The scary room

 My dad was dating a woman (let's call her Anne) in Rochester, NY. She lived in an old farm house. I don't even know where to begin with this place. Let's bulletpoint it out: 1) The basement looked like the basement in Stir of Echoes. Most of it was cement, except for "the scary room" which was a mound of dirt and sand. Weird and scary things would result if anything happened in that room, like having to run wires through it. Anne placed a chest-high piece of wood in the door frame to keep her animals from getting in there. It's worth noting that while her cat would go into the basement, her extremely loyal dog could not be made to go down the steps. That's when you know something's wrong. Anyway, Anne kept her cat's food dish on the top step to the basement. One day, she noticed a few pieces of the cat's food laying a couple steps down from the dish. Thinking nothing of it, she let it be. The next day, the food had moved down a step in the exact same pattern. Next day, same thing. Again and again until the food disappeared. Anne tried not to go into the basement as a matter of course, but had to soon thereafter to do laundry. She saw the cat food in the same pattern in the scary room. Blaaaagh. 2) Before my dad lived with her, she had a nightly routine. She would get in bed and read and then would turn on the t.v. (which was directly across from the bed) and fall asleep. Her dog would lie on the floor by her side. One night, she was reading and her dog jumped up and started barking at the t.v. Since her dog was generally hyper, she thought nothing of it—didn't even look up. But when the barking persisted, she looked at the t.v. The t.v. was off, but there were black and white images on the screen. They kept changing every minute or so—a church, a skull, etc. While she had experienced many scary things in her house, this freaked her out badly. She called my dad, panicking, and asked what to do. He said, "Take pictures!" She did. I've seen them. That t.v. was most definitely off and there were most definitely images on it. You can bet that when I stayed in their guest room for a Thanksgiving visit, I made sure the t.v. across from my bed was unplugged (not that it would've made a difference, but it made me feel better!), the lights stayed on, and the blanket was over my head all night. 3) Anne had a ghost travel with her to visit my dad one time. While it wasn't a mean-spirited ghost or anything, I still find that unbelievably creepy....so Paranormal Activity-ish. 4) I asked my dad what the scariest thing was that happened to him while living in that house and he said that one day, he was making a sandwich in the kitchen (which adjoined to the basement stairs, btw) and felt something hit his back and then heard it drop to the floor. It was a penny. "Weird," he thought. He started walking to the living room and something hit has back again. Same. Penny. Not cool, ghost. Not cool.

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Colonel Walker

 My mother worked in a daycare that had taken over the wing of an old school and the building is notoriously haunted with the ghost of the school's name-sake and founder, Colonel Walker. The attic of the building was used as storage for the daycare and many people reported small, fairly unobtrusive events while being up there, things like boxes shifting around behind you, drawers opening on the other side of the room where you were, curtains suddenly moving, the feeling of someone else being in the attic with you. But the kids were the most in tune it seems. I know that lots of the kids talked about "the old man" at the daycare (which was staffed entirely by women), and I have definitely seen the kids react by all at once looking to the door as if someone entered the room when no one had. Personally, I always felt as if someone was walking directly behind me whenever I had to go from one end of the hallway to another and sometimes I would hang out in the kitchen waiting for my mom to finish up work for the day while I finished my homework or something, I often felt like someone was there with me (I spent a lot of time there, especially in the summer when school was out, helping around the daycare). The most famous piece of evidence of Colonel Walker's ghost was a picture taken at Halloween of all the kids in their costumes. Right in the back, standing behind the children and looking straight at the camera, is the watery and somewhat blurred face and upper body of an older man. Like, you don't even have to squint or tilt your head to make out that it is there. Now I know that it could have been some bleed from some other photos or something, but I think, given all the other evidence it seems they got the Colonel on camera.

