- Joined
- May 27, 2019
- Messages
- 681
- Reaction score
- 1,111
- Points
- 133
- Age
- 53
Thankfully I have now moved out , but it was quite an experience.
It was a downstairs modern flat in a block of 8, two storey building. Not more than 20 years old I don't think.
I had bought some things at auction years before including a collectors cabinet that had 42 small but deep drawers and had kept this in a garage mostly unused for about 8 years. Some people call them Apothecary chests.
When I moved into the flat I put this mid position along a wall and placed a stereo unit on top. This was a two part stereo, with radio at the bottom and a tape and CD player above. At the front was a display of the time or track and when it was turned on it would be backlit with a light. When turned off it would just be dark with the time displayed. It did have an infra-red remote, but I kept that in a drawer with no batteries as I had no use for it.
I also kept the blinds drawn most of the time, and it was on a side wall - so not facing any windows.
It displayed the correct time, and although it did have a timer function - that was operated by a moving switch and I never set or used it - ever.
The CD player was on top, and you had to press the top to release the catch and then lift the lid to remove the CD. No fancy stuff on that.
- This is all important because of what follows.
After several months there by myself I would develop a routine. I would get home from work and head over to the stereo and turn it on to radio or play a CD while I cooked dinner.
Then some rather weird things started to happen.
One time when I came home the back light was already on. I thought that maybe I hadn't turned it off last time, and ignored it.
Then a few days later I came home and headed to turn it on, - and it turned on by itself before I had crossed the room....Which was odd.
I would normally listen for a few hours with it in the background with nothing wrong with it, then turn it off later at night.
Then it went one step weirder.
I came home, in through the door - and it would turn on the backlight, and then start playing music!
.....This continued for weeks !
I said "Thank you" accepting it was sentient - whatever was doing this, and seemed benign. We were on good terms, and it was being a host.
Then I met a young lady, and through conversation mentioned this as a "possessed stereo".
I invited her home one evening and just as we stepped through the door she mentioned "Is that the posessed stereo?"...at which point it turned on, and started playing a CD that was in there - Queen - "It's a kind of magic!" (You can't make this up really - just too corny).
At which I said loudly "YES.....THANK YOU" - and it promptly turned off !
This is the first time it had turned itself off.
Later she tried to play some of her music.
CD after CD - nothing would work. Tried one of mine - fine no problem. Back to her trying - nothing. Then I tried loading one of her CD's. It loaded...it spun up....it played the first 3 bars - then the top opened and it was ejected - forcibly!
.....It can't do that. It hasn't got the mechanism.
She went home....Things were different after that.
It would still light up, when I came home, but would turn off again. Sometimes I would catch the light on in the corner of my eye, but when I turned around - it would be turned off again.
It didn't play me music after that. Unless I put some on.
When she was there again - we experienced a sudden fog in the room -long enough to comment to each other about it and that the air seemed thick...then less than a minute later it totally disappeared. This was about 4pm in the afternoon.
Then it got a bit angry I think as it decided to wake me up at 5AM at FULL volume playing the same CD - and I couldn't even get the lid open to take it out! I tried pressing the on off butons -moving to FM radio - nothing was working except the speakers, so I had to dive behind the sideboard and unplug it.
Not impressed.
I gave it away to some students as I didn't want that experience again. ( I did tell them it was possessed - I wouldn't just give a possessed item away without at least some warning )
I thought that was the end of it - job done.
Not quite.
I started getting answerphone messages. It was a phone/fax machine with answerphone. Not many people used it, but now it was quite busy.
Mostly it was just static noises.
Then I could hear talking in the distance on some.
then the latest one was quite clear................GET OUT!!!"
Being a little freaked at this I used 1471 - which is our code to find out what number last dialled you.
..............It was my own home number .................. Left at a time when I was out!
I know this is impossible because as soon as you lift the handset your line is engaged - so if you dialled your own number it would just be engaged - so you cannot leave an answerphone message for yourself. - But this thing did !
I then shouted at the flat - whatever was in there that I would not be leaving - and they had better get used to that - either they stopped this or they were getting the royal boot!
Thankfully - it did stop.
I did find some notebooks behind one of the drawers in that cabinet. It was meticulous notes about photographs mostly about railways from the previous owner. Some attachment I think.
