Ghost stories!

[Eireann]

Tell your ghost stories here! I love Halloween, and I love hearing ghost stories! They don't have to be something that happened to you; it can be something that happened to a relative, a friend, someone at work... you get the idea.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Not really anything scary, but my friends and I have decided there's a ghost in our house.

It started last year, when Sam & Nami noticed a burning smell. It didn't smell like an electrical fire, nobody smokes, and no one had burned anything while cooking in the kitchen. So there was no explanation for it. It wasn't present all the time, but it started happening alongside other things, such as lights being left on in rooms where we knew we'd turned them off. In one case, the TV in our basement was found to be on when Zeke & Kat returned from work. While we have a cat down there as well, the cat doesn't leap up to get to switches and doesn't mess with the remote.

These things, along with us sometimes hearing movement noises on the upstairs hallway and on the stairs, led us to deciding to declare it to be a ghost. Appropriately, this was in October, so spooky season! We decided to name the ghost "Ash" (because of the burning smell), as it was gender-neutral and we knew nothing about who/what the ghost might be. Not long after we came to accept we had this pretty harmless ghost in the house, I got woken up from almost-sleep twice in one night by the sound of footsteps (and it was more than just the creak of settling wood etc.) in the hall outside my room-- when I knew everyone else in the house was asleep or in their rooms. After the second time, I just mumbled, "Ash, please, I'm trying to sleep." And the footsteps stopped.

The ghostly stuff pretty much stopped when November rolled around, but we tended to chalk any weird stuff in the house up to Ash being mischievous.

Now this year, I got roused from almost-slumber by the sound of a knock on my door. I lifted my head, stared at my door, because it was just soft enough. I waited-- because if it had legit been a roommate, they'd have knocked again. When nothing happened, I rolled over to go back to sleep, and the next morning when I remembered it, I chalked it up to Ash again.

And then last week, our friend Road was visiting and we were watching some horror movies in the basement. He went upstairs to use the bathroom, and when he returned, he sat down and looked at me, wide-eyed, and asked, "Do ya'll know if you have a ghost in this house?" He explained that when he went upstairs, the lights were out in the main room and the kitchen, but he saw a face reflected in the glass of the window above the sink, which disappeared when he turned on the light.

Me and Chris grinned and I told him, "Hey, you met Ash!" And we explained the whole thing to him. He was surprised, but reassured that Ash seemed to be harmless, just mischievous.

Getting second-party confirmation, unprompted, has convinced us that we're not making Ash up.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Ask and ye shall receive. Here is my ghost story about a visit from a ghost.

[Jay 2K Winger]

(All about Ash)

And we just had another example of Ash misbehaving on Friday. Roommate Sam and I had just got back from the movies and were recording our thoughts for our podcast, and mid-record, we heard a metallic clanging sound somewhere else in our (finished) basement. He got up to investigate while I continued going on for the podcast. We couldn't figure out what it was, and just shrugged and continued, chalking up the noise to Ash.

Sam got a little amusement out of the mess, though. His wife Nami was sitting in while we were recording, mostly keeping our cat company. While Sam was up and looking to see what the noise was, our cat started staring at something behind Nami. She started getting worried and was mumbling, "Oh no, please don't look at nothing like that," until I cheerfully noted (for the benefit of our all-audio podcast) that Sam was standing behind her and that's what the cat was staring at. Nami was relieved.

[Jay 2K Winger]

More notes on the ghost front at the house--

On another visit from our friend Road, he was woken up one night by a loud banging sound on the back door, like someone was trying to get in, and heard movement out on our deck. When he looked, there was no one out there. This unnerved us, as this is not like Ash at all. We came to the conclusion that it may be another ghost or spirit or something, and I dubbed it "Knox" to differentiate it from Ash.

Chris later went outside and put a line of salt at the top of the deck's stairs. When Nami noticed it a couple of days later, she commented on it in disbelief, until we pointed out, "Knox hasn't come back since we did that. It works. Don't question it."

[Kittish]

We've got one human ghost and at least one feline ghost (though it may not always be the SAME feline...) The human ghost is BF#1's previous GF, who died almost 15 years ago pretty much where I'm sitting typing this. Very sudden, very unexpected. She hangs about, keeping tabs on things here. Doesn't make much noise or move things, but you know she's around when you smell the cigarette smoke. (No one in the house currently smokes. I used to, but quit almost 4 years ago now, and never smoked in the house to begin with. The walls have been scrubbed down, carpet shampooed many times, the AC vents and ducts cleaned and the couch and sofa have been replaced since she passed, so there's not really any place for the smoke smell to be originating other than her.) Sometimes you can SEE the cloud of smoke, like someone just exhaled it. The feline ghost(s) wander around as they will. If you feel a cat walking on you in the middle of the night (or any other time) and go to pet it, but discover there's no cat there, even though you can still FEEL where its paws are pressing into you... I'm never sure which cat is coming round to visit, but I always greet them politely.

[Ironclad Alibi]

... but you know she's around when you smell the cigarette smoke. (No one in the house currently smokes. ...

My wife's deceased father (died 2-14-1962) would sometimes visit her. She could tell when he was there by the smell of cigarette smoke, which I could never smell. She would ask questions and he would answer by causing the light next to her to flash.

