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

by Unknown

  Harry

  Quinlan, Texas

  A friend and I moved in together to help each other since we were both single parents. She had a son, 12, and I had two sons, 11 and 13, and two daughters, 8 and 7.

  The house we rented was a five-bedroom right on a lake. We were shocked at the rent only being $250 a month, but we thought it was because my friend worked with the lady who owned the house.

  She told us that she, her two sons, and her now-dead husband had built the house. Shortly after finishing it, Harry died of cancer.

  She laughed and said, "I hope you're not afraid of ghosts. Harry is still here."

  Both my friend and I had dealt with ghosts before, and I joke about having my mom and dad both with me all the time even though they both are dead. But, that is another story!

  While moving in, several strange things happened. The first weekend we were there, kids being kids, Verne and I had problems getting the kids to settle down for bed. They all five kept running up and down the stairs. After three or four attempts to put them down, I heard a lot of noise coming from the back yard. I started downstairs to check it out.

  Just as I stepped on the last step, I realized it was broad daylight at midnight. I looked out the window in front of me and could see the lake in our back yard. A man in a Panama hat, tan pants and a bright blue shirt was standing looking out over the lake, waving to some people in a sailboat.

  I shook my head and it was dark again. I returned to bed in shock. Only minutes after getting cozy the kids started down the stairs again. I heard dishes rattle and a dish break, kids scream, then rapid movement back up the stairs.

  I jumped up and opened my door. I went into the girls' room to find nobody there. In the next bedroom I found all five kids piled up in one bed. They told me two plates and two forks flew past them at the bottom of the stairs and hit the wall, then two forks stuck in the floor of the last step. Then there was light outside like it was noon and a man was standing in the back yard pointing at the house.

  By this time Verne was up and laughing at them. It was only Harry, she told them with a wink at me. We all went downstairs to check it out. Nothing was broken, no forks in the floor, everything was just as we left it. We sent the kids back to bed and Verne and I sat down at the table for a smoke. I told her what I saw and heard. She told me she had seen the same thing the morning before when she was leaving for work at 4 a.m. I did not tell her what this man looked like, she told me!

  We lived in that house for three years and do I have lots of tales from it. One couple moved in after we moved out but only lived there three weeks. They said there was something in that house that was not alive. The house stood empty for over a year, then was sold and still nobody has lived in it.

  The new owner tore it down. He said after it started falling apart strange things started happening. I will never forget Harry.

  The Carpet

  Robstown, Texas

  This is a story that my mom told me that happened to her.

  My grandfather came across some carpet that had been thrown out. It was in good condition and so he took it and brought it back home. He told my mother that he was going to install it in her room, and she was so excited.

  My grandfather spent most of the night installing the carpet in my mom's room. She ended up falling asleep with her mom.

  When morning came my mom rushed upstairs to see how it looked, only to find that there was no carpet. So she ran downstairs to ask my grandpa about the rug, and he said the carpet wasn't as good as he thought, so he had to get rid of it.

  Later that day my mom overheard my grandma and grandpa talking. She heard him tell my grandma that last night when he went down stairs to get something to drink he heard crying coming my mom's room. He rushed back up to see if mom was up there and had maybe gotten hurt on some tools or something.

  When he open the door he saw, instead, an old man in a wheelchair with his head in his hands, sitting by the window. So my grandpa freaked and tore out the carpet and threw it away.

  El Paso High Is Haunted

  El Paso, Texas

  Well I have never seen a ghost before, but this story is worth researching.

  I live in El Paso, Texas, and there is this school that's been around well into the early twenties and a lot of people around town say this place is haunted.

  Stories range from a cheerleader who committed suicide after her boyfriend died at football practice to when the second World War was happening and our soldiers who died in combat were put in tunnels underneath the school to be put to rest at the Army cemetery. There were even stories of satanic worshipping in the tunnels. And not to mention custodians that also committed suicide.

  Everyone has heard of the ghosts and this story deserves attention. This school is on a side of a mountain and it looks like House on Haunted Hill at night. Come and check this out. My friend is a cop and he works for the school district and he claims that the alarms go off at that school at night, and he goes to see what’s going on in there with other police officers, and they go track the motion sensors in the school and claim they would hear foot steps of someone running but no one is there and alarms would go off on all four floors.

  The whole city is in fear over this place. There are other old schools that are haunted as well but none so haunted as El Paso High.

  He is Watching Over Me

  Ft Worth, Texas

  This is not a scary story, but more of a touching story of a grandfather watching over his granddaughter.

  My grandpa was one of the most important men in my life. He took care of me when my parents were working or going to school. When I was younger, he gave me a Teddy bear that I cherished forever. He passed away in March of 2003 and I was devastated. His death was sudden and very unexpected.

