With the pumpkin season soon approaching, there’s no better time to indulge in ghost stories around the campfire and lift the spirits from the cold ground. Literally. The internet is full of allegedly true ghost stories, and while some scary stories may be based on actual events, many of them are just the fruit of people’s imagination. Either way, real or not, they are creepy and menacing nonetheless.
Whether it’s a sleepover with your ghouls, a bonfire party soon to turn spooky, or a Halloween shindig, there are plenty of short scary stories to fill the evening and creep things up. With All Saints’ Day just around the corner, now might be the perfect time to cuddle up with some real ghost stories and accept that some higher supernatural forces are beyond human comprehension.
Below, we’ve compiled plenty of scary stories to tell in the dark that will leave you feeling uneasy and... never alone ever again. While some creepy stories we’ve found online claim to be real, take everything you find on the internet with a grain of salt. Read through these haunting tales, and let us know whether you have a ghost story to share! And if you boo, leave your ghost story in the comments!
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The Shadow
"I didn't know that's what it was called until much later. I was living in a house in Laguna Beach that had been there since the 1920s. In it's history, it had been a speakeasy, a brothel and a house for smuggling illegal immigrants.
One day, my new wife and I were having an argument. I can't even recall what it was about. She walked down the block to get a cup of coffee and cool off, and I was alone in the house. The way the place was built was incredibly haphazard. There was a bedroom and living room on one side, then a bathroom with two entrances. On the other side of the bathroom was a hallway that had windows in one side and two bedrooms on the other. From my bedroom, I could look across the hall into the bathroom, then through the bathroom and down the other hall. I was standing at my dresser, and I just noticed movement out the corner of my eye, and looked down there. There was... and honest to god, this gives me goose bumps just typing it, 17 years later, a black figure. It was maybe three feet tall, and it was only vaguely humanoid. it looked like black scribbles, like someone had scribbled a human shape, but the scribbles moved, like electricity arcing, that's the best way to describe it.
There was no sound that I could remember. I distinctly remember when I saw it I wasn't afraid, just like, WTF? Then it noticed me looking at it. I can't say it turned around, it just, focused on me I guess. THEN I was scared. I didn't move, didn't scream, nothing, I was just frozen, because it just fucking came at me, it RUSHED down the hall towards me. I have no idea what it intended, but as soon as it entered the bathroom, the door closest to me just SLAMMED shut on it. I screamed. I yelled for my wife. She wasn't home. I went the fuck outside, into the daylight, and didn't go back in until she got home about 10 minutes later.
I don't believe in ghosts. I don't believe I saw something supernatural, but I know I saw something. I don't know what it was."
Ghost Bro
"My house was built in 1904. It is a single family home, wood frame setting on a concrete block foundation. I have been living here for about 12 years. Of all the weird things that my siblings and me have seen or heard in this house this one event is my favorite. This happened to my brother. About ten years ago my brother and his best friends had started a garage band playing mostly "Spanish rock," alternative music but in Spanish. His friends could only get together on Sunday afternoons. They would practice into the early evening, and they would usually call it quits by 8 pm. This was the time I usually showed up and went to bed, cause I worked the graveyard shift.
This happened in late fall, so the days were getting shorter, they had just finished a long session when the decision to head to someone else house came about. My brother handed his car keys to his buddy so they could load up the equipment. Everyone had filed out of the basement, but the tricky part was that they needed to walk all the way to the back of the basement, up the back stairs, through the kitchen doorway, down the hall into the living room and out into the front porch. Everyone was outside sitting in my brother's truck waiting for him. My brother was walking up the back stairs when he remembered that he had left his pancakes in a to go container sitting on a speaker in the basement. He made the decision to go back. Now the basement is not clean, with full sight lines, there had been partitions made, and the boiler and main heating unit are right smack in the middle. So after my brother walks back, he is about to retrieve his food container, when out of the corner of his eye he sees it.
It is a shadowy figure, right at his peripheral vision, this feeling of dread and uneasiness washed over my brother. We had been taught that if you are in the presence of a spirit or ghost and you felt a bad vibe, to say quick prayer or to cuss at it. My brother chose the latter, he basically just told it "hey fuck you, I don't have time for this shit".
My brother started to walk to the back of the basement and briskly up the stairs, closing doors and turning off lights as he was walking out. The last light switch is on the opposite side of the front door...luckily the door was open and the light from the street lamp was flooding the living room with its amber light. My brother said he felt something at his back, but at no point did he turn around. As he flicked the last switch the living room went dark, as did rest of the house. As he stepped out he pulled on the door closing it behind him, still holding his food container in one hand he jogged down the few porch steps. He walked towards the front gate...our house resides far from the main street, essentially having a large front yard but no rear garage. As he closed the gap between himself and his friend-laden truck he kind of smiled and thought things over in his head, mad at himself for spooking out when there was no reason.
He climbed into the drivers side of the truck, putting on his seat belt and getting ready to pull out of the parking spot directly in front of the house, when one of his friends asked "Hey wait what about your brother, isn't he coming with us?" My brother answered, "What do you mean? He went to work early tonight, he is already gone, do you see his car anywhere?"
The next question they asked "So then who was walking behind you when you were leaving the house? "
Technical question - isn't the graveyard shift the night shift? Why would someone come home and go to bed at 8pm then?
The Eerie Attic
“A few years ago, I moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Melbourne, Australia,” they went on to recall. “It was my first time living on my own. The apartment block had been built in the 1930s. I’d been there for a few months when I came home from work one day and went into the bathroom. I saw something strange: A wooden board, which had covered a hole in the ceiling that led to a small attic space, lay fractured in two pieces on the ground. I examined the pieces. The board was an inch thick, and it would have taken Bruce Lee to break it. I thought the landlord had sent someone to work on the attic. I was frozen stiff with fear. Someone is up there for sure, I thought.
I emailed pictures to the landlord, asking if anyone had been there (with an undertone of annoyance, since she hadn’t warned me). Her reply read, ‘Please call me as soon as you are able to.’ I called, and she explained that her last two tenants had said the same thing happened. She promised to replace the board, and she did.
A month later, I woke up one night around 4 a.m. My body was covered in goose bumps. It felt like someone was rubbing his or her hands on me. Everything was silent, but then I heard a dragging sound coming from above my bed. It was as if someone was pulling a sack of potatoes. I froze, convinced someone was up there. There is no way an animal could make that sound. After five minutes, I worked up the courage to turn on the light, armed myself with a cricket bat and walked to the bathroom.
That’s when I saw that the new board covering the hole was broken in two! I felt sick. The dragging sound had stopped. But I heard something else: whispering. The sound was clear and coming from the attic. It sounded like children’s voices, and I could hear one sentence repeated over and over: ‘It’s your turn … It’s your turn …’
I switched on every light in the apartment to make things feel normal. It was 5 a.m. and dark outside. I watched TV to try to unwind. Then a fuse blew. My pet budgie, Dexter, whom I kept in the kitchen, usually never made a sound at night, but he started squawking like he was being strangled. I’d never heard him make those sorts of noises—he was screaming. I grabbed my car keys, ran out, sat in my car and waited there until the sun came up.
When I saw people walking their dogs, this comforted me enough to go back in. The front door was open, but I figured I might’ve forgotten to close it when I ran out. I went to the kitchen to check on Dexter, but he wasn’t in his cage.
I felt sick again. All my windows were closed, so I looked everywhere inside. When I walked to the bathroom, I heard splashing. Dexter was half drowned in the toilet! I took him out, washed him and dried him. I was so confused. At 8 a.m., I called the landlord and gave her a watered-down version of the night. ‘Oh, wow, you heard the whispering too!’ she said.
I stayed in that apartment for another 18 months. I heard the whispering on a few occasions, and twice the board covering the hole in the ceiling moved. Although I live elsewhere now, the landlord recently called. She said that her new tenants had begged to speak with me about some of the stuff that’s been going on there. Forget it—it’s their problem now.“
The Phantom Patient
“The ambulance company that I used to work for had a ‘haunted’ ambulance: rig 12,” recounts Reddit.com user Zerbo. “A lot of EMTs had stories about it, but I never put much stock in paranormal stuff. That is, until I had my own experience with rig 12.
My partner and I were working in a rural community at 3 a.m., and it was pitch-dark and completely quiet. We were both dozing; I was in the driver’s seat, and she was in the passenger seat. I woke up to a muffled voice, but I thought my partner was talking. I told her I was trying to sleep and closed my eyes. I distinctly heard a male voice say, ‘Oh my God, am I dying?’ followed by a few seconds of heavy breathing. My partner and I sat up straight and looked back into the patient compartment, where it sounded like the voice had come from.
Things were quiet for a couple of seconds; then we heard the click of an oxygen-bottle regulator and a hiss, as if it was leaking. I turned on the lights, and we ran out of the rig. I thought a transient might have climbed in while we were asleep, so we opened the rear doors. No one was there. I checked the oxygen bottles; neither was opened. We didn’t sleep much after that.”
