Scary Stories, in the Halloween Spirit

[Rora]

OP- You are an incredible writer! What a scary experience.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the stories on this thread!

Happy Halloween...

 

[wardfamily1]

On the subject of houses, take a look at this one; it's located in the city where I live:

I tried my best to find some information on it, but came up blank. All I know is that the house is a very popular spot for tourists to take pictures; I'm sure there are some very interesting stories connected with it!

That house is cool and creepy all at the same time. I would expect Herman Munster to come walking out of it any minute.

 

[TimeforMe]

I love scary stories and yours was AWESOME! You really are talented. I wonder why I LOVE scary stories so much but not scary movies?

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

I love scary stories and yours was AWESOME! You really are talented. I wonder why I LOVE scary stories so much but not scary movies?

You love scary stories because you mind can make up much worse scenarios than Hollywood. Remember how scary Jaws was when you could not see the shark?

 

[perdidobay]

Great story OP. It read like a script of the Twilight Zone. And from me that's a compliment.

Is the crooner Mel Torme? Was it Tracy Torme with you that night?
After all, Tracy wrote the screenplay for Fire in The Sky ( great movie!)
So maybe it was Travis Walton there also?

Of course if I am right, you won't be responding!

 

[perdidobay]

Bumping for the night crew....anyone have any stories?

 

[Poohbear123]

If someone guesses right, I'll NOT deny it...how about that?

I can deny Sinatra and Crosby so far.

OK, how about...Danny Thomas???

 

[zackiedawg]

Great story OP. It read like a script of the Twilight Zone. And from me that's a compliment.

Is the crooner Mel Torme? Was it Tracy Torme with you that night?
After all, Tracy wrote the screenplay for Fire in The Sky ( great movie!)
So maybe it was Travis Walton there also?

Of course if I am right, you won't be responding!

Hmmm. That's all I'm sayin'.

 

[zackiedawg]

OK, how about...Danny Thomas???

That one I can deny!

 

[zackiedawg]

Credit to the due diligence exercised by Perdidobay! I thought it might take longer for someone to get the crooner's son, and didn't expect many people to have seen the movie...by getting the movie, and working backwards, they've managed to get two of the characters identified...nicely done!

SPOILER ALERT!!

I figured I'd break down the fact & fiction of the story for anyone whose interested - just to point out those areas where I took a little artistic license and my inner writer took control.

I did indeed live in California, where I mentioned (the town was called Calabasas) and my father did live in the nearby Santa Monica mountains above Malibu and works in the entertainment industry. The description of my father is true as well, and we did have an ouija session with all of the characters present as described. The craziest part is - the entire ouija session description happened. Why? How? That's for each person to decide, but I didn't make any of the events up during the ouija session! The words spelled out, the speed of the pointer in our hands, the off-table movement, the fire in the kitchen, power failure, and coyotes - all happened as described. By the way, in seeing the Most Haunted show last week I noticed they had a round ouija board and were using a shot glass as a pointer. The board we were using was rectangular, with a 'yes' and 'no' at the top left & right, the letters laid out in three or four rows in a curve across the middle, and the numbers at the bottom. The board had little victorian moons and stars and such on it, and the pointer was a flat plastic hand with the index finger extended, which would 'point' at the letters.

