top hat, bottom floor

One weekend when my parents were away, I invited a group of friends over for a potluck dinner. (There were eight of us in total) I gave a little tour of the house to those that had never been over - about 5 of them. When I opened the door to the basement, at the base of the steps ( there are only 8 as we lived in a split level) there standing, and looking up at us was a man in a very distinctive suit (from the 1900's or so) and wearing a hat similar to a top hat. He was not a solid image, I cannot recall seeing complete legs and feet - he was only visible form the knees or so, up. And he was slightly transparent. He did not move, nor speak. We all saw him, this is for certain, because 2 of the girls shrieked and we all freaked just a little bit at the surprise of seeing a strange man standing there looking at us. Upon our reaction his image dissolved into thin air. We quickly all headed up to the living room had a drink and discussed what we had seen, everyone indicating the same image.

Those that had not initially been there and witnessed the apparition said they'd go down to take a look. I went along and when we looked down the bottom flight of stairs (it was still open from moments earlier) we saw nothing.

When we returned upstairs two of the others decided that that was enough and left. They never returned.

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A few months had passed and while I was not completely avoiding the basement, I was certainly not going out of my way to go there. One night I needed to go get some more firewood for the wood stove as I opened the door, there he was, for only a moment and then he disappeared.

I never saw him again after that but on occasion I felt his presence.