1. I’ll start off with a personal story of mine…
Spring break, 2014—my sophomore year of high school. I tagged along on a road trip with my good friend Ali and her family, and our first stop was at Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana. The place was rich with history and was absolutely gorgeous, and we stayed in a cottage house on the back lawn (fun fact: we allegedly stayed in the same one Tom Cruise once did). I’ll try to describe the layout of the cottage as best I can because the details are essential.
The front door opens into the dining room, and off to the left is the kitchen, which has an island flanked by glass cabinets containing old porcelain dolls. A few steps further to the left is the living room, and from there you accessed my Ali’s and my room, adjacent to her parents’ room.
As soon as we got settled in, Ali grabbed one of the dolls and played with it for a bit before putting it back in the cabinet. We thought nothing of it and went to bed. Now, the door from the living room to our room stuck, and it stuck hard—meaning you nearly had to dislodge your shoulder to get it to open or close. It also did not open or shut quietly; keep that in mind. Another important detail is where the outlets were located: There was a surge protector strip behind our bed which could only be accessed by contorting your arm through the wrought-iron rails of the headboard. I plugged in my phone charger in the bottom left outlet; keep that in mind.
About halfway through the night, I woke up to a breeze. Our door had been opened, and our fan had been turned on. I’m an incredibly light sleeper, so I was baffled about how I was not awoken by that. As usual, you convince your mind that all is well and attempt to go back to sleep. The next morning, I awoke to Ali and her mom talking about who had come into our room that night and turned on the fan, and her parents swore up and down neither of them had. Also, my phone charger had been moved from the bottom left outlet to the top right outlet, and there is no humanly possible way for anyone to have done that without waking me up. The person would’ve had to literally lie on top of me to wriggle his/her arm through the railing to unplug it and plug it back in.
Quite spooked, we went to breakfast in the main home and brought up the occurrence to our waiter, who quickly told us that many, not all, of the cottages were haunted. After indicating which was ours, he nodded, “Oh, yeah, that’s the one notorious for weird things happening.” Great, right? Naturally, Ali and I did not want to be the ones to have to move our luggage from there to the car while her parents checked out, but we had no choice.
We went back to the cottage, and Ali made me go in first. I walked in, scoped out the scene, and had just started to tell Ali that the coast was clear when she grabbed my shoulder and said, “Anna, back up.” I froze and looked to my left in the direction of the kitchen, and the doll that Ali had played with the night before was sitting all of five inches from me on the edge of the counter. We were certain no one had been in the cottage after we left, and Ali was the last one out before breakfast. After seeing that, we bolted back to her parents and made them get the luggage. Shaken up, we got in the car and continued on the trip. Next stop: Texas.
Here’s where I get chill bumps every time I recount this story. I wish I were lying or exaggerating what I’m about to type.As soon as the we passed the state line from Louisiana into Texas, our headlights, taillights, and electrical outlets in the vehicle stopped working. They continued to not work for the two days we stayed in Texas. However, as soon as we crossed the state line from Texas into Louisiana on the way home, we drove under an overpass with graffiti that read “THE DOLL.” The second we were out from under it, everything began to work like normal. I kid you not.To this day, not one of us on that trip can explain what happened.
____________________
In case that story didn’t send enough chills up and down your spine, here are a few more:
2. “19 Terrifying Experiences People Have Had with Skinwalkers,” Story #4
Another road trip incident, arguably ten times scarier than what happened to me and Ali.
3. “20 Short Scary Stories that Will Give You Goosebumps,” Story #1
Yet another reason it’s good to obey your elders…
4. “20 Short Scary Stories that Will Give You Goosebumps,” Story #6
Great minds thinking alike isn’t always a good thing.
5. “20 Short Scary Stories that Will Give You Goosebumps,” Story #13
Not really terrifying, just disturbing…
____________________
I hope these spooked your cute, fuzzy Halloween socks off! If not, read all of the stories in the links above. One of them is sure to do it!
Happy (almost) Halloween!