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We lived in the country outside of Peach Orchard Missouri. It was spring in a lovely small town of Southeast Missouri. The small lovely town had a lot of flowering bushes and unusually flowered large thorn trees. There were lots of small rural Farms, Churches, and one small Grocery Store with a Gas Station. Every house was located within a mile or so of each other. There was lots of room for crops like corn, wheat, soybeans, and cotton, and watermelons in the growing seasons.
We happened to move into a five room house, which lay just off the main road about a quarter of a mile. The house was white, there were no window frames outlining the windows, but there was a large yard on each side of the house. There was no indoor bathroom, and the water pump was out near the back door of the house. We would laugh and say to our friends and relatives that we had running water. That was because we were the ones who ran and got the water. We used an oaken water bucket to store water with inside the house. We didn't need a bathtub, because we only washed ourselves on one out of five nights a week. We might take a quick bath if we were going somewhere. When we scrubbed the old wood floors, we used another water container made especially for that purpose. We weren't sure how long we would be staying in this house. That was because in the late night time hours, there was an awful sound of footsteps walking slowly and long through the old house that would upset your soul if you let it.
I kept three lights in my room at night if my daddy would let me. I was scared to be there when the spirit inside the house would decide to walk. Dad had said that it would not bother us; but it did bother me to no end. I didn't want to see it either; because the sounds of it walking slowly through the house were bad enough to hear. As it came through the house, walking so slowly as it did so close to my room. It was disconcerting to say the least, because I did not want it there, but the spirit was there, and the sound of its footsteps walking across the floor bothered me greatly.
For during the day, everything was just as normal as things could be. The early morning sunshine dispelled any kind of darkness, but at night time after 9:20 p.m. in the night, you would hear the sound of footsteps walking slowly across the floor. You didn't want to be where the footsteps were at all. I didn't want to be there, after I first heard the steps at night. For the footsteps would come to the door of my room. Then the footsteps would just seem to stop and they would go no further.
But how do you know if something stops. The footsteps may just go right on in, but you wouldn't hear it anymore. What about that? I didn't like it. I didn't like any part of it. I did not like living here. I did not want to hear the cursed footsteps at all. That's why I kept three lights on in my room. I wanted to see if this thing would come through the lights. I felt the lights prevented me from seeing, or hearing whatever it was, that was making the sound of the footsteps. They do say that light dispells the darkness that sometimes overcome all of us.
I will say that the footsteps frightened me in a great and incredulous way, because I kept a kerosene lamp, and two candles in my room at all times. I did not want to be caught alone in there with whatever, or whoever it was. So I kept my room lit up well. And it was because of this one simple thing that I had done when we first moved into the house. There was a rumor you see, that on the front room floor you know, there was a blood stain left from that frighening night the older man had died there. I don't know who told it to me. But this is the story that was told to my daddy as he contemplated even moving into this house. My daddy was a brave man who felt fearless of the frightening nights to come. But his daughter was not quite so brave as he was.
But there was an older man who had came home from wednesday night prayer meeting at Church. He had come inside this house just like he normally did. But once he was inside the house, there was a man standing there waiting to rob and murder him. This man who was waiting stabbed the person with a knife several times until he was clean dead. This was the reason for the footsteps. Why they came into the door that led to my room I have no idea.
But I kept my lights on. They said, there was a blood stain in the middle of the front room floor just under the linoleum. I know it was there because I looked under the linoleum rug. The old stain looked an old red broken spilt spot but it was sure there. The blood looked like a red stain, that sat like old enamel on a wooden floor. I didn't know what to do after that. I just put the linoleum rug down again. I thought about it. I guessed that they had used the rug to cover up the blood stain. Because I had also tried to clean the old red stain with a cloth. I also used my best bleach on the stain. It just wasn't going to come off. I knew that you weren't supposed to be able to clean the blood stain off of the wooden floor. However, since the blood on the wooden floor refused to come off, I just covered the blood stains up. And that's what I did. I just put the linoleum rug back on the floor. What else could I do? I was only 14 years of age. I had nothing else to cover up the blood stain on the floor. So I left it like it was.
But they couldn't cover up the spirit that walked the house every night; no they couldn't cover that up. That's why I kept a light burning. I didn't want to be cast in the light like that at all. They said the man who had died there was just left there for two or three days mostly because he hadn't been found. The man had died there without a soul to help him on that shameful night, and now his spirit had came back and was troubling the living becuase of his death.
They say that when he's going into my room that he's trying to leave the house, but I can't think of that. I just don't want him to come into my room at all. That's why I keep the lights burning, so that he won't come into my room. I know where he's going. I know he is going where he wants to go. He's going into my room, and I don't want him there. That's why the lights are lit, and when he's coming by I can hear his footsteps walking slowly and tortuously outside the door of my room. Then the footsteps have to stop because, that's when I turn the lights up, and the footsteps disappear into the night. Or do they?
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