Volume 3: Ghost Stories from Texas (Joe Kwon's True Ghost Stories from Around the World)

by Unknown

  Borderland Street 2

  El Paso, Texas

  This is a continuation of my first story, involving not only my grandparent's house, but also the freaky neighborhood I lived in while growing up.

  Things were always unusual at the house. The sound of chains being dragged on the roof, of invisible coins being thrown to the ground in the next room, and of people talking in the house when home alone.

  The next big incident happened to my mom after she had given birth to my brother. Our little family lived in a room at the very back of the house. My mom used to wake up in the middle of the night to get my brother a bottle. One night, she did her usual routine: went to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle from the fridge and warmed it.

  As she was walking back to our room, she saw the profile of a man standing in the dark in the middle of our living room. She initially thought it was my grandpa, but it was three o'clock in the morning. She felt chills and decided to pretend she didn't see it. She started to walk away when she noticed the thing dematerialized and fall to the ground. She freaked out and decided to again pretend she didn't see it, and continued walking to the room.

  Then she heard the thing dragging slowly behind her. She thought it was her imagination, so she stopped, and the thing paused as well. She got extremely frightened and started to run, with that thing dragging at her heels. Thankfully, she left the door open and ran in, closing the door. At the same time the thing crashed against it. She locked the door and a second later the door knob started to wiggle. Needless to say, she had a very hard time going to sleep that night, and every night thereafter.

  Again, this is only one of the many events that happened in this house. I will try to write about a different event at least once a week. Till next time!

  Borderland Street 3

  El Paso, Texas

  When you are a kid, you depend on your parents to help you feel safe. What if you experience something and no one wants to believe you?

  We disregard much of the paranormal things children say by telling ourselves that it's just imaginary, but what if you know that what the child says might be true? How do you give the child that sense of security again? Do you lie or tell the truth?

  I had just turned six when we moved into the house. This happened more than twenty years ago, yet I still remember it like it was yesterday. I went to bed one night with both my parents in the room. It had probably been a month after we moved in. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone screaming at the other end of the house. I figured it was one of my aunts or even grandma, so I was more concerned than afraid. I tried to wake my mom up, but she just told me to go back to sleep.

  A couple of minutes later, that one screaming person seemed to have been joined by five more, then ten, then God knows how many more. The sound was loud enough that it should have woken my parents up, but it didn't. I tried waking my mom up again, but she told me I was just dreaming, and to go back to sleep.

  As time passed, the screaming got closer and closer to where it was practically outside our room. I looked over at my parents and they were sound asleep. How could anyone sleep through that? All of a sudden, the screams were all around me, yet there were only three people in the room. I was too afraid to move, let alone jump into my parent's bed. All I was able to do was wrap the covers around my head and try to cover my ears. I must have passed out because I woke up the next morning. The only concrete reminder of what happened the night before were the painful scratches on my ears from when I was trying to mute the sound.

  I tried to tell my parents what had happened, but they just told me it was a dream and that I needed to learn to distinguish reality from fantasy. I felt all alone. I knew what I had heard; yet no one believed me. I have spoken to my mom about it, now as a grown up, and she apologized for not paying attention to me. She had kept her experiences a secret from me to try to protect me. I learned I wasn't crazy the longer we lived there.

  Borderland Street 4

  El Paso, Texas

  My grandmother on my mom's side and I had a very strong bond. She took care of me before my mom married my dad and took me to Mexico for a year when my mom couldn't afford any babysitters. After my mom got married, my grandma spent a couple of nights at our new house. She wasn't a very superstitious woman, but even she felt the strong entities that lived there. They actually scared her away.

  We were extremely heartbroken when she fell ill with pneumonia that was worsened by her diabetes. My mom knew she was in critical condition, so she spent most of my grandma's last days with her. I, unfortunately didn't get to say my goodbyes, but I accompanied my mom to the hospital in hopes that someone took pity on the eight year old with the dying grandma.

  My dad usually stayed home and took care of my new baby brother. One night, my dad was putting my brother in his crib, when he noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye. He says the trash can that stood in one of the corners of our little room started to shake, elevated at least three feet in the air and then fell back down to the floor. He was a little freaked, and he saw it as a bad omen. He decided not to tell my mom because he figured she was dealing with enough already.

  Early the next morning, we received one of the worst calls anyone can ever receive. My grandmother passed away. Her health deteriorated through the night and the illness got the best of her. We were completely crushed. My dad let us mourn her death for a couple of days before he mentioned the incident.

  My mom took it as my grandma's way of saying goodbye. Unfortunately, my mom felt there was still no closure. She became obsessed with the death until my grandmother found a way to communicate yet again...

  Borderland Street 5

  El Paso, Texas

  My mom had a very hard time while mourning my grandmother's death. She fell into a deep depression for a while and it was easy to comprehend her pain.

