The Sallie House Haunting: A True Story Read online

  If this toy was animated by a spirit, was it simply the animation of it that scared him or was it something it did specifically that frightened him so? Had it actually done scary things to my son? Thoughts of the latter really infuriated me. To think that my son might have been frightened to such an extent, in his own bed, by one of his own toys, filled me with rage. As difficult as it was, I tried my best to put it out of my mind. After all, the clown was gone and so, it seemed, was Taylor’s fear.

  Soon we faced an onset of new and strange disturbances. It all started on June 24th, in a very familiar way. Around 9:30 p.m., we put the baby down for the night and Tony and I sat on the couch to relax after a long day. Tony happened to look up to once again and caught sight of the wooden ball on the ceiling. We spent about two hours watching it swing. I mentally took notes to see if there was any particular pattern it followed as it swung, but found none. It was after the first hour or so that I realized that the ball’s movement was somewhat mesmerizing. It was like looking into the coals and embers of a burning fire and watching the flames dance. Time seemed to get away from us as we watched it.

  About 1:00 a.m., Taylor woke up screaming the kind of scream that curdles your blood. I went to his room and tried to comfort him, surveying the area for any problems and rocking and bouncing him gently in my arms. When I thought he had fallen back to sleep, I tried to set him back in the crib. Each time, even before I took a step away, he would wake up screaming. This went on for almost an hour until finally I gave in. I carried him into our room. As soon as I put him down on the bed, he fell fast asleep and stayed that way until morning.

  The next day, shortly after noon, I was upstairs in the master bedroom talking to Tony and sitting on the edge of the bed closest to the bedroom door. From there, I could see the upper portion of the stairway and a good section of the hallway. I had casually glanced up and saw what I could only describe as a tennis ball-sized lightning bug.

  Unlike a lightning bug, however, its glow was steady. Even with the mid-afternoon sun shining through the window just behind it, I could plainly see its brightness. For a split second it lingered, motionless in the air approximately six feet above the ninth or tenth stair from the top of the landing. It then made a quick, spiraling motion, darted down the stairs and vanished. The diameter of its corkscrew-like motion was about twelve inches at first, and as it descended the stairs, its diameter diminished until it became a straight tail of light. This wonderful display took place within an area of about three to four feet and ended within a matter of seconds. This wouldn’t be the last time we saw this strange ball of light.

  That afternoon, I put Taylor in his crib for a nap and closed the door as usual. He seemed to have slept fine. That night, however, he would not go to sleep in his room. Something had him so upset that each time I left the living room and started up the stairs he would turn around and cling to me with what seemed like the strength of ten men. At the time, I didn’t think fear was the reason for his reaction, I simply thought it was his wanting to stay up, fighting the fact that it was time for bed.

  After a few more attempts, I eventually rocked him to sleep and carried him upstairs to lay him in his bed. Several hours later, however, we were awakened by his panicked screams. It took me almost an hour to get him to sleep again. I really had not thought anything odd about his waking in the middle of the night; sometimes that just happens.

  On the way back to bed, however I started to wonder if Sallie or the woman spirit was causing Taylor’s distress. Coming to the realization that he might have been terrified by something in his room was an awful feeling. I didn’t know what it was that was bothering him, but I had just laid him down in there; alone. I swore to myself that if he woke again I would let him sleep with us in our bed.

  Fact is, I had wanted to go scoop him up and bring him to our room. On the other hand, maybe I was just overreacting and being ridiculous. To combat my rising anxiety about the situation, I went to his room to check on him and then left the door open. On the way back to bed, I wondered again if it was Sallie messing with him in his room. I wanted to yell at her and tell her to stop it, but if it wasn’t her, I didn’t want to lay false blame.

  Sallie knew the rules; I just couldn’t see her intentionally disobeying them just to get attention. She knew there were other ways to do so. Maybe Sallie wasn’t causing the problem. I concluded that it was the woman spirit causing the problem in Taylor’s nursery.

  Although I’m not really sure why I didn’t just tell the woman to stop what she was doing, I did think that Sallie might be helpful. After thinking about the words I was going to use, I finally called out to her.

  “Sallie, do you think you could help me? I need you to watch over and protect Taylor. He’s really tired and needs to get some sleep. Can you make sure no one wakes him or scares him tonight? It would be a really big help to us and Taylor, too.” I waited a minute, as if expecting a response, and then thanked her. Taylor did not wake again that night and even slept in the next morning. It was June 26th, Taylor’s first birthday.

  Tony and I had gotten up early and were anxiously waiting for him to wake up. We had spent several days planning his first birthday celebration. The house was decorated with streamers and balloons, and his gifts filled a small plastic pool in the dining room.

  While Tony and I sat on the couch, we noticed one of my cats ran into the living room by way of the stairs. As if being chased by something, she had come down at race car speed. Then suddenly she turned and hissed, as if to give final warning to whatever was chasing her. But there was nothing there. For about forty-five minutes, we watched her bolt back and forth through the few rooms downstairs, hissing sharply at something unseen behind her.

