Taken straight from amazing_news.tripod.com, but compressed to fit in one post.

TOKYO -- More than a thousand years after the death of samurai Masakado Taira, executives, homemakers and multinational corporations still worship and appease his vengeful ghost. Each day, residents leave food, mementos and money at his stone monument, wedged between skyscrapers in Tokyo's financial district.

"As far as I know, he's the only ghost in Japan with his own bank account, which is now worth around $190,000," Masakado Preservation Society Chairman Tatsuzo Endo said. "That said, I'm not really sure ghosts need money."

A few miles away, spirits of a lesser pedigree are said to haunt the residence of the prime minister, site of a bloody coup attempt in 1932. For two decades, premiers refused to live there.

Even recently, some residents have complained of shadowy military figures skulking around the courtyards. As late as 2000, then-Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori spoke of funny crawling sounds at night, door handles moving by themselves and strange problems with the electrical system. Last month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi moved into a newly built residence, and Japanese are waiting to see if the ghosts follow.

The flip side of Japan's belief in several hundred gods and at least two major religions is an equally rich and varied nether world. Spirits traipse the archipelago in forms ranging from deformed, tormented humans to quirky animallike critters -- one explanation, some say, for Japan's deep-seated love of animation, Pokemon and cutesy characters.

Belief systems are always difficult to quantify, but scientists and folklore experts say ghosts tend to exert far greater sway over the Japanese than over Westerners. Tokyo has 100 designated haunted sites visited by summer bus tours, and ghost themes are almost as omnipresent on Japanese television as police dramas are in the United States.

Whereas American ghosts tend to appear around Halloween, their Japanese counterparts like the summer heat, especially mid-August, when people traditionally clean their ancestral graves. And whereas Western children tend to worry about seeing spooks under the bed, Japanese ghosts are more likely to be found in damp places, especially the toilet.

Japanese ghouls also tend to show up during times of uncertainty -- and have impressive staying power. Take the ghost of Taira, an imperial wannabe who died in 940 after losing a nasty power struggle.

In 1872, his ghost threatened to wreak havoc on Tokyo just as the samurai class was losing its power. Only a visit by the emperor to Taira's former spiritual haunt calmed things down.

In the aftermath of a massive earthquake that destroyed much of Tokyo in 1923, a plan to put up a government building on Taira's memorial site was scrubbed after a minister and 13 senior officials died under mysterious circumstances.

In 1940, the 1,000-year anniversary of Taira's death, the Finance Ministry, a short distance from the site, was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. And after World War II, the U.S. military dropped its idea for a parking lot on the site after a bulldozer operator suddenly died. Some even blame Taira for the 1998 bankruptcy of the Long-Term Credit Bank after the institution sold the land under his monument.

No matter where they lurk, Japanese spirits generally fall into two broad categories. Those in human form, known as "yurei," tend to be angry, emotionally complex and closely aligned with humans. Another world of strange animal shapes or half-human forms is known as "yokai." These little characters abide by no particular logic and tend to be associated with places rather than people.

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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Check this one out. It's a picture of an old train. Do you see the "ghost?" this one is of dubious quality, and it's probably just dirt.

http://img22.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img22&image=japan2.jpg

If you still can't see it, I've enlarged the picture using my amazing Microsoft Paint skills and I have even outlined it for you.

http://img22.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img22&image=japan5.jpg
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Meh, why not? I'll bump this just once before I let it die in case anyone else still wants to see it.
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Bring
Us
More
Please

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Gamertag-DarthStraka
Dude, don't taunt him. He has a graph!-Donut, RvB

Alright lol I'll tell ya more. Do you remember those videos I was talking about? They were hosted by a famous ghost expert and medium in Japan, I'll ask my mom what his name was tomorrow and I'll probably be able to find out more information.

So here we go with another one of my posts. I'll try to find more ghost pictures from Japan as I move along.

