The Old Lady on the Stairs

By: Zachary Hall

A staircase is very similar to the one where my little sister most often would see the “old lady.”

Had I not seen it with my eyes, or heard about it through people I trust, I truly don’t know if I would believe it. Nevertheless, I had always been 50/50 on whether or not I believed in ghosts, until this date.

I was 13 years old at the time, approximately some 7 years ago to date. And still, after all this time I can vividly see the ghost that lived in our home. My mother was busy getting my little sister’s costume ready in the bathroom, and I stood alone in our living room. It all happened so quickly and unexpectedly. I was standing on the living room floor, just inside the entrance leading to the kitchen. I glanced left, where the couch sat, and couldn’t believe what I saw. It was a half witch, half demon looking figure. Its body was a greyish color, with loose wrinkly skin. It had the facial structures of a witch, the long nose, some warts, and the eyes were nothing but empty holes. Long thin hair sat upon both of her shoulders. The most memorable thing though, was the green shimmering light that came from the being. Upon seeing its presence, I let out a scream, and then it vanished. My mother asked what was the matter, but now I was a bit confused with the monster no longer sitting upon the couch. Had I simply been seeing things? I finally replied to my mom, telling her nothing had happened, and figured I was just imagining things. It actually completely slipped my mind until a few weeks later.

We were downstairs eating, and I noticed that my dad was acting a bit strange. When I asked him what the deal was, he told me, “Well I had this dream last night, actually I’m not sure if it was a dream. I swear to god I was awake, but there’s no way I could have been. Anyways, I kept seeing this green light go back and forth in the hallway outside our door. At first I thought I was dreaming, but the more I think about it the more I realize it actually happened.” With this new knowledge, I proceeded to tell both my mother and father about my occurrence. My mother even mentioned that at times she could feel pressure at the foot of her bed, almost like someone was sitting on the edge of the bed. So here’s where the real kicker comes in.

It is said that children and dogs are more susceptible to ghosts than anyone else. Seeing that my sister was 4 and could obviously communicate, she made it quite evident that there was a non human presence among us. She would constantly glance into a completely dark room, or into the darkness of the stair case with a grimacing look, declaring at my mother, “mom, the old lady is scaring me make her stop.” We would look, but could see nothing. This pattern continued for months, and my sister would sometimes cry, and refused to be left alone once the sun had faded. So my mom decided to take action.

Though I must admit I thought it sounded absurd when she told me, I do believe that it worked. One day, when my mother was the only one in the house, she stood in the kitchen, which according to my sister is where the “old lady” hung out most often. She spoke to it, saying that she did not care if the old lady chose to live among us, but to please stop scaring her kids. From that moment on, the weird occurrences stopped, and neither my sister nor anyone else ever mentioned seeing the old lady again.