Salon Ghost!

By: name withheld by request

I have had quite a few experiences with ghosts, in each place I have

worked I have seen a ghost, and my house is haunted by a small boy, my

great granddad and a monk (!), although it has been fairly quite recently.

Anyway, this story happened to me when I was 17. It was around 1991 and I

was a trainee stylist at a hair salon in Essex in the UK. It may help if I

just tell you the layout of the place first - the salon was a large

rectangle with a door leading to a hallway on the left, doors led off of

this hallway on the right, it was kitchen, toilet, boss' office and then

the hallway opened up into a huge square where all the hair chemicals and

the washing machine, etc were kept.

Everything in the salon was 'normal' and the haunting started quite

suddenly. I used to feel as if I was being watched by a man from the hall

doorway, I didn't like to be alone in the kitchen and I was petrified to go

to the toilet alone - it felt as if someone was outside waiting for me.

The feeling of fear used to intensify right by my boss' office door and I

found that not only did I start to run past that door, but several other

girls who worked there also did. One day I was alone in the back room

mixing up a haircolour and I was humming to myself (scared), when all of a

sudden a huge can of hairspray came shooting through the doorway and just

missed me. I ran out of the doorway to see who had through the product but

everyone was busy - when I checked the make of the spray it was one we

never used.

The 'feeling' went on for about two weeks and I noticed that if I looked

down the hallway I could see a man in black biking leathers and crash

helmet standing by my boss' door - he was standing facing me and blocking

the hallway. He was kind of see through but not misty, but if you looked

straight at him you couldn't see him. One day I decided I had to find out

if anyone else could see him, so I hesitantly asked one of the others girls

if she'd seen anything 'odd' lately, she remarked 'only the man in the

hallway' . I asked where and she said exactly where I had seen him, and by

both of us talking we realised that we were both describing the man

perfectly, by then another girl came over and she'd overheard and said that

she'd seen him too. It turns out that we'd all seen him and felt petrified

by his presence, but we'd all felt that the other would laugh or think us

stupid if we said anything.

One day we were at work and my boss was standing at the front of the salon

when an old woman came in. She told him she was a 'medium' and my boss

jumped. When asked why he'd jumped, my boss said that it felt as if

someone was standing right next to him, the medium replied that indeed

someone was standing right next to him and that it was his best friend.

This particular friend got killed one night whilst out on his MOTORBIKE!!

Apparently, the friend knew that my boss was going to be in trouble and was

here to help / comfort him. She told us that our fearful feelings were

because the man died so suddenly and unexpectedly and he was 'projecting'

his feelings and we were picking them up.

Literally the next day we no longer felt the man's presence, it was as if

he was glad that his friend knew he was around and he just disappeared as

quickly as he arrived. By the way, the ghost was right about my boss being

in trouble - about six months later he was taken to court for sexual

harassment and indecent exposure - maybe he should have paid heed to his

friends warning!!

Sorry this has been such a long story and it isn't particularly scary, but

I was covered in goose pimples all the time I was typing (so at least it

scared me!!)

Several Experiences

By: netbreed

My personal favorite didn't actually happen to me, but I got to see(and smell)the aftermath.I

am a manager in a McDonalds which is located in a mall. Most nights I don't get out until after

10:00pm and that means that I have to sit at the transit mall across the street for and hour

and a half waiting for a bus home(they only run every two hours after 7pm). The buses usually

start showing up around 11:20 or so.

Well on the night in question, my bus comes pulling up around 11:10, and the driver pops out of

that vehicle like his butt is afire. Now I have ridden this bus for 4 years with this same driver

most of that time, and he is a nice, average guy who isn't prone to stories, and he won't even

talk about this now. He calls me over and asks me to get on the bus and see if I can smell

something. I got on and sure enough, it don't smell too good in there. A sweet-icky nasty smell,

but it is not real strong though. Just barely there.

When I told him that yes I could smell something, he told me a truely strange tale.We live in a

long narrow river-valley in the heart of the appalachian mountains. The bus services several

smallish cities and towns up and down both sides of the river. His run takes him west down one

side of the river to the transit mall, then east up the other side of the river. He had just

started his run west to the transit mall when he stopped to pick up a few people, so he had a

few people on the bus with him when he stopped a few miles further down to pick up this one guy.

