Ghost Girl by Karen Michelle Nutt
I have quite a few ghost stories I could conjure up for Halloween. It must be why I love the paranormal so much—it feels like home.
Today, I’d like to tell you about my family’s ghost girl.
Everyone in my family has seen her one time or another and she isn’t shy about
revealing herself to friends, too.
This sighting took place when I was a teen. It was late at
night and my mother and I were the only ones still up. At this time my father
worked graveyard and wasn’t home. My siblings were sleeping.
I was working on a report for school in the kitchen and my mother was in the bathroom taking a bath. She kept the door slightly ajar so we could chat.
As the minutes ticked by, I began to get this prickly
feeling at the base of my neck and I swear the fine hairs on my arm stood at
attention. This happened every time the little girl would make her ghostly
appearance and I knew it was about to happen again. I was standing near the
table and my gaze was locked on the dark archway where our den is located.
Any second, I’m sure she’ll materialize. Usually, she is a
fleeing figure in a light colored dress. Her hair is a pale blonde and long and
whips behind her as she darts away.
While I’m concentrating on the endless black void that leads
to our den, in the bathroom, my mother is running the water in the bathtub.
“Who’s up with you?” she calls to me.
Of course no one is with me or so I believe. “No one’s up,
Mom,” I gladly inform her.
“I said who’s up with you?” My mother repeats the question,
but now her voice has an edge to it. She couldn’t hear that I answered her over
the running water.
If I wasn’t already freaked, I’m heading toward the panic
mode now. My mother obviously sees that someone is with me, but I can’t. I
backed up a few paces, before I sprint to the bathroom as if this ghostly
presence is chasing me. “No one is up with me!” And I do believe I did a little
dance of fright and my voice became a high-pitched shrill.
My mother’s brows furrow in confusion. “What do you mean? I
saw a hand reaching for you.”
She had been sure that one of the little ones had slipped
out of bed, but they were all fast asleep.
Even though I didn’t see her, I believe it was our resident ghost
girl, who had appeared off and on throughout the years. She still shows up now
and again. She’s the only consistent resident ghost at my parents’ home, but
we’ve had others over the years, too. I sometimes wonder if she invites them
over, telling them, “Hey they’re a
cool family. Come hang out with them for a while.”
***********************************************************************
****Contest:
I’m giving away a PDF copy of 2012 Fall/Paranormal
Collection to one lucky commenter. My ghostly tale, Shattered Illusions is
featured in the collection.
All you need to do is Answer: Have you ever had a ghostly
experience? If so, tell us about it.
***********************************************************************
Blurb for Shattered Illusions:
Blood
stained floors appear and disappear, low whispering voices greet her as a storm
causes the lights to flicker. Brona must put her fears behind her and unravel
the mystery that haunts the house.
Excerpt for Shattered
Illusions:
She entered the house
with sure steps. She reached for the light switch and flipped it on, flooding
the living room with light. “Tara, I’m back and cold to the bone.” Silence
greeted her. It was odd how silence could clamor louder in the mind than an
orchestra playing a symphony. Her chuckle died in her throat. A confusing rush
of anticipation and dread whirled inside of her. Why wasn’t her sister
answering? No sounds came from within as if she entered a tomb. Goose flesh
moved up her spine, making her shiver.
Lightning crackled in the
sky and thunder shook the windows, causing Brona to jump. She whirled around to
shut and locked the door behind her. She headed for the stairs with a thought:
What if she had locked the intruder in with her? She stood at the bottom of the
stairs and looked up at the inky blackness waiting for her.
She had to go up there.
She had to make sure Tara was okay.
She’d only taken a step when a guttural cry of terror rose
above the storm’s violence.
TWILIGHT’S ETERNAL EMBRACE:
The
Oiche Sith, the blood drinkers, forged an alliance with the Lathe Sith, a
neighboring daywalker clan. The Oiche Sith would protect them from invaders in
exchange that one female a year wed one of their warriors for the blooding
ritual. Unfortunately, the female Lathe Sith never survives for very long.
