Ghosts All Around Us

A half dozen scary, true tales that will test your nerves

There's nothing like a good ghost story – all the better when it's true. I receive a lot of great stories from readers, which is a pretty good indication of how relatively common ghost and haunting phenomena really are. On this and following pages are some fascinating stories that have come my way. Some are warm, positive experiences, some are benign, and others are truly scary. Be warned: they get scarier toward the end. Dim the lights, steel your nerves and start reading.

The Widow's Ghost

In the summer that I turned 11, my parents rented a large Victorian cottage. It was my favorite childhood home and I still have a warm feeling about that lovely place. The house was the family home of the old gentleman that rented the place to my parents. After his father died, his mother turned the house into a duplex by adding some doors and tearing down a wall. She lived in one side and rented the other side to another elderly widow, so we had two complete kitchens and the entire home could be closed off by shutting a few doors. My parents closed off one of the French doors leading into the living room and put a old sofa in front of it and put a TV in the room for my sister and me this became our "TV room."

One evening, my sister and I had just turned on the TV and sat in our regular spots on the sofa to enjoy a movie – Viva Las Vegas with Elvis and Ann Margaret – a favorite of ours. I always sat on the end of the sofa near the door that led into the dining room. From that seat, I had a clear view of the dining table and the large window in the dining room. I had regularly seen a shadow moving in front of the door on the dining room side, like someone had just walked by and I would just catch a glimpse of the heel of a boot or shoe the first few times it happened.

On this evening, I again saw something moving out of the corner of my eye and turned my head to look. There stood a woman. She had her dark hair pulled up on the top of her head in a bun. She was wearing a dark dress and held her hands cupped in front of her. She was just standing in the doorway looking at us. Then she seemed to notice me watching her. At first, she looked shocked, then her face relaxed and she smiled at me – one of the warmest, kindest smiles I've ever seen. It was like receiving a hug from someone that loves you!

I smiled back at her, then turned my attention back to the TV where Elvis was just starting to sing a song. That's when it hit me: the lady that smiled so sweetly was not only a stranger, but was transparent! I could see the dining room table and the window right through her. It reminded me of seeing your reflection in the glass of darkened window. I say "standing," but she really didn't have legs from the top of her thighs down. She seemed to be a swirl of smoke, but I could see her face and upper body clearly. When what I'd seen registered with me, I quickly turned my head to look again... but she was gone.

I didn't tell my parents what I saw that night until years later. Mom told me how my sister would say how a lady in a long dress would pull the blanket up over us at night. I often wonder why my sister, the original "Nervous Nelly," never said a word to me about it. Was the lady that made me feel so warm and fuzzy that night one of the elderly widows? – Brenda S.

The Spinning Spirit

A few years ago, while lying in bed at night, I woke up and saw a girl (probably about 18 years old or so) standing in front of the door looking at me. She was somewhat startled that I saw her; apparently, she didn't expect me to see her. Folder her arms, she said, "Oh, I'm just here looking for something. Go back to sleep."

I thought she was someone who came in from outside, but how could that be when all the doors and windows were locked. She was barefoot and wore a white, short-sleeved gown that went down to her ankles and had snowflake patterns on the center area. She was standing in front of my bedroom door and was probably a few feet away from me. She looked real enough. When she told me to go back to sleep, I saw her lips move, but heard the voice in my head, if that makes any sense. She had pitch black hair in a ponytail fashion and very white skin. The pupils of her eyes had a strange orange-like color.

She reminded me of someone I saw when I was nine years old (I was 21 at the time of the above encounter) after coming home from school. I went to my room I saw this girl, much older than I (probably about 18), spinning around in front of me while I was sitting on the bed. While she was spinning, some gold dust came off of her, and it gave me a feeling of contentment and happiness. I wonder if this was the same person. I wonder who she is. –

The East Village Subway Ghost

It was a cold winter night in 1994 about 3:00 a.m. and I had just left the home of my friend Carolyn in the East Village, Manhattan. I had just rounded the corner of 1st Street and Ave A and was walking quickly to catch the F train. A brisk wind had swept the streets clean of garbage and Clubers alike and was hurrying me along too. I had just passed the East Indian Deli and was walking past the parking lots of the high rises when I saw a young man approaching me.

He was staggering and really not dressed for the weather now, though earlier his attire would have been enough. I remember thinking to myself about him, "You'll not make it through this night if you continue going the direction you are, staggering like that. Why not just put a sign on your neck saying 'Mug me... Easy prey.'" To my surprise, the youth staggered toward me and stopped.

"You won't believe this," he slurred, "but I have walked all the way down from Broadway trying to bum subway fare. No one will give me even a quarter."

I looked at him and was startled by how much he looked like the ex-boyfriend of a mutual friend of Carolyn's and mine named Rob. It was just that he was at least 10 years younger, but damned near a twin of him. He apologized several times to me for being in the condition he was and said he should have known better, but he spent every dime he had on a girl and a good time, and that they both ran out at the same time. I laughed and gave him a quarter and started to walk, for it was cold.

"Great," he said. "All I need now is another dollar." I thought all he needed was a quarter by what he had said earlier and called him back and said, "Look, you need to get your ass off these cold streets. Give me back the quarter and I'll give you a token."

Wobbling, he put out his hand and I took the quarter from it and pushed the token into his palm because I was afraid he would drop it; all I had was two tokens and a quarter. "Now you need to get on the subway," I said and started to walk toward the station.

