We asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about their real-life ghost encounters. Here are the terrifying results.
1. This horrifying haunting:
I had a paper route when I was younger and delivered to a lady named Margie. She was very old and lived alone, so I'd take the paper inside and check on her. One day, I went in and she was asleep on the bed, so I put the paper on the table and left. The next day, she was asleep again, and the other newspaper was still unopened. The following day, I went in and Margie was awake. She said she was very happy and gave me a hug. But the day after that, there were cars outside her house. Apparently Margie had died in her bed, three or four days beforehand. Somehow I spoke to and hugged her about 24 hours earlier, when she was already dead.
—Sejl Ó Longáin, Facebook
2. This spine-tingling snack:
I used to work at a hospital and had a lot of midnight shifts. Around 3 a.m., I went to the vending machine to get a snack. There was a door next to the vending machine with a window on it that faced the cafeteria. I clearly saw someone walk by the door. It took me a minute until I remembered that the cafeteria had motion-sensor lights that should have turned on, but it was still dark inside. I went to get a closer look, and the direction the person was walking in would have led them straight into a wall. I’ve never run faster in my entire life.
3. This nurturing spirit:
My mom told me the story about how, one night when I was a baby, I got fussy and she came to my crib to check on me. After several times of her coming to my room, she was getting pretty tired herself. The next time I started crying, she got up and started to walk toward my room but heard footsteps and freaked out because she was the only person home. She sat still for a second and then heard the footsteps stop. When they stopped, she heard my crib being rocked and then heard what sounded like an older woman talking to me and trying to calm me down. So freaky.
—Isabella Gurreri, Facebook
4. This foreboding conversation:
In the last week of my grandmother's life, she'd stare off at nothing and talk to dead family members. For example, she'd talk to her dead sister, saying things like, "Okay, Rose. I'll be there soon." We noticed that she exclusively did this with dead relatives, so we thought it was strange when she started talking to her brother, Henry, who was still alive. Or so we thought! We got a call later that day that Henry had just died.
5. The vanishing nurse:
When I was about six years old, my mom's very close coworker passed away (she was a nurse). Later that night, I woke up to find out I fell asleep in my mom's bed. When I looked over, I saw a woman standing over my mom, looking like she was putting in an IV. I had never seen this woman before, but she looked up at me, smiled, walked down the hallway, and vanished. A few days later, my mom came back from the funeral and I finally saw a picture of her coworker. It was the same woman I saw in her room that one night.
—Leigha Bennett, Facebook
6. This hash-slinging slasher:
I worked at McDonald's on the overnight shift, and we had a stereo sitting on the counter in the front. There were three of us washing dishes in the back, and we suddenly heard a crash. We saw that the stereo was on the floor and unplugged, but the restaurant was empty. The stereo had been sitting completely level on the countertop, so there was no way it could have just fallen. We watched the security tapes and saw the stereo randomly FLY OFF THE COUNTER. It was probably creepiest thing I've ever seen, and the only explanation I can think of is that a ghost did it.
7. This final goodbye:
I was up at 2 a.m. when I felt something firmly touch my leg. No one else was in the room, so I freaked out, but I eventually fell asleep. The next morning, my mom got a call that my grandmother had passed away... at 2 a.m. I believe that the touch on my leg was my grandmother saying goodbye to me. It brings me peace.
8. This public pool haunting:
I used to work at a public pool. After we'd close, I'd often work alone to clean the area. One night, around 2 a.m., I was cleaning the locker rooms. The pool had been closed for a few hours by this time, but I heard the sound of a child's laughter and bare feet running across the pool deck. I went out to scan the area, but there was nobody in sight. The doors were all closed and locked, and there was nowhere a kid could be hiding. I also didn't see any wet foot prints on the pool deck. I re-checked the doors and the security monitors, but there was nothing. I was the only person in the building.
9. This holy spirit:
One night I woke up to what looked like a nun who was frantically praying next to my bed. I couldn't hear her, but she kept making the cross sign across her chest. I was 100% awake and terrified. I told my mom about it the next day, and she said our house was originally built for a priest and that nuns used to stay there.
10. This mortician's fright:
I'm a mortician. My most disturbing experience was when I was preparing a child for a viewing. I randomly felt someone pull my hair, but I was alone. A couple minutes later, I heard a giggle, and the door slammed shut. All of my machines stopped, and it was dead quiet. After I was done and the body was dressed, I felt a tap on my shoulder and warmth around my mid-side, approximately where a child would stand if they were hugging you.
11. This woman in white:
I woke up one night having to pee, and I brought my phone to the bathroom. While walking down the hall and texting, I bumped into a girl in a white dress. I didn't look up, said "sorry," and kept going. It occurred to me moments later that I was home alone and not in my bustling high school. The next day, when my boyfriend came to pick me up for the movies, he asked why I'd been staring at him through the upstairs window and why I'd changed out of my white dress. But I don't even own a white dress.
12. This chilling interaction:
I went home to visit my mom after my dad died. I knew I was the only one in the house, but I heard a noise upstairs. As plain as day, I heard my dad up in his room. He got up from his computer chair, walked over to the door, and opened it. He walked down the stairs and stood on the last step for a few seconds before walking back up to his room and closing the door. I was probably five feet from him in the living room. I just froze. It scared the hell out of me.
13. This familiar happening:
I was visiting a friend and stayed at her townhouse. Her roommate was away, so I slept in the roommate's room in the basement. I woke up in the middle of the night to a man in a black suit and black hat covering me up. He then walked out of the basement's sliding glass door. I didn't feel scared at all and fell right back to sleep. In the morning, my friend's roommate was back, so I asked her about the man in the suit. She looked at me and said, "Oh, so you saw our ghost too?"
14. This missing camper:
I worked at an all-girls summer camp. While giving a tour to new campers, we instructed them that no one was to enter Cabin 5. As we said this and pointed to Cabin 5, we all saw a little girl in a white dress sitting on the bed through the window. We thought it was a camper who snuck in, so another counselor and I walked over to have her re-join us. When we got there, the cabin was completely empty. I was previously told that the cabin was haunted by a little girl, but I didn't believe it until this moment. Apparently the little girl died in the '70s after falling off a horse and getting stepped on. Just thinking about what I saw still gives me chills to this day!
15. And this eerie man:
When I was a kid, I was playing at home and had a sudden urge to look over my shoulder. I saw what looked like a man in a suit step out of my closet. Years later, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw the same man from when I was a kid. I ran back to my room and shut the door. I NEVER slept with my door closed, but that night I felt the urge to. A couple hours later, I woke to the smoke alarm going off. I opened my bedroom door, and the entire living room was engulfed in flames. I managed to escape through a window but lost the entire house to the fire. The firefighters said that if my door hadn’t been closed, it was very likely I would have died from smoke inhalation. Thank you, creepy guardian angel in my closet, for saving my life.
