u/Emotional-Tell-1602

I want to preface by saying that my best friend, her older brother, and myself all live together in a modest older home in the country. The closest neighbor's house in within sight - a few acres away and across a pond. Close enough to holler out to them, but not close enough to hear their day-to-day goings on and vice versa. The back of the house and one side is surrounded by woods, the other side is the pond, and the front faces our very long driveway that leads to a private road and finally to a highway (about 2 acres in length away from our front door). We occasionally hear the odd semi passing by and echoing through the woods, but other than that, it's very quiet.

My friend's brother (call him Christopher) owns the house and has lived there about 10 years. He bought it from the family that owns the house across the pond and a few others out of sight farther down the road. We're the only non-members of their family that live on this road.

Over the past decade, Christopher has told us about some odd occurrences that have happened to him, primarily when he's been alone. I've only recently (within the past 6 months) been living here, so I cannot attest to everything, but the following is what he's claimed to have encountered:

• Woken up to cabinets opening and closing and silverware rustling around in the kitchen.
• Woken up to the TV turning on with the volume up all the way on bizarre channels (like televangelist networks he normally does not watch)
• Gone outside late late at night to pee (plumbing was backed up and we only have one toilet) and heard childlike laughter coming from the woods.
• And most strangely, another incident where he was peeing outside at night and swears he saw the box part of the utility pole catch fire momentarily and go out.

A bit before we moved in, he'd moved his bedroom suite out of the master room and into the living room. He would not tell us why, but continued staying there until we'd built a third bedroom off of the living room and I moved into the master. He later confided in me that the master room just plain creeped him out, hence him no longer staying there.

While staying in the living room, he claimed that one night he awoke to the bedside table lamp turning itself on and off again. He unscrewed the lightbulb and went back to sleep. When he later awoke, the lightbulb was back in place and the lamp was turned on again. Odd things like that.

After my friend (Marie) and I moved in, Christopher said he was more at ease in the home. Several months went by without incident and all was good. Marie and Christopher go out of town a lot and I would often stay there alone with no problems. The quiet was enjoyable even. Until recently.

I've stayed alone in the house around 8-10 days in the past two months or so. Most nights went without incident but the following has occurred to me while alone:

• I've heard my name spoken aloud. I contributed this to being an "echo" right before falling asleep. I know it can happen and it's perfectly un-paranormal (I guess just normal?) but it's happened with some frequency here lately. And I've also heard it while completely awake, which I'll elaborate on more in a bit.
• I've heard tapping sounds, on the walls or the windows on two occasions. The first was in a succession of threes, the second was just two. No one was at the door.
• I've had a sick eery feeling come over me in the living room for no apparent reason. It dissipates within moments. Just a "goosebumps" type feeling.

Finally, the things that have occurred to Marie and Marie and myself.

• Marie has frequently awakened at the same time in the middle of the night most nights that she's there.
• Marie and I have both heard strange car-on-gravel like sounds outside the house, with no other cars around in sight.
• I've heard Marie calling out my name while I was in the shower only to ask her later if she did/what she wanted and to find out she hadn't said anything.

And finally, the last straw. The thing that has brought me here to seek help and advice and explanation. Up until now I've dismissed most of these things and rationalized as much as I can. I'm a skeptical person, and while "ghost stories" are fun, I admit I've never been a huge believer in the paranormal. I have a rudimentary understanding of psychology and am familiar with concepts like confirmation bias and false memory. But knowing all that, I am still spooked.

Tonight, Marie and I were at home. We'd picked up a pizza and were watching a movie while doing some homework. Christopher is out of town and has been for several weeks and Marie and I have been alternating staying at our house and her parents' (we're college students in our early 20s and enjoy the benefits of having a home cooked meal and laundry done every so often.)

So we're having a normal night and pause the movie to chat for a bit. We heard a small animal-like sound and started listening. It's not uncommon for us to hear the occasional squirrel jump onto the roof or bird fly in and out of the bushes outside the living room window, so typically we're not scared, just curious to find out what it is.

As we listen, we hear an abrupt, strange sound and the pitter patter of what sounded like maybe a squirrel running away across the roof. The strange sound was like a cross between a human voice and a cell phone on vibrate. It repeated the same pattern, with short, even pauses between for about 30 seconds straight. Like something on loop. It wasn't our phones, and it appeared to be coming from the attic, the walls, or my room. It was hard to tell. By the 3rd or 4th loop, it began to sound like words. I understand the brain looks for familiar patterns in things, but I could not help the jolt of adrenaline I felt as I realized the looped phrase appeared to be saying "get out of my house. get out of my house. get out of my house. get out of my FUCKING HOUSE." It ended as abruptly as it started. Marie and I looked at each other, both of us visibly freaked. I did not tell her what I'd heard and waited for her to tell me what she thought. She didn't discern any words, but confirmed that it sounded like a human voice mumbling something from another room. It was fuzzy, however. Like it was coming from a broken speaker. I didn't tell her what I'd heard until later, when we were in the car fleeing to her parents', tails between our legs.

After it had stopped, she suggested we leave. We stood, grabbed the stuff we needed in the immediate area, and I told her I needed to grab my toothbrush from the bathroom. As we walked to cross the threshold from the living room to the hallway on the side of the house the sound appeared to come from, it started again, and only stopped when we backed away and fled out of the house.

I don't know what it could have been. I don't know if it really said what I think it did or if my mind was just playing tricks. I told Marie what I'd heard, and she repeated that she couldn't pick up any words, just the sound of a muffled, methodic, fuzzy voice. We're not sure what it was, but we're definitely staying at her parents tonight.

TL;DR - Weird sounds in the kitchen, heard my name called out, strange knocks, TV switching on, heard a voice telling us to leave. Don't know what's going on.