I did add some flourish at the end of the story - as a writer I couldn't help but take the gorgeous opportunity to tie it up with a great Halloween touch. The malibu fires of 1993 were the worst in the town's history, and did break out on Nov 2...just a few days after Halloween. And that house was lost in the fires - though my father had moved out by then. The ouija party occurred actually sometime in 1989 - I can't recall the date, as it was not any special date. It was irresistable to move the ouija session to Halloween night, 1993, so the Malibu fires could claim the house shortly after...and added the 'Halloween' element to the story. And though my father does have several CDs by that crooner, I did make up the bit about 'Danny Boy' playing as the fires were revealed (again...irresistable Halloween touch). I did make sure that crooner indeed sang a version of Danny Boy, which he did, and that made the decision for me. My father had moved to Burbank to be closer to the studios, while I was still living in Calabasas. When the Malibu fires were raging, I was awaiting evacuation orders and not sleeping well as each night my place was lit orange by the glow of fires on the hilltops all around our valley. The fires burned down into our canyon, and within a few hundred yards of our buildings. I had my father's old house on my mind the entire time - wondering if it had gone up in flames, as that whole section of Malibu canyon seemed to be burning. Indeed in the aftermath, hundreds of homes were lost including that one, and of course significant fires had also burned in Palo Alto, Alta Vista, Big Bear, Chatsworth, and all around the Los Angeles basin. And not a few famous folks lost their homes too.

That ouija session was not the first in that house - I had been present for several of them, but never handled the pointer or took part - I was a distant observer. Most were much more tame, though some produced wild results in what they spelled out; as a skeptic, I always assumed someone was controlling the output, and had done some excellent research to prepare to stun everyone. Because the results were so wild, and led to weeks of looking up house records in city hall and digging through family albums (no internet in those days!!) connecting the dots, the ouija sessions became high-demand. I was finding it all very entertaining, but didn't believe any of it...so when the 'big' ouija party gathered, I decided to jump in on the action and be a handler...not knowing at the time just how nutty and physical that night was going to be. I still didn't come away a believer, but I also wasn't able to detect how any of these things were done, and would have to give mad props to someone if they pulled it all off with special effects and planning!

By the way, my description of the song being sung by the crooner was a hint at who it was...but probably only old folks like me would get the hint: "a lovely velvet-toned rendition of ‘Danny Boy’. That crooner had a well-known nickname back in those days!

 

[perdidobay]

Yup, That velvet voiced comment helped, as I am older (51) and remember the Velvet Fog well. I also was a fan of Night Court.

But to tell the truth, when anyone says "crooner" Mel is the first person that comes to my mind.

I loved Fire in The Sky and had read Travis Waltons book.
( Hey folks, it's a good movie to watch on halloween!)

A little google work and I find out that Mel's son was the screenwriter of Fire In The Sky.

Keep writing more for us, zackiedawg!

 

[Poohbear123]

Yup, That velvet voiced comment helped, as I am older (51) and remember the Velvet Fog well. I also was a fan of Night Court.

But to tell the truth, when anyone says "crooner" Mel is the first person that comes to my mind.

I loved Fire in The Sky and had read Travis Waltons book.
( Hey folks, it's a good movie to watch on halloween!)

A little google work and I find out that Mel's son was the screenwriter of Fire In The Sky.

Keep writing more for us, zackiedawg!

Ahhhh, now I know the REST of the Story! Had no idea about the screenwriter being Mel's Son, thats interesting, as I love tha movie and have seen it several times.

 

[DisneyTN]

zackiedawg, what an amazing story. Great attention to detail, building suspense, etc.
Very talented writer!

 

[missj1975]

Amazing story.

 

[Ride Junkie]

zackiedawg - Great story! Did you ever do any research to find out who Daniel was? Whether anyone had died in a fire in that area, etc? I'm curious to know who he was!

 

[zackiedawg]

zackiedawg - Great story! Did you ever do any research to find out who Daniel was? Whether anyone had died in a fire in that area, etc? I'm curious to know who he was!

Indeed - we did do some digging on the past records of that house, looking for the name of a previous residence, but could find no Daniels. Of course, fires are always burning through those areas long before people lived there, so as long as there have been residences, there have been fires, and some lost lives. I suppose if you believe in the spiritual stuff, Daniel wouldn't necessarily have had to live in that house - if he died in the canyon, or was responsible for fires in that area, that could explain the presence.

Of course, if it really was a bad or evil spirit, who's to say it would tell the truth about who it was? Daniel might not even be the true spirit's name!

