Ah...the end of Summer. Birds singing, children playing, and warm breezes blowing through the trees. It was August, a usually warm month, but this day, it happened to be a little cool after a short summer shower freshened everything up. My Wife Randi, my children, and myself had just finished looking over a beautiful older home to possibly rent out for a year or two. Two weeks later we moved in. Shortly thereafter, my daughters didn't want to sleep in their room. They kept complaining of monsters, a usual childhood fear. I did the usual inspection, and nothing turned up. About a month later, I found the children playing in their room, but something wasn't quite right. They seemed to be playing with a third child that I couldn't see. I walked into the room and asked them their friend's name. My oldest child said that they didn't know her name, but that she was very nice. About this time, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I got cold. I responded to them to keep playing and as soon as I walked out of the room, I felt better. A few months later, I was asleep in bed, and had a dream...or so I thought. I was awake, but not awake. I was facing towards the edge of the bed, towards our bedroom closet, but there was no door. Instead, I was able to see to the stairwell in the entry, and coming down the steps was a little girl. She continued to walk over to me, right through where the closet should have been. She stopped a few feet from the bed. "Mary" appeared to be about 6-8 yrs. old, and was dressed in a late 1800's to early 1900's nightgown and had a teddy bear under her left arm. She didn't say a word to me, and I didn't say a word to her, but yet she seemed to talk to me. It "felt" like she wanted help, but when I tried to get up, I couldn't move at all. It seemed like she stared at me for about 5-10 minutes, then she ran back upstairs and I met her "nanny". I don't think her nanny liked me very well, because all I could see were two hands that looked like they were nothing but bone, and a skull draped in a flowing sash. There were no eyes, no hair, and a few teeth. This part seemed to float about 5ft. off of the floor, and I could not move for the life of me. I couldn't scream. I couldn't do anything. I was helpless. About the time the apparition was a foot from my torso, the apparition disappeared, and I awoke upright in the bed, screaming my head off. My wife asked me what was wrong. I told her what had happened. She stared at me, then replied that it had felt like someone was sitting on the bed talking to her, but that she thought she was dreaming. We went back to sleep after a drink of water each, with no more troubles the rest of the night. The next day, we talked the landlady about what had happened. It turned out that she had an experience as well. Hers involved an old man in a brown suit standing at the end of her bed. She said he didn't do anything but stand there, and after he went away that she sat bolt-up in the bed. Her husband asked what was wrong and she said that she thought she'd seen a ghost. He told her to go back to bed. About a week later, I was on the phone with my dad, telling him about what had happened. No one else was in the house, and I had just finished picking up the dining room except for our wok lid which I had left on the table right in the middle. As I was talking to him, I heard a very loud, metallic THUD. When I walked from the kitchen to the dining room, the lid was about half off the table, and as I watched, it slowly moved back from the edge. I apologized to "Mary" for talking about her. Shortly thereafter, the prickly sensation went away, and I told my dad that I'd have to talk to him later. We moved out about six months after that, but until then, we would constantly hear footsteps upstairs, the occasional black, misty shape in the form of a cat, and my wife and I would nearly everyday encounter "cold spots" throughout the house. After all of this has happened, I still get excited about pricklies on my skin or a sudden drop in temperature. I can't always tell if someone's nearby, but I guess my body can.