Panama City Beach, FLA

I had a pretty dysfunctional life growing up. The first seven year's of my life as a child were fairly normal, or at least seemed to be. My Father was a successful buisiness owner, he owned his own painting business. My Mother was a stay at home housewife but she still worked out of bordem and also had her own little business breeding and selling poodles.  My parent's did well for themselves and I never went without. I had more toy's than I ever knew what to do with, and even though I was somewhat of a spoiled child, I was always well behaved and never caused any trouble. Unfortunately, this seemingly perfect life wouldn't last very long. By the time I was seven year's old, my biological Father was being sent to prison. 

I was really young and didn't understand fully, at the time, what he had done. Before everything he had done come to light, I would have considered myself a "Daddy's girl" my Dad taught me how to roller skate and to ride a bike, he would sit down with me after working all day and play video games with me, I loved video games from a very young age they were my passion. My Dad really was my hero. On the outside, he appeared normal even likeable and in his younger year's he was a very attractive man. He and my Mother were together for a very long time before I was ever even a thought in their minds.

This all forced me to grow up a lot quicker than I should of had to. Understandably, this all sent my Mother down a spiraling decline of depression, drug abuse, and a long fight with mental health. She had spent the better part of a decade with a man who not only destroyed her life, but the lives of her children, and so many more right under her nose and she never even knew it, until it was far too late. 

If you read my last blog entry then you are aware I left off at the age of nine, when my Mother was married to her second husband, M.T. and we lived in Falling Waters, WV. where I encountered my first paranormal experience with what I believe to be a spirit. We are going to fastfoward in time to when I was fourteen year's old. At this point in time five year's had passed and SO much shit had taken place it is hard for me to put it all in a correct time line and order of which it all happened. But what is important for me to note here is that by this point in time I had been out of public school for almost 2 year's. Living in and out of hotel room's, moving from place to place, dysfunctional just isn't a strong enough word for the shit show that was my life. I was being drug around from place to place by my Mother and her husband M.T. it was a lonely existence and a maddening one.

Among the chaos, I did have a saving grace. Even though I had to find comfort in my solitude I was able to make a few life long friend's along the way. For privacy reason's we will call him, A.B. and fortunately for me a select few friend's have been present during some of the more strange and questionable occurances of my life. I was living in a two bedroom apartment at the time that was barely furnished with my parent's and a cat that I had named, Talon. He was a white and orange stripped tabby cat that had been given to me by a lady and her daughter who lived in the apartment complex with us. His original name was Penut Butter but I refused for that poor cat's name to remain the same. I digress, apologies. Anyhow, my fourteenth birthday was approaching and for my birthday A.B. traveled from Largo, FL to see me and celebrate my birthday with me. We had known each other for two year's and we were by all means the best of friend's. He was privvy to the chaos of my life and I to his. 

The thing about A.B. is he had always told me from time to time that he was sensitive to certain thing's. Even though I had my one experience, I was still very skeptical of it all and never gave it much thought. Oh boy, how that would change...

The night of my fourteenth birthday, I would have my second paranormal experience. This one was a lot different from the first. Instead of something being scared by my presence and running away from me, this one wanted it's presence known. A.B. and I were sitting in my room playing video games, I can still remember what we were playing: Final Fantasy X. I should probably note that my bedroom door's were bi-fold door's so, Talon could easily open them when he wanted to, to get into the living room. While A.B. and I were sitting there chatting and playing video games, Talon start's to meow really loudly and begin's acting really strange. A.B. and I just kind of look at each other confused because Talon had never acted like this before. Well, Talon basically starts meowing frantically and opens my bi-fold door's and head's into the living room, so naturally both A.B. and I get up and go to follow him.  

When we walked into the living room, even though it was empty and void of pretty much anything besides a few pieces of furniture and a cat tree, it felt extremely heavy and full. Like a crowd of people were standing in there, the energy you could feel was like nothing I can even begin to describe. It was like walking into a sauna filled with static electricity? The first thing A.B. says to me is "Can you feel that?!" and you guy's my heart dropped, I was scared as hell. I replied "Yes, I can. What the hell is it?!" I just remember running back to my room. I refused to go back out into the living room. I didn't know what to think or how to feel other than scared because what just happened wasn't normal and feeling something so intense like that is beyond comprehension. It was amazing but it was also terrifying. A.B. eventually just came back to my room with me, we sat in silence for a bit and oddly enough we never spoke much about it afterwards. But the truth is, it was only just the very beginning, the early stages of a lot more to come for me. And I can tell you, that now at this point in time I am thirty-one year's old and this experience is a cake walk compared to a lot of other's I still have yet to share. 

Falling Waters, WV

Falling Waters, West Virginia. The year was 1999, and your's truly was going to be moving out of her little home town of McDonough, Georgia for the very first time. My Mother and Stepfather at the time, worked for Sealy Mattress Company which required them to sometimes travel and relocate for work. Since they were a couple and both worked for the same company we were relocated to a small town in West Virginia, off of route 81 called Falling Waters. We were expected to remain there for the duration of about a year or so.

Ironically, it was also the first time I would be flying in an airplane. Long story short, my Mom, medicated herself to sleep during the flight. She wasn't a big fan of heights. The Stepdad was seated too far away, which left me all by myself talking to this sweet old lady the whole flight, until we landed. She was really super sweet and I still remember her to this day.

