Door opens or closes
Dark woman from the attic and phantom table-setting in a childhood home
A caller tells Art Bell about a childhood haunting in their family home. The caller says they and their brother were visited at night by a dark female figure they called the doll stall woman, who came down from the attic through a closet. They later heard table-setting sounds and saw white legs in old-fashioned pajamas moving around the dining table. Then a spirit entered their room and grabbed their legs. The caller says this is the first time they have told anyone about it.
Ghost of a murdered upstairs neighbor in a rented downstairs house
A caller the host introduces as [quote withheld] says they rented the downstairs of an older house, where a door resisted closing in a way they read as a warning. They report that they later heard, from below, a man beat the upstairs woman to death. They then saw her ghost in their bedroom telling them not to come up to help. Police came the next day. The caller ends by saying she gave them strength and that they are ready if evil comes again.
Black dog rising out of a sleeping wife in a bedroom lit by a store sign
In a letter read on air by Art Bell and credited to [quote withheld] the writer says that several years earlier they were lying in bed beside their then-wife when they saw something black rise up out of her body. The writer says it formed into a black dog with glowing yellow eyes, which took its time to fade away after they screamed. The writer says the dog never reappeared. The writer adds that sad events followed, most notably learning that their wife [name withheld] had been cheating on them.
Woman in black, locked doors, and a priest's blessing in a Dodge City rental
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Sumner, Washington, describes a house their family moved into in Dodge City, Kansas, about fifteen years earlier. The caller reports flooding, a woman in a black dress seen by their daughter, doors that shut and locked family members in, whispering, a fetal-position stain on the carpet, and footsteps on the stairs. After researching records, the caller and their sister concluded that an elderly former resident was earthbound. A priest blessed the house and fell ill. The caller says they later blessed it themselves and believes the woman went to the light.
Ghost drums at a reenactor rendezvous at Fort Ouachita
[name withheld], calling from the Springfield, Missouri Ozarks, says they are a Cherokee historic reenactor. They describe an eleven-day rendezvous in 1994 at Fort Ouachita, Oklahoma, an old Confederate fort and cemetery. After most camps left on Sunday, the caller and their husband stayed overnight. The caller reports fear, birds screaming at midnight, ghost drums, waves of ghosts, dress jingles, a moved teepee door, and a fire that went out cold. The host closes with comments, and the story ends without resolution.
Ghost with a bone knife in a father-in-law’s Florida house
A caller who gives their current location as southeastern Oregon tells Art Bell that about fifteen or sixteen years earlier, when they were roughly twenty and newly married, they saw a figure in a ceremonial headdress enter the back room of their father-in-law’s house in central Florida and raise a bone knife toward them. They report screaming and reaching out, after which the figure was gone, and a search of the house found no intruder. They say they later understood it as a ceremonial sacrifice. They also say they later learned the area had once been Seminole and Creek hunting ground and a reservation for tribes moved into the tip of Florida.
Six nights in an abandoned rural house: Odors, Ouija board, and footsteps
A caller who says they are a county fraud investigator tells Art Bell they spent six nights with their girlfriend and her daughter in an unoccupied house about 25 miles up a dirt road in Northern California. Local people had told them it was haunted. They report a rotting-flesh smell, cold spots, a chair that flew back and injured the girlfriend’s knee, a door handle turning, footsteps and a slammed door upstairs, a child’s “help me” captured on a tape recorder, and orbs in several hundred photographs. The call ends with the host asking for the caller’s e-mail and website link.
Letter: Transparent figure of a deceased grandfather in a spare bedroom
A letter from a writer the host identifies as “[name withheld]” from Springfield, Illinois, read aloud on air, describes seeing a transparent figure resembling their grandfather coming out of a wall in a spare bedroom about three weeks after his death in February 1978. They say they told no one at the time. They say that twenty years ago they learned their son had seen the same ghost roughly three months later in a front bedroom. They also report other family members seeing dark forms and lights and doors behaving oddly. The letter ends with the writer saying they will never know whether it was a ghost or a demon, but that they believe they saw it.
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.
Letter: Crying child and a locked room in a Victorian university office
The host reads a letter attributed to [quote withheld] In it, the writer says they worked in the 1980s for a university journalism department housed in an old off-campus Victorian building. They report hearing a child crying that they could never find, a chilling cold on the stairs, and a third-floor door they could not unlock. The letter ends with a friend opening the door, a child’s footprint in dust, a cold vortex on the stairs, and a psychic’s story of a boy’s fatal fall and his mother’s imprisonment there.