The Grandfather
"My grandfather told me this story about how one time he was sitting in a chair in front of the house, when he heard his wife repeatedly calling him from inside the house. The thing is, my grandmother passed away a few years before that. But he told me that the voice was so pressing that he actually got up to look inside the house, and as soon as he got inside he heard a loud crash behind him and turned around to see that the chair he has been sitting in moments ago had been crushed by the cast iron gutter that fell on it. If he hadn't come inside the house he would have probably been seriously injured. I don't know if it's paranormal or not, but every time I think about it it sends chills down my spine."
Sometimes God uses the voices of our loved ones by to keep us safe.
So I Lost My Phone…
"Last night a friend rushed me out of the house to catch the opening act at a local bar’s music night. After a few drinks I realized my phone wasn’t in my pocket. I checked the table we were sitting at, the bar, the bathrooms, and after no luck I used my friend’s phone to call mine. After two rings someone answered, gave out a low raspy giggle, and hung up. They didn’t answer again. I eventually gave it up as a lost cause and headed home. I found my phone laying on my night stand, right where I left it."
A Guy In A Military Uniform
"When my daughter was like 3-ish, she always slept in the pitch black. No TV on for light, no night light, nothing. One night when putting her to bed, she said "Mommy, make sure the curtain is closed, I don't like to see daddy's shadow walk around the room". She wanted the room so dark so she couldn't see the shadow. This freaked me out. Her dad never goes in her room at night, and he's the only man in the house. That room's closet always freaked me out, like I would get a vibe that I was being stared out by a guy in a military uniform.
Then one day we went into the attic to store winter clothes away, and found an old army duffle bag filled with some guys military stuff. Really freaked me out. We moved not long after that."
The Boy With No Eyes
“One night when I was 10, I was woken up by my bedroom door opening, followed by someone sitting on my bed,” Reddit.com user kmendo4 recalls of a childhood brush with a very persistent ghostly apparition. “I felt my leg grazed and the bed sink under a person’s weight. It’s just Mom, I thought, and I opened my eyes.
It was not my mom. I found an eyeless boy—he had black, empty sockets—about my age sitting at the foot of my bed. He extended his hand, and in it was a little box. I was startled but reached out. He pulled back. I reached again and said, ‘Give it.’ Then I blinked, and when I reopened my eyes, he was gone. But I could still see the imprint where he’d sat on my bed.
Fast-forward five years. My girlfriend came over to do homework. After she finished, she took a nap while she waited for her parents. When they arrived, I tried waking her up. She opened her eyes suddenly, looking up at a corner where the wall met the ceiling. She pointed there and went back to sleep. I shook her again. She came to full consciousness, and I explained what she’d done. She looked haunted. ‘Up on the wall, I saw a little boy with no eyes. He was there, in a Spider-Man pose, staring at me.’ I freaked out and told her my story about the same kid.
Fast-forward another five years. I was with the same girlfriend, and we had a 2-year-old. We were living in my parents’ house, in my old room. My daughter started waking up at the same time every night, and she’d talk. After a while, I noticed she had almost the same conversation every night. I playfully asked her once whom she was talking to. She said, ‘It’s a little boy. He’s nice. He’s lost and looking for his mommy.’ My daughter’s nightly conversations continued until we got our own place later that year.”
The Ghost Of The Stanley Hotel
One of the nation's most infamously haunted locations, the Stanley Hotel, is located in a remote area, only 70 miles from bustling downtown Denver, Colorado. Many have heard of it as it inspired Stephen King's blockbuster horror novel, The Shining.
In October 1974, Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha King, decided to take a trip from their home in Boulder to the adjacent resort town of Estes Park. They reserved a room at the Stanley Hotel only a few days before it closed for the winter. Who knew Room 217 would soon become the inspiration for one of Stephen King's most well-known books, which would subsequently be adapted by Stanley Kubrick into one of the most talked-about horror movies of the century? It all began with a nightmare in which King, helpless, watched as his little son was chased through the Stanley Hotel's hallway by a huge firehose. The firehose would ultimately triumph, wrapping itself around King's son like a giant snake and devouring him whole. King would awaken in a pool of his own sweat, running to his hotel window for a cigarette to calm his nerves down. Just a few years before The Shining would be finished, he would get the first inspiration for it there, gazing out into the solitude of the Colorado wilderness.
According to witness accounts, a terrible event in Room 217 during the hotel's formative years served as an early warning of the murky past that would accompany the Stanley Hotel for the remainder of its existence. One late night, as a snowstorm was approaching, the head housekeeper, Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson, was going around the hotel, igniting lanterns in case of a power loss. Meanwhile, the second floor was gradually saturating with combustible gas from a leak. An explosion rocked the hotel as Wilson entered room 217 and lit a match. The blast destroyed the room, the hallway, and the floor, plunging her into the dining area below. Surprisingly, Mrs. Wilson survived and recounted this story until the day she passed. However, many believe that Mrs. Wilson's ghost is still present in the room which caused her so much trauma. Guests in Room 217 have long reported seeing somebody move furniture around or turn on and off lights. Some unmarried couples claim that a cold force trapped between their sleeping bodies is evidence that Mrs. Wilson is still present.
Although much of Stephen King's setting for The Shining was made up, his depiction of the scariest hotel room was authentic. Room 217 and the Stanley Hotel's reputation continue to terrify, not only in the realms of film and literature but also in the real world. Would you risk staying in Room 217 today? Apparently, Room 217 has become Stanley's most requested accommodation, with reservations on the books for the next several Halloweens. So book in advance!
‘Haunted’ Elsa Doll
The creepy, old-fashioned porcelain doll with a Victorian appearance, red lips, rosy cheeks, and blue eyes, referring to Annabelle, may come to mind when one thinks of a haunted doll. However, it's unlikely that anyone still keeps one in their house. Unless that house is Warren's Occult Museum in Monroe, Conn. However, those dolls are not the only ones getting possessed.
Disney's Frozen Elsa doll, given as a Christmas 2013 gift in the Houston region, made headlines when it appeared to start acting paranormal. For two years, the doll was working as it was technically supposed to, reciting phrases from the movie and singing Let It Go when a button was pressed. In 2015, it started randomly alternating between English and Spanish languages.
The woman who purchased the doll claimed that, even with its switch off, the doll would start speaking and singing randomly. In December 2019, the family chose to get rid of the Elsa doll. Despite tossing it in the garbage, the family eventually discovered it hidden inside a bench in their living room weeks later. Following the discovery, Elsa started to speak and sing solely in Spanish, soon after which the family made another attempt to scrap the Elsa doll. The doll was double-bagged and put at the bottom of the garbage can, which was soon picked up by waste collectors.
The family left for a trip sometime later, but when they were back, the haunted doll was waiting in their backyard. In their last attempt, the family sent Elsa through the mail to a Minnesotan family friend, who fastened the possessed doll to the front bumper of his truck. According to the woman's most recent update in October 2020, the doll hasn't returned to Houston. Yet.
Now I imagine a conversation between the family friend and their partner going like this. FP: What are you doing? F: Oh, just attaching Elsa to the bumper of my car. FP: ...Why? F: A friend sent it to me. She says it's haunted.
Dead Woman's Crossing
On July 7, 1905, Katy DeWitt James, then 29, and her 1-year-old daughter Lulu Belle boarded a train to visit her cousin. Several weeks passed, and there was no sight of Katy or her daughter. Her father hired private investigator Sam Bartell to find his daughter and granddaughter, and what the PI found was disturbing.
Instead of getting off where she was supposed to meet her cousin, Katy got off the train at Weatherford with a notorious pr*stitute, Fannie Norton. Witnesses claimed to have seen Norton take Katy and the baby for a short trip in the area near Deer Creek before returning with just the child, whom she abandoned at a farm before running away. When Bartell finally located Norton, she was brought into custody but soon poisoned herself.
Sometime later, the following August, a father who was fishing with his son near Deer Creek discovered the skeleton under a wooden wagon crossing. The skeleton was fully dressed. The skull was found three feet away with a bullet just behind the right ear. A .38 caliber revolver was also discovered nearby. It was concluded that the body belonged to Katy DeWitt James. It was left there after Norton slayed her the month beforehand.
Eighty years later, the wooden crossing was demolished, and a concrete bridge was built instead. It was promptly given the tragic moniker of Dead Woman's Crossing. People have claimed to have seen Katy as a blue light floating throughout the town and have heard a woman's voice searching for her kid and the sound of rolling wheels.
The Rocking Horse
"One night, when I was maybe 10-12, I had trouble falling asleep. My bedroom was the entire top floor of our house with my bed and such being on the left side and storage closets and a play area being on the right. I was lying in bed when I heard a noise from the other side of the room and see a rocking horse begin to rock. It was sitting just outside one of the storage closet doors. It proceeded to rock its way halfway across the room and stopped dead under the ceiling light. At this point I was freaking out and just buried my head under my blankets and never peeked out again until morning.
It was all confirmed to not be a dream as the rocking horse was still in the middle of my room when I woke up. Furthermore, I got a stern reprimand from my parents for being up out of bed playing with my toys well past my bedtime. Their bedroom was directly below the storage closet/play area and had heard the creaking of the rocking horse shuffling across the room."
