Scratching Around the Room

Witness: Rhea
Location: Walnut Creek, California
Date of Encounter: 2000

I was at my friend's house which is a really scary, huge, old house that's been there since the 1950s. I had been there before and we both knew about how occasionally there would be a knocking sound on her bedroom wall, regardless of whether someone was home or not. On this particular night I was sleeping over for the first time. We were alone in the house and we heard the knocking sound again! I asked her if she had ever thought of looking to see if it could be something actually banging against the wall. She said she had never thought of that — so we investigated. We were shocked to see that on the other side of her wall was just a closet! There were books in there stacked horizontally and there was no way something could bang against the wall in regular succession like a knock. We went back in the room and then a while later something happened that just freaked us out to death. We heard this incredible scratching noise that sounded very close and went all the way around the room — like across every wall as it encircled the room once before it stopped. We even heard it scratch across the doorway (where the door was wide open — almost like it went through the air) and across the window. It was so bizarre since one of her walls is the outside wall of the house, while the other three are in the house (as most rooms are). God, I don't even know how to rationally explain what happened. I mean there was no way someone was encircling the room scratching the wall, nor is it possible that something was in the wall scratching along the inside, since it went across the open doorway. It was also interesting because her dad had died at that house (he fell off a ladder), though I don't know if the knocking had been going on before that or not. It was a frightful, but eye opening experience.