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These true scary ghost stories were sent to me by anonymous listeners of the Spooky Boo podcast network. To learn how to send in your scary stories visit www.scarystorytime.com. You may listen to these stories on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other places where popular podcasts are played.

 

Now let’s begin:

The Ghost Walks the Hallway

I grew up in California where it’s pretty warm here all year round except for November and December. Most of the time we all sleep in our own rooms, but since we don’t usually run the heat we all sleep in the living room with the fireplace during these cold months. One time when my brothers and I were all camped out in the living in our sleeping bags, we just couldn’t get to sleep. All of us kept telling ghost stories and freaking each other out.

Then one night in late November we heard some kind of a scratching noise in the hallway. We all stopped talking and looked at each other. Quietly, my brother Ricky went to the hallway door and listened. He said he heard scraping on the walls and whispering. Our livingroom is in between two hallways, our rooms are on the right side and our parent’s room is on the left. The noise was coming from our side. Ricky wanted to go get mom but I said no way, if there was something in there she would only scare it away.

The next day we didn’t say anything to mom about the noises we heard. We all talked for a bit pretending like everything was normal then once again the scraping and talking started. It was more like a bunch of people whispering really loudly. Ricky again went over to the hall door and opened it real fast. A quick burst of cold air blew in and almost put out the fire. He shut it fast and I swear we heard something say “don’t do that!”

Then the next night Robbie had to use the bathroom real bad. Normally we would just use the one off the kitchen, but dad had taken the toilet apart because my dumb brother dropped an apple into the toilet and flushed it. So he went into the bathroom down the dark hallway. About 2 minutes later we hear him screaming. We all ran in and saw him staring at the other side of the hall. He was as white as a sheet! We asked him what it was and he said that he saw some old man staring at him in the mirror behind him. We all looked but there was nothing there.

For the next few nights, we all heard it. There was walking up and down the hallway with a scraping sound. We all refused to use the bathroom. We’re all boys so we used the kitchen sink. We were less afraid of mom finding out about the kitchen sink than facing the ghost in the hall!

After that week we never heard it again until the next year and every year after. When I got older and went off to college, I looked up the history of the house. Sure enough, someone had died in that part of the house before the side was added. We still go back during Thanksgiving and sleep in the living room. We were really afraid when we were kids but since it never hurt any of us it grew less scary every year. But then last year, Ricky started to get scratches on his arm. Every time he goes to mom and dad’s he does. He swears he will never go again.

The Ghost in the Window

I used to have a lot of slumber parties with my friends. They would come over and we would stay up all night long eating pizza, popcorn and drinking soda. It wasn’t until one night when we were prank calling people that we noticed there was someone looking in the window.

My friend Kimmie screamed then pointed at the window. Whatever it was just stared. We thought it was a creeper so my friend and I, as dumb as we were, grabbed a baseball bat and went outside. There was no one there, but when we went back in the face was still there! It was saying something like “help me!” but there was no sound.

The next night the face was still there but it was really creepy looking. It looked like there was blood all over it. It still mouthed the words help me and yet still nothing was on the other side of the window. That night I went in and slept in my mom and dad’s room. Mom didn’t believe me so when I told her it was there again the next night she ran in to see. I was staring right at it and this time it looked like its eyes were all grey and sunken in. She still couldn’t see it and said she would take me to see the doctor if I didn’t knock it off.

She let me have my friend Kimmie over that next night just to see if we could see it. Kimmie and I watched as it screamed over and over again at us, this time no words just screaming. We could actually faintly hear it now. We pointed at the window right where it was and mom said there was no way and we needed to stop playing games with her.

That next day my mom and I got into a car accident. They pulled me from the car first and after the car caught on fire. The face in the window looked just like mom did when she was screaming through the window of the car. I will never forget that day and it haunts me forever.

Ghostly Backyard Noises

Growing up we always had these huge family parties in the backyard until I was about 10 years old. Since we have the big Italian family in the area, there were always a lot of relatives and really good food. My Uncle Frank owned the local pasta house in town and they would cater the party as well as the people who brought food over to eat. They were huge! We had dancing and drinking. Most of us were drinking even though we weren’t supposed to.