10-12 years old and OP still had a rocking horse and OP's parents thought they were up in the middle of the night playing with it? O_O
The Old Man
"I was 12 moving from OH to MI with my family. We are moving into a townhouse. My mother went to go get the keys from the leasing office. And my siblings and I stayed outside of the townhouse waiting for her. I decided to go up to the front door and play with the doorbell and knock on the door a lot. I wasn't expecting any trouble because no one was in there. However after doing it a bunch of times the door started to open. Reminding you: this is the door that was supposedly empty and locked. Hence why my mother went to go get the key in the first place.
The door opened and I saw an old white man looking down at me. He never said anything. He looked extremely peeved. His facial expression did not change. He had the most wrinkles I've ever seen on someone's face. And he looked extremely unhappy/annoyed. Ironically, he was dressed like Mr. Rogers (green sweater vest and khakis). I looked up at him and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't know anybody lived here."
After I said that to him he closed the door. My mother returned a few minutes later with the key. My siblings and I all went up to her panicking. I remember the first thing we did was yell "Mama Mama Mama!" when we saw her come back. We told her what happened. My mother had a look of fear on her face. Me and my siblings walked behind her as she walked up to the door. After she unlocked the door we saw that the inside was empty. There was no old man."
Maybe a homeless person was in the house and ran away when realized there are someone moving in?
The Ex-Tenant
In 1972, a 15-year-old girl was visiting some older mates who lived in a house on Ashley Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The older pals were smoking weed and encouraged the teenager to join, but she passed on the offer. However, despite being completely sober, the girl soon experienced the trip of her life.
After suddenly feeling a "strange, bone-chilling cold," the teenager went upstairs in the hope of warming up, but soon she was petrified to see a wall start moving, and what looked like a black shadow started coming toward her. Meanwhile, the friends downstairs started calling her as they saw posters popping off the wall, forming a pile on the floor. As soon as the teenager went downstairs, she saw a clear vision of a man's face that, as she soon found out, no one else saw but her.
Although the mates didn't see what the girl saw, they heard her say something that shook them in disbelief. As if she was possessed by something unearthly, not in her voice, she said: "The drugs and addiction were my fault, and I accept responsibility for that, but I was not that way deep down inside. I want to apologize to everyone involved for what I had done."
When the girl came back to herself and articulated the vision she saw to the guys, everything started adding up. The housemates explained that just some time ago, before they had moved into this house, a previous resident who perfectly matched the girl's vision had passed away from an overdose. Turns out, the man who perished had fallen into heavy narcotics use before his demise, which led him to destroy his relationship with his girlfriend.
The Impish Ghost
“My neighbor Diane and I had a playful poltergeist for years, and we called it Billy. I’d come home and find something put in a weird place: milk in a cupboard, toilet paper in the fridge, laundry detergent in the bathtub. Diane once called to ask if Billy had been around, because she couldn’t find a gallon of milk. We finally found it outside on her back steps. And sugar… darn sugar! Every morning, my sugar bowl was empty.
When I’d had enough, I would point to Diane’s home and yell, ‘Go see Diane!’ Within five minutes, I’d get a call from her. ‘Thanks a lot,’ she’d say. He’d gone and pulled shenanigans at her place. This occurred for the entire two years we lived there. No one believed us—not even our husbands. My mother thought someone was stealing from us when we were sleeping or out of the house. My sister believed something was going on but didn’t know what. I still can’t explain any of it.”
Kasha House Of Kaimuki
The infamous Kasha House of Kaimuki in Honolulu, Hawaii, built on two beds of lava rock near the intersection of 8th and Harding, is regarded by many as one of the island's most haunted locations. Although the house appears rather typical, the story behind it is anything but.
According to popular belief, the Kaimuki house is inhabited by a Kasha, a man-eating ghost from Japanese folklore. The Kaimuki house has hosted numerous families and couples over the years. Still, they have all had to flee because of terrible and perilous happenings inside the house.
In the original story, after hearing loud crashes and bangs from a recently moved-in couple's home, the neighbors suspected domestic abuse and informed the police. When they arrived, the couple told the police they were being attacked by an "invisible" force.
Another account goes that in 1942, police were called to the house when a woman called the police and kept repeating, "She's trying to kill my children." As soon as the police officers entered the home, they were powerless to do anything but watch in terror as an invisible force lifted, smacked, and threw the three kids across the room. According to locals and residents, the building has since been demolished and replaced by condos, but the evil energy is still present.
The Crying Lady Ghost
The Dakota luxury apartment building, first built in 1884, can still be found near the intersection of W. 72nd Street and Central Park West. Until roughly 1890, The Dakota was not profitable, but by the early 1890s, there was a waiting list to board. Since then, it has attracted and captured many's interest as a structure of legendary proportions and famous guests. Today, it's perhaps best known as the spot where Mark David Chapman gunned down John Lennon in 1980. However, one of New York City's most well-known buildings is also one of its most haunted.
In the 1960s, construction workers claimed to have seen an apparition of a man's body with a small boy's face. Even nowadays, residents claim to see a young child dressed in period attire waving and smiling at them. Also, Yoko Ono, a Japanese multimedia artist, once witnessed Lennon's ghost playing the piano in her and her family's apartment. Apparently, he turned to her and said, "Don't be afraid. I am still with you." Even John Lennon himself, who was receptive to the paranormal, claimed he saw a UFO from one of the apartment's windows and countered the apparition of a crying woman walking down the halls of the building and gave her the name of the Crying Lady Ghost.
Spirit Fled My Room As Soon As It Realized We Were Aware Of It
"One night as my girlfriend (now wife) laid in bed, we sensed something next to us. We normally lay on our sides but that night we were laying on our backs, faces towards the ceiling. Our eyes opened up and we turned our heads at the same time to the space next to her side of the bed. Whatever it was took off fast. It went from her side of the bed, right next to my wife, down the side of the bed, up over our feet area and out our closed bedroom door. What was really cool was the vertical window blinds adjacent to the bed where the spirit was swayed as the spirit went by them, kind of like if you ran your fingers on them from right to left. The energy was not only great enough for us to sense exactly where it was, but also great enough to cause physical movement of the vertical blinds. It happened so fast but we followed it with our heads and eyes as it moved out of our room, even though it was invisible, just pure energy. I think about this occurrence a lot. It’s not the first paranormal experience for me or my close family, but it certainly was the most impactful. After it exited the room my wife freaked the hell out and started to cry as she grabbed me for comfort. I was startled by what happened, but I never felt in danger or ill will from it. Whatever or whoever it was was just as startled from what I can tell. We haven’t experienced anything like it since."
The Wind
"So, our oldest kid was about 4 years old and ever since he could speak he would complain about the wind in his bedroom, even when everything was closed up (windows, ventilation). When he started sharing his bedroom with his little brother, things got worse: his little brother (2 at the time) couldn't speak (speech delay), but would cry... A lot... As in: it was difficult to get him to sleep and he would wake up at least 5 times every night crying.
This went on for about a year when we moved because of work. We prepared for the worst case scenario, and expected little brother to even cry more. Surprise: he slept like a baby from the very first tight, never cried again.
After we lived in our new home for a couple of months (big brother was 5 now and little brother 3), we want for a walk in the park. Out of nowhere big brother starts talking: "Do you remember in our old house that I couldn't sleep? That was because if the wind..."
He paused for a little while and then went on: "Little brother always cried because of the wind. He was scared of the wind."
Another pause: "Yeah... The wind always wanted to play hide and seek with us and wouldn't let us sleep. He would also wake us up to play... I don't know if he was a boy or a girl: he had boy clothes, but had long hair."
This reminds me of a scary room in my grandmothers house. It was a small room that was used more as a storage room but at times was used as a bedroom. One of my uncles used it as his room when he was young, he would always have nightmares there. About 30 years later a cousin of mine and her son who was 5 at the time were staying with my grandma. Their official room needed some renovations so they moved to the creapy room for a while. Every night my cousin's son would wake up screaming that there was someone in the room. When they moved back to their official room this stopped.
The Ghosts Of The Crescent Hotel
It's said that The Victorian 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to this day, hosts a wide variety of spirits. Apparently, one Irish stonemason (referred to by staff members as "Michael") perished in what is now room 218 after the hotel's skeleton structure had been built in the 1880s. This room consistently ranks as the most spiritually active one in the hotel. Visitors of the hotel have seen hands emerge from the bathroom mirror, heard cries of a man falling from the ceiling, and seen the door open before slamming shut and becoming unbudging.
However, that's not all. In the 1930s, the eerie hotel in Eureka Springs was converted into an experimental cancer hospital. Many patients signed away their whole life savings when they rushed to the Baker Cancer Hospital in hope to treat their cancer. In the hotel's basement, "Dr. Norman Baker," posing as a qualified doctor, "assessed" cancer patients. However, rumors began circulating among the locals that Norman was performing medical experiments on patients and taking the deceased patients through tunnels to a local cremation facility. However, these rumors were never confirmed. Nonetheless, what is known is that 44 patients passed away at the Baker Cancer Hospital during the hospital's 20-month existence. It's claimed that the hotel is still visited by several ghosts, including "Theodora," one of the deceased patients, and Norman Baker himself.
I’ve stayed at this hotel! Nothing spooky that I saw but they have really good breakfast :)
The Whispers
"This is a story I do not often tell. I promise, sincerely, that this has scarred me for life and although I have looked into psychological explanations for what I heard and natural explanations for what occurred, they remain unsatisfactory.
