Mold and other fungi. Ungrounded electricity. Food poisoning. Night terrors. Sleep paralysis. Sleep deprivation. The fact that when we don't see a human face, muscles related to hearing tighten to be able to hear farther for threats. Minerals leaking into pipes.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is usually my go-to when people come to me asking for advice about a haunted house/being cursed, usually followed up by most of the above.

Like sorry if you thought my witch ass was just going to tell you to place a salt ring and burn some incense or w/e, but if you come to me telling me you’re seeing shit/got ill/your partner started acting weird when you moved into your new house, my witch ass is still going to tell you to check you’re not being poisoned by your surroundings before I jump to “you got ghosts in your veins.”

"yea but I’VE had a real ghost encounter, and it wasn’t mold!”

Didn’t say you didn’t chief. I’m just saying that a lot of the things people think of as hauntings is just the living hell that is home ownership and that it’s a good idea to make sure you’re not accidentally eating radon for breakfast in your basement apartment. Smart witches worth their salt circle know that.

Just a thing to add to the list of "Am I Being Haunted Or Do I Need A Home Inspection (you need a home inspection)" :

So a couple years back, a demon moved into my parent's house.

Genuinely, this thing was Demonic. First indicator that something was off was the thumping and scratching in the ceiling and walls of all hours of the night, and an awful, arcid smell not quite as sulfurous, but significant'y worse than, brimstone. Then came the Hissing and Wailing and sudden propigation of severed animal heads all about the yard- mostly rabbits, but also rats, snakes, birds and even cats.

It was an awful thing, screeching and crawling around, scaring the dog, leaving severed heads around and the SMELL was absolutely vile. The worst possible combination of rancid meat and a gas station bathroom left unattended.

One night, the damn thing was close enough to the attic vents to see it's eyes peering out onto the driveway, blood red and almost human-looking.

At which point we were finally able to put a name to the wretched thing:

Behold, the feared Demon Tyto alba.

Oh, yeah, barn owls just naturally sound like the wailing of the damned. That's just their default setting.

You’re telling me that this innocent face can scream like the damned?!

Yep, their normal sound they make has people unfamiliar with them assuming they're being, like, abused or tortured because in other species it would be an agonized and frightened sound.

But nope. They just. Scream. To communicate, it's basically their version of hooting. It's just Their Sound.

Which is really funny because you'd think THIS would be the screech owl then, but nope that's an entirely different species lmao

Like these guys will definitely have sounds they make when agitated, distressed, etc. but they still very much do just scream as a normal noise.