Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

In the village I used to live in, quite a frightening rumor used to go around which I seem to remember only taking momentum in the weeks leading up to Halloween, although some of the children used to argue that the rumors went on years before, when their parents were at school.

It was about an old house which was plonked on the edge of a farm and backed with forest, half a mile from where I used to live. It was the kind of old house that’s bricks were so much into decay they were crumbling, blackening and large portions were completely covered in moss. To most of children there, it was perfect for basing ghost stories around. The fact nobody lived there made it all the more exciting.

To even get a decent look at the front of the house, you had to walk up a narrow footpath which led into the woods only to be faced with a garden so overgrown with grass and nettles and other plants which had died, you couldn’t see the downstairs windows at all. Looking at it would make your skin crawl.

According to the rumor, you have to stand at the door and chant a name ‘Freddie Skinner’ five times then knock on the door. Then you have to run back out of the garden before the ghost of Freddie opens the door and chases you. It was later added that this had to be done when it was dark. Everyone had the supernatural on their brains at this time, so the rumor quickly spread round the school.

One afternoon, during a lunch break, some friends got into an argument over the validity of it which ended in Ethan, a boy who lived on my block, being challenged to go and do it to prove that he didn’t believe ghosts were real. This was casually accepted even though I and not many others believed they would turn up. That night however, my friend knocked on my door telling me they were actually going to do it and were making their way there.

In less than twenty minutes we raced up there on out bikes to see Ethan there with some of our classmates, boys I hadn’t seen before and group of older kids. They began to wade through the grass and we stood gasping or in complete silence and shivering in the cold and semi-darkness. At the point where we could only see their heads in the weeds I glanced up to one of the bedroom windows and noticed something white, like a curtain moving in the window. I nudged whoever was closest to me and pointed up to the window.

We all took a few steps back staring at it in fascination and apprehension, when all of a sudden the curtain began to bulge from one side. We all quickly made out the bulge was a face staring blankly out at us. People began to back off and started shrieking; “It’s a face!” It was a face, easily. I was standing at the back and I could see the eye-shadows, and then a torso. A girl next to me started crying and some people said they were leaving. It was there for a few moments before it turned to the side and then disappeared.

From the overgrowth we could see the top of the door swing open and people began screaming louder for them to get out. I think we were all under the impression they had opened the door themselves. Something bustled in the grass and people began to race back up the path. It was Ethan and his friends screaming at us to run, then suddenly the top of the door again slam shut with a loud bang and then we all pelted up the path.

When we got back into the cul-de-sac of one of the estates, Ethan told us that he’d done it exactly how you were supposed to and that the door had swung open which made them scarper out. As you would imagine, no teacher or parent believed us or at the least they believed we believed what we saw and the following week, I’d heard some other kids had gone to investigate the rumor for themselves and nothing had happened, but I know what I saw.

I know when people are scared in a group anything can be exaggerated, but this was the real thing and even now when I’m walking passed a house and I see someone standing in a window and flinch and remember that night.

Sent in by Harriet, Copyright 2011 TrueGhostTales.com