Transcription of an interview I conducted in 2009 with a person claiming to have experienced possibly paranormal activity in a house in Grey Lynn, Auckland. October 2008.
Note: I’ve edited out much of the unrelated natter in between, as it wasn’t relevant and was mainly him asking me about my team and how we do things.
Firstly, thanks for sharing this with me. I appreciate it. I’m very interested in hearing stories of experiences. Especially in Auckland.
“Alright, I’m telling you now, I didn’t go in there thinking anything weird was going to happen.”
Yeah, that’s what they all say.
“No, seriously. It was 2008. Just me and a mate mucking around in Grey Lynn. We’d heard about this old abandoned place, boarded up, overgrown, and it looked like it’d been forgotten for decades. Thought we’d check it out, nothing more than that.”
So you just… broke in?
“‘Broke in’ sounds worse than it was. There was a loose panel around the back. The place was already falling apart. Anyway, we got inside, and straight away it just felt… off. Not scary, just heavy. You know that damp, stale smell? Like nothing’s moved in years.”
Old houses always feel like that, though.
“Exactly. That’s what I kept telling myself. Floorboards creaking, bits of light coming through cracks, normal stuff. We were talking the whole time, probably louder than we needed to, just to fill the silence.”
Trying to convince yourselves.
“Pretty much. So we move through a couple of rooms. The kitchen’s stripped, the lounge half-caved in. Then we walk into what looked like a bedroom… and that’s where it changed.”
How?
“The temperature dropped. Not freezing, just enough that you notice it. Like stepping into a different space. I remember thinking, ‘Alright, there must be a broken window or something.’ But there wasn’t. Everything was shut tight.”
Could’ve still been a draft.
“That’s what I thought, until we heard it.”
Heard what?
“A movement. Behind us. Slow. Like… a step. Not a scurry, not random like an animal. It had weight to it. Deliberate.”
And your mate heard it too?
“Yeah. That’s the bit that gets me. We both turned at the same time. Didn’t even need to say anything. Just looked straight back into the hallway.”
Nothing there?
“Nothing. Just empty. So we stand there for a second, and he goes, ‘Probably a rat.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, must be.’ Trying to laugh it off.”
But it didn’t stop.
“No. It happened again. Same kind of step… but closer. That’s when it stopped being easy to explain. You can tell the difference between random noise and something with intent. This felt like intent.”
So what did you do?
“Nothing, for a second. Just stood there.
And then…
”I don’t know how to explain it properly… but it felt like something was there. Not visible. Just aware. Like we’d walked into its space and it was watching us.”
Right…
“I know how that sounds. I thought the same thing. But then the door moved.”
The bedroom door?
“Yeah. We’d left it half open. And it just… slowly swung shut. No bang, no force. Just a steady movement until it clicked.”
No wind?
“None. No broken windows, no breeze, nothing and even if there was, this wasn’t a sudden slam. It was controlled. That’s what made it worse.”
So you ran?
“Didn’t even run. That’s the weird part. We just… left. Calm, quick, no talking. Like if we kept it together, whatever was there wouldn’t react.”
And outside?
“Didn’t say a word until we hit the street. Then we just looked at each other, like, ‘Yeah… we’re not going back in there.’”
So what do you think it was?
“I don’t know. Honestly. Could’ve been something natural we couldn’t explain at the time. Could’ve been our heads messing with us.”
But you don’t believe that, do you?
“…No. Not really.”
“Because we both heard it. We both felt it. And that door…”
“That door didn’t feel like an accident.”
