Amityville Revisited: My Red-Roomed House
stock.xchng image from Juhaninen
Once upon a time, many more years ago than she would like to admit, this writer fell in love with her prince. As young couples are wont to do, we went in search of our very own castle—to rent, thank heavens, and not buy, because the castle we chose turned out to be a little…odd.
An older home, it had a plethora of issues, from broken sinks and multiple layers of peeling tile on the floors, to filthy windows and a desperate need of paint…right on down to (cue spooky organ music) its very own Red Room.
Yep, tucked into the far corner of what had previously been a converted basement apartment was a Red Room that could—and may—have been taken straight out of a horror movie. Windowless. Every square inch painted red: floor, ceiling, walls, closet. And with a slide bolt. On the outside of the door.
Seriously.
But we were young and naive (okay, stupid), and so we were willing to overlook the house’s issues in favour of the its charm: hardwood floors, wide baseboards, original doors with crystal knobs…it just had such potential. We signed a lease that gave us several months free rent in exchange for doing renovations, and then plunged into painting, refinishing floors, and replacing sinks. The Red Room? In truly blissful naïveté, we simply ignored it…along with the rest of the basement. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Other things, however, were a little more difficult to ignore.
In the process of painting, we discovered that the two bedrooms on the main floor, side by side, had closets which backed onto one another…and which contained a narrow opening to allow passage between them. I have to admit to serious heebie-jeebies on that one. I mean, really…who needs to go from one room to another through the closets when there are perfectly good, legitimate doors so near to one another? Creepy, I tell you. Soooo creepy.
We decided to use the second-floor as our bedroom instead, in part because I just couldn’t deal with secret passages in my bedroom (shudder) and also because it was such a lovely, large space: sloped ceilings, a walk-in closet/dressing room, hardwood floors…and a half-dozen doors, secured with slide-bolts, onto tons of attic storage space.
This, my friends, is where the story gets weird.
My husband and I both worked shifts, which meant I spent many nights alone. Because there were only two of us in the place, we had ample storage without using the attic spaces, and so we left them closed…or at least, we tried to. Because despite repeated efforts, I kept finding the doors unbolted and standing ajar. At first, I thought it was my husband opening them for some reason—perhaps even as a prank. He denied ever touching them, however, and so I began to pay more attention, thinking I’d catch him in the act. That’s when I realized that the doors were never open when he was around. In fact, if I found them open and closed them while I was home alone…? Oh, yeah. They’d be open again when I went back upstairs. O.O
I’ll admit that I started getting just a little freaked out at that point.
But I persevered. While it became more and more difficult for me to go up to our room if DH wasn’t in the house (even in broad daylight, never mind the dark), I was a rational person and not about to give into my imagination. Night after night, I valiantly climbed the stairs, closed and bolted the access doors, left a light burning in the dressing room area, checked under the bed, and somehow managed to get to sleep.
One night in the middle of winter, however, that changed. Following my usual “alone” routine, I made tea, read for a while in the living room, watched the news, and, at a little past 11:30, headed for bed. As always, the dog and cat preceded me, vying for who’d get the best spot on the bed. Then, at the top of the stairs, the cat stopped dead in his tracks, the hair along his spine standing on end, focused intently on the room beyond. Suddenly, with the circumference of his tail tripled, he turned and bolted past me. When the dog growled and wouldn’t budge another step, my brave intentions were no more.
The three of us slept on the couch that night…and every other night that DH worked a nightshift for the rest of our time in the place. I never looked into the history of the house, but I would swear on my own life that something unpleasant happened there. Whatever energy remained wasn’t the nice kind, and it didn’t like me anymore than I liked it. Ever since that experience, I’ve trusted my instincts when we’ve looked at a house. A couple of times, I haven’t made it past the front door because of the negative energy I’ve encountered. Who knows? Maybe there were Red Rooms in those, too…
How about you? Any weird vibes in a house where you’ve lived (or considered living)? And is it any wonder we’re fascinated by the supernatural??
About Linda
Linda Poitevin lives just outside Canada’s capital, Ottawa, with her husband, the youngest of three daughters, one very large husky/shepherd/Great Dane-cross dog, a cats, two rabbits, and a bearded dragon lizard. Turned down in her pursuit of a police career after a faulty height measurement, Linda vicariously lives out her dream of being a cop through her characters. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found in her garden in the summer, hugging the fireplace in the winter, or walking her dog along the river in any season.
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Uhm, either I’m being ignorant or not easily scared by strange noises, but there do not seem to be any ghosts haunting the apartment I live in … come to think of it, that’s not such a bad thing in real life, is it?
It’s not a bad thing at all, Birgit — enjoy your peace and quiet and have a Happy Halloween!
Linda – How does one simply “ignore” a Red Room?? lol… I’m glad you listened to your faithful, furry, friends!
Rachel – Looking forward to following this blog!
That sounds so FREAKY. I don’t get how you’d be able to just ignore the red room – I’d be scared out of my mind if I found something like that in my house. Plus, the secret passageway doesn’t sound good. I’d be curious about the history of hte house though: what happened there? Scary!
