Darting Shadows and My Haunted Home

Witness: Mark Weinert
Location: Berri, South Australia
Date of Encounter: 1994

In February 1994, my ex-girlfriend and I moved from Adelaide, South Australia, to Berri (South Australia), some 230-odd kilometers away. We rented a little old unit that had been given a semi-restoration by the new owners who had bought it off the Housing Trust (government housing). 

For many months nothing abnormal happened, apart from the fact that the spare room was always icy cold and for some reason made you feel uneasy as you entered it. Especially alone!

That all changed about 3 months later when I was having a shower one morning. I had just grabbed the towel to dry myself and my ex-girlfriend let out this blood-curdling scream! I ran the 15 meters from the bathroom in double-quick time, arriving in the bedroom doorway whilst she was still screaming and for a split second I noticed that she was laying down flat, eyes like dinner plates, and the quilt-cover covering the left side of her body was tight around her! As I was trying to take in what I was seeing, she sat bolt upright and simultaneously leapt out of bed, ran over to me, and cowered in my arms. I asked her what happened and she said she was just contemplating getting out of bed, when an "invisible force" pinned her to the bed and she could not move, speak, or scream, for what she estimated was 4-5 seconds, before she was able to let out the scream that would've woken the dead! 

Whilst I was a semi-believer/semi-skeptic at the time, I told her that she must have been having a bad dream and basically just brushed it off. We separated shortly after and she moved out, while I stayed. All this time I was solely maintaining the house inside and out, even doing a bit of free painting and landscaping for the landlord.

About two months after my ex was pinned down in bed, my brother drove up to stay for the weekend and we had a great couple of days fishing in my boat and having a few drinks at night, reminiscing about our time when we lived at home with our parents. I did not tell him about the incident with my ex, as I did not seriously think it was that much of an issue. On the second night (Saturday), we'd had a few drinks and fished from the river bank until around 10:30 PM. We headed home and shortly afterwards around midnight, we went to bed — me in my bedroom and my brother in the next room (lounge room) on the couch. 

I was just hovering between being awake and asleep, when my brother yelled out, "Mark, get in here now!" I leapt out of bed and turned the light switch on, which was attached to the outside of my bedroom door frame, and said, "What's wrong with you?!" He was all wide-eyed, sitting up on the couch and looking around the room. "I dunno what it is, man, but it isn't good!" he replied. I asked him what he meant and he said that there was something sinister about the room, or in the room. When quizzed further, he went on to explain that he was laying there looking at the street light out the front of the house through the stained glass window on the deadbolt door (the street light lit up a considerable portion of my lounge room at night), when suddenly the light outside slowly disappeared and turned into pitch black. He said he looked at the walls and floor and they were also jet black, and not only were they black, the room was closing in on him and the general atmosphere was cold and it felt sinister or evil. My brother is not afraid of much, and he has had far more direct paranormal experiences in his life than I, but one thing he isn't and that's an exaggerator or a liar. I could tell he was genuinely scared by his pale face, bulging eyes, and trembling hands on his coffee mug, as I tried to calm him down. We were both far from being drunk either! 

He lined up the cushions off the couch at the end of my bed and eventually went to sleep there around 3 AM. He drove back to Adelaide the next day and nothing more was said of the incident before he left.

I then linked the two incidents, and inquisitively, I started looking for signs of paranormal activity and the "entity" didn't disappoint! I would notice shadows darting past doorways out of the corner of my eye and I would hear muffled noises and tapping noises coming from the spare room at night (it was kept shut 24/7 unless I really had to go in there to get something). Objects would go missing — often it was a kitchen utensil like an egg slide or a set of tongs — and then turn up in weird spots like the laundry! But never once did I feel threatened as such. I honestly feel this entity meant me no harm. 

I stayed there for 6 months after my brother visited and apart from the odd noise and the odd item disappearing and re-appearing in unlikely places, no other paranormal experiences took place. I then moved out and boarded with a friend.

I believe the ghost was a former male resident of the property and the reason why he left me alone (to a certain degree) was the fact that I was maintaining and improving the place inside and out, because the only other people (my ex and my brother) that stayed there during my 12 months occupation of the house both were "attacked" in some way.