Paranormal Stories

Back in 1973, my first husband and I lived in a very old building in Merriam, Ks. The upper level was converted into apartments twenty years earlier, divided by a creaky hardwood floor with businesses operating on the ground level. I was pregnant with my second child when I noticed on several occasions very late at night, I heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs across the thick plastic, down the hall on the bare floor and stopping right in front of our door leaving me trembling with fear. This was a studio apartment and our bed was situated beside the front door, the headboard against the wall.

My husband said it was more than likely the neighbor across the hall, an over-the-road truck driver, just coming in late from a long haul.

As his door was a good ten feet before ours, and across the hall, this didn't make any sense to me so I related the story to our landlady. She said the same thing had happened to her while she was pregnant not long before we moved in. She had contacted the old managers of the apartments and they said a man and his wife had lived there when his wife had become pregnant. He was drafted to Viet Nam and died in active duty before she gave birth, suggesting this was possibly his spirit. His wife moved shortly after she received the news.

So my husband and I agreed that the next time I heard the footsteps to wake him. Sure enough, around 3:00 in the morning I heard the footsteps coming up the stairs and proceeding slowly down the hall towards our door. I shook him awake and could tell by the look on his face that the footsteps were evident to him also as he grabbed the baseball bat from the floor telling me to stay back.

When the footsteps reached our door, he yanked it open. Nobody was there.

This continued on a regular basis, at least three times a week until I gave birth to our son. The footsteps never returned to our door after I came home with our newest addition from the hospital.

• Shadow People by R. Ryan of MN