  I have had dreams of him since he passed, of us just sitting and talking. And I have woken up swearing it was real. The dreams temporarily stopped about a year and a half ago. But, everything else started about a year ago when my husband and I got married and moved into our new house.

  The first occurrence was at my wedding. I was in the room getting ready to walk down the aisle, and the photographer came in and took a picture. When I viewed the picture, I noticed what looked like an odd shadow standing next to me. It almost looked like someone standing there, just as if they were going to give me away. I looked at the rest of the pictures and I found others that had orbs, and even more with strange shadows just like the first one.

  After the wedding we moved into our first house together. I had a box with some of my grandfather's things in it; such as the bear he gave me, some of his old rings, and the keepsakes from his funeral. That box was one of the first things I moved in, and I took it straight to our room and put it in the closet. We left to go get another truckload and when we got back to the house, that bear was in the living room. I thought maybe it had fallen out of the box, but I had to walk back through the living room, so I would have noticed it being there.

  I then started having the dreams again, even more vivid and real than before. There hasn't been anything else, but I can't help but think this my grandpa's way of giving his approval of the way my life is, and I think he is watching over my house and protecting us.

  Knocking

  Austin, Texas

  When I was a kid, around 11 or 12, I was in the bathroom

  by myself and for the fun of it I tried to call Bloody Mary. I turned the lights off and said her name three times. I waited for about five minutes but nothing happened, so I went to bed. Later around 3 a.m., I woke up with a really bad feeling, like something was wrong and I shouldn't be there. So I got up and went to my younger sister's room and got in her bed.

  After three minutes I heard a loud knocking in my room; it kept getting louder and louder. Then it stopped. But,

  being too afraid to get out of bed, I just stayed there until morning.

  In the morning I went to my room and every thing was fine until I saw my little mirror on t
he floor with a huge crack across it. I told my parents what happened and they said I was dreaming but I know what I heard and I will never forget it.

  Marbles

  Edinburg, Texas

  This is a story my mother told me a few years ago that happened to one of her cousins.

  When my mother was younger she used to live in Texas and had a lot of family that also lived there. One of her aunts had lived by a cemetery and her cousins would sometimes go and mess around there.

  My mom's aunt would tell them to stop messing around, and that they should never take things that were left on the graves.

  One of my mom's cousins was at the cemetery one day and had seen some marbles that someone had left on a child's grave, so he took them.

  After he came home, he was playing with them for a while and when it was time for bed he left the marbles out in the living room and went to sleep. He was barely drifting off to sleep when he heard the sound of marbles rolling across the floor. He thought maybe it was one his brothers playing with them. He left his room and saw the marbles where he had left them but no one was there. He was getting kind of scared so he put them away and went back to his room to try and get back to sleep, but he heard the noise again. This time he went to his older brother's room to tell him what was happening but his brother was already awake, listening to the marbles rolling on the floor.

  When the younger brother told him where he had gotten the marbles from, his brother got angry. While the brothers were talking they could still hear the marbles rolling around. So the older brother went to the living room, grabbed the marbles, went outside and threw them. After that the boys never went back to the cemetery and they never told their mom what happened.

  Showering Alone?

  Lewisville, Texas

  One afternoon many years ago when I was around 13 or 14 years old, I had been out playing with some friends on the next street. My parents had made plans for a family dinner. They were going to come home from work and pick up my older brother and me, and we were going to go out to eat.

  I had told my friends that I needed to go shower and get ready for dinner with my family (since going out to eat didn't happen often). I came home, said hi to my brother who was watching TV in the living room, and continued on into the bathroom at the end of the hall. I had just finished undressing when I heard something slide across the bathroom door. I quickly turned around and didn't see anything.

  I just assumed that my brother was playing with me, so I said, "Very funny!" But, I didn't hear a response.

  I brushed off the situation and turned around to turn on the water for the shower, AND THE KNOB STARTED TURNING ON ITS OWN! I was SOOOOO SCARED! I jumped back and stared at it trying to convince myself that this had really just happened.

  During my train of thought the cold water knob had began turning as well. Once it stopped I reached into the water, and it was the PERFECT temperature for my liking. This also creeped me out even more. At that point I grabbed my towel hanging on the hook and ran into the living room and told my brother to please turn the water off for me. He was very stubborn and wouldn't do it because he knew I was capable of doing it myself.

  I finally convinced him to go for me once he saw the tears begin to fall from my eyes. After he had turned the water off, he made me tell him what happened. We agreed it best not to tell my parents about what had happened that day, because they are VERY closed-minded people and would have either not believed me or put me in therapy.

  So I sat there on the couch for about an hour, in just my towel, trying to shake the thought. I couldn't even go to my room to get clothes, considering my room was not even a foot from the bathroom door.

  Someone In the Corner

  Mission, Texas

  When I was younger, I had woken up in the middle of the night. I know I wasn't dreaming because I could feel my skin and I even pinched myself, and it did hurt.

