Halloween Stories

VICTORIAN HOUSE

-By Heather Rusaw

This, or I should say these occurrences took place 7 years ago at an old Victorian house in Canton, New York. It's five stories, including the basement and attic. It is now a Sorority house of which I was a member. Before I was able to move into the house everyone used to sit around and tell "ghost stories" that had been passed down from members who had lived there previously. I've always believed in ghosts, but chalked these stories up to the fact that it was an old house with a lot of work that needs to be done. Was I ever wrong! There was a lot of paranormal activity in the house such as footsteps on the 3rd floor when no body was up there. Closet and bedroom doors would open and close by themselves, and things would disappear and reappear in strange and unusual places. But I had never experienced any thing like I did on August 8th, 1992.

It was a week before a new semester was to begin. My boyfriend and I had driven to Canton to drop off some of my things, and to paint the bedroom that I was moving into. We had moved most of the stuff to the second floor and it had just started to get dark, enough to turn the hallway light and the bedroom light on. On my next trip upstairs, while my boyfriend was clearing out my car, I got to the top of the stairs and I noticed that the hallway light AND my bedroom light were off. I didn't think too much of it at that moment...Occurrences like that were commonplace. I turned the lights back on, returned for my last box and headed back up the stairs again.

I was relieved to see the hallway light on, but this time my bedroom door was closed. I set the box down in the hallway and reached for the door knob. As I did, I felt two arms wrap around my waist as if giving me a hug from behind. I turned, expecting to see my boyfriend, and no one was there. Needless to say, I ran out of the house, screaming at the top of lungs and flew into my car. My boyfriend got in without question, and we returned home.

I ended up moving into the house when everyone else arrived for the semester. For the rest of my duration there, I didn't have any other encounters like that one, but the footsteps still continued, along with doors opening and closing and things disappearing...they still do to this day, and now my story has become one of the stories told when everyone is sitting around together telling "tales" of the house.

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