Short Halloween Ghost Stories

Here is our collection of short ghost stories for Samhain (Halloween).

• A Graveyard Tale
• A
  Massachusetts Ghost Story - Retold by S.E. Schlosser
• Toby, The Halloween Cat
• Texas Halloween Investigation
• Funny Ghost Stories for Halloween

A Graveyard Tale

A group of young girls were having a sleepover [slumber party USA] at
Halloween and began to exchange ghost stories.

Moira claimed that the old man who had been buried earlier that week in
the graveyard down the street had been buried alive. She claimed that if you
tried, you could hear him still scratching at the lid of his coffin.

The other girls called her bluff and told her that she wouldn't do it.
They said she was too afraid to go down there to the grave that very night.
They continued to challenge her and eventually she gave into the peer
pressure and accepted their challenge. Since she was going to go alone, she
needed to prove to the others that she actually followed through with the
task. Moira agreed to take a stake with her and drive it into the ground so
the next day the girls would know that she had been to the grave.

She headed off to the gravesite, stake in hand, and never returned. The
other girls assumed she had "chickened out" and had continued home instead.

The next morning as they passed the graveyard they saw her there at the
old man's grave.

She had accidentally staked her nightie to the ground and when she tried
to run from the grave, she couldn't... she had died of fright right on the
grave.

Funny how one Halloween ghost story reminds you of another....

Uncle John's Halloween Story

When I was a boy, each year as the nights began to draw in, my uncle John
would tell we kids this Halloween story.  It was a tale about a trick
that he
played in a graveyard.  One night Uncle John spotted his great friend Eddie
weaving his way home from the village pub.  As John watched, he saw
Eddie open the church's lychgate and take the shortcut through the graveyard.

There was no doubt that Eddie was the worse for wear, and appeared disoriented,
really he should have taken the longer route home via the round ring.
But then he cried out to nobody in particular, 'Where am I?'

John replied instantly, 'Amongst the living'.

'Where are you?' cried Eddie'; to which John replied in his most sepulchral voice,
'Amongst the dead'.

Eddie sobered up instantly, rushed back the way
he came, and took the long way around the churchyard.  This time he
preferring to go passed the round ring, rather than stay a minute longer
amongst the spirits of the gravestones.

A
Massachusetts Ghost Story - Retold by S.E. Schlosser

Our friends Josh and Sandy were firm believers in ghosts and claimed to
have seen the mysterious red-haired phantom that haunted Route 44.

My wife and I were sitting with them at dinner one night, and we started
kidding them about it. 'Funny how we've never seen him, and we drive that
stretch of road all the time,' my wife Jill drawled.

'You sceptic,' Sandy said, emphasizing the word as if it were a curse.
'One of these days, you're gonna find out I'm right. And you'll owe me a
pizza.'

'If I ever see the ghostly hitchhiker, I'll buy you a large pizza every
day for a year,' I promised.

The evening ended pleasantly, and it wasn't long before Jill and I were
driving home through the crisp fall air.

'Let's take Route 44,' Jill said suddenly, flashing me a sideways look.
'Hoping to see a ghost?' I chuckled, taking the turn as she directed.

'Ha!' Jill snorted derisively. She yawned and turned her head to face the
passenger window. Suddenly, she let out a shriek of sheer terror. I jumped
and glanced sideways, my hands shaking on the steering wheel. A red-haired
man with a bushy beard wearing a plaid shirt and blue jeans was running
right next to the passenger side of the car. He kept glancing in the window
and leering at Jill.

Heart pounding in terror, I hit the gas. A moment later, I glanced in the
rear-view mirror and saw the red-haired man was sitting in the back seat of
our car. Jill shrieked again and began pummelling the phantom with her
purse.

I kept looking back and forth between my wife, the phantom, and the road
ahead, determined that I was not going to let the red-haired ghost force us
into a fatal accident. I glanced toward the back seat for a moment, and the
ghost laughed, a laugh that made my teeth tingle and the hairs on my neck
stand up.

'Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among
women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.' Jill gabbled the words
of the rosary. Glancing in the mirror, I saw the phantom grimace as she
recited the holy words. Then he vanished without a trace.

I got us out of there much faster than the speed limit allowed. I was
shaking from head to toe, and Jill was sobbing hysterically. As soon as I
pulled into the driveway and turned off the car, I swept my wife into my
arms and held her as tightly as I could. We clung together for a long time,
until both of us had stopped shaking and Jill's sobs had abated.

'I want to go inside,' Jill whispered against my neck, and I nodded, not
trusting my voice.

That night we discussed the incident, but oddly enough, neither of us had
nightmares. When we woke in the morning, I felt much better about the whole
thing, until I remembered my promise to Sandy the night before. I groaned
aloud and then clapped a hand over my mouth lest the sound wake my wife. Too
late. She opened her green eyes and gave me a sleepy smile.

'You owe Sandy a year's worth of pizza,' Jill said.

'I most certainly do,' I replied, rubbing the back of her neck gently. 'I
most certainly do!'

Toby,
The Halloween Cat

As she put the last cardboard bat in place, the shop's door creaked open.
David eyed her Halloween display with distaste.

'You could do with spending a bit more time selling the books, not
decorating the place,' he snapped, tripping over the cat as he went to hang
up his coat.

Phoebe flicked a strand of ebony hair out of her eyes. 'My display always
increases sales,' she pointed out politely.

In the four years that she had run the bookshop, Phoebe could not
remember a single time that he had complimented her on her work. And the
sales figures had increased so much since she had started to run the place.
She loved her job. But she hated her boss.

Toby rubbed around her legs, his emerald eyes staring lovingly at her.
Phoebe bent to stroke his silky black ears.

