MANY STORIES HELLO to all. I've never submitted any ghost stories anywhere before. Hardly any of what I'm going to write happened to me. I've ALWAYS believed in ghosts, but I'm not much of an antenna for paranormal activity. Before I start: - I've numbered (something not many do, I see) and added where things happened. I hope you can follow it ok. - I have three uncles on my dad's side and two on my mother's. The experiences I will speak of will be of only one family in particular, who has two sons whom I will refer to as "cousin A" and "cousin B". Wait, I've remembered one story that happened to another aunt. She'll be Aunt 2. - Cousin A is a prankster in the sense that he likes to trick you into believing things (when we were little, he told me that lemon and salt would disinfect a wound... you can imagine what I did to my poor scraped knee *smiles sheepishly*), but I believe everything he's told me about this, simply because he would've eventually told me it was all a joke (emphasis on "eventually", because he has to come around after he's seen something's gone too far, hehe). - Of the family members I knew well, both my maternal and paternal grandfathers passed away not too long ago (all over a year), as well as my paternal great grandfather. - On a personal note, technically I'm from the States, born in Texas, lived there until I was nine, but I've been living in Chile ever since. This is where everything I've been told (and the very few things I've seen) happened, except for only one story. My sister doesn't say much about anything too terribly important unless you ask, so I don't know if she had any experiences in the four years she lived in the States (she's four years younger than me and, by the way, a better-tuned antenna). On with the show... -->UNCLE'S HOUSE<-- ***This house belonged to my great grandfather. My uncle's family moved in at one point. They witnessed my great grandfather's deteriorating health. My aunt was the one who found him dead. Legally, the house now belongs to my uncle. GREAT GRANDFATHER He had gone senile towards the end. The doctors said he hallucinated. Maybe he did, sometimes, but I believe he really did see his wife (not my great grandmother by blood, so I'll just call her Aunt "C" [everyone refered to her as "aunt"]... in fact, I don't even think they ever married, given that back then there was no divorce law) and that she really would talk to him. So much so, that it would explain this: My family and I had gone to visit sometime in April of about two years ago. On the last day of our visit, my aunt told us my great grandfather had asked if my sister and I could sing "Only You" by The Platters. It was a strange request, you'd have understood if you'd been there. Unfortunately, we didn't know it - I don't even think we knew it existed - so we sang "When the Saints go Marching In", thinking he just wanted to hear something in English. He smiled anyway and said it was ok that we didn't know his song. Five days later, he died. I think, therefore, that Aunt C had visited to tell him he was going to go soon, and, knowing this, he wanted to hear "Only You" one last time. FAMILY/AUNT #1 -- A necklace of my aunt's broke once. Everyone took a look at it but couldn't figure out how to fix it, so she just left it on the dinner table. Everyone carried on, and a short while later, when she went back, the necklace was fine. We all believe it was my great grandfather. #2 -- I've seen this personally. Their cat plays with, and chases, what I call "invisible yarn" (or cat toys, if you will). My uncle's family says (or sometimes says... and I don't know why) they're just bugs, but keeping that in mind, I've stared intently at her while she's done this and have NEVER seen white dots flitting about that would suggest mosquitos, moths, gnats, or anything else. Whatever she plays with remains resolutely invisible to me (unless she's crazy or bored and plays around even though she knows nothing's there! :-P) COUSIN A #1 -- He's told me of a number of times when he hears things - thumps, scurrying and such - in the space between his ceiling and the roof; the "entretecho", he says. He claims to know it's in THERE because the roof sounds different when cats run around on it. I think he said that nothing actually fits in there - either that, or it would cave in because it's not meant to support weight. I've never been in there at night because when we used to sleep over at their house during visits, my sister and I slept in my other cousin's room (he goes to college in another city and at the time, he rented an apartment with some friends, leaving his room open for us to use). Cousin A keeps it locked anyway, because it's very messy and he doesn't want anyone in there :-P. Or other nights, he's thought he's seen things IN HIS ROOM (oh, and he usually shuts his door [yikes] when he sleeps, though I don't know if he does that anymore), like little people or shadows. He said that he once put, and left, a little troll under his bed to eat whatever could potentially attack him at night, even though he knew it was a silly thought. #2 -- He's also told me that the radio shuts off at night when he falls asleep listening to it on the couch. I don't remember the conditions surrounding these events, ie, whether he's home alone (in which case I'd also gladly leave the radio on all night!), whether he's not but everyone is asleep (then anyone could come in and turn it off... this story wouldn't stick out if that were the case, though, so I think he was actually home alone... the only remaining explanation is if he's a sleepwalker and I don't know anything about that, I've never heard anything about it). #3 -- He sometimes gets such strange and powerful feelings when he's home alone that he waits outside until someone comes home. He's also gone outside like that because of completely creepy things he's seen or heard at times. He's told me about them, but I can't remember them. #4 -- Once he thought he heard his parent's TV, but it wasn't on when he went in their room (either that or