Happy Halloween everyone - let's hear those ghost stories!

[e_poison]

Happy Halloween fellow kratomites! I hope everyone has a safe, fun holiday!

In honor of Halloween, I figured it would be fun to swap ghost and paranormal stories. I'll start! I apologize that it's a long one, but I have other shorter ones I can share too if this thread takes off.

Back when I was in college in the late 90s, three friends and I took a road trip from Ohio to Florida. To break the trip up a bit, we stopped off in Georgia to spend the night at the family home of my buddy Cory's girlfriend. This house happened to be an old plantation home in the middle of nowhere Georgia. It was a rather large 3 story mansion, backed up against a wooded area. I think old places hold a lot of power, and this home was certainly no exception. This house had a lot of history - it had housed slaves at one point, and had gone through a bunch of different wealthy owners since it had been built. It was a maze of hallways, rooms, and dark corners. Just walking into the house you could feel something in the air and the architecture and furnishing made it seem like you were stepping back in time.

When it came time to sleep, two of my friends, we'll call them Cory and Pete, spent the night in one of the guest bedrooms, tucked away in the back corner of the second floor. Another buddy, Jake and I took a room up on the third floor. We all laid down for what was supposed to be a restful sleep so we could get back on the road early in the morning.

Around 3am, Jake and I were awoken to screaming echoing through the halls of the home. It was coming from right below us, on the second floor. We jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs. When we got to the second floor landing, we saw that Cory was shaking like a leaf, and Pete was standing over him trying to console him.

We couldn't get much out of Cory at first. He seemed really flustered and was shaking badly, so we decided to take him downstairs and get him something to drink of the alcoholic variety. All four of us made our way down to the first floor and got out a few beers. After a couple beers, Cory was much calmer. It was here that we got the story.

Apparently Cory had woken up and saw the vague shape of a man standing in the corner of the room. Thinking it was just a member of his girlfriend's family, he called out to the figure asking it what it was doing. It was here that the figure crouched down real low on the floor and then assumed the fetal position. Cory said right as this was happening, he suddenly couldn't breathe. He felt like he was choking and couldn't move. The shadowy figure on the floor started screaming and that's when Cory started screaming. That's when Pete woke up. Shortly after, Jake and I came barreling down the stairs to see what the commotion was.

Pete said he didn't see anything himself and it was probably just sleep paralysis or a bad nightmare. Jake and I agreed. But, Cory said no way - there is something in that room. To put his fears to rest, I agreed to take his spot in that second floor room, and he could go sleep on the 3rd floor with Jake. We all made our way back to bed, promising to discuss this more in the morning.

So, I trudged back up the stairs with Pete and into the second floor bedroom.

I'm laying in the same bed that Cory was just in, and I swear up and down it felt like I had eyes on me. Like something was there in the darkness, just staring at me. It was very unsettling. Humans can sense when they're being watched, and I think this goes back to our days in the wild when we had to be wary of predators and danger. However, I chalked it up to just being a little freaked out and the power of suggestion. I asked Pete if he felt anything, and he said he was uncomfortable and on-edge because of the situation, but didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

Pete and I chatted for a bit about things college guys normally talk about, and then we agreed it was time to get some sleep. I believe I was just drifting off when I heard heavy footsteps in the room. Clear as day - walking from the closet to the window and back again. Pacing. My eyes flew open and I sat up in bed. I asked Pete if he heard them too. He said rather calmly, "Yes, and I think we should leave."

Right as he said that, there was a loud thud on the back wall by the window. I don't know what it was, and we didn't stick around to find out. Needless to say, we ran from the room and headed back downstairs, determined to camp out on the living room couches for the rest of the night. Neither of us were able to get back to sleep, and at one point we even contemplated just sleeping in the car.

The next morning, we told the home owners about our experiences in the room. The mom got real quiet and then admitted to us that sometime in the house's past, a man died in that room because of a house fire, and she knows there are spirits in the home due to it's history. She said Cory is not the first person to feel like they can't breathe or see shadowy figures in that specific room. She then told us a few of her own experiences.

We couldn't get out of that house and back on the road fast enough. Although it was offered to us, we opted to skip staying in that house on the return trip and chose a hotel instead.

[whiffypants]

OMG, no. Uh uh. Hell no. Call me a complete coward but I'd have noped outta there even faster than y'all did.

