A Haunting in Jamaica Plain

It's very easy to be skeptical of ghosts. Ive always had a small fascination with them ('Ghostlife' for example). Not sure why, but I always have. Maybe it was seeing 'Poltergeist' when I was a kid, or even 'Ghostbusters' that created this curiosity in me. Either way it brought upon this slight interest in ghost stories and peoples experiences with possible encounters. Not that I believed them. I kept an open mind, for both sides of the story. Maybe they are true, or just maybe they want to believe something so much that the stories they've created just become 'fact'. Maybe what they believe has some reasonable explanation. A scientific explanation? A rational explanation? Well I had an 'experience' in 2001 at my old apartment in Jamaica Plain that not only made me believe most of the ghost stories I had read in the past or will read in the future, but solidified my possible belief in the paranormal.

Now of course, you may be skeptical of this story and that is absolutely fair enough. Its always hard to believe any of these kind of things until they happen to you, but keep an open mind. :)

I lived on Parkton Road in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. My street was weird, and it was creepy, but I liked it. It was horse shoe shaped, and it was a one way street, but the weird thing was the bottom of the 'U' was at the bottom of a hill, so the ends of the U were at the top of the hill. In other words you entered the street at the top of the hill, went down to the bottom, right where my apartment was, and then you went back up the hill to get to the end. The street was lined with tightly packed 3 floor apartment buildings, and lots of dark creepy trees. As dearest Maria so wisely said to me, "I just remember sitting on your porch and feeling like all the bad stuff that had ever happened on that street was just collecting at the bottom, all the "bad vibes" just slid down to your house." She couldn't have said it any better.

So I lived on the first floor of this old 3 story building. The doors were old and crickety. The stairs to the other floors were old and needed painting. It was dusty and their were some spiderwebs for sure. But the setting for my story is simple. After going through the front door and into the staircase area, there was the door to our apartment, again as it was the first floor. Walk into our apartment (myself and my two roommates, Lauren and Chris) and its a typical foyer area. Wood floors, cheesy old chandelier. Straight ahead at the end of the foyer is the bathroom. It had a wood door, and right above the door one of those random 2 foot high and width-of-the-door windows which you could open for ventilation. Now if you're standing in front of the bathroom door, then just on your left would be the door to my room, and on the RIGHT, just a few feet back, is the door to a large walk-in closet where my roommates and I stored a whole lot of junk! Now the setting is drawn, and the story begins. All this build up, for a short ending.

So I did my normal work day at my job downtown, took the train back to JP, and walked home. I walked in the front door and the shower was running in the bathroom. I guess Chris is home before me, although that rarely happens. I went to the kitchen and made a snack. Took me maybe 10 minutes to settle down. Then I watched a little TV. Then I got a bit curious. The shower has been running a bit long. So I waited maybe another 20-30 minutes before I started to get worried. Maybe it was Lauren who was in the shower. So I decided to call her cell and see if she would answer, and if she didnt, it must be her in the shower. So I called ... and she answers. Straight away I ask her when she answers why Chris was home so early and taking a shower for so long, cause I was a bit worried. And she says 'He's not at home, he's still at work, I just talked to him'. At that second it felt like the walls were closing in on me. Who the hell is in that shower? I felt violated and scared, and I ran outside. And I just stood outside and waited and waited, probably for like 10 minutes. What was I going to do, and who is in there? This unknown was scarier than anything I had ever felt. There was a stranger in my apartment, in the shower, and I was home alone. Was it a homeless person who broke in and wanted to clean up? Was it our upstairs neighbor for some strange reason? But why would he break in and use our shower? Something just didnt feel right. I had told Lauren what was going on before I hung up with her, and she was a bit scared as well obviously, and said she was coming straight home. Do I want until she gets back? NO! Time to face the music.

I walked back to the front door, and opened it, and at the end of the foyer, the bathroom was still there. The light was on, and the window above the door was all steamed up, and the shower was still running. I just slowly walked towards the bathroom, and knocked on the door quietly. Nothing. I knocked louder. Nothing. I banged on the door. Still nothing. I took a deep breath, and really expecting the worst, I quickly opened the door. The room was filled with steam, and the shower curtain was drawn. I quickly opened the curtain, and there was nothing, nor anyone there. What the hell is going on?!?! I looked back out the bathroom door, and for whatever reason, the door to the walk-in closet next to the bathroom was now open, and the light inside it was on. I really started to get freaked out, as it wasn't like that just seconds ago. I just ignored that fact and walked out of the bathroom and into the walk-in closet. I shut off the light, backed out of the closet, closed the door, and just looked at it for a second. 'OK, it was nothing!' I went back into the bathroom to turn the shower off, and for whatever reason I felt something behind me, some sort of presence. I looked back out the door towards the closet, and the closet door was open again! And the light inside was on again! Every time I think of this story, or tell someone, I always get chills, and its happening right now as I write this. So I quickly went to the open closet door, and motioned to close it to see what the hell was behind the door, again expecting the worst. All of sudden, right after shutting the closet door, as I just stood there, I felt what was all I can really say was a 'mad rush'. It felt like something had passed through me. I got very warm on the inside, but felt a cool chill on my outside, and just felt like SOMETHING had moved through me, like a ghost or spirit or something. All I know is that it was quick, it was powerful, and it was scary as hell, but all the fear and dread I was feeling cause of the whole situation was now gone. It's really hard to explain what that feeling was like, and I'm sure this sounds like absolute nonsense to everyone. If I read this story by someone else I would have been skeptical too, but its natural to be skeptical until something like this actually happens to you, and it just happened to me.

I sat down in the living room for just a bit and then made a few calls, to some skeptical people of course. About an hour later my roommate Lauren came home, and I told her what happened, and she looked at me like I was crazy. It didn't seem like she would even at least grasp the fact that the shower was running like that with no one in the apartment all day, but I think the rest of my story made her think I was making all of it up. Thanks for the support. So this is my story, lots of buildup to something that may seem simple and nothing, but it was the scariest thing that ever happened to me, and affirmed my belief in the supernatural, or ghosts, or what have you.

Love,
Peter Venkman