I seriously think this is one time I’d rather not know…besides, my imagination has more than made up for fact, lol! Happy Halloweenb, Majanka!
Yes I have had weird vibes at peoples houses and not gone to them any more, but the strangest was there was a large retailer in our mall that I just could not make myself stay in the store and could never bring myself to go into the basement in the store. I just had this awful feeling every time I went there. Well I did some research an found the mall had been build in the early 80′s and that in the mid 70′s a store that stood where the retailer now was had a break in turned torture and murder, in the basement of the store. so while the building it happened in had been torn down many years before the vibe from it was still there in the new building.
Carin mawmom at gmail dot com
Okay, now THAT is seriously creepy — and horrifying! And now I’m doubly glad I didn’t look into the history of our house. *shudder* Happy hauntings, Carin!
Great story!
Great story! Thanks for sharing!
You’re most welcome, Lola! Thanks for stopping by to read.
I haven’t actually SEEN anything in my house but I absolutely refuse to go into one of my upstairs bathrooms. I went in there once and had the most negative awful icky feeling come over me and it freaked me out so bad I haven’t gone in since. Not sure what’s going on in there but it’s certainly nothing I want to have anything to do with! ha!
Ew, ew, ew!!! That brings to mind the shower scene from Psycho…and I don’t blame you for not going back in there. In fact, I’m surprised you haven’t moved!!!
thanks for the fun post and giveaway! I love Linda’s books! She is firmly on my autobuy list
Ummm… No creepy or weird occurrences at my house! I have 3 dogs, a boyfriend and a boyfriend’s brother. So all noises are accounted for or drowned out!
Great post! You were braver than I would have been…don’t think I could have stayed there alone, especially at night!
I definitely believe there was something paranormal about the house I grew up in, relatives would talk about seeing things, I myself experienced hearing footsteps and knocking but was never frightened by it and no one was ever hurt…I guess whatever was there was benevolent.
I think it’s only natural to be fascinated by things we cannot see but sometimes that fascination turns into fear when you experience the paranormal for yourself!
Well while growing up we had a cemetery behind our house. We used to tell ghost stories at night and then play hide and seek.. oh my sometimes we got our pants scared off… lol.. thanks for the memories.
Hee! I remember doing the same thing with my siblings — not in a cemetery, though. That would have been EPIC.
Well that was a fun read this Halloween!!!
Glad you enjoyed it, Teri — and Happy Halloween!
I sure didn’t feel very brave by the time we left that place, Lori. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough, lol! And yes, there’s a very fine line between the fascination with and the fear of the unknown, isn’t there? Happy haunting!
Aww, thanks, Erin! And yeah, I can see how that many live bodies in a house would drown out the undead, lol! Happy Halloween!
I’ve never really experienced true haunted house’s, but growing up there was one house that was haunted in my area. Families would move in and leave within a few months. Driving by the house was spooky and you could feel the energy coming from inside. After so many years of no one being able to inhabit the house, it was boarded up and left for abandonment. Years later you could still drive by and feel that same energy. Until one day it was torn down, but not without giving it’s last nod to everyone, numerous accidents and deaths were associated with the workers that tore down the house–spooky!
Oh, wow…that’s the kind of thing you read about in horror novels, not the kind of thing you have in your neighborhood! Very spooky indeed!! O.O
When I was a kid we lived in a 1920s house in Kentucky. It had a really freaky basement with a bomb shelter. I never went down there by myself. There were always weird noises going on. Scared the crap out of me!
Kendal
OMG, I *hated* basements when I was a kid!!! I still have an issue with the creepy older ones, lol!
Is it weird that I WANT to live in that house? It sounds so wild. I could totally scare my teenaged nieces, LOL. I am one of those people that tend to find a logical reason for any strange noises.
Oh, I don’t think I have ever been in a house that made me feel “weird” or gave me chills or anything.
Oh, I tried to find a logical reason, June…believe me, I tried. But those doors unbolting themselves and opening? Not at all logical! *shudder* I don’t know if the house is there still or not, but if it is, it’s all yours!!
If you remember the address why don’t you do the research into the house history now.. ya know now that you dont like there being all stalkerized by the heebie Jebbies…
Apparently my parents had a nice ghost in the house we lived in when I was two… she would rock me when I was crying, my parents would hear me cry, get up to get me, and then hear the rocking chair start squeaking and I would stop crying… *shrugs* I tend to prefer to believe they are just pulling my leg because I get so creeped out by supernatural stuff, haha! Thanks for the post and giveaway!
It’s no wonder at all. My intuition/gut has never let me down yet. Although sometimes I wished it had. When you feel something is not right it’s more than likely it isn’t. Add in the animals responses to that situation and I would have no doubt confirmed mine own suspicions. Animals are more so in-tuned to the world (the good and the bad) than we are mostly. Very creepy story. I’ve always had a weird vibe about my house and searched it’s background, but came up with nothing as of yet. I still think there is something here. This house is very old. If I had not purchased this house (that I loathe by the way) I would have moved years ago. I’m still anxious for that day to finally come.
DeAnna Schultz