  Taylor finally woke up around 10:00 a.m. Tony got him dressed and brought him downstairs. Taylor opened gifts and we took pictures, then played for hours. About 4:00 p.m., we started greeting family and friends as they joined us to celebrate.

  By 8:30, almost forty family members and friends had come and gone and we were sitting with two other couples who also had one-year-olds. The babies had been playing on the floor when one of them let out a howl. It was as if someone had reached out and pinched her. She had always been a quiet and contented baby and I had never heard a peep out of her before then. I was overcome with a sinking feeling that Sallie had done something to Michelle in an act of protection and possessiveness toward Taylor’s new toys.

  Throughout the day, we video-recorded some of the visitors and events with a borrowed camera. In 1994, EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomena was not widely known as a tool for seeking proof of spirit activity. In more recent years, it has become a significant focal point and we have had the original recording analyzed by EVP analyst Renae Leiker. The tape was more than ten years old, and although it was difficult, she was able to pull out some interesting audio.

  Two of the most remarkable clips were captured while most of the children were together, opening the gifts bags we had prepared for them. The voices that were caught in the audio recording sounded like children saying “Rabbit’s foot” and “That’s all she gets.” It suggests that spirit children were not only aware of our activity and surroundings, but watching and commenting on the activity they were seeing in the room. I found this amazing.

  The next day was rather quiet. We spent most of it playing with Taylor and helping him explore his new toys. At 9:05 p.m., Taylor looked up and whirled around as if to watch something speed through the air above him. Ten minutes later, as Tony lay face up on the floor, he saw a flash of light in the corner of the room near the ceiling. He described it as a whirling ball of very bright light just like the one I had seen in the stairwell only days earlier.

  After that, almost three days passed without activity. Instead of worrying about Sallie’s lack of activity or fearing that she would leave us forever, I came to realize that she would always be back. She was comfortable in o
ur house and in our family. In fact, it seemed that we were her family.

  About 10:00 in the evening of that third day, when Tony went up to the nursery to check on our son as he slept, he witnessed something alarming. Tony tucked the blanket around Taylor and almost immediately, it was ripped off the baby and tossed across the crib. Thinking he must have caught the blanket on his watch as his arm retreated from the crib, he replaced the blanket on the baby. Again the cover was thrown across the crib. Aggravated, but seeing no real threat, Tony quietly whispered, “Now quit that,” and for the third time, spread the blanket across Taylor’s little body and tucked it under him. This time it did stay put.

  July 1994

  Throughout the day of July 6th, Tony and I had a multitude of troubles with the portable phone. While we were using the phone, it would cut out or switch to a different frequency. After the first few times this happened, we discovered that pushing the little on/off button would allow us to hear the person on the other end again.

  This problem did not occur with every phone call that day, while we were in any particular room, or talking to any specific person. The weather that day was clear and calm, and there were no incoming storms for the area—we felt confident that we could rule out weather as contributing to the problem. Ruling out logical reasons, however, didn’t often give us answers. In fact, it most often left us with more questions.

  At this point, we’d had knowledge of our ghost for about a year and were discussing our experiences and their effect on our lives. We both agreed that the level of activity had lessened and almost as if Sallie was comfortable with life and her role in our home. On occasion, though, she enjoyed reminding us of her presence by interacting with us.

  Physical activity that we could see was not the only way she got our attention. Even though they could not speak of it, Taylor and the animals seemed to be able to detect unseen activity, something Tony and I could not do.

  We did not feel that our little family was in any danger, but Taylor’s reactions were like an early warning system, as he often looked off in a direction where there seemed to be nothing visible. He would give a big smile or wave as if to say hello. There were also times when we observed him squirm and giggle joyously, just like he was being playfully tickled.

  The most noticeable thing we observed was the way he would often whip his head around in order to watch something whiz past the area just above or near his head. Watching where his eyes had been focused, it was easy to determine that he had not followed the path of a bug or beam of light. Many times, we would watch him track something across the room, or his dedicated focus on something that was interesting enough to keep his interest for several minutes. Most times however, we were unable to figure out what it was.

  For several days, things were back to normal. Normal meant no activity, even though activity was quickly becoming the norm. Then, on July 9th, we were faced with a few new and interesting activities. That morning, about 8:45, Tony stretched out on the bed in the master bedroom. He had gotten home about an hour earlier, and he had finally unwound enough to attempt sleep.

  While he lay down, I spent some time in the nursery with the baby in hope that it might lessen the aversion he had developed to that room. We played for quite a while and witnessed some interesting activity with one of the electronic toys. It was a sound-activated toy that hung from the inside of the crib with a feature that automatically began a thirty-second recording of the voices or sounds in the room. It would then play back what it had recorded. Its purpose was to reinforce the activity of a baby’s babble through the child hearing its own recorded voice.

  We had been sitting on the floor for quite some time when I heard a strange, loud, almost screeching static noise coming from the crib. It startled me at first, then I realized it was one of the birthday gifts that had recently been installed on the wall of the crib. I found it odd that the toy would have been sensitive enough to pick up our quiet play from where we sat on the floor several feet across the room.

