I wouldn’t know it if a ghost walked up and speak to me

When I was around 5 years old, I remember seeing my father walk past the guest room, heading towards a dead end.

I was puzzled because there was nowhere for him to go. There’s nobody there when I looked.

I told the family friend staying in that guest room about it, but he dismissed it, saying he hadn’t seen anyone. Perhaps he knew what it was but didn’t want to scare a child.

Photo by Erik Müller on Unsplash

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I See Dead People

When we moved to our previous house, my partner’s mother insisted on bringing her religious artifacts and practices into our home doing more harm than good.

That very night, I saw a man walking out of our bedroom. At the same time, my cat stared intently in the same direction. My partner was sleeping like a log.

That’s definitely not human. The house was too small, so there was no way it could have been an intruder.

The place felt suffocating, as if there were invisible presences. As he went to work, I was often alone in that place, but I never felt truly alone.

That woman can get away with all her blatant lies, including those about the objects she brought into our home and the unseen entities she invited in.

After I smashed that damned altar, I also smashed the urn on the floor in a fit of frustration. There was nothing civil or polite about it. I simply smashed it.

I was tired of being gaslighted, of being told that nothing was wrong with everything else, but everything was wrong with me. I knew I’m not wrong.

After that, the unsettling atmosphere began to dissipate. While I couldn’t confirm the exact source of the disturbances at the time, I now believe I know who was responsible.

Their actions were not pure or well-intentioned, and they persisted despite knowing the potential harm they could cause. I can only taste malice in all that.

That Haunted House

There was this old house, where I often caught glimpses of movement out of the corner of my eye. I dismissed it as the blinds moving in the wind from the ceiling fan.

It wasn’t until after we moved out that I learned the truth.

My mother saw ‘children’ walking around the house at night, and neighbors, who had been hesitant to mention it earlier, confirmed that they often heard children’s voices and unusual activity. The local market vendors were well aware of the house’s reputation as a haunted house.

My father’s discovery of Chinese talismans hidden under the roof confirmed it.

That’s how I learned that whatever I catches from the corner of my eyes is something that is actually there.

Thank you for reading this

@emmabrittt

Previously published in From The Corner of My Mind