'I'm going upstairs to do some paperwork,' muttered David.

'Can you remember to get someone to fix the stairs please?' Phoebe asked
him. 'It's a nightmare carrying the books down from the stock room. I'm sure
the banisters would give way if I fell.'

David mumbled something and then swore as he fell over Toby. He turned to
kick out but Toby had disappeared. 'And get rid of that cat,' he snarled.

'But the customers like him,' she said quietly, but David was already
halfway up the stairs.

'Don't worry, Toby. I'll get rid of him before I get rid of you.' Toby
blinked his eyes affectionately and rubbed around his mistress's ankles.

Phoebe tidied up the piles of books on her Spectres and Spells display,
picking up one of the books to read while she waited for the first customers
of the day.

'I do hate him, Toby,' she sighed. 'Always too busy thinking about money
to care about the books.' Phoebe watched as Toby tore at the carpet,
sharpening his claws.

'And if he saw you doing that ...' What would he do if he saw Toby
wrecking the carpet? He was always trying to kick Toby. What a truly
horrible man he was.

It was nearing lunchtime when Phoebe heard the familiar creaking upstairs
of David getting ready to leave. She glanced around to make sure Toby wasn't
up to mischief but he was nowhere to be seen.

David screamed. A ghastly scream. And then a crash.

Phoebe rushed into the back to see David sprawled across the floor at the
foot of the stairs. His neck was at the wrong angle. The banisters were
splintered across the hall. Toby stood at the bottom of the stairs,
watching.

'It would have been instantaneous,' said the paramedic softly when the
ambulance arrived twenty minutes later. 'It looks like he tripped on the
loose bit of carpet.' He patted her on the shoulder sympathetically. But
Phoebe was watching as they moved David's dead body.

She saw a neat row of claw marks across his ankle. Deep claw marks. And
she saw Toby. Sitting. Watching.

When the ambulance had left, Phoebe sat down at the bookshop counter.

'Thank you, Toby,' she said and he purred.

Footnote:
A cat, especially a black cat at Halloween
is almost certainly a witch's
'familiar'.

The Vampiress - A Fearful
Poem

by Lord Lytton [1803-1873]
Found a corpse, with glittering hair,
Of a
woman whose face, tho' dead,
The white death in it had left still fair,
Too fair for an earthly bed!
So I loosened each fold of her bright curls
roll'd
From forehead to foot in a rush of red gold,
And kissed her
lips till her lips were red,
And warm and light on her eyelids white
I
breath'd, and pressed unto mine her breast,
Till the blue eyes ope'd and
the breast grew warm,
And this woman, behold! arose up bold,
And
lifelike lifting a wilful arm,
With steady feet from the winding sheet
Stepp'd forth to a mutter'd charm.
And now beside me, whatever betide
me,
This woman is, night and day.
For she cleaves to me so, that,
wherever I go
She is with me the whole of the way.
And her eyes are so
bright in the dead of the night,
That they keep me awake with dread;
While my life blood pales in my veins and fails,
Because her red lips are
so red
That I fear 'tis my heart she must eat for her food;
And it
makes my whole flesh creep
To think she is drinking and draining my
blood,
Unawares, if I chance to sleep.
It were better for me, ere I
came nigh her,
This corpse,--ere I looked upon her,
Had they burn'd
my body with penal fire
With a sorcerer's dishonour.
For when the
devil has made his lair
In the living eyes of a dear dead woman,
(To
bind a man's strength by her golden hair,
And break his heart, if his
heart be human),
Is there any penance, or any prayer,
That may save
the sinner whose soul he tries
To catch in the curse of the constant
stare
Of those heartbreaking bewildering eyes,
Comfortless, cavernous
glowworms that glare
From the gaping grave where a dead hope lies?
It
is more than the soul of a man may bear.
For the misery worst of all
miseries
Is Desire eternally feeding Despair
On the flesh, or the
blood, that forever supplies
Life more than enough to keep fresh in
repair
The death ever dying, which yet never dies.

Problem With Clairvoyant

 The Frightening
Ghost of Able Fable

Able Fable was a miserable old man, who was always worried that someone
would break into his house and steal all his money. Each night before he
would go to sleep, he would lock his wallet up in a safe located near his
bed so that if anyone were to try to rob him they would have to wake him up
to do it.

Unfortunately, on the night that Able died he had only placed the wallet
on the table near the safe without locking it up. Before his death, Able
said to his family and friends that none of them were to touch his home or
his money and he said that anyone who came near his safe and wallet would be
greeted by his ghost and be scared away.
Following Able's death the
family decided that the money in the Fable house was not doing any good if
not used, so they went into the home to get it.

Able's eldest son decided to make the first attempt. He opened the door
and went in, he saw Able's wallet on the table and reached for it.
Immediately he heard a voice say,
'I am the ghost of Able Fable, put the
money back on the table!'
The voice scared the son so much that he ran
from the room and out the door, screaming, 'I heard the voice of a ghost!'

The eldest daughter in disbelief decided she would make her way into
Able's room. She entered and reached for the wallet.

She then heard the voice say, 'I am the ghost of Able Fable, put the
money back on the table!'

The daughter was so scared that she dropped the wallet and ran from the
room screaming, 'I heard the voice of a ghost!'

The youngest son decided to make his attempt at getting the money. When
he entered the room and reached for the wallet he also heard the voice say,
'I am the ghost of Able Fable, put the money back on the table!'

The youngest son decided that he was not easily scared and said back,
'Well, I am the ghost of Davy Crockett and the money is going to stay in my
pocket!'

The youngest son took all the money for his own and the ghost of Able
Fable was never heard from again!

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Footnote
Please send us your Halloween ghost stories