Doorway
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.
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.
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.
A horned, red-eyed figure at the foot of the bed and a friend’s matching story
An unnamed first-time caller tells Art Bell that they woke to see a huge horned figure with bright red eyes at the foot of their bed and in their doorway. When they said “in the name” of Jesus, “be gone,” it walked back through the door and faded away. The caller reports that a friend later described the same figure, with “horns” like a Viking cap, and that the two discovered a shared ancestor in Ireland. The caller sees such figures as demonic manifestations rather than ghosts.
Caller describes a black void figure entering a childhood bedroom
A caller who gives their name as [quote withheld] tells Art Bell about something they say they saw as a child of about seven or eight, when they shared a bedroom with their sister. They describe a black head with no dimensions coming through the bedroom door at head height. Then they saw a full black figure with a round, mannequin-like head and arms ending in long tendrils. It moved like a tiptoeing burglar. They say they felt a presence of evil. They claim the thing was “from hell.” Art Bell then calls it classically like a shadow person story.
Invisible force pulls caller by the arm at their grandmother's doorway
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from San Antonio, Texas, tells Art Bell that many years earlier, at their grandmother’s house, an invisible force grabbed their arm at the doorway, burned it, and pulled them up off the ground. A dog barked and family members struggled to hold them. The caller says their mother and grandmother were drawn into the tug-of-war, and that their grandmother’s words and knife-waving made the force let go, leaving three long red marks on their arm. The caller sees the episode as demonic and says it started their ongoing search for what they call the third dimension.
A former priest blesses the house of a dead radio singer
In a letter read on air by the host, the writer says they were an Eastern Orthodox priest for many years. They describe a 1974 case. A close friend's father, said to have been a popular radio singer and guitar player in the 1940s, died alone of a heart attack. About two months later the friend's mother reported hearing her dead ex-husband singing, seeing him in a rocking chair, and feeling pinches that left welts. The letter writer says they blessed the house with holy water. During the bedroom blessing the mother was thrown backward into the hallway. The writer says they saw welts on her legs afterward, and that the problems stopped after the blessing.
Gray figure and male scream in a rented Union, Missouri house
A caller who gives their name as “[name withheld],” from Union, Missouri, tells Art Bell that the previous June their family moved into an older rented house. The caller says they saw a smoky gray figure of a man and heard a scream from the house. The family left that night but returned about a week later for financial reasons. They reportedly experienced a rattling door, a second scream from the basement, and a sudden cold before moving out about two weeks later.
Truck driver and their wife report the same presence in a one-bedroom apartment
An unnamed caller who says they are an overnight truck driver, on the line from [quote withheld] tells Art Bell that a couple of weeks earlier they saw a ghost in front of their closed bedroom door at about 2 a.m. while sitting at their computer. The next morning, they say, their wife described a being in her room at the same hour, shaking her bed and leaving her frozen and unable to scream. The caller treats the two reports as the same presence. The story ends without any identification of it.
Ghost called Charlie reported to follow a family through moves
A caller who says they are a truck driver in Denham Springs, Louisiana, tells Art Bell that a presence the caller named “Charlie” has followed them across several homes. The caller says it began when they were about fifteen and first dating their future wife. The caller reports repeated leg-bumping and objects moved and hidden. More recently, the caller says, their wife saw a figure in a doorway, and something grabbed their 11-year-old daughter in the bath and left a mark on her shoulder. The caller says the presence does not really bother them. The caller ends by saying they are only worried it might become more physical. Art says that when a presence leaves marks, it is time to consider professional (religious) help.
Dream of a grandmother at the door saying “There is no heaven,” and a father’s parallel dream
A caller named [name withheld], from Philadelphia, recounts a dream from about ten years earlier, three days after their grandmother’s death. In the dream, the grandmother stands at their door barefoot in the snow, scratches the glass, and asks to be let in. The caller refuses and tells her [quote withheld] and she answers [quote withheld] After waking they tell their family, and their father describes a parallel dream from years before about a neighbor, [name withheld], who died shortly afterward. The caller says they do not believe it was the actual spirit.
A sliding couch and a giant hand reported in a childhood home in Oregon
A caller who gives their name as [quote withheld] tells Art Bell about events in their family’s house in Milwaukee [as spoken], Oregon, when they were five or six years old. The caller says a couch slid across the living room, a huge hand appeared from behind it and moved toward them and their sister, and the same hand later hovered over them in the bedroom. The story ends with a rattling attic door handle that night and the couch found slightly out of place the next morning.
31 more stories
- Figure resembling the writer's wife in a bathroom doorway, Northridge, California1 min
- Caller reports sister's sightings of a child and a bearded man in her duplex3 min
- Figure resembling roommate walks past door in Lawrence, Kansas, house1 min
- Deceased mother reportedly appears at a newborn's crib and vanishes2 min
- Letter about footsteps and knocking after a grandmother's funeral2 min
- Caller reports seeing their living father walk through the family house6 min
- Vanishing shack and field of Corvairs near a suspected haunted house8 min
- Vision of hellfire, a figure in the doorway, and a child-sized shape in the hallway5 min
- Woman in white in their daughter's doorway who moved with the family4 min
- Agnostic caller’s near-death experience and beings they call alien-like7 min
- A colonial-dressed luminous figure in a Boston apartment doorway3 min
- Haunted house bought in Ohio: closet racket, knocks on a bedroom door, a bouncing cat cage, and growling6 min
- Recurring evening thump at the door and a cat watching something in the room2 min
- Slow, heavy footsteps in a dark Phoenix hallway, heard by two people4 min