Struggling to get into the Halloween spirit? Is that even a thing? Can you feel 'Halloween-y' ? Probably not. That's why you're not feeling it.
Anyways, Halloween is a time for being shit scared and nothing works better at giving you the heebie jeebies that a good old ghost story. We scoured Reddit to find the best, fictional and true, to scare you shitless today.
This oddly comforting ghost story to ease you in
'When my mother was 12 or so, she fell asleep during the afternoon, watching TV in the living room. When she awoke, she noticed her Aunt Mable rising from the rocking chair in the living room to walk down the hallway to the kitchen. My Mumm just assumed her Aunt had come over while she was asleep, so she jumped out of bed & yelled, "Aunt Mable! Aunt Mable!" and ran out to the hallway to catch up with her. As my Mumm approached the kitchen, Aunt Mable wasn't there, just the radio playing & her mother washing dishes. She said, "Mom! Where did Aunt Mable go? I just saw her come down here!" Her Mother replied, "Honey, you must have been having a dream! Aunt Mable lives 5 hours away! She's at home where your Uncle Charlie is taking care of her."
The phone rang 5 minutes later, it was Uncle Charlie calling to say that Aunt Mable died peacefully in her sleep that afternoon.'
This ghost story that could possibly legitimately happen to anyone
'I'd just moved into a basement suite. Every time I went out I would lock the deadbolt but not the door handle but when I came home a lot of the time the deadbolt would be unlocked and the door handle would be locked. At first I thought I was just confused about which one I had locked so I started paying more attention. It kept happening and I realised someone must be going in when I went out. I assumed it was the landlady and was annoyed but didn't say anything at first. Then one day I came home and found the wrong lock locked again. I went in pissed off and opened the fridge to get something to eat. There was a book in the fridge that I had never seen before. I collected old books and this one was published in the early 1900s which creeped me out completely because it was like it had been left for me. I finally called my landlady and asked if she was going into my apartment and told her what had happened. She freaked right out, said the last person who lived there was a really creepy guy with mental health and drug problems. She got all the locks changed that day and it never happened again.'
This ghost story which will stop you sleeping ever again
'When I was a girl living in Texas, I had a recurring dream. In this dream, I was walking down the street of my hometown, and a man would walk toward me. Sometimes he was older and sometimes he was younger. He didn't always have the same face, but I always knew it was the same man. He would get closer and closer, and I would know that something bad was going to happen, but I would wake up each time before he reached me. I would be terrified. One night, in my dream, we finally got face to face and I spoke to him. I said, "What is your name?" He said, "My name is Sammy." And then I woke up, and I was so afraid that I couldn't go back to sleep. I went to my sister's room and said, "Can I get in bed with you? I've just had a really bad dream." My sister said, "Was it Sammy?" I said, "What did you say? How do you know Sammy?" And my sister said, "I don't. But you just brought him in the room with you." I turned on the lights and I saw that my sister was asleep.'
This ghost story, which makes us look skeptically at our siblings
'I hate it when my brother Charlie has to go away.
'My parents constantly try to explain to me how sick he is. That I am lucky for having a brain where all the chemicals flow properly to their destinations like undammed rivers. When I complain about how bored I am without a little brother to play with, they try to make me feel bad by pointing out that his boredom likely far surpasses mine, considering his confine to a dark room in an institution.
'I always beg for them to give him one last chance. Of course, they did at first. Charlie has been back home several times, each shorter in duration than the last. Every time without fail, it all starts again. The neighbourhood cats with gouged out eyes showing up in his toy chest, my dad's razors found dropped on the baby slide in the park across the street, mum's vitamins replaced by bits of dishwasher tablets. My parents are hesitant now, using "last chances" sparingly. They say his disorder makes him charming, makes it easy for him to fake normalcy, and to trick the doctors who care for him into thinking he is ready for rehabilitation. That I will just have to put up with my boredom if it means staying safe from him.
'I hate it when Charlie has to go away. It makes me have to pretend to be good until he is back.'
Thisghost story, which is a big bag of nopes
Be 8 and home by myself
Grandma is out on a date
Watching Pokemon in the living room
Hear a tapping on the window
Look through the window and see a man
Back the fuck up
He breaks the window
I drop my Pokemon cards I was holding and NOPE the fuck out
Run as fast as I can to my great grandpa's house four houses down from ours
He calls the police and we go back
The man is gone
Police find something among all the cards I dropped
Hand it to my great grandpa
He begins to tear up a bit and hugs me
Grandma finally comes home and we tell her
Great grandpa shows her what the police found
She turns pale and hugs me tightly
The next day she replaced the window and has them put special latches on them and the doors as well
Few years pass and I finally work up the courage to ask what they found
Grandma shows me
It's a picture from the inside of my closet at night, you can see me sleeping in the photo
The date is from two days before he broke the window.
This one, which proves you shouldn't be a smart arse
'Julia knew she was smart. She was one of those clever children, the kind of child who figures out early on that parents aren’t all-powerful and all-knowing.
'The first time she realized this was when she got scared. There had been a noise in her room, coming from under her bed, or from the closet.
'Julia ran down the hall, crying, “Mommy! Daddy!”
'“What’s wrong, honey?”
'“I huh-heard a m-monster,” Julia glubbed.
'She expected them to comfort her, or roll their eyes, or get annoyed. Instead, they jumped up immediately and raced to her bedroom, where they checked under the bed, inspected the closet, and tested the window lock. They poked, prodded, and scoured every inch.
'Julia caught on quickly. She knew what they were doing. By taking her fears seriously, they were showing their little girl that she was safe and loved. They had probably read about it in some book.
'But the lesson Julia learned was that she had power. Thereafter, waking her parents became a nightly event. Julia would scream and cry, they would rush to her bedroom, and Julia would hide her grin behind tears. But not once did they ever complain.
'One night she could stand it no longer, and she burst out laughing when Daddy fell down while examining the light fixture, as if a monster could fit up there.
'“What’s so funny?” he asked, rubbing his backside.
'“You,” Julia smirked. “You always believe me.”
'Daddy wasn’t angry. He just looked at Mommy.
'“Once,” he said quietly, “just once, we didn’t believe your brother.”
'And Julia, an only child, did not sleep well that night.'
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.