Hi, so this story takes place around the time of the housing crisis back in 2008 or so, I was in high school at the time. A buddy, I'll call Eric, and myself would do some urban exploring by sneaking into empty (abandoned/foreclosed) homes. Of course we’d do these explorations in the dead of night to avoid any trouble with the law. I can't give away the location because people now live there. And I have no scientific rational explanation for what happened, but I know what I saw and heard so I'd like to share it with you all.

So we set out around 12am just like we would any night, about an hour or so in we find a house that I often saw on my walks to school. As we walk up to the house we scan for anyone then we make our way down the large driveway that leads into the backyard of the house. The first thing I noticed is how tall the grass was, like it hadn’t been mowed in quite some time, months I’d say. Then I notice a smaller house further near the back of the property. We told ourselves we’d check that house out once we’ve explored the bigger one.

We enter the bigger house from the door that leads into the garage, and from the garage we stepped into the kitchen, believe it or not the doors were unlocked. When we enter the kitchen, we see the house was almost pitch black we can only see a few feet ahead thanks to the streetlights, so I use my only light source at the time, a cheap flip phone with the screen brightness on max. We start our exploration down the hallway and check out each room (5 in total counting the 2 living rooms). Eric is close behind me as we make our way through each room and eventually back to the kitchen. Once in the kitchen we chat about how nice the house is and its size given the area it’s in, much bigger than the surrounding houses.

As we’re talking I notice a metal decoration hanging above the kitchen doorway, it almost looked like some sort of decorative shield. I pull it from its spot and inspect it closely. Once done I can’t figure out how to put it back so I set it between my feet on the tile floor. I take a look at my friend and take a step into the kitchen, then we both hear what sounds like something sliding along the floor and then a bang at the end of the hall. Eric and I both freeze and stare at one another through the streetlight shining through the kitchen window. Eric whispers to me “Is there someone here with us? Did someone follow us in?” I honestly didn’t know, but after a minute or two we decide to walk down the hall and see what the noise was. As my phone light creeps the end of the wall we see the shield I had just pulled down.

We were both relieved, and I thought ‘Well maybe I kicked it when I stepped and didn’t notice’. I picked it up and this time I figure out how it needs to be attached to its original position. Once again I look at Eric and take a step towards him and hear a few clangs on the floor and that familiar sliding sound across the floor and the bang against the wall. Now we’re really scared and frozen, not moving for what seemed like forever. Then an even louder bang is heard at the other end of the house and we both jump and stare into the dark hallway. Then again BANG and then quiet then three rapid bangs. Someone was thrashing around in the very last room in the house and we didn’t know what the fuck to do.

Determined not to let this person scare us we run towards that last room and confront this asshole. When we get there……nothing, no one. The room was empty, but how? Who? We were sure it was coming from this room, there’s no way whoever it was slipped by us. The room had a sliding glassdoor leading into the backyard but it was locked from the inside. Then before we can gather our thoughts and ask each other what was happening…. BANG BANG BANG this time from the kitchen! Scared out of my fucking mind we both agree it’s time to leave.

We make our way through the back door in the room and finally to the street, all while checking over our shoulders to ensure no one was going to come running out of the house after us. No one came and the neighborhood was quiet. Eric and I start our walk home, talking about the house when Eric notices his pocket knife is missing, he then turns his pockets inside out to show me he isn’t joking. We stop and he keeps telling me we have to go back for it since it’s his favorite one. Frustrated, I asked him “how did you lose it if it’s your FAVORITE knife!”, he assures me he never removed it from his pocket and has no idea how it could have been removed from his pocket. I agree to go with him and find it, we make it half way up the street when Eric tells me his back feels like it’s on fire. I can see it really bothering him because of the expression of pain on his face. He asks me to lift his shirt and look at what could be causing the burning sensation. I lift his shirt and quickly notice 3 very large scratches starting from his right shoulder blade going all the way down to his left hip, then from his left hip across to his right hip.

I tell him this and he immediately says the house is haunted but he still wants to get the knife. I’m scared but I’m not going to let him go alone. So, we make our way back into the house and immediately hear that banging noise, but we made a pact with each other that we would not run no matter what happened. We begin our search for the knife looking high and low all while hearing banging and now things are being thrown across the room. Of course, I’m fucking scared shitless I want to leave. But we haven’t found the knife yet. We do one pass through the entire house and end up in the kitchen. In the kitchen there is an entrance to the second living room that you can see from the back yard. In that room there is one piece of furniture, a hutch. Now we had already checked this room since it’s near our point of entrance and found nothing. But we decide one more pass through the room would not hurt. I make my way into the dark room and let my light lead me to the hutch, and there it is. On the hutch we found the knife, but for fucking sure we checked this room AND the hutch. He didn’t hesitate for a moment, he grabbed the knife and we high tailed it out through the garage and back onto the street.

This is far from the end of the story but to summarize, this house is fucked up. The rest of the story includes shadow figures leaping from the bushes, dozens of light bulbs shattering at once, and a knife jammed deep into the front door of the home. Thanks for reading!

