Is This Normal?

"Is this normal?"

When it comes to the club, the answer to this question is usually an absolute no. And the text I received Monday asking that question sure lived up to my expectations. A good friend of mine sent me a picture her sister had taken on Mother's Day, featuring their kids gathered in front of the couch.

And there, in the back of the picture circled in red, is what looks to be like another child crouching in a jacket. Honestly I thought it was another kid at first, just crouching in the back behind the cushions. But the more I study the picture, the more I'm not so sure.

Take a closer look at the couch. The back cushion is thick, and it sits pretty flush against the front left cushion, even with it sitting at an angle. You can tell the thickness of the left cushion thanks to that angle, and based off of that and the lay of the couch, it looks as though the right cushion its right against the back cushion. No space for another child.

Let me just say, it's kind of creepy. I zoomed in on the face and it doesn't get any better (no real surprise there).

Yeah, not better. And it doesn't help figure out what exactly it is. To me and a few friends who've seen the picture, it looks almost animalistic. It just doesn't have the right features to appear wholly human, which actually could just be the poor lighting, but even then.. I don't know. Nothing about that face settles well with me.

The only editing done to the pictures was blurring the faces of the kids through BlurImage and in the first one, my friend used SnapChat to circle the figure. No other enhancements or manips used at all.

To make this more unsettling, my friend said her daughter hasn't been acting like herself. Her daughter is very sweet, very loving, and a huge momma's girl (she's top left in the photos, red shirt). However her behavior has begun to change. Lately, when she gets mad or upset, she goes into a certain corner, curls herself up, and gives her mom an 'evil eye'. She just sits there and glares at her mom. No screaming or yelling or temper tantrums. Just full on angry-face.

Right before this started happening, her daughter began to talk to herself, and it was only after catching her a few times did her mom realize she's talking to someone else. The thing is, she doesn't say it's an imaginary friend. She doesn't mention it all all. When my friend asks her who she's talking to, she says nothing and refuses to talk about it.

A few months ago, they were brushing their teeth, and her daughter suddenly turned around and waved at something unseen behind them. When my friend turned around, of course nothing was there, and her daughter said the same thing: she waved at nothing. She did this multiple times in the few minutes they were in there; turning, smiling and laughing, waving, and then turning around again. This started the habit of her daughter suddenly waking up in the middle of the night and going to sleep in the bathroom. The habit only varies now when she retreats to sleep under the table in the corner that she sits in when she's mad.

It's a strong belief in the paranormal community that children are much more susceptible to the paranormal than teens and adults. They're much more open to the communication, and many paranormal experts believe that children have an easier time perceiving the paranormal (in the same way that children can hear sounds adults can't and have more alert taste-buds than adults). As well, she mentioned that when she and her sister were children, they'd messed around with a ouija board and they got the impression that they let out something dark. They burned the board, but since then it's been a lingering feeling with her and her sister, and when this happened she got the same feeling (as she does with her daughter when she acts unusual).

We'd love your input on this. If my friend is up for it, we plan to do an investigation to make sure she and her family are safe, and that there's nothing sinister brewing. Please feel free to leave your feedback here, or join the conversation at our facebook page!