“I’ll start with a little about myself. My name is Emma, and I’m 19 years old. I currently live in Canada, in a town outside of Toronto. I had one or two small experiences when I was about 8 or 9 in my old house in Toronto. It was nothing scary. I just heard walking around and thought I saw my old pet cat a few days after she died.

About seven years later, I was at my ex-boyfriend’s house. Let’s just call him Jim. One day he was telling me how his house was haunted. I thought he was just messing with me so I didn’t really take him seriously. It was about three months into our relationship when strange things started to happen.

An Uneasy Feeling
The first weird thing that happened was when we were in Jim’s basement watching movies. Jim ran to the store down the street, leaving me there alone. I got a very uneasy feeling, like I was being watched. I stayed down in the basement by myself for maybe 15 minutes before it was too much to handle. I ran up the stairs because I felt like there was someone right behind me. The living room was big and had windows all along the front, so I could see the driveway and the front yard. I sat up there until Jim got home.

The Black Shape
A few weeks later, we were watching a movie in his room. I got up to grab some drinks from the kitchen which was at the end of a long hallway. I grabbed the drinks and started walking to his room, but then heard what sounded like someone walking behind me. Stopping, I turned around for no reason in particular, probably thinking it was just the floor boards creaking as I walked along. I’ve never been so wrong in my life. What I saw next scared the s*** out of me!

Just a few feet behind me was a black shape that almost looked like the silhouette of a person. It was tall and thin, but it had no feet. I stood there, eyes locked on the shape. The feeling I got from it wasn’t a good one. . . it was a feeling of hate, like I wasn’t welcome there. Next thing I know, the shape started moving towards me. I dropped everything and ran as fast as I could down the hall. I could hear my feet hitting the wood floor and what sounded like something running after me. I ran into Jim’s room and leaped on the bed. As I told him what happened, I thought my heart was going to break through my chest. I didn’t go back his place for a few weeks after that, but I somehow managed to build my courage and return.

Strange Smoke
I had gotten in a fight with my parents and needed some time away from them. Jim offered to let me stay at his house for a few days. I had nowhere else to go so I took him up on his offer. I still had the uneasy feeling of being watched, but ignored it the best I could.

One day, we had ordered a pizza and were sitting in the living room, just talking. I went out for a smoke, and after I finished I joined Jim back inside. As we watched TV on the sofa, I happened to look down and see what appeared to be smoke coming out of my clothes. At first, it was only coming from my shirt, but it then started to come from everything I was wearing so I ran to the room and changed and it finally went away. As you can probably guess, I was freaked out. I had been a smoker for two years and that had never happened to me.

Brushing it off, I went back to the living room to watch the movie Jim had put on. From the corner of my eye, I saw a black shape move across the ceiling. Looking up, I saw it again, and it looked like fog/smoke about the size of a basketball. I stared at the shape, watching it move along the room. I looked at Jim and said ‘Please tell me you can see that, or am I just going crazy?’. He looked over and saw it right away. We sat there watching it move around the room, and the thing that scared me was that from time to time the shape would get right up in our faces, just a few inches away. We could see through it and it looked like cigarette smoke. I didn’t get the feeling it wanted to harm us. It didn’t feel evil like the thing I saw a few weeks before, and it went away right before the pizza guy got there.

Visitor in the Night
A few hours later, Jim was fast asleep and I woke up with a panicked feeling. I sat up and looked around the room, but it was dark, unnaturally dark, and I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. The weird part was that the curtains were open, but it was like the street lights which normally lit up the whole room couldn’t get in. I also heard what sounded like someone walking down the hall way. This is going to sound really childish, but I laid back down and covered my head with a blanket.

A few minutes later, it sounded like someone was trying to get into Jim’s room, like they were struggling with the door handle. I heard the creak of the door opening, and I froze trying not to breathe too loud. It sounded like someone walked around the room and then stopped at the end of the bed. I then felt weight at the end of the bed, beside my feet. Not thinking, I screamed, waking up Jim. I told him what happened, so he ran out into the hall and looked all through the house, but no one was there. It was just us.

Did Something Follow?
Ever since those things happened at Jim’s house, it feels like something’s been following me. I’ve only lived in my house in Holland Landing for five years, and I never felt anything strange until I went to Jim’s place. At first, it would just be the same uneasy feeling, but it quickly escalated. I would start to hear my name being called when I was home alone and see dark shadows moving around the house. From time to time, I would find things in my room moved around. I had a wall of my room covered in old photos of family and friends, and I would come home and find half of the pictures face down on the opposite side of the room or I’d find my things all around the house. It’s been over two years since we broke up, and strange things are still happening. I can hardly sleep in my room because it feels like someone is standing beside my bed, just staring.

Another interesting thing I found out from Jim’s mom is that his great grandpa was a long-term smoker who died of lung cancer. Do you think that could be why I saw the ball of smoke and the smoke coming from my clothing? If anyone can give me some advice it would be awesome. I just want whatever this is to leave me alone.”

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