Nothing starts a good conversation with your best friend better than, "Do you remember when?" When it comes to Johnny, my best friend since high school, a few of those sentences have ended with the paranormal. The strange. The unknown. In the sixteen years that we have known each other, a ghost of an old man has tried more than once to join our parties, but he just didn't click. Then again, he may have just wanted us whippersnappers out of his house.
Johnny used to live in a two story house on in Shinnston, WV with his family. From the time I started hanging out with him, he always told me about an old man who died in the house. It didn't freak me out -- seeing as how I have an interest in the paranormal. Over time, things started happening that could not be explained. The only explanation was that they are the works of a ghost. One example would be the white orbs that are in the pictures taken in the house. I have seen them myself and there are several of them.
One night, Johnny and his sister were throwing a party. I brought a comforter with me to sleep with because I was tired of freezing my hind end off and put the comforter upstairs. After a night of drinking and loud music that surprisingly didn't get the police called, I went up to get the comforter. I opened the door to see two of my acquaintances with said comforter intertwined in their legs. I didn't dare try to get it back. I didn't know what would happen. One of them was a man I once watched come thundering down the staircase of this same house, demanding anyone that knew the answer to two plus two go home. It wasn't even his house, and I was afraid because I knew the answer.
Later on when I was trying to sleep, I heard moaning coming from the second story of the house. This didn't sound like anyone in pain. This sounded like someone in ecstasy. To make matters worse, it was my mother's blanket.
The next day I told Johnny about it, and he said he'd ask Josie about it. Sometime later, he told me he'd asked her if they had a good time on my mother's comforter, and she said no. I didn't believe her. He tried to tell me it was the ghost. Those moans sounded too much like someone getting pleasure to be some old man haunting the place. Some months later, I was proven wrong. Johnny and I were the only people in the house when I heard the moaning again.
On another night, we were all hanging out on the porch while Johnny and his girlfriend were upstairs. We were all sitting and talking when we heard what sounded like a bed bouncing on the second floor. This went on for several minutes while we're all talking about Johnny and his lady having some fun on their own up in his room. When they came out onto the porch, we started with the obligatory cheers. Much to our surprise, they said nothing happened and they only talked. Once again, I would have said "Lies!" but the sheer look of confusion on their faces screamed that they didn't know what we were talking about. He said it was the ghost. Still to this day, Johnny denies anything happened between the two of them.
The last instance that I experienced there happened one night when he and I were the only ones home. I was in his room alone when the doorknob rapidly started turning back and forth for about two seconds. He swore up and down that it wasn't him. After all of these years, he still denies it.
At the end of the day, I've come to the conclusion that my best friend's house was haunted by an old man who would moan and leave white stuff all over your pictures. This was my home away from home for many years, but I'd never change a thing about it.
