With Halloween coming up, I think it might be appropriate to post some cool scary stories, whether they happened to you or you just heard about them. This one is from SomethingAwful.com and I must warn you it's pretty damn scary.

Originally by: Jip Bip Jo

"The following events occured during a two week vacation stay at a rented house in Cape Cod. I was not particularly old; I believe I was 9 and my sister was 4. My mother, however, was in her 30s, so I can't chalk up her experiences to an overactive imagination.

For the first few days, things were fine. We learned the layout pretty quickly; there was a basement with a washer, dryer and a tv in a seperate room. On the main floor was the kitchen, a proper living room and bathroom. And on the second floor were the bedrooms - three in total.

One day it was particularly stormy, so there would be no trips to the beach or nature walks. My parents, really eager for as much private time as they could get, sent my sister down to the basement to watch what little tv we could recieve. My sister and I managed to get a decent version of PBS, which meant the static wasn't too bad at all (antennae only at this place). We continued to watch, I absentmindedly playing my Gameboy, my sister more enthralled by some show.

And then it all stopped. My gameboy shut off. The lightbulb popped. The tv did not go off; instead it showed nothing but static.

And then the smell.

From the other room, the one with the washer and dryer, there was a smell that is not even partially described by the word rank. Imagine a bag of rotting meat kept in the summer sun for days at end, and you can begin to imagine it. "Let's go, please" my sister whimpered. I took her hand and we walked back up.

My parents were not terribly pleased. They listened to our story, sighing as we spoke. Finally Mom smiled and said "Alright, if I go down and check, and it's all ok, will you go back down?" We agreed, knowing if anyone could make it all better, she could.

She disappeared into the black basement, flashlight in hand, replacement lightbulb box held in the other. We expected her to return quickly. She didn't. After ten minutes that stretched into eternity, she finally came back up. "Ok kids, you can can stay up here. In fact, I don't want you going down there again."

We didn't know what that meant, but accepted it gladly. Mom never went down in the room either; she insisted on doing laundry at laundromats in town. I would not ask her what happened for years.

Another night I was woken by a horrid scream from my sisters room. My Dad burst from his room and slammed her door open, picked her up and took her downstairs. It took over an hour to calm her down and a couple smores, but she finally agreed to tell us what was wrong.

She had seen the entire room soaked in blood. Top to bottom. Handprints in blood, streaks, dripping splatters. We wrote it off as a dream, but she refused to go back up for the rest of the night. Mom took a look in the room, and I caught her whisper to Dad: "That smell is there."

Finally, my encounter with whatever it was. My parents had taken my sister into town, planning on doing some shopping with her. I voiced my dismay and they said I could stay at the rented home if I wished. I whiled away some time watching Disney videos, and eventually started to read a book.

Eventually I had had enough reading. I put down the book - and my eyes shot open in surprise. Near the ceiling, slowly circling about as if it were some ethereal shark, cruised an orb, fire red and yet translucent. I didn't move as I watched it, hoping not to scare it away. Part of me was fascinated by it, as if it were as ordinary as a bird on the porch.

Then I heard the car door slam. My parents had arrived, and the orb, a trailing tail following, raced towards the wall, vanishing. "Hi Scott!" called Dad as he walked in, cooler in hand. "Anything good on TV?"

As for what happened to my Mom in the basement - when I finally did ask her years and years later, she suddenly became very still, and quietly spoke. She had intended to simply change the lightbulb downstairs, figuring the bulb had simply died and I had turned off my Gameboy in surprise and that one of us had nudged the antenna out of clear reception. So, she had taken out the old bulb and put a new one in. It didn't work. She tried a new one. It also didn't work. As she tried the remaining two bulbs, she began to smell something too, but this time it had an oily stench to it.

She figured that one of the machines in the washing room had broken, or perhaps a breaker went off or something. She put down the bulbs, and walked into the room. She shone her flashlight on the machines - nothing. Then she looked at the other end of the room - only to see it.

"It" was a short man, crouched over, a piece of maggot covered meat held in its hand. It looked at my Mom, smiled with sharp teeth and black eyes, and whispered "Hello, Laurie".

Then it sank into the floor.

Mom left in a god damn hurry after that."

I read Shadowlands.com and there are many true ghost stories that I browse out sometimes. I don't have one of my own but here is one from Michelle:

I use to live with a room mate. It was a big house and he had the top layer of the house and I had the bottom basement part of the house. My room mate was always going out of town and I would be left alone in this big huge house by myself.

