The Haunted House on Grandriver Street (A Personal Experience)
by Micah Alexander Harkins
I reside in an exceedingly secluded town nestled in the Ozarks of Missouri. Odd occurrences are commonplace around my area. I personally experienced some of this peculiarity when I was 21 years old during the winter of 1999. This is a story I have only ever divulged to one other person. When I moved into a small rental house in our little town, it was situated in an unusual little area that was "in town" yet encompassed by forests on most sides. It was not an extensive forest, just approximately 1 acre before there were more dwellings. The house was minuscule, built in the 1800s, and was somewhat dilapidated and outdated. I will omit the house number, but it was situated on Grandriver Street in Clinton, Missouri.
As soon as I arrived, I was overcome by a dreadful sensation. Being in the Navy and a mostly levelheaded person, it takes a lot to unnerve me, and yet this sense of foreboding clouded over me, along with an unfathomable feeling of being observed.
Within a week of moving in, strange events began to occur, particularly at night, when the feeling of dread heightened. I began to hear scratching noises, shuffling noises, and rustling sounds emanating from other rooms in the house. However, when I would investigate, nothing would be there. I had no other tenants and no pets. Though, in retrospect, I wish I had.
After around two weeks of living here, I'd been hearing these strange noises every single night. But one night, something even stranger happened. I was just sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when suddenly, the lightbulb above me went out. It was so sudden that I jumped out of my seat. I went to grab another bulb from the living room, but as soon as I flipped the light switch, the bulb blew out. I felt a chill run down my spine. I continued towards the kitchen, but as I entered the living room, the bulb there blew out, too. I was already so scared, but when the kitchen lightbulb blew out as well, I was absolutely terrified. Everything was happening so fast, and I couldn't help but feel like something was seriously wrong.
I started to feel like someone was watching me again, and it was making me extremely anxious. I immediately locked the door and changed out two of the bulbs, which was all I had at the time. I went to bed with my 9mm gun close by, hoping it would make me feel safer. When I woke up, things seemed normal with the new bulbs, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched.
The final straw came about 3 or 4 days after the lights blew. Every night, I heard more scratching, scuffling, and even footsteps in other areas of the house where no one could be. I couldn't see anything, but the sounds kept getting louder. One morning, after coming home from work and placing my keys in the tray as usual, I went to bed. The snowfall that night was heavy, as it often is in Missouri winters. When I woke up that evening and went to get gas for my car, I couldn't find my keys. I searched everywhere but couldn't locate them. I noticed the mailman stopping at the end of the driveway, so I paused my search to get the mail. But as I approached the door, I realized the door was already unlocked, which made me uneasy. When I opened it, I saw two things that made my heart race.
First, my missing keys were in the doorknob, in the unlock position, just hanging there on the outside of the door. Secondly, there was a set of small tracks in the crisp 1" thick snow, too small for shoeprints unless it was a toddler, that started at my doorstep, went out to the middle of the yard, and literally stopped there as if whatever was walking disappeared into thin air.
I moved out of that house within a week, and to be honest, the uneasy feeling just got worse, so that by the time I moved out, I left half of my possessions in the house and dirty dishes in the sink because I wanted out as fast as humanly possible.
Ever since I left this house in 1999, I have noticed a significant decrease in the amount of forest that used to surround it. It's quite evident when you see it now compared to how it used to be during the time when these events took place. However, there is still an uneasy feeling around that area of Grandriver Street.