Rented split-entry house: orbs, mist, whispers and a white figure on the stairs
[name withheld], a caller from New Hampshire, tells Art Bell about strange events the caller says began on the first night their family moved into a rented split-entry house about twenty-three years earlier, when they were sixteen. The caller reports a dream of an old man with hollowed-out eyes, then waking to balls of light zigzagging through their room. Later came a mist and cold in the hallway, whispering and footsteps at night, a face staring over their shoulder at the computer, and a white figure with bulging eyes on the stairs. The caller says their brother [name withheld] reported the same experiences. The host ends this part of the broadcast by telling the caller they are haunted.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 2013.mp3”, starting at 2:07:24). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, addressed by the host as [name withheld] from New Hampshire, says the story began about twenty-three years earlier (roughly the early 1990s). Their father rented a split-entry house with cathedral ceilings from his boss, and the family moved in. The caller says the first night there was “quite bad.” The caller dreamed of coming up onto the back porch deck and seeing an old man sitting at a table who, turning around, had hollowed-out eyes and rotten teeth. The caller says they woke wide awake and saw large balls of light with long tails zigzagging through their room. The caller did not tell anyone at first, they say, because they were sixteen and their father, an atheist and Vietnam veteran, did not believe in such things. The caller reports that at night they were afraid to get up to use the bathroom. A giant mist would be moving down the hallway, and the hallway was freezing cold. While in the bathroom they could hear whispering and footsteps all through the house. The caller notes they are summarizing a long story and says they are [quote withheld] The caller describes another occasion, using an old computer around 11 p.m., when they looked up and saw a twisted face staring over their shoulder. The caller describes its eyes as red but not glowing, with reptile-like pupils, and they jumped out of their chair. The caller says they eventually told their parents, who thought they were losing their mind. The caller later told their brother [name withheld], who the caller says had been experiencing the same things: faces, screens, and figures in the house. The caller says that they went down to the furnished basement laundry room and, coming back up, heard their name whispered. They ran upstairs and turned to see a white figure with bulging eyes. The caller begins comparing the figure to UFO imagery and is cut off by the host, who asserts that the caller is haunted and that moving would not help. No location beyond the state, no address, and no documentation are given.
Reported events, in order
- 0:07
The caller says the story began about twenty-three years earlier, when their father rented a split-entry house from his boss.
- 0:24
The caller says the first night in the house was “quite bad.”
- 0:31
The caller describes a dream of coming up onto the back porch deck and seeing an old man at a table whose eyes were hollowed out and teeth rotten.
- 1:02
The caller says they woke wide awake and saw giant balls of light with long tails zigzagging through their room.
- 1:38
The caller says they told no one at first. They were sixteen, and their father was an atheist and Vietnam veteran who did not believe in such things.
- 2:32
The caller says they were afraid to get up to use the bathroom at night because of a giant mist moving down the hallway and the hallway being freezing cold.
- 2:51
The caller says that while in the bathroom they heard whispering and footsteps all through the house.
- 3:01
The caller says they are summarizing a long story and are [quote withheld]
- 3:37
The caller describes using an old computer around 11 p.m. and looking up to see a twisted face staring over their shoulder, with red, non-glowing, reptile-like pupils.
- 4:07
The caller says they eventually told their parents, who thought they were losing their mind.
- 4:19
The caller says they finally spoke to their brother [name withheld] and found [name withheld] had been experiencing the same things: faces, screens, and figures in the house.
- 4:36
The caller describes going down to the furnished basement laundry room, hearing their name whispered on the way back up, running upstairs, and turning to see a white figure with bulging eyes.
- 4:59
The caller begins comparing the figure to UFO-related images but is cut off by the host, who tells the caller they are haunted.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 0:40
In a dream on their first night in the house, the caller says, they saw an old man seated at a table on the back porch.
- observation· 0:46
The caller says that when the man in the dream turned, his eyes were hollowed out and gone.
- observation· 1:02
The caller says that on waking they were wide awake and saw large balls of light zigzagging through their room.
- observation· 2:32
The caller says a giant mist would be moving down the main-floor hallway at night and that the hallway was freezing cold.
- observation· 2:51
The caller says that while using the bathroom at night they could hear whispering and footsteps throughout the house.
- observation· 3:37
The caller says that while writing at their computer around 11 p.m. they looked up and saw a twisted face staring over their shoulder.
- observation· 3:52
The caller describes the eyes they saw as red but not glowing, with reptile-like pupils.
- hearsay· 4:22
The caller says their brother [name withheld] told the caller he had been experiencing the same thing: faces, screens, and figures in the house.
- observation· 4:42
The caller says that coming up from the basement laundry room they heard their name whispered and, turning, saw a white figure with bulging eyes.
- observation· 4:46
The caller says they saw a white figure with bulging eyes on the stairs.
- host statement· 5:00
The host states that the caller is haunted and that moving would not help.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a clear, reasonably detailed first-person story that keeps a consistent sequence and some concrete home detail. But no one backs it up, it has no checkable specifics, and parts of it fit ordinary explanations based on sleep or house noise. That places it at the upper part of the [quote withheld] range rather than higher.
Evidence for and against
- A firsthand, continuous first-person story with a coherent order of events (move-in night, later nights, later computer period).
