rent apartment for party

this took place in ohio. i should start by saying that i was 4 at thetime, while my siblings ranged from 12 to 19 years of age. some of my memories are abit fuzzy, but some are quite crystal clear, and some of the incidents i'm relating inthis story are their stories rather than mine. in august of 1981 my large family, (myselfand 4 half brother's and 2 half sisters along with my parents) were looking for a biggerhouse. our budget wasn't very big as you can imagine with a household the size of ours.we had been looking for a year already with no really good prospects. one night at worka temporary employee at my dad's place of work mentioned a house in a neighboring town,he knew the owners and said he was pretty

sure they were looking for renters. he gavemy dad their number and the next day he called the owners to schedule a viewing of the house. we went to see it and it was perfect! it had5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a large finished basement and a full attic. it was very largeand good for our big family. the people who owned the house, we'll call them the hanksfamily, were very nice. they said ideally they wanted to sell the house via land contract,this is where you pay the owners the amount of their mortgage on the house plus some extrafor their pocket as well. they were only asking 20 thousand for the house, which they saidwas all they owed on the mortgage, and our payments would only be 400 a month. this soundedtoo good to be true to my family. my parents

were slightly suspicious, worrying there wassomething seriously wrong with the home. the hanks family (which only consisted ofa man and his wife) were very kind about my parents worries and offered to hire a contractorto come and do a thorough inspection, and my parents agreed but offered to pay for halfof the contractors bill. within the week the contractor inspected the house and said itwas completely sound save for the hole in the floor of the downstairs bathroom wherenew water pipes had been ran but the hole from the old ones never fixed. this wasn'tsomething too concerning for my parents as it was a relatively easy fix, and a week laterwe were moving in. in september of 1981 i was sitting on thefront porch of our new house playing with

a rag doll my mother had made for me. i heardsomeone breathing heavily from the door behind me, my brothers liked to scare me, torturethe little sister right? i turned around to tell them to stop when i saw something horrifying.there was a mummy leaning down and staring through the screen directly at me. i say mummy,maybe you would say just a monster. he was wrapped up like a mummy, but he wascovered in blood from head to toe. he squatted there staring and i stared back in abjecthorror, frozen to the spot. he raised his hand and he was holding a butcher knife. wheni saw this i screamed loud and long for my mom and closed my eyes to cry. when my momcame rushing outside i told her brokenly about what i had seen. i was an avid scooby doowatcher and my parents decided that was all

it was, i was just too young for scooby andthe gang. during this same month the youngest boy inthe family (he was 12 at the time) was in the basement playing on the foosball tablewith a friend from school. they heard a strange scraping sound and paid no attention to itin the beginning, but the more they heard it the more curious they became and startedlooking around the basement for the sound. after several minutes of looking and listeningthey heard a loud bang on the floor and ran scared upstairs to mom. she said they werespooking themselves and nothing ever came of the incident. the next incident took place near the endof october 1981. my oldest sister (she was

17 at the time) had picked my up and was carryingme from the living room, through the dining room and into the kitchen for lunch. therewas a fireplace in the dining room with a large mantle where my mom had sat out somecrystal figurines. as my sister passed the mantle the figurines started to jump off themantle at us. i recall this vividly, they just jumped from where they were and smackedinto us as we walked. one hit my sister hard enough in the sideof her face to draw blood. she screamed and ran toward the kitchen, and my parents bothjumped up to see what the commotion was. my sister was panting as she told them what happened,and they went into the dining room to investigate and found all the figurines on the floor.one was even all the way across the room.

