Shadows and Spirits: A Halloween Haunting
Welcome to Real Creepy Estate, where we delve into the unexplained, the mysterious, and the downright eerie. I'm your host, Jarrett Lease, a real estate agent who's been inside thousands of houses over the years. In my time on the job, I've encountered more than just impressive layouts and stylish decor. I've had my fair share of strange experiences and have listened to countless stories from homeowners about their own. I was once a bit skeptical myself, but after hearing so many accounts from the most unsuspecting sources, I couldn't deny it any longer.
Jarrett:There's something more to this world than meets the eye. Join me as we explore the paranormal one house at a time. Hey, everyone, and welcome back to Real Creepy Estate. With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I'd share a story that happened to a friend and me a few years ago while I was living in Portland, Oregon. Looking back, I realized that it all unfolded right around Halloween.
Jarrett:Some of it just before Halloween, some of it just after, which honestly makes it feel even creepier. They say that around this time of the year, the veil between worlds is at its thinnest, which makes encounters with the unknown more likely. I've never really noticed this to be true. Although, I also have never really thought about what time of the year creepy things have happened to me. But this story, I remember that it was right around Halloween because my friend and I had attended a Halloween party while she was in town visiting me.
Jarrett:My friend was staying with me in Portland for about a week. And one day, we decided to take a little trip up to Seattle. It got late, and we were driving back to Portland along I 5. If you've ever driven that stretch of highway at night, you know what I mean when I say it just has a vibe. It's dark, quiet, and a little unsettling.
Jarrett:At least, it's always felt that way to me. One time, my sister and I were driving that same route and saw something fall out of the sky. A bright flash, like a meteor maybe. That's what I tell myself at least. It's just weird stuff like that happens along that stretch of the highway.
Jarrett:It always feels a little off. Anyway, this particular night, my friend and I are driving. It's very late and very dark when suddenly we both see it. A dark shadow of a man runs straight across the highway in front of my car. I hit the brakes.
Jarrett:My heart's pounding because I thought a real person had just run-in front of my car while I was going full speed on the highway. My friend turns to me and says, did you see that? And I'm like, yes. Where did he go? But there's no one there.
Jarrett:Nowhere. We looked all around. Multiple lanes, wide open shoulders along the highway, and that shadowy figure was just gone. At first, I thought maybe it was a real person. There are sometimes people along that road, and seeing someone out there in the middle of the night wouldn't have been totally outside the realm of possibility.
Jarrett:In fact, about a mile further up, we actually did see someone dancing along the highway. That's what I mean. Seeing someone isn't that unusual out there. But in this case, the man we saw had disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. For a moment, we were both just out of sorts.
Jarrett:I think both of us were trying to make sense of what we'd seen. Was it a trick of the light, a shadow from another car, or something else entirely? Later, I started reading about what people call shadow figures or shadow people. These dark, human shaped forms that seem to move just out of sight. Some believe they're spirits trapped between worlds.
Jarrett:Others think they're echoes, like imprints left behind by strong energy or trauma. And, of course, there's a skeptic side that says it's all just our minds filling in the blanks when our eyes can't make sense of the dark. But here's the thing. If you've ever seen one, you know how real it feels in that moment. That sudden rush of fear, like every nerve in your body, recognizes something your brain can't explain.
Jarrett:We drove in silence for a minute or two after that, both of us a little shaken and still trying to process what we'd just seen. Then my friend finally breaks the silence. Her voice a little tense. She says, Jarrett, I have something to tell you. I look over at her, heart still racing from the highway encounter, and ask, what is it?
Jarrett:She hesitates for a moment, clearly freaked out, and then tells me about something that had happened in my guest room just a few nights before, something she hadn't mentioned until that very moment. She says, the other night when I was sleeping in your guest room, I woke up in the middle of the night, and there was an old woman sitting in the chair at your desk. I said, wait. What? And she goes, yeah.
Jarrett:She was just sitting there completely still. And this sounds really weird, but somehow I could tell she was wearing a wig. A wig, I thought. Such a strangely specific detail. So I ask her, what did you do?
Jarrett:And she says, I just closed my eyes and went back to sleep. I'm like, girl, what? You should have come into my room. But that's just how she is, calm and unbothered, even in the middle of something terrifying. She said she figured if she ignored it, maybe it would just go away.
Jarrett:So she turned her back to it and kept her eyes shut until morning. Now I'd never really thought that the house was haunted, but a few odd things had happened there. Things I couldn't totally explain. Once I woke up in the middle of the night with a sudden chill, like the air itself had shifted, I decided I'd go to the bathroom while I was up. So I called my German shepherd, Millie, to walk with me because I felt uneasy.
