N8tivegirl

There are haunted houses people talk about — the kind with ghosts, shadows, and things that go bump in the night.

But then, there are real haunted houses.

The kind we grow up in.

The kind where survival becomes a daily ritual.

A haunted house is not always abandoned. Sometimes, it’s full of people.

It’s the place where you are constantly reminded:

that you were not wanted,

not valued,

not loved.

Where all you ever desired was what every child deserves — love, protection, safety — yet the very people assigned to give it became the source of pain.

The demons in a real haunted house do not float or whisper.

They yell.

They curse.

They ignore.

They belittle.

They break.

And sometimes the worst part is praying —

“God, deliver me like You delivered the children of Israel” —

and feeling like heaven is silent.

The haunting isn’t supernatural. The haunting is emotional.

It’s when children are afraid to speak their pain because they know it will be met with anger instead of comfort.

It’s when hunger becomes shame — because needing to eat is treated as selfish.

It’s when love feels like stepping through a minefield of moods and expectations.

That is the real haunting.

Not spirits.

Not ghosts.

But trauma that settles into the bones.

Yet—even in silence, even in fear—

the children pray.

They pray that God remembers them.

They pray that their cries are heard.

They pray for a love they’ve never known, but still believe exists.

No one sees what they endured.

No one understands what was taken.

The ones meant to protect them blamed them instead.

Blamed them for pain they didn’t cause.

Blamed them for wounds they didn’t create.

Blamed them for suffering that never belonged to them in the first place.

But God is not blind. God is not distant. God is not indifferent.

There is a day when every tear shed in secret will speak louder than the silence forced upon them.

God remembers His children.

He restores what is broken.

He repays what was stolen.

And the haunting will not last forever.

Because God has never forgotten them.

Even when you did.

Closing Prayer (for survivors + readers)

Father,

For every child who has grown up in a house without love,

for every heart that has been bruised by the hands that should have protected it,

wrap them now in Your peace.

Restore their identity.

Heal their heart.

Silence every lie spoken over them.

Let them know:

They were never forgotten.

They were never forsaken.

They were always Your beloved.

Bring comfort where there was fear.

Bring love where there was pain.

Bring freedom where there was bondage.

And let the story that began in the haunted house

end in healing, wholeness, and Holy restoration.

Amen.

National Child Abuse Hotline:

1-800-4-A-CHILD

(1-800-422-4453)

Available 24/7 — anonymous, confidential, and free.