Update 1: Decided to add more to the post.

We make our way to our homes but the entire week we would talk about the house and what was going on in there. We brushed it off and didn’t believe it there had to be some explanation so we go back. But we bring 3 friends with us because they wanted to see this “Haunted” house Eric and I wouldn’t shut up about. While walking through the backyard I can’t explain it but for some reason I wanted to get a closer look at the back house. I start making my way towards the house but I start to feel scared, a feeling of dread came out of now where. I turn away from the house and start my way back to the group but at the corner of my eye I saw something leap from the bushes. Some dark figure leaped from the bushes and into the tall grass, but when I gave it my full attention it was gone. I stared at the bushes for a moment a little confused but I brushed it off. I did mention it to the group when I caught up with them but it was quickly dismissed.

We enter through the garage door, this time we noticed a white bookshelf full of light bulbs in the garage. The bookshelf was probably about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide and completely filled with packaged light bulbs. We study it for a moment and make our way into the kitchen with Eric leading and me in the back. I enter last and shut the kitchen/garage door behind me. As soon as I release the door knob we hear what sounded like someone in the garage breaking all the light bulbs on the bookshelf. Stunned, I remember my heart beating a mile a minute waiting for whatever the fuck it was to start trying to fight its way into the kitchen. But nothing came and Eric finally said “Fuck……I guess we’re not going back now.”

We make our way to the very last room in the house, the same room Eric and I had exited through the last time we were there. Whatever it was did not disappoint, random objects were being thrown against the wall in front of, we could hear loud banging all throughout the dark house like there were people fighting in the damn house. One of the friends decides he’s had enough and opens the glass door to the backyard and 4 of us start making our way through the backyard. I turn around to wait for Eric. He was not moving, caught in a daze, standing in front of an unhinged door that was propped against the wall for support. Eric was staring down the hallway as if waiting for something. I had to call his name 3 times before he realized we were leaving. He stepped forward and before my eyes it looked as though someone tried to throw the unhinged door on top of him.

Eric jumped out of the way and started towards me scared out of his wits, the other 3 are already almost to the street so we both just keep the pace and catch up with them. As soon as we reach the street one of the friends kept telling us how fucked up that house was. You can see the look of terror on his face as he expressed his feelings about the place. He then mentions a burning feeling going up his calf. Sure enough, he’s got those fucking scratches starting from his ankle and stopping midway through his calf. Just before we split up to go home the three of them swear off that place. And that was the last time those 3 "friends" spoke to us.

So there’s more to come, unfortunately I’m on a time constraint but will definitely be telling more of what happen. Again, thanks for reading.

Update: Final

We ended up going to the house a few times after that, but nothing absolutely memorable happened, we heard the knocks and the bangs and what not. It wasn’t until we took Eric’s( I’ll call him Dereck for clarity and privacy, obviously) older brother that it got crazy. By this time we’ve visited the house a few times and became numb to the banging and throwing. We found it more amusing than anything like check this place out its haunted. This time it got more aggressive. After touring the house and seeing Dereck freak out we decided to have a chat in the kitchen. I was standing in front of the windowing leaning against the window sill, Eric was to my right leaning against the wall and Dereck was standing across from me in front of the doorway that leads into the second living room I mentioned earlier. We talk about how scary the house is and all that. Dereck turned around to check out the living room behind him. I mentioned to him that that’s the hutch we found Eric’s knife on after running around the whole house searching for it. As he turns to face me Dereck fell into the room almost like something pushed, or dragged him from behind. I remember looking at his face and seeing a look of terror as he tried to grab on for dear life to the doorway. But the push/pull was too strong and he fell on his ass into the room, but immediately jumped up and ran over to me. He grabbed me by my shirt and started screaming at me “Yo, what the fuck is your problem?! Why did you push me?!”. I just kept telling him that I didn’t push him and Eric jumped between us and confirmed what I was saying. “He didn’t push you, you fell in”. Dereck explains that someone or something pushed him in.

After that he obviously wanted to leave so we all agreed but before we leave Eric and I both told Dereck to check his pockets to see if anything was missing. Of course, HIS pocket knife is missing. But it’s ok, we found the last one we’ll find this one right? Search the whole house, nothing, as expected. Now it’s time to check the hutch, first pass, nothing. Second pass, nothing. Third, nothing. Ok now this knife is really fucking gone. Dereck wants one more pass through the house, we agree. We make it to the far room with no luck. We started making our way back to the kitchen with me leading. As i’m coming up to the kitchen my cellphone light starts to reflect off something shining in front of the door that lead into the front yard. It was the fucking knife jammed deep into the door. There was no fucking way that the knife could’ve been jammed into the door without ANY one of us hearing it. Dereck takes his knife and we fucking leave. I never went back after that. Out of all the bullshit that went down in that house, that was the “NOT WELCOME” sign I took seriously.

And that’s it, that’s everything I can remember. Eric moved not long after that, and I moved away at the end of 2009. Haven't seen the house since, except when i tell the story to friends, i'll pull up the house on google images. I visit Eric from time to time and we always talk about what happen there.