Volume 3: Ghost Stories from Texas (Joe Kwon's True Ghost Stories from Around the World) (17 page)

Confused and Unexplained

Austin, Texas

I was a total skeptic in ghosts before I came face to face with one. I used to think everyone who believed in them were freaks or weirdos, now I'm sorry I ever thought that.

A couple of months ago, one late summer afternoon bored out of my mind, I could think of nothing better to do than go swimming. My neighborhood had a pool, but it was secluded from the rest of the neighborhood and was just right in front of a forest area. It was not the type of place parents would let their daughter go right before nightfall. So I decided to be sneaky and go without telling them. I hopped on my bike and high tailed it to the pool.

When I finally arrived, no one was there and the place had an empty feeling. Of course I was just happy to finally have something to do. I can't remember all I did but I know at some point as the sun was falling, I was texting some friends and the air got ice cold and the pool lights started to flicker. I was so wrapped up in texting at the time so I didn't take any notice of it.

When I got bored with texting I decided to practice my diving on the diving bored. This is where it got scary for me.

As I hit the water and sunk to the bottom, I felt something grab me and pin me down.

I was so confused and didn't know what to do so I just kicked and fought with all might. It still didn't release me and I was running out of breath, I tried to look around one last time as I felt everything giving in. What I saw sticks to my mind forever.

I saw what looked to be a young man, I couldn't see any eyes and his face seemed sunken in, but right next to him was a woman with the same appearance. Both seemed very transparent. I was now dazed and confused and felt as if everything was growing blurry, I remember I pushed one last time against the both of them, and for a unexplained reason, they let me go. I sprang to the surface and coughed up water and sucked in air all at the same time.

I was tired from all the frantic fighting I had done under water, so my arms and legs were shaking as I climbed out of the pool. I then heard what sounded like a thousand voices say, "Kill, kill, kill."

What confuses me even more, "Jinns will kill."

I'd like to know what a jinn is, and why it wanted to kill me.

Anyway, I pedaled as fast as my shaking legs would pedal, and even then I could still hear the voices ranting, "Jinns will kill!" over and over again.

When I finally made it home my mom and dad were there to scold me for going without permission and comfort me from my terrifying ordeal.

This experience has left me with questions that no one seems to know the answer to. So I ask again, what is a Jinn? Was it what tried to drown me? And if so, why? I have a feeling it is not the actual pool that is haunted, but the woods.

Lewisville High School Ghost

Lewisville, Texas

When I was 16 years old, I was sitting in my last class of the day. It was math class, which I found to be truly my least favorite subject. Needless to say I was day dreaming the time away, thinking of other things, waiting for the time to pass and end my day.

I sat about two rows from the front of the class, directly in the middle. There was a circular clock on the wall just above and directly in the center of the chalkboard. As I glanced up to register the time, 3:15 p.m., I felt a rush of electricity (or something close to it like holding an electrical fence) come from the top of my head flowing down through the bottom of my feet.

As this was occurring, my sight left me, replacing my surroundings with the face of a young girl from the shoulders up. Everything around her was white, with no other images around her. She had at least shoulder length medium brown hair, large oval brown eyes, wore no make up, and had a plain face. Her hair was parted down the middle, like in the 60's-70's style.

With this electrical energy came a surge of information. She told me her she was angry that her life had ended too soon, but that she wanted me to know she was not angry with me. All this seemed to happen in slow motion, but couldn't have taken more than a second.

I came back to reality as quickly as I had left it, sitting back in my chair stunned. I looked around at my classmates, but no one had noticed my reactions.

After this, apparently she took a liking to me and followed me home. My cat was constantly trying to protect me from things I could not see, hissing at the corners of my bedroom at night. I'd hear footsteps outside my bedroom window; until I would awaken my mother and tell her there was an intruder outside. There never was anyone found upon investigation.

Finally, I awoke suddenly one night and looked at the time. It was 3:15 a.m. I looked to the end of my bed, which was sitting along the same side of the wall my door was on. I had a full-length mirror hanging on my door.

I looked down at the end of my bed to see this girl, standing there staring at her reflection in my mirror with her hands on her hips. As I watched her she turned to look at me and disappeared.

I'm not for sure if the activity ceased after that night, but I moved out of the house and I never saw her after that night. I have come to the conclusion that she must have died in the school, but I do not know how to confirm this.

Any ideas?

My New Unwanted Roommate

Lake Jackson, Texas

I have submitted a few stories stating that I am a subtle believer in ghosts, but as of late, that's been changed. My boyfriend and I have been living in the same apartment for two years with no incidents, but now it's different.

Anything that happens, I can almost shrug it off except for a few small details that I cannot explain. It only happens to me, not my boyfriend, which really makes me wonder. I'm the believer in ghosts and he isn't at all, which I think has something to do with these things only happening to me.

