Ever since the third grade, TikToker Haley (@haleysburner) remembers the presence of a spirit named Toby. He has been following her family around for a long time.
Toby is the reason that Haley refused to shower with the shower curtain closed until three years ago. Even when she tried using clear liners or glass doors, she would still experience panic attacks in the shower.
When Haley was a kid, she and her family lived in an apartment. Every time she went to take a shower and closed the shower curtain, she could clearly see the outline of a person. When she whipped open the shower curtain, nothing was there.
“I closed it, and it would reappear, and then it would start to move,” said Haley. “I tried so many times to replicate a shadow or something to tell myself I was just freaking out for no reason, but it would start to move, and it would just pace and walk, and you get that feeling, you know when it’s something else. I got that feeling like I was being constantly watched.”
So, she started showering with the shower curtain open. Of course, her mom would get mad because water splashed everywhere.
What Haley didn’t know at the time was that Toby was terrorizing her mother every night while simultaneously terrorizing her in the bathroom. Her mom tried her best to get rid of the spirit. She performed secret exorcisms while the kids were at school.
Every night Haley’s mom went to bed, her closet was ice-cold, no matter what time of year it was. In the summer, her closet was 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and any time you walked in, you would get an unsettling feeling.
When her mom tried to go to sleep, she would feel a whoosh. She felt something in her face every night. She didn’t dare open her eyes, though. She just prayed and asked it to leave her and her kids alone.
Apparently, one day, Haley’s mom finally asked her stepdad to check out the closet. Haley’s stepdad lived in the apartment next door.
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Her stepdad has actually seen Toby. He had a near-death experience when he was younger, which left him with the ability to see ghosts and spirits.
When he walked up the stairs to Haley’s mom’s apartment, he turned and locked eyes with something down the hallway. He immediately pushed Haley’s mom behind him, and they slowly backed away.
Afterward, he called his friend, who was a priest, to come over and bless the place. This all happened around Christmastime.
So, they did an exorcism in her mom’s apartment. Nothing really happened, but they felt a heavy presence. When they did the same thing in her stepdad’s apartment, the Christmas tree started spinning, and her stepdad experienced a searing pain in his back.
When he took his shirt off, there were three claw marks running down his back.
“We did end up moving shortly after all this happened, and I think my parents thought it wouldn’t follow us, but it did,” said Haley.
“I think it followed us to Arizona from Wisconsin and back.”
Haley has since grown up and moved away. Other than appearing to her in a very scary dream, the spirit has not messed with her in a long time.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
