52 Ghost Stories So Scary They'll Haunt You For Weeks

    Warning: paranormal activity below.

    Allie Hayes
    by Allie Hayes

    BuzzFeed Staff

    If you TRULY believe in ghosts, you probably have a creepy as all heck personal story that acts as your main reason for believing.

    Warner Bros. Pictures

    And let me tell you, those stories are SPOOKY, Y'ALL. Here are just a few of the scariest ghost stories we could find on Reddit, including supernatural sightings and otherworldly encounters.

    1. "In high school, the place I worked at was basically a giant gym, and gymnastics classes were also held there. One day, I came in and a girl I worked with was freaked out. During the gymnastics class she taught, one of the kids was staring up at the ceiling."

    Misty forest path with streetlights illuminating the way through the trees
    Baac3nes / Via Getty Images

    "When she asked the kid what he was doing, he said, 'There's a little boy up there,' and pointed at the ceiling. Later, two different coworkers came out of the gym, visibly shaken. Apparently, a pair of 5-year-old twins went down the slide, and then just stared up at the ceiling.

    Later that same day at a party I was working in the gym, I pushed a little boy on the giant swing we had. He, too, began to stare at the ceiling. He then said DIRECTLY TO MY FACE, 'Hey, there's a little boy up there!' We all told our manager about the three separate experiences, so the next day — when we had downtime between parties — our manager checked out the cameras. He called us in to look at the livestream of the security footage, which showed the giant swing going back and forth in the gym. Nobody was in there.

    I like to think that it was a little ghost boy who truly just wanted to play, and he finally got to go on the swing when everyone was gone."

    —mushroom_gorge

    2. "I was having a conversation with my mom when I was a teenager when, mid-sentence, I felt a hand grab my arm."

    "I looked to see who it was. No one was there, and my mom didn't see anyone. Apparently, the same exact thing happened to my sister a few weeks before."

    —RunBunns247

    3. "When I was in my late twenties I was dating my girlfriend (soon-to-be wife). We had been together for a while. One summer, her sister was abducted and killed by a group of six men."

    Getty Images / Via Getty Images

    "All the men were eventually caught and tried. The trials and the aftermath were devastating and debilitating for her family for many, many years.

    Fast-forward to three months after the funeral. I arrived at my girlfriend's house to wait for her to get off from her job as a nurse at a local hospital. Neither of her parents were home. Just me, alone, in the house. I went into the family room, turned on the TV, sat down on the couch, and got comfortable.

    Clear as a bell I heard my girlfriend's sister's voice in my right ear, just off my shoulder, call my name. I turned to look at the seat next to me and, of course, there was nobody there. I stared at the spot in the couch next to me for a long while."

    —gaberax

    4. "I once saw a creepy reflection of myself at the end of a hallway in a friend's apartment building."

    Ralf Nau / Getty Images

    "Later that night, when I asked about the weird mirror, he told me there were no mirrors in his hallways."

    —lucozade6

    5. "During the time my grandma passed away, my husband and I were having a lot of money problems."

    Getty Images

    " A few days after her funeral, I started to dream about her. She ALWAYS told me in my dreams that if I needed money for anything, I should just check under her mattress. I ignored the dreams, but they kept repeating again and again for weeks. So I decided to take a look under her mattress and GUESS WHAT? I FOUND $1,500 IN MEXICAN PESOS. I have not dreamed about her ONCE since I found that money."

    —u/MiiiisTaaaaaaaAAAA

    6. "In high school, the place I worked at was basically a giant gym, and gymnastics classes were also held there. One day, I came in and a girl I worked with was freaked out."

    David Wall / Getty Images

    "During the gymnastics class she taught, one of the kids was staring up at the ceiling. When she asked the kid what he was doing, he said, 'There's a little boy up there,' and pointed at the ceiling. Later, two different coworkers came out of the gym, visibly shaken. Apparently, a pair of 5-year-old twins went down the slide, and then just stared up at the ceiling.

    Later that same day at a party I was working in the gym, I pushed a little boy on the giant swing we had. He, too, began to stare at the ceiling. He then said DIRECTLY TO MY FACE, 'Hey, there's a little boy up there!' We all told our manager about the three separate experiences, so the next day — when we had downtime between parties — our manager checked out the cameras. He called us in to look at the livestream of the security footage, which showed the giant swing going back and forth in the gym. Nobody was in there.

    I like to think that it was a little ghost boy who truly just wanted to play, and he finally got to go on the swing when everyone was gone."

    —u/mushroom_gorge

    7. "When I was in the fifth grade, I was playing with Silly Putty in my room. My mom called me down for dinner."

    Getty Images

    "I had molded the putty into a ball, and PLACED it down directly behind me.

    When I stood up to go downstairs, I felt something hit me in the back of my head with FORCE. So I turn around and see my Silly Putty ball, not on the ground anymore, but bouncing up and down on my windowsill until it eventually rolled back onto the floor. Needless to say, I ran downstairs in hysterics trying to tell my mom what had happened."

    —u/Pyromaniac0398

    8. "I was staying in the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado — the hotel that inspired Stephen King's The Shining. Around 1 a.m., I heard what sounded like children running up and down the hallways interspersed with laughter."

    Olena Ruban / Getty Images

    "I opened the door to see what the hell was going on, and didn’t see anything. 'Quick little buggers,' I thought. Then, the next morning when my partner and I took a tour of the building, the guide stopped directly in front of our room to tell us the story of young girls whose ghosts can be heard running up and down that same hallway."

    —u/banwagl

    9. "In 2011, I was studying abroad in Morocco. We were staying in a riad in the medina of Marrakech with tall, ornate windows."

    William Attard Mccarthy - Mccart / Getty Images

    "I had one roommate — who was already asleep this night — but I thought I saw her sitting up in the bed next to me, wearing all white.

