Paranormal Story Archives
June 1999

Spectre in the Antique Shop by Constance P.
I'm somewhat psychic. I can ‘sense' things that other people can't. Oddly enough, most of my friends can too. We once decided to go ghost hunting in some places in my hometown that have reports of hauntings, one of which is a 100-year-old bathhouse with at least four different entities. As a child, before I learned of this, I hated the hallway that was in the back of the building. I always had the sensation I was being watched. (It's now an antique shop.) A couple who were antique shopping were looking at a desk there, and my companion and I stared in horror at the two, wondering why they couldn't feel it. Months later, another friend and I returned to the building, at night, to see if we could see anything. We did. Outside of a window, on the second story, was what can best be described as a shimmering ball of light, as if gas or light reflecting off of water. Wondering if it was a trick of the light from the gas station across the street, we split up and looked at it from different angles to see if it faded. It didn't. We moved to the side of the building to look at the hallway where my friend and I had been before. Although no one is in the building after closing, the two of us saw a blue-hazy figure, roughly man-shaped, at the mouth of the hallway. 

The Haunted Piano by Diane D.
My grandmother had passed when I was a teenager. My brother was a very good football player at the time. I did something wrong, so my mother grounded me from going to his game that Friday night. My grandmother had a piano in the basement, and she only knew two songs by heart; one of them was the Third Man theme. I was upstairs watching TV and feeling sorry for myself, when all of a sudden that same song was being played on the piano. I know that was my grandmother downstairs playing that song, if only in spirit.

Ghost Demands Attention by Diana H.
I have had several weird experiences with electronic and electrical devices since my mother-in-law passed away about five years ago. First was a "touch light" lamp. It would come on in the middle of the night two or three times a night. That went on for about a year, a few times a month. The lamp was given to my husband from his mother, so I believe she was trying to get our attention. During the same timeframe, my daughter has an electronic guitar. It would make a sound like someone was touching one of the keys, over and over, slowly, until I would go pick it up and move it. There was never anything sitting on it to make it go off. We moved from our apartment that we were renting into our house that we built on his mother's family land. I thought maybe there was just a presence in the apartment, but I believe whatever it is followed us here. A "Sleep-and-Snore Ernie" doll would start talking in the middle of the night until I finally took out the batteries. I was so freaked out, I hid it in my closet. Then a Furby started making strange, defective sounds during the night, clicking its eyes and mouth. That one usually went off around midnight, so it freaked me out even more. I took the batteries out of that one too and also hid it in the closet. My husband always just thought I was crazy until the alarm clock went off one night while we were about to go to sleep. The alarm wasn't even set. He finally had to admit that all of this was too strange, and he was a little freaked out by then. Nothing has happened since then. I believe the presence was just simply trying to get his attention, although I can't figure out why!

The Ouija's Skull by Melissa
I've had two experiences with Ouija boards, the second of which made me get rid of mine and never touch one again. The first time was when my best friend, Melanie, and I started using the Ouija at her mother's house, and it told us that it was a male spirit and that it was going to hurt us. It directed most of its threats and comments to Melanie, and it used a lot of bad language, something Melanie and I didn't do. That night, Melanie said she heard knocks in the room she was sleeping in all night long! The second time Melanie and I used it was at her house. We put the board on a table that had one of those mirror tops. We lit a candle and started using the board. It kept saying that Melanie was pregnant and that it wanted to show us what it (the "spirit") looked like. We started to get scared and said, no, we didn't want to see it. At that point, the candle flame got really long and made a "whooshing" noise. The flame turned blue. Melanie and I were looking down at the table when we saw a the blue flame reflected in the glass. We moved away from the table and the board and then saw a face in the flame. It wasn't Melanie or me, but a man's face. The face slowly started turning into a skull. We blew out the candle and threw the Ouija board away. That night, we kept hearing scratching and clawing noises even though we were alone in the house and never heard those noises before. We also found out a few days later that Melanie was pregnant. I've never used a Ouija board since that second time, and I don't ever intend to!

