoke will, but it didn't move! I was absolutely frozen with fear!

I remember, the only thing that I could move were my lips and my eyes. I screamed out to my mother, as loud as I could, as I looked towards the darkened hallway that lead to her and my dads bedroom! I yelled again, "MOM!". Finally she answered me in a sleepy voice, "What?!" I said, there's something in this room! She answered me seemingly upset that I had awakened her...saying "Go to sleep!" I then looked back towards this thing that had parked itself directly over me and it had just vanished! Gone!

To this day, I truly believe that it was a ghost that was in the process of transforming itself into an apparition. I can't tell you how frightened I was!

There were other things that happened in that house in the 3 years that we lived there. Things would fall from shelves in the bathroom and the kitchen. Doors would open by themselves, close by themselves. Our toys would disappear and then reappear.

Anyway...that was my experience. I hope that you enjoyed reading it. God bless and always keep you safe. Sarah