    Suddenly, I saw a white, hazy thing vaguely shaped like a person floating above me next to these big windows. I was so scared I went into the bathroom, turned the light on, and stayed in the bathtub ALL NIGHT. My roommate maintained that they didn’t see anything."

    —u/stickytuna

    10. "I was visiting my mother after my dad died. She went shopping with her sister and left me alone in her house. I heard my dad as plain as day up in his room."

    Vladimir Zapletin / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "He got up from his computer chair, walked over to the door, and opened it. He walked down the stairs and stood on the last step for a few seconds before walking back up to his room and closing the door. I was probably five feet from him in the living room. I just froze. It scared the hell out of me. Needless to say, I was a believer after that." 

    —u/Ohsoeasy

    11. "I worked at a public pool. At night, I would work alone after-hours cleaning the building and the pool. One night, around 2 a.m., I was cleaning the changing rooms. The pool has been closed for four hours at this time."

    woman floating in the pool at night
    Freshsplash / Getty Images

    "So suddenly, I hear the sound of a child's laughter and bare feet running across the pool deck. I go out and scan the area; there's nobody in sight. The doors are all closed and locked, there is nowhere a kid could be hiding. There are no wet footprints on the pool deck. I recheck the doors and the security monitors. I am the only person in the building. It was unsettling."

    —u/Oldmanenok

    12. "My girlfriend's grandfather's ashes were on a little shelf in the living room, right next to a very solid and heavy angel statue. One weekend she and I are fooling around on the living room couch and — out of the corner of my eye — I see the angel statue FLY OFF OF THE WALL, accompanied with a deep grunt."

    abandoned living room
    Fhm / Getty Images

    "We both stood there in shock and — after a few moments — I asked if she had heard the grunt sound as well, to which she agreed.Later that night at dinner, we told her parents what happened (leaving out the naughty bit, obviously) and Megan’s younger sister burst into tears, saying she had seen a dark figure at the foot of her bed the last couple of nights, but didn’t want anyone to think she was crazy. After that day, I was a believer."

    —u/longfacepub

    13. "My uncle's house out on a very eastern part of New York was said to be haunted because the family that used to own it in the 1800s decided not to give it to the stableman and sold it instead."

    An old house with wooden siding and two chimneys in a field with ominous clouds behind
    Oleksandra Korobova / Getty Images

    "My uncle's friend and her sister stayed over one night, and the friend noticed a maid bringing towels down the stairs when she woke. She saw the maid again, bringing what looked like a percolator, down the stairs.

    She was so impressed by my uncle hiring staff (he is a neurologist in NYC, so he had a habit of spending a little bit extra). She went back to bed and woke up and later came downstairs to see my uncle and his friend just chatting.

    She asked where the maid went, and thought that the maid was cooking breakfast. My uncle had no idea what she was talking about and asked what she looked like. The sister explained and he laughed. Walked her to the living room and pointed to an old picture. She said that was the woman.

    My uncle replied, 'Yeah, she has been dead for about 100 years.'"

    —u/Twigsnapper

    14. "My grandparents have a helpful ghost. Their house was built in the 1860s, and they've lived in it since the late 1960s."

    Ysbrandcosijn / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "In an intense burst of procrastination one day, I looked up every mention of their address in their town's online newspaper archives and found out that the family that built the house had a daughter who grew up there, never married, and took care of her widowed father until she later died of old age. So I figure the helpful ghost is just the daughter continuing to take care of people like she did for her entire life. Over the years, various family members have heard the vacuum cleaner turn on on its own and clothes and towels that were dropped on the floor before bed have been folded and placed at the foot of the bed by morning."

    —u/startingoveragainst

    15. "We had ghosts in an old house that I lived in as a child. While being home alone, I could hear sweeping downstairs."

    A sepia photo of a woman in party dress holding up a glass to cheers, behind her a man with shiny, parted hair and glasses plays a banjo, and just behind him stands another man in overalls and a cap
    Suteishi / Getty Images

    "Also, the tinkling of china and crystal from the dining room; it sounded like a party was happening and you could hear a Victrola. I walked downstairs and it all stopped."

    —u/ctdiabla

    16. "I lived in a house for about five years that was haunted, but not in a malicious way. In a 'shitty roommate' kind of way."

    Eva / Via giphy.com

    "I'd come home to the windows on the second floor being open when it was raining. To food containers being open in the fridge that I hadn't touched yet.​The worst was that the 'ghost' hated clocks. She hated them. I had antique cuckoo clocks that had worked for 50 years that would just stop. Brand-new wall clocks that ate through batteries like candy. My watch ended up on the floor one morning, the crystal shattered, even though I knew I slept with it on. The one that pissed me off the most was that I got a brand-new Kit-Cat clock for Christmas —and the bitch threw it off the wall. I was cooking and out of the corner of my eye saw the cat freaking FLY. Turned around and it was across the kitchen. Broken. It was brand new!​ Man, she was a bitch."

    —u/WeeklyPie

    17. "I lived in an old, haunted house in college. Things got so weird that everyone moved out except for me and one roommate."

    Geerati / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    Here's a few:

    1. I woke up at 3 a.m. because my roommate's door kept opening and slamming shut. From bed, I yelled for him to stop only to realize I was the only one home that weekend. As soon as I yelled the slamming stopped, but the hippie beads I had hanging outside my closed door began to sway perfectly, yet violently, against the door frame for a half hour, while I debated if I should pop out my air-conditioning unit and jump out of the window. I laid in the fetal position in bed till it stopped.

    2. I woke up at 3 a.m., alone again, hearing the Nintendo on the back porch playing loudly. I figured a drunk kid came in and started playing. I grabbed a bat and walked toward the back of the house as the music got louder and louder. As soon as I opened the door, it was completely quiet. Mind you it was loud enough to wake me up.

