[Paranormal/Ghost][NMS]

"In 2004-06 I was working in a warehouse type grocery store in Santa Clara, CA. I ended up loving it there and got to know the grocery business. Anyway in 04' I was just lost with myself. Had no idea who I was or what I was about, which landed me in a psychiatric unit in Los Gatos. Turns out I was a normal girl lost in the world and trying to find her place.

I ended up moving to Scotts Valley and fell in love with the place. I found a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment snuggled into the Santa Cruz mountains with my girlfriend and her 8 year old daughter, Natasha. I had finally found where I belonged at this time in my life. I had a 45 minute commute to my same job but it was so worth it to live there! All was well for months until one night I was watching TV and I noticed Natasha was at the foot of the stairs looking up at the ceiling. She was talking to someone, and I thought jokingly "Welp, I guess we have a ghost". I asked her what she was doing and she said "I'm talking to Alice". Now I'm thinking "Ok, who's Alice?". As if she read my mind, she replied "She's the girl in the attic". I asked if Alice was ok, which she said she wasn't. I then asked why and she said she can't talk about it because her dad was in the attic with her and he'll get mad. I just said ok and I didn't want to upset her dad. Note that this isn't my first paranormal experience, so I just blew it off. Natasha talking to Alice just became a normal part of our lives.

Fast forward a few months and I'm home alone and about to go upstairs and clean. I was stopped on the foot of the stairs by a little girl in a long nighty with two braids in her hair. She was smiling at me, and after the initial shock of someone being in my house I smiled back. I don't know why. This part is going to sound crazy, but here goes. We were talking to me through thought. I know, I know, I sound insane but that's what happened. She asked if I could help her and I said of course I would. Then she proceeds to ask normal questions about me, like my name, age and if I had parents close by. I asked her the same things because I answered her. Her name was Alice, she's 6 and her mom is missing. This was where her family lived once and she had been sharing it with a bunch of people, but the people never stay long. I asked why and she looks scared then disappears. I thought "What the hell just happened?" And scolded myself for working too much.

Months later some friends from work wanted to hang out and drink. I didn't drink then but wanted them to be safe and was fine with being the DD. I would take them back to my place amd then take them home when we were done. Everyone was cool with that so off we went. My gf also brought a friend over that night who happened to be a medium, so she was really in tune with paranormal stuff. Lisa, the medium, thought it would be a good idea to communicate with Alice. No one knew anything about my encounter with Alice on the stairs, just about Natasha talking to her everyday. I had an ouija board I had bought randomly years ago but never used it so I got it out. I had used one before as a kid but that was back when there wasn't all this taboo surrounding them, they were just games in everyone's house like hungry hungry hippo. So we set up and got started asking normal questions like who wants to talk, who's here, etc. The planchet moves to "yes" and one of my friends start to worry. She thought ignorance was bliss when it came to the paranormal, I assured her it was fine because she wasn't the person of interest. Then I got the most overwhelming feeling that *I* was the person of interest. It wasn't a good feeling. I was very uneasy and mentally called my deceased family members for protection. Why am I even doing this? Lisa then says "They want to talk to you". "Who?" I said. "The ghosts" she replied. Again I asked myself why am I doing this, and for that matter why did we need a board if this lady was just going to talk to us. She was looking right through me and it was freaking me out, so I told her we sound probably just use the board, that way I didn't have to look at her. I asked who was with us and Alice answered. Everyone asked her the basic questions I already knew, so I asked her about her father. She said he was a tall, blonde, strong man. I also asked what she wanted my help with that one night that she talked to me and then the air felt like it was electrified yet calm. My gf looked worried, my friends were visibly shaken and the medium was still looking at me. I saw Alice behind her by the stairs in the low light and I nodded to her to acknowledge her. She had that same look of fear as before when she disappeared the first night. Time seemed to stop then. There was no sound or movement. Lisa says "Hold on." and a second later I feel a push from behind me and my chest crashed into the table. The house shook like a earthquake and I saw flashes of a man smiling in a sinister way with both hands on me shoving me down and a little girl being hanged. I fell to the floor and it was quiet, so quiet I thought I lost my hearing. I heard my friends fading in asking if I was ok and I stood up, tears were running down my face. Lisa asked what I saw and I said nothing, she obviously knew that was a lie but didn't push it. I went to the balcony to collect my thoughts and have a smoke or two. What just happened to me? And more importantly, what happend to that little girl? Did that really happen? It did, 5 people just saw it ... After about 40 minutes I felt better and went in and everyone looked at me like I had two heads. I told them I was fine and not to worry. I decided to take my friends home and everything was fine but one friend just wouldn't let any of it go. She was scared and unfortunately this put a major wedge in our friendship.

On my drive home and back up the hill I noticed how dark this highway actually was. Being carved into the side of a mountain and there being few cars and all. I felt scared to be alone, for the first time ever! I lit a smoke and decided to enjoy the ride. I was almost home when I saw a man in the rearview mirror. He was in my middle back seat and smiling. I swerved into the shoulder and and spun around to see the backseat. He was gone but that was him, the father. I drove home, showered, downed some Tylenol PM so I could actually sleep and just wanted to forget about it. I thought it was all a dream the next day, or wanted to believe that anyway, when my friend called saying she'd done some research on my apartment. Turns out in the 1800s there was a big house sitting here and a man and his family lived there. He contracted syphilis and his mental health deteriorated and in a fit of rage he hung his wife (33) and child (6) in the attic then hung himself. I never saw him or Alice after that. This is the first time I've talked about this since then but it changed me. I feel more tuned to paranormal thing now.

The last weird thing is that the ouija board disappeared. We assumed someone else took it, but it became apparent no one had it. We've moved since then but never found it."