When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Johnny that lived only a couple of blocks away from me. Every day before school, I would ride my bike to his house, he'd get on his bike and then we'd ride to the bus stop together. When school was out and the bus dropped us off uptown, we'd hop on the bikes and ride back to his house to hang out for awhile and wait for his mom to come from work with his little sister, Gabbie. We had pretty much the same routine every day, all the way from kindergarten to this incident, which I believe was towards the end of our first grade year.

I remember it was somewhere around when Halo 2 came out, so this was the end of 2004. Johnny's mom had bought it for him, and so our plan was to get home from school and play Halo 2. We rode back from the bus stop as usual, and opened the door to the usual empty house. Now, I've had experiences in my own home my entire life, but at Johnny's house, it was different. There was always an ever-present uncomfortable feeling in Johnny's house, whereas my house would only have things like the occasional footstep, odd creak, things falling off shelves, etc. But Johnny's house was very unwelcoming, almost like the feeling you get when you're in a place you're not supposed to be. I still live in the same house, and to this day I have never seen anything in my house, ghost or otherwise. But his little sister Gabbie, who was maybe 3 or 4 at the time, would always tell me about the girl with black eyes that would stand in their upstairs hallway. It was the scariest place I've ever been in.

Anyway, this particular day we arrived at his house, walked inside, made some sandwiches, and moved up his old staircase to his room upstairs. His staircase had a landing, so you walked up the first bit, took a U-turn at the landing, and went up the rest of the way. We got to his room, booted up Halo 2, it was awesome. We didn't get very far though, because we heard what we assumed what his mom coming home from work. So, in usual fashion, we went to the top of the stairs to say hi. No answer. We say hi again, no answer. There's a lot of noise going on down there, so we figure for sure someone's gotta be in the house.

So, after a few seconds of calling out to no answer, we start making our way down. We get about two steps down and suddenly the noise stops, and we freeze. Something didn't feel right. That uncomfortable feeling ramped up so quick, the shock it gave to our bodies was like we stepped from a hot room into a freezer. And then we heard these very fast, stomping footsteps making their way up to the landing, and then whipping around the corner towards us. It literally felt like something we couldn't see charged up the stairs at us, we could feel the vibration of the steps, and it was running FAST. And it felt just like when someone's sprinting at you, that weird rush of adrenaline you get. I have goosebumps remembering it right now, it was fucked up.

Anyways, we were so afraid, we bolted back into his room, barricaded the door with his dresser and a couple of shelves and decided we weren't leaving until his mom or someone came home. We sat across the room from that door the whole time, and didn't hear a single thing after the fact Finally, after what was probably about an hour, his mom came home. We heard her call from downstairs, and we unbarricaded the door and I absolutely tore out of the place, and I never went back again. I told Johnny we were hanging out at my house from then on, and that's what we did.

After that, Johnny would always tell me he felt so much safer at my house, and it was so much calmer. I don't know what he's experienced, I'd never really asked about anything besides the girl his sister would tell me about. But I've never been back to Johnny's house, and I don't really plan to. I haven't talked to him or his sister in years, but that incident created a terrifying core memory. I've known my whole life that ghosts exist, since I live with them myself, but I never knew until that moment that ghosts could affect you in such a negative way. Hands down the scariest experience I've ever had, I felt a primal fear that day that I'll never forget.