For myself, I absolutely believe you're right about places holding elements of people and events that occurred there, and I've seen some things myself. But for the sake of brevity, I'll give you a friend's true story.

She and her husband had just moved into their new house in North Carolina that they bought from a family who wanted to leave the area because their young daughter had recently died of leukemia after a long and difficult illness. The child died in the hospital, so there was no weirdness about her dying IN the house; as far as I know it was never even a thought when they were considering buying the house. It was more like the selling family was pretty much shattered and just wanted out, my friends liked the place, the price was right, and that was that.

But for many months thereafter, my friend swore up and down that occasionally she'd hear footsteps in the hallway in the night after she and her husband went to bed, or sniffling little sobs. Her husband heard nothing. But she swore she did, and every so often, long after she'd forgotten all about it, she'd hear the little footsteps again or sniffling as though from a young child. It might happen twice in a week, then nothing for months -- there was no pattern to it at all.

I was living nearby at the time and I'd hear these updates from time to time; it was something you'd just shrug at and keep drinking your beer. But I could tell that -she- was convinced, even if I wasn't there to hear it myself.

So after about a year of this, it suddenly occurred to my friend that all of this might actually be the young girl who died, wandering around the house looking for her family and not finding them. So the next time it happened she says she got up, went out into the hallway, turned on the lights, sat down on the stairs, and kindly said something to the effect of, "I know you're here. If you're looking for your folks, it's time you moved on. They're not here anymore," and then got up and went back to bed.

She says it never happened again. Go figure.

[WotAnAtti2d]

I have a true story... it's kind of a horror story, but more like one that you can laugh about. Hey, you guys know me by now, right? lol

It was winter and I was working in this small town, surrounded by woods. Since it was winter out, it was dark at seven in the morning. When the sun would go down, my apartment would get a nasty chill flowing through it. I noticed that my front door of my apartment was a little off kilter, allowing cold air to come through the top of it. I found an old wash towel and plugged the "leak".

I was reading Dean Koontz's, "Phantoms". When I get into a book I love reading, I don't like putting it down. It was a creepy book about this monster that could shapeshift and it was eating people in this town. I was getting ready for work and the hallway from my bedroom to the living room only had a switch in the living room, so the hallway was dark in the morning. I had 15 minutes before I had to go to work, so I thought I'd squeeze in a few more pages. Where I was at in the book, it had this monster changing into a moth-like creature and swooping down on people from above, eating them. I closed the book and looked down the dark hallway.... shit. "Okay, it's just a book, man up, and go to work." I run down the hallway, turn into the kitchen, open up the door to leave, and the wash towel comes out of the door, and drops on me from above. I screamed like a little girl! I swear I stood there, hyperventilating for a few mintues, before I could move. I went to work and one of my co-workers said it looked like I was twitching, haha. Every night that I read the book until I finished it, was with the lights on!

[Psilocyberdemon]

I don’t really have a story that tops them all, but I do have some very unsettling moments in my life. Moments where I think I lost a part of my sanity. I’ve always enjoyed horror movies and books growing up. Koontz is a favorite of mine. Have read “taken” more than any other book. Midnight was fantastic as well. I’ve read phantoms twice and that is hilarious because I remember those parts well. And no matter how manly I think I am his books and the way he writes always gives me the heebiejeebies.
Earliest moment was around 5 years old. It was nighttime. I was up in my room doing something when I realized no one else was in the house, and usually everyone was inside at that time of night..5 kids and two parents. I went downstairs hastily and at the landing I was suddenly very afraid to go into any other room. I was in the dining room and it had the only light on. I hid under the table and just remember feeling very afraid, whether it was from being alone or not I don’t know. Somehow I managed to make it to the back door, I couldn’t sit under that table growing more afraid. And when I looked outside I saw everyone in the backyard following my dad with a flashlight in his hand. I didn’t know what was going on and still don’t today. Nothing happened and no one said anything. I know today that my dad has made a lot of enemies growing up and won’t tell me a lot of the things that have happened.

In that same house, twenty years later, under the influence of a very strong tincture of psilocybin, I stood up at the top of the stairs, and in my head saw the path to freedom was a series of killing my neighbors one by one, starting with the people in my house. Another path was to lie down in my bed under the blankets and breathe as though I was unborn. Thank god I had a second option.