  It was probably about a month after my grandmother passed away, that she decided to communicate. My mom woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. She opened the room and found a woman standing right outside our door. My mom was a bit shaken, but even though she realized almost instantly that the woman was floating a foot above the ground and her face was blurred in a strange way, she was still not afraid. The hairs on the back of her neck didn't stand and she felt at ease, very different from how she felt with her other encounters.

  The woman's hair was long and brown, and she wore a long white gown. My mom tried to get closer to her, but as she walked, the figure floated away slowly. My mom followed her into the bathroom and then vanished when she reached the shower curtain. My mom was dazed and decided to go to bed. She told my dad about what happened the next morning and she convinced herself it must have been a dream.

  The following night, my mom had a dream where she was in a field covered in roses as far as the eye could see. She followed a small path and found my grandmother smiling. She hugged my mom and told her she was ok, that she was happy and that my mom needed to let her go. She couldn't rest when my mom refused to go on with her life.

  My mom woke up that morning practically glowing. There was no doubt then that her visitor was real, and that it was her mother saying her last goodbye. I love my grandmother dearly even after all this time. In times of hardship, when it's hard to sleep and I'm stricken with insomnia, I think back of when she used to cradle me in her arms and sing to me. I don't know if it's that I remember her so vividly, but I can hear her voice clearly after a while, right before sleep takes me over.

  Borderland Street 6

  El Paso, Texas

  As time passed, we practically expected the sounds and appearances we encountered almost every night. My parents decided to continue living at my grandparent's house for a couple of more years and another baby brother came along in the process. I was twelve, and my mom and dad trusted and expected a lot out of me. Little by little, I became a latch key kid and with time, they started to leave me home alone to watch my baby brother.

 
One night my parents went shopping with my grandparents and aunts and uncles went out with their friends, while I laid in bed with my baby brother watching TV. My baby brother started to fall asleep, so I lowered the volume. I started to pass out, when out of nowhere came a loud bang from the window right next to me. My brother and I woke up extremely startled and my brother started to cry. It was then that the television started to change channels by itself and the volume went up full blast.

  Frightened, I picked my brother up and ran out of the room. I thought I would be safe out of the room, but then I realized our TV wasn't the only thing that was on. It seemed as every single electrical appliance was on! I didn't know what to do, so I ran to my best friend's house and asked for help. Her mom allowed me to stay at their house until my parents showed up. My parents tried to discredit what had happened by saying I had dreamt the whole thing, but my friend's big brother went to my house after I showed up at their house to make sure no one had broken in. He confirmed that every single electrical thing in the house was indeed turned on when he arrived, and he took the time to turn everything off.

  I spent a lot of time at my friend's house after that, even more than usual.

  Unfortunately, it took my baby brother a long time to recover. He would wake up screaming and crying every single night until he was about two years old.

  Borderland Street 7

  El Paso, Texas

  This is going to be a different story from my previous ones. I will be posting a couple of sightings that I have encountered in my adult life. I've grown up knowing that there is another world around us. After all I went through as a child, I've learned to be more aware of my surroundings. Many of my friends have commented that I act as a magnet to the paranormal, but I believe that I just tend to be at the right places at the right times.

  I grew up, went to college and work the graveyard shift at a hospital in El Paso. I will not say what hospital to protect the privacy of my employers and fellow employees. It's nice and quiet where and when I work, but I can actually say I'm not alone.

  There have been many times that I've seen a person out of the corner of my eye as I pass by a hallway. I stop to see if it's someone that needs help, and the person isn't there anymore. There have been times that I've been working in front of a computer monitor and I've seen the reflection of someone walking and standing behind me, and when I turn around, there is no one there.

  Chairs have moved by themselves right next to me and it sometimes sounds like someone has walked into the room where I'm at and moving things around. I start to talk to the person, thinking it's one of my coworkers. When I get no answer, I find there is no one there.

  Nurses have reported sightings of people that have passed away, and cold breezes coming out of nowhere.

  I guess it's not hard to realize that these things happen in a hospital considering people pass away. Sometimes it's scary, especially when you're alone.

  Just remember, next time you're at a hospital, and you feel a cold breeze, or you see someone out of the corner of your eye, it may just be someone saying goodbye to this world, or someone with unfinished business.

  Mystery Pasture

  Hallettsville, Texas

  Three years ago, my family and I made our yearly trip to my grandpa's farm out in the country. As we turned off onto the dirt road, civilization started to evaporate every mile.

  When we got there, my dad and I went squirrel hunting out in the woods. We were walking on the grass next to the tree line and my dad stopped and I followed in stopping. We heard leaves being smashed, as if someone was walking close to us. We looked around, and saw no trace of animals, or anyone else.

  The sound got progressively louder, until it was as if it was inches away from us. Then the noise disappeared.