When I was a child, I was scared of the dark. I swore to my mother I heard voices in it. They were not evil, but they were not familiar and so they scared me. It was not uncommon in the middle of the night for me to wake up and hear "whispers" as I would call them when asking my mom. She figured they were just "bumps in the night" and typical kids nightmare material. I tried often to explain to her that it was more than that; that they sounded different from one another the way people's voices do. On some nights I would get so scared from these "whispers" that I would sleep in my mom's bed with her. It was an added bonus that the bathroom was directly outside of her bedroom door for my late-night tinkles.
I should add at this point that when walking out into the hall to go to the bathroom, you looked directly down the stairs that would lead you into my living room on the first floor (as my mom's bedroom was on the second floor). On one such night, around Christmas, I awoke and felt the need to relieve myself. I walked out from the door and distinctly heard the phrase "Look!" and to my astonishment, a red light, almost like a spotlight, was cast upon the wall at the very bottom of the stairs. The light had no other source, it was by itself, and I was transfixed by it.
Being a little kid, and it only being a few days from Christmas, I KNEW what this light was. IT WAS SANTA!!! How else could he get into my house to know I was being a good boy? I was so excited I began walking down the stairs to greet him, picking up my pace after the second step as it began to creep off the wall and fade into the darkness in my living room.
That's when I heard him. A very strong, masculine voice. Different from the first. Not at all like my father's (not to say he isn't masculine, it was just distinctly different). It said, "Stop! Right now. Go back up those stairs." I listened, turned around, and what happened next I am not sure I would believe if someone had told me this same story. After reaching the top of the stairs, I heard a very loud CRASH that sent me running back to my mother's bed where I jumped straight under the covers and stayed there the whole night.
When we awoke the next morning, the poinsettia lights (little Christmas flower lights that glowed red) my mother had put on the railing down the stairs were pulled straight down to the bottom of the stairs, some broken from what seemed like a forceful tear, laying in a single pile. The dry sink in my living room had fallen from the wall. My mother could not explain it! My father was worried we had been the victims of a home invasion. My sister was crying. There was nothing missing, nobody had broken in, there did not seem to be any reason this had happened. And then I saw it, and I kept quiet about it because I was so afraid that I could not force words out of my mouth.
There, on the edge of the wooden dry sink which had been facing up, were three indentations where the finish on the wood had been worn, almost as if in a forceful grip. Something down there had GRABBED IT AND THREW IT DOWN. That was what the bang was.
I was mortified. After that day I never heard a single voice again. I do not like to imagine what was waiting downstairs for me that night, if it was anything at all, but I can tell you that the reality was that something had physically acted upon two things in my house near the bottom of that stairwell.
After this, I had never heard another whisper again. Which is sad, because in some ways I would have liked to thank the man that had stopped me from going down those stairs. This happened when I was 7. I am 20 years old now, and because of this incident I am still afraid of the dark."
Just general house noise can sound like whispers.... or insects... or ear ringing but soft.
A Ghost In My Aunt's Bedroom
"So I'm here to tell you about an experience I had with paranormal activity which took place back on 2006.
So I was 18 years old and I was living with my brother in a building which had 2 apartments (2 floors). In the lower one there was us and on the second floor my cousins, my uncle and my aunt.
Every summer my cousins, aunt and uncle used to go on vacation at their home village so the house was completely empty for 3 months and no one was living there.
My aunt's bedroom was built right above our bedroom (brother and me) and 3-4 times a week when we were playing video games, we used to hear HEAVY steps right above us (aunt's bedroom). As said before, there was no one living in the apartment and it was locked up for many days. Also there wasn't any buildings built next to this one so it couldn't be our neighbors.
We couldn't explain the situation, so we decided to investigate it. We did some research and finally we bought a professional microphone which detects some specific frequencies in order to detect something paranormal.
My father had a separate key of my aunt's apartment for emergency reason, so we took it and opened the apartment, set the microphone up and waited...
If a non-paranormal sound (cars from outside, our voices etc.) took place, we did notes so there wouldn't be any misunderstandings. Also, we were setting the microphone in the bedroom near 3 AM for 1 or 2 hours.
First night we heard nothing. Second night - also nothing. Third night - same story. But the fourth night we heard something that froze our blood.
I went into the room and said the following question: What's your name? I want an answer. Then left and sat with my brother and cousin in the living room. 3 hours went by and when we checked the recording 10 minutes after my questions we heard 4 LOUD steps, a weird noise like the lips of someone who's very close to a microphone and then a CLEAR name... Giota (Greek name).
We freaked the hell out. We never thought we would catch something like that and we were terrified. After that, we never did this again because we were pretty scared and also we read on a site that if you start talking to him you should end it right away cause it ain't no good.
4 months went by and we never told anyone or showed the recording about
this incident until our grandma RANDOMLY said about someone called Giota that used to live in this apartment. When we asked about her she told that this woman died at the age of 26 many years ago...
This incident still haunts me every goddamn night. I really don't believe in ghosts or stories that I read on the internet. But even now as a grown man, I still wonder what happened that day."
The Bell Witch
In the early 1800s, John Bell moved his family to Red River, a part of Tennessee now known as Adams, Tennessee. As they moved into the new house, strange things started happening. Dogs starting barking, shackles rattling, rodents chewing, and a lady whispering were some of the strange noises the Bell family started encountering. Legend has it that between 1817 and 1821, he, his family, and the neighborhood were subjected to attacks from an invisible, shape-shifting creature that was able to speak and affect the environment. Some versions claim that the ghost was also clairvoyant and had superhuman speed. Soon, the apparition became known as the Bell Witch. Many believe that the lady is the ghost of Kate Batts, the Bells' former neighbor. Allegedly, before she passed away, Batts promised to take revenge on Bells over their land dispute. Later, Bell died from poisoning, rumored to be the work of the Bell Witch.
The Ghost Of Georgetown
In 1877, when the newly incorporated town of Georgetown was thriving, Robert Schmalz began his infamous spree of robberies and slayings.
Schmalz was caught in Las Animas, Colorado, and confessed to committing two homicides of his boss and Georgetown's beloved butcher, whom he robbed for $80. Then Schamle was returned to Georgetown, where a callous finale awaited him.
After the residents of Georgetown learned of his misdeeds and that he was now a prisoner in their local municipal jail, they decided to take the matter into their own hands and execute him themselves. Locals brought Schmalz out of his cell and hanged him from the frame of a neighboring dilapidated building.
Hundreds of Georgetown residents simply passed by while his body was still hanging throughout the following day without expressing any sorrow for the allegedly cold-blooded murderer. Numerous witnesses have reported that they have seen Schmalz's ghost around town. People who have seen him claim that he appears as a ghostly male figure but soon vanishes into the dark.
The Imaginary Friend
Jacqueline, a woman from Oklahoma, claims that even though her memories have become somewhat hazy with age, she still recalls having an imaginary friend when she was younger. Her grandparents, "Granny Junie" and "Pa Hank," as she called them, resided in a modest house with a nice backyard. When Jacqueline was visiting her grandparents' house as a child, she sat under a large tree and made daisy chains out of weeds. Jacqueline admitted that she vividly remembers sitting under the tree with her grandfather and him recounting her stories about his life and his memories of Prohibition. The only issue with this was that Jacqueline's grandfather died in 1981, and she was born in 1982. Jacqueline admitted that she never realized she was talking to a ghost. She also added that her family knew of the grandad's presence in the house.
this is a nice one i mean i would love for my deceased grandad to be my imaginary freind
The Reflection In The Mirror
"My parent moved a lot due to work but I stopped living with them and lived with my grandma instead. Dad's office always gives a free house to stay in whenever they move and this one time they moved in a small town but the "office house" was located in the area where people rarely lived. The house itself was old, it had a huge door and huge windows just like a really old house in war times.
It was my 3rd visiting and I always liked the house because of how breezy it was due to big windows and my favorite spot was a room that they didn't use in the middle of the house. It only served as small storage but the place was really breezy and comfy.
One time I took an afternoon nap there, closed the grid on the window so the sunlight wouldn't get through but it was still breezy. I slept on the floor with a pillow next to a very big mirror. I felt someone caressing the back of my head and it felt really good, so I thought it was my grandma because she used to always do this when I was sleeping.
I ignored it and continued to take a nap but as I tried to sleep, I could feel the texture of the hand turn into somewhat rough, like a very wrinkled but stiff hand and I woke up because it started hurting.
When I opened my eyes and saw the reflection in the mirror, it was an ugly hand like one of those zombie hand in the movies. Pale, lot of wounds and the nails were long. I jolted out of the room so fast into the front of the house. Then I remembered that my grandma wasn't even there to visit me.
After that, I never sleep in a room where I can see a mirror or anything that can reflect anymore. If I stay in a hotel and there is a mirror in there that I can see from where I sleep, I cover it with towel or something."