    3. I had friends over and told them the house was haunted. No one believed me, so I asked the ghost to do anything to prove it was there. As soon as I asked, all the lights in the house began flickering for about a minute straight. This was the middle of the day; everyone witnessed it.

    4. Almost everyone who stayed at my house had sleep paralysis at least once in the house.

    5. Every time something spooky happened, the house would smell like old-lady, flowery, strong perfume.

    6. This house had a door built into the flooring that led to the basement. We always had a rug covering it up so no one knew it was there. Things would constantly go missing in the house, and turn up in the basement. This house had a coal chute from when it was heated by coal back in the day. Missing stuff would always be placed on the shoot for us to come and get.

    7. Roommate had some issues. Once while playing video games late at night, he saw mist kind of hovering from the kitchen and then move into the bathroom. The bathroom had a trap door that led to the attic; that's where we figured the old-lady ghost used to like to hang out.

    8. Roommate was up late; he went to go lock the doors and turn off lights. When he turned his back on the room and walked to the door, someone breathed into his ear, "Haaa." He thought it was me. I was sleeping. He turned around, pissed himself, and ran to his room. He was too afraid to come out and turn off lights and TV.

    9. Loud thumps in attic at all hours. For peace of mind, we told ourselves squirrels must've gotten in there.

    10. Voices would wake us up in the middle of the night. I spent many mornings on the front porch waiting for the sun to come up before I went back in the house.

    11. Coincidentally, I had a friend years later that rented from the same landlord (same town, different house) where he and all of his roommates moved out because that house was also haunted. I didn't think it was too weird, until he was telling me that when all of the weird stuff happened, it was accompanied by old-lady, flowery, stanky perfume. Also, a lot of people had sleep paralysis in that house as well."

    —u/muchyz

    18. "I had a one-bedroom apartment once, and as soon as it got dark enough outside, this old dude would walk from the bedroom to the bathroom all night."

    A dark walkway with a bright light at one end, within it is the dark silhouette of a man
    David Wall / Getty Images

    "I would have to warn people the first time they came over: "You are gonna see a ghost." Mid-conversation, people would stop talking and be like, 'HOLY SHIT, I just saw a ghost!' Yeah, no shit, I warned you.

    One time, I was in the bathroom when he attempted to walk in and just dissolved into a mist that dissipated very quickly. My current house I share with my wife is a three-bedroom and we sleep on a futon in the living room because the ghosts in this house were chainsmokers in the main bedroom. We wake up every night between 3 and 3:30 a.m. if we sleep on the second floor, coughing our lungs out because the room is full of cigarette smoke."

    —u/Beware_of_Horses

    19. "I watched one of our cats being pulled backward about 5 feet by her tail."

    Aleksandr Luzhbin / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "She was walking through the dining area and suddenly was sliding backward, as if someone was pulling her by her tail. Only there wasn't anyone. She freaked out and tried to run, but couldn't immediately as something held on for a brief second before letting her go. I tend to think that was the handy work of a 4- or 5-year-old girl ghost who hangs out, and she just wanted to play with the kitty."

    —u/MTSwagger

    20. "I get sleep paralysis occasionally. It usually feels like someone has me by the throat and is pushing me into the bed."

    A girl sleeping in bed with a ghostly figure of a woman in a nightgown and dark hair covering her face, standing on the end of the bed above the girl's feet
    Cavan Images / Getty Images/Cavan Images RF

    "I've never seen the crazy demon that people talk about seeing though. Mind you, I did see someone who looked exactly like myself sitting on the edge of the bed during an episode one night when I'd fallen asleep with the lights on. I couldn't really make out her face (although I could tell she was concerned, almost), and she was wearing one of my favorite T-shirts that I'd owned for over 12 years. I don't really wear that T-shirt anymore because of it."

    —u/eimcca80

    21. "Closest I've got to a haunted house is a haunted room: I used to sleep on the second floor (the bottom one being the first) and my sister in the attic."

    DownsFilms / Via giphy.com

    "She used to have sleep paralysis often. Then she moved out, and now I have her old room. She no longer has sleep paralysis, but I do."

    —u/Imported_Thighs

    22. This child's closet creeper:

    Tero Vesalainen / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "I don't remember this myself, but my parents say that when I was young I would run into their room crying because 'a man was in my closet.' I described him as 'a civil war soldier,' which I couldn't have known how to describe on my own, given my age. After a little research, my parents found out that the last people who had lived in that house had found rare civil war artifacts..."

    —ladybuggirl72

    23. "My grandfather was in bed, reading before going to sleep, and he saw my grandmother (his wife) walk past the bedroom in a nightgown."

    A '30s styled woman perched on a lowback chair wearing a long, flowing nightgown with short sleeves and high-heel slippers, looking into a hand mirror
    George Marks / Getty Images

    "He thought that was odd because she never wears a nightgown. A couple minutes later, she walked in the room from the same side of the hallway that she walked from earlier and got in bed. He asked why she changed into those clothes out of her nightgown right before bed. She said, 'Hon, I don’t wear nightgowns.'

    The other story he told me was a computer they had that was in the middle of a large circular table in the basement. They heard a big crash from the basement and naturally ran down to check it out. He computer was on the floor, broken. To this day he insists it could not have fallen on its own, as it was in the middle of the table."

    —u/Fried_Fart

    24. "When I was younger, my parents would frequently go run errands in the neighboring city and be gone most of the day from morning to night."

    Rastan / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "Our living room was in a spot where you would have to walk through it to get from the back door to reach either the front door or my parents' room. You would walk between the couch and the TV while doing so. So I was home alone, and my dad came through the back door, walked in front of me as he crossed the room, and entered his and my mom's room. Then he came back out, walked across my field of vision once again, and left through the back door. He didn't look at me, look at the TV, or really do anything besides walk across the room in both directions.