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Colonial

When I was 8, my family moved into an old Colonial that was built in 1810. My father still lives there. Until I was 17, every before I feel asleep, I would feel pressure next to me as if someone sat down on the bed next to me. This would always be accompanied with a feeling of increased pressure in the air. Although I knew this probably didn't happen to everyone, I didn't think about it much. Until I got a cat. He was a present for my twelfth birthday. Each night, he would sack out on the bed near my feet. Each night, he would bolt from a dead sleep and glare at something in the doorway before hightailing it out of there. A few moments later, the pressure would return. Again, while this was a weird thing to happen, I didn't really question it. Maybe the cat was just neurotic. I didn't talk about this nightly occurrence to anyone. However, I did refer this feeling/presence/what have you as "Charlotte." I don't know why. So one day in the summer when I was thirteen, an elderly man and his middle-aged daughter pull up to our house and explain that the father lived in the house with his aunt while he was a boy and that he raised his family there for a few years. They had been visiting family in the neighborhood, and they wondered if they could take a tour for old times' sake. My mom said sure. She, my sister and I led them around the house, and they recalled different memories. Afterward, my mom asked them if they remembered strange occurrences or stories about the house. "Like ghosts?" the old man asked and chuckled. His daughter became very quiet and said firmly, "It's not funny, Dad." The man explained that everyone who slept in one bedroom felt a little unsettled, and his daughter interrupted to say that she always felt as if someone sat on the edge of the bed and she tried to go to sleep. Her father said they used to joke that it was just his aunt looking out for them—his Aunt Charlotte. This confirmed what I had never admitted to myself. I had a freaking ghost that basically tucked me in at night for the previous five years. Still, going to bed was never freaky or scary. I just tried to ignore the feeling when it came. Until one night when I was 16. My parents had been going through a weird patch in their marriage, I was feeling depressed, and in general, it was a weird year. I went to bed; after about 20 minutes the cat took his typical bolting exit from the bed, and I felt the familiar pressure on my side. Then I felt a hand brush through my hair. Then I ran straight downstairs to the living room where my mom was dozing. She woke up when I burst in the room, saw my face, and asked what was wrong. I told her I had a nightmare and left it at that. I spent a week sleeping in the guest room. When I got the nerve to go back to my room, I was nearly asleep when I realized I didn't feel the pressure next to me. I did feel pressure in the air. I rolled on my back and saw the figure of a woman in her 60s, wearing a housedress, her hair pulled back in a bun, with her arms folded. She was looking right at me, very concerned. When I found my voice, she disappeared. I said out loud, "I don't care if you stay, but I can NEVER, EVER, EVER see you again." I never did. However a few years later, after my parents divorced and my dad moved in his girlfriend and her 4 year old son, I wasn't really surprised when she told me her little boy said a lady named Charlotte told him stories at night.

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The lady in the bathroom

About ten years ago my 3 year old son and I moved into a new house. Well, it was new to us, but it was actually a very old house. The inside of the house always seemed to be just a little darker and a little colder than it should be. I had noticed that the first time I went to view the house but as it was summer I figured it would save on cooling costs. Soon after we moved in a friend of mine came by. We were sitting and talking for a few minutes but she seemed uncomfortable the whole time. Then I saw in her face that something in the other room caught her attention. Her eyes got big. She said "I have to go." I asked her what was wrong but she said she didn't want to tell me. I kept after her because her reaction was kind of freaking me out. On her way out the door she finally said "This house is haunted" but she wouldn't tell me what made her think so. Still to this day ten years later she refuses to tell me what she saw. About a week after that night my 3 year old son casually asked me who the old lady in the bathroom was. One day I was leaving for work but once I got to the car I realized I needed to run back in the house to get something. I walked in to the house and as soon as I got inside this framed photo on the wall shot off the wall. Now, I don't mean it fell because of some issue with the nail or anything like that. It shot horizontally away from the wall, not vertically down. And it landed on a mosaic table with enough force to break some of the tiles off of it. I felt like whatever was in the house was pissed that I came back in after it thought I had left for the day! After living in the house for about six months, I noticed a weird square cut into the boards on the deck. There was no handle but I was able to pry it up. The hole was just big enough to fit through, and there was a ladder going down. For some reason I went down and found myself in what looked like a homemade basement. It was basically just a room dug out of the earth, no constructed walls or stone supports or anything like you would expect if it was a basement that was built with the house. It was very dark but I could see over in the corner a suspicious-looking large stone. It looked like one of those light-colored 100+ year old headstones that you see in old cemeteries. Just then some camel crickets started jumping at me so I got my ass out of that "basement" as fast as I could and never went back. Now, this is the part that affected me most and the reason we left the house. One night I was in bed but not yet asleep, laying on my stomach. I heard someone walk into the room. I heard footsteps come from the doorway over to my bed. I didn't realize until later that the fact that I heard the footsteps was weird because the room was carpeted. When the footsteps reached my bed, I felt someone put their hands on my back. Two hands, just gently laid flat on my back and kept there. I assumed it was my son. I said "What are you doing?" but no one answered. I looked up and no one was there. I got up and checked my son's bedroom but he was in bed asleep. We moved out soon after that.

