My Experiences

My name is Samantha, and even though I am only 12, I h ave had many weird experiences. I never told anyone this except my Mom, but not all the time. A lot of people have died in my family, my dad, both grandfathers', a grandma I never met, and many others. Just this past October, I had stayed home from school for a week because I had a soar throat. My Mom had to leave me home by myself since she had a job, but I was a little upset. One day, I decided to do some make-up work. I went in my kitchen and sat at the table. As I began, I heard a weird squeaking noise. I figured it was just the house settling, but then I heard it again...and again....and again, as if someone was walking and about to approach me from behind. When I turned around, I saw nothing, and the noises stopped. Then, I heard what sounded like footsteps coming up from my basement stairs. By that point, I was petrified, so I grabbed my work and ran into my room and locked my door. Another occasion, my family was in our living room. It was just after my grandfather's funeral, when our cabinet door in our kitchen flew open. No doors or windows were open, and there was no wind. Another time, it was the anniversary of my mom's mother's death. She died when my Mom was 15, and my Mom would sometimes tell us that she heard her mother calling her name when she was younger shortly after her mom's death, and she would become so scared that she would run to her next door neighbor's house. Anyway, we were sitting in the living room when a little Santa Clause we had on the kitchen table went off. It only would go off when someone would walk by. We were puzzled by this, because when we checked to see what had caused it, we realized the Santa Clause wasn't even turned on. Another time when I was quite small, around the age of 8 or 9, I was outside in my driveway playing. It was a very cloudy day, and chilly, as I remember. I was jumping rope when I stopped and turned around. To this day, I don't no why I suddenly stopped for no reason. I looked up at my attic window, and swore I saw a face. I stared at it for a couple of seconds without blinking. But, when I did, it was gone. I ran inside to tell my Mom what happened, but she didn't believe me. To this day, she still doesn't, but I don't go near the attic unless someone is with me. A couple of month's ago, I decided to invite a friend of mine from school over. It was the first time she was over my house, so I wanted to make her feel comfortable. It was around 5:30, and it was getting dark out. She has as much interest in ghosts as I do, so we decided to tell ghosts stories. We sat on my floor by my bed, and I shut my lights off. As I began to tell my story, we heard a sound coming from my fan directly above us, as if someone was turning it on. This was odd, since my fan hadn't been working for over a year. Then, we heard my bed squeak. I could tell she was as scared as I was, so I opened my door and switched on the lights. Nothing seemed out of place, but we were still scared. When I was little, about 4 or 5, I used to have a doll I was very fond of. I was lying in bed, and looked at my doll from across my room. I said out loud, "I wish you could walk, so you could walk over hear and sleep next to me." I turned in my bed so I couldn't see the doll anymore. Then, I turned another direction and found my doll lying next to me in my bed. My uncle, who is a nonbeliever of ghosts until he had an experience himself told me this story. When he was living at his old house, he had had a very unusual experience. His landlord was out, so my uncle was home alone. He was tired, so he decided to lay on his bed and try to get some rest when he saw the doorknob to his room rattling violently. He said it was shaking so hard, that the whole door was vibrating. As this was going on, he thought it was his landlord, so he continuously called out his landlord's name. Of course, there was no answer. When the rattling stopped, he looked out the door only to find no one was there and his landlord wasn't home. I am not sure if my house is haunted, but I do know that it is not a normal house. I believe the spirits of some relatives pass through on certain days, but, as far as I am concerned, I don't think my house is haunted. At least...I hope not......

The Haunted Town of Downers Grove, Illinois I live in the town of Downers Grove, Illinois. I, have very many reasons to believe that is a very haunted town. To start off the bat, we have a legend, a legend of the Purple Bishop, that my 5th grade teacher introduced to me. A long time ago in the 1800's there was a bishop who only wore purple and kept to himself. He had two dogs that he would always hang out with. The dogs would draw his carriage, instead of horses. Everyone was afraid of him. Then one day three older boys were hanging out, one had to take his little brother with. The three boys dared the younger kid to enter the Purple Bishop's church. He did so, and when he entered, the bishop turned around and saw him, the boy ran out of there so fast he knocked over a candle and the purple bishop and his dogs died. His church burnt to the ground and is now Main Street Cemetery. It is said that every 20 years he comes back to life and takes the life of 4 children, and leaves only their shoes. 1999, was one of the 20 years and sure enough 4 kids disappeared and only shoes were left. My friend, June, witnessed purple clouds and heard dogs barking. Another reason is Main Street Cemetery. In 3rd grade we went on a field trip to all the cemeteries in Downers Grove. There was one grave that everyone backed away from. Everyone was scared to go up to it. The reason, because my other friend, Alicia, touched the flower, and she claimed it to be freezing and send chills up her back. Odd, because the temperature was like 90 something degrees out. I touched it, and sure enough she was right. The last reason is that my friend, Kate, went into a bathroom in our school and repeated Bloody Mary 50 times, so when my other friends,  Alicia, entered ,Bloody Mary was reaching out toward them and staring. Spooky, huh? -Lana Joy McPherson The Eternal Ghosts I am 10 years old.This story takes place when I was 3.I used to sit in my playpen and talk to things that no one else saw or heard.When I was 4 I used to wake and see shadows of things that had no body.Now I am 10.When I was 5 I met my best friend Joey.He also sees ghosts.On my 10th birthday I finally saw what