A Final Good-bye by Myrna G.
My husband, then 42, was in the hospital with pneumonia. His heart couldn't take the extra strain and he passed on. That night as I lay in my own bed with three dogs, I was awakened by their barking and growling. All three perched on the foot of my bed with their hackles up. Then I felt a gentle hand rub my face. The dogs calmed down and simply turned and stared at me. Standing next to the bed, surrounded with a sparkly white light like fourth of July sparklers, was my deceased husband. He said he came to say good-bye. I wasn't afraid, but very peaceful as I asked him if he had pain when he left us. He said he went to sleep and it was all over quickly and the pain wasn't noticeable. I discussed it with my doctor and she said she had heard of such farewells.

Beings on the Highway by Kathleen
My girlfriend and I were driving along a country road north of Kokomo, Ind. The road was lined with thick, tall bushes. As I drove along, my engine went dead and the radio shut off. I leaned down to fiddle with the radio and keys. Suddenly I realized that my girlfriend's face was contorted in fear, and she was silent. She only pointed out the window in front of us. Now the engine was still dead... coasting, and the lights were very dim on this dark night. No moon. There in a line on both sides of the road were beings with only their heads and shoulders showing above the 10-ft. bushes. They had no features. They did not emit light to light up the dark around them. They were very tall above the bushes and had very wide shoulders, and the heads and shoulders were much larger than a human's. I was amazed and immediately said, "They want to communicate. I am stopping." My friend became violently hysterical at that comment, so we coasted on. The car engine started once we coasted by the beings. This whole episode lasted as long as it takes to coast at 10 miles an hour for about 50 ft. These beings lined the road on both sides for about 50 ft. or more. My girlfriend locked herself in the bedroom for two days and would not talk to me or her husband and kids.

The Ghost on the Stairs by Dianne C.
I was standing at the bottom of a flight of stairs, which had a landing half way up. A flash of light caught my attention and as I looked up, in my mind's eye I could see a woman standing on the landing. She was of European decent, short, about 5'3", dark hair drawn back in a bun, about 150 lbs. She was olive skinned with brown eyes. She was wearing a plaid dress with an apron over it, thick beige stockings, and "old lady shoes." I would guess that it would be something my grandmother would wear maybe in the '40s or '50s. I would guess her age to be about mid-60s. She didn't say anything to me, just looked down and smiled at me. Later in the day, my ride picked me up for work and I was telling him about what I had experienced. As I started to describe this woman, he told me who she was. To my amazement he lived in my house as a child, and the woman was a friend of his mother's who never had any family of her own. The kids called her Auntie, and he said she was very kind to them. This incident happened over 25 years ago and I don't live in that house anymore, but I can see her face today as if it were yesterday.

The One-Handed Ghost by Terri
When I was 12 years old, my sister and her husband and their two-year-old (my niece) moved into a house on the next block. The family who vacated the house had moved because their teenage daughter had a friend who was missing, and the strain was too much for the girl. I was spending the night on a weekend, and I was downstairs with my sister and niece doing laundry. As we went up the stairs to the main floor, I turned to help my niece up the stairs. She had been playing around the basement and talking to herself (or so I thought!). As I turned to grasp her hand, she said, "C'mon lady, c'mon." I was amazed to see a girl of about 16 or 17 standing at the base of the stairs dressed in a white dress with her arms outstretched. She was missing her right hand. On numerous occasions, I was to see this ghost. It was nothing to wake up and find her sitting on the bed or looking into your face. I would follow her down the hall into the living room or into my niece's room. Several months passed, and the missing girl was found. She had been mutilated and cut into many pieces by a machete. Her right hand was missing when they found her. It seems that she was supposed to go to her girlfriend's house after work on the night she disappeared. She never got there. She was abducted and murdered. Her best friend kept seeing her in the house, and her family thought she was nuts. Hence the reason they moved and my sister rented the house. I have heard that the girl still haunts the house, and it never stays occupied long. My sister lived there longer than anyone else, she is psychic, and she said that she never felt threatened by the girl. To this day, it still gives me the cold chills and nightmares.