Unfortunately, when we landed the house we were meant to be living in wasn't ready for us, yet. So, I remember the company putting us up in this really nice four-story Hotel. I remember it looking so big and fancy. Keep in mind, I was only a scrawny nine year old kid, so everything looked bigger to me. Granted, this was the first time I'd ever moved out of Georgia, so my eyes were wide with excitement and adventure, everything was new. 

After a few days of being cooped up in the hotel, I remember it was finally time for the three of us to drive and see our new house. As far as I knew it was picked out for us and it would be the first time my parents were seeing it too. When we pulled up into the driveway the first thing I noticed was that our neighbor was literally a Church on one side and an Arts and Craft store on the other side. Even stranger, the Arts and Crafts store looked like it was actually an extension from the house we were going to be living in. 

As we make our way inside, you are met with an old wooden staircase that leads up two flights of stairs, to the right is the living room, from which you can enter the dining room from the right, or the kitchen from the left. From the kitchen a long hallway lead to a spare bedroom and bathroom. I should go ahead and mention this house was huge. It was four-stories with a cellar and attic that span the length of the house. This house was also very ancient. 

The wooden floors were real hard wood. The wood was so old you couldn't walk on it barefoot without literally getting splinters in your feet. The only place carpeted in the whole house was weirdly enough, the attic. On the second floor of the house there were four bedrooms and a bathroom with an old victorian porcelain tub. One of the bedrooms had the door which lead up into the attic, that room ironically, would eventually end up being my "play room". 

Of course, as I went wondering off exploring the new house, I found myself alone in the attic. I remember traversing the staircase up into the attic and being met with this overwhelming heat, almost like a sauna. This was really weird for a couple of reasons. One: It was Winter in West Virginia. There was snow on the ground and snow fall, it was really cold outside. Two: We had just gotten there so no heating had been turned on yet. Also, with as big as that house was there was no way, logically, for heat to travel up there that fast in that amount of time. 

For the most part the attic was empty, carpeted, hot and just creepy. At the end of the attic there was a window which peered out onto the street Infront of the house. As I made my way over to it, I noticed a lot of black things buzzing around the window. It was a shit load of flies. Where the hell did they all come from? This was something out of the exorcist. I just remember feeling weird about it, the vibes I was getting from this house, even as a little girl, were strange to say the very least. But honestly, I eventually forgot about it and continued on with life as normal. 

Some time passed, my parents settled into their jobs while I settled into life as a fourth grader at a new school. I was always a quiet and shy girl who found her solace in being a loner and playing video games. Surprisingly though, I could also be quite outgoing, once I felt comfortable enough around people to do so. I eventually wound up making a really good friend (Who I am still friends with to this day) we will call her K.L. for privacy purposes. Her and I were as thick as thieves, she quickly became my best friend and we spent loads of time together. 

K.L. and I would take turns sleeping over at one another's house on the weekend's. Sometimes I would stay with her at her Dad's but most of the time we were at her Mom's house getting into trouble. (Not, really. We were good kids.) On this particular weekend she was staying with me over at my house, like many other times before. I can't remember what we spent the earlier part of the day doing but I remember that night we were up in my bedroom just hanging out watching a movie. My parents had already gone to bed, it was super late, sometime in the early A.M.s 

K.L. and I decide that we are hungry so we head downstairs to rummage through the kitchen for some snacks. As we exit my room we are talking and giggling to ourselves as we descend the stairs. We make it to the middle landing of the staircase when all of a sudden we both hear something, loud. From the middle landing of that staircase you are able to see clearly into the whole living room. My parents kept a few lamps on at night to give off some light downstairs.

As I looked up, all I could see was the long drapping curtains of the window being pushed up like a gust of wind had blown threw (The windows were all closed, just fyi.) a tall standing lamp is knocked over, and though I can't see anyone running, I can hear the footsteps bolting from the living room window to the kitchen. I can't tell if they were a child's or an adult's, I just know that whatever we had just spooked wasn't expecting us, at all, to be down there. It was as if we scared it as much as it scared us. 

Truth be told, neither me nor K.L. told my parent's what happened that night. We didn't even know how to begin to try. Basically, we both ran back upstairs scared to death and slept in my parents bedroom floor with no pillows or blankets. When they woke up the next morning we had to make up some random excuse to why we were asleep in their floor. I can't remember what we told them. 

I thought this would be the only strange thing to happen to me in this house but I was very wrong. The last piece of this story I am about to share is very important and a key piece, in my overall story and experiences, that I have yet to share.  

I don't recall exactly how much time passed between mine and K.L.'s experience together and this one, all I can remember is waking up one day and feeling as if though nothing I was seeing or experiencing was real. I felt completely disconnected from reality. My own Mom didn't seem real, my friends, family, hell even Teacher's. I stayed that way for a period of two weeks. I didn't talk to a single soul about how I was feeling. I didn't even know how to explain it. So, I dealt with it in silence. 

Now that I am older, and can understand these experiences better and after the past 23 year's of paranormal experiences, there's a part of me that fully believes whatever spirit was in that house attached itself to me and has been with me ever since. I have no way of proving this, all I have are my own experiences and shared experiences to tie it all together and try to make sense of it all. 

To this day, this house still stands and has been turned into a Public Floral Shop. I have pondered giving them a call to see if they have ever experienced anything odd in that house, since owning it. Maybe one day, I shall.