Adryanna,
a Lathe Sith, mourns the death of her recently mated sister, but she finds
solace in the most unlikely place—in the arms of Bram, an Oiche Sith. She
should fear him, loathe his existence, but instead she longs for their twilight
embraces. Bram admires Adryanna’s strength and wishes only to protect her, even
if it’s from him.
If
Bram cannot find a way for Adryanna to survive the blooding ritual the romance
is doomed. They seek help from Sheerin, Bram’s cousin, who believes he’s found
a way for the Lathe Sith to survive, but others in the Oiche Sith clan do not
wish for them to succeed. I’m running a
Contest at Goodreads for Print copy of Twilight’s Eternal Embrace. Contest ends
Oct. 31st.
I was working on a report for school in the kitchen and my mother was in the bathroom taking a bath. She kept the door slightly ajar so we could chat.
My family and I have had several ghostly experiences. We live in a hundred year old haunted house. We too have a ghost girl, seen orbs, heard someone walking or heard the door opening when it was closed, and heard whispering. I'm doing a post about it later this month on my website. :)
ReplyDeleteThe first time I saw our ghost girl, she was sitting on my bed on a pillow next to my daughter. She has long hair in an indeterminate color and wears a night gown.
When my daughter was three she had an invisible friend that I realized was our ghost girl. Her name is Jenny.
janbrowser(at)yahoo(dot)com
Janice~
Hi Janice,
DeleteA 100 year old house-- I bet if those wall could talk...
Thanks for sharing your ghostly experience. :)
Our family home is haunted with what I believed is a little girl. The spirit loved to touch my shoulder in the night and wake me. I'd see the small figure standing next to my bed.
ReplyDeleteIt also liked to turn on water, lights and open and close doors while my mom was home alone during the day.
My dad ad his significant other still have experiences.
Hi Amber,
DeleteThanks so much for coming by and sharing your ghost story with us.
I feel so jealous. I've never seen a ghost or had such a cool experience. Of course, I would probably have a heart attack if I did. It's also a validating experience in that such an experience would give proff that there is an afterlife. For now, I just have to go on faith. Great eyewitness account.
ReplyDeleteSarah,
DeleteYou may not see ghosts, but you're experiencing ghostly blog post appearing and disappearing. lol
Thanks for popping in 'twice'. :)
Third time lucky ... fumble-fingers has managed to delete everything I wrote TWICE, now - both times when I'd almost finished the tale .... GRRRRRRRRR!!
ReplyDeleteThis happened when I was a very young Cub Scout at Easter camp ...
Bispham Hall [between Liverpool & Manchester, NW England] dates from the time of the Crusades. Lord Bispham was away with Richard for many years, and a neighbour eventually persuaded Lady Bispham that her husband must be dead. He them married her, hoping to inherit the estate.
Lord Bispham arrived home unannounced, and rode his horse into the Hall and up the stairs to the bedroom.
Lady Bispham was terrified, and flung herself out of the bedroom window: her pet dog followed her, and both died on the flagged courtyard below.
Lord Bispham had his wife buried in an unmarked grave, but because he realised the dog had done no wrong other than to stay by his mistress, he had a memorial raised for the dog, with the inscription "Alas! Poor, faithful Dash". The headstone can still be seen outside the Hall, where they died.
Sir Bispham riding up the driveway, through a [locked] door and up the stairs was witnessed that night by myself and about twenty others. None of us knew the story at the time (it was the first time we'd visited that particular Scout Camp).
True story!!
Regards
Paul
Creepy! Thanks so much for sharing this story!
DeleteI and another school friend both saw a ghost when we were about nine. The lady walked through a door down the length of the room and out through the wind, which was two stroeis up.
ReplyDeleteWhen we asked about it the next day, we 'knew' we had seen something by the reaction of the adults.
Sherry,
DeleteInteresting that you all saw it at the same time. Hmm...what did the adults know?
