It’s the time of year when people’s thoughts turn to ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night.

Who knows, maybe that creaking door isn’t just moving by itself.

Maybe that chill in the air wasn’t just caused by the weather outside.

And maybe that old woman standing over your bed in that old hotel wasn’t just a bad dream.

Whether they believe in the afterlife or not, these people all had experiences they can’t explain.

Myself and my then-girlfriend were at my mother’s house, sitting on the sofa watching TV.

There was a mirror at right angles to the sofa, so it was impossible to see our own reflection in it from where we sat.

While we were watching TV my girlfriend screamed and said she saw me in the mirror winking at her.

I saw nothing but she refused to go in that room again.

That night we heard voices coming from downstairs even though we were home alone.

When I moved out I took the mirror with me: I was having a paranormal phase and wanted to keep it as an artifact.

That’s when things got weird.

We experienced a range of things: voices being heard, odd noises.

One time I was lying on the bed and something choked me.

My ex says she actually saw me press into the bed as if there was some force on my neck.

When the more aggressive stuff happened the place always filled up with cigar smoke, even though neither of us smoked.

‘I would just get the chills and feel sick’ (Rose)

When I was eight, my family moved into a house with a garage extension.

I hated that room; couldn’t have spent a night in there if my life depended on it.

If I was sent to fetch something from there I’d run in and out so fast; all the hair on my arms and the back of my neck would stand up and I would just get the chills and feel sick.

I couldn’t explain it; no one else in my family felt it or understood my reactions.

Several years later we had moved again and I met someone who used to live in the same street.

He said: ‘Oh yeah, you lived in the house where Dave’s dad killed himself.’

Apparently the previous owner had hung himself, in that room.

‘There was a child who cried in the cellar’ (Tamsin)

We used to live a pub in Norwich and it was haunted as f***.

We only managed to keep the flat livable by bringing in the cat to live there.

There was a child who cried in the cellar.

There was a priest hole in there and there were rumours it connected to the tunnels leading to the cathedral.

The pub has been renamed since and I’ve no idea if the issues continued, but I know people who worked there in the 1970s and apparently it was awful back then, too.

‘I went into the bedroom, but no-one was there’ (Sal)

I stepped out from the bathroom after washing my hair and a small girl ran through the landing of my house into the bedroom.

That was slightly confusing, as I have no children.

I went into the bedroom, but no-one was there.

I’ve gone into the bedroom before now and seen my dog apparently playing tug in there, but he has nothing in his mouth and there’s no one with him.

‘The pictures on the wall would fly off for no reason’ (Louise)

I moved into my house 25 years ago.

The doors would slam shut on their own when I had an argument with my then boyfriend, the pictures on the wall would fly off for no reason and stuff used to move about.

Since having building work done it’s been calmer, but the pictures on the wall are still constantly being moved sideways.

‘I chased after it but found nothing’ (Steven)

I worked at a small family-run hotel.

Other night porters had mentioned a ghost but I’d done dozens of shifts and experienced nothing.

Then I was sitting in reception one night with my feet up on the desk watching telly when I heard heavy steps running down the staircase behind me.

Assuming it was the owner’s son trying to catch me skiving, my feet came off the desk and I quickly spun round on the chair.

I saw a human-sized shadow rush past and into the cocktail bar.

I chased after it but found nothing.

There was nowhere for anyone to go.

‘I heard her, through the baby monitor’ (Marie)

I was a friend’s house and we were having a cuppa while her baby slept upstairs.

We both heard her front gate open and footsteps on the stairs, as if someone had come in.

The footsteps went upstairs then nothing, so we put it down to imagination.

Later, my friend went upstairs to the loo and I needed to go, so was listening out for her coming out the bathroom.

I heard her, through the baby monitor, checking on the baby and saying ‘shhhh’, so I went up, only to find she was still in the bathroom.

She hadn’t checked the baby.

‘Things moving, doors banging open, creeping cold spots’ (Chris)

My family home is a 1930s council house and we’ve lived there since 1970.

The night we moved in my dad put his heavy watch beside his bed.

When he woke up next morning it had been dismantled.

He said it looked like someone had taken a lump hammer to it.

While he was asleep, 12 inches from his head.

After that we lived with all sorts of weird stuff.

Things moving, doors banging open, creeping cold spots and even dog paw prints on the ceiling; we didn’t have a dog.

I’ve been seeing ghosts since I was about five.

I see people, and once a whole street of people, in a glance that go quick as blinking.

I don’t believe in souls and spirits, though.

I think it’s more like a moment that replays itself.

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Violet Fenn

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