  Later that night, I was sleeping in my grandpa's vacant guest house with my brother and my cousin. My brother and I shared a bed, and my cousin had her own twin bed close to us. I could not sleep, so I stared at the ceiling. I heard footsteps outside of the room, and they were stomping very loud, so loud it woke BOTH my brother and cousin. The footsteps stopped at our door, and then walked off. We all looked at each other.

  The last day we were there me and my 145 pound dog were walking around the front yard and my dog stopped at a certain spot and proceeded to growl and whimper at the spot. I ran to the main house and told my step- grandmother about all of what happened that week.

  She told me, "This was a slave plantation long before we moved here..."

  The Coins

  La Porte, Texas

  My grandma told this story to me and I thought it was pretty freaky...

  My grandma loves (and I mean really loves) to play bingo. One day while she was at home she was reading a magazine and it had an ad for some good-luck coins, so she sent off for them.

  After she got the coins, she would take them with her whenever she went to go play bingo, and she was starting to win. After a while she finally took the time to really look at the coins and see all the detail they had on them.

  She said to her horror she saw that on all the coins they had the numbers 666 on them, but you wouldn't know unless you looked real close. And all the coins had it in different areas, they weren't in all the same places; each coin was different.

  My grandma got freaked out and she threw the coins in the trash. The next day she found them in her nightstand next to her bed when she woke up.

  So, she put them in a jar and buried it in her back yard, and the next morning she woke up to the sounds of coins in a jar rolling around under her bed. She got the jar and threw it against the wall and she started to cry from panic and frustration.

  When my grandma pulled her self together, she got up to clean the glass and to put the coins up somewhere so that no one could get a hold of them, but they were gone. She searched high and low in her room but never found them. She said to this day she never found out what happened to them.

  The Cowboy

  Andrews, Texas

  I was about 13 in my parents' house in Andrews, Texas; it’s a little West-Texas town with the population of about 10,500. The town used to have money from oil. The oil left and so did the money. Our house was built during the time when oil was still present. It was a large house, about 3,200 square feet. My room was upstairs in between my parents' and my brother's rooms.

  One day I was laying on my bed around 7 AM, just thinking about what I was going to do that day. I looked up. and there was a tall Mexican cowboy standing right in front of my bed. He mumbled something to me in a gruff voice.

  I couldn't make out what he had said because I was running out of there as fast as I could. I ran into the living room where my mom was. I was crying and told her what I saw and she said it must have just been a dream. I agreed with her so she didn't think I was crazy, but in my mind I knew what I saw was an actual ghost. I didn't sleep in my room for a while and never slept in it alone again.

  After a couple months I was very unhappy in that house, so we ended up moving out. But we were in the middle of repainting and rebuilding the porch. We came back every weekend to work on it. One weekend my mom went to the house alone to clean the carpets. She was working on my bedroom and heard someone downstairs so she went down to see who was in our house. She didn't see anyone, so she went back up. She was working and all of a sudden she felt like something was telling her to look into the doorway. There was a tall man standing there. She ended up forgetting about the carpet and coming straight home.

  One day my mom and I went to the house together. We were working in the hall outside my bedroom listening to a pop station. Out of nowhere the station changed to a Spanish station. We decided to stop working and go out to dinner. After dinner we came home and went to sleep at our haunted house. I woke up about 11 a.m. I kept hearing some walking back and forth from my room to my mom's bathroom. I went downstairs to see where my mom was to see if she was making the noise.

  It turns out she was at lunch with her friends and I
was stuck at the house alone. I ran outside of the house and sat out there until she got home. That was the last time I ever went back to our house.

  We did research on the house and found out that the builder of the house just happened to be a Mexican cowboy. He also died in the house.

  We have recently moved into a different house in Carlsbad, New Mexico. We believe this house is haunted too. Everyone in our family has encountered the ghost at least once.

  How Did You Die?

  San Angelo, Texas

  This happened to me in my house about the same time after my grandfather died and also the same time we started using the Ouija Board.

  So, after my family and I started using the Ouija board weird things would happen. Unexplained noises, and with my grandmother also seeing a black figure run from the hall into her bedroom. (Oh also my family didn't know that after you were done using the Ouija board you HAVE to say goodbye or the ghost won't know to leave. I wish we knew that then maybe none of this would of happened.)

  When we were using the Ouija board we asked it if there was a spirit in our house. It said YES, and also spelled out a name. Since it was so long ago I don't remember the name but I do know it was a guy's name. Anyway with me being very little (6-7) this was all very interesting to me. So I decided to play a little ghost hunter myself.

  I invited my friend who lived next door to me to come over when she did I told her what was going on in my house and she decided she wanted to play ghost hunter too. We decided to write a note to this "supposed" spirit asking it questions like, "How old were you when you died", and "How did you die". Once we were done we made sure my mom and grandma weren't there. They weren't, as both of their cars were gone. We wanted to make sure nobody that was "LIVING" could write on the letter. So we went into the back room and played for a while. About an hour hour and a half later we came back and the letter had been written on in handwriting that did not match any of my family members.