A child sees it
A deceased man at the foot of the bed in a family funeral home
The host reads a letter from [name withheld] in Morris Plains, New Jersey, describing the writer's childhood in a family funeral home during World War II. The writer says they felt watched by an older man's body in the casket showroom, and later woke to see him standing at the foot of their bed. The letter ends with the writer's theory that the man was a child molester who could not adjust to death and their hope that he stays buried.
Evil presence, a figure saying “I want you,” and strange events ending after a house fire
[name withheld] from Harrisburg, Oregon, calls to describe a series of experiences in their house. They include a feeling of evil in the bedroom, a touch across their feet, and a hiss around 3 a.m. The caller also reports that their husband saw a figure in the doorway and later heard it say “I want you.” The caller links the activity to witchcraft books found upstairs. After an upstairs house fire and a remodel, the caller says, nothing has happened since.
Glowing green clothed skeleton in Navy housing and a stepfather’s change
A caller the host addresses as [name withheld], calling from San Diego, describes an incident in Navy housing in 1971 (later said to be 1974). They say they saw a luminescent green, fully clothed skeleton with an evil grin inside their bedcovers while they were unable to move. They say they later learned the previous tenant, a man, had died driving home from hunting, matching the hunting cap and jacket they say the figure wore. They link the sighting to a lasting change for the worse in their stepfather’s personality. The host suggests that the figure inhabited the stepfather, and the caller says they believe so. The caller ends with a brief remark that their late mother visits them.
Basement door, a shared dream, and a slow-burning teddy bear in a country home
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Dayton, Ohio, describes several “spooky moments” in a country home that the caller and their husband bought in the mid-1970s. A basement door opened by itself each evening at supper time. Their son said something was coming into his room. One night the caller and their husband reportedly shared the same vision of their daughter being raised out of bed and slammed to the floor. They found the daughter asleep and unharmed on the floor. They concluded there was an entity in the home. They blessed the rooms with holy water and burned a handmade teddy bear the caller distrusted, which, the caller says, took hours to burn. The caller says they left the house with their children a few months later.
Footsteps, a shadow at noon, and a voice saying “your brother” in an Alameda house
A caller from Alameda, California, tells Art Bell that she and her five children were hearing slamming doors, footsteps, and other disturbances in a large old house. She says each of them had kept it from the others. She reports a shadow that appeared in daylight, an unsuccessful first appeal to a priest, and a house blessing. Finally, she says, a voice said “your brother.” She then learned her brother had died about two months earlier.
A bull-shaped figure at the bedroom door and a sensation of being smothered
A caller describes an event they say happened when they were about seven years old. The caller says they woke at night to see a bull, which they call a demon, standing at their open bedroom door, and then struggled in bed, unable to scream or breathe. The caller reports praying for it to be taken away, after which they say it let go and never returned. The caller says their father, who came in after they screamed, did not believe them.
Bed trembling, a whispered name, and shadows after a grandmother’s death
A caller phoning from Wabash, Indiana, describes events they say began about 1989. Their then-wife’s grandmother was found dead in her garage in East Tennessee, and the family’s suspicions fell on the wife’s father, [name withheld]. The caller says that in their Middle Tennessee home, the children saw something in their bedroom and their wife saw shadows. The caller felt their bed shake, felt someone move their hair and sit on the bed, and heard a whisper of the name “[name withheld].” They say the activity stopped the day [name withheld] died in a car accident. The caller says they believe the grandmother was telling them [name withheld] killed her.
Cold spot, woman, and giant arm during a church overnight
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], in Pearl, Mississippi, tells Art Bell about a night they and about half a dozen friends spent in their church at the end of a summer. The caller reports a cold spot, a woman seen in the hallway, a huge arm reaching around a classroom door, a moving white pattern on a window, and a face with glowing eyes before the group fled and huddled together. The caller says nothing else happened that night and that they are the only one who has told anyone. The caller thinks the beings were angelic and demonic rather than the dead.