my parents explained it away to us kids, sayingit was probably something to do with us stomping past that caused them to jar off the mantle,but my parents were actually becoming a little spooked. about a week after that, just into the firstof november my dad had pulled a double shift at work and didn't get home until about 1in the morning. he was in the downstairs bathroom sitting on the toilet and my mom was standingin the door talking to him about the days events with the kids and such. my dad waslooking down the hole in the floor and suddenly he jumped up and pulled up his pants. he pushedmy mom out of the way and grabbed the gun he kept in the dining room break front andloaded it. he was very quiet doing all this

but told my mom that someone was in the basement.he rushed down the basement stairs but there was no one there. he said it was a man wearinga fedora and a trench coat. there were only 2 ways in and out of the basement.the door inside the house that had been in sight of them as ran to the dining room, anda cellar door that opened to the outside. they checked the cellar door and it was stillpadlocked from the outside. the began to look around the basement and my dad discoveredseveral bricks laying in the floor near the chimney. they looked as if they had just fallenout, but the contractor would surely have found a faulty chimney wouldn't he? they leftthe basement puzzled and quite worried. over the next few months you could periodicallyhear bricks being dragged across the basement

floor, anytime someone would check it outthey would find nothing. the bricks did continue slowly being pushed out of the chimney, however. in mid december of 1981 we had put up ourchristmas tree and decorations. a few presents were already under it and despite the airof creepiness in the house everyone was in the holiday spirit. it was evening time andwe had all piled into the living room to watch a movie as a family. i was sitting on my mom'slap and we were snuggled under a blanket with one of my brothers. the house shook. i rememberit very well. looking back it was like a small earthquake, but it wasn't really an earthquake. the house shook and then a sound came rushingdown the stairs, i say that because you could

hear it from upstairs first and then louderas if it were in the room with us. it sounded like an angry groan. everyone was scared andconfused, i was crying. then suddenly the christmas tree turned upside down. when isay this i mean it was standing like it was before in the same spot except now it wason it's point. it just stood there like that, freaking everyoneout, for about a full minute. then my dad jumped up and headed over toward it and thetree fell down on it's side. the movie completely forgotten, tears from several of us kids,my parents finally admitted something odd was going on with the house. this is wherea few of the other kids related strange things happening to them...

my 17 year old brother said he woke up inthe middle of the night and needed to use the bathroom and when he tried to get outof his bedroom the door wouldn't open, as if locked but there was no lock on the door.he thought maybe it was just stuck but no matter how hard he pulled it refused to open.when he had given up and decided he would have to hold his bladder until morning thedoor popped open like magic without him even touching it. my 14 year old sister said she was takinga shower and someone outside the bathroom door asked if they could come in, she thoughtit was my other sister or maybe mom. the door opened and shut and she pulled the showercurtain back to see who it was but nobody

was there. my 19 year old brother (who was actually justthere for a visit as he lived on his own and was attending seminary school) said only thatthe house made him feel uncomfortable, and that he thought something there was attractedto me but he didn't know why he felt that way. the discussion turned to the bricks in thebasement, and how my brother had probably heard that when he was down there with hisfriend. how had they been pushed out from the inside? who or what was the man my dadhad seen down there? and eventually i said "the bloody man with the bloody knife liveshere". i'm pretty sure chills shot down everyone's

spine at that statement. they began to askme about him, and i started telling them everything. some of these stories i remember happening,some i'm unsure about, but this is what i told them. "the bloody man with the bloody knife standson the stairs when i'm trying to go up or down and i'm too scared to go past him. sometimeshe stands in the dining room and won't let me out of the kitchen or the living room.he watches me out of the windows when i'm outside. and one time he was in the bathroomwhen i was taking a bath and kept making scary noises" the scary noises sounded sort of likeclicking your tongue but much louder. at this my parents immediately asked my siblingsif they were playing tricks on me to which

they all swore they weren't. most of theseincidents my mom remembered me crying and being scared but not saying why, of coursei didn't think they would believe me because they hadn't before. from that day on theyencouraged me to tell them anytime i saw him. we began to look for another house at thattime, there was just too much going on for any of us to ever feel good there again. weweren't church goers but my mom called a local church and asked if the pastor would be willingto come and bless the house. on 2 different occasions he tried to come and both timessomething prevented it. the first time his wife fell down their stairs at home and hehad to go to the hospital. about a week after that he was on his wayto our house and had a car wreck that resulted