    When I asked him what he came home for or if he forgot something, he honestly had no clue what I was talking about. They were an hour and a half away and coming home for something they forgot would not have made much sense. He was also wearing different clothes when I spoke with him compared to when I 'saw' him earlier. Such a strange experience, and I only saw it that one time."

    —u/TheCaptainhat

    25. "My wife claims she also had a doppelgänger event with her brother."

    David Wall / Getty Images

    "She said that she was pissed off at him because he didn't walk the dog, so she was taking the dog out when she ran into her brother downstairs in the building lobby or parking lot, and he was with a friend she never met. Her brother asked her for the house keys, and she said no because she was mad at him. He told her he was thirsty and she walked away.

    When she got back home, he was not anywhere. As soon as she walked in, she got a call from a hospital that her brother was having an asthma attack and wanted her to go keep him company. What freaks her out the most is thinking... What would have happened if I would have given him the keys? Would they have gone through his hands or what?"

    —u/juancaar

    26. "When I was around 9–10 years old, I remember waking up to see a large shadow standing at the foot of my bed. I was living with my dad at the time; he has a very large (five-floor) terrace house built in the 1800s."

    Duncan Fotos / Getty Images/500px

    "Every so often there would be an unexplainable event happen, such as footsteps when there’s no one there or voices. On the night this happened, it was just my dad and I in the house; my sister was staying with my mum at the time. I woke up and noticed the door to my room was wide open; I normally sleep with it closed. I then became aware of a large (around 7-feet tall) shadow-like figure watching me from the end of the bed.

    When the figure noticed me looking, it seemed to ‘melt’ into the floor ,and the door to my room slammed shut. Understandably I was slightly traumatized by the whole experience. Asked my dad the next day if he was in my room, and he denied any knowledge of the event (he’s not the type of person who likes jokes)."

    —u/Denholme2

    27. "My husband and I own a martial arts school, and the building that it's in (which we also own) is about 130 years old...next to a church... And I never (and still don't, really — there has to be another explanation) believed in the paranormal, but the things that happened in it didn't just happen to me."

    Marc Rodriguez / Via giphy.com

    "It was decrepit (which was why it was so cheap to purchase), and we basically did all the work ourselves: old, creaky, drafty. A bunch of things happened there. Here's one: One Saturday morning, my husband was on his computer in another room, I'm in the apartment playing with a Tamagotchi app on my iPad when I heard the stereo sitting in front of me click on, and a girl's voice started talking from it.

    I thought he controlled the stereo from his computer, so I ignored it because he often put on music to work out before class started (he teaches the morning class). I do remember thinking what kind of weird-ass indie music is he listening to anyway, because the voice just said, 'Hi, my name is (I thought I heard Katie, but I'm not 100% sure because I wasn't paying attention — I have never known a Katie in my life)... I am _ years old... I'm from __ ...' etc. I didn't catch the specifics because I wasn't really listening, but that went on for about two or three minutes until it suddenly went, 'Something's hurting me.' And when I caught that, I looked up and squinted at the stereo, like, what? 'Something's killing me. Something killed me.' At this point the hair is standing on the back of my neck, and I'm getting up from the couch to take a closer look. 'Please, someone tell my parents; tell the teachers; tell the corrections officer...' 

    At the words 'corrections officer' I just bolt into the other room and started yelling at my husband and cursing him out because I was certain he was playing a trick on me. Told him, 'We don't fucking play jokes about dead people.' And he's of course looking at me like WTF? When he finally calmed me down long enough to get what I heard out of me and what I was accusing him of, he told me it was impossible and led me to the stereo. It's not plugged in. I thought maybe the stereo picked up the signals from an e-book or something."

    —u/lunchesandbentos

    28. "When I was younger, I used to take naps upstairs, but by the time I was 8 years old, I absolutely REFUSED to go upstairs. The upstairs had two large...closets? Attics? They ran from one side of the upstairs all the way to the other side, on both sides."

    Side view of a dark attic with slanted ceilings with a ray of light on an abandoned baby doll
    Westend61 / Getty Images/Westend61

    "It was essentially a crawl space that was maybe 30-feet long. It started one day when a friend and I went crawling from one side to the other with flashlights, like kids normally do. Then I saw a girl sitting there in the corner, acting like she wanted to play with us. I know a lot of people say when they see a ghost they aren't scared. Just interested. Nope, I was beyond terrified. This girl looked normal, had blonde hair, a nice dress, and seemed friendly. I stayed silent, kept crawling behind my friend, and got out of the closet. Told him what I saw in there; he said he didn't see it, but felt like he didn't want to go back in.

    Then my parents would occasionally send me upstairs to get something and when I would get up there, I would see the doors swing open. As if they were trying to get me to come inside. I would lose toys and wouldn't be able to find them anywhere. Suddenly, my parents would be fishing Christmas presents out of the attic, and we would find some of my toys in there.

    I remember being 8 years old, my parents are asleep still in the morning, and I leashed up my dog to go take on the monster in the attic. My dog, usually up for anything, REFUSED to go off the top step into the attic. My parents never believed me with all the weird things that happened in that house. I would get blamed for things that happened all over the house. Leaving lights on, toys all over, things I knew I didn't do.

    Well anyway, we moved out of there when I am 10. Not a week passed before the new owners called us up and asked if the house is haunted. Their daughter slept upstairs; she said that she had been playing with a blonde-haired girl at night. My parents laughed at how crazy these new homeowners must be. 

    To make an already long story short, the girl started appearing in other parts of the house for them (they kept in contact with us). They would look over while watching TV and see the girl sitting on their daughter's lap, etc. They looked up on the computer the past owners of the house, found an old dress maker that lived there, and — yep — a picture of the little girl wearing one of the ladies' dresses."

    —u/Economy_Cactus

    29. "I used to live in an old, big five-bedroom house with six other people. My S.O. and I shared one of the rooms. I 'saw' a stranger in my room when I was in my 20s."

