1. A Visitor In “The Croft”

I studied abroad in Italy my Junior year of college and lived at this old castle. The students stayed in what is affectionately called “The Croft.” Every night we would hear noises, like someone walking, but we would just assume it was the old wood creaking, or somebody going to use the restroom. One weekend the whole group, except me and two others, decided to go to Milan for the weekend.

Well, one evening, as I lay in bed reading a book and waiting for my friend to get back from the library, I distinctly heard the sound of the croft door open and close. I then heard halting steps on the stairs; these were not subtle creaks, but obvious footsteps, so I assumed it was my friend or his girlfriend coming back, so of course thought nothing of it. Then the steps began to sound closer and closer to my door, but I heard no voices and an unexpected chill crawled down my spine. I felt nervous, so I yelled, “Is that you, Dave?” The steps stopped outside my door, but again no one spoke. I was starting to become terrified when I heard My friend and his girlfriend walking down the path outside and I immediately stuck my head out my window and called out to them and asked who was in the croft? They replied that no one but me was in there.

I did not even hesitate; I jumped out my window, and the moment I was out I heard the door to my room slam open and heard what I can only describe as a whispered scream of rage. No one in the group ever believed me, but I asked the Castle’s cook about it and she explained that there were ghosts in the croft, three in fact. One little girl that liked to play pranks, one weeping woman, and one malicious man with a hate for the living.

2. How Could Anyone Live In This House?

Growing up, I used to spend the night at a house that was (in my opinion) haunted. My friend lived there with her family, and they all thought nothing of the sinks turning themselves on and off at night, sporadically. Not a drip mind you, but a fucking full-on sink for 3 seconds and then nothing. It would wake me up every time and scare the shit out of me. Other haunted shit in this house:

• The tv turned itself on sometimes, and changed channels by itself. One time we laid in the bed upstairs, talking, and the tv turned on and started slowly flipping through different channels of static.
• My friend’s bedroom was the bonus room, so she had the door to the attic in her ceiling. If we stayed up talking too late, we would hear warped wood start creaking back and forth across the door. SO scary, when you’re all of 14 years old.
• WORST THING. This was the thing that made me officially stop going over to her house. One time the whole family packed up and went to Sam’s club to go shopping, and as a bored 14 year old I came with them. The mom locked up the house as usual, we shopped for 30 min tops, and came home. When her mom went inside, she tried flipping on the lights. Didn’t work. She said “I wonder if the power’s out?” and tried other lamps. Nothing. After a swift check of the house, it was discovered that all the light bulbs in the house had been moved to the four corners of the living room. I don’t know why, but I remember crying when we discovered them. For some reason it was deeply scary for me.

3. Daddy, Up Late

I woke up out of bed in the middle of the night, I walked out into the living room and saw my dad slumped over and walking to the front door. I just stood there and watched and he walked out side and sat down on the sidewalk that went up to the front door. I watched him through the window for a second and he just sat there staring into a tree with no expression on his face. He looked really pale and almost blueish. I then walked down to my parents room and I woke up my mom and asked her why dad was sitting outside. Then I will never forget it, she said “What are you talking about? He’s right here” and I looked over her and my dad was laying asleep in bed.

Still scares me to think about it.

4. The Crow

My father. Whenever somebody dies in his side of the family, a crow comes to him in his dreams and squawks the person’s name. It happened the first time to him as a 6 year old when his dad died, and then ever since.

Once every couple years he gets up in the morning, says “the crow came again,” takes the day off work, and just waits for the call. I haven’t seen him be wrong yet.