in him breaking both of his legs. he suggestedanother pastor who might do it since he himself wasn't able. my mom contacted the new pastorwho did actually make it about a week later. he blessed the house and after going outsidehe told my mom that something didn't feel right, he went so far as to suggest we move. in late january my mom's best friend (we'llcall her janet) came over and said she'd landed a job working for the hanks doing some cateringfor a party and she asked my mom if she wanted to come help serve, my mom couldn't turn downextra money, especially since we were looking for a new house. the hanks lived next door,but because of the acreage of their property it put their house being roughly a city blockaway from our house. the area around their

house was densely wooded and you couldn'tsee much of their place from anywhere around it. the night of the hanks' party came and mymom and janet went over, they had been asked to use the back door which opened into theirkitchen. mrs. hanks came into the kitchen and spoke to janet while my mom was startingto unload the van of the catering supplies, leaving mrs. hanks none the wiser about mymom being their server. mrs. hanks told janet that nobody besides the server was allowedbeyond the kitchen door. she wanted no one in the living room areabesides the server, only one server as well, and this person will be paid a large sum ofmoney in an envelope at the end of the night.

she gave janet a black face mask and saidthe servant was to wear the face mask anytime she came into the living room. janet thoughtthis was weird but didn't argue. when this was all related to my mom she was very uncomfortablewith it but accepted it anyway. when she went into the living room for thefirst time what she saw was shocking and weird. everyone was dressed in black. a naked manwas wearing a mask and serving drinks from a bar. an older man in a hooded cloak wasin the middle of the room speaking in a different language from a book. then my mom saw an upsidedown cross above their mantle piece and she went back into the kitchen and told janetwhat she saw and said "i can't do this, i'm sorry" and left, running across the way toour house where she broke down in tears and

shudders while she told my dad everything. the next day janet called my mom to talk aboutthings, she offered to give her part of the money from the envelope, which ended up being1000 dollars of what mrs. hanks said was "hush money" and winked cheekily at janet. my momapologized for running out and said to keep the money. my mom didn't like unexplained things. shemaybe read too much nancy drew, but whatever propelled her she decided to do some digginginto the history of our house, and maybe a little into the hanks. my mom was a nursewho worked at a nursing home. once she started talking to friends about the house someonedirected her to an elderly gentleman in the

nursing home (we'll call him carl). she wasin changing carl's sheets and asked him about the house and if he knew the hanks? a lookof foreboding crossed his face, and she asked him if he knew anything. he said "emily usedto live there years ago. her husband had passed away and i stopped in there to check on herfrom time to time. at first it was okay, until that couple movedin next door. they wanted to buy her house and poor old emily couldn't bear to part withit, her husband had built it for their family. the hanks were persistent, over there everycouple days bothering emily about it. she finally called the police on them and orderedthem to stay off her property. 3 months later emily had gone mad. scratching at her faceand screaming about the cobwebs, telling anyone

who would listen that there was a monsterin her house. someone in her family had her put in a home somewhere upstate and they soldthe house to the hanks". of course my mom had a cold pit of dread spreading from herstomach all over her when she heard this. she thanked carl and was leaving his roomwhen he called her back and said "your family living there?" my mom nodded, and he said"get them out as soon as you can". in february i was heading upstairs to thebathroom when the bloody man with the bloody knife came slowly down the stairs toward me.i stopped dead still and started crying. i ran down the stairs, usually this was goodenough, he had scared me and now it would be over. this time it wasn't enough, he startedto chase me, moving faster than he ever had

before. i ran into the living room and sawmy hiding spot and crammed myself into it. my hiding spot was this: our couch sat cattycornered in the corner of the living room. it was kind of antique like and had fancywooden legs. i liked this hiding spot because i could lean down and look under the couchfor people's feet and know if they were close when we played hide and seek. this time ishoved myself behind the couch, crying and being quiet so he wouldn't find me there. after a short time i leaned down to look forhis feet and found him leaned down looking right at me! i saw him shove his butcher knifetoward me and i jerked backward and he sliced my knee open. i ran again, this time up thestairs, all the while being too scared to

