The Haunted House: A True Scary Story

This is a true scary story about a supposedly haunted house. Since it’s just about Halloween, I figured it was time for me to share this account. I’ve known about it for several years, but I’ve just now gotten down to actually writing it. The tale actually began about fifteen years ago, in a small town in South Georgia. I’ll call the town “Pineville.” I have to change all the names and places for this narrative. The owners of the haunted house are having a devil of a time selling it or renting it, and I don’t want to make things harder for them. I’ve never personally seen anything unusual about the house in question, but you’ll probably find these circumstances surrounding it rather strange. I did!

Fifteen years or so ago, there was a teenager named Matt. Matt lived in the small town of Pineville, Georgia. On the weekends, Matt and his buddies would ride around, as teens are wont to do. One night they heard about this haunted house that was about twenty miles away, in the tiny hamlet of Lakeview. They were intrigued, so they got directions to the house and made the drive to find it.

They had no trouble finding the old house. It was on a dirt road, about a half mile off the paved rural highway. The boys were laughing and jovial, not at all scared by the prospects of a haunted house. When they first saw the house, they were rather disappointed. They were hoping for something like the Hitchcock house from Psycho, but what they got instead was an ancient, unassuming farmhouse. With its big front porch and rockers, it looked more like your typical grandma’s abode than it did like a haunted house.

It was obvious that no one lived in the house, so the boys decided to get out of the car and take a closer look. As they were exiting their vehicle, however, they noticed a strange blue-gray light through one of the front windows. They stopped in their tracks. One of the guys laughed and said it must be a TV. The others agreed with this explanation, until the light began to move from window to window. Then, to their astonishment, the light came through one of the windows! It just floated there, about ten feet off the ground, before it completely disappeared. The boys jumped in the car and sped off, never again to return. Or so Matt thought.

Years later, Matt met my daughter, “Lisa.” They fell in love and got married, and they had a son named “Michael.” When Michael was five years old, the couple began searching for a house to buy. They found a great deal on a house in Lakeview, so they decided to go look at it. Michael didn’t go with them.

To Matt’s surprise, the house that was for sale was right across the road from the “haunted house” he’d visited years earlier. He was all grown up now, and he didn’t believe in such things. He laughed as he explained his adventure to Lisa, and she had no reservations about buying the house they were looking at. They both decided, however, that they should never tell Michael about the haunted house that was across the street. They swore each other to secrecy, and they bought the house.

Michael was very excited about his new house. It had a huge yard, with trees to climb, playground equipment, and plenty of room to run and play. He loved his new room, too, and his parents allowed him to fix it up just how he wanted. After a couple of repairs and some redecorating, the young family moved in.

On their first night in the new house, Michael had a terrible nightmare. He had had some bad dreams before, but this one was especially scary. He couldn’t recall the details of the dream – he just knew it was frightening. His mom comforted him and he went back to sleep.

The next night, the same thing happened, only it was even worse. All he could remember was that a blue light was chasing him. Lisa and Matt didn’t think too much of this at the time, but the nightmares turned into night terrors. Michael would wake up screaming and scared to death. He said the blue light was trying to catch him so that the old house across the street could eat him! Of course, this rattled Lisa and Matt, and each began accusing the other of sharing the old story with Michael. Both parents swore that they’d never, ever uttered a word about the haunted house story. I totally believe them. They're both excellent parents and would never expose their child to something like that. Also, if Michael had heard something about the house from someone else, he would have mentioned it to his mom and dad. But he never did.

My daughter knew a little about sleeping disorders and night terrors, so she came up with a plan. They bought a dream catcher for Michael, explaining how it worked and how powerful it was. They hung it in Michael’s room, right over the head of his bed. That was several years ago, and he’s never had another nightmare or any other night terrors or sleeping disorders. And in case you’re wondering, the so-called haunted house is still unoccupied today – at least, by living humans!

I just learned that the house was sold several months ago, but the new owners didn't stay long. The man who bought the house said that during the night, he'd hear loud noises coming from the kitchen, and when he went to investigate, he'd find the kitchen chairs turned over and all the canned goods and other pantry items scattered on the floor. After this happened a few times, he moved out of the house. The haunted house is still unoccupied.