I watched another video just last year of three college students who decided to explore an old hospital building. It was a building used in World War II and closed soon after. After it had fallen into such a state of disrepair, it had been used by a place for the homeless to take refuge in. So they all go in, in the middle of the day, to take a look around. Locals had told stories of strange lights moving around, noises coming from the old building, and all that other phenomena I'm sure you've heard of before. So they go through each of the floors and don't find anything except garbage and grafitti. At the end, they voice their disappointment (it's the middle of the day!) and the video ends.

After seeing this I was like, "That's it? Psch." but then they played another scene again. There was a part where they were walking down some stairs. At the bottom was another set of stairs going up and there were doors on either side, can you see that? The guy with the camera is bringing up the rear and he records the other two walking into the room on the right. Well, if you look closely you can see a pitch black shadow run out of the room they were entering, dash across the hall, and into the room on the other side. They slowed the shot down and you can clearly see a human shape, but black, run across. Keep in mind that sunlight was, for the most part, illuminating that hallway. More in the next post.
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Take a look at this picture. Creepy, yes, but fake unfortunately.

http://img16.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img16&image=hghostpic.jpg
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Another video revelation.

This one was done in an abandoned school, and the people exploring it were there for the same reason. These five explorers, like the men who snooped around the hospital voiced their disappointment while sitting in a stairwell. That's where the creepy thing happened. One of the guys was holding the camera, while the other four guys and girls sat on the stairway talking. It's in the middle of the day, again. After they speak their minds the film ends. Now if you watch it again, you can see a shadow suddenly appear on the back wall of the stairwell. I don't mean someone was on the floor above and ran to the top of the stairs, I mean it just suddenly appeared on the wall. After a brief moment you see the shadow dart away.

Visual experts who watched the shadow deducted that for the shadow to be that length at that time of the day, the person casting the shadow would have to be at the bottom of those stairs (or about halfway up), about three feet away from the explorers. Then, he would run up the stairs. Heres a quick, crappy ASCII art or whatever you would call it. The ghost that made the shadow would be the X.

----------------------
|........X.I I I I I I I UP
|..........-------------
|..........\
|..........-------------
|..........I IPeopleI I DOWN
----------------------
.................................Camera man
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Thanks, you're filling my creep-out meter to the breaking point!
I like it!
All I've read about/seen/experienced is from Ohio. I am going through the Haunted Ohio books right now, starting with the newest, H. OH. 5.
I also have a few tales of my own if anyone wants to read them.
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Gamertag-DarthStraka
Dude, don't taunt him. He has a graph!-Donut, RvB

Feel free to post them here, or in your own topic. I'll try to update this regularly so I'll basically be bumping it for you :P
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

yay to Zasraik

thx for all your effort to creep the livin hell out of us
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

... you know what freaky is ?


i just realized i'm now a regular user *sobs*

it's been a honour...
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

Heres another ghost story to hold you over while I search for some stuff. I believe its origin is China.

A married couple, with a young son, was always fighting, bickering, you name it. One day out of pure rage, the father murdered the mother. He hid his crime well, no one suspected anything. But he noticed something strange about his son. The boy never complained about the absence of his mother.

"Son, why aren't you calling out for Mommy? Most little boys would want their mommy to be with them. Tell me what's bothering you."

The little boy replied, "I'm fine. I was just curious why you're always carrying Mommy on your back

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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

^^^ hey, i've heard this story before...
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

Then I'm sure you've heard this one too.

This took place in the old days when the houses in Japan still used paper sheets for walls and doors. A young business man was traveling through town after a day of hard work. He though he could make it back home but it got dark before he knew it. He didn't want to waste time going back to the town for shelter and thought perhaps he could find a house down the road. Lucky for him, he saw a glimmer of light a little ways off the road and decided to try asking for shelter there. He came upon this little hut and knowcked on the door. An old man came out and asked if he could be of any help. "Would you be so kind to let me stay tonight? I will pay you for a room."