    Coldsnowstorm / Getty Images

    "It wasn’t exactly visible, but I somewhat knew it was right there in the corner of the room. My S.O. was next to me sleeping. While I had my eyes open, I knew it was there. So I closed my eyes. I tried to wish it away. I opened my eyes, and it was now next to the bed, looking at me. I closed my eyes again, and suddenly relief came. I opened my eyes, nothing there. I saw it once again at the stairs. It was only a brief moment this time, and then it was gone."

    —u/Hobo56hills

    30. "I lived in one when I was a teen, along with my parents. Several instances come to mind. We were remodeling an old farmhouse and had been there a couple of months before witnessing anything."

    Top view of the torso and legs of a person in a worksuit and boots underneath a vehicle supported by jacks on either end
    Andreas Schlegel / Getty Images/fStop

    "One day I was underneath my truck, which was supported by only a jack (stupid, I know). I was in the middle of working on it, with no good reason to get out at that moment. Suddenly the urge to get out from underneath overwhelmed me. No sooner than I got out, the truck fell to the ground; the jack had slipped. Freaked Dad out; he thought I was under it. When Mom got home, we mentioned it, and she started crying, sobbing pretty hard. It turns out the previous owner died in the driveway, under a vehicle, in that spot.

    I would often see moving shadows, and strangely hear music from the upstairs area. The windows of the old house were caulked shut, and blackbirds would often get caught between the panes. We ended up replacing all the windows, but we had to break three inside panes to get them out. One of the more disturbing things happened when my mother was cooking breakfast; she turned away to get something out of the cabinet, and when she turned back around, all the forks set out were bent straight up."

    —u/TheToenailCollector

    31. "My father-in-law died before my son was born, so he never met him."

    A vintage photo on a piece of wood, showing a man with side-parted hair and mustache wearing a large-collared shirt underneath a v-neck sweater
    Jasmin Merdan / Getty Images

    "When we moved into our new home, my son would often be laughing in the middle of the night by himself. No biggie — kids will play with anything. One day, we were finally putting pictures up in the house, and once I put up the picture of my father-in-law, he said, 'Oh Mommy, why do you have a picture of the man that comes and plays with me at night?' He had never ever seen a picture of my father-in-law before."

    —u/ragxdoll

    32. "So two weeks before we moved, my dad and I toured our house and I noticed this guy was painting the water heater, which I thought was weird AF, but I was like 10 so whatever."

    An abstract drawing with circles of various sizes stripes and scribbles in slightly different colors of crayon
    Jamie Grill / Getty Images/Tetra images RF

    "Anyway, we moved in on a Wednesday, and my parents let me stay home from school until the following Monday and preoccupied me with coloring books and a new doll house. In my brand-new crayons pack, there literally wasn’t a blue crayon, like it was a 64-pack, but there were only 63 crayons in it. One day I went downstairs into the basement, and my blue crayon was next to the hot water heater, and scribbled on there it said, 'Hi fitnurse6 — Kevin.'

    I was so confused. I started school, and my new classmates were like, 'OMG, do you live in Kevin’s house?! Your house is gonna be haunted!!' It turned out that Kevin was a little 8-year-old boy that lived in our house prior to us, and he got hit by a car in the front yard.

    He would write notes if you left out a pen and paper, open and close doors, adjust the thermostat (the kind where you had to turn a knob), and always turned on Christmas music when it was that time of year :) We had a swing set in the backyard and even on the hottest, calmest days of summer, only the left swing would be moving back and forth.

    We had this dumb cat that I would lock in my bedroom at night, and every morning, my parents would open the door and let him out, then close it back. One night I woke up and the cat was meowing at the door, and it woke me up, but the door opened and the cat hissed and ran out really fast. I asked my mom the next morning why they didn’t close my door, and they said they didn’t open it??

    The last story is when I was very upset and nearly suicidal one year during Christmas break — the police just randomly showed up at my house. The policeman said he was patrolling our neighborhood and felt like something was wrong at our house. I'm absolutely certain Kevin had something to do with it."

    —[deleted]

    33. "I am not the type to believe in ghosts, but this happened to me and I have no explanation. My mom passed away in 2016 at 56 of cancer. She was in hospice and died in her home. One of her favorite songs was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" — which I added to her memorial video."

    "Fast-forward months later, I am cleaning out her home of her belongings by myself. There is no one else there. At one point I have an emotional breakdown and step outside to collect myself. When I return, I hear music coming from the other side of the house...which immediately struck me as weird, as not only was I there alone, but the electricity in the home is shut off. I follow the music to a bookshelf, where I find it emanating from a snow globe.

    It's motion-activated and only plays music when picked up. The song? 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.'"

    —u/gypster85

    34. "I had the best haunter ever and miss my first home because of this. I grew up with a cat, Boots, who was just a year my junior."

    Front view of a cat in a sphinx pose with its eyes closed, front paw outstretched
    Image By Chris Winsor / Getty Images

    "Boots was motivated only by food and spent his later years sleeping on my parents' bed until someone came home, then he’d jump off the bed, with a 'thunk-thunk' of his front and back paws hitting the ground, and run to his food bowl to beg. He had to be put down when I was 18. My parents moved out of my childhood home during my first year of college. I went back a few times before it sold. Every time, I was certain I felt a cat’s presence. Like, I’d hesitate my step because I was sure a cat just walked under my legs kinda thing. Also, upon walking in, I’d always hear a thunk-thunk, like Boots jumping down to beg for food.

    My mom and I went back for the last day my family would ever be in that home, and I told her on the way what I’d experienced. To my surprise, she had the exact same feeling. When we walked into the house: thunk-thunk. We exchanged shocked glances, and confirmed we both heard it. I went and sat in my empty room while my mom got the final things together, and while my eyes were closed I had to force myself to not pet a cat that I felt walk up to me, because I knew logically he wasn’t there.

