Turn Out The Lights

Turn Out The Lights is a real ghost story about an older brother who plays a scary prank on his younger brother, with frightening results. It is supposed to be a true story.

One summer evening, my little brother and I were home alone. We were play-fighting, as brothers do, and chasing each other around the house. I ended up chasing him into our parents’ room.

There were no windows in our parents’ room, so when the lights were off, it was pitch black. I thought it would be funny to play a trick on my brother, so I decided to scare him and turn out the lights.

I was standing by the doorway, so when he wasn’t looking, I hit the light switch and left the room, closing the door behind me. He was left alone in the darkness. I put my ear to the door to listen to him panic.

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

I realized he thought I was still in the room.

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

I wondered what he was talking about.

“I’m not joking,” he cried. “Get away from me!”

Get away from me? I thought. Why did he just say “get away from me”?

“Haha. I’m not even in there!” I laughed.

All of a sudden, I heard my brother scream. It was a loud, blood-curdling scream.

It freaked me out and I decided to open the door and let him out, but when I turned the handle, it wouldn’t budge. It was locked.

My little brother was still screaming and begging for help.

I started to panic. I had no idea what to do. I kept jiggling the handle and pushing on the door as hard as I could, but it wouldn’t open. My brother was in trouble. He needed me and I couldn’t help him.

All of a sudden, he stopped screaming. I tried the door handle again, and to my surprise, it opened easily. It wasn’t locked at all.

Relieved, I opened the door and turned on the light. My brother was cowering in the corner, sobbing uncontrollably. I calmed him down and brought him out of the room. Downstairs, I finally got him to explain what had happened.

He told me that when the lights went out, he was scared. Then, his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. There was a little bit of light leaking in from the crack under the door. He said he saw a figure standing in the corner with its back to him. He thought it was me.

When he asked, “What are you doing?”, he said I turned and started walking slowly across the room towards him. He couldn’t make out my face. He couldn’t make out any features at all. It was just a dark figure walking towards him.

He said the figure came closer and closer until it was standing over him, staring down at him. Then, he saw a hand coming towards him and grabbing him by the shoulder. The touch of the hand was freezing cold and its grip was very strong. It hurt him and he screamed in pain.

When I opened the door and turned on the light, the figure was gone.

To this day, my brother refuses to talk about this. Whenever anyone brings it up, he simply leaves the room. He has admitted that he is bothered by what happened that day and he still has nightmares about it from time to time. He still doesn’t have any explanation for what happened.