As he put it, drivers pick up a "sense" for people after a few years. Something that tells them

this one might be a problem. This guy was perfectly normal, but he set off the drivers internal

bells for some reason, so the driver was keeping an eye on him.

They got another few miles down the road when the people in the back of the bus started

complaining of a smell, and opening windows. It wasn't long before all the passangers, and the

driver all had windows open because the smell was quite strong, and as I said, quite nasty. He

even got out of his seat at one stop and looked for something that might account for it, but

couldn't find anyplace where the smell was stronger and might indicate a source.

Eventually he hit the outskirts of the city, and all his passengers, including the one he got a

bad feeling about had gotten off. Again he looked through the bus trying to find that smell, and

couldn't find anything. He decided that since it was late and he usually didn't pick up anyone

until the transit mall which was still a good six miles on up the road that he would just turn

off all the internal lights and cruise into downtown with some windows open and hope the smell

went away.

He had made it about half-way, when the buzzer indicating that someone wanted off the bus went

off. He said out of habit because his mind was on something else, he stopped the bus, and opened

the doors. No one got off, because no one was on the bus! This unnerved him a little, but he

rationalized it on the spot as a short in the wiring, shut the doors and off he went. Then he

realize that the awful smell that had plagued the bus for almost 30 miles, dispite open windows,

was starting to fade.

Now he started putting 2 and 2 together and not liking the sum one bit! That was why he spent the

whole way into the transit mall hoping for someone to get on the bus to verify that this smell

existed. I was the only passenger he had on the final leg of his last run that night, and he

asked me to ride all the way to the end of the run with him and let him drop me off at my stop

on the way back, this was how unnerved he was. I was off the next day so I didn't mind not

getting home until almost 1am, so I did.

Most people that I tell this story too agree that this hapless busdriver gave a ride to more than

just his paying fares that night. What is anyones guess, but it is interesting to note that

there were no graveyards near either stop, and to my knowledge, nothing obivious that would

explain it.

That is my first story.

Ghostly past of Mine

By: erinaldi@hotmail.com

Hi there, there are many people that know me that also know my story, but they are mainly close friends and also people who can attest to what I'm writing.

My tale begins where I was a young girl, around two or three years of age, and I was nearing the

time when I was almost ready to move from my cot (a big one, which was why I was still in it at

that age) to a proper single bed. I don't remember this, but my mother told me a few years ago

when the "ghost" topic came up, that she would often pass by my room to hers and hear me talking.

Normal that a toddler be talking at that age, right? Nope. Apparently this was not the usual

toddler babble. This was fully coherent, intelligent conversation. I would be sitting up in bed,

clutching a teddy-bear my grandmother had bought me and talking to something that was sitting

across from the cot at the other side of the room. My guess was that this presence I was chatting

with was sitting on my toy-box, which was made to look like a little seat. My mother claims it

frightened her at first, but I seemed happy and unhurt and so she let me be. She never told me

what I was talking about during those times though, only that is was "almost as if [I] was an

adult talking to another...". That presence was one I came to recognize as I grew up as a

friendly spirit, one I actually said hello to as I entered my room on occasion, the feeling I

would get after that was always one of pleasantness and peace.

I suppose that was the beginning of my ghostly experiences. I must explain about the house I grew

up in. It was built well before W.W.I, in a new suburb of Melbourne, Australia. My room was

actually the main room and would have been the lounge or sitting room when it was first used, it

was the most ornate and had its own fireplace. Across the long hallway that ran from the living

room to the front door, was my parent's room and my little sisters room. Down the hall we ended

up coming into the main lounge room and the dining room. That was the original structure of the

house. The kitchen, bathroom and sun room were all later extensions added in the 50's.

Back to my tale...the next occurrence of a ghostly experience I can remember was playing with a

home-made Ouija board with my best friend, and being silly little girls of about 10, we asked

the deadly question "How do we know you're really here?". Well...as it turns out, music from the

now bricked-in fireplace started playing - it was a single saxophone playing soft, relaxing

tunes. Although the sound wasn't in itself scary, the fact that it was actually playing after

we asked scared us both out of our minds. The sound actually continued for a few days before it

eventually faded out. When I was older, Id researched the deeds to the house and asked around,

apparently there was a musician who passed away in that room of the house in 1923.

The next event I remember clearly happened when I was about 12. I had yet another friend sleep

over for a night. Around 2am I woke up with a start, to find a figure standing in my doorway.

