True Ghost Stories: Jim Harold's Campfire 2

by Jim Harold

  Well, anyhow, I heard this while I was downstairs folding her clothes. Next thing you know, I hear her starting to walk down the stairs, she came about halfway and said, “Daddy, the ghost is doing this.” She started shaking her head back and forth, kind of in a funny way, and she started laughing. For one, she said “ghost,” which kind of shocked me. I looked at her and I said, “Babe, there is no ghost.” She argued with me. She said, “No, Daddy, there is.” I said, “Okay. If there is, go ask it its name.” At that point, I’m just thinking, maybe she’s playing. So she turns around, goes back upstairs. I was listening and I could actually hear her say something. Then, she came right back and said, “He says his name is Gainer,” whatever that is. I didn’t recognize the name, and it was unusual.

  It was quite startling, actually. I stopped, looked at her and kind of blew it off. At least, I wanted her to think I was blowing it off. I said, “Oh, okay.” Actually, I was quite shaken by it, because the name was just – well, I don’t believe a four-year-old is going to come up with a name like that.

  I got down on my knees at the time and said a prayer. I had no recourse. I asked for guidance and protection for my baby, and didn’t think anything else about it. I was a little shaken, but continued with my work. I ended up grabbing her clothes so I could go and put them away in her closet. I walked upstairs and went into her room.

  As I was in the room, I could see that my daughter was in the landing area. Her back was facing the stairs, she was looking directly forward, just smiling really big and laughing. She started doing the head movement thing again, like she was playing with somebody.

  That frightened me greatly, I don’t know if it was because I was still worried, but the feeling up there was quite heavy. It didn’t seem ominous or anything at first when we got there, but this was quite scary. I just said, “Whatever you are, leave this house. We don’t want you here. Leave my daughter alone.” But I said it with some vigor and I invoked the name of the Lord, while watching her. She just stood up, came into the room, jumped on her bed, and said, “Hi Daddy.” Like nothing happened. I didn’t want to ask her about this ghost or anything, so I let it go. I didn’t want to encourage it. When this happened, being in my mid-20s and not knowing as much as I do now, I became very protective and scared. It was just so frightening, because through my life, I’ve had many experiences. I had hoped that my daughter wouldn’t have to have them.

  I did ask my daughter, quite a few years later, if she remembered the experience. She just looked at me and said, “You know, Dad, I don’t remember much, but I remember what he looked like.” I said, “Really!” She described him for me. He wasn’t scary, she said. She described him having collar-length hair and a white long-sleeved shirt on with old brown pants and socks that he would roll the pants into. She doesn’t want to remember any more than that.

  To me, this means it wasn’t imaginary, but something real. It was quite extraordinary. Like I said, I’ve had my experiences and lived with the things I see, and I believe everybody experiences something. But you know, when you’re a parent and you see it coming at your child like that, it is terrifying.

  -Floyd, California

  10. Our Ghost, the Prankster

  I grew up in a small town. When I was in high school a friend of mine, Melinda, and I always walked home together after band practice. I think we finished up at about 5:30 or 6 pm. When we got to my house, which was less than a quarter mile from the school, all the lights were off, the front door was locked, and I didn’t have a key. So, I rang the doorbell and knocked. I heard someone say, “Pam, is that you?” I said, “Yeah, its me and Melinda.” There was no answer back.

  So, we rang the doorbell again and knocked, and we heard another, “Pam, is that you?” My friend responded, “Yeah, it’s Pam and Melinda, let us in!” We thought my sister, who was four years older than me, was messing with us. Still the door didn’t open or unlock or anything. The porch light was off, the living room light was off, and we didn’t get it.

  We waited and we waited. We walked around the side of the house. Now, the den was on the west side of the house and we could get to the door of the den faster than anybody could have gotten there from the living room. Anyway, once we got to the door of the den, we would’ve seen anybody messing with us coming in through the other door.

  Everybody was sitting and watching TV. Nobody looked as if they’d moved for a while. So we knocked on that door – there was no doorbell on the den side – so we knocked on that door, and my mother opened the door and she asked, “Why didn’t you come in the front door? We left it open for you.” I said, “No, we just rang the doorbell and knocked on the door and somebody said, “‘Pam, is that you?” a couple of times.” My friend was there to corroborate my story, and they were like, “Okay, nobody’s left this room.”

  So we walked over to the living room. The front door was open, the porch light was on as was the living room light. I mean, the front door was actually opened; not unlocked, but opened. It was really weird!

  -Pam, Florida

  11. Ghosts Weren’t Mentioned in the Job Interview

  Nine years ago I was a freshman in high school, and I decided it was about time to get a job. I’d be driving soon, so I needed the cash. The town I was living in was pretty small; it was kind of like “a blast from the past” kind of place. I ended up getting a job at a Chinese bistro cleaning tables. It was right across the street from the courthouse in the square. Coincidentally, a buddy of mine actually got a job there too. The building had been rebuilt, but the property was very old. At first the job was pretty ordinary, not a whole lot of intrigue. Cleaning tables.

