Life Story: A Ghost in the Room

by Jon

This is a story that I’ve rarely told anyone, because it was legitimately the closest thing to a supernatural occurrence I’ve ever personally experienced. And it scares the shit out of me.

I have a little brother. He’s 3 years younger than me. When I was in 6th grade, we were home alone during the summer time and playing around as brothers do. Wrestling around, chasing each other around the house, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I ended up chasing him into our parents’ room, and we were throwing stuff back and forth at each other, having a little fake war across the bed. I don’t know. Kid stuff.

It popped into my head that it’d be funny to scare him by shutting off the lights. There were no windows in our parents’ room, so with the lights gone, it is pitch black except for whatever light that creeps in from under the door.

I turned the light off, snuck out of the room and shut the door behind me.

I turned around to listen to him as he panicked. He wanted me to come back in. But, I didn’t. I just stood close, listening.

“What are you doing?” I heard him say.

He thought I was still in there as he hadn’t seen me leave the room.

I kept listening.

“Jacob. What are you doing? You’re freaking me out. Please stop.”

Hmm… that’s odd—I thought to myself. I wondered who he was talking to.

I kept listening.

“Jacob. I’m not joking. Get away from me, and turn the light back on. Now! Or I’m telling mom that you scared me!”

…WTF?

“Get away from me!” he screamed out again.

Did he just say “Get away from me”?

Laughing, I yelled through the door to him: “Haha. Dude. I’m not even in there!”

He screamed again. Louder. Like he’s been stabbed or something. I mean, a blood-curdling scream.

Freaked the hell out, I tried to open the door. It was locked. I didn’t lock the f*cking door!

Why is it locked?

My little brother was still inside screaming. Begging me to help him.

“HURRY!” he cried. “PLEASE!”

Me panicking now, I had no idea what else to do.

I was about 13 years old, weighing just over 80 pounds. I can’t bust this door down. My little brother is in trouble and I have to get to him.

Then he stopped screaming. Instantly.

I tried the door handle again, and to my surprise, it opened effortlessly. It was unlocked.

I opened the door and turned the light back on. I saw my brother huddled in the corner, crying.

After some consoling, and apologizing, I finally got him to explain what happened.

He told me that when I turned the light out, his eyes hadn’t adjusted to the light yet and it was just…dark.

Then after about 20-30 seconds, his eyes started to adjust and from the little bit of light leaking in from under the door, he saw “me” standing in the corner, with my back to him.

When he asked what I was doing, I turned to him and started walking slowly across the room towards him.

I kept coming until I was standing over him, looking down at him.

He said he couldn’t make out any features. Just a dark figure, with a shadowy face. He saw a hand extend out towards him and grabbed his shoulder. It was cold, the hand. And very strong. It hurt him.

When I opened the door and turned on the light, the figure was gone. It just wasn’t there!

I never saw anything myself.

My brother is now 23 years old and I’m 26. And to this day, he won’t talk about this event.

We have friends who’ve heard the story through me and will tease him about it.

He simply leaves the room, refusing to acknowledge it. He’s admitted to me that even almost 13 years later, he is bothered by what happened that day.

He still has nightmares from time to time. He still doesn’t have any explanation for what happened.