"Nonsense! I'll be happy to let you stay. I don't many visitors out here. Come on in!" Te old man said. He gave the young man food and told him he could have the spare room. While walking to his appointed room, the young man noticed another room right next to his. Saying thanks to the kind old man, the young man went into his room. After he blew out the candle to go to sleep, the young man heard a soft melodic sound from the next room. It sounded like someone singing. Being curious, he crawled to the wall, wet his finger, and poked a little hole in the wall (remember the wall was made of rice paper). He peeked into the hole and saw the most beautiful woman dancing and singing, her long black hair covered one side of her face. He looked away from the wall and thought to himself, why didn't the old man introduce them? He decided to look back into the hole but all he saw was a red glow and nothing else. Maybe he was dreaming, he thought, and decided to go back to bed.

The next morning, the young man was waken up to eat breakfast. While they were both seated, the young man asked his host who was the beautiful woman in the room next to his last night. The old man was shocked. "There's no one there. That was my daughter's room until she died. She was born with a disfigurement and could never find a suitor to marry her, so she ended her life in that room."

"What was the disfigurement?"

"She was born with one red eye."

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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

It does sound familiar...

stranger finding a house out of nowhere...

and the host is a beautiful woman...

but yeah, its still freaky

good stuff !
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

Wow... That's an interesting story.

I'm surprised that this topic is still active.
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

It did start to die, but one or two bumps revived it and now I've decided to start posting in it again.
---
Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

yo BakanoKami

how's your insomnia ?

btw, whats the meaning of your nick ? i'm guessing its.. Stupid God ?
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

:) Well, I can't say I'm not glad. This topic sure is one of the more interesting ones I've seen as of late.
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

I finally crashed sometime around noon. I actually just woke up when I realized someone had left the oven on...

And my name translates to something like "Fool's God" or "God of fools" to the best of my Japanese knowledge.
---
"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

someone.... or.... something

*plays eerie music*
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

Probably someone. It was a flaming pizza in there, after all, and not anything supernatural.
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

ouch, another pizza go to waste. WHEN WILL WE LEARN !?!?! ITS A FRICKIN PIZZA ! its not anchovy pizza right ?
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

I'm not sure. It was charcoal by the time I got to it. You couldn't even tell it was a pizza if it wasn't for the box sitting on the counter.
---
"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

OH !!! THE AGONY !!!

anyway *cough*

lets go back to spooky story...
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

A rather famous photo . . .

http://img89.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img89&image=freddy_jackson_lg.jpg
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Wow... That's a kinda interesting photo. I'd almost say it's a fake, though, if it weren't for the angle of the ghostly face. It looks like the guy might have just turned his head really fast while the picture was being taken.

I've got something rather interesting, though, while I think about it.

Fort Vancouver High School - When the school was built in the 1930's a maintenance man died while putting up a basketball hoop 40 feet in the air his ladder broke and he fell to his death...Some people say that late at night when you are in the gym you can hear the sound of a ladder falling and a loud crash along with a man falling from what looks like thin air and when he hits the ground you hear a loud crack...one of the past teachers that worked there said to a couple of the new teachers that they saw the same thing, plus when the went to look at the man they saw his bones poking out of his neck then he disappeared into thin air.

That's taken from the Shadowland's Haunted Places Index. I actually only heard about this last year and I'm a senior now... Apparantly it's not something that anyone in the school likes talking about. Supposedly a lot of teachers have seen it, not just "some". Mostly gym teachers, coaches, and people who are responsible for some of the assemblies that take place in the gym.
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

err.. i think someone had talk about this somewhere in this thread...
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

=P It was me. I just never posted the details on it as I was more interested in hearing what Zas was saying at the moment.
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

Heres another spooky story. It's not just a story, its supposedly true, or at least the locals in the area say so.

