Episode 213: The Footsteps in the Hall – A Spirit That Wouldn’t Leave

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Some homes don’t need to do
anything to feel haunted.

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They don’t need flickering
lights or whispers in the walls.

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Sometimes it’s the silence, the
stillness, the feeling that

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you’re not alone, even when you
know you are.

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Welcome to Paranormal Night
Shift, where the shadows talk

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back and your true stories
become part of something deeper,

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stranger, and harder to explain.
I’m Andy, your guide for

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tonight.
Before we get into this eerie

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listener submitted story, I want
to make sure you’re not missing

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the bigger mystery we’ve been
unraveling.

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Head over to
paranormalnightshift.com to grab

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your free copy of The Birth of
Dimensional Desperado, our time

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bending ebook that kicks off
Buck shadow Sheriff Freeman’s

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wild adventures into the haunted
corners of the past.

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It’s free, it’s weird, and it’s
worth it.

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Now tonight’s story comes from
Trisha, and if you’ve ever moved

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into a home thinking it was a
fresh start, only to realize

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something else was already
living there, this one’s for

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you.
When I first met the man who’s

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now my husband, we both came
into the relationship with kids,

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me with two, him with one.
It wasn’t some picture perfect

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beginning.
We were trying to blend lives,

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routines, and three small, loud
humans into something that

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resembled a family.
At first, we moved into a modest

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apartment.
It wasn’t ideal, only two

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bedrooms, so we did what a lot
of parents do in a pinch.

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We got creative.
The dining area became a

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makeshift bedroom for the boys,
sectioned off just enough to

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give the illusion of privacy.
It wasn’t glamorous, but it

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worked.
Barely, not long after we got

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engaged and that was our cue to
find something better, something

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more permanent.
Something with walls.

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We lucked out, honestly.
The house we found for rent was

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beautiful.
An older home built in the 1950s

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with charm for days.
It had this sunken family room

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and a step up living room
separated by double sided brick

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fireplace.
Real wood floors throughout, The

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kind that moan and creak with
every step like they’re carrying

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their own memory of the past.
Our room was down the hall to

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the left, the bathroom was
straight ahead, the boys room

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was across from ours, and our
daughter’s room was just to the

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right of theirs.
The layout made sense and

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despite the humidity warping the
boys door frame to the point

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that it never really shut
without a shoulder shove, it

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felt like home.
Until it didn’t.

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The first time it happened, my
fiance was out of town for work.

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I’d put the kids to bed, watched
a little TV, and then turned

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everything off and headed to our
room for the night.

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I remember how quiet the house
was, how every Creek in the wood

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felt louder without him there.
I had just laid down the

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mattress, barely had time to
adjust to my weight, when I

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heard it.
Footsteps, deliberate, steady,

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coming down the hall, straight
toward the bedroom door.

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I sat up, my heart already
racing, waiting for the soft

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knock I assumed was coming.
Maybe one of the boys had a

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nightmare, maybe my daughter
needed a drink of water.

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But nothing came.
No knock, no voice.

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After a few seconds of silence,
I got out of bed and opened the

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door, but the hallway was empty.
I checked the bathroom.

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Nothing.
I slowly opened the boy’s door.

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They were both sound asleep, one
of them snoring softly, tangled

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in his blanket.
I peeked into my daughter’s room

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next.
She was out cold to her night,

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light glowing softly against the
wall.

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I stood there for a second,
trying to convince myself it had

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just been the old floorboards
settling or some trick of

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acoustics.
But I know what footsteps sound

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like.
That wasn’t a creak, that was

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someone walking.
Still, I didn’t want to seem

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paranoid, so I went back to bed,
pulled the covers up, and willed

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myself to sleep.
When my fiance got home, I told

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him about it.
He half laughed, half dismissed

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it, saying I must have been
dreaming.

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Maybe I was in that weird in
between place of sleep and

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wakefulness.
I told him I hadn’t even had the

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chance to fall asleep.
I was awake, but he wouldn’t

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budget.
That was until it happened to

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him.
About a month later, I was

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working a closing shift at the
restaurant.

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I usually didn’t get home until
after 1:00 AM.