One of my experiences happens during the day, every day. I like to keep the blinds on my window open, slatted, not pulled up, but every time I go upstairs, even for just a minute, I come back downstairs to find them tightly closed. I go through the motion of opening them a few times a day before I just give up and let them stay closed.

Another one is at night. I have to keep a rubber stopper in front of my bathroom door or else it will close and the clothes hamper, which is made of metal and does not have wheels, will be pushed right against the door, making it hard to open.

The spare room across from our bedroom is constantly freezing now, and on occasion, the door will slam shut and lock itself.

That door does not close easily because the frame is broken and you have to pull it to close it. I've gotten used to it, as it is not really frightening but more annoying.

And just a few days ago, my neighbor that had moved out a few weeks ago came back to retrieve the last of her things. She had only lived there for a little over a month, so I asked her why she moved out so suddenly. She admitted that she and a few friends had gotten drunk one night and decided to play with an Ouija board and communicated with the spirit of a little girl. She said the spirit started threatening them, so they quit playing and just threw the board out, and over the next few days, strange things started happening, similar to what's happening to me now, but more violent. Like her hair would be pulled in the shower, DVDs would fly off her shelf at her, and her gas oven would turn on at night, including the burners, after she went to bed.

She said after that, she was so freaked out she broke her lease and moved out and nothing has happened to her since. I guess her ghost moved in with me.

Not my Dad

Cibolo, Texas

I was 8 years old, lying in my bed with strep throat. Between the pain in my throat and the heavy wind on our 70-year-old house, I couldn't sleep.

It was very late when I heard the rummaging in the kitchen. I could see into the kitchen through my doorway, and I sat up to see what the noise was.

There was my dad with his back to me, moving papers & loose change around on the table, in his nightly clothes of tighty-whiteys and socks.

I was about to call him when I went numb; there was a single problem.

In the light from the lamp above the stove and the moon through the window, I could see he had no head. I gasped loudly, but it didn't turn around or acknowledge me in any way.

I hid under my covers, listening to the rummaging on the table for what felt like hours. I lay motionless until sunrise, afraid to cross the kitchen to my parents' bedroom.

My door stayed shut at night until we moved.

The Bedroom Visitors

Houston, Texas

I will make my first contribution here a combination of my very first experiences with the paranormal.

I grew up in Spokane, Washington. My grandmother raised me. We lived in a typical 1970's home. My bedroom was on the far end of a long hallway and it faced the living room. From my bed I could see down the hall and I could see the back of a comfy chair. Everything else was blocked from my view by a doorway/wall.

I had a great fear of bedtime due to the things that would happen during the night.

On several occasions I would wake up to the "dancing hands" as I called them. They were hands with full-length opera gloves on. They would appear between my bed and the wall. They seemed to have a spotlight on them that made them appear different colors; sometimes pink, sometimes purple and sometime blue.

They would sway in unison and move around, and I've wondered recently if they were communicating in sign language. That would be ironic, because I am in deaf education now.

Of course as a small child I was petrified and would scream out for my grandmother, who would come in and try to put my mind at ease.

This combined with re-occurring instances where I would wake up to billions of fat black ants crawling all over my pillow was pretty traumatic for a 5 year old but the memory that has stayed with me as if it was yesterday is this one.

I was in bed and had been asleep. I woke up with a start, but as strange as it seems I didn't open my eyes. This was not a conscious decision although I still connect "waking up" with opening one's eyes. However that wasn't the case here. As my mind awoke, three things happened simultaneously; first, an audible sound coming from the living room. It sounded like someone rifling through a shopping bag full of tissue paper. In fact I remember thinking that my grandmother must be unpacking a bag. Next, there was an inaudible voice in my head that said, "Do not open your eyes or he will get you," and, with that voice appeared the outline of two red eyes staring at me through my own closed eyes.

I remember lying there totally overcome with fear. Knowing full well that the voice was telling me the truth, but being even more afraid of what I couldn't see beyond my eyelids. The sound continued to get louder and louder until I couldn't control the fear I felt at not knowing what was happening. So, I opened my eyes!

In an instant of opening my eyes I saw a man run full speed and dive from my doorway across my bed. I felt his weight on the bed and I even felt some part of him hit my toes when he landed.

For years I called him a clown because I didn't have any other way of describing him. I still don't, but today some 39 years later, I know he was not a clown.

He had short slicked-back, shiny black hair. His skin was extremely pale and his lips seemed unusually pink or red.

I don't remember much about his lower half but he wore a sports jacket in black and white tweed or black and white plaid. The elbow on the arm facing me had an oval patch.

He didn't say a word and frankly I'm not sure he was aware of my presence.

Of course all of this happened in an instant and was followed by my bloodcurdling scream. My grandmother came in and searched everywhere for "the clown" but he was long gone and he never returned.

His memory has stayed with me my entire life, and I'm sure there was a purpose for his visit. I just have no idea what it was.