In Korea there was a woman who fell in love with a U.S. serviceman stationed there. They had a lovely little relationship and everything was great, they even got married. One day the soldier was called out for duty and he was never seen again. The woman was shattered and had a nervous breakdown. Her family last saw her dress up in old-fashioned clothing, put on heavy makeup, and run off into the forest, never to be seen again.

Nowadays, they say that you always have to be careful when going through those woods alone. She appears to have become a regular ghost there. The last sighting was a motorcyclist. He was going down one of the old roads through the forest when his bike suddenly gave out for no apparent reason. He stopped beneath a tall tree. The man heard singing, it was a very mournful song, a dirge. He looked up into the tree and saw a woman in extravagant makeup combing her hair and singing. She looked down at him, smiled, and began to crawl down the tree headfirst. The man desperately tried to start his bike but it wouldn't fire. Just as she was about to reach him suddenly his bike flared to life and he sped down the road. When he looked back he could see the apparition just behind him, clawing at the air. He made it to town and when he looked back she was gone.
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Yeah, my highschool's auditorium was haunted, the same deal. Strange noises, cold drafts, and tricks played on the stage crew were common stories.
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

It seems like a lot of schools are haunted by one ghost or another.
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

Regarding the picture, yeah you could try to explain that the picture was on a long exposure. But, to get into that position you would also see residue from the man's shirt in the exposure. There is also a difference in the ghost's face and the man's face, the man is older with stronger facial features. You'll also have to consider what a pain photography was a the time and how expensive it could be, I doubt that the man taking the picture wanted a bunch of greasy men moving around, forcing him to redo the picture multiple times.
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Oh. I just got some details for The Ring 2. It's scheduled for a national release in America on March 24, 2005.
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

Ah, great, and speaking of haunted videos, heres another story from those infamous videos.

It's yet another home video. The mother is sitting with in the doorway of their apartment's living room. She's a single mother living with her toddler. The windows are open and its a sunny day outside. The toddler is waving at the TV, a show that would be the equivalent of something your brother would see on Nick Jr. is ending. You can hear the toddler say "Bye bye!" and the show ends. You can't really make out the images on the screen because of the bad glare but its good enough. Wheres the ghost you ask? You know how annoying a glare is? How it makes things reflect? If you look at the glare, its reflecting a corner opposite of the TV. Standing in the corner is a baby (presumably a girl) in a white dress who slowly fades away. The mother claimed that they had no dolls or toys that were white, and there was nothing in the corner at the time. For reference, heres a quick ASCII art.

------------------
..................TV.|
|............kid......|
|......................|
|......................|
|x......M............|
------------------

M= mother, x=ghost
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Guess what! It's twelve thirty in the morning! Time for me to go to bed. More stuff tomorrow.
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

yay ! 12:30 am for me as well ! time to go to bed !
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

Wow. Were they just going about their business and the ghost was there? Or did any of them spot the ghost while it was reflecting?
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

Alright. See you two tomorrow, then! It was great reading those stories.
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

i bump, therefore i am
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P III 600 Mhz, 512 Ram, GeForce 4 MX 440 64 Mb
- I cried whenever i go to bed -

s'damn good topic here. I'll post some weird occurences, involving my grandfather soon. He grew up in Albion County, Michigan. Fer now, SLEEPY TIME!

*Gets harrased by Tengu*

Damn Tengus bugging me, next thing you know, the Kappas will be by again.
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it's all about me me me!!! my popularity most grow for i am the queen! the queen!!!- DragoonSephiroth

I'd be more worried about the Bakemono and Oni if I were you. ;P
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

Tag.

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Summer 2004 Contest - Score: 36/42
= Tommy Vercetti vs. Zero =

Regarding the ghost in the TV screen reflection, when they asked the child if he was saying goodbye to the cartoon characters he said no, he was waving to his friend.
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

Kids always find new ways to be surprising. So... The mom didn't even know the ghost was there at all or anything?
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"There comes a time in every mans life, were he must kick a priests ass." --The Curse

Ok, here we go. My grandpa told me nothing really frightening happened to him, as much as it was curious and odd, but something remotely terrifiying happened to his best friend down there back in the late 30's. Er, up there in Michigan I mean.