I've never even HAD a paranormal experience with a mirror and I STILL don't like looking into one in the dark or sleeping with one in the room XD
Clanging Keys
Story of a member of Mount Vernon’s Security Department from 2012:
"My first experience with something that I cannot explain occurred in the Mansion during the early years of the Candlelight Tours. The event took place on the anniversary of General Washington’s death around 10:30 pm. After the house had been cleared I locked myself in. It was my responsibility to check the alarms for their proper positioning. When I was in the Mansion Study I heard a heavy set of keys being walked across the floor in the Washington bedroom directly above. As I approached the back stairs to go up to the Washington bedroom the sound of the keys abruptly stopped.
General Washington was well known for his heavy set of keys and that they could be heard as he walked through the house. Tobias Lear, the General’s secretary is known to have taken the keys from the general’s pocket upon his death and turned the keys over to his enslaved manservant Christopher Sheels."
Huggin' Molly
There are various versions of who Huggin' Molly really was. According to one version of the legend, Molly was the ghost of a grieving mother who had lost an infant and tried to cope with the loss by cuddling up to neighborhood kids. Another version claimed that Molly used to be a teacher at school and tried keeping children off the streets at night to keep them safe. But one familiar tale paints her as a gigantic woman, perhaps 7 feet tall and as big as a bale of cotton. Some claim that her ghost still prowls the late-night streets of Abbeville. If she sees you, she runs after you, gives you a bear hug, and yells in your ear. However, she hurt no children other than perhaps causing some ringing in their ears.
For Jimmy Rane, a native of and lifelong inhabitant of Abbeville, and his friends, Huggin' Molly was real. Jimmy and his close friend Tommy Murphy were told the legend by Tommy's father one evening. He claimed that Huggin' Molly had hugged him one night, which was how he learned she was real. Even now, the residents' hearts begin to race when the moon rises above Abbeville because Huggin' Molly may appear anytime. Jimmy Rane actually opened a family restaurant named after the legend.
Sister Sister
"When I was ten, my best friend Amy had a little sister, Tessa, who disappeared. Late one night their mom felt a draft in the house, and when she went downstairs to investigate, she found the front door wide open. Tessa was gone. There were no clues, no evidence. The girl had vanished.
Initially there was talk of abduction, but the family kept their house locked, and the girls didn't open doors for strangers. Police found no sign of a break-in or struggle.
Tessa was the kind of kid who saved animals: baby birds, turtles, deer, whatever. She was always hearing some poor injured creature's cries and following them into the woods that surrounded the house. So everyone thought she'd just ventured outside on her own and had gotten lost.
When months passed with no real progress on the case, Amy’s parents went missing too, but in a different way. They drank too much and slept incessantly, crippled by guilt and misery. Amy rarely saw them.
It was some fishermen who finally found Tessa, a few miles down the river. It wasn’t easy to identify her body, and even after the autopsy nobody was sure what had happened to her.
"Well, at least now they have closure," everyone said.
Amy didn’t see it that way.
She called me shortly after the funeral, sobbing and choking on her breath.
"I think Tessa’s still alive," she said. "I heard her crying last night, outside in the woods. Nobody believes me."
I believed her, but I didn’t think it was Tessa. I thought it was her ghost.
I agreed to sleep over at Amy’s house that night. I brought my dog along for protection, and Amy and I fell asleep with our fingers tangled in his warm fur. Something woke us up a few hours later.
There was a voice outside, faint, the words indecipherable, but it was definitely Tessa. My hands shook as I pulled on my shoes. I wasn’t ready to see a ghost.
As soon as Amy opened the door, my dog burst out of the house, barking like a maniac. We had no choice but to follow him into the woods. We searched around for a while, but there was no sign of Tessa.
"Your dumb dog chased her away," said Amy, tears running down her face. She fled toward the house. As I turned to follow her, I tripped on something.
It was a duffle bag. I forced myself to look inside. Duct tape. Plastic zip-tie handcuffs. A knife.
And a tape recorder.
When I pushed the "play" button, I heard Tessa’s voice, crying and screaming for Amy to save her, and begging someone to let her go."
Floating Head
"When my best friend and I were about 14 years old, she had a part time job working in a 100 year old Catholic Church after school. I would sometimes hang out there with her.
One time we were sitting in a pew chatting and halfway listening to the organist practicing for Sunday service. He was on a balcony at the front of the church with his back to us. As I looked up at him, there seemed to be a blurry spot over the back of his head. I initially thought I had something in my eye obscuring it but then I noticed a transparent replica of his head floating in the air next to his head. I thought I was legitimately seeing things at first but then I noticed my friend had gone quiet and was was also staring up at him. I thought no way is she seeing this but asked her carefully “Do you see what I see?”. I phrased it exactly like that to make sure I wasn’t tipping her off. She said that his head is floating next to his body.
We’re 51 years old now and I have never been able to explain that. I should preface this by saying we went on to have many paranormal experiences in this church. Found out years later that the priest was one of those."
Messing With The Ouija Board
"This happened several decades ago. Friend got 3 of us using a Ouija board. Thought it was goofy/fake. As it got weirder, wondered if there might be some kind of unintentional, subconscious influence happening.
Started harmless but got darker. Many ‘spirits’ became threatening over time, and began to admit to being the same individual. I felt I was being pranked, so quit. Third friend (not the instigator) seemed weirdly obsessed and wanted to do it more, and started doing it alone.
Then one night at an outdoor party, the instigator got it out (with the obsessed friend) for a spooky laugh. There were about 10 teenage boys watching, mocking and laughing. Spirit eventually identified as the usual negative spirit and used some new names that many, many years later I saw associated online with demonic entities.
Anyway, spirit got really pissed by the mocking and insulting comments/questions - especially from one loud friend. It also mentioned other people we knew were talking to it (confusing).
The loud friend thought we were messing with him and threatened to destroy the board. The spirit directly threatened him so he grabbed board and broke it in 2 pieces. There was a bizarre ‘now what?’ pause and then the group decided we should burn the board (being the best idea for a group of drunk teens). At this point, most felt they were just going along with a joke but some were getting freaked out.
So we tried to burn the board. Would not light. Had to go to 7-11 and empty 2 entire containers of charcoal lighter fluid before it finally caught. As it burned, obsessed friend was visibly upset and mumbled that he new how to make one anyway. I asked wtf and he said ”it told me how”.
Days later, we found out a group of kids from the same high school also was on a Ouija board that night - and it also mentioned us to them, including that we had made it angry. This was before cell phones and we were at an outdoor party so nobody knew about other group on party night. Several more days later, the loud friend (who was threatened) was in serious car accident, being ejected from a pickup. He survived.
As far as I know the story ends there. I was not aware of anyone using a Ouija board after that."
A Woman From The Civil War
A recount of a member of the youth programs team at Mount Vernon:
"Originally my office was located in the Teacher Resource Center of the Education Center which is now Be Washington. It was after hours and the staff had left. I gathered my coat and bag and set them on the table facing my desk – as I turned to put on my coat, I saw a female figure standing in the door of my office.
She was dressed in clothing from the Civil War period and she was totally grey – her complete body and clothing were grey. She stood in the doorway looking straight ahead without moving – her stare was very stern. It happened quickly and then she was gone. There was no doubt in my mind that Ann Pamela Cunningham, founder of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, had been in the room.
I stayed for a while, sitting quietly as I listened to the noises of cabinet doors opening and closing in Hands-on-History, but when I looked to see who was there, the room was empty."
The Hauntings At The Lizzie Borden House
Andrew Borden and his wife Abby were found unresponsive in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home on August 4, 1892. Even while homicide wasn't unusual in the late 1800s, the fact that they were slain with an axe and their 32-year-old daughter, Lizzie Borden, was the prime suspect made it so. The subsequent trial and crime attracted international media attention. Despite being finally found not guilty of the homicides, Lizzie and the house where they were carried out are forever linked.
The Lizzie Borden house, now a bed and breakfast, draws thrill seekers who come to the crime scene out of morbid curiosity to discover whether the place lives up to its reputation for being haunted. While some visitors report seeing nothing odd, many guests often reported experiencing paranormal happenings. This can range from experiencing weird smells, voices, and object movements to feeling touched at night, hearing footsteps, and even seeing full-body apparitions.
It's not even the house they lived in or where she murdered them. It's not even on that property. Even the website says this.
The Red Lady Of Huntingdon College
According to legend, the former Pratt Hall dorm at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, is haunted by the Red Lady of Huntingdon College (actually, two). Kathryn Tucker Windham, Huntingdon's alumnus, shared her story in the book "13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey."
According to Windham and historian Daniel Barefoot, Huntingdon College is said to have been haunted by two ghosts. The 'First' Lady was only seen once. She was described as a young woman walking silently through the hallways of a women's dormitory late at night while doused in a red glow and carrying a scarlet parasol. Apparently, she was never seen again.
According to Windham, the "Second" Lady was a former student named Martha. She had reluctantly traveled from New York to Huntingdon because her father's mother had gone there when it was still in Tuskegee, and his will stipulated that she must attend his mother's alma mater. The legend goes that Martha came clothed in red, carrying various red-colored accessories, red draperies for her windows, and a red bedspread. Martha always dropped when her classmates nudged her to explain why she seemed to be fixated on the color red. Martha struggled to make friends with the students since she was shy and from out of state. She seemed different from them, and they misunderstood her timidity for contempt when they found out she was wealthy.
