Ghost Stories

The Babysitter

Two brothers get in a fight while their parents are away, and punishment follows.

I could feel the floor dropping away beneath the bed, and the bed itself falling away next. My blankets were the last to go, and I was up, walking toward the open door into the hallway.

Mother and Father were in the living room with the television playing softly. They smiled at the screen, didn’t even glance at me as I walked by.

Then I was in the kitchen. The dark kitchen, staring down into the dark basement where no one went anymore. My body carried me down without so much as a pause on the top step. My mind, however, clawed at the back of my skull, desperate for the clean air upstairs. But down, down, down I went. Down into that darkness where the dust settled over everything and orphaned noises drifted without cause.
In the basement, the rest of the house was muted. All I could hear was my own breathing, my bare feet against the carpet. There were no working lights down there, just the moon- and lamplight from outside through the glass block windows. All I could see was the space in front of me. Everything else was a black funnel directing me forward, toward the door that we always kept shut.

I reached that door and placed my hand on the knob. Now even my body rebelled. My joints locked up. My hand felt like lead, my veins like tangles of rusty wire. I knew what waited in that empty bedroom; I wasn’t sure I could take seeing it one more time.

But I knew the rules, and my fear could only keep me paralyzed for so long.

I went inside.

Read the rest: http://www.thenoctrium.com/ghost-stories/the-babysitter

Don't Let the Light Go Out

A man stays at the office late to get some work done. He thinks he's alone, but who's playing with the lights?

The lights went out again. I sat perfectly still, my eyes wide in the darkness. I could feel something on the other side of my door staring back at me through the metal. I could hear something giggle, high-pitched like a woman—no, not a woman; a child. It was a mean laugh, a knowing laugh, a laugh that seemed to say, “I know where you are. Now I have you.”

Read the rest...

Runaway

A boy runs away from home after breaking a family heirloom. He takes shelter in an abandoned house, but it might not be abandoned after all:

A thumping noise woke me up. I opened my eyes and looked around, slowly remembering where I was. Why I’d come here. That’s right. The doll. Rain continued to fall; I could hear it rattling against the windows. Was Mom still looking for me, out in the rain? I had no idea what time it was. Maybe she’d given up. I’d broken her grandmother’s doll; what did she care if I was missing?

The thumping which had woken me continued. It came from above, moving across the ceiling. My eyes followed it, eventually coming to rest on a staircase across the hall.

I bit back a whimper and burrowed under the sheet. What was I thinking, coming here? My sofa was scratchy and full of holes, and it stank like pond scum. I lay there waiting for the thumping noise to come down the stairs, but it didn’t. I listened. Nothing. Just quiet darkness, air so still I could feel it squeezing me, so quiet it hurt my ears. Don’t be such a baby. It’s just an empty house. It was probably just an animal trying to get out of the rain. Oh, why did I run away? I kept listening and wondering until my eyes grew heavy, and I remembered how sleepy I was…

Read the rest here: http://www.thenoctrium.com/ghost-stories/runaway

Asher Road

A man gets in a wreck and tries to give his girlfriend directions over the phone so she can pick him up. A third party has other plans:

A deep groan rumbled through the night, and my stomach tied itself in a knot. She’s going to kill me. For good measure, I turned the key one last time, but the car still wouldn’t start. It just made that unhealthy groaning sound before falling utterly quiet.

I gave myself a moment to calm down and think. I was stranded. The car—her car—had veered off the road and flattened its front end against a tree. I hadn’t sustained any injuries, save for a bruise on my forehead, so I wasn’t in any real danger.

You sure about that?

Read the rest of Asher Road here: http://www.thenoctrium.com/ghost-stories/asher-road

Glasses

A man who has worn glasses his entire life discovers a new, terrifying world when he takes them off:

I wasn’t alone out there; that much I could tell. I could hear them breathing around me, moving with me. Their footsteps escorted me down the driveway. I can’t see you anymore, I thought. Now leave me alone!

It was hard to guage how far I’d walked. It seemed an eternity ago that I’d stepped outside my home, but I was taking tiny steps. Although I couldn’t see them, it felt like my tormentors were pressing in, standing as close as they could without actually touching me. I wanted to run back to my house, but I had to prove to them that they were invisible to me. I had to keep going until I was sure they were gone—

Read the rest here: http://www.thenoctrium.com/ghost-stories/glasses