WWYD - creepy box in attic

[LittleSausageFingers]

DH and I bought our first home, which is 100 or so years old, last year. It has a partially boarded attic, and in the attic is a fairly big metal box addressed to someone in New York. It looks really old, old fashioned handwriting on the address label, super dusty like it's been there a long time.

We're not particularly "woo", but we've seen our fair share of horror movies, including those involving boxes in attics (Sinister, anyone?) and we weren't really keen to open it. Plus, I was 9 months pregnant when we moved in and we had other things to do, like build a million boxes of Ikea furniture.

Our friends (mostly) think we're mad for not opening it. One of them researched the name on the box and came up with an old newspaper clipping saying that the person died in an asylum from a religious furvour! Obviously it's probably a coincidence, but date wise it would fit with when the house was first built.

I must admit that my main reason for not wanting to open it is that it's dirty as fuck and i don't want to have to clean up all the mess involved in getting it down! My DH doesn't want to open it because he is actually scared of ghosts (has been known to scare himself while telling a made up ghost story ).

The house doesn't feel haunted or anything like that, but it has a couple of weird quirks that freak us out a bit, e.g. the spare bedroom door (loft hatch is in this room) sticks for no obvious reason and you can get stuck in there. We've also both seen a shadow move under a door looking out into the hallway from the nursery.

So WWYD about the box? Open or leave it?

Open it, there might be some stuff worth money inside.

There are indeed, no such thing as ghosts.

My grandma had bolts on the tops of all her doors. She lived across from the house in green street Enfield (they made a tv show about it). My dad remember furniture being thrown out there and something once coming out of the chimney.

BowieFan you know in Victorian times that if a child died in the house, it was common practice to seal off the room? Could that have happened at your place?

I only found this out as a friend of ours bought a large house (9 bedrooms), knocked down a false wall after counting an extra window and discovered a tenth, little boys bedroom with old clothes, toys, furniture and peeling wallpaper all still intact freaky as hell!!!

I thought DH was shitting me until I saw it myself!!!!

DONT OPEN IT there could be all kinds of curses unleashed!! Leave it well alone there's a reason it was hidden up there................,.............,,👹👻👻👻👻👻👻👻👻

Ffs. Open it. I would've opened it months ago. I bet it's not even a real box . Why ask a bunch of strangers whether you should've open or leave a box that's been there since you moved in? Get one of your friends who googled it to open it.

RTFT people

look up paranormal witness dybbuk box you wont want to open it now lol

you could just open it in a place away from the house or ask someone to open it maybe away from the house if your superstitious

"I regularly dream I buy a house and discover lots of hidden rooms I didn't know existed. They are always old fashioned and off long corridors."

I do too. I'm crawling along this long, low ceilinged corridor, then suddenly I'm in this bedroom, with a bathroom leading off from it, overlooking a garden that I never knew existed.

I read that apparently, houses in dreams represent the mind, and that the hidden rooms are unexplored areas of ones subsconcious mind.

It gets to this point when the people who haven't read the thread are almost as entertaining as the thread itself.

Seriously, you see a title like this the first thing to do it to scroll though and read the OPs posts.

Gobsmacked at the "Open it" comments on a 380+ thread.

Have you thought about cancelling the cheque?

It's empty because it's out.

My grandparents and many family members of their age have/had bolts on the doors for security, so if someone got in they couldn't walk freely from room to room... they have a bolt on each downstairs door and the door to the bottom of the stairs... also had one on their bedroom door to stop little people being nosy in their room.

I also know people who put bolts on bedroom doors of children with additional needs to keep them safe at night...

CreativeBee are you SURE that was your husband making those howling and whispering sounds?

Hire a psychic to try and predict the history and contents of the box and open it in their presence ....just joking. OPEN IT !!

Emmageddon he's a bugger for it, he knows how scared I get and once he made me watch this movie (late at night), he then decided to quickly nip to the petrol station. I was sat in the living room dying to go to the bathroom but couldn't go because I was so scared, next thing DH creeps up to the bay window and smacks his hands on the window! Good job I have some bladder control, that's all I can say.

CreativeBee my DH once put a scream mask on and popped his head round the door when my DCs & their friends (all teenagers) were having a horror movie night. I've never seen such terror under one roof, they were all traumatised.

My DP's family house had a papered over door. At some point his GPs had knocked down a wall between two rooms to make one larger room, and his GM had papered over the door leading to the second room. But that was because his GPs were fans off a cheap bodge job with their DIY.

I shat myself one evening, my kitchen sink faced the back garden window and I was happily washing up the dishes. It was dark out side and the light was on so I could clearly see my reflection and that of the room behind me.

Ex DP thought it would be funny to pull a pair of tights over his head and run in the room and duck down behind the kitchen island. How I didnt have a heart attack I'll never know. Knob. Part of the reason why he's an ex...

It just shows that men just don't grow up, one of these days someone's going to have a heart attack, I'd love to be a fly in the wall when they have to explain to the paramedics what happened . Saying that I did get him back a few months later when he left the bathroom door open whilst shaving, he was so engrossed that he didn't realise that I was standing there with a towel on my head for a good few minutes. When he did turn around, he crapped himself and gave me a proper wallop (it was a gut reaction) I had a sore face but it was so worth it !!

I thought the box would be full of sentimental stuff...oh well. It is a sad story from 100 years ago, that poor woman obviously suffered a lot and i feel sad thinking about her children.
Don't think you unleashed anything sinister OP, perhaps the poor shadow wanted for someone to remember her and spare a minute thinking about her/her children's life.

I did chuckle at the mental image of your DH whimpering at the hatch

Well I'll never sleep again... thanks everyone !