[AccountingDrone]

Well, I seem to have some sort of fae following me around - it is assuaged by leaving a shot of something in an obscure place once a month or so [before the house was burnt down, it was a particular spot up on a decorative beam where neither cat nor cockatiel could disturb it. It liked more flavored booze rather than just vodka. It would 'mislay' things, we would put something down, and go back for it and it would not be there, then sometime later it would be back [usually small stuff like keys, wallets and paperwork like testing requisitions. Frequently, being forced to miss going somewhere turned out to be beneficial in some way or another.]

Also, when visiting my western NY house [I inherited it, and have a couple friends living there for now] I shut my bedroom door to keep their cats out when I sleep, and I will feel the distinct bump of a cat jumping onto the bed, and the feel of a cat walking along the bed, or little paws standing on me, or a cat curled up with me. We had always had cats in the house, other than about 4 years [80-84, when my living situation didn't allow for being owned by a cat] I have always kept cats. No idea which cat it could be, and it has occasionally happened to me in hotels when traveling also.

Mentioned it here previously, but my childhood imaginary playmate was my great grandfather - he passed *long* before I was even born, there is only one picture of him [not sure where it is now, may find it when I finish sorting the house out for auction] that I would have never been in the position to see [it was on the wall of my Grandparents Florida house, and for my first 5 years we lived in military housing in Germany] and my friend would tell me stories from what turned out to be one of the 'color' fairy books while I tended to get the Disney versions because those were the books Mom had on hand. He had a distinctive port wine stain birthmark. The child shrink my mom called in diagnosed me with autism at 3 years old, and discovered that my imaginary friend matched the description of my g-grandfather. They decided since all he did was tell me fairy tales, to ignore it and it would eventually go away which it did when we got back to the states and I had much less transient friends [military are pretty much always moving around, so friends just vanish.] We moved into the house he had built in 1895, and there were occasionaly ghostly happenings there but nobody every actually saw anything, it was lights being turned on and footsteps in the attics [his private suite, a dressing room, a full bathroom and a very large office/study.]

[Jay 2K Winger]

In a similar ghost story thing, this wasn't recent, this happened several months ago.

I don't often remember my dreams. I sleep deeply enough or whatever that they always evaporate after waking, with only a handful of instances where I remembered in the morning.

I forget the details of the dream up to the end of it. For dream-logic reasons, I and my dream-friends were in one of those barber galleries like they have at military posts (based on things I saw in movies). I say "dream-logic reasons" because I am bald, and I was bald in the dream as well. I'm standing there, talking with/at my dream-friends when I turn and see my Grandpa Andy walk up to me. He died almost ten years ago.

As I see him, he smiles, shakes me by the hand, and says, "Thinking of you."

And then I woke up.

I have no doubts that I had a little dream-visit from Grandpa.

[Kittish]

Well, I seem to have some sort of fae following me around - it is assuaged by leaving a shot of something in an obscure place once a month or so [before the house was burnt down, it was a particular spot up on a decorative beam where neither cat nor cockatiel could disturb it. It liked more flavored booze rather than just vodka. It would 'mislay' things, we would put something down, and go back for it and it would not be there, then sometime later it would be back [usually small stuff like keys, wallets and paperwork like testing requisitions. Frequently, being forced to miss going somewhere turned out to be beneficial in some way or another.]

I call those pixies, and I have them, too. I have a clan that's stayed with me for something like 20 years now, with my full blessing and invitation. They're playful and mischievous, but if you don't have any ill will toward them and don't mistreat them, they won't be malicious. Mine play with our cats and have let me get very very brief glimpses of them (six to eight inches tall, rather insectoid looking in the glimpses I've gotten. They remind me strongly of preying mantises). I've not been able to figure out what they eat, but it's rather telling that no place I've lived since I acquired this clan has had problems with bug infestations. I've found that when something has gone missing, if I state out loud a request for it to be returned, then go into another room for a minute or two, the thing they've hidden (or that you legitimately misplaced) turns up again right away like 90% of the time. ALSO, if you're on good terms with your pixies, you can show them a thing and tell them "this is important to me, I need to NOT LOSE IT, please." And it will not go missing. Pretty much no matter what, it will always be right where you look for it. I give mine tools and pretty things, too. Put something in an obscure corner and state it's for them, then leave it be. About half the things I do this with vanish within a few days and I probably won't see it again. If it vanishes then turns up in an obvious spot, they didn't want it.

Oh, and they're actively useful, too, if you're on good terms with them. They keep things from breaking. Well, they try to anyhow and things seem to break way less often since I got my pixies.

[AccountingDrone]

I call those pixies, and I have them, too. I have a clan that's stayed with me for something like 20 years now, with my full blessing and invitation. They're playful and mischievous, but if you don't have any ill will toward them and don't mistreat them, they won't be malicious. Mine play with our cats and have let me get very very brief glimpses of them (six to eight inches tall, rather insectoid looking in the glimpses I've gotten. They remind me strongly of preying mantises).

Makes me wonder if they play with my cat - or my previous cats. Never seen mine at all, never really tried to see them - as long as they stay bribed I am fine =)

[Kittish]

Makes me wonder if they play with my cat - or my previous cats. Never seen mine at all, never really tried to see them - as long as they stay bribed I am fine =)

I bet they do. When our cats just suddenly do that thing where they're staring intently at some seemingly random spot, then their eyes get all crazy and they go ZOOOMING off, I figure that about half the time that pixies are setting them off. Or when a cat suddenly whips around like it's been startled, but there's nothing there that any human can see... possibly pixies. Try giving yours little trinkets in addition to the booze, see what happens.