    Before leaving, we stood in the hallway outside my parents’ bedroom, hugged each other, and cried, saying bye to my first home. I said I thought Boots was still around, and suggested we take his spirit to the new house. She agreed, so she called out, 'Bootsy!!' From my parents’ room: thunk-thunk.

    We both heard it. I don’t think he came with us. He never liked car rides. But I hope the owners since us have enjoyed their ghost kitty. He was a good boy."

    —u/Reyali

    35. "Years ago, my husband and I were trying to see if we could get a modest house by contract for deed. We took my sister along to look at the house. It still had someone's personal items in it as though they had just stepped out — but it was for sale."

    A woman looking into her cabinet
    Grace Cary / Via Getty Images

    "We walked all through and were hopeful. Suddenly, my sister said, 'Wait, I know whose house this was! This house belonged to that guy my son knew who died in his kitchen! This was Tony's house!' At that precise moment, a cabinet door shot open and whacked her on the backside. Never one to be rattled easily, she looked up and said, 'Okay, Tony, I get it!' We checked; it was indeed his house, the cabinet had been tightly shut, and the floor was stable. I've never seen a cabinet door randomly swing open with a force behind it like that. Not enough to hurt, but fast, as though a hand had whipped it open. You had to be there.

    I wish we could have gotten the house even if he was haunting it. He was known to be a nice guy, very funny, and we wouldn't have minded sharing it with him."

    —u/Imaginary_Medium

    36. "My mom and dad passed just five weeks apart of unrelated cancers. We had taken my son with us to my parents’ house to feed their cats."

    A shadowy figure
    Fotoduets / Via Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "My son was 7 at the time, and he wandered downstairs to explore. At some point, he reappeared upstairs, strangely subdued. At the time, he hadn’t yet learned to lie, nor did he make stuff up. My wife noticed his demeanor and asked, 'What’s up, kid?' He said, 'Pop-pop is outside by the fence. I want to go home now.'"

    —u/Renaissance_Slacker

    37. "When I was in college, I lived in an apartment complex. Every once in awhile, at around 2 a.m., I would hear breaking glass. It was clear as day. I never found any broken glass anywhere around the apartment."

    A woman sitting on the edge of her bed in the dark
    Denis Mamin / Via Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "My younger brother would come out and party with us, and once or twice he came busting into my room, thinking someone was breaking in. Finally, one night, my girlfriend stayed over. She would kick and push in her sleep, and at some point, she nudged me, and I woke up. When I looked over at her, she wasn't asleep. She was sitting at the foot of the bed, facing away from me. When I said her name, she stood up and walked out of the room, and then the sound of glass breaking happened. I looked around and realized that she was still laying next to me in bed. That was the only time I saw anything in that place but heard the sounds pretty consistently."

    —u/JellingtonSteel

    38. "I was babysitting my niece when she was 2 years old. My sister was renting a very old house that was built in the 1930s."

    A dark hallway
    Kamisoka / Via Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "I'm alone in the place with her while my sister is working overnight. It's about 11 p.m., and she's been asleep for a couple hours at this point. I'm watching TV in the living room and see her running down the dark hallway. She stops just before the entryway to the living room, and I jokingly said, 'You better get back to bed, or I'm gonna get you!' I got up to get her back in bed, turned the hallway light on, and I found that her bedroom door was still closed. I open it to find my niece completely passed out in her bed, drooling and everything. It wasn't my niece I saw in the hallway, so I took her to sleep with me that night."

    —u/evanjw90

    39. "At the time when this happened, about eight years ago when I didn't believe in ghosts as much, my family and I were staying at a historic hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba."

    An old lobby of a hotel
    Wanderluster / Via Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "I had a few spare moments and decided to explore the hotel because it was absolutely beautiful. I got lost, and I happened to run into someone who looked like they worked for the hotel but weren't a housecleaner or a clerk, so I was unsure of their position or job. I asked for directions back to the lobby since I had to meet my family in a few minutes. The moment I arrived in the lobby and walked past the front desk, a clerk and a security guard were starring at me in shock and pale faces.

    The security guard asked me who I was talking with earlier for the directions back to the lobby. I told him I thought it was someone who worked at the hotel. Well, wouldn't you know, it turns out that floor I was on (I can't remember it for the life of me) has a bunch of paranormal shit that goes on regularly.

    The person I was talking with never appeared on the security feed even though they should have been in plain view. It was super creepy because I had shaken this person's hand for some reason, and the footage just should me shaking hands with the air.

    The person appeared in front of me as any other person would have; when I touched their hand, it felt like any squishy person would normally, and yet they never showed up on the footage.

    There was no way I could have blocked out the person from view of the camera either as I'm only 5'6". The security guard even pulled up a second angle for further proof. No one else believes me despite the footage. To this day, I still don't know how to explain it."

    —u/RileyMax0796


    40. "I was in my room writing in my journal before bed. It was a bit later, and my parents were asleep. Most lights in the house were off except a little desk lamp."

    A ghost in a doorway of a home
    Sdominick / Via Getty Images

    "All of a sudden, this figure stood in front of me, and I couldn’t breathe. It only lasted maybe five seconds — but as soon as I could move, I ran to the bathroom and locked the door. When I did, I heard footsteps immediately leave my room, and the door gently closed behind. I stayed in that bathroom for an hour at least. It still scares me to to this day."

    —u/AxWW19

    41. This unexplainable occurence:

    Paul Campbell / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "So, I was actually the reason my PARENTS are believers now, and I still get chills whenever my mom or dad tells this story. A lot of odd things happened building up to this, but this is the big one:

    I was only one year old, and I was sleeping in-between them, but when they woke up, I wasn't in the bed anymore. They searched EVERYWHERE for me and said that when they finally looked under the bed, they found me underneath it, directly in the middle where I'd be sleeping up top. They have no idea how I got there, and it completely spooked them."