  The unit seemed to have recorded and played back some other form of energy or noise; something that was close to it. Had it been Sallie? Had it been the woman? It certainly didn’t sound like a human voice and I wondered if it was something more menacing. The sound had been somewhat loud and ominous, and it was the first time I wondered if any of our experiences could indicate a demonic presence. Was it a warning of sorts?

  Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. I jumped over the baby gate at the top of the stairs and ran to the first floor to answer it. After a short conversation, I hung up the phone. On my way back up the stairs, I could see Taylor waiting on the other side of the baby gate. Then, just before I reached the top of the stairs, I heard a strange, faint, groaning sound come from the bedroom where Tony was supposedly sleeping.

  Thinking it was probably the clock radio, which he often left on in order to drown out the daytime noises, I ignored it and stepped over the baby gate to pick up Taylor. A moment later, I distinctly heard the sound again. This time, I recognized it as a distorted version of Tony’s voice calling out my name.

  “De-e-e-e-e-b!”

  “What?” I called back, but there was no answer.

  This happened several more times, and each time I became a little more aggravated that he wouldn’t reply. After the fourth or fifth time, I concluded that he was probably dreaming and I was simply overhearing him talk in his sleep. So again, I ignored it. A few seconds later, he called out yet again. I put the baby down and yelled, “What?”

  There was still no answer. Finding his repeated calls a bit odd, I decided to go see what he wanted. Still very aggravated with his lack of replies, I abruptly opened the door.

  “WHAT?”

  When the door was opened enough that I could to see him, I found him on the far side of the bed with his arms stretched out from his sides, palms and body laid flat on the bed; his head was lifted and a look of terror was apparent in every line of his face. I looked at him quizzically, trying to understand why he looked the way he did. The fear did not leave his face and my annoyance quickly switched to concern and compassion. I asked him what was wrong. Instead of speaking, he gasped deeply for air as if he hadn’t taken a breath for several minutes. What he described next was baffling.

  Apparently he had fallen asleep and had for some reason woken up, which was not unusual, since he had an awful time trying to sleep during daylight hours.

  “It started out as the specks of dust against the light from the window and I thought it was dust from the vent in the wall near the end of the bed. That is, until I realized it had not been cool enough in the room for the heater to come on.

  “I felt the water bed mattress start to gently roll and wave. Within a few seconds, it became violent, as if someone was standing on the bed and jumping up and down. Soon the motion was causing the pillows near my head to bounce several inches into the air and my body began to flop uncontrollably.

  “The formation of dust particles near the foot of the bed began to get darker and denser. I think I was mesmerized by this formation, and before I realized, it had taken the shape of a woman’s upper torso, her arms folded in front of her and across her abdomen.

  “This thing started to move closer to me and as it did, I could make out more details, like dark hair and a bitchy look, like the store owner’s wife on Little House on the Prairie. I was getting pretty scared and I don’t know why I didn’t try to get up and leave. As she got closer, I could see she was dressed all in black with a high collar adorned with a brooch. At that point, the water in the baffle of the mattress was frantically sloshing and it got so violent that I was barely able to move away and toward the other side if the bed. My heart pounded like crazy and I thought it would burst out of my chest any minute. I tried to call for you, but nothing would come out.

  “And then, in an instant, she was in front of me. The bedroom door slammed shut,
the drawer from the night stand flung itself open and closed repeatedly and the top of the highboy spun around. It was like being in a sci-fi movie and I could not scream.

  “The woman’s hand suddenly lunged for my face and I heard a voice say, ‘I’m gonna…’ There was more that was said but I couldn’t make it out. I remember her hand was covered in a long black lace glove and just as it was inches from my face, I saw a black bird on her finger. I struggled to crawl out of bed and over to the door, and I don’t know if I was just too scared to work the knob properly or what, but I couldn’t get the door open. Then, suddenly, everything that was moving stopped and she was gone.

  “I tried to scream several times but couldn’t; it was like nothing would come out. I don’t remember anything more; I don’t know how I got back on the bed except that maybe when everything stopped I got back up on the bed. I don’t know, maybe I blacked out or something. Then you opened the door.”

  I had noticed nothing out of the ordinary except for how oddly Tony was splayed out on the bed and the look on his face. I didn’t see anything moving in the room.

  He went on to describe how the voice seemed to be one among many. That it had come at him quickly and then seemed to pass him, and before he grasped what was happening, the voice was out of range and completely inaudible. He reported other, indistinct sounds along with the voice, but nothing he could describe in any detail. He reflected on this experience for days, and later described the sounds as “a lot of muffled voices, deep in a tunnel, and far away.” It had definitely been one of his most frightening experiences.

  That afternoon, I was on the phone near the kitchen sink when the phone cut off. I hit the on button and within a second or so the party I was speaking to was once again audible. In fact, he had kept talking and apparently had been unaware that there had been any interruption at all.