"Ok," he said, but walked the other way. I turned to call him... but he had vanished.

I walked up the block and called Carolyn to tell her what happened and that he looked like a young twin of Rob. After a long pause, she told me how when Rob was a young kid, he had been stabbed and died on a subway. He was later brought back to life in the hospital. Was it young Rob's ghost I saw? – Bplgeus

Massachusetts Haunting

I have a favorite aunt named Juvy and favorite uncle named Mick who lived in Rehoboth, Massachusetts in a very nice and quiet area. I used to love sleeping over her house because they were both young at heart and loved me and my brother and sister very much. My aunt worked first shift which was 7 a.m. until 3 p.m.; my uncle worked second shift from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. So every time I slept over, he would leave for work at 2:15 and I would wait for my aunt to get home around 3:30.

One day, I was upstairs playing Nintendo and I heard her two doors open and slam shut. The doors were very old and heavy so we could always hear people come in and out of the house. I thought my aunt had come home early from work. I could hear her come up the stairs. After a little while of not hearing her call me, I left the TV room and walked to the top of the stairs. I yelled out, "Aunt Juvy? Are you home?" No response, so I didn't think nothing of it.

About three months later, around 9:30 p.m., my phone rang and my dad answered it. It was my aunt. My dad said she was screaming and crying. She was watching TV upstairs and heard the doors open and footsteps going up the stairs – just like I did – and thought it was my uncle coming home from work early. She told my dad that she called my uncle's work and he was still there.

I told my day that I heard the same thing one day when I was alone in the house. My aunt wanted to find out what was going on in that house because now she was getting harassed by that ghost every day. She would walk down the stairs and it would keep banging the wall right behind her head! She contacted the old owner of the house and found out that the now 27-year-old girl who lived there with her mother used to see this ghost every night in her bedroom; it would appear in the corner, just staring at her.

The Hooded Specter

This happened to me when I was about 12 years old. My family and I lived in a very small house in Atlanta, Georgia. I slept in the living room, and right next to my room was the laundry room where my older brother slept. The laundry room had a wooden floor, ceiling and walls. The laundry room was very small, and about all it had room for was my brother's bed and a chair that he kept next to his bed. I slept on a bunk bed on the top bunk, and when I was lying in my bed, I could see inside of my brother's room.

One night, I woke up at about midnight. Everybody in the house was asleep. I remember feeling very afraid the instant that I woke up. Mind you, I know that I was NOT asleep. I looked into my brother's room, and in the darkness I thought I saw somebody sitting in the chair by his bed.

"Surely, this cannot be," I thought to myself. I tried to look at whatever this was as just a pile of cloths... like my mind was playing tricks on me. But no matter how I looked at it, all I could see was what looked like a person wearing a hood (like a cloak) staring at my brother. I kept staring at it, and I guess it knew I was looking at it, because it turned to look at me! I could not see any facial features – just evil darkness!

I promptly laid back down in my bed. I was petrified. Cold sweat dripped from my pores and I trembled uncontrollably. Then, I heard a sound... the sound of a chair scooting back across a wooden floor! "Dammit!" I thought as I heard footsteps coming toward me! (My room had carpet in it, by the way.) I heard footsteps on a wooden floor, then heard them on a carpeted floor... my floor! I pulled the covers over my head. I could feel this thing standing right next to me. I got very very cold. I was horrified! When I finally mustered the nerve to sit up and confront the thing... it was morning.

What has always bothered me is that I know this happened around 12 or 1 a.m., and when I sat up, the sun was out. I know that I wasn't dreaming. What happened during those five or six hours? – Lukas J.

The Green Ghost Under the Bed

I was four years old and living in a townhouse in Maryland at the time of the only paranormal experience I ever had. At the time, my little brother and I were sharing a bunk bed in a small room – he slept on the top bunk and I slept on the bottom. We kept most of our toys under the bed because the room was so small. So whenever I wanted to play with a toy, I'd just go and pop my head in between the wall and the bedside and take one out to play with. I loved doing this.

Late one night, when my brother and the rest of the household were fast asleep, I still found myself wide awake. No matter what I did, I just couldn't fall asleep. I remember looking out the window at the night sky and sighing because I was trying so hard to sleep. Eventually, being bored stiff, I thought, "What the heck, I'll just grab a toy from under the bed and play with it until I fall asleep."So I stuck my head under the bed... only to see what was a greenish male being – something like a green gnome – with wide-open, large, human-like eyes sitting, smiling and playing with one of the toys under my bed! I distinctly remember him being completely focused on playing with the toy, smiling and making exclamations of joy in the same way a baby or toddler does when playing with a fun toy. I remember the toy itself was making the usual sounds toys make when played with. I don't remember what he was wearing, but I'm pretty sure he was wearing something.

He was probably about 10 inches away from where my face was and he was very surprised to see me. But he wasn't scared at all. He seemed happy and very curious to see me and, throwing the toy aside, he inched himself toward me. I remember his huge smile and big eyes getting closer to me and I, of course, completely freaked out. This all happened within a matter of seconds. I specifically remember my face contorting into an expression of shock and fear and I just couldn't get my head out from under the bed fast enough.

I just stayed in bed for the rest of the night as there was no way I was getting out of that bed. I was absolutely convinced that he was going to reach out his hand from under the bed and grab me or something because I had seen him when I wasn't supposed to. But nothing happened after that. After a couple of hours of being awake and afraid, I ended up falling asleep.