When Martha got abandoned by her only friend in college, she allegedly developed the habit of wandering into rooms where the other girls were gathered. Reportedly, her presence chilled the girls, and they came up with lame excuses for leaving her alone. She would then feel cut off from everyone and return to her bedroom, where she would wrap herself in her red bedspread and hide from the world. Martha's former roommate decided to check up on Martha one evening after she hadn't shown up for lectures or meals all day. She claimed to have seen red flashes coming from the room's transom as she got closer to Martha's room. According to the story, Martha was found deceased in her room, wrapped in her red robe and covered in her red bedspread, having scored her wrists.
While this happened a while ago, Huntingdon College students claim that on the anniversary of Martha's demise, the Red Lady resurfaces to haunt the hallways of Pratt Hall, and red light flashes from the transom of her room. On the fourth floor, where Martha resided, students have supposedly claimed to have seen Martha's spirit, which they said passed through locked doors and walls.
Poor lady. I hope she gets her rest and doesn't actually have to hang around a place she obviously didn't like and in which she wasn't accepted.
The Surrency House Ghost
In the 1870s, the Surrency clan in present-day Surrency, Georgia, started to experience otherworldly occurrences. Family members claimed to have heard laughing and sobs, seen crimson eyes staring into the house, and seen objects flying across rooms. Their dishes were emptied of food, and the utensils were bent beyond use. The locals reckoned that these happenings were screams for help from ghosts who believed the family might save them. A fire iron allegedly floated up and began striking one of the sons in the head the day the family decided to leave the residence. Nobody ever dared to move into the house. In 1925, the house burned to the ground.
The Ghost Of Bellamy Bridge
The Bellamy Bridge Heritage Trail is a half-mile nature path. It is also the location of one of Florida's most well-known ghost stories. Indeed, a lot of people think it's "Florida's Most Haunted Bridge."
Elizabeth Jane Bellamy, a young woman who passed away on May 11, 1837, in Jackson County, is the subject of the ghost story. It is believed that her restless ghost wanders the bridge and the nearby swamp in a never-ending search for her adored spouse, Dr. Samuel C. Bellamy. According to the legend, Samuel and Elizabeth were very much in love. She pledged to love him "forever and always" before passing away as a young woman. After she passed away, he was never the same, and he mourned for the next 15 years before taking his own life the day after Christmas. Samuel's last request was to be interred next to Elizabeth. However, because he had taken his own life, he could not be buried in consecrated ground, according to the beliefs of the time.
The story goes that Elizabeth's ghost returned just as Samuel passed away. She has spent more than 160 years walking the wetlands around Bellamy Bridge in pursuit of him after making the vow to love him "forever and always." Strange blue and white lights, a hazy shadow, and even the faint outline of a young woman wearing white have all been associated with her spirit.
The Following
"My older sister has a ghost that's followed her around for years.
I lived with her once for about 3 months, and so much weird stuff happened in that time. All my sister would say to me when I mentioned it was that her ghost "didn't like me being there."
Things like going to bed with everything locked up and switched off and waking up in the morning with the back door open, lights on and the kettle switched on. One night my sister and I were getting ready to go out and I'd asked to borrow her liquid foundation. I used it and put it back where she kept her makeup. Ten minutes later she's asking me for it and it was nowhere to be seen. She accused me of taking it and made me buy her a new one and refused to listen to my side of the story. About a year or so later when she was packing to move to a new house, she found the makeup in a shoebox with some old letters. The shoebox was in a zipped up suitcase that was underneath her bed.
But probably the most scared I ever felt was one afternoon when I was the only one in the house (which never happened as four other people lived there). I'd arrived home from work and headed straight to the bathroom. All the doors/windows etc were closed. I was standing in the bathroom and started squeezing a pimple on my chin when a female voice in the hall said "stop picking your zits!" It was loud enough and sounded real enough and at the time I thought it was my sister. So I laughed, told her to "buzz off" and asked what she was doing for dinner. No answer. I stuck my head out into the hall. No one there. I searched the house top to bottom and there was no one home. I sat out on the front porch until someone else got home because I didn't want to be in there alone."
Sister knows about the ghost, but she still accused OP of stealing the makeup and made her buy a new one?
There’s No Reason To Be Afraid
"When my sister Betsy and I were kids, our family lived for awhile in a charming old farmhouse. We loved exploring its dusty corners and climbing the apple tree in the backyard. But our favorite thing was the ghost. We called her Mother, because she seemed so kind and nurturing. Some mornings Betsy and I would wake up, and on each of our nightstands, we’d find a cup that hadn’t been there the night before. Mother had left them there, worried that we’d get thirsty during the night. She just wanted to take care of us.Among the house’s original furnishings was an antique wooden chair, which we kept against the back wall of the living room. Whenever we were preoccupied, watching TV or playing a game, Mother would inch that chair forward, across the room, toward us. Sometimes she’d manage to move it all the way to the center of the room. We always felt sad putting it back against the wall. Mother just wanted to be near us. Years later, long after we’d moved out, I found an old newspaper article about the farmhouse’s original occupant, a widow. She’d murdered her two children by giving them each a cup of poisoned milk before bed. Then she’d hanged herself. The article included a photo of the farmhouse’s living room, with a woman’s body hanging from a beam. Beneath her, knocked over, was that old wooden chair, placed exactly in the center of the room."
Ah yes, "Creepy True Ghost Stories" claims the BP headline... when one looks where this one was sourced from, it's from r/shortscarystories, a FICTION subreddit XD
Grandfather's Angel
"Around the age of 15 I moved in with my grandmother after my grandfather had passed. My room was in the basement and hers upstairs, we had a German shepherd as well named Lottie.
One night while sleeping I suddenly became very cold and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I woke up facing the wall of my room since my bed was pushed against it. I turned around out of instinct and saw a figure standing behind my bedroom door. The only way for me to describe what I saw is to imagine the multi colored light of a prism being projected through a fog that was shaped like a man. This is the only time in my life where I could not speak, I was frozen with fear for what felt like an eternity. My door was opening and shutting as he just stood there, I finally was able to scream " go away " and I burst into tears and screamed for my grandma. Her and Lottie came into my room and Lottie whimpered well going in circles, never seen her do that before. My grandmother said she has seen angels as well and i should not be scared.
Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened again but I always had that feeling of being watched. My grandfather died in that house and my only explanation is that it was him watching over me. I thought I would feel joy though and not such an intense fear from a loved one on the other side... It still haunts me."
If the spirit you saw scared you so badly odds are it was not your grandfather or a loved one, I think the OPs grandmother didn't want to frighten them and said it was probably an angel to comfort them.
The Watcher
A New Jersey family received an unsettling amount of threats after relocating into their $1.3 million dream house from someone posing as "The Watcher." Since moving into the home, the new owners claimed they had received multiple letters from the unknown person. The family swore that the previous owners knew about a man who referred to himself as "The Watcher" but never mentioned anything. In letters, "The Watcher" claimed that the house had "been the subject of my family for decades" and "I have been put in charge of monitoring and waiting for its second coming." Noting that Valerie Castro has several children, other letters questioned, "Have they found out what's in the walls yet," and "I am pleased to know your names now, and the name of the young blood you have brought to me." The threatening letters were sufficient to make the new family leave and flee their new home.
Isn't there a TV series based on this now? My dad was watching it the other night, and I think the trailer said it was based on a true story. Edit: Yep, I was right. I knew this sounded familiar 😂
An Angry Gentleman
A recount from an interpreter in the central passage of Mount Vernon in the spring or summer ca. the 1980s:
"She thought she heard someone in the room behind her. Thinking that a visitor had gotten into the area by going under the rope barriers, she entered the Little Parlor to shoo them out. Much to her surprise, she found an older gentleman, sporting a large mustache and dressed in late 19th or early 20th-century clothing, with his sleeves rolled up and secured with garters.
When he saw that he had her attention, he shouted, “What the hell is going on here?”—a reference to the noise a school group or groups were making. The interpreter told him that she was trying to quiet them down and then the man disappeared. She later saw a portrait of the gentleman in question, Colonel Harrison Howell Dodge, Mount Vernon’s director for about 50 years, until his death in the late 1930s."
The Yellow Room
A recount of the first ghost encounter in Mount Vernon from 2006 supervisor from The History Interpretation department:
"My first encounter with a ghost occurred in the Yellow Room of the Mount Vernon Mansion in 2006. I was a Supervisor in the History Interpretation Department – Supervisors clear and lock the Mansion after checking and rechecking for assurance that no one has been left in the Mansion after hours. After letting the last interpreter out the Study door, I walked up the backstairs, past the Washingtons’ bedchamber, and into the Yellow Room. I suddenly felt myself being pushed, feeling the pressure of someone’s hands on the back of my shoulders. I turned to look and no one was there. It was obvious I wasn’t wanted in the Yellow Bedchamber.
This happened several more times and I decided I would not go back upstairs if alone. I invited another interpreter to stay with me and travel the backstairs to the Yellow Room – nothing happened. The next time when I was alone I was once again pushed through the room.
To keep this from being disturbed, I felt it was best that I not use the backstairs but to remove my shoes and cross through the downstairs bedchamber to the Central Passage and lock the door for the evening."