I have seen shadow figures out the side of my eyes but; never really seen a ghost. I have felt one go through me at the Assisted living where I used to work. Scary feeling. I have felt like something was there or watching me both there and at a hospital I worked at. Also while at the hospital I heard someone say my name and it was so loud I answered cause I thought it was my supervisor. This happened more than once. Also when I was with my MIL at the end of her life I swear I felt someone hug me and I got a feeling of love and peace. Best feeling ever even though I was sad and upset.
ReplyDeleteSue B
katsrus(at)gmail(dot)com
Sue,
DeleteI have it where someone has called my name. Loud and clear, but no one's there. It's kind of unsettling.
My father passed away six years ago. He used to like to tease us with to quick tugs on our ponytails. My family and I were on vacation and I'd been thinking of my dad that day. We were walking toward our destination when I felt a distinct tugged two tugs on my ponytail. I turned around and looked at my daughter, thinking she was trying to get my attention. I asked her what she wanted.
Of course she looked at me like I'd lost it. lol And told me she didn't tug on my ponytail. I'd like to believe it had been my dad, just saying hello.
Great story, Karen!
ReplyDeleteHi Sara,
DeleteThanks for stopping in for peek. :)
We have a ghost collie who lived his natural life at our house and didn't leave. When the DH and I were granted guardianship of our grand-daughter, Beary had gone to the Rainbow Bridge about three months prior. He adored our little grand-daughter when he was alive and tolerated anything she did to him. During the height of the original legal battle, Jadie kept talking about "Burry". He always slept across the doorway of her room so she could see him if she woke during the night. One afternoon, after a very trying day of fielding nasty phone calls from both of Jadie's parents, including the obligatory vile text messages, I was incredibly rattled. I put Jadie down for a nap. About half an hour later, I heard her laughing that deep, full belly laugh that only toddlers can belt out. I peeked into her room to see what had her laughing so hard. She was pushing on the bumper on her crib (she was only 15 months at the time) and it appeared there was resistance on the other side of the bumper. Something was pushing the bumper back. I felt the hair on my arms lifting when I heard her say "Nap Burry. Take a nap."
ReplyDeleteTo this day (she's been with us now for over six years), when she is very upset with her parents' antics, I can hear her talking to Beary. Even though when he had to be sent to the Rainbow Bridge because of kidney failure and I told him we would be okay, apparently he's decided that Jadie needs him here and he hasn't left.
What a sweet story. Beary is still guarding your family. :)
DeleteAwww... I love this story!
DeleteI never saw a ghost, but I sure experienced one. And this was not in an old house. It seems our first retirement home was only seven years old when we bought it, but the woman for whom the house was built was injured on the land weeks before the house was finished. She had horses, was riding one, when the horse stumbled in a rabbit hole, and she and the horse went down. Weeks after the house was finished she died. However,she did not want to leave that house. And she didn't like strangers, other than the owners.
ReplyDeleteShe made her presence know, jumping on the beds of guests, setting off the smoke detectors or security system whenever we left for a few days away. In fact the police told us after the fourth or fifth trip to the house for a supposed security breaches, we would have to start paying them for coming to check. Our daughter's family refused to stay in the house when we traveled because our lady slammed doors, opened kitchen cabinets, scaring the granddaughter to death. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, no one ever saw her. (darn it~!)
We've moved further south now, but I wonder if she's left. And, no, we did not tell the new owners about the lady. They'll have to experience her themselves.
It would be interesting to know if the new owners experienced the same things you did. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your ghost story.
DeleteWhen my grandmother, lovinginly referred to as Granny, died, my sister and I drove up to Missouri from Texas and stayed at her house for the funeral. The day after the funeral the entire family (there's a LOT of us) went through Granny's possessions to get things squared away. The day ended up being a horrible ordeal that didn't set well on me.
ReplyDeleteThat night my sister and I slept in Granny's guest room, the same room we slept in as children when we spent two weeks of every summer with her. As I slept I became aware of Granny's perfume - Youth Dew from Estee Lauder - a very specific, wonderful scent. The scent became so strong, it woke me up. I lied in bed wondering if I had dream the smell, but the scent was still in my nose, as if someone had taken two cotton balls, soaked it in her perfume, and then shoved them in my nose. The smell of her perfume lingered for many minutes.
