“It was the most surreal, exciting, and scary thing he had ever witnessed.”

I ran into the house trying to get out of the torrential rain that was about to destroy my umbrella.  It was one of those nasty storms we get here in the Northwest.

After checking my voice mail, I turned on the computer and was taken aback by an email address I hadn’t seen in years.  It was from Susan, an old, old girlfriend of mine from back in my University of Washington days.

Susan was one of those people whom you never really knew how she ticked, and I’m not so sure she ever knew herself.

We had dated for a little over two years, and although she was a joy to be around – and I don’t want to tell you about some of the crazy things we did together – she could be quite trying at times because she would vacillate from happy to sad to happy again, in a wink.

Anyway, Susan said she was going to be in Seattle in a couple of weeks and wanted to get together.  Funny thing is she didn’t bother to ask if I were married; frankly, I don’t think she cared.  She was a free spirit, and that was always part of her appeal.

As it was, I am married, but my wife, Edie, is not the jealous type and she didn’t hesitate to give her blessings.

The evening Susan and I had our mini-reunion, I had to admit it was wonderful seeing her again.  After twenty-two years, she hadn’t really changed much.  She was still trim and energetic, and I thought she was sparkling.

Now I remembered why I had put up with so much of her flakiness for so long in college.

The surprising thing, however, was a story she related to me.  She had come to Seattle to interview a doctor for a book she is writing.

The man is a well-known name in the medical industry and had just returned from a safari in Africa in which he saw a dead man come to life.  And he swears it’s true.  After checking out his sources, Susan believed him.

A local fisherman had been accidentally knocked unconscious and had fallen out of his small boat and drowned.  When his body was recovered a full three hours later, the doctor’s party happened to be there and he confirmed there were absolutely no signs of life in the man.

In fact, he said the man had been dead for quite a while.

However, a witch doctor put the dead man on a slab, began chanting, and dancing.  To the doctor’s amazement, the dead man started to regain color and started breathing.  He said it was the most surreal, exciting, and scary thing he had ever witnessed.

I had heard stories about these things because my hobby is paranormal activities, but I was always skeptical.  Not any more.

As for Susan, we renewed our friendship and the next time she’s in town, we’ll have her over for dinner.

B. Towne
Seattle, WA

“Arty was an old buddy from high school who had died years earlier.”

Arty and I used to hang out together.  We were the best of friends and he used to eat most of his meals with me and my family.

Arty was into motorcycles and tragically was killed when a passing car hit him head on.  He died instantly.

Everyone who knew him was devastated because he was the type of person who had no enemies.  He was likable, easygoing, and loyal to a fault.  It was this latter quality that may have caused his early demise.

You see, Arty sometimes hung out with the wrong crowd.  His cousin, Jamie, was not a particularly nice person, and, in fact, had more than one run in with the law.  But Arty felt that because he was related to Jamie, he owed him his loyalty and friendship.

I had warned him about getting too close to someone whose character was questionable, but Arty felt he could put Jamie on a straight path.  It turns out that the night Arty died, he was running an errand for his cousin, and they had been drinking earlier in the evening.

The autopsy showed Arty had a high level of alcohol in his blood, and the police report indicated that Arty’s motorcycle had possibly strayed into oncoming traffic.

Arty died a little over two years ago, but on more than one occasion, I have felt his presence, particularly late in the evening when I’m alone.

One night, I swear I saw the outline of his figure hovering over me when I was lying in bed.  Another time, I woke up to see the end of my mattress sink in as if someone was sitting on it.  And another time, the bedroom door slammed shut and I saw the outline of his figure again.  Yet the windows were closed and it couldn’t have been caused by a draft.

I miss Arty and somehow I feel his spirit feels it was done an injustice to which I heartily agree.

E. Passman
Erie, PA

“Maybe the spirits that infest that place had it in for only me.”

I want to relay a story that happened to me recently, and it was so strange I can hardly believe it myself.  So, if you are skeptical after you read this, well, I can’t really blame you.

My name is Martin and I am a contractor.  I build homes and I also refurbish homes as well.  I can take a fixer-upper and turn it around faster than almost anyone else in the business.  And it is this latter skill of mine that almost cost me my life a little over a month ago.

A young couple had contacted me, asking me to work on an old home they had recently purchased with the idea of fixing it up and selling it for a quick profit.  That being my specialty, I was happy to offer my services.

What I didn’t know was the place was haunted.

Well, I’ve never believed in that sort of thing, and when I was told that spirits inhabited the place and that a murder had occurred there a few decades earlier, I didn’t give it a thought.

When my crew started tearing down some walls and really getting into the thick of things, strange things started happening.

At first, the accidents were relatively harmless.  One of my workers tripped over a two by four and narrowly missed falling on a sharp piece of metal stuck in the ground.  An electrician got a pretty bad shock, but after a few moments he seemed to recover quickly.

It wasn’t until my ladder, for no reason whatsoever, seemed to be knocked from under me, leaving me literally hanging from the side of the roof.  It was then that I started to sense that forces beyond my comprehension were working against us.

I cautioned everyone to be extra careful and to work on the buddy system, to stay together and to be aware of any pitfalls.  But one afternoon when we were wrapping things up, I got the biggest scare of my life.

Without warning, the bathtub from the upstairs bathroom fell through the ceiling missing me by inches.

I can’t tell you how fast I got out of there, and I told the couple that I simply wouldn’t go back in the house.  I felt bad for them because it was a nice piece of property, but I’d bet my life it was haunted.

I’ve been told that they did have the work completed by another crew, and maybe the spirits that infest that place had it in for only me.  I’ll never know, and I don’t want to find out.

M. T. Gianetto
Orlando, FL