A Lifetime Supernatural Experience

On October 28, 2012November 3, 2012 By R. PettyIn Short Stories1 Comment

I have always been skeptical of imaginary friends, but my family has a long history with one that makes me a believer. My mom calls him an imaginary friend and her guardian angel, others may call him a poltergeist, but those who know the stories know him as Arnold.

Sightings

When he was a child, Joe (my mom’s friend) created Arnold as his imaginary friend. Joe was later in a band, and when he toured, Arnold stayed with my mom and roommate. Eventually, Arnold lived with my mom until she married, so he came around less often until Joe passed away.

I was 8 or 9 when I experienced my first encounter. My younger brother claimed to see Arnold and said he had a large, round head that was orange like a basketball. A couple of years later, one of our roommates confirmed this description because he saw Arnold, too. Sometime later after moving again, another family member saw him standing in our living room.

When I was 13 or 14, I received a call at 2 a.m. from my dad. His girlfriend was hysterical after seeing Arnold standing in their kitchen at the table. I will never forget how terrified she was and consoling her. She described him as all the others, with a large, round orange head.

The Protector

My mom describes him as her guardian angel. Arnold protected her from people who meant her harm or mistreated her. He was seen by many as a reminder that they were being watched and to treat her well.

When my mom was younger, she was working a lot and needed to do laundry and clean. She wanted to wash her bedspread and finally made time to do so. When she got home, it was done. No one else washed it, and it was beautiful. Years later, one night at work, Arnold dumped a strawberry daiquiri at a server who was irritating her.

I remember, at 15, taking a shower and seeing all the shampoos, conditioners, and soaps flying at me. Not falling into the tub; they were thrown horizontally at me. Knowing me, it was probably after an argument with my mom.

Arnold loved to move objects. He turned on TVs and lights when no one was around. He hid things in random places – you know, those places things would never end up – and especially my dad’s tools after their divorce. One night my dad called demanding me to pick up Arnold because he kept slamming the toilet seat down, over and over again. We visited my dad that day, and he swore we left him there.

One of my mom’s friends didn’t believe the stories and thought it was all a hoax. Her windshield wipers randomly came on for the next three days. She believed after that.

Loving Memories

My mom fondly recalls seeing objects move across the counter and floor. I remember missing things and finding them in weird places like the oven. I was never scared though, mostly annoyed, and I embraced the idea we had a poltergeist who followed us.

Poltergeists are defined as noisy, usually mischievous ghosts, and no one is sure of the full story. It’s amazing that a manifestation from a child’s imagination can live decades and attach itself to one person or family. What began as an imaginary friend turned into a supernatural force that dozens of people can witness to and several have seen. I haven’t had any Arnold experiences since I was a teenager, but I’m sure now that we are talking about him, he’ll resurface again.

A very special thanks to my mom for the great stories, and we at RevPub hope everyone has a Happy Halloween week. Be sure to check in Wednesday for a very special post!

Horror Movies and Real Life

On October 24, 2012October 24, 2012 By James CastroIn Random Fun, Short Stories1 Comment

We’ve all seen Scream and hopefully everyone has read “15 Signs of a Horror Movie Fan” written by the fairer half of RevPub. We all know the rules for surviving a horror movie and have all had those, “I’d never do THAT if I was in that situation” moments watching a slasher film.

I’ve been in a few moments that made me think maybe I was that idiot character dropping the weapon and turning my back instead of pummeling my momentarily weakened pursuer into sausage filler. I’ve tempted fate by saying, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and I’ve been with a friend exploring the supposedly haunted second floor of my office when she yelled out “HELLO?!” and I responded, “Are you crazy?! Have you seen ANY horror movie ever?!” But there was one incident where I really failed the “How to Survive a Horror Movie” test.

I was dog-sitting for a co-worker in his home in a rural area. I went early in the morning and early in the evening to ensure he got his food at regular intervals and got to go on regularly timed run-arounds and walks. I let him out the back door when I noticed a deep gouge in the grass. Almost like something huge, heavy, and long had sat there for a long time. I leaned down, with the dog still on the leash, and saw the depression in the grass was about 10 inches wide and stretched from the back door all the way to the side of the house, around the corner and out of sight; probably some 20-30 feet in full length. I took two slow steps and reached down to find long strands of shed snake skin strewn about within the trench.

Not thinking, I tugged the leash and said, “C’mon, boy let’s see where this leads” and started around the corner following what could only be described as the path of a MASSIVE snake. As I pulled the leash the dog whined slightly and reluctantly followed. I said, “C’mon…!” and dragged him along the giant snake path. As we rounded the corner and I brushed leaf-heavy branches out of my view I said to myself, “What are you doing… You’ve just become the idiot in a pre-title sequence to an AWFUL horror movie…” Realizing my stupidity I turned around, took the dog on his walk around his regular path and took him back inside.

In retrospect it was likely the place where one of those large, black, plastic drainage tubes laid and the snake skin was just there by chance.

