I live in a haunted house
Picture it, the late 1970s. A redneck town is experiencing population growth and the need to build new houses. There is lots of farmland to convert to houses near the newish, experimental high school, Beyer. The houses are built and the street on the East side of the school has the 5 houses which will serve as the model homes for the subdivision.
I live in one of those model homes. The way it works, too (or worked?) is that if you know the developers, you can have certain features custom to your house (even though it is the model). So my house has some neat features that others didn't. Also, being that this is sunny California and it was the 1970s, we also have a swimming pool. So the people who owned this house prior to my family purchasing it in the early 1990s were the original owners. As one might expect, the couple did have children that would go to Beyer.
Fast forward to the mid-1980s when the couple's children are in fact attending Beyer. I don't know how much this varies regionally, but in those days we had an "open campus" system, i.e. you could go home for lunch or the local burger joint (even though there really wern't any of the latter yet). Now, back to the experimental school aspect: Beyer high had what they called modular scheduling (I recently met someone who went to Beyer as they were phasing it out). The modular scheduling basically meant you went to school each day and got to decide your courses and the periods you would take them. Needless to say, with the open campus policy and teens being teens, it didn't work out to have that many morning classes and that many ditching the afternoon. So, modular scheduling went away...but from my perspective the real problem, the open campus system, stayed.
All of Modesto City Schools were open campus until the early 1990s I believe. The family that lived here and others attest that the open campus was widely taken advantage of. In fact, it was so widely taken advantage of that this is the perfect transition to why the house is haunted.
The teens that lived here were a boy and a girl. By the time we had purchased the home in the 1990s the daughter had moved out and I believe was married. The boy, who had presumably graduated c.1986 (the year I was born) was unaccounted for, yet his bedroom looked very nice and neat, clearly kept clean by a housewife rather than of his own volition. There was some mention of him being dead, I believe, but no reason to push the issue and ask because it makes for strange conversation when buying a home, these anomalies were passed over.
The rest of this story is secondhand from our next door neighbour who was the original owner of that house and happened to be home one day in the mid 1980s. When the son was in high school, he took great advantage of the open campus. He was also into guns. Now, I've never understood the appeal of Russian Roulette, but apparently for some there is a value to it. The teen boy that lived hear apparently thought the game was worthwhile...which is why he came home one day to play it. Unfortunately, as happens with all games, he lost. Being the high stakes game that it is, and the way it worked out, the neighbour who was home called the police and, well...he never made it back to school.
So, this happened in 1985 and we purchased the house in 1993. The way things had played out, it sounded as if it had been months ago. The room, as mentioned, was immaculate. If not for mention of him being dead, one would think he was off to college or just not home.
My sister chose that room and while she lived here (1993-2004) and, needless to say, there were strange occurrences. One night she woke up with strangulation marks around her neck. This also happened to a friend once. The lights and the random on off they would do, which of course could be explained by poor wiring or some other electrical issue...but the wiring was never off. I don't rightly recall any noises, but I know there were other, minor issues. The microwave did start and stop a couple of times, randomly. And, of course, issues of things moving that shouldn't be moving. I imagine I'd be a haunted soul and pissed ghost if I had blown my brains out one day at lunch while a high school student.
In 2009, I switched over to that room. I have not had any odd incidents since then. Since moving in to the house in 1993, there was, unfortunately, another death within the walls of this home. ON 15 April 2002, I was there, witness to the only death I've actually seen. My grandmother passed away. I still remember her dying words, "I love you, all of you." Because I have that weird neurosis, I looked at the clock --7:25 on a Monday morning. It was the kind of moment that remains etched in detail and pain; more than one person has noted that it was the kind of thing that changed me, permanently.
So, I'm not really sure what happened. Did my grandmother, a protective and loving spirit, take over the house? Or do the ghosts co-exist? Is there even a ghost? I don't know. I just know that the house was built in 1977 and within its first 25 years, 2 people lost their lives --one at his own hands, the other due to failing health and complications from diabetes.
I live in one of those model homes. The way it works, too (or worked?) is that if you know the developers, you can have certain features custom to your house (even though it is the model). So my house has some neat features that others didn't. Also, being that this is sunny California and it was the 1970s, we also have a swimming pool. So the people who owned this house prior to my family purchasing it in the early 1990s were the original owners. As one might expect, the couple did have children that would go to Beyer.
Fast forward to the mid-1980s when the couple's children are in fact attending Beyer. I don't know how much this varies regionally, but in those days we had an "open campus" system, i.e. you could go home for lunch or the local burger joint (even though there really wern't any of the latter yet). Now, back to the experimental school aspect: Beyer high had what they called modular scheduling (I recently met someone who went to Beyer as they were phasing it out). The modular scheduling basically meant you went to school each day and got to decide your courses and the periods you would take them. Needless to say, with the open campus policy and teens being teens, it didn't work out to have that many morning classes and that many ditching the afternoon. So, modular scheduling went away...but from my perspective the real problem, the open campus system, stayed.
All of Modesto City Schools were open campus until the early 1990s I believe. The family that lived here and others attest that the open campus was widely taken advantage of. In fact, it was so widely taken advantage of that this is the perfect transition to why the house is haunted.
The teens that lived here were a boy and a girl. By the time we had purchased the home in the 1990s the daughter had moved out and I believe was married. The boy, who had presumably graduated c.1986 (the year I was born) was unaccounted for, yet his bedroom looked very nice and neat, clearly kept clean by a housewife rather than of his own volition. There was some mention of him being dead, I believe, but no reason to push the issue and ask because it makes for strange conversation when buying a home, these anomalies were passed over.
The rest of this story is secondhand from our next door neighbour who was the original owner of that house and happened to be home one day in the mid 1980s. When the son was in high school, he took great advantage of the open campus. He was also into guns. Now, I've never understood the appeal of Russian Roulette, but apparently for some there is a value to it. The teen boy that lived hear apparently thought the game was worthwhile...which is why he came home one day to play it. Unfortunately, as happens with all games, he lost. Being the high stakes game that it is, and the way it worked out, the neighbour who was home called the police and, well...he never made it back to school.
So, this happened in 1985 and we purchased the house in 1993. The way things had played out, it sounded as if it had been months ago. The room, as mentioned, was immaculate. If not for mention of him being dead, one would think he was off to college or just not home.
My sister chose that room and while she lived here (1993-2004) and, needless to say, there were strange occurrences. One night she woke up with strangulation marks around her neck. This also happened to a friend once. The lights and the random on off they would do, which of course could be explained by poor wiring or some other electrical issue...but the wiring was never off. I don't rightly recall any noises, but I know there were other, minor issues. The microwave did start and stop a couple of times, randomly. And, of course, issues of things moving that shouldn't be moving. I imagine I'd be a haunted soul and pissed ghost if I had blown my brains out one day at lunch while a high school student.
In 2009, I switched over to that room. I have not had any odd incidents since then. Since moving in to the house in 1993, there was, unfortunately, another death within the walls of this home. ON 15 April 2002, I was there, witness to the only death I've actually seen. My grandmother passed away. I still remember her dying words, "I love you, all of you." Because I have that weird neurosis, I looked at the clock --7:25 on a Monday morning. It was the kind of moment that remains etched in detail and pain; more than one person has noted that it was the kind of thing that changed me, permanently.
So, I'm not really sure what happened. Did my grandmother, a protective and loving spirit, take over the house? Or do the ghosts co-exist? Is there even a ghost? I don't know. I just know that the house was built in 1977 and within its first 25 years, 2 people lost their lives --one at his own hands, the other due to failing health and complications from diabetes.