Ghost Tales

Ghost stories, spooky tales and scary legends about paranormal events and hauntings. Read some short short stories of supernatural apparitions and other unexplained mysteries.

Climax For A Ghost Story by I.A. Ireland

“How eerie!” said the girl, advancing cautiously. “And what a heavy door!”

She touched it as she spoke and it suddenly swung to with a click.

“Good Lord!” said the man. “I don’t believe there’s a handle inside. Why, you’ve locked us both in!”

“Not both of us. Only one of us,” said the girl, and before his eyes she passed straight through the door, and vanished.

The Maid

A father and son moved into a new house. One day, the father saw the son was looking oddly pale.

“What’s wrong, son?” he asked.

“Dad, do you believe in ghosts?” the son asked.

“Of course not,” said the father. “Ghosts don’t exist.”

“But Dad,” the son replied, “our maid said that there is a ghost in this house.”

“Son, pack your bags. We’re leaving,” the father said.

“Why, Dad?” the son asked.

The father replied, “We don’t have a maid!”

The Horseman

One night, there was a young man riding on horseback. He was tired and hungry and looking for a place to spend the night. He saw a villa up ahead where he might ask for shelter. He rode into the courtyard and got off his horse. There, he saw a beautiful young woman who was holding a candle. She asked him who he was and what he wanted. Describing his situation, the young man asked her for shelter. The lady agreed and led him inside.

The young man looked around the house and saw a painting of a dreadful, evil-looking man. He asked the woman who the person was. She replied that it was her husband who had died few years ago. The young man examined the picture closely. When he turned around, he was frightened to see the very same man standing there, staring at him with a horrible expression on his face. The husband shouted at the young man and demanded to know what he was doing in the house. The young man replied that the woman had invited him inside. The husband said that was impossible. His wife had died two years ago. This was a very horrifying situation for the young man but suddenly he saw the woman walking towards him. He told the husband to look behind him, but the husband said he couldn’t see her. Then, both the husband and the wife started laughing. They explained that it had all been just a prank they were playing.

Just then, a servant came into the room. He told the husband and wife that there was a dead body outside in the courtyard. The husband and wife rushed out of the villa and were horrified to see the body of the young man lying dead on the back of the horse.

The Cave

A young man had been sent to inspect the forests in a remote mountain region. He was staying at an inn that was owned by a husband and wife. The wife was bewitchingly attractive, with long, dark hair and beautiful, brown eyes. The husband was a large, burly, fat man who seldom spoke.

As the weeks went by, a strange mutual attraction grew between the young man and the innkeeper’s wife. The husband spent his evenings drinking himself into a stupor. He would often pass out drunk, leaving the young man and the wife alone together.

One day, the husband was called away to visit his sick mother in the next village. Finding himself alone again with the innkeeper’s wife, the young man suggested they go for a walk in the forest. She readily agreed. While they were out walking, they came upon a cave and a meaningful look passed between them. Without a word, they entered the cave and, within seconds, they were in each other’s arms, locked in a passionate embrace. Suddenly, the cave was plunged into darkness. A massive stone had been rolled over to block the entrance. They were trapped inside.

Outside, they heard the sound of retreating footsteps and the husband’s evil laughter.

A romantically tragic end to their passion? Not really. The woman was slim enough to slip through a narrow crack between the cave entrance and the stone. The young man was not so lucky. How do I know this? Well, I’d rather not say, but my wife sees the ghost of the young man every night outside her window and her hair is white now.

The Old lady in the Haunted House

A few years ago, an old lady died in her house. Since then, a lot of people claimed to see her ghost wandering around at night inside the house.

One night, a couple went to explore the house to see if the rumor was true.

“Do you think she will come out tonight?” the girl asked.

“I don’t know we’ll have to see,” replied the guy. “Don’t be scared, it’s just a rumor.”

Cautiously, the couple forced the door open and stepped inside. As soon as they walked in, the door shut behind them with a loud bang.

“I’m scared! Let’s get out of here!” girl cried.

