An Obsession with Sharp Objects

The following ghost story is a good an excellent example of how a haunting that initially scares people is not always what it seems...

Jim and Liz Fallows were both schoolteachers in a small coastal town in Maine, where they both grew up. They lived in a small cramped house with their dog and two cats. So when one summer Liz’s maternal grandfather suggested they move into the family's empty ancestral home. The young couple agreed thankfully.

The 100+-year-old two-story white house sat overlooking green fields and the ocean. The Fallows settled in quickly, knowing the school year was fast approaching.

Immediately, a couple of peculiar things occurred, but Jim and Liz didn’t place much significance upon them until much later. 

One day as Liz painted an upstairs bedroom, she stepped down off a ladder only to feel a steadying hand upon her back. She turned thinking it was Jim only to discover no was in the room with her.

Three weeks later, Liz’s father was going through items in a shed on the property when a music box started to play. It was in a back storage cabinet that he had not touched.

Pins, Needles, Scissors, and Knives

Once the school year began, more odd things occurred in the old house. They increased in intensity quickly.

One morning Jim took a new dress shirt out of a drawer and pulled the straight pins out and carelessly threw them on a table by the bed. When the couple returned after work that day they were puzzled when they found these pins had been pushed into the top of a candle that sat on the same table.

Later that week, Liz was sewing a button back on a favorite skirt in the upstairs bathroom when the phone rang. She placed the needle and thread she had been using on the back of the toilet and went to answer the phone. When she returned, she was mystified to see the needle had been pushed into a bar of soap on the sink.

The Fallows busy with work, managed to put these strange occurrences behind them. But things became more frightening when one afternoon they found a pair of scissors in an impossible position.

Liz, the night before, had been cutting out fabric for kitchen curtains and left her scissors lying next to the cloth. When the couple returned home, they found these scissors standing on end balanced on one point. When Liz touched them, they fell over.

This was the first of several similar occurrences. If a dirty knife was left in the kitchen sink, it would be discovered balanced on end with no apparent support. This happened only with sharp objects.

Frightened and alarmed the couple started to make sure that they put pins, needles, knives, and scissors immediately away after use to avoid seeing these odd sights.

One night as the couple slept Liz was awakened out of a sound sleep. The house was quiet, so she wondered what had roused her. She went out onto the landing and discovered the home was sweltering.

She looked down upon one of her cats as it lay rolled over on it back with its stomach exposed. She usually only saw her female cat do this in the heat of the summer.

She then heard the loud rumbling of the furnace. When she inspected it, she realized it had been running non-stop. She managed to shut it down.

Later the couple realized that this malfunctioning furnace could have exploded or even burnt down the house.

Liz started to wonder if there was a connection between the strange occurrences they had been experiencing and the fact she was awakened just in time to divert a possible disaster.

A Secret Family History

The Fallows had been reticent to discuss what had been happening in the house not wanting to appear ungrateful, but after the furnace incident, they started to ask questions.

Liz’s grandfather told the couple he felt the house was haunted, in fact, there was one room he told them he would no longer enter. When he heard about the sharp objects, he stated that he probably could shed some light on what they had been going through.

He felt the ghost was a female relative that had an extreme phobia when it came to anything sharp-- in fact the family several generations before had locked her away briefly because of her irrational fear.

Liz’s father told the Fallows that a caretaker who had looked after the property before they moved in, when it was empty, had mentioned to him that he had seen an apparition of a woman at one of the home’s windows on several occasions. He apologized to Liz stating he had not believed the man.

With this new information, the young couple lost their fear. They remained in the home with a clearer understanding. That month, Liz found out she was pregnant, and after her baby was born, the activity ceased.

Liz afterward viewed the ghost as a protective spirit. It did not want her baby harmed by anything sharp, and she felt it had alerted her to the fact the old furnace was dangerous.