Daughters’ dreams of a “red lady” in a sublet house where a suicide occurred
A caller who gives their name as Nathan, from Sacramento, tells Art Bell that about fifteen years earlier, while their family sublet a house for a summer, both of their four-year-old daughters reported dreaming of a “red lady” in their room. Before moving out, the caller says, neighbors told the family that the previous owner’s wife had killed herself in that same children’s room. The caller explains the dreams as leftover energy from the death. The host adds his own view that suicides tend to remain behind, and the call ends with the host thanking the caller.
Caller [name withheld] says he and his twin saw their mother’s head float down the hallway
A caller who gives his first name as [name withheld], and who says he is in Colorado Springs, tells Art Bell that as a child he and his twin brother both woke and found their mother after a suicide attempt. That night, he says, lying awake in bed, he saw his mother’s head, with nothing below the neck, move down the hallway toward him and grow larger as it came. He says he only recently learned that his twin brother saw the same thing. The transcript never states whether their mother survived.
Granddaughter reports two black figures at a friend's house
A caller the host identifies as [quote withheld] says her adopted 10-year-old granddaughter went to a friend's house for a sleepover. The next morning the girl called, demanding to be picked up. She later described two black figures in that house, something breathing in her ear, being pulled by the ankle, and a presence behind the shower curtain. The grandmother says she herself saw nothing. She telephoned the friend, who “completely fell apart,” and the girl stayed frightened for months. The story ends with the girl sleeping beside the grandmother's bed and a change of shower curtain.
Laughing in the basement, a woman in white, and shadow figures in a family home
A caller who gives the name “[name withheld]” and says they are on Long Island, New York, describes a series of incidents the caller attributes to their family home. They begin at age four, when the caller heard laughing from the basement while their sister was outside, and continue through their teens. The caller reports unexplained walking overhead at night and a woman in a long white gown at the edge of their parents’ bed. The caller also reports a voice and television sound in an empty house, and two small hatted shadow figures at their bedroom door followed by something grabbing their feet. The host cuts the call short and ends the segment.
53 more stories
- Vanishing woman in a long gingham dress on a Georgia country road3 min
- Rented Ohio mining-town house: footsteps, greyhounds, and a man at the door3 min
- Caller relays aunt’s story of a goat-like figure and hoof prints in an Ohio cellar4 min
- Daughter’s invisible friend Daggett and a cold chair in a Kansas City-area house3 min
- Shadowy figure bows silently, then a phone call confirms a grandfather’s death4 min
- Childhood sighting of a semi-transparent cocktail party in a Minneapolis apartment6 min
- Previous owner’s presence, baked smell and rearranged dishes in an estate-sale house4 min
- Letter: A figure in white and a toddler’s “lady in the white dress”2 min
- Figure at foot of bed walks through bedroom wall, father’s childhood story2 min
- A child sees a man in a recliner, and the recliner's footrest moves by itself3 min
- Children startle a transparent figure in an unfinished basement4 min
- Shadowy figure with red eyes beneath a son’s bed1 min
- Childhood “imaginary friend” Sam reported seen by family in mother’s house4 min
- Child’s night visitor “[name withheld]” matched to a gravestone and a photograph5 min
- Woman in a rocking chair beside an infant’s crib in a rented farmhouse2 min
- Child reports a man drinking in the window of an empty neighboring house3 min
- Glowing faceless figure at the foot of the bed and a golf ball next morning4 min
- Woman in one color seen at a childhood bedroom window on Long Island3 min
- Caller recalls being born dead and watching from the ceiling4 min
- Caller relays friend’s account of two headless men in black suits crossing a field3 min
- Woman in white in their daughter's doorway who moved with the family4 min
- Voices, a child's closet figure, and shadows seen in a Pahrump single-wide2 min
- Girl in white dress at the foot of the bed in a Sacramento house2 min
- Child reports transparent man in buckle shoes in grandmother’s hallway3 min
- Tall hooded figure with a black face reported at age ten2 min
- A hooded figure at a California motel, later described by the writer’s son2 min
- Door closes and room turns cold as a child greets his late mother3 min
- Tall shadow figure in a bowler hat gliding through a grandmother’s basement4 min
- Daughter’s imaginary friend “Roger” and the cigarette butts in the garden3 min
- Toddler asks to give a french fry to a man on the staircase in Guam2 min
- An old man in coveralls pointing at a light switch in a Western Washington cabin2 min