  One night in particular, we were serving dinner, and I was on the floor. Somebody called my name. I looked around and didn’t notice anybody, so I approached one of the managers, who was standing beside the bar with a few waiters and asked him, “Hey, did you call my name?” They all shook their heads. I went back to doing what I was doing, and within minutes, it happened again. I heard my name. So I did the same thing, and they all told me again, “No, we didn’t call you.” The manager could tell I didn’t really believe him, he smiled at me and he just said, “This place is haunted.”

  Never heard that in the job interview! I figured he was just kind of messing with me, because he was a bit older than I was, and we always goofed around. I really didn’t think anything of it until one afternoon I was going around lighting candles, setting up for the dinner that night, and I heard my name being called. The front was empty, so I went to the back to see who it was, and the only people in the kitchen were the cooks in the back. None of them actually even spoke English. They definitely weren’t calling my name. I searched around and couldn’t find anybody.

  The first thing I did when I got home was to call a friend of mine who had been working there, and I found out the same thing was happening to him. To tell you the truth, I really didn’t work there for much longer after that. Not because of the obvious creep factor, but the place went out of business shortly after that. It kind of adds more to the lore, I think. The place changed hands many times and it’s actually occupied by a bank right now.

  Here’s the real kicker to the story. In my junior year of high school, I had a history teacher that I really connected with and we still keep in contact. For one of our lessons, she thought it would be a good idea to teach us a little bit about our hometown. It was around Halloween, so she included some local lore. It was a really good lesson.

  One day after class, I told her the story that I’m telling you right now, and she got this shocked look on her face. She looked at me and said, “You know that place used to be a funeral parlor back in the late 19th century?” This place used to be a funeral parlor, apparently! It was allegedly one of the oldest properties in the town at the time.

  Actually, it made sense, the storage rooms that they used were huge, and they were actually these big wooden elevator shafts. The voice wasn’t in my imagination.

  -Kirby, Texa
s

  12. Campfire Spirits

  About two years ago, my wife and I were pretty heavy into backpacking. We liked to do a lot of overnight trips, so we’d pack all our gear, spend the night in some campsite and do some hiking around. We decided to go to Lake Minnewanka, which is a pretty big lake around Banff, Alberta. Around it are a series of campsites to which you can hike.

  Our plan was to do a two-night trip: hike out the first day to the campsite, go up to what’s called Elmer Pass. It is a lookout pass about two hours away from the camp. Afterward, we’d hike back down to the camp, spend another night, then hike back out.

  We got to Banff, we got our gear ready, and everything was ready to go. We hit the trail about 10 am, got to the campsite about 4 or 5 pm. It was a pretty easy hike, nothing major. There was nobody at the campsite. It was desolate and barren and only for people who do the backpacking thing. The next campsite was between 12 and 15 kilometers away from us, so we were pretty much by ourselves.

  We cooked dinner, and the campsite had kind of a heavy feeling to it. The atmosphere was very heavy. It was just quite subversive. Anyway, we had our dinner, and we went to bed. Neither of us were feeling in the mood for having a fire or anything like that.

  The next morning, we got up and just decided together that we weren’t going to hike to Elmer Pass, we were just going to hike out. Neither of us had talked prior to deciding this; we just decided, “You know what? We’re going to go back home.” As we’re eating breakfast, my wife looked over to me and she said, “Did you hear children last night?” I looked at her and I said, “Yeah.” Then the stories came out and they matched perfectly.

  We fell asleep about 10 pm the previous night, and both of us woke at about 2 or 3 am. Neither of us knew the other one was awake, of course. The first thing I heard were the sound of fires in the background, like cooking fires, with things sizzling on them. It sounded like someone was roasting something over the fire. I heard women laughing and talking in the background. I heard children running around my tent. I couldn’t see anything in terms of shadows or anything, but I could hear them running. They were laughing and giggling. I thought it was very Blair Witch-y.

  So I was lying awake in bed and I heard these kids running around, back and forth. I heard women laughing and talking, away from the tent. We were pretty close to the beach of this lake, and it was all pebbles, so you could hear the water, the waves, rush up on the shore and go away. It was a very rhythmic, pebbly sound. But, in between each wave, you could hear footsteps, quite heavy footsteps on the pebbles, just stomping along. They were very distinctive because they were in between the waves.

  My wife and I both heard exactly the same thing that night, although neither of us knew that the other one was awake, so we weren’t going to share it. We both fell asleep at about 4 am, I guess, and we both had pretty much similar dreams of massive fires everywhere in the forest. It was unreal how we were sharing stories and completing each other’s sentences. We had no idea what had happened that night. We got up that morning, and there was nothing disturbed in the campsite. But that oppressive feeling was even worse. Neither of us felt like we belonged there. Neither of us felt like we should stay. So we said, “You know what, forget it. We’re just going to take off. We’re going to go back.”

  It was interesting to say the least. I should also mention, this was the summer solstice. We didn’t plan it for this, but that’s the time when we decided to do our hike.

  On our way back, we’re discussing what it was and what the heck had happened that night. Keep in mind that this whole area used to be where the natives would go hunting and they would set up areas around there just for temporary camps. The men would go off to hunt and the women would fish and gather. This experience really smacked of that. We heard the children running around, we heard the women talking in the background, and cooking things on fires. I mean, it was unbelievable. It was like somebody had set up a camp around our tent in the middle of the night. It was bizarre.