The Horror Movie expert in me, however, feels I narrowly survived being eaten by a massive super-python that night. And only the dog was smart enough to try to avoid it.

Have you ever been in a horror movie-type situation? Did you act as you always thought you would, or did you become a bad Friday 13th stereotype like I did on this one occasion?

If you answered the latter, don’t worry; even if it did briefly seem like you were about to become a slasher film statistic remember that someone has to survive long enough to frustrate and beat the bad guy right? Just because you made a mistake 20 minutes after the title card, doesn’t mean you won’t survive to see the franchise psycho off for this particular installment! Let’s just hope we all survive the first 15 minutes of the sequel!

Someone does have to be that “final girl” (I’m looking at you Raven) I just hope I’m there for the credit crawl…

Monster Therapy — Because maybe they can only truly understand each other…

Ghost Story #7: Dreams

On October 21, 2012October 21, 2012 By R. PettyIn Short Stories2 Comments

Do you think ghosts can appear in dreams? I’m torn on this subject, and although I have dreamed about deceased people, I’m not sure they were ghosts or it was just a dream. This story comes from my mother-in-law* and makes me wonder if ghosts can intercept dreams.

A Ghost from the Past

It was July 1964, and little did Martha know she was close to going into labor with her first child. After returning from a long day at work, she laid down to take a nap.

Suddenly, her grandfather appeared at the foot of the bed. He passed away a few years before this incident. “Martha, I can’t stay long and need to tell you something,” he said.

She listened carefully but was terrified. It was an old tale that a pregnant woman seeing a deceased person in a dream was a bad omen for the baby.

“You are going to have a boy with long black hair,” he explained. “Don’t worry, the baby is fine. I need to go now, and I love you.”

She begged her grandfather to stay, but he drifted away. She awoke in a panic, and ran to her mom to tell her what happened. Her mom was worried there was something wrong with the baby, and they spent the next few hours waiting for the baby to move.

The next day Martha went into labor. A few hours later she had a healthy baby boy with long black hair.

Even today Martha isn’t sure it was just a dream; she wonders if her grandfather’s ghost visited and she was never fully asleep. Her grandfather never visited (or intercepted) again, but it makes you wonder if ghosts can enter our subconscious or if it was just a strange coincidence. What do you think?

*Names have been changed.

Don’t miss our Story of the Month, which is a weird tale that even skeptics will have trouble explaining!

Story of the Month: The Ghost in the Machine

On October 18, 2012October 18, 2012 By James CastroIn Short Stories, Story of the Month4 Comments

The Ghost in the Machine

Over the past decade movies about haunted technology have become popular. From radios to TVs and from cameras to cell phones, it seems everything can be haunted and wreak havoc on the lives of the living. This has always been one of my least favorite genres of horror movie for some reason, partially because it shows our over-attachment to our data devices, but I suppose in actuality there’s no principle difference between a haunted house and a haunted Handycam.

I never gave much thought to these kinds of “haunting” until…

Back around 2005 or so the fairer half of RevPub had a computer problem. She had an aging computer and the modem suddenly stopped working. This was back in the days when PCs were still white boxes and modems contained numbers like “28.8” and “56k.” Having recently replaced the modem in my own PC (which bucked the trend and was GRAY) I felt confident I could replace the modem in hers as well. I took the PC to my house, bought a cheap replacement modem, and installed it. Turning the computer on, I immediately got a hardware error. After going through all the options my limited computer hardware ability could handle, I called my friend Mike (an actual expert) to help.

He brought one of his computer shells to see if it was the modem, the slot, or the whole PC that was the problem. He also brought other spare parts and far more experience fixing PCs with white text on a black screen. We went through several attempts, and various options, all while watching Mythbusters on DVD. We only had one keyboard, so he plugged it into his computer, checked settings, and plugged it into the broken one to try to get the settings to work on that one. We did this several times and hit dead end, after dead end. It made me feel better that I had failed, since he was having bad luck with it too. He suddenly had a flash of inspiration, sat up, picked the keyboard up, and began typing commands. Immediately his commands began to appear on the screen of the stricken computer. As white text filled the black screen as the system began to respond. We plugged in the modem and, SURPRISE, it worked perfectly.

Mike began to disconnect the keyboard to plug into the other PC to begin to shut it down. I saw him reach to unplug it. Sit down. Stand up and look at it, then sit down again.

Perplexed and a bit freaked out. He turned to me and said, “I don’t know why that worked…” Quizzically I asked, “Why?” happy to see the work was finally done.

He still seemed pretty shaken when he responded, “The keyboard was plugged into the other PC the whole time…”

Now my logical side kicked in. Maybe he was playing a joke? No the keyboard was definitely plugged into the other PC and I hadn’t left the room. Maybe the afflicted PC had reset itself? No his DOS commands were appearing on screen.

We exchanged a “What the…” look. And the only thing that broke our silence was my announcement, “I want that thing out of my house right now.” He agreed, we packed up, I moved the possessed computer to the trunk of my car and informed the lovelier half of this company that her PC was repaired, ready to return, and was likely and object of pure evil. She took it back and used it for years…without incident.