I said this happened until I was about 10 years old. That was many years ago but the reason why the parties stopped is that my drunk Uncle Joe came over and started causing trouble. Joe was the bad seed of the family. He was only still a teen, but he was into the local Italian gangs we had back then. He was always running errands for bad people. When he tried to come over, Uncle Frank told him he wasn’t allowed. Uncle Joey then shot Uncle Frank in the stomach. People were yelling and screaming everywhere. My mom and pop were trying to get an ambulance in time but it couldn’t get through the mess of cars in the driveway and down the road fast enough. Poor Uncle Frank bled out everywhere and died right there in my backyard.

It hasn’t been the same ever since, either. They kept the restaurant open but ever since the first party after, a year later, we just haven’t been in the mood. The reason why is because first it was depressing, but then when people started leaving, there were only a few of us left having a few beers or what not. My mom had cleaned the stain off the ground before but while we were watching we heard some weird moaning noises and the stain came back right there. We all watched really dumbfounded. At first we couldn’t figure out what it was but Tony, my brother, was like “isn’t that where Uncle Frank died?”

We all went running into the house. Mom was mad because we accidentally made her drop the plate of leftovers she was putting into the fridge. We told her and she went to look but the stain was gone. That same night I tried to sleep but I heard someone that sounded like Uncle Frank moaning help me in the backyard. I watched out my window because it looks over the yard thinking maybe it was a joke but the stain came back. Since then I’ve changed rooms with Tony and he says that he sees the same thing, but he ain’t scared. He just says it’s Uncle Frank’s ghost.

It terrifies me.

Haunted Beach

I’m 26 years old. About 11 years ago my friends and I went to the beach at night when we weren’t allowed. Some of the beaches here close after sunset, but that just makes them more fun. We would go to play baseball or just sit around and drink while cooking hotdogs. If we got caught, they only made us put out our fire and leave.

One night it was really foggy, dark, and cold. My friends and I were sitting around the campfire telling stupid stories like Bloody Finger and Bloody Bones when we were this moaning from this big rock that people sit on all of the time when the tide is low. That night the tide was low so we went over and climbed up. In the other corner, we saw this glowing human figure standing there looking out toward the ocean. He was moaning and rocking back and forth staring into the water. He turns around and looks at us then says, “No one can help me!” and jumps.

We all ran over and no one was there. At first, we thought it was a real person but when we called the cops no one was reported missing or anything. Then they told us some guy had done the same thing years ago and jumped in front of his girlfriend with those exact same words.

Grandfather

When my son was around 6 years old we lived in this nice little townhome in Sunnyvale about a mile from my work. We were really happy with it because it was so close and all of the people in the groups of townhomes were really nice.

One day when my son and I came home from daycare he said, “there’s that man again.”

I was confused. I didn’t know what he was talking about so when I inquired he told me that an old man was always walking around our house. He had a plaid shirt on with big hands, he was losing his hair and always smiling. I found this really creepy and hoping no one was stalking us or coming into my house without permission so I told him to tell me whenever he saw the man.

A few days later he pointed toward the wall and said, “Mommy, there he is.” Of course there was nothing there so I told him it was probably just his imagination or a dream he had. A few days later we were looking at old pictures of family and he pointed to a picture of my grandfather and said, “there’s that old man.”

I told him he probably had seen the picture before and it just got into his head. Well, I had forgotten one little tidbit of info all of these years and I suddenly remembered my grandparents had lived in Sunnyvale. I did a little bit of research and they had lived in that same apartment decades before.

There Is Something Outside

There isn’t anything I love more than a nice thunderstorm when I’m at home all snug in front of the fireplace. That is, until I had to go to work one night in the most torrential weather I had ever seen. I prayed all night there wouldn’t be a tornado because the building I was in didn’t have a basement and no one else was around that side of town.

I had to watch over a bunch of internet servers and take phone calls for an internet service provider. This was back in the 90s when most people were still on dialup. Because of the storm, the systems were going on and offline all night long so every few minutes I’d hear the alarms go off for the servers then they’d come back online. The internet was constantly down and no one was calling in probably afraid to touch their phones or their power was out. I was bored out of my mind so I started watching the lightning. Every few seconds the lightning would strike and it would seem to be daylight.

