First the TV, now the lights?

Well it's been a while since my last post. I can assure you had I been posting on a daily basis this would have become quite a boring read. Each day I check that the TV is not hot when I come into the flat, and so far it has not been. At night I listen and watch from bed, hoping to notice anything out of the ordinary.

I do hear "bumps in the night", which certainly sound as though they are in my apartment, but the nature of an apartment block with so many people moving about at all hours means that this is certainly far from anything to write home about.

Unfortunately the TV has yet to turn itself on again. Being the logical person I am I had actually convinced myself that it had all been a dream.

Our apartment is quite unique. I suppose if a ghost were from a century or two ago, our home may be the closest thing that it would find homely. It is full of the sort of furnature and decorations you would find in a castle. The "castle" has actually been our nickname for it since we moved in. There are prints of paintings from the 1600s, chairs which certainly look antique, candles on stands which come out of the walls and even the wardrobe features turrets. The most interesting item is the bookcase, which features leather bound encyclopedias and the like. The surprise however is when you find that one of the sides of the bookcase is actually a door into the kitchen - our own secret room hidden behind a bookcase. The light however was what led me to post today.

Our light in the main room, the same room where the TV is located, is a candelabra replica. It hangs on a long chain from the ceiling and splays out into eight arms each holding a single globe. Last night not long after I turned out the lights, I could hear a rattling coming from the main room. Though I had been sure I would spring out of bed should the TV turn on, I found myself to be quite cautious about this rattling. When I finally did get the courage to go out into the main room I found that the lights were shaking quite violently such that the plastic 'fake candle' pieces beneath the bulbs were shaking against the metal. This went on for at least a minute from when I'd first heard it. I stood watching in disbelief and then it stopped and that was that.

I don't really understand why I'm not afraid - why I don't move out, but I do have ideas. This post is getting quite long so I'll post those later.

Ghost in hiding

I was quite jumpy yesterday after the ghostly experience the night before. Walking home from work I flinched at everything that made a noise from car horns to people talking on their mobiles. I walked slower than I ever have from the tube to my apartment.

When I finally arrived at my door, I placed my ear up against it to see if I could hear anything on the other side, but there was nothing. I bit the bullet, opened the door and went in, switching on all the lights within reach. Nothing.

The rest of the night was normal, I did some washing, cooked dinner, surfed the net and watched TV.

Later that night I lay awake in the darkness watching for the light. It seemed like forever and my eyes were stinging. My neck became incredibly sore from craning it towards the doorway.

I got to the point where I could only keep one eye open at a time to give the other some rest. Then I finally gave up and fell asleep.

I have started to wonder, does a ghost know when you're on to it? More importantly, what would make a ghost turn the TV off? I can understand a ghost turning a TV on, but why off? Do ghosts have a bedtime? Do they simply dislike late night TV?

Maybe tonight will be different...

Where do I begin?

This will probably be the most incoherent piece I ever type. My eyes feel as though I've been swimming in salt water, my stomach is turning and my head is not quite here. I haven't felt like this since I used to spend all night on the internet before a day in the office. It's strange because I thought I slept ok last night, all things considered, but obviously not.

After I was in bed for a while last night, lying in the darkness, I noticed that I could see a faint light coming through the bedroom door. Now you have to understand the improbability of this occurrence to understand why I paid attention to it. We have only three windows in our apartment. All of these are floor to ceiling doors - two in our living room leading onto our balcony at the front and one in our bedroom opening, oddly, onto a two storey drop. Each of these windows has shutters, and these shutters are no measly shutters. Short of an atomic blast, nothing will get through these shutters. Each window (or door if you prefer) has a solid piece of wood covering it entirely. There are no gaps, such that if they are all closed at midday, our apartment becomes as black as a cave at midnight. So now you can understand that to see light in our apartment at night is somewhat unexpected.

The light was very faint. I have left the kitchen light on once or twice and, though it is on the other side of the house, once your eyes adjust this light is far too bright to let someone go to sleep. The light I saw coming through the door was much fainter, and flickering if I looked closely. The only logical thought was that a torch light would flicker as it scanned for booty. I also had some illogical thoughts, I admit. I woke my girlfriend so that if a burglar hit me over the head with a crowbar, it would be noticed.

I walked out to the living room, from where the light was coming, to find the tv on - though muted. Somewhat relieved, though still a little unnerved, I switched it off. I went back to bed and, since neither of us could remember turning it off earlier, it started to make sense.

I probably lay there for half an hour or more. I had not been tired to begin with, but had gone to bed early because my girlfriend had a cold and needed to get some rest. It was after this time that I noticed the same light coming into our room again. I couldn't believe it. I admit that unusual things like that are not my cup of tea. Typing this is even making me feel a bit uncomfortable. After looking at the light from a lying position for a while, I sat up to get a better view. The light was very faint, so I wasn't sure if it was even there. It felt like I sat there for five minutes straining my eyes, but it was probably 30 seconds (which is a very long time to sit in the dark staring at a wall). I was tossing up whether or not to go out into the living room again. I didn't want to wake my girlfriend again, but didn't really want to go walking around alone either.
As I tried to think of what I should do the light suddenly vanished and at the same time a click was heard from the living room. Once it was gone, I was aware of how much darker the room became. I could no longer make anything out at all, it was pitch black. The most unnerving aspect though was the click. I (unfortunately) recognised it as the sound of the tv being switched off. It was not the sound of the remote switching it to standby either, it was the sound the button on the box makes when released after being pushed in. It was the exact sound that button had made when I'd earlier turned it off (not onto standby).

I lay there for a long time. I don't know why but I became very hot and sweat started to sting my forehead. Someone with better knowledge of the human body than me could probably explain why nerves would make me sweat. I watched the doorway hoping that the light would come again so that I could go out into the living room and find the logical explanation, but I was left in the darkness.

At some point I fell asleep. I have no idea how long I slept, I think I probably woke up many times during the night looking for the light.

This morning I got ready for work as usual and daven't mentioned this to anyone. I know it is nothing over the top, I certainly didn't actually see anything unusual, but it makes me uneasy. I am a very logical person and I cannot, no matter how hard I have tried, come up with any sort of explanation for what appeared to be the tv on again and turning off by itself. This morning I turned it on and off again just to hear that click and it chilled me when it sounded so identical to the sound I heard last night.

I don't know what I will do now. What do you do if your house is haunted? I don't feel in any particular danger, since we've been there for four months now, but all the same I don't particularly like this.

I was considering getting a webcam and leaving it recording the tv at night to see if it turns on by itself. I assume webcams can actually record rather than just stream a video, or at least that there are programs that can record a stream. I think tonight however, I will just look for the light and head straight for the tv if I see it.

I hope I do see it, so I can put this to rest.

I couldn't think of anyone to tell. Some would become worried about me, others would think I was an idiot, so here it is where it will probably not be read, but at least I've been able to go through it in my head.