Instantly, it hit me that this was indeed a BAD presence and I started sweating. The presence

was tall and menacing in its appearance though I couldn't see any distinguishing features, the

one thing I do remember as clear as day was that he had a very bright, glowing red aura about

him. That's what scared me the most. He was leaning against the left side of the door frame,

casually a if he were waiting for me to get out of bed to get a closer look. Of course, there

was NO WAY I was going to do that, so I lay there watching him watching me until gradually,

he began to fade, he actually backed away from the door as he vanished.

Anyway, once the figure had vanish I leaned over my bookshelf that was at the end of my bed and

asked my friend if she was awake... all she said was "Did you see him?". We both burst into

tears and she crawled into my bed. We both fell asleep huddled up, too afraid to go to my parents

room. We have never been able to talk about that night.

That was also when the trouble with my younger sisters room began...

From that time, whenever Id walk into my sisters room, I would get chills and just feel as if

someone was watching everything I was doing. There were several occasions when I'd even see

shadows moving across the walls or objects moving out of the corner of my eye. I could never

spend more than five minutes in that room by myself, and I could never go in there at night,

not by myself anyway. At first I thought my sister wasn't affected by the presence, but I was

soon to be proven wrong. She suddenly started rocking herself to sleep at night, but she would

do it so violently that she would occasionally hit the wall that the bed was pushed up against,

and she would be making a constant "aahh-AAHH-aahh-AHH" sound that would almost be droning.

When she was a little older and STILL doing it, I asked her why she did it, she said "so I don't

see the lights that come and so I cant hear the noises". I burst into tears, my little sister

was being terrorized and there was no one around who would believe me. There was many times

during our lives in that house that I woke up, seemingly at the same time as my sister would

sit up in bed herself, though not awake and just have her eyes open, staring into space towards

my room. The first time she did I this I talked to her to see if she was all right but there

was no response. Whenever this happened again, I would wake her up and put her in my room on

the spare bed, she would never know why I was waking her up, but what was happening was scaring

me and I didn't want her in that room anymore. One night I woke to find her clawing at the wall,

trying to either crawl up/along it or away from something that was scaring her - even then she

was still asleep though she woke up and burst into tears and I ran into her room and begged to

sleep with me. From that night, whenever she wanted to sleep with me, I let her, school night

or not.

To test to see if we were crazy, I had several of my friends stand in the room to see for

themselves - I did this in broad daylight, not at night, and even then, they felt very

uncomfortable. We weren't crazy.

The next and probably last major event that occurred in that house before we moved was when I

was about 15. I was sitting at my desk, trying to concentrate on some homework. My family had

gone shopping about twenty minutes beforehand and had let me stay home to do my studies. I was

sitting at my desk which was pushed against the same wall the door was on, in fact, when the

door was opened it would hit against the side of my desk which meant it only opened to 90 degrees

, so I had a clear view into part of the hallway. Anyway, I was busily trying to concentrate on

my homework when I heard someone running up the hall. I looked up thinking I'd just missed

seeing the person run past my door. I yelled out for Erica, thinking that she might have stayed

back and was playing around as younger siblings do. But there was no reply, so I put it down to

my imagination again. But the noise happened over and over again. I got rather nervous but went

to investigate...finding nothing. I gave up eventually and headed out to the kitchen to do the

dishes (as is my normal chore). As I was washing up, I distinctly heard the sound of someone

walking the length of the kitchen, the sound of bare feet on lino, just that soft padding sound,

but it still made me uncomfortable, I looked over my shoulder and saw nothing, so I just

continued with the dishes.

The moment after Id turned around I felt someone blow a stream of cool air across the back of my

neck, I spun round, sending water everywhere and stared - at nothing. To my dismay there was

nothing in the room. I was so tense I was actually at the point where I was wishing there was

something I could see so I could scream and run from the house. As it was, I calmly walked

outside and sat in the backyard playing with the dog until my family returned home.

There was no more major occurrences of anything happening after that, except for the fact that

something was still getting at my sister. That stopped as soon as we moved, though it did take

a long while before my sister could fully relax in her bed in her new room and fall asleep

naturally.