    —mfkattt

    42. "A couple years ago, I was still living with my parents. I was upstairs in my bedroom hanging out in my room and watching TV."

    A person looking scared inside their room
    Ol'ga Efimova / Via Getty Images/EyeEm

    "I was on the phone with my friend at the time, and I exited my room and went downstairs to have a cigarette. The only other person in my parents' house that day was my dad, who later I found out was asleep in his room on the main level. Anyway, I was gone for about seven minutes, and I walked back upstairs and entered my bedroom. I was still on the phone, and I walked toward my bed and sat down. After 20 seconds or so, I glanced back up to play my TV, and there at the end of my bed was a piece of paper sticking up from the base. I just remember not understanding what I was seeing and never in my life have I so quickly dropped dead silent. I just remember saying, 'Nate…' and he kept saying, 'What, what?' and I could hardly speak. I quickly said I’ll call him back and immediately took out my phone and took a picture.

    It was an old economics paper of mine talking about the government and the divide our two-party system creates in America. I wrote this econ paper three years prior. There were originally two pages to it, but it was missing its second page. 

    The edges of the page were burnt, and there was a big yellow triangle that almost looked like it was highlighted smack dab in the middle of the page. It almost looked luminescent. It absolutely scared the fuck out of me. 

    "That paper had to have been in my closet stacked away with all my other school work, and now it was ripped from the other page and was placed at the edge of my bed, sticking upright, for me to see. I was gone for only seven minutes; nobody could have done that."

    —u/MelodicQuality_

    43. "When I was younger, I lived in a small house that was really dark and quiet at night. I always woke up around midnight most nights and would look for something to eat in the kitchen."

    hands against curtains inside home
    Julián Ballen / Via Getty Images/EyeEm

    "So one night, as per usual, I woke up and went to grab the first slice of bread from the new bread my mom bought that day. The kitchen is completely dark besides the two small windows that were fogged so no one could look in. There was this small corner around my fridge that was just dark. Like, darker than the rest of the kitchen even when there was light hitting it. However, I was partially asleep, so I didn’t think much of it. So, when I went to grab the slice of bread, something hit me in the face. I went to wipe it off my face, and all I felt I were just these long, long fingers.

    I was terrified and ran back to my room, and as I ran, I could hear and feel something chasing me, and I could hear all kinds of things falling behind me as I ran back to my room frightened. 

    When I got to my room, I shut my door and felt my eye, and it was bleeding. To this day, I have a scar. Never have I encountered something that terrifying again."

    —u/w_aste

    44. "The earliest memory I have is of an experience with an apparition. Based on what I know, I was no more than 3 years old when I saw it."

    A door and window in the dark
    Saman Sukjit / Via Getty Images/EyeEm

    "My parents didn’t believe me and always had some explanation for me. We moved houses, and tiny things would happen here and there, but once again, my parents always chalked it up to an overactive imagination. Fast forward to getting married, moving into an old apartment, and things starting to heat up a little bit. Bins would get flipped over and the contents dumped on the floor. Then, we moved in with my in-laws while my husband went to school. Cue the real events: The house would go through periods of high activity, particularly centered around me. My husband said he would hear me calling him from another room, but I wouldn’t be calling him. He would see me pass by the bottom of the stairs as he was coming down and would follow me all the way around the corner into the far room — only to dead end with the room empty.

    Here’s the main story: My husband was working nights and I was home alone on the farm while the in-laws were out of state on a trip. One of the dogs goes into an episode, staring at nothing in the middle of the living room absolutely losing it, rabid dog. I CAN'T get her to calm down. Usually, a light touch on the back will snap her out of it, but I could not call her off this time. I finally go to my room to take a breather, and I hear her stop. 

    Maybe 15 minutes later, she’s at it again. I go halfway up the stairs and am talking to her through the banister, finally getting her to come over to me and stop barking. She keeps looking next to me at the top of the stairs, then a huge slam on the baby gate there happens, rattling the gate and the banister. I ignore it 'cause I’ve heard that’s the best thing to do when something’s right next to you. 

    The dog barks, but I get her stopped again. Then right in my line of sight, I see a pen slid forcefully off the table, flying multiple feet before hitting the ground. The dog immediately runs to attack and goes into another fit looking at something next to the table. I start to lose it and immediately go back downstairs to my bedroom.

    I sit on my bed next to my cat napping there. He stands up and comes to me since I’m upset and crying. I hear the dog move back to barking in the living room, closer to my room. A minute later, my cat turns to look at the doorway, his back raises up, ears pinned back, and his hair stands on end looking straight at the doorway. I ran out of the house at that point. That was the worst it ever got. 

    "With what I know about the experiences through my life compared with where I was staying, I’ve kind of begun to think I might be a poltergeist."

    —u/mermaidkimberly

    45. "My childhood home was notoriously haunted. We moved into the house when I was around 6 and my brother was 3. It started slow with him and I seeing weird things at night and constant nightmares."

    young girl in closet
    Daniilphotos / Via Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "Things would go missing only to return a few day later. We would constantly hear people talking, foot steps, and doors slamming when no one was around. Over the years, though, it started to escalate: One parent was in their bedroom during a party when they heard a child running and the door to their walk-in closet creaked shut. She assumed it was me or my brother and went to open up the door. When she did, some of the T-shirts that were hung close to the floor were swaying. Peeking out from behind them was a little girl she did not know. The little girl vanished before her eyes.

    Another story: I was home alone waiting for my boyfriend to come over. I heard him call my name, so I came out of my bedroom and headed toward the front door. When I came to the stairs that separated my room from the front door, I saw this...thing? It almost resembled a person, pitch black, crawling up the stairs. It cracked its neck to look up at me, and I ran. I called my boyfriend, and he wasn't there yet. I hid in my room until he came."

