On a lonely stretch of Hamptons freeway—shut sufficient to the ocean that you would sense it, though you couldn’t see it within the night time’s inky darkish—there was a dive bar, all sticky flooring and names scrawled on its clapboard partitions. There, we gathered round a desk, our drinks lukewarm and forgotten as we listened in tense silence to Alex’s story.
“…and as I lay there, completely nonetheless, I might hear it…the sluggish rolling of a ball on the ground of the room above me,” she stated, leaning in. “Besides I knew that my mother wasn’t up there in her workplace.” A pause for suspense. “I used to be the one one at residence.”
As she stated these phrases, I felt a crawling, creeping sensation on the again of my neck, as if no matter unseen presence that had haunted Alex’s childhood residence was watching us now. Slowly, feeling paranoid, I circled and…
“Um, is that Colin Jost from SNL?” half-screamed our different pal, embarrassingly pointing on the counter the place, sure, certainly, Scarlett Johansson’s husband was quietly ready, eavesdropping on our dialog whereas they boxed up his garlic knots.
This scene is one in every of my favorite recollections from a bachelorette journey final fall.
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The climate was filthy that night time, and someway, we received onto telling scary tales about issues that had occurred to us or folks we knew. There’s simply one thing about telling ghost tales, not foolish campfire ones about werewolves and silver bullets, however “actual” issues that had been plausibly unbelievable, that’s simply deliciously thrilling, spine-tingling in one of the best ways.
Which is why, this Hallow’s Eve week, we’re bringing you a number of of these tales, straight from the ladies whom they occurred to. From an precise ghost sighting to a haunted piano, these scary tales make R.L. Stine seem like an novice. You’ll even hear the remainder of Alex’s story from that night time within the Hamptons…though, be warned: I didn’t sleep for days. And that’s solely partly as a result of these garlic knots gave me the *worst* indigestion.
The one with the haunted piano
“When my grandmother died, we cleared out the home the place she’d lived with my grandfather and gave their piano to some household mates. A number of weeks later, this pal of my mother’s known as her up, and stated, ‘I feel your dad’s right here.’ He thought this, apparently, as a result of as quickly because the piano moved in, so did a presence. This male ghost, her pal stated, would stroll round the home at night time, opening cabinets and rummaging via them. He would additionally, apparently, flip down the thermostat. That was further spooky, since that’s one thing my grandfather would all the time do, and which my grandmother complained about after he’d handed and all of us thought she was simply confused.
We’re undecided why he’d select to hang-out that piano. He wasn’t musical, however my mother and her brother had been. He purchased that piano for them, and he was so happy with their expertise. Funnily sufficient, my mother’s pal says this ghost is especially lively across the holidays, as a result of that’s when folks are inclined to play the piano probably the most.” —A.C.
The one with the boy-crazy ghost
“In highschool, I labored as a tour information on the Albert provincial legislature. We all the time used to inform the story of a lonely feminine ghost who wandered the constructing for male companionship.
There’s one room particularly the place she appreciated to ‘entice’ males. It’s occurred so typically that they really sanded the doorways to cease them getting mysteriously jammed on a regular basis.
This ghost, the legend goes, was a maid in Authorities Home, and folks have heard sweeping and footsteps on the third flooring when nobody was imagined to be up there.” —Cindy
The one with a glowing presence on the finish of the mattress
“My household all the time used to go to the identical cottage on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We went with my dad’s greatest pal and his household, they usually had two daughters across the similar age as my sister and me.
One night time, once I was 11, we had been all having a sleepover in the identical room. Sooner or later, I wakened, and there on the finish of my mattress was the silhouette of an individual, emanating this golden mild that appeared to shimmer. This determine wasn’t doing something, simply form of standing there, and I don’t suppose I used to be afraid. I used to be simply conscious of this presence—otherworldly, sure, however someway additionally peaceable. I didn’t suppose it was going to harm me, and, finally, I simply fell again to sleep. Which is what you do in these conditions, I suppose?