The Ghost Of Frederick Jordan
On February 22, 1916, lighthouse keeper Frederick A. Jordan rowed a dory to spend Christmas with his family on shore. An assistant lighthouse keeper, Rudolph Iten, saw Jordan's boat capsize in the choppy water around 150 yards northwest of the lighthouse. Iten claimed he could not launch a rescue ship due to heavy wind and an outgoing tide and could only watch Jordan vanish into the waters. Iten was cleared of responsibility for the demise and was appointed the following keeper.
Local legend claims that Jordan has been returning to the location ever since. According to Iten's entry in the keeper's journal, Jordan's spirit showed up two weeks later. The ghost, according to Iten, drifted down the tower's stairs before vanishing into the night. Iten added that when the spirit appeared in the lighthouse, the Penfield light started "behaving weirdly."
Later, several lighthouse keepers reported seeing Jordan's spirit. They were even persuaded to sign affidavits detailing the apparitions by Iten. According to one story, Jordan rescued two boys from the river after their boat capsized in 1942, close to Penfield Light. The lads said that a man had saved them, but when they went to the lighthouse to thank him, they could not locate him. According to the tale, when the boys saw Jordan's image, they recognized him as their rescuer.
December 22nd. Unlikely that he would be rowing home for Christmas in February!
Sloss Furnaces
In 1871, the need for tons of pig iron to repair the infrastructure in the United States soared. As a result, Colonel James Withers Sloss began to build Sloss Furnaces. According to its official site, the business provided jobs to hundreds of employees. However, the work on blast furnaces was difficult and dangerous, and people started passing from falls into the furnaces.
By the turn of the century, James "Slag" Wormwood, a ruthless foreman who took huge risks to boost productivity, had made things much worse. Nearly 50 workers lost their lives at Sloss during his time there, and numerous others were hurt in horrible incidents. His employees allegedly hurled him into the furnace as vengeance in 1906. Some say that even walking today at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, one may still hear Slag's voice yelling, "Get back to work!" and witness other otherworldly occurrences.
This Happen In April
"This happen in April. My mom went to the mall (1 hour away) with her partner, and me and my sister were chilling watching a movie on her room alone. It was around 4pm, we live in the states and you already know it is noisy, however, that day everything was quiet, felt like a Sunday but it was Tuesday.
I have always been the one who encounters paranormal things always and my sister makes fun of me because she had never seen or felt something like it.
Well, as we were watching the movie, she says “Ma?” And I asked her why was she calling mom, “she’s in the bathroom”. I know it wasn’t our mom because whenever my mom comes into the house, one, you can hear it, two, she always goes “donde están mis hijos? (Where are my children?)” In the most Hispanic way possible. My sister gets up and says “no, for real, check the bathroom I saw her walking in” and I said “you go and check” we both went and nope, there was no one. By the point I am thinking she’s making fun of me, but then I saw it. I saw something walking in to the bathroom. And without me saying anything she goes “there it goes again” and she started crying (mind you, my sister is 18 and I’m 23). We just closed the door in the bathroom and she kept crying until awhile later. I didn’t say anything because I have experienced the paranormal before and there is no way I was going to say “it’s nothing don’t worry”."
The Tower Of London
The many ancient castles in Britain are home to numerous spirits; however, The Tower of London is arguably one of England’s most haunted ones. Many men and women have been imprisoned in the Tower’s dark dungeons or slain outside its walls during its lengthy history. The most well-known of these was Lady Jane Grey, who ruled England in 1554 and is also popularly known as the “Nine Days Queen.”
Following the demise of King Edward VI, who had personally chosen Lady Jane Grey as his successor, Lady Jane Grey’s brief reign officially began on July 10, 1553. Despite Jane becoming Queen, Jane’s rule was threatened by Mary Tudor’s extensive popularity. By mid-July, Jane’s father had renounced her and, to rescue himself, had crowned Mary Queen, so the reign of Queen Mary I began.
While Jane’s father received a pardon, Queen Mary had Lady Jane locked up in the Tower of London. In November 1553, Jane and her husband were put on trial for high treason. After pleading guilty, Lady Jane Grey received a death sentence. Before her own execution, Jane had to see her husband being beheaded and his body being brought back in a cart with his head wrapped in a cloth. Since then, rumors have circulated that Lady Jane Grey’s ghost still haunts the Tower of London’s rooms and hallways.
Jane was 16 years old going on 17 when she was executed. Her father in law swapped sides. Jane's father joined the Wyatt Rebellion. Mary was a Catholic and not massively popular among the people but was among the Catholics. Mary's younger brother, the king Edward was a staunch protestant. He put a target on Jane's back when he decided to name her his successor because she was his cousin and a protestant rather than his sister's all because their father Henry VIII claimed them illegitimate for his own PR reasons. Edward did not want a Catholic on the throne and couldn't well claim protestant Elizabeth legitimate without inturn giving the older Mary rights to the throne. Things were made worse for Jane with the Wyatt Rebellion, who opposed Mary's approaching marriage to Phillip of Spain, a notorious Catholic. What was a 16/17 year old who had been used as a p**n by everyone around her to do. Jane knew her fate. Knew she wouldn't be allowed to live as she would always be a (1)
Super Strong Girl
"During the last year of elementary school, I saw the strangest thing that has ever happened to me. We were returning from a school trip on a bus and had temporarily stopped for a break, so that those in need could go to the bathroom or buy something to eat. It was quite late, it must have been 9 pm and there were still several hours to go back to the city. The gas station was relatively isolated, but it wasn't deserted because it was on the side of a busy highway. But we were in the middle of the Apennine mountains in Romagna and there were not a lot of people from what I remember. The fact is that I was the last to have to go to the bathroom because I stopped first to get something to eat.
Going to the bathroom, which is almost always in the back at Italian gas stations, I saw a girl in a suit that looked like an alla black diver suit. It made me strange but at first I didn't care. Then all of a sudden I saw her easely lift a car parked in the back with one hand and I saw her take an object quickly from underneath. I remember well that I was very frightened when, having seen that I had seen her, she suddenly turned around and glared at me. She had long black hair and, although it was the thing that scared me the most, I don't remember the color of her eyes at all. I don't think they were weird or particularly scary, it was the way she looked at me that terrified me the most. I've never been so scared in my life. I literally felt my hair stand up in fear, like in cartoons.
I immediately ran off to the bus crying and went straight to my teacher. I told her everything but clearly she didn't believe me. But seeing how visibly frightened I was, she went with another teacher to see what was there in the back, perhaps thinking that someone had made a joke on me.
Apart from my teacher and my best friend, nobody knows this story. I never even told my girlfriend because I know very well that like everyone else she would never believe me. Even I wouldn't believe it if someone told me about it."
Putting Away His Horse
A head guard of Mount Vernon claimed that an alarm would go off quite frequently in the stable. He claimed that an alarm would then sound in the Washington Bedchamber roughly the same amount of time it would take to unsaddle, mount a horse, and walk from the stable to the mansion. Guards sent to investigate the situation always returned with no unusual findings. The head guard claimed that the general was coming home, so he made his horse comfortable before going to his room. A head guard of Mount Vernon said these events were not a one-time occurrence and happened regularly from the 1980s to 1990s.
The Lost Colony Of Roanoke
The Roanoke Colony was one of the earliest European settlements in the United States. The colony was founded in 1587 and was situated on an island off the coast of what is now the state of North Carolina. John White, the colony’s leader, shortly returned to England, where the settlers had come initially to get supplies before returning to the new world. His journey was intended to be brief, but due to political turmoil (in the form of England’s war with Spain), White couldn’t return until 1590.
Even though it had only been three years, when John White returned, a lot had changed. In actuality, the entire colony, which at the time consisted of 115 individuals, including a newborn child named Virginia Dare, was gone. The only thing remaining was a post bearing the word “Croatoan” carved into it. The term “Croatoan” referred to a native group that had friendly relations with the settlers. White believed that the colonists had relocated to Croatoan Island (now known as Hatteras, North Carolina). However, they hadn’t. It is still one of the most well-known disappearances that have no known cause. Furthermore, there has never been any proof that the colony was slain.
Many people think that baby Virginia grew up to be a stunning young woman who ultimately got involved in a tragic love affair with a native warrior named Okisko. Longtime island inhabitants believe she still prowls the woods in quest of her man, frequently appearing as a ghostly white deer that always disappears at dawn.
The 2011 American Horror Story episode “Birth” relates the made-up legend of how the Lost Colonists suddenly perished and how their ghosts tortured the nearby Native Americans until a tribe elder banished them with the word “Croatoan.”
Makes is much sense as any other “made up” stories. A) grow some tolerance of others beliefs. Have you been there? If not, hush your noise. How do you know it can’t be real. Were you there when one of these kind of experiences happened? If not, hush. And 2) I’m a quite a rational person really, but I am, at least, open to the fact that there are things we do not conclusively have an answer for. Unless you can prove, unequivocally, that these things (personal beliefs, just as above, are not proof), and if you can provide absolute proof, okay then, it’s my privilege to have what I believe in left alone, if by nothing else, then freedom of speech. While I don’t believe half these stories, I have nonetheless experienced incidental events that aren’t readily explained. We can discuss your opinion if you like; you should consider that it’s our opinions, not yours alone.