The guy slowly turned to face her and, with a cold smile he said, “Where are you going? You haven’t met my mom yet”.

The Ghost in the Graveyard

An old man was out walking one night. He took a shortcut through the graveyard and spotted a ghostly figure standing among the headstones. The figure beckoned to him and, trembling with fear, the old man approached. The ghostly figure was pointing to one grave in particular that was neglected and covered with weeds.

As he drew nearer to the grave the ghost was pointing at, the old man was able to make out the inscription on the headstone. It was his own name.

A Man Walks into a Bar

I was in a country pub, sitting at the bar one night when a strange little man walked in and sat up on the barstool at the other end of the counter. He ordered a beer and began telling the barman a story. As I listened in, I heard him talking about how he had been out mountain climbing with his friend and ran into some trouble. His friend’s rope broke and he fell hundreds of feet to his death. The little man said he had been stuck on a small outcropping on the sheer mountain face with no way down and no hope of rescue.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” I said. “But did you just say you were stranded on the sheer face of a cliff with no way to get down and no hope of being rescued?”

“Quite right,” said the little man.

“So, if you’re telling the truth, then you couldn’t have gotten down and you couldn’t have been rescued,” I said.

“Quite right,” said the little man.

“So, either you’re dead or your whole story is a big lie,” I said.

“Quite right,” said the little man as he vanished into thin air.

Korean Ghost Story

Years ago, in South Korea, there was a mother who had a cute 5-year old daughter named Ji-Yoon. The little girl was very vain and had a habit of constantly asking her mother if she was pretty. “Of course you’re pretty,” the mother always replied, even though she was tired of answering the same question.

One day, the mother took her daughter for a walk down by the river. As they were crossing the bridge, Ji-Yoon stared down into the rushing water and asked “Mommy, am I pretty?”

The mother was so fed up and annoyed with answering the same question over and over that she lost her temper. In a blind rage, she pushed her own daughter into the river. Ji-yoon fell into the water with a splash. The little girl was unable to swim and, within moments, she sank below the surface and drowned. Realizing what she had done, the mother was overcome with anguish.

However, she didn’t want to go to jail, so she told the police that Ji-Yoon had slipped and fallen over the edge. Her friends and neighbors came to comfort her and before long, the woman forgot about her daughter and went on with her life.

A few years later, she got pregnant and gave birth to another child, who she named Ji-Eun, to commemorate her deceased daughter. One day, the mother found the little girl standing in front of the mirror and staring at her own reflection.

“Mommy, do you think I’m pretty,” asked Ji-Eun.

“Of course you’re pretty,” replied the mother.

The little girl looked up at her mother and asked, “If you thought I was so pretty, then why did you push me into the river?”

There Are Ghosts Everywhere

A man was sitting next to an attractive young woman on a train. The woman took out a book and began to read. The train stopped at many stations, but she never looked up once. The man watched her for a while, then asked, “What are you reading?”

“A ghost story,” she replied.

“Do you believe in ghosts?” he asked.

“Yes, I do,” she replied. “There are ghosts everywhere.”

“I don’t believe in them,” said the man. “It’s just a lot of superstition. In all my years, I’ve never seen a ghost, not one.”

“Haven’t you?” asked the woman… and vanished.

The Black Mountain

There were two men working in a field under the shadow of the Black Mountain. All morning they cut the grass, stacked it and moved on, without saying a word, all in the shadow of the Black Mountain.

When it came to noon, one of the men stopped his work and went over to fetch his lunchbox from the shade of a stone wall where he had left it. After a few minutes, the other man also stopped working and walked over to where the first man was sitting, eating his lunch.

The first man sat and ate, but the second man just stood there, gazing at the Black Mountain. After a while the first man turned his head to look at the Black Mountain too.

“They do say” said the first man, after his meal, “that the Black Mountain is haunted”.

“Do they?” asked the second man.

“Yes”, replied the first man, with some authority. “But I don’t believe a word of it myself” he finished.

“Me neither” said the second man – and vanished.