it was, but he was obviously alone at the time... I don't know which one is scarier). AUNT She was making lunch one afternoon that involved chicken soup, so she had a little bouillon (sorry if the spelling's messed up, I don't think I've ever seen that word written down) cube on the counter. She left the kitchen and when she went back in, the cube's metallic envelope had been opened. COUSIN B He's told me that in the room next to his, where my great grandfather always slept, even when he was sick, and which is now the computer room, he'd sometimes, from his own room, hear noises (voices or something), with no one being in there. -->MY DIFFERENT HOUSES (a few out of all)<-- ONE HOUSE (apartment) ME I was in the living room watching TV with my dog (we don't have her anymore, we had to give her away :'-( ) one afternoon and my sister was taking a shower. Out of the blue, my dog barked, like those prolonged howl/barks and a few yelps, hopped off the couch, still barking, and ran over to the bathroom where my sister was and started hopping up and down at the door; again, still barking. It was 100% IDENTICAL to her chasing something and that something taking refuge in the bathroom where the dog couldn't get in because the door was closed. My sister didn't feel anything and I don't know if I told her about it later... I think I did. ANOTHER HOUSE SISTER She said she'd always hear something like plastic bags being rustled in the kitchen - which was right smack dab next to her room - at night while everyone else was asleep. CURRENT HOUSE (apartment, 6 months old when we moved in 4 years ago) MY SISTER #1 -- She was home alone one night, doing dishes. The way she does them, she uses a lot of soap (always annoying), so she's constantly lifting up and putting down the soap bottle. But NEVER in such a way to make streaks on the wall above the sink that spelled out, in very spread-out and stringy handwriting that was apparently illegible towards the end - I'm not sure which she said it was - "QUEMARSE" (to burn) or *her name*. It covered just under two feet, she would have had to deliberately take the soap bottle and squirt HARD (for it to actually reach the wall instead of just landing in the sink), or very up-close to the wall, in an equally deliberate squiggly way to TRY to write something REMOTELY legible. She erased it with the sponge right on the dot, unfortunately, so I couldn't look at it when my dad and I got home. #2 -- This happened in my dad's room. The layout at the time was the following: Narrow entrance - closet on the left (not a walk-ín) - bathroom on the right, a mere step ahead - bed's headboard against the left-hand side wall - slide window (not the balcony kind; a regular window) on the far-side wall of the room, another one on the right-hand side - space between the bed and far-side window, as well as between the foot of the bed and the right-hand side window - TV, PC, etc., were not important. Since we hadn't put in the light fixture yet, we used the bathroom light or my dad's lamp. My sister and I, considering, don't walk in the room to turn the lamp on, we turn on the bathroom light first! :-P Well, that's just what my sister did one night, when my dad and I were in the living room. In the instant it took for her to switch her eyesight from the wall to the room, she saw what she described to me as a little girl crouched in the small space between the bed itself (not the foot) and the window, with long black hair that probably covered her face - otherwise, my sister would have told me about it - in what I've always remembered as a white or creamy long-sleeved nightgown, running towards the wall while trying to remain crouched down (you can picture that, right? Squatting and trying to run at the same time?). What was worse, the girl disappeared through the wall (or before she got to it, I don't remember). #3 -- We were all asleep but my sister either woke up or hadn't fallen asleep yet. Everything was dark and we don't use nightlights. She was in bed, facing the door to her room, when she saw a human-like shadow lurch itself across her door out in the hall, on the floor, as if trying to get to other side. That was it, just a glimpse of a torso and an arm shooting out, and everything was "normal" (though I think she slept in my room that night!). #4 -- This happened directly in her room. At the foot of her bed, she thought she heard a very low horn-like sound (I don't know if she meant low in volume or low in range, but it was probably both). In Chile, the mapuche indians have a traditional musical instrument. You coil [something I can't recall... for some reason, I picture a garden hose, but that's not it! :-P] and fix some things onto it to make a distinct sound. I've always associated this particular story to her saying it sounded like that instrument. Of course, everyone else was asleep. #5 -- Shortly after my great grandfather passed away, my sister was sleeping in my room, when she felt a presence she's always thought was his rush towards her, there on the floor. She felt happy and peaceful. I myself felt no unease at all wandering around the dark spots of my rather small apartment in the short time following his passing. I felt like he was with me. COUSIN A My uncle's family was visiting. The adults were talking in the living room (cousin B hadn't come), my sister and cousin were talking in her room and I was reading in my own. All bedroom doors were open. I was calmly flipping through my pages when I heard my cousin bolt out of my sister's room. He was going to mine to ask if I "just saw that". What, I said. A person walk by, he answered, down the hall towards the other bedrooms (including mine, of course, so YIIIIPE YIPE YIPE YIPE! to that). I hadn't seen or heard anything. He explained to me that for a moment he thought it had been his mom, but a) she's a tall and (now) rather corpulent woman, who is generally loud, given her size and the fact that she's a teacher and talks loud out of habit; she has a heavy tread and my cousin said he heard no loud footsteps (nor