I am a big baby when it comes to all things that go bump in the night.
One glimpse at a horror movie or listen to a campfire ghost story will keep me up at night. One of my biggest fears is rolling over at 2am to find a strange shadow looming over me.
I believe in ghosts/spirits/creepy things, no question about it. But I’ve never had a run in with one (I totally just jinxed myself, didn’t I?) and I consider myself lucky.
But I’m a sucker when it comes to hearing other people’s ghost stories. They both fascinate me and make me want to run screaming out of the room.
Because I’m a sucker for pain, I’ve crowdsourced some of the best/worst real life ghost stories out there.
And because sharing is caring, here they all are:
- The housemate no one wanted.
Ok so my family moved into an old villa that we were going to do up over time. About 6 months in to living there, mum got up in the night to go to the bathroom (no ensuites in an old villa back in the day) so mum was walking back to her bedroom down the hallway and saw a shadow in her bedroom doorway and thought it was either me or my brother. So she was like “darling are you ok? go back to your room” and the shadow didn’t move or respond so she crept forward a little bit and was like “Dan? Hayley?” And my brother came out of his room… then I opened my door cause I heard talking… and mum was like OH SHIT!!!!!!!!!!! Mum put our house on the market that week and sold in 10 days.
2. The one with all of the haunting classics.
I think my parents’ house might be lightly haunted.
When I was growing up, there were always footsteps running down the hall, but there was no one there. One night my Mum woke up with an old man standing over her.I always used to get the sensation that someone was tipping hot water over me in my sleep – occasionally there was some creepy laughing.
I have no idea if anyone ever died in the house – it was built in the 70s, but I still struggle to go into my old bedroom coz it was quite frankly, scary as shit.
3. The not so imaginary friend.
A colleague of mine caught her 3 year old son chatting to the corner of the room randomly. When she asked him who he was talking to, he said “just the old man in the corner mummy”. WTF.
4. The ghost with the quakes.
When I was a kid, I woke up in the middle of the night to my bed shaking. Normally, that would scare the crap out of me, but instead, I was just kind of annoyed. I rolled over and muttered, “Stop it.” The shaking stopped immediately. Then, a male voice speaks right beside me, saying, “Sorry.” That’s when I freaked out. I’m pretty sure my childhood house was haunted.
5. That’s right.
I was at a slumber party in 8th grade with a few of my friends when we decided (stupidly) to have a seance in her unfinished basement. We were having fun and giggling as we were trying to figure out who to summon when someone suggested Jack the Ripper (a serial killer from the late 1800’s) and I immediately got a pit in my stomach.
“No,” I spoke up, “We shouldn’t summon something evil.”
“That’s right,” called a MAN’S VOICE from the other side of the cellar. There were no boys or men there (we were home alone).
6. Please stop.
My house was fraught with weird stuff happening when we first moved in. My keys will disappear and show up in the weirdest places like my quilt trunk.
[My son] Christopher went into the basement and things came flying off the shelf at him. He also saw someone walking on our wraparound porch once but no one was there.
The kitchen table would move overnight 12 to 18 inches. I walked into it one night while going to the bathroom. It wasn’t the first time I’d done that, so I just said, “Please stop moving the kitchen table”, and it never moved again.
7. When your usual paper route becomes unusual.
I had a paper route when I was younger and delivered to a lady named Margie. She was very old and lived alone, so I’d take the paper inside and check on her. One day, I went in and she was asleep on the bed, so I put the paper on the table and left. The next day, she was asleep again, and the other newspaper was still unopened. The following day, I went in and Margie was awake. She said she was very happy and gave me a hug. But the day after that, there were cars outside her house. Apparently Margie had died in her bed, three or four days beforehand. Somehow I spoke to and hugged her about 24 hours earlier, when she was already dead.
8. The telling conversation.
In the last week of my grandmother’s life, she’d stare off at nothing and talk to dead family members. For example, she’d talk to her dead sister, saying things like, “Okay, Rose. I’ll be there soon.” We noticed that she exclusively did this with dead relatives, so we thought it was strange when she started talking to her brother, Henry, who was still alive. Or so we thought! We got a call later that day that Henry had just died.
9. The final goodbye.
I was up at 2 a.m. when I felt something firmly touch my leg. No one else was in the room, so I freaked out, but I eventually fell asleep. The next morning, my mom got a call that my grandmother had passed away… at 2 a.m. I believe that the touch on my leg was my grandmother saying goodbye to me. It brings me peace.
10. The nun.
One night I woke up to what looked like a nun who was frantically praying next to my bed. I couldn’t hear her, but she kept making the cross sign across her chest. I was 100% awake and terrified. I told my mom about it the next day, and she said our house was originally built for a priest and that nuns used to stay there.
11. The woman in white.
I woke up one night having to pee, and I brought my phone to the bathroom. While walking down the hall and texting, I bumped into a girl in a white dress. I didn’t look up, said “sorry,” and kept going. It occurred to me moments later that I was home alone and not in my bustling high school. The next day, when my boyfriend came to pick me up for the movies, he asked why I’d been staring at him through the upstairs window and why I’d changed out of my white dress. But I don’t even own a white dress.
12. A child’s embrace.
I’m a mortician. My most disturbing experience was when I was preparing a child for a viewing. I randomly felt someone pull my hair, but I was alone. A couple minutes later, I heard a giggle, and the door slammed shut. All of my machines stopped, and it was dead quiet. After I was done and the body was dressed, I felt a tap on my shoulder and warmth around my mid-side, approximately where a child would stand if they were hugging you.
