The Ghost in the Closet

27 Replies

Little ghostIt’s no secret that I have a thing for monsters. Friendly monsters, scary monsters, misunderstood monsters–bring it on.

What scares me, though, is a good ghost story. So, in the spirit of Halloween, let me tell you mine…

Our house is only thirteen years old, so you wouldn’t necessarily think it’d be haunted. We’re the only family who’s ever lived here. Still…we seem to have a wee ghostly problem. See, our guest room is down the hall on the first story, near the garage door. The closet door in there has never stayed closed, probably because of North Texas’ notorious issues with shifting soil. Every house around here has cracked walls from wobbly foundations and forget about having a basement.  But the closet in question would never close. Even when the house was pretty new…it’d just swing open after we pulled it closed. We use the closet as storage for winter clothes and swimming stuff and the room itself is more a mudroom than anything else, so it gets some traffic, but it’s not a place where we go frequently (unless it’s laundry day). So why’s that door always open? Maybe it’s foundation issues.

Except…

The closet light is inexplicably on sometimes. There are even times when I turn it off (knowing I never turned it on) and when I get back to the room–the light is on. Now, my husband thinks it’s the kids, but our daughter is just as wary of that closet as I am. I can’t explain why, but sometimes I don’t feel entirely alone in that room when I’m sorting the laundry, with that closet door open. There are also times when I’ll be walking through the entry and a shadow catches my eye in the hallway down to the guest room. When I turn to look, nothing’s there, but I could’ve sworn something moved. I have a hard time walking down that hallway without turning on some extra lights. So what’s going on in there? Faulty wiring (that would be scary in and of itself)? My son pulling a three-year long prank?

Or something trying to tell us something?

So that’s weird enough, but here’s where it gets weirder. My town, Flower Mound, has a large “mound” that’s a state landmark on the south side of town. There are rumors and legends that people have tried to build on the land surrounding the flower mound over the years, and the buildings either burned to the ground or were destroyed by tornadoes. Yeah…the mound doesn’t seem to want guests. These days it’s surrounded by a healthy swath of land and a wrought-iron fence. Given all that lore, though, makes my little closet light issue all the more suspect. Either way, I’m going to attempt to ignore our possible “visitor” and just switch the light off from time-to-time, hoping that nothing ever pops out, shouting, “BOO!”

If you feel a little chill on the back of your neck tonight, well, you’re welcome.  In repayment for indulging me in a little scare, I’m offering a giveaway as part of the Entangled Publishing Halloween blog hop — a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card! All you have to do to enter is tell me if you’ve ever seen a ghost. If you have, we’d love to hear the story!

27 thoughts on “The Ghost in the Closet”

  1. riamachia

    I haven’t (knock on wood!) but as a kid my brother was staying with a friend, and they put him in the guest room, aka “ghost room.” That night he woke up and kept his head firmly under the blanket as something tapped its way across the floor and stood by the bed for a few minutes, then left.
    In the morning they told him other people had seen the ghost of an old man with a cane.

    I hate moving to a new house because you never know what’s waiting to greet you.

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  2. Talia

    I’m not sure I believe in ghosts, except when I visit my grandmother. She lives in an old house – more than 100 years old, and had one daughter die in the house. Ever time I walk by the old play room I am completely creeped out. And not just me – ALL my cousins feel the same way. Is it just the incredibly bad lighting? Or is it more? I don’t know, but I hate that hallway.

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  3. ki pha

    Wow! I’m not sure if I believe in ghosts but I have had some strange experiences as a child. I remember being at home one day and planned to go down to the basement to pick out some toys to play with in the living room. As I opened the door to the basement I remember seeing these two glowing dots at the bottom of the stairs. As a child I didn’t know or thought much about what is was but I close the door and walk away finding something else to do with my day. I’m not sure what it was but I know that nothing could have glowed like that because there wasn’t any light to bounce the reflected a light source back in that manner.

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  4. Rhonda Gayle Nash-Hall

    I have never seen one but my former sil did tell us they were with us in the resort we were all staying in at the holidays. We stayed there several years during Christmas and he said the elevators were full of ghosts. He was a conductor and when they went on a ghost tour, the guide said that someone must be one as the house was more active than usual! Freaked his wife, my daughter, out but I thought it was neat.

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  6. Megan

    The most recent time that I saw a ghost, we were at a heritage festival with re-enactors. I saw a black shape of a person literally disappear into a sapling. It wasn’t a real person because no way could they have hid like that. I wondered if the civil war re enactors brought the spirit in to watch.

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  7. Marie H

    I can’t honestly say that I have seen a ghost. I’ve heard a lot of stories, and heard a few sounds here or there, but never actually SEEN one. I’d like to someday 🙂

    Thanks for an awesome giveaway!

    songbird1613 at yahoo dot com

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  9. Pingback: All Entangled Eve, A Halloween Hop | Entangled In Romance

  16. Michelle Willms

    First, I have a question: Could the mound be a burial mound similar to those we have in MS? The Cherokee and Choctaw Indians buried their dead on the land that my grandfather once owned (that the Tombigbee Waterway people bought and put the canal through with no regard for the mounds). We have some ghost issues, both in my grandfather’s house, which is more than 150 years old, and in my sister’s house, that she built. There is no reason for my sister’s house to be haunted, but many of us (me included) have seen and felt things there. I’ve seen ghosts and felt cold spots at my grandfather’s house. My sister is a person who can’t see them, but she isn’t a nonbeliever. Thanks for the giveaway. michelle_willms(at)yahoo(dot)com

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    1. Kendra Post author

      I think it might be a Native American burial ground, but no one has disturbed it, so we might never know. (and I’m not sure I really want to know. :D)

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  19. BookAttict

    I’ve seen ghosts a couple of times….mostly when I was little. But, I’ve had a LOT of things happen that defy explanation.

    Thanks for the amazing giveaway!
    elizabeth @ bookattict . com

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  23. Jessica D

    For years after my grandparents had died I had spoken to both on a daily basis.

    My Mem-mem passed first, I was 5. I don’t remember but my parents have told me that I would sit in front of the rocking chair and talk for hours. They thought it was an imaginary friend until I told them other wise. Three years later my Pop-pop passed. For some reason things changed. This is what I remember. For several years I would talk to them both after my parents put me to bed but before falling asleep. One on either side of the bed. I would tell them about my day, my feelings, how much I missed them, etc. They even talked back. We would have full conversations.

    I don’t remember when the sightings stopped. Probably around my early teenage years. But I still feel them both and have heard my Mem-mem on one occasion since.

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  25. JanD

    I may have seen one when I was a kid. Someone was with me but I don’t remember talking to him about it after it happened.

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  26. Ashley Ryan Snyder

    I have never seen a ghost myself, but I believe my grandma saw my dad when he died. My grandma had been suffering from Denentia for a few years and was getting worse and worse. She was bed ridden and lived in Texas with my dad’s sister a few years ago. My dad died of a heart attack while I was at school, so he was not sick and it came out of nowhere. But that night, my aunt called us crying saying that her mom was talking to my dad saying he was in the corner of the room. She was like “Marlene, Scott came by to see me” I swear I cry every time I think of that. Ugh. Stop CRYING. lol.

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