did I, I would have heard her rustling by even though I was focused more on my reading... after all, I did hear my cousin bolt out of the other room); and b) the adults were in the living room... ME #1 -- A short time ago, while everyone was asleep and I was having trouble doing so, I heard three or footsteps in the hallway, of the carpet-rustling/hurried kind [vs. the pounding kind] my sister makes... well, they slapped the floor a little, like bare feet, but didn't pound. #2 -- Once, I was in bed with my back to my bedroom door when I started feeling very afraid, like there was something in my room. I didn't dare turn around, even though I was getting increasingly uncomfortable. I didn't dare to move either (thankfully, I was already almost completely covered and balled up). My heart started pounding really hard, which would probably explain the tapping sensation I got a few seconds later on the very top of my head, like SOMEONE patting/tapping me there; that was still what freaked me out the most, even though I was TELLING myself that it was probably my accelerated heartbeat. I've had one other strong and terrifying feeling, but that didn't have anything to do with ghosts. I woke up one night and became ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED there was going to be a tremor any second. I was so gripped and paralyzed by this thought that my heart started pounding like mad and my breath quickened. I even clenched my eyes shut waiting for it. And all of a sudden, I snapped out of it, I frowned and looked around, puzzled (or rather just moved my eyes while I lay in that position), and just went back to sleep. #3 -- I was home alone at night and playing guitar in the living room when I noticed the vase on the dinner table was "shivering" ever so slightly, like when a tremor is ending. But I hadn't felt a tremor, now, had I?... I immediately thought it was a spirit telling me to please not play that song again (I had a considerably more limited repertoire back then). Feeling just a teensy bit edgy *insert sarcasm here :-P*, I put the guitar down and turned on the TV. #4 -- I constantly see little flecks of light out of the corner of my eye, like one piece of glitter, or one speck of dust, catching light. For a while, way back when, I'd turn around to see the last few millimeters of a dark something disappear around a corner. #5 -- I've always heard (at least within my family) that people say goodbye before they die in certain ways, like making things happen, or what I'm going to say now. Shortly before my maternal grandfather died, I was in bed and it was morning at the time my sister and dad were getting ready to leave to school and work (I can't remember why I was staying home). I was asleep/awake. I distinctly felt my sister come in and give me a hug. I had my eyes closed, but there seemed to be some kind of mental visualization of her hugging me, even her hair falling over her face, and then leaving. I also distinctly felt my arms close around someone and their arms, around me. I heard her and my dad exchange a few words and the opening and closing of the door (they were gone). Later, puzzling over this, I asked my sister if she'd really walked into my room to hug me goodbye (something, I forgot to add, she doesn't normally do). She denied having done so, as well as talking to my dad at the door. To this day, I think it was actually my grandfather coming to say goodbye to me. -->FIRST SCHOOL HERE<-- SISTER First off, my sister has doubted the real circumstances of this story more and more over the years. In case this is relevant, schools here are of an outdoor type. Classrooms aren't part of an inner structure, rather they're a number of buildings divided into classrooms. My sister told me she'd gone to the bathroom during class and was just about to open the classroom door upon arriving back, when she looked out to the parking lot near her, outside the gate. She saw a woman dressed in a white T- shirt and white [what I've always thought of as] tennis shorts waving to her. This woman had a glow about her, not like sunlight. My sister used to say she'd thought it was our maternal grandmother. Now she says she's not sure who it was. Oh, and she also used to say it was all in slow motion, but she's not sure about that now either. -->MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE<-- This is the only experience I've been told of. Shortly after my grandfather died, my grandmother was looking for her glasses and couldn't find them anywhere. The next day, she found them... under her bed... in my grandfather's old shoebox... -->AUNT 2'S HOUSE<-- A little glass thingamajig of hers "exploded" right in its spot on her table for no apparent reason. No one was in the room when it happened and I think she was alone in the house, as well. -->PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE<-- GRANDMOTHER AND CO. A day or so before Aunt C died, the washroom door inexplicably SLAMMED shut and everyone thought, afterwards, that she had said goodbye. COUSIN A Once he was outside, having just arrived at my grandmother's house. I think he knew there was nobody home, I'm not really sure how this happened. The thing is, there was really supposed to be no one home, but he saw someone move in the window, as if pulling back in from looking out the curtains. He told me NOT to tell my grandmother because she'd get really scared. -->DIFFERENT PERSON ALTOGETHER - EX CLASSMATE<-- He told me he was at his computer, chatting, some time ago (this in itself is an old story for me :-P) when he froze, became all tense, and turned slowly around to look behind him. He stayed like that for a while, as if he'd heard something or was waiting for something to happen. Then he too (like me back up there) snapped out of it and continued chatting as if nothing had happened. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves! This is all I can think of. My address is down there if you want to say a few words. Later!! Contact me here: melissapinto1985@hotmail.com Submitted From: Mel P, TX, USA