Jarrett:When I turned off the light in the bathroom afterward, I literally ran back to bed and jumped in so fast. For no other reason than I just felt creeped out. Then another time, I was working in that same guest room where my friend saw the ghost. It doubled as my office and had a desk and a chair in there. When my laptop suddenly shut off and came back on.
Jarrett:Then the lamp flickered, then the overhead light, then my desktop computer. I figured it was a power surge. Old house. Right? But when I walked into the kitchen, all the clocks were fine.
Jarrett:No blinking lights. No reset time. Everything looks completely normal. That made me stop and wonder what had happened because it probably wasn't electrical in just that one room. Although, I wasn't too alarmed because it was possible it could still have been something wrong with the electricity, so I just wasn't really panicked.
Jarrett:So I guess I did have a few creepy moments in that house, but I never really thought anything truly paranormal was there. Certainly, nothing to the degree that my friend would later experience. So when she told me what she had seen, I was horrified to say the least. And what made it even worse is that she had kept sleeping in that room for days afterward without saying a word. She was too nice and didn't want me to be scared in my own house, which I really appreciate, but I do not think I would do the same thing in that position.
Jarrett:I'm pretty sure. Actually, I'm not pretty sure. I know I would not do the same thing in that position because I've been in that situation with another friend. And the moment my friend woke up, I told her. So I think I might be a worst friend in this situation.
Jarrett:But at that time, my friend had just tried to protect me and didn't want me to be scared of my own house. But after our joint experience with the man on the highway, I think it was just too many creepy experiences in just a couple days' time. So finally, she told me about what had happened. So eventually, my friend leaves Portland, and life goes back to normal. Several weeks pass, and sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my landlords, who were a husband and wife, come by to fix the washer or dryer.
Jarrett:I can't remember. They were super nice, and we ended up chatting in the basement where the washer and dryer were for a while. At some point, I brought it up. I said, I really love the house, but have you ever had any paranormal things happen here? Because my friend saw something in the office.
Jarrett:My landlord hesitated for a second, and his wife quickly added, no. No. We haven't. It wasn't like they were hiding anything, but I got the sense that there was something I wasn't being told, especially since the husband had lived there before I rented it. I couldn't help but wonder if maybe he'd had an experience himself and just didn't wanna say.
Jarrett:A few months later, my landlords mentioned they were hoping to move back into the house. I said, no problem. I'll start looking for another place. Luckily, a friend of mine had a small house I could rent, so I reached out to him right away and planned to move in within a couple months. Then, just about a week or so after my landlords told me that they would be moving in, they texted me again and said, actually, we're not gonna move in.
Jarrett:Can you stay in the house? I was like, wait, what? But anyway, it didn't really matter. I told him that that was fine, but that I wouldn't be staying because I'd already rented another place for my friend. So a few days later, my landlord comes to the house to do yard work, and I go outside to talk to him.
Jarrett:And I say, hey, what happened? Why aren't you guys moving in? And he said, I don't necessarily want my kids sleeping in that room if your friend saw a ghost in there. Because I had mentioned to him that she had seen a ghost in the guest room. I laughed nervously, thinking maybe he was joking, but he didn't seem to be joking.
Jarrett:That's when it hit me. Maybe he had experienced something in the house himself, something that explained those uneasy feelings I had and the strange things that happened there with my friend. I was just really surprised that he would take my word for it that something had happened in the house. I really feel like maybe he experienced something in the house himself, and my friend seeing a ghost reminded him of that. Because I like the guy, and I think, you know, him and his wife liked me too as a tenant.
Jarrett:But, I mean, I'm just some random girl renting the house from them. So I thought it was interesting that he would take my word and not move into the house after learning that, or at least that's the reason he gave me for not wanting to move in. And then shortly after that, I learned that a few people had died in the house in more recent years. Also, in chatting with the neighbors, some of them implied that the house had a seedy history, to say the least. After learning this, my friend's experience seemed to make a lot more sense.
Jarrett:So, yeah, between the shadow man on the highway and the ghost in my guest room, it's kind of a miracle that my friend still wants to go on trips with me. And the fact that it all happened right around Halloween makes me wonder. Maybe the veil between worlds really is thinner at this time of year. What do you think? Have you ever experienced something strange around Halloween?
Jarrett:Something you just couldn't explain? If you have a story, I'd love to hear it. Haunted houses, eerie neighbors, unexplained noises, whatever it is, if it made your skin crawl, I want to hear about it. Your story might even be perfect for the next episode. Send your stories to hello@realcreepyestate.com.
Jarrett:Until next time, stay safe, stay spooky, and keep an eye out for shadows lurking around. That concludes this episode of Real Creepy Estate. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next time.