make a sound. i got into the bathroom andhid between the toilet and the trashcan. just then i heard my mom calling to me but i wastoo scared to answer her. moments later she found me all huddled upin my bathroom hiding spot shaking and crying. she kept asking me what was wrong but i didn'tanswer her at first, i just clung to her and cried. she looked down and saw that my pantleg was covered in blood and my shoe was even full of blood. then she rushed me into thekitchen and stood me on the counter so she could get a better look at what i'd done.i was still bawling and hiccuping now as she pulled up my pant leg and saw a gash on myknee. my pant leg was completely intact. she kept asking me how i did it and finally itold her the bloody man with the bloody knife

cut me. all i remember about her reactionis just her crying and holding me. from then on i wasn't allowed to be alonein the house ever. this only lasted about a week. i was sitting in my little red wagonwith my sister pulling me around. we were in the kitchen and the phone rang and sheturned around to pick it up and the bloody man with the bloody knife grabbed the handleof the wagon and turned me over. i, of course screamed and half the family came runningand i told them what happened. my mom packed a bag, told the rest of thekids to pack one too and we left to stay with my grandparents. my dad stayed behind to overseethe packing (we actually hired movers because nobody wanted to go back to help). the hankscame over twice during the packing process

trying to convince my dad to bring us backand stay. he was very firm and after that they somehow found out where my grandparentslived and came to see my mom. she refused to even speak with them and kept all of uskids in the kitchen while my grandpa spoke with them briefly and sent them on their way. we found a new house, a much smaller housein a little town called christiansburgh. we moved there on a temporary basis until wecould find something bigger. we only lived in christiansburgh for about 4 months beforewe found a farm house out in the middle of nowhere for rent. in the entire 4 months welived in christiansburgh we never heard from the hanks, but within a week of moving tothe farm house they knew where we were and

came for a visit. they brought a cherry pie and a gallon ofchocolate milk "for the kids" and they hoped there were no hard feelings, and mrs. hankshoped my mom didn't get too offended at their party. how she had found out about mom beingthe server at the party was anyone's guess. after they left my parents threw away thepie and poured out the chocolate milk, mom said she knew it was poison. my dad stayed at the same job for years untilwe moved to another state. whenever we would have to go to his workplace for anything theshortest route took us past that house. i always knew when we were close. i would startcrying and begging to go another way. it was

a feeling in my stomach more than any understandingof the houses or landmarks near the house. in more recent years i wanted to see the houseagain, maybe exorcise it once and for all from my nightmares. as soon as i turned ontothe street the same old feeling in my stomach came back, just dread, cold, hard, dark dread. i saw the house, i even stopped across theroad from it and looked at it from the car. i tried hard to calm my inner child as shewailed and shook in terror. then i saw a car pull into the driveway and a little blondeboy get out. he just stood there staring at the house, at the upstairs window to be precise.i looked where he looked and saw nothing, i guess i lost whatever innocence that hadlet me see the evil in the first place, but

i knew he saw it. his mom practically draggedhim toward the front porch. i drove away once they were inside, feeling disturbed and queasy.i heard they moved a few months later. i don't know whatever became of the hanks.i do know now the man who gave my dad their number was their son. after i got older idid a little snooping of my own, i guess my mom's nancy drew-ness rubbed off on me. ifound out that "poor old emily" had no family left, it was the hanks who put her in thehome upstate and paid for it. no one had ever sold them that house, they were just sellingit to us under false pretenses. i also found out that a few mysterious deathsoccurred in relation somehow or another to the hanks. their family doctor perished ina house fire just 2 weeks after denying mrs.

hanks the pain medication she'd been takingfor 10 years, a car salesman who sold them a lemon choked to death in a restaurant amonth or so after he sold them the car. and a little girl had died of some sort of respiratoryproblem in their house. i can't say for certain if all these thingsare true, word of mouth is sometimes quite unreliable, but i believe it. having seenthe things that happened there, i believe the hanks were satanists. i don't know ifthe bloody man with the bloody knife was put there on purpose or if he was just a by productof what they were doing next door. either way i feel the evil will always be in thathouse, and may god have mercy on any family who lives there.