Our Nun by Ritamary
About 20 years ago, we bought an old convent, moved it onto our property, and eventually, after some repairs and renovations, moved in. Shortly after we moved in, my husband started working nights, leaving me alone in the house with my three small (then) children. Every night between 11:30 to 12:30, I would hear footsteps in the upstairs hall. At first I used to run upstairs, thinking one of the children was up, but after several months I came to the conclusion that I was "hearing things." One evening, however, a friend was visiting and stayed late (for us country folks!) chatting. When the footsteps began, she commented to me, "One of the kids must be up. Aren't you going to check?" "You can hear that?" I exclaimed. "Of course," she responded. I then told her that I had thought I was imagining things, and we decided that it was one of the long-gone nuns doing her nightly bed check. We heard the footsteps for years, but never anything else until one time a friend, recovering from surgery, came to stay a few nights with us. She stayed in our guest room, which used to be the chapel when the house was a convent. The next morning, when I asked her how she slept, she said she had had the strangest experience. As she described it, she was in that limbo state, just before you really fall asleep when you're not exactly awake or asleep, and she was thinking about some personal problems she had been worrying about, when she felt something "whisper" across her cheek. She said it felt soft and light - like a scarf or veil - lightly brushing her cheek. Instead of being startled or afraid, however, she said a feeling of inexplicable peace and serenity stole over her. She felt as if her worries had been lifted from her shoulders, and she fell immediately into a deep, peaceful sleep. We never heard the nun's footsteps again.

The Night Visitors by Kristin
My cousin Angela and I are both in our 30s and have been close all our lives. We have even lived together three separate times for months at a time in our adult lives. Not until last night (6/21) has she ever confided in me the paranormal events that have plagued her all her life. I was in total shock and still am. Needless to say I didn't sleep to well last night. Ever since she can remember, she has seen people in her bedroom while she sleeps. Not just the outline but their entire body. She is able to distinguish between male and female. They are only watching her. No expressions, usually no movement, never any words. Just there watching. We are speculating that they may be her guardian angels? They only appear at night and she is sure she is not dreaming because she has to get up and turn on a light or cover her head with a blanket for them to disappear. She has never spoken to them out of fear that they would talk back and that would be far too scary! She has only seen one move once and that was terrifying for her. At first she thought it may be a prowler...that is how clear these people are to her. They are dressed normally...not period wear so it's not like ghosts. It seems they only appear to her in tough times....maybe they're there for support? She said that when she saw the movie City of Angels that she started to recognize her own experience with that on the movie.

The Incubus by Daphne
I have had so many experiences. I believe I am vulnerable because I am so sensitive to my surroundings. The most horrifying of all was being stalked by an incubus. It went on for years, and I still feel a presence occasionally when I am about to go to sleep or when I am preoccupied with something and my defenses are down. It would always start in dreaming. I would dream that I was awake and involved in an activity. Then I would realize something was on top of me and I couldn't move. It kept trying to trick me into thinking I was awake already. It would sit on my chest and hold me down. I would cry out and it would put its hand over my mouth. Very cold hands. Once it actually penetrated me. Friends thought I was off, and my family thought I was possessed, but I knew that it was a spirit just looking to torture me. I've learned how to build walls of light around me and it rarely presents itself on occasion when I am sad or tired. It will try to climb into my bed, but I can't actually get rid of it. It's always there, but it keeps a distance.

Grandma's Ghost? by Darla
When my husband and I were married, we moved into the house his grandmother owned. She had died about six months before we were married. We lived in that house for 14 years. However, the first five years were very strange. We would leave the house and lock all the doors to go to supper or shopping, when we came back, all the doors in the house would be standing wide open. Nothing was ever missing in the house. The doors would just be open. This happened on countless occasions.