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He had to be up early, so he
went to bed before I got home.

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The next morning, while we were
pouring coffee and trying to

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piece together enough energy to
parent, he said OK, something

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weird happened last night.
I looked at him, curious.

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What kind of weird?
He hesitated, like he didn’t

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want to give it power by saying
it out loud.

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I heard footsteps coming down
the hall.

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I thought one of the kids was
going to knock, but they didn’t.

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I checked, all of them were
asleep.

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He just stared at me for a
minute.

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After that, it was exactly like
you said.

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So now we both knew we weren’t
imagining it.

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A few weeks later, something
strange happened while I was at

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work.
I had a table, a woman, probably

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in her 40s, who paid with a
credit card that caught my eye.

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The business name printed on it
had the same last name as some

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of the mail we’d been receiving
at the rental house.

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I remembered the landlord
telling us that the previous

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tenant had used the back
building for business.

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So on impulse, I asked.
Hey, did you ever live on

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Sandhill St.
She looked at me, startled.

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Yeah.
Did you ever live in the White

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House near the corner?
I asked.

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She stared at me, wide eyed.
How do you know that?

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I explained the mail, the
business name, and then said.

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I don’t want to freak you out,
but did anything strange ever

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happened there?
She paused.

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Her expression softened, but her
eyes darkened with something

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like exhaustion.
Yeah, she said quietly.

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That’s why we left.
She went on to tell me that

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about a year before we moved in,
her husband had died of a heart

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attack in the garage.
After that strange thing started

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happening, things she said she
couldn’t explain but couldn’t

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ignore.
It got to the point where she

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and her kids didn’t feel safe.
He wouldn’t leave them alone.

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I asked what she meant by that.
She said he just wouldn’t go.

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I know it sounds crazy, but if
you ever feel him around, just

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talk to him.
Put out a glass of water at

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night, sometimes he’ll drink it.
I thanked her, not really

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knowing what else to say.
Fast forward a few months.

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By then, my fiance was my
husband and we had bought our

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first home together just a
couple miles away.

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After we moved everything out of
the rental house, he went back

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one afternoon to take pictures
for our security deposit.

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He photographed the light
fixture we’d replaced, the

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walls, the floors, just normal
stuff.

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Then he stood in our old bedroom
doorway and took a picture down

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the hallway toward the boys
room.

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Then he turned, stood at their
doorway, and took his shot

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facing back toward our bedroom.
That’s when it happened.

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As he stood there, back to the
boys room door, the door behind

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him, the same one that never
shut on its own the entire time

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we lived there, slammed shut
hard.

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He didn’t bother finishing the
photos.

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He left the house immediately.
We never went back.

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And even though we live in a new
home now, picked one that feels

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safe, sometimes when the house
is quiet in the night, it feels

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just a little too still.
I think about the footsteps,

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about the old creaking floors,
about a man who may have loved

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his family too much to leave.
And I wonder if somewhere he’s

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still walking that hallway,
waiting for someone to open the

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door.
And just like that, another

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story finds its place in the
dark.

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Tricia, thank you for pulling
back the curtain and letting us

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walk that hallway with you.
Your courage to share is what

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keeps this show alive, literally
and figuratively.

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If you felt something during
this episode, maybe a chill,

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maybe a memory, help us keep
that energy going.

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You can support Paranormal Night
Shift by joining us on Patreon,

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where you’ll get ad free
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exclusive stories that never
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It’s a way to support what we do
and keep the strange stories

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flowing.
Not quite ready to join?

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That’s OK.
Just hit subscribe on Spotify or

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YouTube and drop a comment.
Seriously, your feedback fuels

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this project more than you know.
And hey, if you have a story, a

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moment you can’t explain, a
presence that never really left,

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don’t keep it to yourself.
Go to paranormalnightshift.com

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and submit your experience.
One listener’s quiet nightmare

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might be the next story we bring
to life.

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Until next time, stay curious,
stay brave, and if you ever hear

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footsteps in an empty hallway,
maybe don’t open the door.

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You’ve been listening to
Paranormal Night Shift and The

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00:09:59,200 –> 00:10:00,800
night.
It’s only just beginning.