Well I do think someone is walking through the back yard in the day sometimes. But thats because we got a whole bundle of kids playing outside infront of the house and sometimes the ball ends in our yard so they have to walk around the house to get it. This means that they walk by around 3 windows in which they than cast a reflection / shadow. When I'm working on my computer I can kinda see the changes in the amount of light that is falling on the monitor and as this was normally one of the kids walking by blocking out part of the sun falling through the window I always look behind me when that happends thinking there is someone walking through the yard. But with the tree in the backyard getting a few bigger branches they also sometimes block out some of the sunlight due to the wind pushing them around and sometimes I than look behind me to see who is walking through the yard and there is nobody there.

And all of that due to a little bit of shadow.

At night home alone I don't have any problem with the idea that people are walking around the house as I kinda know the sounds the house makes (no its not house on haunted hill but every house has its sounds). I did catch some kids at night trying to throw something inside through my window (I sleep on the bottom floor of the house) but there is like this woody stuff on the ground infront of my window so I can hear the differance between when someone walks on the stonesidewalk or closer to the window.

Just learn to identify the sounds its really helps. Normally when dad his late and we are already having dinner I can already tell when he's home when he makes the corner to park infront of the house as the car makes a certain noise that you get used to. Also when people walk around in the house I can mostly identify who it is just by the sound they make. That is for mum and dad and my 2 bro's as I kinda get used to those sounds by now.

Must add that I also used to cross the street just by basically listening to the noises around me and only look at the last moment just as a double check that I don't run into anything. Since I've been to the UK a few times I don't tend to do that again.... as the sounds the car / bikes etc make are coming from the wrong way as I'm used to (Dutch guy).

Must add that I have +8.8 glasses and I didn't get those till I was 4 and a half as I always foulled people in believe I could see. I guess that kinda makes you go on different senses than other people might do.

So no weapon needed because as you say yourself you are sure there isn't anyone anyways. Just learn to identify the sounds so you know what it is that you are hearing and therefor you don't have to be afraid of it at all

I agree with Chambler, most of the noises houses make can be scary when you haven't got to know them but they're perfectly normal really.

This is why I'm glad I have a dog. When the other half used to be out at work until 1 or 2 in the morning and I always went to bed alone, it was quite comforting to have the dog there because his hearing's so much better than mine, and I knew if he wasn't worried by a sound, I didn't need to be.

I do this all the time!! I'm sure that there is someone in the garden or in the house with me really late at night, especially if i've been in one room for a long time, when I go to another room I always think someone will be there!! I always feel better if I leave a few lights on, waste of electricity but it's a slight comfort!!

There was once a time when I was over at Hoppy Toad's house, her parents were away so I was keeping her company!! We'd been out that day and so got back lateish, we spent the rest of the evening sat in the kitchen (at the back of the house) talking and laughing quite loudly!! It had gotten dark outside but we hadn't really noticed this or what time it was!!

Next thing you know we hear this really loud bang from upstairs right above us sat at the table, that ment it had come from Hoppy's room!! We both stopped, looked at each other and just sat there perfectly still!! Then there was another loud bang, it was as though someone were walking around upstairs!! we sat wispering to each other for about half an hour (it was now about midnight ish, we didn't move once, too scared!!) In this time she informed me that she had in fact left the front door unlocked and had not idea where the key was so someone could have walked in and we wouldn't have heard them!!

I then, out of pure paranoia and panic put a chair under the kitchen door handle, Hoppy got a coulpe of knifes from the kitchen draw and we went out of the house the backway, taking the spare front door key with us!! we went to the front of the house, locked the front door quietly so if there was anyone inside they were now trapped!! So now we have the scene - Hoppy Toad and myself stood on her drive at 12am, both with a kitchen knife and my phone!! next thing you know a coulpe walk past and give us the strangest looks!! It must have looked like we were the ones about to break in!!

So we decided that we'd phone the house (like anyone would answer, i think we were going for disturbance factor ) Obviously nothing happened, so we got up the courage to go back in the house the front way and investigate!! So we go in, Hoppy checks the front room - nothing!! So she suggests that I go check up stairs - Alone!! (thanks for that Hoppy!! grrrrrr, hehe!!)

So off I go, knife in hand up the stairs, next thing I know i've frozen like a dear in the headlights, I heard someone laughing!! spun round, looked at Hoppy who now has a smirk on her face the size of the grand canyon, realising what she's done!! She put the TV on when we got back in the house and that was what i'd heard!! I nearly had a heart attack and she's laughing!! So anyway, we check all the rooms, but we find nothing!!