The last lsd trip I had included liberty caps, and on the ride home I watched two guys in the front seat as their heads had these black globs traveling back and forth between them. When I got home and into bed I couldn’t sleep. I stayed up all night afraid to turn the music off. I didn’t like closing my eyes and seeing the jaws opening and closing in inky blackness. Nothing changed with my eyes open either. The most terrifying part of this experience was not the trip itself, but what happened at work the next day. Someone said something to me, and it was the first time in my life that no response came to mind. I forgot how to talk to people. I felt disconnected, from people, from myself. I went to the 70 year old pot dealer I had at that time, who I also worked with(this guy was awesome, smoked out of a bong from the 60s), and told him I don’t know what to do... When people talk to me, nothing comes to mind! He didn’t really have a response to that but he was good at communicating that I was full of myself. Even today, I still have a lot of moments where nothing comes to mind, and most of the time I’m not feeling connected to others or myself, just lost in the story of my head. Slowly, I’m getting my sanity back.
Hope some more people post! Love reading these. A girl at work started crying because the chair in the dining area moved by itself. I got excited to hear that. On YouTube there’s “corpse husband” and “mr. nightmare” and they tell amazing horror stories.

[g-otis]

Happy Halloween fellow kratomites! I hope everyone has a safe, fun holiday!

In honor of Halloween, I figured it would be fun to swap ghost and paranormal stories. I'll start! I apologize that it's a long one, but I have other shorter ones I can share too if this thread takes off.

Back when I was in college in the late 90s, three friends and I took a road trip from Ohio to Florida. To break the trip up a bit, we stopped off in Georgia to spend the night at the family home of my buddy Cory's girlfriend. This house happened to be an old plantation home in the middle of nowhere Georgia. It was a rather large 3 story mansion, backed up against a wooded area. I think old places hold a lot of power, and this home was certainly no exception. This house had a lot of history - it had housed slaves at one point, and had gone through a bunch of different wealthy owners since it had been built. It was a maze of hallways, rooms, and dark corners. Just walking into the house you could feel something in the air and the architecture and furnishing made it seem like you were stepping back in time.

When it came time to sleep, two of my friends, we'll call them Cory and Pete, spent the night in one of the guest bedrooms, tucked away in the back corner of the second floor. Another buddy, Jake and I took a room up on the third floor. We all laid down for what was supposed to be a restful sleep so we could get back on the road early in the morning.

Around 3am, Jake and I were awoken to screaming echoing through the halls of the home. It was coming from right below us, on the second floor. We jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs. When we got to the second floor landing, we saw that Cory was shaking like a leaf, and Pete was standing over him trying to console him.

We couldn't get much out of Cory at first. He seemed really flustered and was shaking badly, so we decided to take him downstairs and get him something to drink of the alcoholic variety. All four of us made our way down to the first floor and got out a few beers. After a couple beers, Cory was much calmer. It was here that we got the story.

Apparently Cory had woken up and saw the vague shape of a man standing in the corner of the room. Thinking it was just a member of his girlfriend's family, he called out to the figure asking it what it was doing. It was here that the figure crouched down real low on the floor and then assumed the fetal position. Cory said right as this was happening, he suddenly couldn't breathe. He felt like he was choking and couldn't move. The shadowy figure on the floor started screaming and that's when Cory started screaming. That's when Pete woke up. Shortly after, Jake and I came barreling down the stairs to see what the commotion was.

Pete said he didn't see anything himself and it was probably just sleep paralysis or a bad nightmare. Jake and I agreed. But, Cory said no way - there is something in that room. To put his fears to rest, I agreed to take his spot in that second floor room, and he could go sleep on the 3rd floor with Jake. We all made our way back to bed, promising to discuss this more in the morning.

So, I trudged back up the stairs with Pete and into the second floor bedroom.