  In front of where I was at, in front of the bed, in the corner of the wall, there was the tall person/thing. It was dark and it was just looking at me with those dark eyes. It was carrying something, which looked like some kind of a stick. But, the person or whatever it was too tall, it almost reached to the ceiling. I could tell that it wasn't wearing anything, even though it was so dark, but that thing was straight up skinny. I was REALLY scared.

  I just put the blankets over me and hoped I would fall asleep, which I did.

  Ten years later, in another house, I woke up in the middle of the night again and after so many years I saw the same thing. Except this time, it was A LOT shorter, shorter than me, and it started walking to me. I was scared out of my pants.

  Then all of a sudden when it was just getting really close to me everything stopped.

  My best friend had been sleeping next to me, and no, it wasn't her, because she isn't bald and like four feet short and like super skinny like that. That night, she had seen a lady in my room with a dress. I don't know what the heck I saw, but I don't want to see it again. Have you heard of something like this happening to someone like this before?

  Man On The Couch

  Weatherford, Texas

  I lived in Texas for five years. From the time I was three until my family moved, my brother and I shared a room. He was a newborn, I'm the oldest.

  Where our room was, there was a hallway that lead straight to the the living room. From my room you could see the couch in the living room and you could see the front door.

  I never liked to be alone in the house because of the presence that I felt. When I was three, I was lying in my bed and I couldn't sleep. I sat up and there was a figure that had red eyes. It was tall. Its legs were way too long, and it was staring at me. It got really cold in the room.

  This took place every day for a year. He was always staring at me. The following year it would begin shoving me out of my bed.

  I never knew what it was until I got older. I was watching a ghost show and they described a demon, and for 2 years of my life it was haunting me. My grandpa and grandma bought that place and the last time I went back I saw him again. My grandma moved out and now lives in a new house. And every time I go by the old house, it is always looking at me from the window.

  Floating Boy

  San Antonio, Texas

  It was about 10:00 p.m., sometime in late July. I was spending the night at my friend's house and having a lot of fun. About 11:30 we were getting tired so we tried everything to keep ourselves awake. Nothing seemed to work, so we decided the best way to go about staying awake was to be too scared to go to sleep.

  We started to tell each other ghost stories, when all of a sudden we heard a loud crash. We thought it was just my friend's brother, so we blew it off. But, about five minutes later we heard it again.

  We started to get angry, so I yelled, "Knock it off, dufus!" to her brother.

  He yelled back that he hadn't done anything, but we thought he was lying. About ten minutes later, I saw someone out of the corner of my eye. I assumed it was my friend's brother.

  Without turning around to look at him, I said, "Come to confess?"

  When I did turn around, I got the shock of my life. There stood (or should I say, floated) a young boy about the age of nine. He was very thin and scraggly, and wore a long, white t-shirt. He just floated there about ten seconds, looking right at us, then disappeared.

  I was so scared I could barely move. All I could do was sit there in awe. Finally, I came back to my senses and screamed. My friend's parents came running in and asked us what was going on. We told them and they told us they had seen him, too. I called my mom to come pick me up and haven't been back to her house since.

  Irritated

  Dallas, Texas

  I am 18 years old and married, and I have a couple of creepy stories. If you didn't notice, the title of this story is “Irritated.” Well, I am the one who is irritated, not the ghost.

  I have always been a big believer when it comes to the paranormal, and especially so after my grandmother visited
me one night about a year after she died. But this isn't about her.

  At 17, my husband and I moved into my tiny one-bedroom apartment around Halloween. We had hardly seen any neighbors until we hung up our Halloween decorations that looked like crime scene tape, and that's when we heard the story.

  Apparently there was a lady that lived in my apartment who was real crazy. She would walk around the apartment complex with her mother's ashes, talking to herself. Some of the upstairs neighbors even swore up and down that they would hear her scream at night, and then out of nowhere start laughing hysterically. Then she just disappeared.

  My husband and I see people or figures passing our bathroom. Our door handles jiggle, and sometimes it turns on our lights and faucets -- things to just really irritate me. It also LOVES scaring our company.

  I am getting so annoyed and I keep telling it that it is annoying me, but it won't stop. And I am ready to b-word slap a ghost! What should I do?

  Deadly Fan

  Uvalde, Texas

  I know this story is short, but it's weird. In my garage I have 2 ceiling fans. Well one day it was scorching hot, so I turned the fan up to high. With our fan if you touch it while it's on high it will cut the crap out of your finger to where you have to get stitches.

  I had it on high when all of a sudden it stops. Our fan is very dusty. Well it stopped, but the other one kept going. I went over to it and touched it, and then it started again. Luckily I jumped back before it hit me. I turned it off and started inspecting it. And I found a large handprint on one of the propellers.