I have seen the guy standing next to it a few times now, and smelt him a few times too when I pass it. He just stands there now and doesn't do anything weird anymore.
It was a downstairs modern flat in a block of 8, two storey building. Not more than 20 years old I don't think.
I had bought some things at auction years before including a collectors cabinet that had 42 small but deep drawers and had kept this in a garage mostly unused for about 8 years. Some people call them Apothecary chests.
When I moved into the flat I put this mid position along a wall and placed a stereo unit on top. This was a two part stereo, with radio at the bottom and a tape and CD player above. At the front was a display of the time or track and when it was turned on it would be backlit with a light. When turned off it would just be dark with the time displayed. It did have an infra-red remote, but I kept that in a drawer with no batteries as I had no use for it.
I also kept the blinds drawn most of the time, and it was on a side wall - so not facing any windows.
It displayed the correct time, and although it did have a timer function - that was operated by a moving switch and I never set or used it - ever.
The CD player was on top, and you had to press the top to release the catch and then lift the lid to remove the CD. No fancy stuff on that.
- This is all important because of what follows.
After several months there by myself I would develop a routine. I would get home from work and head over to the stereo and turn it on to radio or play a CD while I cooked dinner.
Then some rather weird things started to happen.
One time when I came home the back light was already on. I thought that maybe I hadn't turned it off last time, and ignored it.
Then a few days later I came home and headed to turn it on, - and it turned on by itself before I had crossed the room....Which was odd.
I would normally listen for a few hours with it in the background with nothing wrong with it, then turn it off later at night.
Then it went one step weirder.
I came home, in through the door - and it would turn on the backlight, and then start playing music!
.....This continued for weeks !
I said "Thank you" accepting it was sentient - whatever was doing this, and seemed benign. We were on good terms, and it was being a host.
Then I met a young lady, and through conversation mentioned this as a "possessed stereo".
I invited her home one evening and just as we stepped through the door she mentioned "Is that the posessed stereo?"...at which point it turned on, and started playing a CD that was in there - Queen - "It's a kind of magic!" (You can't make this up really - just too corny).
At which I said loudly "YES.....THANK YOU" - and it promptly turned off !
This is the first time it had turned itself off.
Later she tried to play some of her music.
CD after CD - nothing would work. Tried one of mine - fine no problem. Back to her trying - nothing. Then I tried loading one of her CD's. It loaded...it spun up....it played the first 3 bars - then the top opened and it was ejected - forcibly!
.....It can't do that. It hasn't got the mechanism.
She went home....Things were different after that.
It would still light up, when I came home, but would turn off again. Sometimes I would catch the light on in the corner of my eye, but when I turned around - it would be turned off again.
It didn't play me music after that. Unless I put some on.
When she was there again - we experienced a sudden fog in the room -long enough to comment to each other about it and that the air seemed thick...then less than a minute later it totally disappeared. This was about 4pm in the afternoon.
Then it got a bit angry I think as it decided to wake me up at 5AM at FULL volume playing the same CD - and I couldn't even get the lid open to take it out! I tried pressing the on off butons -moving to FM radio - nothing was working except the speakers, so I had to dive behind the sideboard and unplug it.
Not impressed.
I gave it away to some students as I didn't want that experience again. ( I did tell them it was possessed - I wouldn't just give a possessed item away without at least some warning )
I thought that was the end of it - job done.
Not quite.
I started getting answerphone messages. It was a phone/fax machine with answerphone. Not many people used it, but now it was quite busy.
Mostly it was just static noises.
Then I could hear talking in the distance on some.
then the latest one was quite clear................GET OUT!!!"
Being a little freaked at this I used 1471 - which is our code to find out what number last dialled you.
..............It was my own home number .................. Left at a time when I was out!
I know this is impossible because as soon as you lift the handset your line is engaged - so if you dialled your own number it would just be engaged - so you cannot leave an answerphone message for yourself. - But this thing did !
I then shouted at the flat - whatever was in there that I would not be leaving - and they had better get used to that - either they stopped this or they were getting the royal boot!
Thankfully - it did stop.
I did find some notebooks behind one of the drawers in that cabinet. It was meticulous notes about photographs mostly about railways from the previous owner. Some attachment I think.
I have seen the guy standing next to it a few times now, and smelt him a few times too when I pass it. He just stands there now and doesn't do anything weird anymore.