I'm laying in the same bed that Cory was just in, and I swear up and down it felt like I had eyes on me. Like something was there in the darkness, just staring at me. It was very unsettling. Humans can sense when they're being watched, and I think this goes back to our days in the wild when we had to be wary of predators and danger. However, I chalked it up to just being a little freaked out and the power of suggestion. I asked Pete if he felt anything, and he said he was uncomfortable and on-edge because of the situation, but didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

Pete and I chatted for a bit about things college guys normally talk about, and then we agreed it was time to get some sleep. I believe I was just drifting off when I heard heavy footsteps in the room. Clear as day - walking from the closet to the window and back again. Pacing. My eyes flew open and I sat up in bed. I asked Pete if he heard them too. He said rather calmly, "Yes, and I think we should leave."

Right as he said that, there was a loud thud on the back wall by the window. I don't know what it was, and we didn't stick around to find out. Needless to say, we ran from the room and headed back downstairs, determined to camp out on the living room couches for the rest of the night. Neither of us were able to get back to sleep, and at one point we even contemplated just sleeping in the car.

The next morning, we told the home owners about our experiences in the room. The mom got real quiet and then admitted to us that sometime in the house's past, a man died in that room because of a house fire, and she knows there are spirits in the home due to it's history. She said Cory is not the first person to feel like they can't breathe or see shadowy figures in that specific room. She then told us a few of her own experiences.

We couldn't get out of that house and back on the road fast enough. Although it was offered to us, we opted to skip staying in that house on the return trip and chose a hotel instead.

Love it, E! Man, that reminds me of old stories my dad and my grandmother used to tell. Stuff that chill my ass to the bone at a really young age, always at night and usually around a fire or camping. I’ve lived most of my life in the Deep South, so your story about the plantation house hits home. There are still a lot of antebellum homes around here and there is something really spooky about those places at night.

Anyway, cool tale...

[g-otis]

Just read through the other tales. That’s pretty creepy, Whiff. I’m a coward too. And, I ain’t livin’ in a haunted house. Sorry, No Way.

Regarding horror novels, I had a chilling experience when I started reading the Exorcist at age 15. After reading late into the night, I got to the part where Regan’s bed started shaking. I got really spooked and tried to go to sleep. Anyway, I had a nightmare (can’t remember it) and when woke up my bed was shaking! I was scared shitless and drenched in sweat. I was at that age where I couldn’t go running to my parents room or yell for them. So I kept my lamp on and tossed the rest of the night. Next morning, I promptly took that evil ass book and tossed it in the garbage...

[whiffypants]

Regarding horror novels, I had a chilling experience when I started reading the Exorcist at age 15. After reading late into the night, I got to the part where Regan’s bed started shaking. I got really spooked and tried to go to sleep. Anyway, I had a nightmare (can’t remember it) and when woke up my bed was shaking! I was scared shitless and drenched in sweat. I was at that age where I couldn’t go running to my parents room or yell for them. So I kept my lamp on and tossed the rest of the night. Next morning, I promptly took that evil ass book and tossed it in the garbage...

That's hilarious -- a similar thing happened to me when I first read the Stephen King novel Salem's Lot but without the nightmare. This was long before the bad movie came out; this was just teenage me and the paperback. No, I did not sleep that night, nor for a few nights thereafter. A lot of it had to do with just not being able to turn out the lights.

That’s pretty creepy, Whiff. I’m a coward too. And, I ain’t livin’ in a haunted house. Sorry, No Way.

Heh, -exactly-. There's a LOT to be said for cowardice in any kind of "supernatural" situation. I would even say that it's a very commendable form of wisdom, best enjoyed by the person who possesses it if only because he still can. I'm -very- happy to leave courage to others when it comes to things that go flying around in the night!

For example, I have -never- understood the people who stayed in that Amityville Horror house after the weirdness started (another freaky book from my youth, incidentally). Maybe they do things differently up north -- God knows I've heard that often enough -- but dang, y'all. When the doors start slamming in the night and the flies come, you really -don't- have wait for the pig tracks and the red eyes and the green slime to know that the situation's probably not gonna improve. What did they -think- was gonna happen?

Not enough beer in the world to make me stick around for that. Oh hell no. Not. Enough. Beer. In. The. World. Me and G-otis are gonna be in the car, y'all can come along outta there or not.

[WotAnAtti2d]

I LOVE when these idiots go looking for it and find it! Then they run away from the building, screaming like little girls. Oh, we're all not so delusional now, are we?

[BlendsAreMyFriends]

When my wife and I first bought our house we knew it's history. It was built in th 1930's and the family raised several generations in it. Then they sold it and it was allowed to deteriorate by the new owners and eventually went into foreclosure.