The Villisca Axe Murder House
For ghost hunters, paranormal activity seekers, and adrenaline junkies, the Villisca Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa, is a well-known tourist destination. Paranormal investigators, familiar with the house, declared it among the most haunted locations in America following the summer 1912 mass homicide, right next to 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, where five people were slayed in the fall of 1974.
The case in which six children and two adults had their skulls completely smashed while asleep in bed was never solved and remains a mystery to this day. The location of a horrifying mass homicide was bought in 1994, restored to its 1912 condition, and turned into a tourist attraction. Paranormal investigators who have toured the house have produced audio, video, and visual evidence of paranormal activity in the place shrouded in mystery. Children's voices, falling lamps, moving ladders, and flying objects have all caused tours to end early.
But the haunting changed into something more sinister in the fall of 2014. On November 7, Robert Steven Laursen Jr., 37, of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, had a routinely scheduled paranormal tour with his friends. Laursen was found with a self-inflicted chest stab wound and was taken to a neighboring hospital. According to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, the self-inflicted wound occurred at approximately 12:45 a.m., roughly when the 1912 axe murders in the home happened. Laursen recovered from his injuries but never spoke publicly about what happened that day.
The Villisca Axe Murder House is still operating today. At the time of writing, the price of the overnight stay is $428, and anyone over the age of 12 can take a tour.
Zombie Road
There are many stories associated with the old roadway nicknamed Zombie Road in Missouri. Constructed in the late 1860s and located outside St. Louis, the road's original name was Lawler Ford Road. It's believed the roadway "earned" its new moniker as early as the 1950s when the road eventually fell into ruin and was abandoned. Soon after, teenagers from the neighborhood started regularly visiting Lawler Ford Road for gatherings, drinking, and making out. Today, Zombie Road is often visited for different reasons. Over the years, the roadway developed a haunted reputation. People with supernatural curiosity started to travel to the area due to the local legends and myths.
One well-known story and the inspiration for the moniker was the "Zombie killer," a spooky man who lived in a cabin in the woods and would attack young lovers looking for a secluded place to spend time alone. Arguably, one of the most spine-tingling is a tale of a person who was hit by a train and is now haunting the area. The actual account of Della Hamilton McCullough adds frost to this story, as there are no other records of anyone being killed by a train in this area at that time. Therefore, many believe that it's Mrs. McCullough's ghost that haunts the area. Other witnesses reported seeing sightings of Native American spirits, which can possibly be explained by the area's long history with previous Indian tribes.
Today, the well-known 2-mile stretch is simply referred to as Rock Hollow Trail after being paved and transformed into a modern cycling trail and jogging path.
At the start I was thinking "zombie road in MO, must be meth addicts." Lol
An Electric Candle
A recount of a character interpreter of what she experienced in Mount Vernon in 2017:
"I’ve worked at Mount Vernon on and off since 2004. I most recently returned in January 2017. The estate was abuzz with the latest spooky story. On December 15, 2016, some strange sounds were heard coming from the third floor and there had been reports of the temperature dropping by 20 degrees. When the tale was shared with me I was determined to see if it would happen again.
On December 14, the anniversary of the General’s death, I was on the third floor waiting for some haunting but nothing happened. However, when I returned the next night the vibe in the area had changed. Upon looking into the southwest bedchamber I noticed an electric candle was on. “That’s strange,” I thought, “It was dark last night.” Had Collections come and turned it on? Not likely; the third floor isn’t open to the public. Then it hit me. George Washington died on December 14, 1799, and the next day Martha Washington shut up the bedroom they shared. And moved to the southwest bedchamber. Apparently, she’s still marking that sad day."
The Ghost Of Deer Island
Anthony Ragusin, also known as Mr. Tony, first told this story in a Sun Herald column on May 20, 1922. He wrote that two fishermen camped on Deer Island off the coast of Biloxi in the early 1800s. They kept hearing strange noises but disregarded them until it was no longer possible. They swore they found a headless skeleton pursuing them when investigating the noise. They hurried from the island and promptly headed for their boat. According to legend, the skeletal frame belonged to a pirate whose commander hacked off his head before leaving his corpse behind as a ghostly guardian to watch over hidden treasure.
The Myrtles Plantation
The Myrtles Plantation, often referred to as "One of America's Most Haunted Homes," is said to be the residence of at least 12 ghosts. Apparently, the most well-known ghost at this 1796-built property in St. Francisville, Louisiana, is Chloe. According to reports (no historical records were found), Chloe was enslaved and owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff. One rumor said that Clark Woodruff had forced Chloe into becoming his mistress, while in other versions of the story, Chloe was seen peering through keyholes to get information on Clark Woodruff's business dealings. Once Clark Woodruff caught her, he severed her ear as a form of discipline for eavesdropping. She then used a birthday cake to poison the Woodruffs. Legend has it that her plan backfired, and only Sara and her two daughters consumed the cake and perished. Then, Chloe is said to have been hanged by the other slaves and dumped into the Mississippi River. People claim that Chloe, wearing a green turban, still haunts the plantation.
The Cell Phone
"A couple of months ago, my friend's cousin (a single mother) bought a new cell phone. After a long day of work, she came home, placed her phone on the counter, and went watch to TV; her son came to her and asked if he could play with her new phone. She told him not to call anyone or mess with text messages, and he agreed.
At around 11:20, she was drowsy, so she decided to tuck her son in and go to bed. She walked to his room and saw that he wasn't there. She then ran over to her room to find him sleeping on her bed with the phone in his hand.
Relieved, she picked her phone back up from his hand to inspect it. Browsing through it, she noticed only minor changes such as a new background, banner, etc., but then she opened up her saved pictures. She began deleting the pictures he had taken, until only one new picture remained.
When she first saw it, she was in disbelief. It was her son sleeping on her bed, but the picture was taken by someone else above him... and it showed the left half of an elderly woman's face."
This story was literally pulled off the Creepypasta Wikipedia page. C'mon, BP, at least source/steal your stories from Reddit!
This New Old House
"We bought an old house, my boyfriend and I. He’s in charge of the “new” construction – converting the kitchen in to the master bedroom for instance, while I’m on wallpaper removal duty. The previous owner papered EVERY wall and CEILING! Removing it is brutal, but oddly satisfying. The best feeling is getting a long peel, similar to your skin when you’re peeling from a sunburn. I don’t know about you but I kind of make a game of peeling, on the hunt for the longest piece before it rips. Under a corner section of paper in every room is a person’s name and a date. Curiosity got the best of me one night when I Googled one of the names and discovered the person was actually a missing person, the missing date matching the date under the wallpaper! The next day, I made a list of all the names and dates. Sure enough each name was for a missing person with dates to match. We notified the police who naturally sent out the crime scene team. I overhead one tech say “yup, it’s human.” Human? What’s human? “Ma’am, where is the material you removed from the walls already? This isn’t wallpaper you were removing.”
The Princes In The Tower
A 500-year-old mystery surrounds the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. In 1483, Young Edward V and his brother Richard were both put in the Tower of London to prevent them from becoming king and heir apparent, respectively. The two vanished shortly after that.
When King Edward IV passed away in April 1483, his 12-year-old eldest child, Edward V, briefly ascended the throne. His uncle was chosen as regent for him because of his inexperience. This uncle, who went by the title of Duke of Gloucester, was bitterly angry with the boys as he would have been the next in line had it not been for them.
What happened next is steeped in obscurity. In fact, it is one of the most bizarre mysteries involving the British royal family. The young king and his brother, Richard, the Duke of York, are believed to have been abducted and imprisoned in the Tower of London before the Duke of Gloucester proclaimed himself King Richard III. The two young princes vanished without a trace. Other than the ghostly apparitions, two little skeletons later discovered in the tower are said to be all that’s left of them.
In 2015, a British newspaper, Mirror, reported that a visitor of a famous tourist attraction, Christine Hamlett, was convinced that the princes contacted her to inform her of their murder. She also took a picture in which, allegedly, two figures of boys can be seen. In 2017, as reported by Daily Mail, another woman believes that the spirit of 12-year-old Edward V may have ‘photobombed’ a photo she captured in the Tower of London.
It's been proven that the skeletons did not belong to the two princes. There is also currently a historical theory that Richard III got a bad rap and actually sent the princes away to live with a relative in obscurity to protect them from would be assassins. There is very little evidence to support either theory.
Around two years ago I took a trip to the allegedly haunted Beck mansion (Google it if you don't believe it) and I went to the ~most~ haunted room (the red room) as I told my friends to wait outside and I laid on the bed to see if anything would happen and within around 27-ish minutes a large amount of my hair was pulled extremely hard by nothing .... (I screamed relatively loud and ran out the room 😂)
This was interesting, as I’m staying in my cousins house, which was built in the 40s
Around two years ago I took a trip to the allegedly haunted Beck mansion (Google it if you don't believe it) and I went to the ~most~ haunted room (the red room) as I told my friends to wait outside and I laid on the bed to see if anything would happen and within around 27-ish minutes a large amount of my hair was pulled extremely hard by nothing .... (I screamed relatively loud and ran out the room 😂)
This was interesting, as I’m staying in my cousins house, which was built in the 40s
