Dusk or dawn
A caped figure, a skeleton, and two strangers at Redondo Beach
A truck driver who calls themselves [name withheld], phoning from a truck stop in Milan, New Mexico, tells Art Bell a story they date to the late 1970s at Redondo Beach, California. The caller says they and their girlfriend chased a fast-moving black cape-like figure on their motorcycle at dusk. It turned and looked like a skeleton. When it vanished around the corner of a building, two oddly dressed strangers were suddenly standing there. One of them grabbed their girlfriend’s hands and repeated a warning. The caller ends by passing on a friend’s opinion that they had met something supernatural. The host calls it not easily explained.
Dark presence and being thrown in a Yosemite employee tent cabin
A first-time caller who identifies themselves as [name withheld], from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, tells Art Bell a story they say took place about ten years earlier, while they worked as a photo lab assistant in Yosemite National Park, California. They report feeling an unpleasant presence inside their employee tent cabin at dusk and seeing a darkness “darker than black” that seemed to turn and look at them. They say they were then rushed and knocked 15 feet from their door, blacked out, and heard a scream. They offer the idea that it was connected to [quote withheld] and say they cannot really explain it.
Hooded figure with sickle in Golden Gate Park before a friend’s motorcycle death
[name withheld], who gives their name on KSFO in San Francisco, tells Art Bell that as a teenager they and a friend were riding bikes in Golden Gate Park in an area called Dark Valley. A hooded, caped figure with a sickle stepped out of the darkness and raised an arm, and the cape touched them as they passed. They say that within that week their best friend, not the friend on the bike, died in a motorcycle crash near the beach. The host suggests the figure may have been the Grim Reaper, and the caller ends by warning against Ouija boards.
A hooded figure at a California motel, later described by the writer’s son
Art Bell reads a letter from an unnamed woman. She says that on her 1997 honeymoon she woke in a California motel room to a hooded figure in a dark brown cloak leaning over the bed and stroking her cheek. She says it rose and dissolved into mist, and her husband searched the locked room. Thirteen years later, she says, her eight-year-old son ran in at sunset and said he had seen a ghost near her bedroom window that was [quote withheld] She asks Art what it means. He answers that he has no idea.
Army recovery hospital house, a watched feeling, and a nurse figure at a kitchen window
A caller the host introduces as [name withheld] from Nebraska describes the house they lived in at about age 9 or 10, which they say they were told had been an Army recovery hospital. They report a recurring feeling of being watched. They pass on a secondhand report that their brothers saw bandaged people in the basement. They also describe a Saturday-morning sighting of a woman in nurse’s clothing crossing a kitchen window at sunrise, after which they found no one there. They end by saying they believe the house was somewhat haunted and that every house they have lived in had activity.
Bluish-white pillar becoming a woman’s ghost on a rural road at night
A caller who identifies himself as [name withheld] from Arizona tells Art Bell that as a boy of about nine or ten he was on a picnic at a country lake with his mother and grandmother. Driving home after dark, his grandmother took a wrong turn down a long dirt road. There the three of them saw a bluish-white glowing pillar that became a woman’s ghost drifting toward the car, and they fled.
Presences and voices reported at World War II monuments in southern Okinawa
A caller who gives their name as [quote withheld] tells Art Bell that while serving in the Marines in Okinawa, Japan, the caller and a Japanese girlfriend visited the southern area with its World War II monuments at sunset. There they felt presences around them, and the caller heard voices they could not understand. The caller says their girlfriend ran back to the car in tears and never told them what she had heard, seen, or felt. Bell responds by saying he had lived on Okinawa himself and calls it “a haunted island.”
Footsteps on the stairs and a cold, angry presence in a Colorado Springs house
A caller who says they are in Reno tells Art Bell about a house they lived in, in the northwest part of Colorado Springs. They say they heard something walk up and down the stairs. After they spoke aloud to it, asking whether it could materialize or speak, they report that it came right up beside them. They suddenly felt freezing, their hair stood up, and they felt anger. The story ends with their comparison of the sensation to knowing when someone is angry at you, and with the host’s approving reply.
Pursuit on a Nevada highway, a flat tire at an isolated house later found boarded
A caller who says they are calling from Linwood, Washington, recounts a drive across Nevada from Idaho to California in the early 1970s. They say two men in a car pursued them on a desert highway outside Winnemucca. They report that they had a flat tire beside the only house in the area, that a man came out of the house toward a running pickup, and that the pursuers then drove off. They say that later, on the return trip, they found the building uninhabited, with no windows or doors. The caller tells the host they do not know what happened but feel something kept them from being harmed.
Footsteps and a felt presence on a gravel path at Custer Battlefield
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], listening on KOMO from the Seattle area, says that about five years earlier they walked alone at the Custer Battlefield after their family had gone on ahead. The caller reports hearing distinct footsteps on a gravel path behind them, twice, with no one in sight. They later say aloud that they felt a definite presence. The host responds with his own assertions that battlefields and sites of violent death are haunted.
A kick to the side and spit landing on a pillow in a locked bedroom
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], calling from Ohio by way of station WKBN, tells Art Bell a short story about a single early-morning event about 15 years earlier. They say they were asleep on the floor of their locked bedroom at the break of dawn when a kick to their side woke them. They then report seeing two large globs of spit or phlegm land on their pillow. They end by saying they felt someone was standing over them doing it. The host moves on to the next caller.
Bearded figure with a funny hat seen through a bedroom door
An unnamed caller on Art Bell’s wildcard line, addressed by their girlfriend’s father as “[name withheld],” describes a night about 20 years earlier. The caller was sleeping on the couch at their girlfriend’s parents’ house when they saw a transparent figure at the parents’ bedroom door. It became a bearded man in a funny hat, whose head appeared to pass through the door and who yelled at them without a sound. They say they fled to their girlfriend’s bedroom and later told her father. The father did not punish them. He said he believed them and described his own repeated mirror sightings in the house. The caller gives no location, date, or second witness. The story ends with the father’s admission and Art Bell closing the call.