The Creepy Window

Candice just reminded me of a horrible incident that took place when I was probably about seven or eight. We were in our bedroom, which faced the front of the house, getting ready to go on a weekend trip to Catalina Island with my dad. We had a dresser that was on the wall exactly opposite of the front windows. Now the windows were along the roof line of the house, and were triangular in shape, so at night when cars would park we were only able to see the glow of the break lights and never the car. That itself was scary to me because I had a very morbid imagination and always thought that it was blood stained flashlights. Yes, gross, I know. So this particular night Candice and I were burning incense in our room on the dresser that was on the wall opposite our windows. We were looking at ourselves in the mirror that hung over the dresser. It was fun to watch the pretty swirls of the burning sticks and being girls we giggled and we poked at the smoke and watched it wrap its way into the air higher and higher before disappearing. I'm not sure exactly what happened next, just that I looked at the corner window though the smoke filled mirror. Quickly I turned around and looked at the window, then back at the mirror, then back at the window. Finally a look of absolute horror must have come over my face because Candice suddenly because frightened. I know this because I could hear it in her voice as she asked me "WHATS WRONG?" I didn't even answer her. I bolted from that room so fast you would have thought that my pants were on fire.

I had seen a ghost in my window. It was a scary witch face looking in at me. Miraculously I was only about to see her creepy face though the smoke and the reflection of the mirror, she would disappear when I turned to look directly out the window. She was in fact doing this to taunt me.

As I ran hysterically down the hall to my mom, who I'm sure was just as freaked out by my screaming as I was by what I had seen, she was able to calm me just enough to get me to tell her what the matter was. Nana and Tom were in town from San Diego and so immediately Tom and Dana went outside to investigate. I was so scared that whoever this thing was would hurt my family but I let them go anyway because I needed some closure.

As it turns out, a pile of leaves had collected in our banana palm that happened to be right outside our corner window. When the light from a close by street lamp shown into our room the reflection backwards looked like a face. They shook the tree to get rid of the leaves and saved the night.

I've never let anyone burn incense in my presence since that night. The twirling smoke still makes the hair on my body stand up.