One night while in bed. I woke up to the noise of someone rolling around the kitchen in one of the chairs. My room mate was suppose to be out of town but I just thought he came home early and had some friends over. So I rolled over and went back to bed.

The next morning I got up and went upstairs and my room mate was not home. I thought he may have went out for breakfast so I called his cell.

I told him that he was noisy last night and that I wanted to join him for breakfast. He was like, "I was not home last night. I am still in Florida".

I thought maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me. So the next night I was laying in bed and I heard noises. I got up too see where the noises were coming from. Not thinking I didn't turn on the lights.

I followed the noise to the closet by the stairs(or what I thought was a closet). It sounded like scratching at the door and what I thought was a mans voice telling me to open the door.

I was like forget that. I ran back to my room and shut and locked the door. I turned on the light to my room and turned on the t.v. to drown out the noise.

The next morning I was off from work. I decided to go look in the closet to see if I was just imagining everything.

I opened the door to the closet and noticed that it wasn't a closet. It was a hallway that lead to a small room. My room mate was storing stuff in the hallway part. I walked up to the door at the end of the hall. It was weird because I am not one that scares easily. I was curious to see what was in the room. I was about to open the door when the knob by itself started to rattle. I was like this is not good. I walked down the hall and shut the door. I then moved the table hockey game we had in front of it.

I knew that I had to see what was in the room. I called my best friend and she came over. I told her what had been happening. So we moved the hockey table and opened the door. I turned the hallway light on and we went to the door at the end of the hall. I told her that I had to see what was behind the door.

I then opened the door. I know that most people won't believe me when I say that a huge blast of air came out of the room when I opened the door. But it did.

I was shocked but I had to see what was in the room. I felt around for a light switch. I found it and turned on the light. My friend stood in the door way still trying to figure out what just happened as I walked in the room.

It was a small room. It didn't have any windows and it was painted a yellow color. The thing that got me was that the walls had been clawed at like a wild animal lived there. The door handle was hardly hanging on the door.

The room was cold and the feeling of sadness washed over me. Then I started to feel a little numb. The voice inside my head told me to close the door and get out of the room. I did just that.

I put the hockey table in front of the door. I figured that what ever had been happening must of been happening because I was feeding into it.

Everything went fine for awhile. I would sleep with the t.v. on to drown out any noises, if there was any.

Then one night I was sitting at the table with my back facing the doorway to the closet/hallway. I had my room mates dog down stairs with me and I all of a sudden heard this loud noise coming from there. I thought that I would just pretend that nothing was happening. So I continued to watch the t.v. that was in front of the table were I was sitting. All of the sudden the I hear the hockey table move away from the door and the door open.

The dog stood up and started barking, then it ran underneath the table. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I felt really cold. I refused to turn around. What ever it was. I was not looking to see. The dog was whining.

I heard it making noise. Some thing snapped in me and I shouted out then...I am not scared of you. I believe in God and he will protect me from you. When I turn around you better not be there.

I felt hate at that moment. I have never felt anything like that in my life.

To make sure it got my point. I began to pray and I then told it that from that moment I would never feed into it and it should leave in God's name. I began to turn around...and I saw something moving up the stairs. I had never seen anything like it in my life.

I felt like the coldness and hate had left and the fear was no longer there. The dog came out from underneath the table.

I walked over to the hallway/closet and shut the door. I didn't put the hockey table back up to the door.

The next day I talked to my room mate about everything that had happened. He told me that he had heard noises before, but just thought that it was the dog or me. I asked him about the room and the storage hall. He told me that he had moved some stuff down to the hall, but never looked into the room. He told me that when he bought the house they looked down the hall and the realtor told him that it was for a maid. That is where the maid use to stay when the other family lived there. I asked him why he never looked into the room, and he said that for some reason he never felt like it was a good idea. I then asked him if any more strange noises or chair moving upstairs was happening. He said that he had not heard any. What ever it was, was not just isolated to the downstairs. I think that it just like to play with me to get a reaction.

After that whole situation there was no more problems. No more scratches or noises. My room mate now uses it for storage room for his belongings.

I no longer live there. But when I go back from time to time to visit I don't feel that what ever it was is there.

This is a true story. It actually happened. I don't think what ever it was, was connected to the house. I think it was looking to scare someone. I was feeding into it and so it was acting out to me.

true story when i was younger one night i was asleep in my bedroom and i was only young, i started to hear the sound of clicking i recognized it straight away as the sound of a lamp being switched on/off so i shouted out, "whoever is making the noise cut it out im trying to sleep" no one replied and it kept going.

