This is Part 2 of 2; to read Part 1, go here.
Actor William Shatner offered up his definition of the supernatural. “I think the supernatural is a catch-all for everything we don’t understand about the vast other parts of life that we cannot perceive.” Many of us have experienced events in our lives that may seem irrational and unbelievable. We usually just shrug off these moments without giving it a second thought. But what if you experienced something that you couldn’t ignore? What if the experience lasted for nearly a year? These are interesting questions that don’t necessarily have reasonable answers. 
In 1997, my wife, sons and I left Indiana and moved to another state. Unknown to us, we had moved into a townhouse with an uninvited houseguest. Although we couldn’t see this invisible squatter, we could feel and hear its presence. The strange entity moved things in our home and walked throughout the house.
The unmistaken sounds of creaking floorboards assured us we weren’t alone. After we moved into this house, my outlook on life changed. At first, I felt motivated and looked forward to a new adventure. After several weeks, I felt a change that would affect my mental stability. For unknown reasons, I began harboring feelings of uneasiness, hopelessness and anger.
It’s difficult to explain the dark and depressing feelings I experienced while living in that house. I would compare the feelings to the famous cartoon man walking in the rain while underneath a dark storm cloud. Although his surroundings were bright and sunny, he was soaked by the rain.
In supernatural movies, entities often physically attack its victims and attempt to terrify them. However, entities can torment you without even touching you. They can attack your psyche by depriving you of sleep, make you question your decisions, cloud your emotions, and alter your thinking. They can bring you to a point where you lose your own identity. In my situation, the entity that shared our house eventually pushed me to my mental breaking point.
One night after we went to bed, I woke up for no reason. It felt like something intentionally aroused me from my sleep. Strangely, the entire house became eerily silent. I then heard the shuffling sounds of a child walking in the hallway outside my bedroom. I thought it was my son Tee walking to the bathroom. After calling out to him, I didn’t receive a response.
The footsteps got louder as the entity approached my bedroom. Next, I heard wind chimes inside my bedroom. I had two problems with this. One, I didn’t have any wind chimes inside my bedroom. Two, the loud noises didn’t wake anyone else up. It was impossible for anyone to have slept through the loud footsteps, creaking floorboards and dangling wind chimes.
After the entity entered my bedroom, it stopped at the foot of my bed. It wanted me to feel its presence. I tried to call out to my wife but couldn’t. The entity had frozen my vocal cords and paralyzed me. I couldn’t speak or move.
After what seemed like an eternity, the entity just released me and left. I could move again. Everyone else in the house remained asleep. I couldn’t believe no one heard anything. Afterward, I went downstairs and just stared at the walls trying to figure out what I had just experienced.
Hours later, I asked my wife and older son if they had heard anything. Neither had. It seemed impossible that no one else had heard that horrific symphony of evil sounds. I didn’t tell my wife about what happened that night until after we moved. After doing some serious soul searching, I decided to take my family and leave the state. Otherwise, I would have either had a nervous breakdown or harmed myself or someone else. I quit my job, cleaned out my savings and told my wife we had to move. She didn’t object.
We only had enough funds to pay the first month’s rent and deposit because neither of us had a job or even knew how we would pay the next month’s rent. Oddly, I didn’t even care. After we moved, I told my wife about my final encounter with the entity and explained that I couldn’t handle it anymore. Over two decades have passed since we left that townhouse during the winter of 1998. Although we moved during a cold winter night, I was ecstatic about having my life back. Somehow, I knew we would be fine.
Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and an avid reader. Contact him through his website at www.themarcabe.com or through Facebook: www.Facebook.com/themarcabe or his Twitter account @themarcabe. Marc also has a podcast called Catch my Killer where he interviews family members seeking justice for their murdered loved ones. You can listen at www.catchmykiller.com.