My small town of Catlettsburg was one of the first cities established along the Ohio river. In fact, the building I lived in for 10 years, was over a hundred years old. Some of the buildings have dates on the top front of them, dating back as far as 1795. My grandfather had purchased this building, after years of renting, for his barber business. Before it was a barber shop, he told me it was tailor's shop, mending suits & dresses. The apartment was my home when I turned 19 years old. It had 12 ft. high ceilings, huge rooms, very spacious & newly remodeled. It was over 2200 sq.feet. I loved it!
I quickly made it my own, tossing scarves over lamps to give it warmth & atmosphere. Incense & candles lit around the place. A huge corridor led downstairs to the front door on the street. My apartment was in the middle of this small town. Anyway, all the windows were either in the front building or the very back of the apartment. No windows in between, or so I thought. There were a set of shelves beside the fireplace, I often dreamed about that area & felt drafts from around them. My grandfather told me it used to be a window, but they made it shelves because it looked directly at the brick wall of the building next door. It used to have a view I suppose, before the building next to ours was built. That had answered alot of questions about some dreams I'd been having. I bet the window looked directly at the river, so someone could watch boats coming or going. It made sense.
So it began early, basically as soon as I moved in. At first a voice, a woman's voice would awaken me at times when I was dead asleep, calling my name. It sounded like my mom, but she was living in Florida at that time. I would raise up towards what I thought I had heard, but nothing was ever there. Things progressed as I began to logically explain them away. I would see movement through the mirrors in my apartment, like someone moving in them behind me, drawing my attention to look, but nothing was there. Then more things began to happen. Coming home from travelling or trips, I noticed things would be moved around a bit...as if not be noticed. Ashtrays, coasters.... items would be misplaced, or oddly found in strange places. Once I could swear I saw the outline of the frame of a body on the very center of my bed, impressed slightly into the comfortor...but no one had been there..I was a VERY particular housekeeper. Not a thing was ever out of place, and I began this ritual moreso after things became a little chaotic...*L*.
One room in my apartment always had a strange feel to it. Everyone had an uncanny feeling about the room, even skeptics. Generally it was said to seem colder than the rest of the apartment. It had no windows and was really dark with the doors closed. I, myself, never liked it. I always had nightmares when I slept in there or, I could not sleep at all.
There were always noises I could not explain away, so they became the ritual noises. I grew used to them. We tried the typical ouija board seance and it said things, but who knows, right? We used it on the steps in front of two doors, the one leaving my apartment and the one to the evil bedroom. All the board would spell was "too many roam".....~eyes bulge~
My dreams began making sense after a few years in the apartment. I called on a wise friend of mine to give me his honest thoughts & opinions on the subject. He always sensed something there, he said. Nothing confrontational, but a presence definitely. We both felt it was female. He & I had always compared thoughts of my apartment windows. We both often felt as though someone were always watching us. I always looked up leaving or coming home. So did he... I would even watch him sometimes, unbeknownst to him and he would routinely look as he left or came. We felt there was a connection to her and the windows, as if she were waiting for someone...watching out the windows.
Well I threw in the info about the shelves being a window once, and the connection made sense.....that window before the building next to me was built, looked directly out to the Ohio River. She must have been watching for someone to arrive via the river. It all made sense to us now.
One night I had a few friends over before we were to go to a rave. We were in my kitchen sipping wine, enjoying the evening. I went to turn off my stereo and ran right into a cold pocket of air, I mean frigidly cold. I yelled for my friend, Gregg. He came quickly, listening to my explanation of what I was feeling, but he could not find it....As he moved I felt it move. Then he turned suddenly and we felt it trapped between us. Pressing against our chests, was a thick coldness...a mass. He felt it, and I no longer felt so crazy....That was not the most intense one though. Fighting with a boyfriend one time,(he was getting extremely angry) the over head lights burst on...(they were studio flood lights)he broke out in cold chills, then left shortly, never to set foot back inside. *L*...I began to feel as though she was my guardian, the protector of my, I mean "our", domain.
Since moving out, my dad rented the ol' place. I asked the tenants if they ever thought anything was there...? And they replied No, nothing at all. So maybe she is at rest, or maybe she came with me, who knows...maybe we'll see.
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