the ghost looked like.He was in his 20s or 30s.He was white and had brown hair.A week later I slept over at Joey's house.When we were walking out of his room we saw 2 ghosts.And then we found out how they both died.They walked to the top balcony and grabbed 2 ropes put them around their necks and jumped over the balcony.That was the last me and Joey ever saw of the Eternal Ghosts. Bad Vibes At the time this happened, I was 21 and had just graduated college. I went back to my hometown for a break over the summer, and I started hanging out at my best friend Jake's trailer, where he still lived with his mother. I know it's cliche', but she worked nights as a cashier in a convenience store. Anyway, I would stay over there a lot, along with my younger sister Anne who was dating Jake at the time, and there would be other people around. To try to make a very long story shorter, my sister and Jake became obsessed with an old Ouija board that they found. They played with it all the time. The rest of us would watch and laugh, but Jake and Anne were really into it. I should tell you before I go any further that we were all in our early twenties and late teens, and naturally there was some drinking going on occasionally, but... I graduated with honors in music composition, Anne is now a professional theatre performer, and Jake is the youngest Mayor in the state of Louisiana. What I'm saying is, we weren't ignorant rednecks. Eventually Anne could work the Ouija board all by herself. She carried on conversations with what she said was the spirit of a little boy who had died in the area. One night a few of us were watching her. The planchette was really cruising around the board, when it suddenly kept repeating, "STOP. DARKNESS. STOP. DARKNESS." Over and over. Things began to change after that. The trailer started to feel different at night. When Anne played with the board, it was now using a different name, one with a lot of consonants in it. I still remember the name, but I haven't said it since then and I'm not going to repeat it here. She was convinced that she was in contact with something sinister, and she stopped using the board. All of us had experiences after that. The first one that I remember is that Jake and I were watching TV late one night and the closet by the front door clicked open. We kind of looked at each other and laughed, and Jake got up and closed the door. A few minutes later it came open again. We both looked into the closet to see if something was preventing the door from shutting properly, but we didn't see anything. After the door opened again that night, we gave up. Not long after that, Jake started wanting me to stay over every night. He didn't want to be alone, and it's amusing to think I could have helped him; Jake is 6-3 and 220, and I'm 6-0 and weigh about 170. I started staying, and things kept happening. There was a constant heaviness in the air. I began to be really afraid to pass by his sister Brandi's room. Brandi was about 8 at the time. She was a Downs Syndrome child. She stayed at her grandmother's at night so she was never there. I had never even really noticed her room before, but suddenly I was afraid of it. The bad thing was that you had to pass by her room to go down the hall to the bathroom. At first I would sort of run past her door, and every hair on my neck would stand up. I'm not sure how long this went on before I gave up and started going outside to use the bathroom. There was no way in hell I was going down that hall by myself. One night Jake, Anne, and I were in the living room. I was sitting on the couch with my back against the wall to Brandi's room. There was a long mirror on the wall behind me. We were just talking when Jake and Anne turned white. They were staring behind me. I said, "What's wrong?" They said, "Did you hear that?" I had heard nothing at all, but it was obvious that they were really really scared, so we all went outside to talk. They told me that something had pounded the wall behind me so hard that the mirror shook. This had happened 3 or 4 times, and they said it was LOUD. By the looks on their faces, I was absolutely convinced that they believed they were telling me the truth. The last night I stayed there, Jake went to pick up Anne from her job, and I was at the trailer alone. I'll admit I was very nervous, and I honestly can't remember why I didn't go with him. I was watching Saturday Night Live on TV, and I had to use the bathroom. I went outside, needless to say. When I came back in things felt very very very bad. The TV was on a different channel, which was nothing unusual, because the channels would change all the time. But I just felt like I had to get out. I sat out on the porch and smoked and waited for them to get back. When we all walked in, Anne turned back around and said, "I'm not staying here tonight." We took her home, and Jake practically begged me to go back with him, which I did. That night was the worst for me. We went straight to sleep, or tried to anyway. I slept on a mat beside Jake's bed when I was over there, and I remember lying there for hours listening to footsteps moving up and down the hall outside the bedroom door. I have never wished for sleep so badly in my life. But I just couldn't sleep with all the noise and the weird feelings. Finally I felt myself getting sick. I got up and stumbled outside and vomited. I told Jake we were leaving, and he agreed. I never stayed there again. I went back only once more. I was supposed to meet Jake and Anne and some other friends there. I was the first one there. As I reached the porch, I was overwhelmed, and I couldn't go in. I didn't even want to stay in the yard anymore. I got in my car and left. BAD VIBES. I found out later that that was a really bad night for Jake and Anne. Things had gotten very active, and something had revealed itself to Anne in the mirror. In closing, a couple of points: 1. Anne and Jake had much worse experiences than I did. I've only related the things that happened while I was present. They still don't talk about it. 2. Neither Jake's mom nor his sister Brandi ever noticed anything odd was going on, as far as I know. 3. Jake's grandmother, a very religious woman, eventually toured the trailer saying prayers and speaking in tongues. Jake said everything stopped after that. 4. Jake built his house on the same spot where the trailer was. I've been back a few times, and felt nothing unusual. Ghost Stories Page 24 BACK TO