The One-Legged Man
I remember that day somewhat vaguely, but what I saw is still attached to my mind very well. It happened at my grandparents old house before they moved several years ago. I don’t remember the exact date but I think it was around this time of year, let’s say 2010.
So me and my cousin, who is a couple years younger than me, was playing with me, of course we were little kids then, so we were really crazy. Sometimes we would go down to my grandparents basement because they had a lot of toys and games to play with done there, including an old-fashioned pinball game that still worked. There was even a karaoke machine that I would play with and sing into. It was really fun because we treated it like a game room. However, it was still located in the basement with that musty or damp odor with other separate areas off the room we were in were in darkness like empty closets and a door that would lead to the outside.
It was a really old house and my grandparents had lived there for years but never mentioned anything about the place being haunted. The basement area though except for the room we would go in, looked really uncanny the way I remember it, but that is the way most old basements look like. The one time me and my cousin were playing done there, we heard these light footsteps or almost like this little tapping sound. I was the one hearing them at first before my cousin did until he said he heard them too. It clearly wasn’t coming from upstairs, it sounded like it was coming from that dark room where that door that led to the outside was. It almost sounded like a heartbeat, but instead with two quick light taps and then stopping in between.
I looked at my cousin as we just stood there as it seemed like the noise was getting closer. Both of us were speechless and shocked because we obviously knew it was coming from that room and what made it more eerie was that nobody else was done there. My cousin finally whispered out “why don’t you go in there and see what it is” since I was the older and bigger one in that situation. I literally didn’t know what to say at this point, I might’ve muttered something but don’t exactly remember what I said. It was hard for me to move because I was a little afraid, but somehow my body started to move slowly towards the unlighted opening of that room. The sound of the tapping felt like it entered inside me as it got more louder.
I finally reached the opening as that seemed like it took forever. I tried to find a light switch so I could get a better look because it was so dark but couldn’t find it until I realized the tapping stopped completely. It then felt like once I entered the room, it dropped 20 degrees instantly and I started to feel this chill. It felt so cold, I started to see my own breath. I also felt this tap on my shoulder which I thought was my cousin, but I looked and he was standing way back behind me. I then looked back into the dark basement room, and then noticed this black moving shadowed figure starting to appear. It definitely wasn’t my shadow because I was standing there still as a rock and there were no lights on. My eyes were so glued to this moving shadow and for some reason, my vision went blurry and it was so challenging to see it all of the sudden. My ears even went foggy as well, but I could’ve sworn I heard my cousin say “what do you see?” I can’t think of what I said because my mind was so intrigued by this black moving figure.
I finally made it out and it looked to be a person, a man, on crutches with one leg missing walking towards me. He then stopped for a few seconds which felt like an eternity and stood still like I was. It felt like when he noticed me, he just stood there and looked at me not knowing what to do. With me being surrounded by total silence, I didn’t know what his next moves would be. After what felt like a never-ending ice cold and gloomy stare down between me and this one-legged spirit, he slowly made his way back to the door that went outside and I was able to regain my consciousness after the figure had disappeared into the darkness. It certainly may have sounded like it happened quick, but it actually didn’t.
I slowly made my way back to the other room where my cousin was who asked “Well, what did you see?” My mind was going in several different directions after what I had just experienced, but the words that somehow made it out of my mouth were “I saw a one-legged man.” My cousins face not only looked shocked but perplexed of what I just said, as I got a sense that he didn’t believe me. He even kind of laughed at me and started to make jokes. He pointed out that a picture in the game room moved by itself, but obviously he was just messing around. We then both went upstairs, and that’s all I can remember.
Your probably wondering why I didn’t freak-out but I think I just didn’t think about it afterwards. I haven’t told anyone this story until now and is a blurb of my life I will never forget.