The subsequent morning, once we had been all waking up, my sister stated that one thing unusual had occurred to her final night time. At which level Jenny, our pal, stated she’d seen one thing bizarre, too. The one one who didn’t see something was Sarah-Jane, which made her so mad to have been omitted. All of us noticed one thing completely different, however one thing positively occurred in that room that night time.
The unusual factor is that we actually didn’t do something to encourage it, like getting out a Ouija board or summoning up Bloody Mary within the mirror. The one factor I can consider—and I really feel insane saying this—is that this was the summer time we had been obsessive about fixing the thriller of the disappearance of Theodosia Barr. [Ed’s note: Theodosia, fiancé of Aaron Burr of Hamilton fame, vanished in a mysterious shipwreck off the North Carolina coast…not far from the cottage.] I’m not saying that her ghost someway appeared to us however…it actually was the one factor we had been speaking about that summer time that wasn’t, like, Elizabeth Hurley in that Versace security pin gown.
The subsequent night time, we stayed up, advised one another scary tales and tried to see one thing once more. We by no means did, however I don’t doubt that one thing—some majestic presence—visited that cottage that night time.” —Laura
The one the place the mirror broke for no cause
“My childhood residence was proper throughout the highway from an previous Ukrainian cemetery in north Oakville. I can keep in mind my mother and her mates speaking about unusual issues that occurred, though they in all probability thought I used to be too little to know. They had been all fairly creative and non secular, so take this with a grain of salt.
My neighbour, for example, stated that just a little boy with a ball used to run via her home, and my mother says she used to see a black shadow in her room, holding a bow and arrow. That element is especially creepy as a result of one night time, a mirror cracked in my room, proper throughout from my mattress for completely no cause. It was so loud!
I by no means really noticed something myself, however little issues had been all the time going flawed in that home. Like, the whole lot broke. My sisters and I all the time received bizarre vibes dwelling there, and to this present day it creeps me out.” —Lauren
The one with the annoying little one ghost
“The home in Rosedale that we lived in till I used to be 13 was absolutely, absolutely haunted. Like, there was no solution to even deny it.
It was constructed within the late 1800s, and throughout the second world warfare it turned a rooming home for girls whose husbands had gone to warfare, and their youngsters. That could be why we felt like our ghosts had been possibly a mom and her little one, as a result of there was a maternal presence and a extra playful, kid-like vitality, too.
There have been issues that occurred virtually day-after-day, just like the entrance door opening and shutting, adopted by the sound of somebody operating up the celebs. You’d stand up from the lounge to see who was residence—and naturally there was nobody there. You’d typically hear somebody bouncing a ball up and down on the third flooring. Actually, I can keep in mind mendacity in mattress sooner or later once I was residence sick from faculty and simply getting irritated by this ‘child’ making a noise above my head. The room above me, the place the noise was coming from, was additionally my mother’s workplace, and he or she stated she typically heard the keys on her keyboard going impossibly quick, like just a little child enjoying round. In fact, when she went as much as test, there was nobody there, and the pc was off.
The feminine ghost was all the time beautiful and protecting towards my mother and me, however she hated males. One time, my mother and father received into an argument, and my dad was relegated to the spare room. That room had a screened porch that opened off it, and in the course of night time, the door to the porch swung open. There was wind in all places, and the sheets had been ripped up and about and flung throughout the room. My dad wakened petrified and ran again to my mother and father’ room. My mother says she’s by no means seen him so scared. She likes to suppose that it was the ghost, who’d seen them having this massive struggle and determined he wanted to be handled. That porch room, by the best way, was additionally my playroom, and I can positively keep in mind feeling typically like there was another person in there with me…however by no means in a scary, foreboding manner. It was virtually comforting.
I all the time felt like we had been simply dwelling alongside the echoes of another person dwelling their life, and someway, we occurred to overlap.” —Alex