So i decided to go have look to see who was doing it as i had a mum and borther also living in the house, the fear that took hold of me whe ni looked into my living room i have never felt since, the light was turning on and off by itself and was also making the clicking noise but the switch wasn't being pushed :S, so i ran into my mums room shaking and crying and explained to her but by the time i had finished explaining it had stopped.

So i went back to my bed after a while of calming down, left the light on etc........ and then fell asleep, the next morning i woke up to then see an ambulance parked outside my next door nieghbours house, she was very old and had died during the night and to this day i believe it was a sign.

My family when they were growing up had experienced a similiar situation, one night when they were all in there beds they heard the noise of someone running up and down the stairs, at that time my grandparents had a room, my 3 uncles shared a room, and my mum and her sister shared a room.

So they were all shouting from room to room at each other " if thats you, stop running up and down the stairs and get back to youre bed" to which they all shouted " im not im in my bed it must be someone else" and it continued until my grandpa awoke and decided he had enough as he was working the next day.

Well everyone got out there bed and stood at the top of the stairs and there was no one there, but the noise of someone runnign up and down them was still going, it wasnt until my grandpa stepped onto the stairs it stopped.

The next day they got a phone call that my grandpas brother who lived in new zealand had died of a heart attack the ngith before :S.

all true and very freaky i didnt believe in signs until that night i witnessed it first hand.

I've always had a healthily sceptical interest in ghosts and UFO's, and the occult in general. This is something that happened in about 1974.

Back in the 70's we had one of those 'Trimphones'. Bloody awful things; they used to slide all over the place when you dialed.



Anyway, my Grandmother, who lived with us, was always having trouble with it, and she could never get the hang of how to put the receiver back, laying it across the phone, in the old style, instead of down it, as in the picture above. She had a saying when we were all going out: 'You're all going out and leaving me'.

So, a few months after she died I went into town to meet a friend - my parents were on holiday, and my brother was out. When I met my friend, he said that he'd tried to call me to say he was going to be late. He said an old lady picked up the phone, and when he asked if I was there she said 'No, they've all gone out and left me'. This spooked me a little bit, as I knew there was no one in the house. But what freaked me out more was when I got home. I walked into the living room and saw the phone with the receiver put down across it, just like my Grandmother used to do.

I didn't sleep much that night!

man that is scary, has it happened since? yeah the voice on the phone was one thing but then seeing the phone put down the way she had used to leave it


i dont know about you but im very easily scared whe nit comes to thing liek aliens and ghosts, i swear i cant even look at ghost pictures online unless its midday

It never happened again as far as I know. I've got plenty of spooky stories to tell. I'll get around to it sometime.

I suffer from sleep paralysis, which can be pretty spooky in itself. Nobody seems to be sure whether what you see during SP is actually real or not. The shadow people are one such thing. Many people believe that it's real, though I remain sceptical. Still freaks me out every time, though.

Quoted from fendertele

i dont know about you but im very easily scared whe nit comes to thing liek aliens and ghosts, i swear i cant even look at ghost pictures online unless its midday

I'm actually scared of the dark. It's only when you admit it to people that you realise how many other people are too. I semi-cured myself once, by taking a shortcut back to a hotel I was staying at, through some very thick, dark woods. Scariest thing I've ever been through!

ive been meaning to ask some one this for a while, but i occasionally suffer from something i cant explain, but felt embaressed to ask a doctor, but what it is this is gonna sound crazy when im trying to get to sleep i some times get this loud noise/pain in my head then i hear things/see things when i open my eyes, i know im not asleep as i can open my eyes and look around, but im not fully awake as ican move my body at all and if i try to scream nothing comes out, i used to get it a lot when i was younger but not as often now ?

Great. I'm sharing a forum with a bunch of freaks.
Seriously though, I'm a complete sceptic re the supernatural, strange goings on etc. As a result I have no tales to tell.
Personal stories like BM's are hard to counter, because they involve people close to them, and people see what they see. But if I'm given two alternatives: a) a bizarre coincidence or b) some part of Paul's deceased grandmother survived and manifested itself in order to play what is basicaly a pretty mean practical joke - I have to go for the first. Even though option A appears to be bizarre, B is even more so.
And fear of the dark is a pretty sensible fear to have. I think a bit of it lurks in everyone (like our fear of spiders - evolutionary good sense.)

lol

Quoted from fendertele

ive been meaning to ask some one this for a while, but i occasionally suffer from something i cant explain, but felt embaressed to ask a doctor, but what it is this is gonna sound crazy when im trying to get to sleep i some times get this loud noise/pain in my head then i hear things/see things when i open my eyes, i know im not asleep as i can open my eyes and look around, but im not fully awake as ican move my body at all and if i try to scream nothing comes out, i used to get it a lot when i was younger but not as often now ?

