"Friend of mine discovered that one the hard, hard way."
Interesting. Can you elaborate? And, I agree, by the way, that intensity of emotion seems to play a role in what seems to be a part of the past that is still here in some way. Especially negative emotion.
Short enough story, sure.
A friend of mine bought a house in Fort Worth. We were coworkers at the time, and one night I had to give him a ride home. He invited me in, I hung out there a while, met his live-in girlfriend and in the normal course of events, had to use the restroom.
The moment I closed the bathroom door, I got the sense that something was horribly, terribly, utterly wrong. Every alarm bell in my head went off. Looking around carefully, I didn't see anything wrong, yet something was ringing those little mental alarm bells. I cautiously unzipped, used the facilities, and bolted out of that bathroom.
I didn't say anything to my friend that night, but the next day I mentioned that he had an odd bathroom and that he might want to redecorate it in cheerier colors. (This was painted in the standard bathroom beige, nothing strange about it.) He gave me a strange look and said that I wasn't the first person to say that and that he'd think about it. As far as I was concerned, that was the end of it.
Except that two weeks later, his girlfriend attempted suicide in the tub in that restroom. She failed, but that got me to thinking. I did some research and found out that the previous owner had successfully committed suicide (by hanging) in that restroom - but instead of hanging himself by the shower bar and snapping his neck, he'd botched the job and slowly strangled himself. There were also hints that he maybe hadn't been the first, either.
My friend moved out *very* shortly thereafter and quickly sold the house.
I didn't see anything in that bathroom, but I sure *felt* something. My friend didn't seem to notice anything - until, of course, the g/f tried to off herself.
For the record, not only did I not know *anything* about the house, I didn't even live in the state at the time the previous owner offed himself. And none of the inhabitants of the house had any inkling that this had happened - I saw the disclosure paperwork afterwards, and it said nothing about homicides, suicides, or deaths in the house.
Not the first time that the alarm bells went off in my head for no immediately apparent reason, but the first time I'd found out why so quickly thereafter.