The Monday after my ghostly adventure had me jumping out of my seat. Something had followed me home from Powell River. Get the spooky story after the jump.

It Was A Dark And Stormy Monday

Well, it wasn’t exactly that stormy, just your usual gray-and-drizzly night. I sat at my computer in the home office, catching up on work and working on some ideas for a new podcast. On the desk, 2 large monitors displayed charts and graphs as well as the red exclamation emails for work emergencies. The faint orange glow of an Ikea floor lamp provided a warm counter to the harsh, cold white light from the displays. To my right, a beam of fluorescent light cast down from the bathroom attached to my office.

Then, I heard it.

A faint shuffling sound.

Something to my right. Maybe 10 feet from my desk? It came from the bathroom.

At first, I thought it might be one of the pack, Roxy (a pittie princess) or Ollie (a super-sized Malinois-Shepherd). I scooted away from my desk to see if either one laid on the puffy white floor mats by the sink. Roxy especially liked to stack them up and nap on them. As for Ollie, he liked to lay on the cool, white tiles.

But as I peeked in, there were no dogs sleeping. The bathroom was empty.

I rolled my chair back to the desk and clicked to open an emergency email. It was about a bad German translation for a web page. Really? A noun without capitalization is a showstopper? I thought to myself. I’ll take care of that one tomorrow morning.

Criss-Crossing The Threshold

I was about to close my laptop and let the dogs out one last time before bed when I heard it again.

Shuffling.

But this time I heard a creak. A long whining lilt like someone gently placed their foot on a long skinny plank. And pressed down hard.

I turned toward the bathroom again. The whine came from there, but I didn’t see anything.

Shuffling again. This time faster but still soft, like you would question if you’re even hearing it.

I stood up from my desk to go turn on the light when the bathroom light flickered.

It didn’t really flicker. It was more like someone stepped in front of the light and blocked it.

But there was no shadow.

And as I stepped and looked into the bathroom and next to the toilet …

A man.

He stood there like he shivered from the cold, his wire-frame glasses down to the end of his long, thin nose. This man had to be well into his 70s, maybe 80s, and he wore loose tighty-whities. His lanky arms and twig-like legs had purple and red bruises on them.

I stepped back and I think I said ‘What the fuck?!’

The man took a step forward, but stopped. He just stood there in the middle of the bathroom. The overhead fluorescent light casting a sinister shadow on his face. Then, he looked up at me with these sad blue eyes. They seemed to sit back in murky pools.

And then I realized he had black eyes like he’d been punched.

I wanted to say something, but stopped. He started to shiver and shiver and shiver. Each bout got stronger and stronger and stronger. He crossed his arms over his chest like he wanted to warm himself …

… and then he nodded at me.

And he was gone.

More Questions

The room fell silent, and after a few moments, I heard the door to my office creak. It was Roxy. She slinked inside and popped up, placing her legs on my chest. She started to give me kisses and soft pounces. Ollie came in next, and then Mikey (my super-sized senior pittie prince) mosied over and flopped down at my feet. They all seemed unaware of what just happened.

I had no idea what I just saw could mean. As I thought about what could have caused a hitchhiker ghost to follow me, it may have been that unplanned activity on the previous Saturday. I helped move an antique player piano from a man’s home who’d recently passed away. Actually, I joked about the ghost of the former owner following the piano.

And that piano is in the basement of the Inn, not with me in the good ol’ USA. Maybe my joke was the anchor he needed to latch on? To set me straight for being a jagoff?

I wonder if that was him. The current home owners didn’t want that piano in the house, and they were very clear they wanted it out … now. They even helped take the hinges off the door so the piano would squeeze through.

Maybe this was the previous owner? I didn’t get a name to check it out, but I’ll see what I can find out.

Stay tuned. The sleuthing begins now.

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Thanks for reading Ghostly Activities. Much appreciated. Take care!