roommates

I had visited my friends apt a couple of times earlier in 1994. On each occasion I would catch movement out of the corner of my eyes in the direction of the main hallway of the apt. As my visits progressed I would intentionally try and obtain a better view of the hallway from the living room - which was difficult as the sofa and chair faced away form the door-way. Regardless of a perfect view, in time I was convinced that the apt was haunted by a ghost.

In April of '94 they mentioned to me they were wanting to move but needed to find someone to sub-let. I was currently living in a basement bachelor apt and wanted something above ground AND with more than one room so I said I was interested. It ended up being the same amount of rent and so all was perfect for me. Besides I already knew the place was haunted, but that it didn't scare me, I never felt anything oppressive or evil...

I moved in mid-May and no sooner had I unpacked and settled in, than I began to notice patterns of energized air, of movement and then I began to see her. The spirit was female and only appeared, walked up and down the hall. She was never seen in any of the rooms. But I always knew when she was in the hall... you could 'feel' it. And once while heading from the kitchen to the computer room, I walked right through her... that was CRAZY and truly electrifying... when I passed through her it was as if little static electrical shocks went off all over my body, all my hair stood on end, but it was not at all terrifying. I affectionately called her Cecile (I'm not really sure if that was her name but that's what felt like her name was.)

At this time, I had a cat named Poe, He was a sweet cat, but didn't play with toys unless they had Nip in them, and even then his attention waned as soon as the nip dried up. I had bought him this one foam ball in the past and it had a bell in it, I used to try and get his attention with it, rolling in front of him, at him, past him... he would barely look at it. and never once in all the times I rolled that thing would he bat at it, catch it or run after it. Well, one day I was reading in my bedroom when I could hear a bell jingle, then stop. Then a few moments later jingle again and stop, and jingle again and stop. And then I could hear Poe tumbling down the hallway, and the bell again. When I stuck my head out into the hallway There he was at one end of the hall and the ball at the other. I found that odd, rolled it down to him but he just looked past it. I went back to my book and in a minute the bell jingled again, and then as I focused I realized the tingle in the air... it was Cecile. She was in the hall with Poe and seems he was playing with her! I would occasionally try and peek a glance at them but whenever I'd stick my head out... Poe would be siting and just blink at me. This type of activity went on for many months... not every day but once a week or so... And it was only even in that hall way, never in any room. And when I moved to another apt he never played at all with that ball again.

Only after I had moved in did my friends confess to me they felt the apt was haunted, but wanting to be out of the apt so badly they didn't tell me. I said not to worry; that I knew it was haunted before I moved in. (They were a little surprised by that.) We all had a good laugh. I mentioned that I quite actually like the spirit and told them what I thought of her.

I was in this apt for a just under 2 years, and only moved because my boyfriend and I at the time were moving into a new larger apt, otherwise I'd very likely still be there today. I loved that apt (for the most part - see my next post) and Cecile.

I miss her.

a vision in black and white

This premonition I had while living in Montréal.

One evening while laying on my bed reading, I looked away from the book in my hands to just sort of absorb the chapter I had read and when I looked up towards the wall I saw, instead of the grey wall, an image of a brick building. Rather square and without detail. It was just the top story or so and at the corner and then above it the tops of some spruce trees and sky and cloud. Then there was a helicopter that come overhead and then below there was what appeared to be flashing lights and people running all amok. The people, like everything else I saw was literally in black and white. There was no colour to anything I saw; the bricks were grey not red, the trees were all shades of black and white, not greens, the sky not blue, but grey and the people as I said were either black or white. I could sense great turmoil and tension. And then all of the sudden I saw my bedroom wall again.

When I got home from work a couple of days later and sat watching the evening news, on came a report from my home in Nova Scotia. They were showing my High School! I was excited. Wow I thought my high school is on the evening news! How shocked and embarrassed was I when, once I began listing to the reporter it was about a race riot that had erupted between black and white students.

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Yes I'll admit that my vision was rather simple and to draw a correlation between the two (the vision and the actual event) are slim, trust me when I say that I'm a fairly literal person and so my vision in black and white literally, as well as the people in it was for whatever purpose and where ever the images came from, as direct and unencumbered as possible. The brick exterior is that of the school but simple was not recognized due to limited view of the building seen.

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.