Could be Hypnogogia.

"Also known as waking-sleep, hypnogogia is a documented physiological condition in which a person is part-way between sleeping and waking.[7] During hypnogogia, a person can be conscious and aware of their environment, but also in a dream-like state where they can perceive images from their subconscious. People experiencing waking-sleep commonly report the sensation of lights or shadows moving around them, as well as other visual hallucinations. A feeling of dread is also a sensation that occurs when experiencing hypnogogia. Hypnogogia is sometimes known as 'the faces in the dark phenomenon' because those who experience this state commonly report seeing faces while experiencing waking-sleep.[8] Similar hypothesis have been put forward linking this condition to a number of other apparent paranormal experiences, including alien abductions and paranormal nocturnal visitations.

Most people who suffer from sleep disorders such as night terrors report having experiences involving "Shadow people" due to this waking state. This state is not always linked to those who have night terrors, but also to those who meditate or practice lucid dreaming."

Quoted from Kevin

But if I'm given two alternatives: a) a bizarre coincidence or b) some part of Paul's deceased grandmother survived and manifested itself in order to play what is basicaly a pretty mean practical joke - I have to go for the first. Even though option A appears to be bizarre, B is even more so.

I'd have to go for A. as well. Though I could never work out how it happened. The old lady on the phone could have been a wrong number, but the trimphone I've never been able to work out.

Quoted from BlueMeanie

Could be Hypnogogia.

"Also known as waking-sleep, hypnogogia is a documented physiological condition in which a person is part-way between sleeping and waking.[7] During hypnogogia, a person can be conscious and aware of their environment, but also in a dream-like state where they can perceive images from their subconscious. People experiencing waking-sleep commonly report the sensation of lights or shadows moving around them, as well as other visual hallucinations. A feeling of dread is also a sensation that occurs when experiencing hypnogogia. Hypnogogia is sometimes known as 'the faces in the dark phenomenon' because those who experience this state commonly report seeing faces while experiencing waking-sleep.[8] Similar hypothesis have been put forward linking this condition to a number of other apparent paranormal experiences, including alien abductions and paranormal nocturnal visitations.

Most people who suffer from sleep disorders such as night terrors report having experiences involving "Shadow people" due to this waking state. This state is not always linked to those who have night terrors, but also to those who meditate or practice lucid dreaming."

yeah that seems similiar the shadows and outlines add up thanks

Quoted from BlueMeanie

I'd have to go for A. as well. Though I could never work out how it happened. The old lady on the phone could have been a wrong number, but the trimphone I've never been able to work out.

My normal arguement against the "I saw it with my own eyes" is this:
I have a book of the bombing of Dresden, by Frederick Taylor. In it he cites testimony from a number of survivors who recount how, to escape the firestorm, they clambered on to ice flows on the river Elbe. These are all good citizens with no obvious benefit from lying. Yet others tell how they moved to the river but had to withdraw because oil from ruptured storage tanks had set it ablaze. Weather reports confirm that the river was ice free.
But those people swore it was true, and vividly recounted their memories. How can this be? Maybe something to do with stressful events?  

Quoted from Kevin

My normal arguement against the "I saw it with my own eyes" is this:
I have a book of the bombing on Dresden, by Frederick Taylor. In it he cites testimony from a number of survivors who recount how, to escape the firestorm, they clambered on to ice flows on the river Elbe. These are all good citizens with no obvious benefit from lying. Yet others tell how they moved to the river but had to withdraw because oil from ruptured storage tanks had set it ablaze. Weather reports confirm that the river was ice free.
But those people swore it was true, and vividly recounted their memories. How can this be? Maybe something to do with stressful events?  

It's why witness ID's often don't stand up to scrutiny in court. If I witnessed a crime and I had to give a description of the perpetrator I'm sure I'd have trouble, most people being fairly non-descript. But I'd feel duty bound to have a stab at it. My Brother-in-Law is a policeman, and he says that most people can't give a very good description until you start asking questions; 'Did he have a big nose', 'Was he balding', etc. It puts images in your mind, then you become convinced that you saw a short, overweight, slightly balding man in a leather jacket. Whereas, he was a tall, slim, man with shoulder length hair! The mind plays tricks that it's very difficult to avoid.