Matthew's Returning Spirit
Witness: Rich
Location: Grand Prairie, Texas
Date of Encounter: 2000
I decided to write a story about what happened at my former roommate David's house. All the names of the people found in this story have been changed to protect their real identities. Before I tell you about my three encounters with the ghost, I need to give you some background information.
In 1992 David, my former roommate, had a roommate named Matthew who died at his house. Matthew just collapsed in the hallway leading to David's bedroom. David thinks that Matthew had been trying to get to him for help. When David heard him fall, he ran to see what had happened. David called 911, but it was too late. A few days after Matthew died, David was sleeping and felt something touching him on the top of his head as if to try and wake him up. When David opened his eyes, he was startled to see Matthew slowly walking out of the bedroom. David jumped out of bed and ran into the hall to look for him, but Matthew was gone. David hasn't seen him again.
I moved in with David in 1998. David never mentioned Matthew or what happened in the house. About two years later I adopted a puppy. One night shortly thereafter David woke me up in the middle of the night saying that Buffy, my puppy, was crying and wanted out of her kennel. As this all happened long before I got my ear implant, of course, I couldn't hear her, but she was keeping David awake. I went into the room where the dog kennels were, David also had two dogs, and Buffy calmed down. Because I wanted Buffy to get used to sleeping in her kennel, I decided that instead of letting her out that I would just sleep on the floor next to her. So, I turned on the ceiling fan light, and got my pillow and blanket and laid down next to the kennel. As I was petting Buffy, I noticed her turning to look up at the light. Before I could turn to look up, the light went out! This surprised me a little, but even though Buffy continued to look at the light, I decided not to think about it. I closed my eyes and stayed there with her until I fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning, I checked the light and it worked fine then. Later that day I told David what had happened. He was kind of surprised about this, and told me about Matthew, how he had died in the house, about him waking him up, and that he used to complain about the electronic bills and would go around the house turning off the lights. I realized then that Matthew was still in the house!
About two years after I first encountered Matthew, David had gone to visit some friends in Houston and I invited my friend Bobby over for dinner and movie. I hadn't told Bobby about Matthew because I didn't want him to think I was crazy or making it up. While we were watching the movie Bobby jumped and asked if there was somebody else in the house. I said no, that David was in Houston. Bobby looked worried and said that he just heard a door slam and pointed in the direction of the staircase. I thought that maybe someone had gotten into the garage. I didn't immediately think of Matthew it had been two years since I had encountered him, and because I hadn't told him about my first encounter. I opened the door, turned the light on and didn't see anything out of the order. Bobby then said the sound didn't come from the garage it came the hallway behind the stairs. This is the hallway to David's bedroom where Matthew died. The next day I got an email from David, he told me that the night before he got hit by a car while crossing the street. David had to go to the hospital, but was okay, except for a really deep bruise. Later that week David, Bobby, and I were talking about the accident, and Bobby asked David what time his accident was. David said that it was at 10:30. Bobby said that was the time that he heard the door slam. We think that was Matthew trying to tell us to warn David.
Matthew's third appearance happened again when David was on vacation. I had dropped David at the airport and then went back home, ate dinner, and went to bed. The next morning as I was walking around the house, I notice one of the shutters was opened! This was extremely odd as David always kept the shutters closed, and I hadn't opened it. I assumed that one of the dogs had either been chewing on it or had seen a cat and was trying to get at the cat. So I walked over to look at the shutter and inspect the damage. When I looked closely at the shutter, I couldn't see any teeth marks. I checked it again and still couldn't find any damage. So I closed the shutter and realized that it had a very stiff snap lock and that it would have been impossible for one of the dogs to have opened it without leaving teeth marks.
While writing all this down, I remembered Matthew's fourth and thus far final appearance. One afternoon some while after the shutter episode, I was sitting in the den watching TV, and all of the sudden all four of the dogs (David's two and my two) perked up and watched "something" that I couldn't see very slowly move from right to left across the room. This startled me as the dogs were very intent about watching whatever it was, and because they were looking up like they were looking at someone. Unlike David, I never actually saw Matthew as a ghostly form or shape, but I did see and experience evidence of him being in the house, and Bobby is adamant that he heard the door slam. David hasn't mentioned anything about Matthew since I moved to Allen, Texas. I think Matthew may have moved on, or only visits David's house from time-to-time.