The Evil Bedroom Set by Jeanne K.
My husband and I bought a beautiful cherry wood bedroom set at a garage sale about l0 years ago. We put it into the bedroom, at first nothing seemed out of sorts, but then I would start to feel my blood coursing through my body whenever I sat on the bed. The wood was from the Appalachian mountains, it looked like blood was running through it. It got so bad that one night I woke up, the room was still and full of evil, a voice in my head said that I would die in two weeks exactly, I looked over at my husband and I couldn't move to wake him up, it was definitely evil that was permeating the entire room. Well, needless to say, I had the entire bedroom set moved out to the garage. I couldn't go into the garage until it was sold, because I felt the evil presence. I called woman who sold me the bedroom set and she told me that her mother-in-law had never left the bed, and she was an evil old woman. What's even weirder are the nightmares I had: I dreamt that I was hemorrhaging, and I dreamt that my youngest brother died, plus some others that I can't remember. The evil mother-in-law always said that she was hemorrhaging and her son died, her favorite son. This made me a believer in the darkness, that's for sure. I never buy used furniture anymore unless I know who owned it before.

Mommy, I'm Alright by Earline
After trying to get pregnant for many year, my husband and I were finally blessed with our first child. Naya was a premature baby and weighed only two lbs. At four days old she became deathly ill and had to have a major operation. My husband and I waited for her in the recovery room. The operation took about eight hours. We had both fallen asleep when a voice came to me and said, "Mommy, I'm alright, I'll be upstairs in a little while." I woke my husband and told him what Naya told me. Needless to say, he thought I was nuts, until not even two minutes later the nurse walked in and told us that our daughter was fine and would be up in a few minutes. I know it was her because I hear that same voice nine years later.

The Ouija Knows by Donia
I am the youngest of four kids. By the time I was in high school, my three brothers were married and no longer living at my parents' home. We all got together as a family for dinner one Saturday, and after we ate, somebody suggested we pull out the Ouija Board. The "session" started at about 8:00 p.m. and lasted until about 2:00 a.m. We started by asking stupid questions, like, "Am I going to win the lottery this year?" - questions that didn't carry much significance and which had obvious answers. As we got "warmed up," the answers became more and more serious and intense. Various family members took turns at the board, and after things became very intense, we finally decided to blindfold whoever was at the planchette at the time. We also picked the board up and turned it around several times in between questions so there was no way those on the board could be guiding the planchette. We were given answers to questions which have now come to pass - what we would ultimately do for a living, how many children each of us would have, how long our marriages would last, etc. We were even told what would eventually kill our father, which also came to pass. The last question came from one of my brothers. Years before, he had been riding motorcycles with a friend who lost control of his bike and was decapitated right there on the interstate. My brother was the last person to see him alive. He wrote down on a piece of paper the last words his friend had said - words he had never told anybody else - then put the paper in an envelope and sealed it up. He then asked what his friend said just before he was decapitated - and we got the correct answer. My brother went out into the yard, vomited and then collapsed. We were all so scared at that point, we put the board away and have not played since.

A Scent of Lavender by Donna Y.
I lived in a Victorian house, and several months after moving in, would frequently get a whiff of lavender as I was trying to go to sleep. It was as though the scent would pass right in front of my face, and then it would be gone. Then other things began happening. When I'd turn off the lights over my bed, I'd hear noises from other parts of the house, which was unoccupied except for me. When I'd go to investigate, they'd stop. Or if they continued, they'd sound like they'd now emanated from a different part of the house. I'd go back to bed, and as long as the lights were on, nothing would happen. As soon as they went out - more noise. Some time later, a psychic friend mentioned that the previous owner of the house was still there; that it was her perfume I smelled, and that she was the one who wanted the kitchen light on. His advice to me was to get quiet and tell her to go to the light (not the kitchen light...), which I did. Nothing ever happened again. Prior to that, I'd also come out of my room one afternoon to see the semi-solid figure of a middle-aged man, maybe a handyman, emerge from the hallway leading from the back stairs. He turned around to face me, paused a second, then walked away and vanished.

Unexplained Phone Behavior by Lisa S.
Several years ago, shortly after my father died, I was at home when the phone rang. I answered and said hello several times and there seemed to be no one on the other end. That evening my brother called and said that I was on his answering machine saying "hello...hello?" Well it didn't stop there. For about a week I would get one of these phone calls and each time I would be on my brother's answering machine. Soon it became two phone calls a day and then three and four, and finally one day the phone would ring the second I hung it up with the same thing. Each time I was on the answering machine, and I never once heard his greeting, I was just recorded on his tape. I called the phone company and described my dilemma. They sent crews out to investigate but found nothing.

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