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The Scary Toy

My daughter had a Thomas the Tank Engine toy given to her by my father before he died. The toy was battery operated and used to chug around tooting like a train.

After he passed away my daughter was forever playing with it so I took the batteries out for a while and told her it was broken to get some peace.

One day while watching TV the train started tooting again and moved across the room. When I went to check the batteries there were none in there. Then I thought to myself that it was probably just my imagination. But it kept happening for weeks until I threw the toy out.

Story Submitted by Rebekah, Cockburn, WA, Australia

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Shadow in My Hallway

I am into trying to talk to people from my family who have passed.

One night I was happily sitting on my couch staring up the hallway into nothing. I said "nan if your up there do something please". Almost as soon as I said that a floating black shadow like figure passed from my shower room into my parents room. I said once again, "if you're there nan please do that again" and, of course, it happened again but this time it was a little faster. I freaked out and sat away from the hallway door.

Later that week I was telling my good mate about it, but being a minimal believer in ghosts he did not believe me. I went home with him and before my mate could tell my mum what I said I saw, my mum said "Shaun, I saw a dark shadow about the size of my mum (my nan) float from the shower into my room”.

It's not scary, I am sure if anyone or anything was there - it comes in peace.

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True story told by my teacher

My English teacher has a friend called Anna. Anna is a housewife. She has a five year old son. Her husband, Josh suggested that they move nearer to the city. Anna found a place, a nice spacious apartment, which sells for a really low price, as they needed to save money for their son, Bob.

A week later Bob had a fever that wouldn't get any better. One night Anna found Bob sitting on his bed staring at something that she could not see, she asked her son why he could not sleep and measured his temperature. Bob said, “there's a green man over there”. Anna could not see anything so she went to the kitchen to get some water for Bob. As she stepped back into the dark room she could see a green, glowing man sitting opposite Bob. She was really frightened and called for Josh. That night the whole family sat on the sofa in the living room cuddled together.

The next morning Anna immediately sold the apartment, because the price was so low it was sold in 5 minutes. The moment the flat was announced sold her son's fever was gone. They then had to stay in a hotel for two weeks until they can find another place to live. Two weeks later, they moved in to a new flat, smaller but safer.

Shortly, after they settled all the stuff in the small flat, Bob stared at the door and said, “why don't you let the green man in?” Anna cried and told my English teacher the whole story (my English teacher then told us the story). 

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New House Great - Additional Ghost Not So Good

I had recently moved with my family from NSW to come live in a new house in Ballarat, Victoria.
Our new house was great and had been renovated from a 1920's cottage to a modern home.
My children (4, and 8) were really excited to move in. And this new town showed a lot of promise for my husband.
It was about 2 months before anything started happening. I was fast asleep one night after a long days work and woke up to some noises coming from the roof. It turned out to be a possum, but a few seconds after I woke up the lights flicked on. I thought it was just the 'possum', so I went and turned them off. Later on that night I woke again to my 8 year old screaming down the hall. Which was very unusual for him because he doesn't get frightened by anything. I went out and grabbed him and brought him into my bedroom. My husband and I asked what the matter was. He said he had felt something breathing on him. I thought it was probably his sister pulling a prank on him. But when I asked him abut this he said that he could see her in her bed whilst it was breathing on him. So I grabbed my kids and we all slept in my bed.

