Volume 3: Ghost Stories from Texas (Joe Kwon's True Ghost Stories from Around the World) (9 page)

Dakota, Is That You? 

Plainview, Texas

My old dog haunts my house. He died when I was 9, so it's been years since he died.

Ever since he died, though, it's been kind of scary. I will sometimes see him a couple times a day.

I’ll see a little brown blur in the corner of my eye. When I turn my head to see what’s there, the brown blur runs through the wall or just vanishes.

One time I heard him bark in the basement. It scared me badly and instantly gave me the chills. Another encounter I had with Dakota was recently while I was lying on the couch. I turned my head to see if my dog, Baby, was there but she wasn't. I began to watch TV again, and out of nowhere I heard sniffing, like a dog, right in my ear. I thought it was Baby.

I turned around again, but to my surprise all I saw was an imprint in the couch and nothing else. Then I heard the weirdest sound; it’s too weird to even try to explain.

I got up and looked at the imprint and said, "Dakota go on and get." Within seconds the imprint was gone as if the invisible beast had risen and hopped down.

Was It A Dream?

Fort Worth, Texas 

I have always believed in ghosts and things like that, but what happened to me, I will never understand!

It happened about 2 years ago when I was living with my boyfriend in an apartment. We were asleep when I woke up to something grabbing my legs. I was lying on my back and my eyes shot wide open. Whatever it was had a tight grip on both legs. I couldn't move my arms either. I tried calling out my boyfriend's name but nothing came out. My mouth was moving but everything was silent. All I could really do was thrash my body.

Finally, my boyfriend looked over at me a bit confused. It took him a second to realize what was happening! He started to shake me awake from what he thought was a bad dream. After what seemed like forever, everything stopped and I was almost gasping for air.

My boyfriend told me that it was probably just a bad dream, but I could feel the cold imprint of a hand on both my legs! To this day I don't know what it was. I just hope it never happens again.

Black Hands

Conroe, Texas

First of all let me say that the house we live in is only 20 years old, so nothing real historical could have possibly happened. However, when we were cleaning the land that we live on (an acre) we found parts of an old car underground along with screwdrivers and knives. Who knows what that was all about.

Ok, back to my story, September 30, 2008 at 12:49 a.m. (I will never forget the time), I was in a real hard sleep, when my phone started ringing. If I don't answer by the third ring the fax machine will pick up. Well I woke up on the second ring, and before I could answer it, something made me stop. It felt like my blanket was coming off of me, being pulled toward my feet. I forgot the phone, and pulled the blankets back up to my chin, wondering what was going on.

That's when I saw two floating hands on the side of my bed, up in the air as if they were attached to a person. But of course there was no person. They didn't move, and they were positioned as if they were down at someone's side.

I was so scared I haven't had a good night's sleep in my bedroom since.

This isn't the only thing that has happened here. We have security cameras around our house that are motion-activated. They come on when something passes by. Periodically they will come on and we don't see anything.

We also had a dog that barked constantly. He barked so much we ended up giving him away, and he always barked around the area of the car.

Someone To Watch Over Me

Garland, Texas

I come from a large family of eight kids, although my oldest sister and a brother both died before I was born. My parents never talked much about my oldest sister Pat. I just always thought that since she was their first born, it was just too painful for them to talk about.

After I graduated from college, I decided to go to graduate school and I ended up moving to a town close to where I grew up. In addition to going to school and teaching some undergrad courses as a Grad Assistant, I also took another job at a local mall to help make ends meet.

Well, school wasn't what I expected, the people there were snobby, I missed my friends from school, and I missed my family. I felt very overwhelmed with teaching, school and work.

One night, I laid in bed feeling very sorry for myself. I wondered if I should just quit and go back to my parent's... as I cried myself to sleep, I suddenly felt a presence in my room. But I wasn't scared. When I turned over in my bed, I saw the most beautiful woman I have ever seen standing by my bed. She was dressed in white and had a beautiful glow around her! She seemed to be floating and although she didn't speak out loud, I could hear her speak to me with her thoughts.

She told me that she was my sister Pat and that she was always watching over me! She told me that things would get better and to hang in there. She had the most beautiful smile! Then she was gone.

Soon after that, things DID get better and it always gave me comfort to know that she was watching over me. I named my firstborn after her - a son I named Patrick. Of course, he goes by "Pat" after my beautiful sister and guardian angel!

The Dark Hallway 

El Paso, Texas

This encounter took place when I was 15. It was a nice house, one story with six bedrooms, a dining room, a sitting room, a living room and a kitchen. Since there were many rooms and it was only one story, the house was very long. There was an extra room that we never used at the other end of the house by itself.

At that time my uncle and aunt moved in for a while. That room was never used until they moved in, and the rest of the rooms were down a long hallway. I have had previous experiences in that house, but this is the one I'm going to tell you about.

One night I was watching The Exorcist with my aunt and uncle, and I was already creeped out because that movie was evil enough. It was about 2 or 3 in the morning as I remember, and I already had an odd feeling about walking to the other side of the house at night back to my room. My mom, step dad and brothers were on the other side of the house as well, so when I got up to leave I said good night and I made my way down to my bedroom.

As I went down the hall and passed the dining room and entered the living room, I started to feel scared about going down this long hallway, because it is the darkest part of the house and you can just barely see anything. But I went ahead anyway, walking slowly, cautious not to bump into anything. In that hallway there is an entrance to the kitchen and once you get to that point there is a little bit of light showing from the outside.

Once I was able to see more clearly, I saw a tall, black shadow walking toward me.

At first, I figured it was my step dad because he was very tall. Because I wasn't able to see, and we didn't get along very well, I was agitated that he was continuing to walk toward me as fast as he was. The last thing I wanted to do was bump into each other because it was so dark. So, thinking it was him, I said, "Hello, I'm in the hallway too!"

He continued to walk, ignoring me, so I said Hello again, and right as I said that I could feel it walk right through me, and it paralyzed me for a couple seconds, like I was in shock. Instead of yelling for help or trying to call my mom, I ran into my room and shut the door, too scared to even talk or move.

Like I said that is just one of the many encounters in my life that I have experienced.

The Tickles on My Feet

San Antonio, Texas

My parents and I spent the night at my aunt's. We lived in Austin and this happened in San Antonio, so I guess my parents wanted to wait until the next day before going home.

I had no idea the house was haunted, and I guess that is why my aunt called my parents over to pray for the house. (I was 10 years old and they probably didn't want to scare me.)

I was asleep on the floor near the hallway, my mom was on my right, and my dad was on hers. My aunt and uncle were asleep on their bed (we were right in front of them.) I imagine it was 2 or 3 in the morning. I was cold and I took some of my mom's blanket. Half asleep, I told my mom to stop tickling my feet. I guess she ignored me. I then heard 2 little kids laughing. I was up this time.

I grabbed my mom's arm and as she was waking, we both heard kids running around us. My feet were bare and uncovered, and continued to get tickled. I started crying. "Stop!", I yelled. She wrapped me in her arms. They kept tickling my feet. The door in the bathroom closed (not hard, very light). Then my mom put me in the middle, her and my dad held me and started to pray for me. Then they waited until I fell asleep.

It was so ugly that night... my mom remembers so much more, and now that I am older I still get freaked out sleeping on the floor barefoot.