  Maybe it was some psychic recording of past events? That’s kind of what we discussed, and that seems pretty plausible considering the history of this area. The only thing was the feeling we got from the campsite. It was an oppressive, dark feeling we got from it, like something didn’t want us to be there. We felt that if it was just an imprint, just a recording, then we would just have these experiences with no residual feeling like we shouldn’t be there. It was like something knew we were there and wanted us to go away.

  It wasn’t friendly. As I said, it was very Blair Witch. You’d think hearing children laughing would be a positive thing but it was not, either the night before while lying awake in that tent, or even the next morning. It was very creepy.

  I should also mention that on our way in we had crossed a stream about 500 meters from the campsite, and it was quite a large stream. After we decided, “We’re going to pack our stuff up, we’re going to get the hell out of here,” we figured we’d fill our water bottles up at the stream. We started walking back and when we got there the stream was bone-dry…absolutely bone-dry. It could’ve happened overnight where whatever runoff had just changed course or whatever, but the stream was big before. It was quite large. We both got wet crossing it and then it was gone.

  Strange seeing something like that physically change on the landscape. We were thirsty. We were actively looking for the stream, and we did not find it.

  We’ve no plans to go back, but I’ve thought about it. I’m pretty heavy into that stuff. I really, really enjoy the paranormal. Going there expecting it, I’d be able to get myself mentally prepared for it, but my wife says no, we’re not setting foot back at that campsite again. Something just didn’t want us to be there, and I’m perfectly happy leaving it well enough alone.

  -Craig, Canada

  13. Australian Ghost Hunt

  I believe it was 2006 when I joined an investigation group, as there are a lot of them around here. There’s a lot of active places in the state of Victoria, which is in the southern part of Australia, on the east coast. We went out to a place to investigate called Ararat Mental Asylum. It was a mental asylum or a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. I believe it closed down in the early ’90s. Anyway, we went out there to investigate and it was my very first investigation.

  Things got a little scary right from the start. We sort of paired off and went to do our digital thermometer checks and running infrared cameras, that sort of thing. I was put into a small room; it was about four meters by four meters. It was where they used to slaughter the animals and it was made of bluestone. A lot of people say that bluestone holds that activity a lot better than other buildings do. When I was in there, I was measuring the temperature, I had the camera on, and I was looking around. It was very dark except when looking through the lens. I kind of heard breathing behind me. When you’re on these investigations you’ve got to try and decipher what’s real and what’s not, because you’re looking for things. Sometimes the mind plays tricks.

  Anyway, it got to the point where it happened three or four times. I radioed to the first aid room and said, “Can you guys come down and get me? This is getting a bit freaky.” I had a big breath blow in behind my right ear, and directly after that. It literally felt like a full-sized hand running through the back of my hair as we had people coming down to grab me. This was my first ever investigation, so it was a bit full-on.

  The night got a lot heavier as we went on. I was with a person in the west wing of the Ararat Mental Asylum. You can look all this up on the Internet as well, if you want to see the schematics of the building. That’s where they put the mental patients that were going to die. So, we’re doing some investigating in there, and we’re looking down a long, wide hallway which was eerie enough as it was.

  The person I was with was a psychic. We didn’t tell her where we were going or anything like that, so she had no prior knowledge of this place. She said, “Oh, I can feel a presence in the room.” She kept moving on that. You’ve
got to be a little bit skeptical of things like that, but she said, “Look, it’s coming closer. It’s coming closer. I can hear a J – I think it might be a Jason or a Josh, and I don’t know, maybe they were an orderly here, but I’m pretty sure that they used to abuse the patients.”

  Anyway, we researched it afterward and she was correct. There was a guy that was kicked out of there had a name starting with the letter “J.” I believe it was Justin. I’d have to go back to my notes to get the exact name. As it was coming towards us, I just felt all the hairs on my body stand on end.

  So we brought the whole investigation team in. Someone in the team, which I won’t name, got a little bit abusive towards this particular spirit we were trying to call out. Anyone in the game knows that you just don’t do that. My grandmother, who brought me up on stories of ghosts and witches and warlocks and things like that, has always said, “It’s not the dead you should be afraid of, it’s the living. But at the same time, you need to give the dead respect.”

  Moving on, he kept calling this person out. It was getting a bit much, I thought. This was for “on camera,” it was too much. He was standing next to me, and I swear on my mother’s grave, this guy started choking, and didn’t have his hands anywhere near his neck. Then he just dropped to the floor right next to us. We grabbed him by the feet and we dragged him out into the first aid room. Till the day I die, I will live by this: when we got him into the light, he had a red hand mark on his neck, like someone had his hand around his neck.

  I did three or four more investigations at different areas around Victoria after that. Then, my parents just got a bit worried about it and basically said, “We’ll disown you if you continue to do this,” because it was getting a bit much. There’s definitely a lot of stories in Australia, and it’s very active. A lot of things happen here that don’t really get publicized.