A month later my 8 yr old said it happened again but this time he could see the 'thing's' breathing on him reflected in his mirror, opposite his bed. He also said the breath was ice cold. So we decided to get rid of the mirror and move the kids into the spare room at the end of the house next to our bedroom, so that we could be closer.
After another month my 4 yr old who sleeps very deeply said he too had woken up to 'breathing'. I was now very scared for my kids because we had moved them closer to us yet it still happened. And my husband became very protective of them. So we moved their beds into our room, because our room was large.
Another month passed and then one night I woke to hot breathing on my neck! I was terrified. I looked at my husband to see if it was him, but he was facing the other way! I began to cry and woke my husband. He was horrified to see me in such a state. We then decided to check the kids and wake them up to tell them what happened, so that we could decide what we wanted to do. We all decided that the 'incidents' only ever happened upstairs so we moved all of our beds into the office room down stairs.
Another long month later we were woken again, this time to a sound like really muffled laughing. My husband became really protective and demanded that me and the kids go and stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks. But I refused because I didn’t want to leave him there and he said he wouldn’t come with us. So we stuck it out for another month.
This next month no 'breathing' or laughing happened but I did wake up one morning to find one of my daughter's Bratz doll sitting at the end of our bed with its head ripped of. That scared me and the kids but my husband said that it was better than creepy "breathing". So we let it pass.
The next month was the month of my daughter’s birthday and she was dying for a kitten. So we bought her one. It was only a couple of days after we got it that it began to act strangely. It would circle the bath tub when our kids were having a bath, it would sit outside our door when we went to bed, it would scratch at random doors and when we went to close them it would suddenly stop. So I decided to look it up. Apparently cats are very prone to sensing paranormal activity and ghosts. So we decided to use the cat as extra protection!
The next month many things happened, the breathing , the laughing, toys being destroyed, the cat acting strangely, our lights not working, our water not working and then on the last night of the month I woke up to my daughter demanding to sleep in my bed because she had a nightmare. I quickly went back to sleep because I felt safe and protected with my husband holding me. But I woke up again to see my daughter further away from me on the bed, staring at me with a giant smile. I blinked and all of a sudden she was sleeping peacefully. I had no idea what had just happened but I was deeply disturbed and for once in my life I felt like I could vomit over my baby girl!
The next final month I was researching our house on the internet and through the town library I was horrified to find that my apparent cute little cottage used to be an isolation prison for the mentally insane and many people had died in my house. And they didn't die normally they had been TORTURED! I was so scared for me and my family’s health once I knew that. Whenever I was alone I felt like someone was watching me.
A week after my discovery of the house's dark history, my boy was digging for worms in the back yard one day when he found small bones. So we got them checked out and it turned out they were human. That shook me and the kids up a lot. A couple of days after that my daughter’s cat was put out one night by her. We don't have any cat flaps or anything, but in the morning the cat was in our lounge room dead and completely bled out. My husband quickly cleaned it up because we didn't want to hurt my daughter. My husband and I came up with the theory that it got hit by a car, came inside and bled to death. But we only came up with that to stop us wondering.
On our final days in the house my husband told me that he woke up to sounds like scratching and a rabbit dying. He said it wasn't coming from the bedroom so he went to all the downstairs rooms in the house and finally the lounge room. He turned to the huge glass window and there was a grey figure pressing on the glass, blood running down its hands and its mouth. It was screaming in agony and its eyes were black. But then it was gone just bloody stains were left. My husband collapsed to the floor. That was enough for all of us. We quickly arranged for the house to be sold and in the meantime my family stayed in various hotels. We moved really far away to Perth, on the other side of Australia. We are know really happy and we made sure we bought and absolutely new house on an absolutely new block of land.
Tragically, about a month after our moving, we read in the news that the nice new owner of our house had been found dead in our/his lounge room. After this occurred a medium came to visit the house and had to leave straight away because there was such a vibe there. The medium demanded that the house and its grounds were destroyed and dug up.
I am extremely happy that I got my family out of that hell hole before that could have possibly happened to us!

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