To this day I'm certain the smell was my Granny coming to say good-bye to me, as my sister and I planned on leaving that morning.
PS - I loved reading everyone's ghost stories. I'm a ghost fanatic and watch every ghost show on television. One day I'd love to do a ghost hunt with the fantastic folks from Ghost Hunters.
Brenna,
DeleteI love ghost stories, too. My friends and I have taken ghost tours, but it would be interesting to take one with the Ghost Hunters. :)
Thanks so much for sharing.
I had a visit by a ghost girl, but she was creepy. It was in my dreams, but when I woke up, her presence was so vivid, I was afraid to open my eyes. I was sure she would be hovering over me. I couldn't go back to sleep.
ReplyDeleteI know I had the dream because of a few nights prior, my brother said his door knob was wiggling as if someone was trying to get in. What does my 'brave' brother do? He calls me on his cell phone and asks me to go to his room. Dummy me does, not realizing his reasons. When I open his door, he tells me he thought someone was standing out there in the hall trying to get in his room. Really? He sends me out into the hall to investigate. Nice brother, right? I might be older than he is, but the guy is built like a football player and stands five inches taller than me. 'Little' brothers-- what can you do? lol The weird thing is, at the same time he thought he heard someone in the hall, I thought I heard someone, too. Like scraping against the wall, but I dismissed it when I didn't hear it again.
A ghost? Maybe. I just hope it's not the ghost girl in my dream.
Spooky!
DeleteAren't brothers just special. lol I guess you're still the big sis to her no matter that he's a lot taller now.
I wonder why your mom saw the hand but not you. Were you scared? I was scared reading it, but then, your stuff scares me a lot. LOL Shattered Illusions certainly has a creep factor. Twilight's Eternal Embrace sounds pretty dang fascinating...a blood letting. Yikes! Love the cover, too. I've been visiting Haunt-O-Ween. What a fun place.
ReplyDeleteall the best...
Thanks so much, Sarah for coming by.
DeleteWas I scared? I was. Maybe I would have seen the hand if I turned around, but I was backing up toward the hand, believing the ghost would appear in front of me. Now that in itself is scary. I didn't know where the ghost was. I just knew she was present.
I loved all the stories in the Fall/Paranormal Collection. I especially liked the different spin on each of the vampire lores.
Vry cool true ghost story, Karen. I've have quite a few ones like that--even seeing them as solids--which is why glad writing my ghost books. Happy halloween.
ReplyDeleteHi Pamela,
DeleteI'll have to check out your book. I've had a few ghost that were solid, too. One even said hello before disappearing-- in a blink of an eye. I looked down to help my daughter who had been 2 at the time to go up the stairs. I looked up again and the woman was gone. It took me another second to realize, she hadn't been a live person. I didn't recognize her, but thought maybe she was waiting for my neighbor to come home. The woman couldn't have gone anywhere but down the stairs. (This was a private stairway to my apartment and the next door neighbors apartment.) It was not possible for her to whip around unlock the neighbor's door and go inside. It was really strange. I wished I had paid more attention to detail. What she looked like. What she was wearing, etc.
When I was young (maybe 6 or 7) we had moved into a Civil War Era farmhouse. One night, a girl appeared next to my bed. I thought she was an angel, but she didn't have wings. She and I whispered together, so as not to wake my sister, who was sleeping next to me. She asked me odd questions, including, "How do you think you'll die?" I asked her if she knew and she shook her head, but said, "Just be careful with fire." The next day, I told my brothers and sister about my visitor and they all called me a liar. I was humiliated. That night when the girl appeared again I told her that I knew she wasn't real and that I wanted her to go away. I turned my back on her. She never appeared again. To this day, I regret not learning more about her. I've had several other ghostly encounters over the years, but I've never actually seen a spirit since that time.
ReplyDeleteSue,
DeleteShe told you to beware of fire. Did anything ever happen to make you think of her warning?