Author’s note: This is the second of a two-part story about a family plagued by disembodied voices.
The voice came from downstairs, but Alex McFeeters didn’t know why he heard his father’s voice. His father, Craig, wasn’t supposed to be home.
“Alex, come down here,” the voice said.
Alex went downstairs; maybe his father had gotten home early.
“He said that it sounded like I was sitting in the recliner, that I normally am sitting in, and that was where the sound came from,” Craig said. “He was surprised to see that I wasn’t there in the recliner.”
Alex walked around the house, but couldn’t find his father and Craig’s truck wasn’t in the drive. Alex realized something chilling – his dad wasn’t home.
“I asked him if he was certain that it was my voice,” Craig said. “He said that it was my voice, it wasn’t someone else’s.”
This was two weeks after Craig had heard a woman calling from outside his house – a woman who wasn’t there.
“This is a strange event, no doubt,” Craig said. “But this goes much deeper. This has happened to all of us in my family, where we hear the voice of one another, but that person isn’t home.”
Craig has heard the disembodied voices of his family for years.
“Numerous times I would be in the basement of our old house on the computer and I would hear my wife holler downstairs for me,” he said. “I would go upstairs and no one was home.”
The instances got so real for Craig he would often hear the front door open and close and feet shuffle across the floor.
“Then I wouldn’t hear anything more, no footsteps across the floors of the house like they had come on in,” he said. “Then I would go upstairs and no one was home.”
Craig’s wife heard this, too. One day as she sat in the downstairs office, working on the family’s computer, someone called to her.
“She heard me open up the door at the top of the steps and holler down for her, calling her name and then she heard nothing,” Craig said. “After a few minutes she came upstairs, and no one was home. This spooked her a bit.”
Then the voices – voices of family members – began shouting out more and more.
“We aren’t hearing someone else coming into the house, or calling for us, we are hearing the actual sounds and voices of people in our family,” Craig said. “I’ve heard my wife, she has heard me, our son heard my voice, so what is going on here?”
Craig began keeping tabs on the voices and found everyone in his household heard them.
“It seems in every case that one of us has been alone in the house, and the party that they heard, they were expecting home at any moment,” Craig said. “Then it seems like about 10 minutes, sometimes more, before the person or people return home, one of us hears them either come in the door or holler downstairs for them.”
At first Craig thought the voices and sounds of his family coming home may be a phenomenon similar to people seeing ghosts in their home doing things they would have in life.
“I wondered about it being some kind of residual energy at first,” he said. “Maybe something that builds up in the matter of the house or the walls or something.”
But he soon dismissed that because the voices his family hears are of people who are expected home soon. Craig thinks these auditory experiences might relate to a psychic connection he has with his family.
“It is like an anticipation of them coming home, or something,” he said. “I believed that my wife and kids were going to be home soon, and then what I hear is them all returning home, coming in the door, and the distinct sound they normally make coming in the door.”
Alex had the same feeling when he heard Craig call to him.
“My son believed that I would likely be home before long, and he heard me call for him,” Craig said. “Very strange indeed. I don’t know that I’ve heard or seen other reports of this type of thing, but I have to believe if it is happening to us, that it happens to other people as well.”
Whatever the cause, Craig and his family continue to hear voices and footsteps of people who aren’t there. Maybe the McFeeters on the road are just unconsciously telling the McFeeters at home that everything’s fine.
Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Disembodied Voices -- Part 1
Author’s note: This is the first of a two-part story about a family plagued by disembodied voices.
Craig McFeeters sat in his home office in Lawson, Mo., on Dec. 22, 2009, when he heard a woman call from outside. The woman’s voice was clear – maybe too clear.
“I heard a woman who sounded like she was outside on the sidewalk about 15 feet from the front door and just outside of my office,” McFeeters said. “I heard a woman fairly loudly and vividly say, ‘Hello? Is anybody home?’”
McFeeters walked to the front door and opened it to an empty sidewalk.
“I fully expected to see a woman standing there,” he said. “I was wondering why wouldn’t she just ring the doorbell or knock on the door? But sometimes when the garage door is open, people will come in the garage so I thought maybe that was it, she didn't know which place to go.”
He looked for a car in the driveway or for a woman walking toward the road, but saw nothing. The houses on either side of his were silent.
“No signs of someone from a neighbor’s house causing the event,” he said. “And it is very cold, so it’s not like someone had their windows open. But the voice wasn’t coming from far away. It was more like from the corner of the room, or just outside of the walls of the house.”
When McFeeters went back inside, he asked his son and daughter who were watching television in the living room if they’d heard “it.”
“Hear what?” his son said.
“You didn’t hear that woman?” McFeeters asked his son. “Then my seven-year-old daughter said, ‘I heard her.’”
McFeeters went toward the hall leading to the garage; the garage was the only place left for the woman to be.
“I walked into the kitchen just knowing I would find a woman standing either in the garage or just outside on the driveway,” he said. But when he opened the door, the garage door was shut, the garage empty. “I knew then for certain that it was a spirit of some sort.”
McFeeters said the woman sounded confused.
“Which is what struck me as odd right from the start,” he said. “Maybe she happened onto this time and space and had no idea what she was doing here. I got the feeling she wasn't from anywhere near this time, like from the 1800s or something.”
Shortly after, his four-year-old daughter began having problems sleeping.
