The Haunting of the Lakeland: Don’t go in the basement

This week, Lakeland Connect is featuring the real-life paranormal experiences of local people that defy explanation and will leave you wondering if we are truly alone.

If you are easily scared read at your own risk…

A cold day in the basement

It was a cold December day in Cold Lake. So cold the buses weren’t running, and Elijah and his sister stayed home from LeGoff School, while his cousin Tyrone came over because his parents were at work.

Elijah was in Grade 4 or 5 at the time, and they were all excited to be home from school and ready to watch the brand new movie Iron Man, just released on DVD.

They got together in the basement and sat down in front of the TV.

“We throw on the movie and we’re excited to rewatch Iron Man, and it was Tyrone’s first time watching it,” he said.

“We get halfway through, and then the power just cuts off. The whole basement goes completely dark.

“Then, we heard doors open in the basement and it’s just complete darkness, black everywhere. We hear all the doors open, but you couldn’t see because the only windows were in the bedroom and in the lunchroom, and those doors were shut.

“And then all of a sudden, almost like a snap of the fingers, the light in the bathroom comes on. Now we can hear the toilet going up and down. And it just starts freaking out, like someone is slamming the toilet seat over and over again.

“As kids, we were like, ‘maybe it’s the wind. Maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that.’ But there was no window in that bathroom in the basement. We just didn’t understand.

“We thought someone broke into the house because that’s the logical thing: someone broke in. So now I’ve grabbed my sister, Tyrone started to grab me. Then the lights go out and now it’s just pitch black again.

“A few minutes pass and we’re starting to now get comfortable to stand up. We’re starting to move and we’re trying to feel for where the wall is. As soon as we touch the wall, every single door in the entire basement starts slamming open and closed, just non stop.

“The only light that we could base ourselves off of was the bedroom and the laundry room light. The light rays would stream in as soon as the doors were opening and closing. And that’s what we were able to guide along the wall to get to the stairs.”

‘It really happened’

Once they got up the stairs, Elijah called his mom. She came home and wasn’t sure what to believe.

“I told her and then she was like, ‘yeah, whatever. I guess I can’t leave the kids home alone.’”

“We’re all like, ‘no, this happened.’ It really happened.”

Some years passed. As he grew up, Elijah avoided going back into the basement, needing someone at his side whenever he ventured down the stairs.

His family then started a renovation of the basement, tearing out the flooring, removing the bathroom, and knocking down a couple of the walls to create a large common space.

That’s when things got weirder.

“We’re going through all these walls, we found bones. We found some skulls, fish bones, and this leather frickin’ handle. There was a black thing that was braided in between and it seemed like something like you whack over little animal heads. And it was between the walls and the vent, which was between the bathroom and the bedroom,” said Elijah.

With no explanation, their family didn’t know what to think.

The renovations finished downstairs. Elijah’s bedroom was beside his mom’s room, and as he grew older and stayed up later in the night, his mom had enough of his video games until 1:00am in the morning.

So he was sent to the basement.

“I still had a little bit of fear being in the basement. And then after three nights sleeping down there, some weird stuff started to happen.”

‘Something was right near me’

“I remember just feeling watched and just paranoid all the time. So that’s where I built the habit that I would face the wall. And I didn’t want to look everywhere else because maybe I can’t physically see it. But maybe I could see a shadow on the wall or something.

“There’s just been a few nights, I definitely felt like something was like breathing, or in the basement with me somewhere.

“Then a couple of further nights come down the road. I almost feel like something like there’s a shadow on the wall.

“I was on this big, queen size memory foam mattress, you had to jump up onto it because it was pretty high and you would sink into this bed. When I turned to the side and I saw this image, I felt like something was right near me.

“When I turned I could see him on the bed, like where my knees are, were pressed on the bed and it almost looked like there were two fists that were pushed down and leaned over me.

“When that happened, I went and I grabbed my blanket and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to scream. I know my mom is above me and she can hear me from the vents. I didn’t know if I was gonna to scream that something terrible was going to happen. I didn’t know.

“As I grabbed this blanket, you could now go ahead and see that the prints are moving down the bed and it doesn’t make sense because now I’m pulling this blanket. Why is there resistance here? And why are these prints moving with that resistance.

“I was holding onto this red alarm clock above my TV stand And then I’m just holding on to it and it was kind of just standing there. I was paralyzed, just gripping onto this blanket.

“I had three thick blankets that I’m on. So I’m grabbing three thick blankets, making sure I’m fully covered. And I’m shivering, and it’s like super cold in the basement.

“Then all of a sudden, the blanket gets tucked from my hands. And the moment that happens, I booked it upstairs screaming the whole way.

“I ran up the stairs. And my sister was born, she was little and she was in her own room at this point. And I was able to jump into the bed with her and stay there for the rest of the night.

“I told my mom what happened. I had to stay a couple of nights upstairs, sharing the bed with my sister. And I didn’t even go downstairs. I had school for the next few days. I didn’t go downstairs or grab my backpack. I didn’t grab my homework. Nothing.

“We had people come in and they smudged the house with sweet grass and sage. Then we got holy water. Ever since that night, I’ve never had experiences like that at that house. But I definitely had that kind of encounter before. all this sweet grass in this age and everything kind of came into play

“I was still in the basement for the rest of my school year… I graduated still living in that basement up until 2015.

“I definitely never had that happen again in any other household. I don’t know where that happened or where that came from…”

Have you experienced something eerie, paranormal, strange that cannot be explained? Email mmenzies@lakelandconnect.thedev.ca.