- Concrete incidental detail: split-entry house with cathedral ceilings and a large deck, bathroom trips at night, basement laundry room, old computers, around 11 p.m.
- The caller gives their age (sixteen), a timeframe (about twenty-three years earlier), and a named relative (brother [name withheld]).
- The caller separates their dream from their waking experience ([quote withheld]).
- No checkable specifics: the town, the house, the employer, and the brother are not identified in any way that could be verified.
- The first night's sequence, a vivid dream of a figure followed by lights seen right after waking, fits dream imagery carrying into waking reasonably well.
- Backing from others is only claimed. The brother never speaks, and nothing is examined.
- Several passages are garbled by the transcription (“this twisted space,” [quote withheld]), so some reported content is uncertain.
- It is unclear from the transcript whether “this twisted space” and “faces and screens” refer to faces, screens, or something else.
- The caller is cut off before completing their comparison of the figure to UFO imagery.
- 1:02
- 2:00
- 3:01
What the model inferred (not said on air): Component scoring is my editorial judgment: proximity about 20 (firsthand direct witness), specificity about 12 (concrete texture but nothing independently locatable), consistency about 14, alternative explanations about 9 (sleep-related and house-noise possibilities fit parts of it), calibration about 9 (the caller flags the dream as a dream but otherwise does not weigh alternatives).
This falls in the range for [quote withheld] A named relative is said to have shared the experiences, but nothing was examined and no second witness speaks. The cap of 50 for stories backed only by a transcript is not approached.
Evidence for and against
- A named claimed witness (brother [name withheld]) is reported as having the same experiences.
- A rough timeframe (about twenty-three years before 2013) and some context (age sixteen, rented split-entry house, father's Vietnam service).
- No photographs, recordings, documents, marks, or other physical evidence are claimed to exist.
- The one claimed second witness (the brother) does not appear on air, and his experience is reported secondhand.
- Nothing in the story can be checked from the transcript.
- Even the brother's role rests entirely on the caller's report of their conversation.
- 4:22
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score reflects the absence of examined evidence, not any view about the caller's truthfulness.
The story is unsettling rather than gory: a frightened sixteen-year-old, a home intruded on at night, several grotesque images, and a stated continuation into the present, ending unresolved. It lacks direct threat or physical harm, so it sits above “genuinely unsettling” but below the most frightening tier.
Evidence for and against
- Intrusion into a home and a teenager's bedroom. The caller says they were “terrified” and afraid to get up at night.
- Vivid imagery: hollowed-out eyes, rotten teeth, reptile-like pupils, a white figure with bulging eyes.
- Escalation and persistence: the caller says they are [quote withheld]
- An unresolved ending, with the host asserting the caller is haunted wherever they go.
- No reported injury, physical harm, or threat directed at anyone.
- Much of the activity is sound and atmosphere rather than confrontation: mist, cold, whispers, footsteps.
- There is no gore or bodily horror beyond the dream image of hollow eyes and rotten teeth.
- Several of the most vivid images (the dream figure, the over-the-shoulder face) are described only briefly before the caller moves on or is cut off.
- 0:46
- 4:46
- 3:01
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a judgment about the story's effect on a listener, not about whether anything happened.
A familiar haunted-house structure carries one or two unusual details, notably the reptile-like pupils over the shoulder at the computer and the hollow-eyed man in the opening dream. That fits a mid-range score: familiar frame plus distinctive detail.
Evidence for and against
- The opening dream image of an old man at a table whose eyes are hollowed out is a fairly distinctive detail.
- The over-the-shoulder “twisted” face at an old personal computer, with non-glowing red eyes and reptile-like pupils, is an unusual placement and description.
- A haunting said to follow the caller rather than stay with the house, as the host frames it.
- The frame is very familiar: a family moves into a rented house and experiences mist, cold, whispers, footsteps, and a white figure.
- Individual elements (cold hallway, whispering, footsteps, name called, white figure on the stairs) are stock haunted-house motifs.
- The caller says they are summarizing a long story, so distinctive material may have been left out.
- 3:52
- 0:46
What the model inferred (not said on air): The published originality score is computed compared with the rest of this archive. With a small archive, the model value dominates, and the score should be treated as provisional.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand story by telephone (a single unbroken telling, in places summarized by the caller); A claimed second witness (the caller's brother [name withheld]), who does not speak on air; No photographs, recordings, documents, or physical traces claimed or examined. The originality score blends the model's score (55) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- The first night's dream and the lights seen right after waking may be dream imagery carrying over into waking perception, the kind of experience people have while falling asleep or while waking up. · The caller says the first events came right after waking ([quote withheld]), and they follow a vivid dream of an old man. That pattern fits the imagery people sometimes see while waking up.
- Whispering, footsteps, and the cold hallway could be ordinary house noises (settling, plumbing, air movement) and drafts in a large, unfamiliar multilevel house, read in light of a frightening first night. · The reported events are sounds and temperature in an unfamiliar, large house the family had just moved into ([quote withheld]), occurring at night when the building is quiet.
What stands out
The story mixes a dream figure with a waking sighting on the very first night. The later over-the-shoulder face at an old personal computer is described with red but non-glowing, reptile-like pupils. The host frames the reported events as following the caller rather than being tied to the house.
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