Paranormal Activity: scared shnitzless.

Paranormal activity just killed my life. I am so scared right now. I can't even describe how I feel. Every muscle in my body is tensed. My heart is about to explode. And I can't get this movie out of my head! I keep picturing that bedroom scene. Night after night. I'm so terrified I don't think I can sleep. I'm keeping a demonologist on speed dial. Just in case. If you want to get scared shnitzless, this movie guarantees a paranormal experience. Im so rattled. Maybe what adds to it all, is that I've had the odd luck experiencing such paranormal experiences in my past. So has my mother. I pray its not following me. Makes my skin crawl everytime I think about it. Parallel universes unfolding.

I used to live in a sorority house. It was reported to be haunted. And although I'm not ultimately convinced the spirit was a demon, it was surely intent on voicing itself. Late at night, while all the girls were asleep, you could hear the sound of a woman, humming. This chilling tune was heardwould later be traced back to the dining room. Empty. No one is ever in the dining room. The walls plastered with old composite photos dating back to the early 1900's. One portrait in particular, would leave my spine chilling to this day. I can still picture her face, the sinister look in her eyes; unlike anything I've ever seen. There was something about it that seemed alive. It was more than a photograph. It didnt look like the others. Almost as if it had a 3rd dimension that exceeded that the 2-dimensional plane upon which it resided. Everytime we stepped into that room, you got the feeling she was watching you. I can no longer remember her name. Maybe its for the best. She need not be summoned.
Strange sounds had also reportedly been heard coming from the closet of a bedroom located in the attic. The attic was commonly referred to as the 'Pledge Dorm', starting point of many sorority initiation rituals. I lived there with 2 other girls. During the day it, was the perfect sancutary for playing old school nintendo, beer drinking, chain smoking, and nintendo. Lots of nintendo. Many nights the pledge dorm fell privy to a host after-parties, drugs, random hookups and gossip sessions. The quiets nights, which were rare, were always the most interesting. Handles would turn, doors would slam shut, sounds were heard. There were of course raccoons and squirrels, rats and mice that lived in the house, in the walls, and the ceiling. But often there were familiar sounds. Eerie sounds and shadows that would wake you in the middle of the night and keep you hiding under covers. Accompanied by the shadows and sounds was a feeling. That same feeling you got when entering the dining room. Like someone was there...watching.

It was one day nearing the end of intercession during my 3rd year in university. I was in the house alone. All the girls had gone home for the summer. I had been studying in the attic all afternoon and got up to get myself a snack. I passed into the living room and saw the dreaded composite, staring at me. I got spooked, so I took it off the wall, and placed it on the table, face down. Headed back up to the attic, stopped to use the bathroom on the way. The bathroom was at the top of the stairs, the same stairs that pointed towards the allegedly haunted closet. It always freaks me out to walk up those stairs and look towards the closet. Sometimes it was open, sometimes it was closed. All the while it had been a month since anyone had resided in that room.
Seeing as no one was in the house, I didnt bother to close the bathroom door. I took a seat on the toilet. The door immediately slams shut in front of me. There were no windows open. Not a single one. I got up to open the door. The handle was jammed. I keep trying. The handle started to rotate counter clockwise. The door wouldnt open. Claustrophobic on the verge on a panic attack, I had to get out. I opened the tiny window, punched out the screen and tried to slip out onto the roof. The house was old, the roof- rotting; it wasn't sturdy enough to support my weight. I started screaming. The lights began to flicker. No one was around. My cellphone was in the other room. I was trapped in a nightmare.

About an hour later, I heard a truck pull up the the back of the house. One of my gf's had driven up with her father for the afternoon to move out some remaining furniture. Screaming SOS, they ran up to the attic in attempts to open the door from the outside. No such luck. JAMMED SHUT. Thank god for handy dad's with screw drivers. They had to unhinge and take down the entire door to get me out.
I refrained from sleeping in the house for the remainder of that week. And then I moved out.
I wondered whether the woman from the composite was the same spirit living in the closet, and whether she wandered the house at night. Was it the same spirit heard singing sweet lullabies from the dining room, locking girls in bathrooms who dared to remove her photo from the wall. Maybe she wasn't evil. Maybe she was there to watch over the house. I wonder what her story was, and what she may have been trying to tell me. And then I remind myself that I'd probably rather not know. Sometimes its better not to pry, to instigate or to irritate. Paranormal Activity is a perfect example.