-Reports abounded around the small town of Albion, about the ghostly whispering of a man once known as Officier Jenkins. It was said that this old man had died, when a drunken driver slammed his automobile into him. The old man directed traffic more often then naught, and gave fines for jaywalking. My grandfather said once, as he was ready to cross a near empty street, when he faintly heard "You better not lad." My grandpa looked around, furious at not seeing anyone, and started to go across again as a car up ahead weaved around. "Take the proper crosswalk lad." was something he next heard, and my grandpa looked around once more. Finally deciding to chance running across the street, my grandpa began to set off, when suddenly he felt he was being grabbed by his shoulder, and sent tumbling backwards. Briefly in a window reflection, he spotted an old man shaking a nightstick at him and shaking his head, and soon the automobile crashed into an empty newspaper stand. My grandfather rushed home to tell his dad about the odd incident, and described him well to him. My great-grandfather took him to the county hall, and showed him a picture of Officer Jenkins. My grandpa was startled to see it was an exact picture, of the reflection's likeness.
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it's all about me me me!!! my popularity most grow for i am the queen! the queen!!!- DragoonSephiroth

Bump. Nope, she only noticed the strange disappearing doll/child when she watched it again later.
---
Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771

-My grandfather also related to me about an incident involving his friend, in the early 40's. There was a reputed, haunted house in town, where an old sister and brother who had lived together for years, had died. They said one of the old siblings liked to eat and murder children as well. Another rumor going around was, that the old lady had an unlocked jewelry box, stuffed with pearls and diamonds in it. Being the money seeking boy my grandpa's friend was, decided to go alone during the afternoon one day. As he marched around the home, staying out of the unlit corridors, he eventually came to the master bedroom. It was bare and had nothing in there, as did most of the rooms, but suddenly he felt something very cold and painful clutch his right arm. As the kid paniced, he heard chuckling as he felt himself being jerked along, as he later told my grandpa. Eventually, an older voice had said "Put him down Minerva.", and soon a gentle warm feeling crept through the boy, and then the boy was lead out of the room. Eventually, the boy felt the warmth leave his arm as he walked outside, and to this day my grandpa says, his friend carries an awful burn mark on his arm, where the wicked old woman grabbed him.

I have never met this friend of his in person, but an old photo of him shows an awful splotch on his arm. Doesn't mean the old woman grabbed him there, but my grandpa is not one to lie about history either.
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it's all about me me me!!! my popularity most grow for i am the queen! the queen!!!- DragoonSephiroth

I haven't had anything happen recently that was scary, but when I was about four, we lived in a house that was haunted by the spirit of the original owner. he had designed and built three identical houses, two on one street, and one on the street behind the others, and all three shared a large backyard. He was killed in the atic of one of these houses, but haunted all three. At night, you would hear what sounded like a fight, and a short choked-out male scream. Now, one day when my sister was home alone, she heard someone call out her name. Looking around, she found nobody there. Another time, she was setting me down for a nap. Her bedroom was across the hall, but we could not see into each other's rooms. There was an old magazine rack that we used for books, and in this there was a copy of Alfred Hitchcock's Scary Stories On the back cover, which was facing me, there is a man in his bed, bug-eyed, covers up to his eyeballs in fright, looking at his open closet where there is a white form walking into the closet. This form truned around and WAVED AT ME!!
I hollered to my sister "The book is LOOKING AT ME!!"
She just hollered back "Go to sleep!"
We've since moved from that haunted house to another.
More on that one later.

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Gamertag-DarthStraka
Dude, don't taunt him. He has a graph!-Donut, RvB

Interesting stories :)
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Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age. ~Napoleon Bonaparte, Discours de Lyon, 1771