Dark cloud and disturbances at a remote lakeside recording studio in Oklahoma
Art Bell reads a letter on air from a fellow ham named [name withheld], who says they built and ran a recording studio for a well-known rock star in eastern Oklahoma. [name withheld] describes a malevolent dark cloud that appeared in their room one night. [name withheld] also describes later disturbances that drove the first guests away from the finished studio. The letter ends with the “spirit” said to make life hell for anyone it disliked.
74 more stories
- Storage-room door opens in an old Pittsburgh house, 19563 min
- Electrical outlets burning out and a sticking door in a Marinwood house3 min
- Intruder-shaped silhouette ascends and vanishes after a Ouija session3 min
- Red eyes in a tree, a transforming figure, and a drive-by rescue4 min
- Doorbell rings and scent of roses after a son's death2 min
- Wife describes two weeks of episodes and a moving kitchen cabinet door2 min
- Childhood home in Granite City, Illinois, with flying plates and slamming doors4 min
- A girl's laughter and a slamming door in a rented trailer in Cookville, Tennessee2 min
- Caller reports thirty-six years of shadows, moving doors, and lamps in a house tied to fires3 min
- House spirit, a child's great-grandfather, and keys turning in the lock3 min
- Basement door latch flips open on its own in a Missouri lake house2 min
- Mobile home on the Barlow Trail: missing objects, faint figures, and a door that flew open5 min
- Flickering lights, a name called, and faint music at a movie theater after a projectionist's death3 min
- Clawed touching in bed and being pushed into a closet53 s
- Furnished apartment of a deceased tenant and a door held shut7 min
- An 1880 house with chairs moving, a door opening, and rose and tobacco scents3 min
- Fax: Root beer carried down stairs by itself at a 40-day memorial gathering1 min
- Moved tables and wheelchairs in an American Legion hall in Bremerton3 min
- Children startle a transparent figure in an unfinished basement4 min
- Missing items and a refilled coffee cup in a former funeral home in Providence3 min
- Caller’s secondhand story of a figure on the stairs in a Salem house3 min
- House lights, pounding, and a whispered encouragement in a junior high theater5 min
- Silhouette with red eyes in a South Dakota basement5 min
- Shadowy figure at the door of a Nebraska church parsonage bedroom3 min
- Lights, a door, and voices in a boarded-up plantation house outside New Orleans6 min
- Windows, doors, lights, and pounding in a previous house15 s
- Locked bedroom door found ripped from its hinges in an old Detroit house1 min
- Man in a hat seen at window and bedside in a Nebraska rental house7 min
- Disappearing objects and a front door that opened by itself in an old house6 min
- A moving cold spot and a self-operating elevator in a suburban restaurant8 min
- Reported music, elevator doors, and a rooftop push in a Saskatoon hotel building6 min
- Noises of a file cabinet being ransacked below a Plymouth, New Hampshire apartment2 min
- Banging, moved objects, and a statue’s eyes at an abandoned courthouse10 min
- Childhood closet and bedroom doors, a green light, and paralysis3 min
- Footsteps and wet footprints in a Route 66 service station2 min
- Unseen runner and a struck fence at an abandoned slaughterhouse4 min
- Gray figure and male scream in a rented Union, Missouri house4 min
- A door, a figure on a cross, and footsteps in a rented 110-year-old house in Paw Paw, Michigan6 min
- Twin's grandfather reportedly announces brother alive and trapped in Vietnam6 min
- Music box sounds at close range and a smashed attic door in a house-sitting stay2 min
- Fireplace doors, an orb, and moaning in a Branson-area bed and breakfast4 min
- Pitchfork reportedly pushes open a closet door in an abandoned house2 min
- Poltergeist activity in a shared Fargo house and a butcher knife in bed4 min
- A young boy reported by residents at a Maryland assisted living facility4 min
- Caller reports kitchen door and brother’s voice four hours after his death5 min
- A nursing home elevator reported running by itself and attributed to a resident named [name withheld]4 min
- Pool cues, an eight ball, and a front door that opened and slammed4 min
- A deadbolted fire door opening repeatedly, and a child seen in a window at a state institution10 min
- Ouija board at parents' restaurant and blue flashes from a mirror3 min
- A radio station at 666 Main Street, Deadwood, and a ghost called Doc Smiley4 min
- Weights restacked in a lighthouse exercise room5 min