 

[lttlmc3]

bump!

 

[SunnieRN]

While I am not the writer the op is, I have had several strange things happen in my life.
When I was 8 years old my great grandma Nonna came to visit. We had a wonderful two weeks together. Six months later she had to move to a rest home. I used to have dreams about my Nonna every night and she was crying, I told my Mom and Grandma that Nonna was scared and lonely. This went on for several weeks. I would ask my Mom if Nonna could come to live with us so she wouldn't be scared any more. Since she lived about two hours from us this didn't happen, as she was in the same town as two of her children and her sister.
One night I woke up and Nonna was standing next to my bed. I was so excited! She said "Lynnie it's 3:07 and I'm not sad or afraid anymore."
I said "Good Nonna! Are you moving here?"
She said "No, I came to say good night. Go wake up Mommy and tell her I'm o.k."
Of course I run to my Moms room, tell her Nonna is there and she wants me to tell her she is ok.
The phone then rang. It was my grandma and she told us Nonna had just died.

When I was about 12, my friends and I were all at one friends house. Our friend took out a Quija board and said we were going to try it.
Since it was a winter afternoon, and stormy no less it was already dusky outside. We closed the curtains and turned off all the lights. We took turns holding the pointer. Sometimes it would be two of us, sometimes more. We finally decided to try it with all of us touching it.(5 of us)
Up until this point we were getting silly answers. We were all giggling a bit and thought it was great fun.
Then our friend, who had taken out the board started shaking. When one of my friends asked her what was wrong, she picked up one of her hands and pointed to the fire place.
We all picked our hands up and looked at the fireplace, looked at our hands and didn't see anything.
The pointer started moving on its own. It kept spelling Raven.
We were very freaked out at this point and moved away from the board. We were asking our friend what was wrong with the fireplace. She couldn't speak, she just kept staring at it.
By now we were crying, shaking and afraid to leave, but even more frightened to stay.
Suddenly her Mom got home, came in the door, saw the board and the pointer moving, and yelled "Satan be gone".
The pointer literally flew into the air and out the front window, breaking the glass.
After we calmed down, my friend told us there was a baby in the fireplace. She said it was deformed, as if it had fallen from a long distance.
Her Mom started a fire in the fireplace and threw the board in. When it started to burn, there was a really strong wind that came down the fireplace from outside. It put out the fire. It actually took three fires to burn the board. They kept blowing out. After the board burned the fire stayed lit without a problem.
Definately too bizarre in my book.

 

[zackiedawg]

Wow...good one, Sunnie. That would be a seriously creepy situation with the ouija board! I think I'd be spending all day looking for the wires or magnets that someone used to rig that one up...because I wouldn't want to even think it might have been anything else.

Funny...these types of stories, including my own, make me recall a very funny Eddie Murphy comedy bit about haunted houses and ghosts...how white people stick around looking for answers and dealing with all these creepy things going on, but if it was a black couple things would be different: Husband: "Wow, honey, this is such a beautiful house, and we got such a great deal on it, I just love this house..." ghost interrupts: "GET OUT!" Husband quickly continuing "Too bad we can't stay". I'm out the door with Eddie on that one.

 

[SunnieRN]