Next day we were fine about the whole thing, thought it was stupid!! then we spot the police car accross the street and automatically go back into panic as we think they have been sent to get us for brandishing weapons stood on Hoppy's drive at midnight, turns out they stopped a guy for speeding!!

To this day we still don't know what it was, but it casued us to act in the most stupid way!!

(Edited by Dru's Dead Bird 23/07/2002 11:36)

i get paranoid sometimes...once my and my brother were alone in the house, it was during the day and eveything, but we heard a noise upstairs. In a not-so-bright (read: temporary insanity) moment i called out to ask if anyone was there...i felt so stupid once i'd said it obv...but then i realised just how freaked i'd have been if someone had answered.

it's worst if you're in alone at night...and you go in the shower...not necessarily scary just weird...

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by Rae

it's worst if you're in alone at night...and you go in the shower...not necessarily scary just weird...

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yeah coz no one can hear you sing

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by SPIKE
(quotes)
yeah coz no one can hear you sing

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Well I would think that it would be more scary as in the shower you can't really hear very well whats happening in the rest of the house or outside.....

i jsut posted a reply to this but my computer went haywire and i lost it gah.
anyhow what it said was:
i got really scared one night a few weeks back. it started when i heard a random noise in my room (as you do), so i'm lying there wondering what it is...and then my door, which was closed, swings open!
so naturally i'm like oh my god, really scared now and just lay there. so i'm thinkin' i should really close it....but i'm too scared to get out the bed in case theres smeone there waiting for me, so i used a coathanger to push it shut.
and after that i started thinknig all sorts of stupid things: what if someone got in my room whilst the door was open, what if they are waiting for me, what if they've already kidnapped my mum, what can i hit them with (me spies a lamp!)
and then silly things like imagining myself having to go to the neighbours for help
naturally i was scaring the life out of myself and i had to get up and go and sleep in bed with my mum

I have a very active imagination so I always get all panicky in the house, the worst was when we`d had a bomb scare in our street and when i got back in the house i could hear something upstairs, i called my mate and made her come round, Im always the stupid one whos first to grab a heavy object or a kitchen knife and head upstairs to confront the intruder...If I ever actually saw someone i'd probably just bolt out of the front door!

Im even more nervous now because last week a man was sexually assaulted at knife point about ten minutes walk from my house so my imaginations been working over time!!!

(By the way I dont live in a war zone or anything even though thats what it sounds like )

A few years ago we had our house broken into in the middle of the night while we were asleep upstairs. The milkman had noticed that the door was half open at some silly hour of the morning and called the police. I have to say it was very scarey being woken up by the police on your landing calling your name! That poor copper, he was only young, he was saying he didn't know what he was going to find upstairs! *shudder*

So anyway - The noises in your house thing - for weeks after that I had trouble sleeping. I bought a baseball bat and slept with it down the side of my bed. If I heard anything I'd get up and sit on the edge of the bed, staring at the bedroom door, holding this bat like a fool... I mean I would have been too frightened to do anything with it! But it took me a while to get back into a decent sleeping pattern.

Since I lived in my new house, my housemate stays out quite often so I'm on my own a lot of the time. At first It was a bit strange, the hot tap of the sink makes a strange noise if you don't turn it off properly, the central heating makes the pipes and the floor boards creak... But as Chamb says, once you get used to it, its not so bad.

I don't watch a lot of horror movies though, that makes me a while lot worse! After a scarey film I'm one of these that races upstairs with ALL the lights on, taking the steps 2 at a time so I can be back down again asap!

Silly huh?

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by Desire
A few years ago we had our house broken into in the middle of the night while we were asleep upstairs. The milkman had noticed that the door was half open at some silly hour of the morning and called the police. I have to say it was very scarey being woken up by the police on your landing calling your name! That poor copper, he was only young, he was saying he didn't know what he was going to find upstairs! *shudder*

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How horrible!!!!

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by Desire
I'm one of these that races upstairs with ALL the lights on, taking the steps 2 at a time so I can be back down again asap!

Silly huh?

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i used to do that when i was a lot younger and on my own just after my uncle died as a lot of the family said they thoguht they'd seen things.

My bedroom's on the ground floor and late at night I keep hearing noises like someone (something?) is moving about upstairs.
The thing is I live in a bungalow, upstairs is the roof space.