My wife and I just bought our first house. We were so excited as the previous owners happily showed us around the home, it was a lovely place not like any other house on the block but it had real character and we loved it. As they showed us around the place they mentioned that it had a basement which I thought would be great as I liked to do woodworking and it would be perfect to store my tools and equipment down there.

On the tour of the basement it seemed nice enough, nice and dry which was different than my experiences with basements had usually been damp and cold. On the way back up, I noticed some marks at the bottom of the door coming up the stairs but being so excited I thought nothing of it and didn't mention it to my wife.

That night after doing a lot of moving boxes we were both exhausted and headed upstairs to our bedroom to get some rest, little did we know that we wouldn't be doing much sleeping that night. It started quietly at first, my wife woke me and asked me in a distressed voice I wasn't use to if I had heard what she was hearing.

I said that I couldn't at first, but there it was clear as day. I could hear crying, it sounded like a small child was somewhere within the house sobbing. We both put it down to being absolutely exhausted from the move and after talking for a bit realized that it had stopped and we both eventually drifted off to sleep.

The next day was uneventful, more shifting and deciding where things would go. Couches moving from here to there as she wasn't happy with the placements, it was a lot of work and I was still tired from the day before but we managed. That night she made dinner and it was amazing, we sat down together for the first time and enjoyed a meal in our new home.

Everything seemed perfect, or so we thought but I couldn't help shake the thought of the sound we had both heard the night before... Did we really hear it or had we just imagined it... Either way it did not matter now. That night we climbed into bed and quickly fell asleep in each others arms. I don't know exactly what time I woke up but I remember hearing it, louder this time and closer.

It was definitely coming from somewhere within the house, the sound of a small child sobbing but this was different this time. Now I could hear a thud, then a dragging sound and then a thud again. It was coming towards our bedroom... I was angry now, I jumped out of bed against the protests from my wife who was awake now and in a terrified state telling me not to leave her alone but I had to get to the bottom of it.

I had to know what was making the noise, I quickly picked up my old baseball bat at headed for the bedroom door but as I reached for the doorknob. The house was silent. I turned on the bedroom light and flung open the door, immediately reaching for the hallway light too but as it turned on, nothing was there.

I searched the house, my wife now at my side not wanting to be left alone in the bedroom but we found nothing. We both went back to bed and I cuddled her till she finally fell asleep and I could too. The next day I could tell she was stressed, the dark marks underneath her eyes showed she wasn't getting the sleep she needed and I felt terrible for her as I had really pushed to buy this house in particular when there were others we had also liked. I tried to make small talk and make her feel better, make her laugh but it just wasn't the same.

I knew what was bothering her but I was helpless to do anything. That night, lying in bed cuddled together she told me she just wanted to get some sleep and said she felt like she was losing her mind. I told her she wasn't as we both clearly had heard it and tried to comfort her as best as I could. She finally fell asleep but no sooner as her breathing became long and deep, the sound started again.

I was furious, I just wanted whatever it was to go away, to leave us alone and let us be happy. I prayed she wouldn't wake but she did, she immediately started to cry and I had had enough now. I sprang out of bed grabbing the baseball bat again and screaming to leave us alone as I headed for the door, at the door I turned on the light and flung it open baseball bat at the ready for whatever was waiting in the darkness.

That is when I heard her scream, I turned and almost fell to see a small girl standing at my wife's side of the bed pointing directly at her, my wife frozen in terror.

And that was when the lights went out.