My first nursing job was at a rural hospital in Northern CA. From the first night I worked there I started hearing about "Bill", which was the name everyone gave the mysterious happenings that occured there with regularity.
The hospital was built like a wagon wheel. There was a spoke in the center and the wings went out from the spoke.
Down one hall was med-surg. If you stood at the end of the hall near the spoke, at the other end was the extended care facility.
Being a small hospital, we were often minimally staffed. Even if there were no patients, there had to be at least one RN in the hospital. Lucky me.
One night my friend Carrie was in charge in the ext. care facility. It was just her and the aide, and 28 patients.
I told the receptionist I was going to go and help Carrie until any ER patients came along.
I went down the hall and a table fell over on my way down, The room was empty. Well, this scared me a bit, as I always used to worry about people trying to break in to steal narcotics. I called the receptionist and asked her to have the resp. therapist walk the hospital. He was about 5'11" and not afraid of anything much. A good guy to have in your corner for sure!
So I go back to the ext. care, with Carrie. There are two doors on this unit. It is L shaped with 4 private rooms, a nursing station and cafeteria/day room on the short side of the L, and 12 double rooms and two store rooms on the long side of the L, Each end of the L has a door that goes to the outside.
In the 4 private rooms there were 4 ladies. One was 98, one 97, one 104 and one 105. The lady who was 105 was in the last room, room 4. She had been bedbound for several years and couldn't get up. She had been in a car accident in her 90's and was a parapalegic. The rooms only had one door each that was on the main hall. They each had those skinny windows that were about 6" off the ground. They were only big enough for a child to fit through.
Carrie and I started chatting and she told me the aide was on her lunch break. About 15 min later the light goes on in the little 105 year olds room. Carrie and I look at eachother, figure it's the aide and that she will come and get us if she needs help.
A few min, later the resp. therapist comes to tell us everything is ok, but that not only the table was tipped over, but a bottle of hand washing soap had fallen off the wall. I figured the soap dispenser hit the table. No biggie, the maint. crew would be able to fix it in the morning.
In the meantime every window was locked and the doors were also! Good.
At about that time the resp. therapist leaves and the light goes off in room 4.
Hmmm we are visiting and it takes us a min. or two to realize that the aide didn't come out. Carrie yells down, "Suzy do you need any help?"
Well, Suzy doesn't answer. The light goes on again and we hear the toilet flush??!!??This poor sweet woman does NOT even move, let alone get out of a hospital bed over siderails, walk to the bathroom about 15' away, flush the toilet and go back to bed. In fact she doesn't even turn on her own light.
Carrie looks at me and says, "Go see who's there."
I look at her and say "Yea,right...YOU go see! I'm down here just to help out. You're in charge."
She says that we'll both go. Then she pulls a bat out from under the counter! I know I had a shocked look on my face. Then she hands me a broom. I ask if I can have the bat instead and she looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well...
We head down the hall. We're by room 3 and the light goes off in room 4 and the toilet flushes again.
We were both so scared we ran back to the nurses station. We tried to call the resp. therapist, but he had gone to pick up food (against regulation to leave without notifying someone, but since nothing much ever happened I guess he felt safe going).
Well needless to say we were scared, so being the chicken I am, we called the local police. They got there in about 2 min. Guess where they showed up? Yeppers, the door next to room 4.
We ran down, pushed open the door for them. They came in, we told them what was going on and they went in the room and turned on the light.
The bathroom walls were covered with fecal matter. The police officers look at us and say "It's just Bill, up to his old tricks again".
What??!! Again??!! Oh my gawd!! We told them about the table and the soap dispenser, they said that had to be Bill also. They also told us a few more Bill stories. And no, we hadn't been the first nurses to call them...and have it turn out to be Bill.
Well, after this guess who got to clean the bathroom? You guessed it, us.


I worked there about 6 more months. One time I had to bring my kids to spend the night as I worked a split shift. About 4 a.m. they come running to the nurses station in their pajamas. "Mom, you have to come and help the babies!!!!"
What babies? I'm thinking to myself, there haven't been babies here for at least 20 years. I was in charge, which meant I was covering e.r., noppers, no babies there tonight. Hmmm no other patients down that hall, so it wasn't the t.v. So I say to them, "It's o,k, girls, the babies went home now."
The girls didn't buy it, guess they could tell by my face, as well as the other nurses.
I found out the next morning that the room they were sleeping in used to be the nursery. A lot of other things happend also. I would be pretty creeped out by the time I left for home in the morning!
Where I work now in TX, the nurses that have been there for a long time tell me that they often see apirations in the hallways. I haven't yet...and actually hope I don't!