The storm went on for hours and at one point while I was watching outside, there was a little boy about 10 years old wearing a yellow raincoat standing right across the street. This terrified me so I called the police and told them there was a little boy outside. They drove back and forth a few times not finding anyone then a few minutes later, there was a little boy standing there again, same place but this time his face looked see-through with just two black holes for his eyes. At that point the lightning had calmed down a bit and I tried to look a little harder. On the next flash, I was just about knocked off my feet when that same ghostly figure of the little boy stood right in front of the window. His face was hollow looking and he was crying out saying something I couldn’t hear. He was pointing toward the river and looked back at me then was gone.

I called the cops again and they said I probably dreamt it while falling asleep on the job. Nice. I found out a little boy drowned in a storm many years before in the river. He matched the same description as the kid standing out in the rain that night.

Haunted House in Wine Country

We grew up next to an old grape vineyard that was no longer used. The house seemed to be abandoned and was on the market so long that no one wanted it. Parts of the house like the roof and walls were crumbling and it was always marked as a demolition site. The perfect place to party.

My friends and I would go in and party at the ground level. There were some old couches and chairs left behind where we could sit and have some fun. We only drank there, but other people would write all over the walls with marker and spray paint. One time we went in and got caught up with a Mexican gang. At first we were all at arms with each other. My friends and I were too stoned to leave and by the time these guys gave up trying to tell us to leave we had them laughing so hard that they offered to smoke with us.

We started a small campfire in the middle of the living room. Don’t worry, one whole wall was missing so it wasn’t like we were going to get asphyxiated or anything. This one Mexcian dude started telling us the story of this place. His relatives used to work the vineyard back in the 70s before his family moved there. It is rumored the person who owned the place was really mean to his workers. He didn’t hire people here legally like citizens or visa workers, he found people who couldn’t or wouldn’t say anything to the authorities because he was a real mean jerk.

I can’t remember the name of the guy telling me the story, but his uncle’s name was Henrico. He said he didn’t like telling it because he was embarrassed that his uncle worked for pennies back in the day. He said Henrico would tell his family horrible stories about a torture chamber down in the cellar. The guy was supposed to keep wine down there but part of it was sectioned off where he would torture what he called his slaves. Of course, he paid them wages so they could eat, but it wasn’t very much. They lived in the old shacks around the vineyard.

So while he was down there telling us this story about his uncle and how the winery owner would whip them and put them on stretching machines or do other devious things to them if they didn’t meet their quota or did something wrong, he said there was a little revolt. No one talks about it because the wine business doesn’t like to let its ugly side out. The revolt was between the Mexican workers and the old guy. They went inside this very room and beat him down with their shovels. Since they had nowhere to go but their shacks, they stayed there until they could figure out what to do. All of them left but accidentally left this little girl sleeping in her bed. They had no idea and set the little shacks on fire and she died.

We were listening to this story in a little shock when we heard something outside the fallen wall. There were two little eyes glowing in the dark watching us. We thought it might be a small dog but when it left, it walked upright. Then we heard some really light footsteps running away and a loud growling noise but there was nothing there. Suddenly, the Mexican guys started moving around like there was someone hitting them. They were screaming but there was nothing we could do to help because no one was around. Two of them ran away and the third one tried to fight off whatever was attacking their friend but after he fell all bloodied and beaten it started attacking that guy, too. We started to run but those two eyes appeared in the dead vineyard. As we walked, the vines started growing on the dead grapevine trees really fast. They grew so fast it was like a big forest and the figure, we later discussed it might be the little girl, told us to follow her. We could suddenly see the landowner. He was old looking, but really big and strong. He came after us with a shovel so we had no choice but to follow the little girl. She would turn around and look at us until we caught up close and take off again.

We could hear him in the bushes behind us, following us and using his shovel to cut the vines in his way. Finally, we reached the road where we flagged down a trucker going by. After seeing that crazy ghost dude, I think I’d rather face a crazy serial killer trucker. Fortunately, he was really nice.

I drove by the old house the other day, or at least where it was. They ripped out the vineyard and put up an apartment complex. When I went by I swear I saw a little girl who looked just like the one in the vineyard who saved us waving at me.

Haunted Trailer

When my mom was between jobs and just divorced, she rented this mobile home in this really gross trailer park. I’m not talking about the kind of park where there are nice new mobile homes. These were all trailers that looked like they belonged on Criminal Minds. There was only one bedroom that she gave to us and she pulled out the fold-out couch in what was the living room. It was an older trailer, rather large and not one of those silver bullets. it was a motor home. Really weird, but she worked hard and kept us fed. We moved years later after she was able to save money from her two jobs and buy a decent house.