While the contractors were working on the house there was a lot of activity in the house. One Sunday we visited to see how the work was going and found ourselves alone in the basement. My wife said the house was happy to have people in it again. I went out to check the yard and she called me back down. She had been talking to the house and had snapped a picture that had a hundred or so little floating twinkling lights all over the empty basement and showed it to me.


She said that they were sad and were worried because they were left alone after so many years of having happy children all throughout the house.


She told them that the last inhabitants had to leave because they didn't have any money to take care of the house and promised them we were not going to leave like the last family and that they could relax and rest easy. Then she took another picture and they were gone.


I was teasing her about it and she said, OK guys, if you're really here please come back and she took another picture and there they were, all over the basement again.


For the next few weeks we kept finding money (coins) all over the place. Under the carpet, next to the wall when we pulled off a baseboard, even behind the medicine chest when we pulled it off the bathroom wall.


Whenever we would find a coin my wife called it fairie money and say that it's their way of helping us take care of the house.


We named the house and to this day we still live in "Fairiehaven". And we still find farie money in unusual places from time to time.

[e_poison]

Great stories, all! Thanks for sharing. Let's keep this rolling. I got another short one.

When I was 19, I rented a house with a few other people in the historic part of town next to the university. Most of the houses were built in the early 1920s during the industrial boom. These days, however, it's pretty much a student neighborhood - parties all the time, lots of drunk kids running around, loud music blaring from every house, etc. The usual college area.

Strange things always happened in this house. Footsteps on the basement stairs. Pictures/posters falling off walls for no reason. Feelings of dread and cold drafts. I have plenty of weird stories about this house. But, one particular story sticks out in my head.

One of my roommates had some of those flashing street lights they use for road construction, and he lined them up our stairs for some reason. Like I said, it was a college house. The decor and furnishing wasn't exactly high class. Anyway, there was a light on the bottom step, and then every few steps after that going all the way up. I guess so drunk people could find their rooms easier in the dark? I have no idea lol.

One night we were all in the kitchen making dinner and we heard a loud crash coming from the stairs. It sounded like someone had fallen down the stairs, but that made no sense, because everyone present in the house was in the kitchen at the time. We ran over to the staircase and saw the source of the noise - all of the street lights were lined up in a perfect row on the bottom step. Everyone in the house was accounted for, so nobody was sneaking off pulling a prank or anything. There were no open windows so a strong wind didn't knock them down, and even if there was a draft, these lights were way too heavy to be blown over by a simple breeze.

Yet, there they were - in a single row across the bottom step. Still confuses me to this day and I have zero logical explanation for it.

After a flurry of these strange events, we did end up researching the house. Not much of interest, except one thing. During the 1970s, a man violently killed himself in the living room. We think this is a source of much of the haunting. I have more stories about this house including the time we brought a medium in, which I will tell later if people are interested.

[BlendsAreMyFriends]

When I was younger, a lifetime ago. I had lived in a foster home and ended up back with my mother and her then husband just before high school. I joined the military right out of high school.

Months later I got very sick and ended up in the base hospital running a fever of 106.7. I was delirious and don't remember several days of my life except that the night I went in the hospital I woke up as they were sticking tubes and needles in me everywhere. I sat up and said if I'm supposed to be unconscious it's not working. Somebody said that I watch too much TV and I needed to lay back down and relax.

The next day they flew my parents in and told them it was not likely that I would live. All I remember is that I "woke up" 36 hours later and recovered nicely but they kept me for another few days because they were afraid I would have a relapse in spite of not knowing what I had or how I ended up with a ounce and a half of fluid in my right lung.

When I became mobile I went to a pay phone and called my mom ( foster mother) and the first words out of her mouth were, "what's wrong"? I asked her why she thought something was wrong. She said that the night I went into the hospital about midnight she woke up and saw me standing at the foot of her bed calling out for help to her. She stayed up all night praying for me. And had been praying all day every day since.

I'm not religious but I respect other folks beliefs as long as they are true to their professed beliefs. I never questioned it or even discussed it much when she brought it up. But she was a devout Catholic and didn't put much stock in that "spirits and ghosts mumbo-jumbo" but she never questioned this and swore until the day she passed that God answered her prayers that night. .