So far there has only been two different occurrences int he new house, which happened in late

1997. They both happened on the same night - My friend from university was over at my place and

we were studying late into the night working on a combined essay. It was around 2am and me

friend was sleeping on the couch in the next room while I was typing my part of the essay.

Suddenly she rushed in and said that she woke up and there was a white figure leaning over her

and looking at her. She could only make out the shape of the face and determined it was male,

he then vanished after a few minutes and that's when she ran out to the kitchen. The second

occurrence happened about an hour and a half later, when I was taking my break and having a nap.

..I had my back to the room and was woken up buy footsteps behind me...once again, there was no

one there. This time I didn't feel uncomfortable though, and so was able to remain calm and

went back to sleep, only to be woken up a couple more times, I turned around to see a white

figure vanish into the hallway, I haven't seen it again since.

So that's my story, all true and all has happened within the space of 18 years. I'm now 20 years

old - and waiting for the next one.

Erinaldi

Haunted

By: Neil Richardson

My name is Brandi . I hadn't ever experiecned a hunting till my father remarried and I started

living with them . My step-mother has been living in her home in TEXAS for several years and has

many photograhs with globes and vortex . But that was not so weird . I slept in my step-sisters

room with her on the bottom bunk . One night when I was super tried iwent to bed late in the

nite. I layed down and closed my eyes and was bout to go to sleep when I heard what sounded like

a rubber ball being bounded on the wall at the head of our bed. Which is our brouthers room.

And seeing as he is a pest very often I got upset and headed to his room tell him off. I went in

to his room and was about to let lose but I saw that he was asleep and he is a hard sleeper to

wake. He was differently asleep. That weirded me out I just said ok, and went back to the room.

It countined most of the nite I finally fell asleep at some point. I don't hear it too often

but it still does it sometimes. There are other things that are creepy like the lights dimming

on there own I can see the light swith in the room so there is no chance of it being some playing

a prank. Other have seen it too. Alot of pictures have strange things especially in the dinning

room , and some in the back yard . In fact we just had some pictured developed and we have three

in which a ghostly firgure is hanging over my husband , daughter , and my head.

Another Ghost Story

By: Netbreed

My mother and I moved to Colorado when I was fifteen. We had all our stuff sent ahead of us, so

we had no furniture to use for a few weeks while I finished the last of school, and my mother

made all the final arrangements. A friend of my mother's told us that we could stay at her house

until we left.

Now I was not too happy with this notion because for as long as I can remember this house had

given me the willies just because it is one of these victorian jobs with all kinds of windows,

but a long dark hallway with not a single one. Better still her mother had recently died and

strange stuff had started happening in the house.

A few months earlier while we were all eating at the kitchen table, a light that was hanging on

the wall over the table just switched itself off. I was sitting right under it when it did it and

I quite audibly heard that switch!! And when I reached up to turn it back on, it was cold. This

light had been on for several hours, and should have been hot!

Well I should have learned about this spirits thing for lights right there, but things just got

better.

The morning after we decended on Jane's house, I got up at 5am so that I could take a bath and

wash my hair before I had to catch a bus at 6:45. I was the only one up at that nasty hour. Now

Jane's bathroom is HUGE and has this oldfashioned clawfooted tub in it. There is an overhead

light with a switch by the door, a lighted panel all the way around the mirror with a switch

next to the mirror, and as a nightlight Jane kept a set of those cheesy christmas candle lights

set on the back of the toilet with the switch on the cord. Now every one of these light sources

is at least 3 to 5 feet from each other.

So I'm in the tub, minding my business, when I find myself in total darkness!! And I do mean

TOTAL! Jane's house is out from anything on about 7 acres that she owns. Best yet I HEARD that

light switch flip off!! Now I don't know if any of you have ever tried to get out of a deep

clawfooted tub in total darkness with shampoo in your hair that is trying to run into your

already blinded eyes, with this panicy feeling that someone else is in this dark with you, but

I don't recomend it. Once I had the overhead back on, I turned ALL the lights on, including the

cheesy christmas candle lights!

A few mornings later, the same thing happened, only this time I had all the lights on. After

about the count of 10 or so while I am still trying to absord into my brain that it happened

again, the light around the mirror goes out! I serious people I could hear those switches being

flipped! Well tell you what! I got my butt out of that tub and had the overhead back on before

the cheesy christmas candle went out, and yessir it did go out!

This became a moring ritual at this house. Not every morning but at least 4 times a week.