“She has been wetting the bed nightly and she is scared to sleep in her room,” he said. “You know the typical monsters in my room kind of thing. But the strange part is that she really seemed to be telling the truth and describing them.”
His daughter wouldn’t sleep in her room. She would sleep with McFeeters and his wife or on the floor outside her room, but she wouldn’t set foot in there after dark because of the goblins.
After seeing the fear grow in his daughter, McFeeters spoke to two clairvoyants over the telephone. They agreed that something was wrong with his house which, he thought, may account for the disembodied voice.
“They both almost simultaneously said there is a portal opened up in her room from a ceremony done on the land a long time ago,” McFeeters said. “Someone opened it up, and didn't close it properly.”
McFeeters, who feels he’s sensitive to the paranormal, has often been uncomfortable in one part of his daughter’s room.
“Then they proceeded to tell me about that same area that I was picking up (a strange feeling),” he said. “Which was more than spooky – and somehow validating.”
The women told McFeeters how to close the “portal” and the goblins and the fear disappeared – for two nights.
“I did it, but didn't feel that I had closed it properly,” McFeeters said. “It seemed to help for a couple of days, and then was obvious that it didn't work.”
The fear crept back into his daughter’s life and she began wetting the bed again.
“I told the lady about it like a week later and she said she would call one of her best friends and they would attempt to close it for us,” McFeeters said. “Apparently they spent two hours on the phone doing this ritual.”
Since that time, although she’s had a couple of accidents, his daughter stopped wetting the bed.
“She has slept in her bed every night since, for like three weeks now,” he said. “She has only wet the bed twice in over three weeks, which is a minor miracle to us.”
The ritual seemed to stop the goblins and stop the girl’s terror, but it didn’t stop the disembodied voices.
Next week: The family discovers the voices are something more than ghosts.
Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
Craig McFeeters sat in his home office in Lawson, Mo., on Dec. 22, 2009, when he heard a woman call from outside. The woman’s voice was clear – maybe too clear.
“I heard a woman who sounded like she was outside on the sidewalk about 15 feet from the front door and just outside of my office,” McFeeters said. “I heard a woman fairly loudly and vividly say, ‘Hello? Is anybody home?’”
McFeeters walked to the front door and opened it to an empty sidewalk.
“I fully expected to see a woman standing there,” he said. “I was wondering why wouldn’t she just ring the doorbell or knock on the door? But sometimes when the garage door is open, people will come in the garage so I thought maybe that was it, she didn't know which place to go.”
He looked for a car in the driveway or for a woman walking toward the road, but saw nothing. The houses on either side of his were silent.
“No signs of someone from a neighbor’s house causing the event,” he said. “And it is very cold, so it’s not like someone had their windows open. But the voice wasn’t coming from far away. It was more like from the corner of the room, or just outside of the walls of the house.”
When McFeeters went back inside, he asked his son and daughter who were watching television in the living room if they’d heard “it.”
“Hear what?” his son said.
“You didn’t hear that woman?” McFeeters asked his son. “Then my seven-year-old daughter said, ‘I heard her.’”
McFeeters went toward the hall leading to the garage; the garage was the only place left for the woman to be.
“I walked into the kitchen just knowing I would find a woman standing either in the garage or just outside on the driveway,” he said. But when he opened the door, the garage door was shut, the garage empty. “I knew then for certain that it was a spirit of some sort.”
McFeeters said the woman sounded confused.
“Which is what struck me as odd right from the start,” he said. “Maybe she happened onto this time and space and had no idea what she was doing here. I got the feeling she wasn't from anywhere near this time, like from the 1800s or something.”
Shortly after, his four-year-old daughter began having problems sleeping.
“She has been wetting the bed nightly and she is scared to sleep in her room,” he said. “You know the typical monsters in my room kind of thing. But the strange part is that she really seemed to be telling the truth and describing them.”
His daughter wouldn’t sleep in her room. She would sleep with McFeeters and his wife or on the floor outside her room, but she wouldn’t set foot in there after dark because of the goblins.
After seeing the fear grow in his daughter, McFeeters spoke to two clairvoyants over the telephone. They agreed that something was wrong with his house which, he thought, may account for the disembodied voice.
“They both almost simultaneously said there is a portal opened up in her room from a ceremony done on the land a long time ago,” McFeeters said. “Someone opened it up, and didn't close it properly.”
McFeeters, who feels he’s sensitive to the paranormal, has often been uncomfortable in one part of his daughter’s room.
“Then they proceeded to tell me about that same area that I was picking up (a strange feeling),” he said. “Which was more than spooky – and somehow validating.”
The women told McFeeters how to close the “portal” and the goblins and the fear disappeared – for two nights.
“I did it, but didn't feel that I had closed it properly,” McFeeters said. “It seemed to help for a couple of days, and then was obvious that it didn't work.”
The fear crept back into his daughter’s life and she began wetting the bed again.
“I told the lady about it like a week later and she said she would call one of her best friends and they would attempt to close it for us,” McFeeters said. “Apparently they spent two hours on the phone doing this ritual.”
Since that time, although she’s had a couple of accidents, his daughter stopped wetting the bed.
“She has slept in her bed every night since, for like three weeks now,” he said. “She has only wet the bed twice in over three weeks, which is a minor miracle to us.”
The ritual seemed to stop the goblins and stop the girl’s terror, but it didn’t stop the disembodied voices.
Next week: The family discovers the voices are something more than ghosts.
Copyright 2010 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s books on the paranormal, “Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us,” and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.
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