Hauntings and Spirit Portals

I've only had one experience that made me uncomfortable.

I lived in South Carolina for a short time. I was in an apartment, then my father got a job opportunity near me, so my parents moved there. I moved into the bottom level of their three level house.  That was a beautiful home. I would have bought it if I had the opportunity. I had a living room, bathroom, bedroom and an extra room, as well as a screened in patio. Supposedly the former owner's father died upstairs from cancer.  The first few weeks the house was very quite.

I don't remember exactly when it started. I started feeling something in my room at night. It didn't scare me, just made me very aware of it. One night I head a giggle right in my ear. Of course I sat up and turned the lights, nothing was there. After that, it got more intense. It was clearly a little girl. She started waking me up in the middle of the night. I felt her right in my face. One night she actually asked me to play with her. The feel was so intense, it became unnerving.

I started sleeping with my TV on for the noise. That didn't really help, so I started sleeping with the lights on too. I was not scared. Not really. It was just too much. She was always there, about two inches from my face. Finally I had enough of getting very little sleep. I asked her to leave. Told her she would be much happier if she passed over. She could find her family, and they would play with her. She actually went away after that. However the weirdness didn't stop.

One night I was laying there and I woke up to the sound of a party. It sounded like there were a group of people upstairs in the kitchen, laughing and talking. I actually heard ice clinking around in glasses. I just layed there for a few minutes thinking  my dad was hanging out with some friends. Until I remembered that he was out of town. I peeked up stairs, the noise went away and the kitchen was empty. The next night I heard the same thing, as well as hearing someone walking up and down the stairs. My dad was still out of town so I went upstairs to my mom's room and asked if I could sleep with her. She said sure, but didn't even ask me why. After I got all settled in, I felt someone sit on the bed. I looked over my mother was still laying there. It felt like someone sat on the corner of the bed. They were heavy enough that I slip down the bed a little bit. Very Very strange.

The next morning my mother asked why I came up to sleep with her. She said, "did you hear the party in the kitchen." We were both stunned. We had the same experience, even someone sitting on the bed. My mom experienced that right before I came upstairs. We didn't live there much longer after that. Not because of the activity, it just worked out that way. It never happened when my dad was home. Hm... I wonder why?

I suppose that this house was, what my grandmother called, as spirit portal. A place that spirits continue the journey to the other side. She believed her farm house was a spirit portal. When the neighbors dog died she swore she heard that dog barking all through the house for two days. All of us grandchildren saw odd things from time to time. My brother was touched as an adult when we went to visit. My cousin saw children sitting on the steps to the apartment upstairs. I always felt a man in the basement. My grandmother of course always had better stories than any of us witnessed.