I'd Heard the Stories

From: Jen (jen@usa.net)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Urbana, Illinois
Source: Form Submission

When I was about 5, my family lived in an old farmhouse. The farmhouse had been in our family for about 150 years and was in desperate need of a facelift.

My room was on the top floor of this farmhouse and had one wall of windows with a door in the middle of the windows. It was supposed to lead out to a balcony, but the balcony had long since collapsed.

Every few nights, I'd hear tappings on the windows and see what I thought was the moon reflecting off the roof to the windows (it was an aluminum roof). I dismissed this until the tappings continued for over an hour straight.

I climbed out of bed, not the least bit terrified. I mean, who'd be afraid of branches hitting the window, right? Thinking this, I approached the window and was shocked to see a little "tea party" ensemble on..what else..the balcony.

Thinking I was still sleeping, I pinched myself. Not only did it hurt, but it had proven to me that I was very awake. When I again looked out the window, I could see a little boy and a little girl "fighting" over a doll. When I tapped the glass, they both looked at me, waved, dropped the teddy bear and started walking towards me.

When they were about half-way across the balcony, they stopped and started motioning to me. I started to open the door, but as it was old it was also very "sticky" and wouldn't easily budge. I could hear the window panes and the floorboards creaking with each effort I put forth.

Just as I got the door open, the children raced up to meet me, their eyes wide open in terror..and then just disappeared. I started screaming..it was like seeing some horrible vision just fly up at you from the depths of Hell. (That's the only way I can relate it now..I was, literally, terrified.) I heard footsteps on the stairs and, thinking it was the children (or something worse) coming back to get me, I tried to frantically squeeze through the window to the "balcony".

I felt strong hands grab my nightgown and pull me back in. I just remember screaming bloody murder until I opened my eyes and saw my parents in the room. That's when I realized that I was ok.

Now, I would think that this was all just part of a child's imagination except for a few small things. First, all the people who had slept in that room had reported the same thing.

Second, my parents later told me (when they thought I could handle accepting it as more than just a "bad dream") that they, too, had seen the balcony and had seen the children rush at me. They had actually been standing at the window the entire time I'd been trying to get out onto the balcony, but had been unable to come any further into the room, shocked by what they had seen.

Third...before the house was lived in by our family, it had belonged to a family with 13 children. Two of those children, the youngest and the only set of twins, had died when the balcony outside their room collapsed while they were having an argument. The combined weight of both children on the outer edges of the balcony had caused the edges to cave in and the balcony tipped, spilling the children onto a cement slab where they died instantly.

The farmhouse has since been torn down and a complex has been built over the land it used to sit on. But even to this day, the exact spot the farmhouse stood on is a bare, vacant lot..covered with a cement slab.