Another thing that happened to me during those two weeks was the cabinette door under the sink.

The way her kitchen was set up, to get to the fridge or the backdoor you had to walk right past

that sink, and she had those old fashioned metal cabinettes. Well the door would swing open

with enough force to put a bruise on my shins. And I mean a deep muscle bruise here. That only

happened maybe three times thankfully, but that was enough to have me almost climbing over the

kitchen table to avoid that sink.

These things only happened to me. Here is one that we all would see.

There is this old fashioned lamp on Jane's TV. It doesn't give off much light but enough so that

you can see where your going. This lamp would flicker. And before anyone says anything about

wiring or a short, no. Jane had the lamp checked and the wiring to the house checked because she

started worrying about a fire.( This of course was after we had already moved to Colorado.) And

it would do it when everyone was sitting down so no one was moving around to jar the lamp. Jane

got remarried a few years later and moved out of the house (She still owns it but her tenets

haven't said anything to her about lights or anything) and now the lamp acts just fine.

It might also help to know that 6 months pior to all this Jane's mother died. She was over 90

and had bad dementia when she died, but she still remembered Jane, and would beg her everytime

Jane visited her at the nursing home to let her go home. Two days after she died Jane was

cleaning out her mother's room, and not being in the greatest health herself, she got tired

and decided to lay down on the bed and take a nap. In her dream, she said that she could see

the door to that bedroom as if she was laying on the bed. Well in walks her mother about 20 years

younger with two suitcases. She looks right at Jane and says "I'm finally home and now I am

staying." That was when Jane woke up!

Questions

By: gboller@worldnet.att.net

I'm writing to ask your opinion about some strange events at my house over the last few years.

About once a month or so, we (my wife and I) hear the sounds of someone walking upstairs, or on

the stairs leading to our living room. The sounds aren't simple creaking...rather, they sound

"heavy" and always fool my wife and I into thinking that one of our children has jumped out of

bed and is standing on the staircase (my kids' bedrooms are downstairs). That is, there is a

strong feeling that someone is standing...you know how you feel a presence when someone is

nearby?

Last year, I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night -- thinking that someone was in the

bedroom...again, the same feeling of presence. There was an overpowering smell of vanilla in the

air -- as if I had a bottle of vanilla extract under my nose. The smell disappeared in less

than a minute. Needless to say, I had difficulty going back to sleep.

My wife and I thought hard about when we first started experiencing the sounds. We've been in

this house now since 1993 (the house itself was constructed in 1987 and we're the second owner).

In 1995, we purchased an antique chifarobe (beautiful piece with the original mirror and the

original trouser hanger). It dates to the late 1920s, and comes from New Jersey (or so the

dealer says). We believe that we started hearing the sounds shortly after purchasing the

chifarobe.

In your experiences, have you ever heard of spirits accompanying antique furniture? Why would a

spirit do this? Also, have you ever heard of a "visit" accompanied by the smell of vanilla? Do

particular smells signify anything? My wife and I think that if it is a ghost paying us a visit

from time-to-time, it may be a woman.

I would really like to hear your opinion, and any advice you might have on how we might find out

more about our visitor.

What They Saw

By: MKBALG@aol.com

All of my family pretty much

lived in its own little neighborhood. This neighborhood had the weirdest

things happen to it for most of my family had some really strange beliefs

and so on. Well one night my dad, who is not too swayed by the idea that things

can happen without explanation, and my uncle, who was deeply in to the

beliefs of the "other world", was driving down the hill that circled

around a little drive that was in front of my grandmothers house. What they saw

will always be some sort of mystery because my dad came back so white faced that

to this day I cant wipe that image out of my head. They looked toward my

grandmothers house and right below where the skirting of the house usually

is for mobile homes there was a little girl with no face and in a little white

gown rocking back and forth in a little rocker shaking her head back and

forth. Again they said that she had no face but they couldnt turn away from

her for she was drawing them to come closer and closer until finally my dad

just decided to get out of there as fast as he could for whatever reason

they were going to my grandmothers house for could wait until later. I could

never imagine why this happened but this is among the many things that

happened in that area. I'm not sure if it is because so many of my relatives

were into the "unknown" or what. But I guess they say that it does open

your eyes to a whole new world when you are into the other things.


back to The Shadowlands: Ghosts and Hauntings