To this day it’s one of the strangest events I’ve ever witnessed. Two relatively fearless individuals were completely creeped out by a PC that seemed to either be possessed by the machine spirit (emperor protect) or self-aware enough to fix itself. Either way I was glad to have it out of my house!

When I told Mike I would be using this story on this blog he responded in typical Mike fashion by saying:

“That sh*t freaks me out.”

For one time I will shed my stoicism and concede…yeah that sh*t freaks me out too…

Ghost Story #5: Grocery Stores

On October 16, 2012October 16, 2012 By R. PettyIn Short Stories1 Comment

Anyone who has worked at a grocery store knows the back room is a little creepy. It’s dark, loud, and packed full of product. It’s only a step up from a cellar or basement, and there are lots of blind spots. I spent hundreds of hours alone in the back room, whether it was loading carts for a truck or prepping produce.

Over 10 years, I worked at five stores, although I spent most of my time at one on Nolensville Rd. The building was complete and the store opened in 1982, and although it wasn’t very old, there was something odd in there.

Here are a few things that happened:

The radio in the produce cooler would turn off. We kept a radio on when we did prep work, and it would often turn off with us in the cooler or when we were outside the door. There was no pattern, it would just happen. We tried different plugs and radios, and we always had the same result.
I would hear my name. I know it sounds crazy, but I would hear my name whispered in my ear – in the aisles and back room – and it never happened at another store. I was once told it was bad luck to answer to your name being whispered, so I started waiting for the second call. I still don’t respond if I’m not sure.
At night, the store made me uneasy. It was well lit, almost always had music playing, and there were only a couple of entrances and exits, but I never felt like I was alone. It always felt like something was lurking and watching.
I walked in the back room one night to turn off all lights, and saw a black figure. Not a shadow on the wall, a figure walked and disappeared three feet from me right in the middle of the back room. This was before I turned the lights off (thank goodness), and I only saw it out of my peripheral, but I know I was the only person back there. The only other person in the store was up front.

I’m not sure if the building was haunted, but it shows that no matter where you are, there may be something watching…

Have you ever worked in a creepy building? Tell us about it in the comments section!

And for another spooky work tale, read Sounds in the Dark.

Ghost Story #4: Stuffed Haunt

On October 14, 2012October 14, 2012 By R. PettyIn Short Stories1 Comment

Demonic possession is an interesting concept. Especially when it’s an object being controlled by a demon or spirit. Is it possible for something to take over an inanimate object such as a doll or stuffed animal? Think Child’s Play.

This week’s story comes from a guest blogger, and I admit if this happened to me, the thing would have been burned.

The Polar Bear

As any first-year law student knows, time is the ever-present opponent that controls your quality of life, because a 20-minute nap can feel like salvation while hearing “five minutes remaining” can feel like the moments leading up to a gas chamber.

I was a first-year law student when the events of this story took place. I recently returned to my apartment for a second semester after enjoying a much needed Christmas holiday with family. One of the presents I received was a generic stuffed polar bear about the size of a golden retriever.

After returning to school, the workload gradually increased to the point where I hated everything about life except for the brief moments of reprieve from work. It was one of these moments that fostered my one and only experience with something seemingly unnatural.

I arrived at my apartment, trudged up the stairs, and deposited my bags by the kitchen sink. I ate a quick bowl of cereal and quickly skimmed the cases I had to read. That night’s workload was light, so I decided to take a nap first. In the apartment, my couch abutted a wall and faced the stairs about 15 feet away. Before falling asleep, I distinctly remember my polar bear sitting next to the stairwell facing the stairs.

After sleeping for about an hour, I awoke and immediately saw that I was staring into the flat, lifeless eyes of the polar bear, which was in the same spot but had inexplicably rotated about 100 to 120 degrees while I slept. I still have no explanation for this unusual event. I had no roommates and nobody else had access to the apartment. Both doors were still locked, and nobody else had a key except the property manager, but she never dropped in without advanced notice.

Being a rational person who prizes logic, I can only concoct three explanations. One, I misremembered the orientation of the polar bear after waking up (this is the most likely, but I am fairly certain the bear was facing the stairs). Two, I awoke during my nap and rotated the bear to face me while in a restful stupor (this seems unlikely because I have never been known to sleepwalk, nothing else was disturbed, and the bear was oriented precisely in my direction). Three, the polar bear somehow moved itself or was moved through some extraordinary force (this seems patently silly because I am a diehard skeptic).

Some people urged me to discard the bear to play it safe. After all, who wants a thing in their life that cannot be understood and therefore cannot be controlled? Being such a loyal skeptic, I opted to keep the polar bear. He remains in my closet to this day, after three years. In some ways, thebear has become my best friend, and we’ll be friends to the end.

Want more? Be sure to read our other stories, and share your experiences in the comments sections!

Revenant Publications

Category: Short Stories