We’ve all heard our fair share of ghost stories over the years, right? If you haven’t then you might need to catch up since there are plenty of tales out there that are so far-fetched and grandiose that it’s become easy to discount them and offer up easy explanations as to why a person might hear a strange noise or why they could have thought they saw a monster or an apparition. Science and rational thought can be your friend when explaining what lurks in the shadows and what those strange noises were that came from your closet. But there are plenty of stories out there that can’t be explained so easily, especially when there’s no reasonable explanation that can handle them. So let’s dive into the terror, shall we?
Urban legends that people SWEAR happened to them.
You might have heard a few urban legends to date, some of them have been passed around for years after all. But there are always new legends being made, new stories that a lot of people swear are true but may just be our imaginations running away with us. Or are they?
- A young girl named Elizabeth was babysitting for friends of her family and was watching a Netflix series when she could have sworn she heard the 3-year old boy she was taking care of talking through the monitor that his parents had set up. She reportedly heard him ask in his young, less than articulate voice, “Why you here?”. The kid had no siblings, and there was no one in the house apart from Elizabeth and the boy. Going to check on him showed that he was fast asleep, and checking his second-story window made it clear that it was locked from the inside and no one could get in. So it was that she went back to her TV time, a little rattled, but not truly frightened. That didn’t happen until she heard the kid’s voice on the monitor again as he said “No, she nice.” There was nothing after that, just blissful silence, but Elizabeth swore the house became a little colder not long after that.
- While on a fishing trip with his father and his father’s friend and his two boys, a young kid named Andrew saw something he couldn’t explain. Stopping in the small ghost town of Shaniko, Oregon, Andrew and his two friends, Geoff and Scott, went off to explore as their fathers gassed up the truck and bought a few extra supplies for the trip. The boys found an old building filled with junk that the townsfolk had apparently tossed together, creating a maze filled with twisting pathways through the discarded items that the three boys quickly made a game of. As Andrew made his way through the labyrinth he passed by an old, full-length mirror that had been set in an even older bathtub, and that’s when he noticed something strange. It was fleeting, but his young eyes saw a darker-skinned youth pass into and then out of the mirror in the same manner he did, darting by while mirroring his actions (no pun intended). At that time he thought it was another kid, a local perhaps that had come to join in the fun. Thinking to say hi and introduce himself, Andrew went back to the mirror, only to find something really shocking. There was no glass in it. Thinking he’d mistaken the reflection that he’d seen in it going by, Andrew called out to Geoff and Scott, asking them if they’d seen the kid. They hadn’t seen anyone, and as much as the boys searched, they couldn’t find anyone else in the building. The boys left the building not long after, but Andrew remembered what he’d seen.
- Janet knew that living in the suburbs that flowed seamlessly into the nearby city of Tacoma left very little possibility that wild animals, such as wolves, would come so far into human-inhabited lands. But that didn’t stop her from seeing one pair, then two pairs, and eventually three pairs of eyes in the shadows of her backyard one night, and for several weeks after. A lot of people told Janet that she was crazy, that wolves didn’t approach humans except in the movies, and even then, the movies were a load of bs. But Janet was adamant after the second time about what she’d seen. She locked her back yard, installed security cameras, she even scattered flour over the area where she’d seen the eyes, and sure enough, the next morning there were large, clawed prints that were seen, but of course, no one believed her, and ended up stating that she’d made the prints somehow to prove her theory. The eyes returned every now and then, but eventually, pets were heard to bark in the middle of the night throughout the neighborhood, and those that were allowed out at night were found mauled, some were even found stiff and bled out on their back lawn. As far as anyone could tell, a coyote might have been responsible, or perhaps a rogue wildcat of some sort. But Janet swore up and down that the eyes never appeared on the nights that the attacks took place.
Are you sure you’re alone in the house?
It might be an extension of the urban legends, or something more, but plenty of people have noticed strange noises or occurrences when they’re home alone. Of course, no one ever believes these stories unless the same thing happens to them, which makes such tales more for entertainment than for actual, true accounts of something that happened. But there are times when that feeling of being watched, or that cold chill that runs down your spine is entirely justified since it might be that something or someone really is watching.
- Toby was still in junior high and staying with his aunt and uncle in their two-story home while his parents were on a much-needed vacation. Being that his school was in walking distance of hi aunt and uncle’s home, he would make the trek from the junior high to their house after school each day and have a few hours to himself before his aunt and uncle returned. The house was fairly big, with a finished basement that featured a woodworking room his uncle used, a full bathroom, and a craft room for his aunt to work in, along with a massive living room space. The main floor was even bigger, and while this was where Toby spent most of his time doing homework or watching movies, he was a curious type of kid, and would wander downstairs from time to time to walk around and look at the various items that his aunt and uncle kept out. He knew better than to operate the woodworking tools without his uncle’s help, and he definitely knew better than to mess with anything in his aunt’s craft room. While mulling around in the basement storage one day, Toby heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps on the hardwood floor of the main floor. It was a bit early for his aunt or uncle to return home, but such a thing was possible. Upon reaching the main floor to welcome them home however, Toby saw and heard no one. He hadn’t heard the garage door raise, nor had he even heard the door open. Toby was ready to dismiss this as his imagination when he heard the unmistakable sound of a bandsaw, just one of the machines that his uncle had, being operated in the woodshop. Running downstairs without thinking about it, he entered the room just as the bandsaw came to a standstill, as though it had never moved in the first place. Toby then heard what sounded like high heels on the wood flooring upstairs, but did not return to the main level as the footsteps receded. For years Toby was certain of what he’d heard, and that he hadn’t been alone in the house that day.
- Melissa is a work at home parent as she manages an online clothing store that she built on her own several years before. Her family, two daughters and a husband, are all out of the house most days, her daughters at school and her husband at work. Their home was built back in the 1940s and is one of the oldest in Vancouver, WA. As far as she knows, no one has died in the house, nor did anyone do anything overtly bad, according to the woman who sold the house. But every now and then, while sitting at her desk, Melissa sees what she feels certain is movement out of the corner of her eye. Of course, looking directly at the movement does nothing but show her a view of one wall or another depending on where she looks. But from the corner of her eye, she swears that she sees movement, and has admitted to seeing three separate forms when focusing forward. There is no wind in her home office since she keeps the office closed. There’s no air conditioning in her office, and her sight has been checked numerous times over the years. The movement isn’t grand in nature, nor does it appear menacing, but she does swear to the fact that she’s seen, from the corner of her eye, the head of whatever apparition she’s seeing turn toward her, as though regarding her curiously, or with some other type of interest.
- Ever seen the movie Poltergeist III? The movie where the mirrors became the method by which the ghosts started making a move on the living? Melanie had never seen the movie, but she swears up and down that there are times that the image in the mirror doesn’t follow her as it should. If not for the admission by her husband, Jake, that he’s seen the same thing, she might have been discounted entirely. Neither one of them can explain it, but every now and then, when they look away, they can see from their peripheral vision as their mirror image appears to defy their movements, doing something just subtle enough that it might not be noticeable, even if they happen to catch it. Are there spirits in the mirror? Who knows, but there’s a reason that Janet and Jake don’t spend a lot of time in front of a mirror these days.
It might be close to Halloween, but spooky stories are universal.
You can choose to believe a few of these real accounts or not, but the fact is that some of them are very real. The names have been changed obviously but the stories have all been handed down at one time or another by friends and family. We get to decide what we believe of course, but it pays to buy into a story at least a little, that way when you start telling your stories, people might actually believe you a little more. Have fun trying to sleep after choosing to believe though…