Anyway, the motorhome was ok. We had a tv and lots of game s to play but we also liked to go outside and explore. It was my sister and I and my mom. Our dad was such a loser that he never paid any child support or came to see us so we really just had each other. While sis and I didn’t go anywhere while mom was at work, we felt safer going out after she got home. We helped her out by making dinner, usually mac and cheese with hotdogs but sometimes spaghetti or grilled cheese sandwiches. She was always very grateful and said we could stay up until 10:00 PM and watch TV with her. She usually fell asleep while watching. We would sneak out and leave the tv on. If we turned it off then she would wake up.

Usually, we would just go outside and throw rocks in the creek near the park, but that night we discovered an old trailer that was empty. It looked like it had been abandoned for a while and the people had left in a hurry. There were plates all piled up in the sink and even a plate sitting on the table. We didn’t care. We were kids. Mold didn’t scare us!

The home was still hooked up to the electric and cable so we made some room in the dirty clothes on the couches and watched TV. I think we were watching something like Night Gallery or Outer Limits. It was pretty spooky whatever it was.

We heard this really weird moaning noise coming from the floor but there was nothing there. It was really creepy. There was some knocking and moaning. I stomped my foot a few times and it stopped. We went outside and looked under the trailer but there was nothing there.

So we went back inside to finish the show and a few minutes later while we were sitting there, this old guy with really pale skin and drooping eyes comes in and walks through the trailer. He just opens the door, looks right at us, actually like it was through us and then kept walking toward the back of the RV and then just disappeared. I went to the back of the RV and opened the door to the bedroom. It smelled so bad. The same guy was laying there on the bed dead.

We ran back to the house so fast and called 911. While we pretended to be anonymous thinking it would work, they traced the call. We got into so much trouble but if didn’t find out there was no telling how long he would have been there. Then they found out there was another dead guy this guy had hidden under the floorboards.  That must have been the knocking sound. No one believed our ghost story but whatever, I know what happened. It’s true.

My Haunted Bedroom

I’m 22 now but I was 16 when this happened. We had just moved into this old house in Santa Cruz where there were a lot of old residents. We knew this because for some reason this old house had a basement and the landlords let people write stories on the walls of the basement. It was really weird for the area because people around here don’t have basements. But it was fun reading all of the old stories.

My friends and I would party down there as it had a carpet, tv, and couch. One night I fell asleep and all of my friends left. They didn’t want to wake me up so they covered me up with a blanket and went home. I woke up, and feeling a little out of place, panicked that I wasn’t in my room. I didn’t even know where the light was because there was no switch. I didn’t realize it was right over my head and I had to pull on it.

The moon came through the little window just enough for my eyes to adjust to the light. It was then when I realized I was in the basement. Not being scared now, I sat down and turned on the TV. It wouldn’t turn on and neither would the light above. Then I saw it, glowing in the corner of the room. There was a figure staring at me. I thought it might be one of my friends at first and yelled to stop trying to scare me, but when I did it moved just a little and closer. I could see right through it and it was between me and the stairs. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. It came closer still and I was too chicken to move to run past it, but I finally did it. I got up and had no choice but to try and run through it. Obviously it wasn’t there because I could see the stairs!

When I ran through it, I felt this bolt of electricity hit me so hard that it knocked me down on the floor and I passed out. When I came to there was a power outage on the block. All of the lights went out the moment I ran into that thing. I don’t know if it is still there. I never went down to the basement again.

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Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed these stories please leave a comment on either the website at creepycalifornia.scarystorytime.com or on the platform where you listened to this podcast. For a commercial-free version of all of my scary stories including true scary stories, creepypasta, and my fiction horror stories, visit my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/spookybooscarystorytime.

I love watching Creature Features! Come and watch it with me at www.creaturefeatures.tv. We usually have a Saturday night YouTube chat going on with other viewers during the show. I’m there every Saturday at 10:00 PM.

Come and check out my favorite local punk band Stay Out at www.officialstayout.com. You’ll love them as much as I do plus, my son is in the band.

That’s all for tonight. I’ll see you in your nightmares.