    —u/MoistWormPower

    46. "This happened when I was 11, visiting a lighthouse in Michigan that was supposedly haunted by a boy."

    A lighthouse in front of a clear sky with high grass around
    Imagedepotpro / Via Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "My parents wanted to take a tour with the tour guide, but I wanted to play outside, considering we had been touring various sites in the upper peninsula that day. No one was around, so my parents ended up letting me play outside the lighthouse while they took a quick tour. As I played outside, a really beat-up ball rolled up to my feet. I bent over to pick it up, and as I stood back up, I saw a boy standing next to the edge of the lighthouse looking at me. I assumed the ball was his, so I tossed it over to him, and he wandered away. I didn't think anything about it, but when my parents were done with the tour, they asked what I did. I told them something along the lines of: 'I was just wandering around. Oh, and I helped this kid get his ball back.'

    The tour guide was with my parents, and when I mentioned the kid, he looked startled because as I mentioned earlier, there was no one other than us at the lighthouse. Only three cars: My parent's car, the tour guide's car, and the car belonging to the person at the front desk.

    "The tour guide asked me to take a look at a picture in the lighthouse. I know this sounds super cliché, but when he showed me the picture, it was the picture of the exact same boy with the exact same beat-up ball. Apparently, that kid died at the lighthouse. (On a side note, we checked around, and there was no boy.) 

    So you might be asking me, why was this creepy, especially considering that the boy never scared me or tried to scare me? What creeps me out is that I touched that ball. When it comes to ghost stories, most people only report a ghost, not other objects. 

    Assuming that was a ghost with his ball. What the heck did I touch? Also, it felt solid, like a real ball. If it was a 'ghost ball,' then how the heck do you explain what I touched? This still bothers me to this day."

    —u/1Dividend

    47. "We were taking a tour of the battleship Massachusetts in Falls River for my girlfriend's 30th birthday."

    A black and white image of a long hallway
    Dominick Froyen / Via Getty Images/EyeEm

    "She wanted to do scary stuff, and I wanted to see museums, so we stayed at the Lizzie Borden House and the next night at the Shanley Hotel. I didn't personally feel any definitive paranormal activity at each location, but there were definitely signs. The one place I actually wanted to go that wasn't meant to have any paranormal activity was the ship. While we were touring the bathroom/cafeteria area, I was snooping around the shower, just curious, when I got tapped on the shoulder. Thinking it was my girlfriend, I turned around, and no one was there.

    She was a few rooms away, and we were the only two people in the area. Nothing was hanging above me or leaking. The area was a little cool, and it just felt as if a human touched my shoulder, and I am 100% certain it happened. I found it ironic considering the other places we had been were known for their ghost activity."

    —u/Snoo3341

    48. "My best friend came to visit me, and this being South Africa, was waiting at the security gate of our house to let him in."

    Light shining through a window into an empty room.
    Pedro Cruz / Via Getty Images/EyeEm

    "He was calling my name, and I was on the toilet. We both hear my dad saying, 'He's on the toilet; he'll be right there.' My blood froze. My father wasn't home. We had no idea what to make of it."

    —u/Kangaruan

    49. "I'm from Indonesia where paranormal activities are quite normal here. But then I had this one disturbing experience."

    A basement door with light pouring in
    Matthew Troke / Via Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "One day I went into my uncle's home in Geneva. He loves collecting statues or historical stuff. Then I was asked to take out the trash that day, and I went to the basement where his office/room is at. It's a small room, like 2x3 meters. Then, somehow I saw a statue of a goddess with four or six arms and the aura in that room just suddenly cold.

    There were four rooms in the basement: One bedroom, one bathroom, an office room, and a storage room. Somehow, after I grabbed all of the trash, I couldn't find the stairs to go back. It's gone, literally, gone! 

    I was quite panicked, and then I smell some strange scent, like an ancient flower. I went into the office room, and I spoke to the statue. 'Hey, I am sorry if I disturbed you in a way I cannot imagine. I need to go back upstairs, okay? Just let me go.'

    Then after that, I can see the stairs again. But after that, it took me years to be able to go to any basements."

    —u/chitosan87

    50. "A close family friend had been in a coma for a few weeks before his death and wasn't allowed visitors (not sure if that was his family's choice or the hospital's policy."

    someone changing a lightbulb
    Thana Prasongsin / Via Getty Images

    "I was about 3 at the time), so my parents hadn't been able to visit him before he passed. In our house, we would always leave the hallway light on; it hung near the bottom of the stairs. The morning after he passed, the light was off. My mother spotted it before me. On first glance, she thought the bulb had just blown out, but then, she noticed that it had been removed from the light and placed carefully on the stairs on a higher step than it would have been had it somehow fallen. My mother believes this was his way of saying goodbye before he went."

    —u/jsscanna

    51. "I have a ghost of a boy who died in the '20s in my room. And he literally steals things from plain sight when you look away and then they’re gone."

    A key on top of a counter
    Colleen Michaels / Via Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "And the only way to get that object back is to politely ask him for it. It then appears ether somewhere that was already searched multiple times before, or it's placed somewhere it's physically impossible to get to."

    —u/wow-im-tired

    52. This disgruntled granny:

    Brian Koellish / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    "One night, my grandmother was looking after me, and it was just the two of us in the house. I was sitting on the floor in front of her while we were watching TV. Suddenly, we heard loud footsteps upstairs, then one of the doors SLAMMED shut.

    I grabbed onto her leg, because I was horrified that someone was in the house, but my grandma just looked up at the ceiling and yelled, 'Don't slam any doors in my house!' I never got to talk to her about it, since she passed when I was still young, so I'll never know who she was talking to..."

    —minimal

    This article contains content from Allie Hayes, CT Seale and Raven Ishak. It was compiled by Kelly Rissmana.