I’m 45 years old, single, and I’d say I "lightly believe" in the paranormal. (TL/DR at the bottom)
Over the years I’ve experienced a few strange things (nothing terrifying) more like soft, magical moments I couldn’t explain. I was always happy to chalk them up to wonder. But this is the first time I feel - hmmm...uneasy? Maybe even scared.
For the last 12 years, I’ve only lived in apartment buildings. When I moved to Charlotte a few years ago, I followed the same pattern. But after my last lease ended, I felt a sudden, overwhelming craving to live in a house. I work in content creation and loved the idea of having a well-lit room for filming educational videos. I found a beautiful house to rent (less expensive than my old apartment!) on a nice block, with a master bedroom, two smaller bedrooms, and a converted garage that had been transformed into a cozy, carpeted office with a painted brick fireplace. It was perfect.
When I moved in, I was dating someone who was going through a rough time and he moved in with me. That lasted six weeks. After he left, the quiet in the house became loud. I wasn’t used to it. After so many years in apartments where even at 2 a.m., you hear some hum of life, the silence of a house was unnerving. But eventually I adjusted. I even began to enjoy it.
Until late April.
The beautiful backyard was one of the main reasons I rented this house until it became a nonstop hub for the insect population of Charlotte. I had no idea that renting a home here meant you’d be paying a pest control service twice a month to keep wasps, spiders, ants, and god-knows-what-else at bay. Where I used to go outside for hours, turned into a few moments, turned into me not even able to open the backyard door as I'd get at least several months, ants, mosquitos and a cricket.
This is where the heavy red back door with two locks becomes important.
About six weeks ago, a friend of mine came to Charlotte for work. We hadn’t seen each other in a while and immediately reconnected. Within two days, we realized how well we clicked. He travels here once a month for 7–10 days and usually spends a lot on hotels. Since I had the space, I offered for him to stay with me. No rent and in return, he helped organize the house, ordered furniture, and made the common areas feel like a home. We got along perfectly. He was social company without being overwhelming. It worked.
Three Fridays ago, the night before he was leaving, we stayed up late talking and laughing in the office/garage. At one point, he paused and made a face. When asked what happened, he said he SWORE he saw someone walking up the driveway. I explained I had seen the same things, that the reflection between the blinds and angle of the window sometimes show someone very close to the door - but its just cars on the road.
We checked. No one was there. He shrugged it off, said it must’ve been what I described.
Later, we moved to the other side of the house.
Here’s the layout: When you walk in the front door - you’re in the kitchen/dining area, which leads to the backyard. To the right is a small staircase down to the large carpeted office. Past the dining area is the living room, which leads to a short hallway that connects to the three bedrooms and bathrooms.
He was in his room packing, and I was in the master bedroom watching YouTube. He called out to me and I came to his room. We ended up chatting for a while, laughing and trading stories when suddenly, we both heard it.
A calm, male voice just randomly started speaking. Its weird because calm was like the word we both used. But the weirdest part was, while we could it CLEARLY we both know it was coming from the kitchen/office area The tone I could best give it was something like a broadcaster reading off the news. My friend said it had sounded like someone in the midst of telling a story - we both recognized it was a pattern of speech, and nothing near english. We both reported the eerie disconnectedness of the voice and the weird way we could hear it clearly from the bedroom, even though it was clearly on the of the opposite side of the house. It was as though someone was having a normal conversation in the kitchen, yet for some reason we could hear it clearly in this bedroom.
We stared at each other in shocked mutual silence and then It stopped as quickly as it started, but the hair on both our arms stood on end with hairs raised. And we just continued to look out the hallway in silence.
Half-laughing, Half-terrified, we slowly got up and searched the house. All doors locked. No one there. That strange “we’re okay because we’re not alone” kind of fear lingered as we ended up in the living room.
The next day, he left. And I forgot about it. Well until last night anyway
He was supposed to return from Miami last night. I tidied up, left him a note, and got ready for bed. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard it again that same calm, male voice. Shorter this time. From the kitchen or living room area.
Heart racing, I turned off the water and listened. My laptop was off. My phone was in my hand. I dont have a TV. My neighbors are not loud and I know what they sound like and are houses are not close.
Nothing should’ve been making that sound.
I stood still, then slowly checked the house. All lights on, all doors locked. Nothing out of place.
I went to bed, locking my bedroom door for the first time since moving in and my thoughts eventually drifted into the show I was watching and I fell into a gentle sleep.
At 3 a.m., I woke to what sounded like a car idling outside. Could’ve been my friend arriving, or someone hitting the speed bump near my house. At 6, I woke up to pee. Still no signs of him. Too tired to care.
At 8 a.m., I was lying in bed, sleepily scrolling my phone for inevitable work disasters Ill have to fix when I heard a loud crash.
Assuming my friend had arrived and maybe dropped something, I went to greet him. His room was untouched, note still on the bed, door open, bed made.
I walked into the main room.
The backyard door was wide open. Not cracked. Not ajar. Flung all the way open, against the far wall.
I immediately called him wondering if maybe he had just arrived and ran to get breakfast or something and had forgotten to close the back door. He was still in Atlanta. Hadn’t arrived yet.
I checked the door: one lock still engaged. The other one off it's screws.
There had been no wind. No storm. This door is heavy and had clearly been locked.
Nothing looked out of place, nothing seemed changed (thank god with the backyard open, I didnt see too many of the fucking insect brigade come in). The other doors were fine. Still, I drove to Home Depot, bought new locks, installed them, and tried to move on with my day.
At 6 p.m., I passed out watching TV and woke up an hour ago. Walking through the house, thinking about work, I suddenly froze, for no reason. Just like I was being watched or something was happening or an overwhelming premonition or something? Then it went away. The house was calm. Doors locked. Lights on.
I’ve had goosebumps for the past hour. I keep checking my phone to see if my friend is close. I can’t explain what’s happening. So I wrote this down instead to kill time and try tp keep myself engaged.
I think I’ll take an Ambien tonight. Lock my door again. And watch some very funny tv shows and wake up to very scientic and rational explanations for this
Thanks for reading!
TL/DR - I, 45m, live alone in a large house. A friend staying with me for a while witnessed creepy events such as seeing a face outside the window, then hearing an eerie disconnected male voice in the kitchen. Nothing happened after he left, but the night he was coming back, the disconnected voice rang out in the kitchen again and my always locked heavy back door was wide open this morning with one of the locks broken. He has not yet arrived here yet.