Volume 3: Ghost Stories from Texas (Joe Kwon's True Ghost Stories from Around the World) (19 page)

The Growling Ghost

Spring, Texas

A few years ago I became very interested in the paranormal and immersed myself in learning about everything from astral travel to energy healing. This ferocious curiosity was a result of some bizarre happenings that lasted approximately a month or more. I'm going to save that story for another time and move forward to 2004, approximately three years later.

My husband and I had been invited by another paranormal enthusiast and her family to a beach home they rented. There were some cemeteries nearby and an abandoned house that had quite a history... so I packed up my camera, digital recorder and sage (my personal method for protection) and headed to Galveston!

The night of investigating was uneventful and we came back to the beach house and headed for bed. My husband as usual went to sleep immediately and I decided to read. Before long I began to feel sleepy, so I placed my book upside down and open on top of my suitcase, which was beside the bed on the floor. Before long I drifted off to sleep.

At some point during the night I awoke to a huge CRASH! I naturally had my heart in my throat but decided that my book must have fallen from the suitcase and I went back to sleep. In retrospect I realize the noise was much too loud to have been a book falling such a short distance but it worked for me at the time.

I was awakened again that night and this time there was no crash... this time I heard growling. Low, deep and gutteral, and it seemed to be coming from under my bed. Now, this is a perfect example of how the human mind attempts to rationalize what it can't understand. I decided the sound was a coming from my friend's tiny Yorkshire terrier. I assumed she'd gotten locked in our room and wasn't happy about it. So, I hopped out of bed and opened the bedroom door to let her out. I called her and made smoochy noises in hopes of coaxing her out from under my bed. However she never made an appearance so I finally gave up and crawled in beside my husband and went to sleep.

The third time "it" woke me up, it was a bit more forceful. This time the bed shook and the growling was even more insistent, and again I thought it was the Yorkie and THIS time she was leaving! I turned on the light and leaned over the side of the bed and began trying to coax the little beast out! Suddenly I realized two things... my book had NOT fallen off of my suitcase and there was no Yorkie under the bed!

My husband finally woke up to find out what was going on. "What are you doing?" he asked sleepily... "Oh there is something growling and shaking the bed and I'm trying to find it!" I replied absentmindedly.

"Hmmm, okayyyyy," he mumbled as he turned over and went back to sleep. (Thanks honey I appreciate your protective nature at times like that.)

The Growling Ghost Speaks

Spring, Texas

In my last submission, The Growling Ghost, I shared an experience I had in a beach house and how I spent most of the night trying to locate the cause of several strange noises and the shaking of my bed.

To continue from where I left off, I was finally allowed a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

My friend woke me right before sunrise to go to the beach and take photos of the ocean. While we were walking I told her about my strange evening. The home belonged to a friend of hers and as far as she knew there had never been anything paranormal occurring there... BUT maybe we had brought something back from one of our investigation sites the night before! We decided to investigate the house before we packed up and left.

When we got back to the house I got my digital recorder set up and began taking photos around the bedroom. My daughter, who thinks my hobby is "stupid and a waste of time", came into the room and plopped on the foot of the bed.

She sat for a couple of minutes and suddenly, like a shot, she jumped off of the bed and headed for the door. "What's wrong?" I inquired to her fast-retreating backside.

"The bed shook!" she stammered from the safety of the living room.

We continued to investigate, and eventually burned some incense and tried to cleanse the space of any negativity.

So, that was that! We packed up and headed back to Houston. On the way home I put my ear buds in and began to listen to the digital recordings we took. There wasn't anything to speak of until my daughter entered the room. Right before she bolted for the door there was a break in the recording and as clear as day a hoarse voice whispered "Priya," my daughter's name! (Pronounced Preeya.) This is an unusual name and very easy to recognize. Then you hear Priya make her hasty retreat!

I was so shocked by what I heard that I passed it back to my daughter and just said, "Listen and tell me what you hear!" A few seconds later she looked up at me and said, "It said my name!"

That EVP hit a little too close to home and I haven't been able to listen to my EVPs with the same feeling of security nor have I been as involved in the investigation aspect of the paranormal.

Unknown Bruises

Killeen, Texas 

I am not sure where to begin. All I know is I could be in trouble and need help regarding the unexplained.

It started a few weeks ago. I began having dreams, very dark dreams. At first it was a shadow in my room, in the corner that would watch me sleep. Then a week ago the shadow began to breathe on me. I couldn't scream or move. Reading stories and other comments on here, I began to think it was sleep paralysis. But then I began to dream the shadow would grab me, I could feel it grab my leg, then one night the muscles in my back. The scary thing is, every place I dream I’ve been touched by it, I find a bruise.

I wake up remembering the dream and now I look for marks. I wake up in a cold sweat, which is why I know I am sleeping when it occurs.

The shadow is obsessed with me. It now grabs me several times throughout the week.

Unknown Bruises Update

Killeen, Texas 

I am starting to get scared, very scared. Last night the dark figure grabbed me again, it again left a bruise but this time the bruise is in the shape of a heart. I have done some research and it most likely is a demon. However it happens in my dreams, I know I am not awake when it occurs because I again wake up in a cold sweat. I really need help, should I call a priest?

Was That A Ghost?

Dallas, Texas

I have had many experiences with the paranormal. This happened when I was just 5-6 years old. One Halloween, I was looking through my candy and everything went black. When I recovered, my candy was thrown everywhere, my costume was torn to shreds, and my brother was in the fetal position in the corner. But this is not the reason why I'm writing this. Here is the story:

One afternoon I was playing my Nintendo 64. I heard this weird noise coming from the bathroom. It sounded like water being splashed, like someone was being drowned or a child was playing. When I walked into the bathroom, I felt this cold rush go through my body. Being 5 or 6, I was pretty scared. So I went crying to my mom and she said, “It was just the wind, babe.”

Later that night, I was cuddling with my Barney. I heard this weird ‘meow’. I knew we didn't own cats, so don’t know what it was. I looked around the room and on the wall next to me was a shadow of a cat! It played on the wall, rolling over and jumping. I was so scared!

I tried to sleep but every time I tried to sleep it would growl and hiss. I finally managed to sleep. After that it hasn't happened again until last night… I woke up sweating, and on the mirror in a shadow was that cat!

Maybe They Celebrate an Arrival?

Tomball, Texas 

I am a teacher in Texas. I went to college and was raised Catholic in a great family. I am the youngest of four and I am 100% normal! I have two little kids and a super awesome husband. I have never experienced anything unusual in my whole life. I have never had to deal with the death of a family member and never really had to attend a funeral of a loved one. I have had a curiosity of the afterlife but have never had a desire to have an experience.

With that being said, that changed on April 23, 2006.
My husband and I dated a long time before we got married. We were both in college and enjoyed spending time with each other's family.

We settled down in Tomball just outside of Houston. His family was in San Antonio. We had our first child in 2003. His mother absolutely loved her. She was her first grandchild and she called her "Pinga".

We made a lot of trips to San Antonio. I loved to spend time with my mother-in-law. She was a wonderful person. The last time we were there she was not doing so well. I spent spring break with her. I created a beautiful garden in her front yard so she could enjoy the new spring flowers. She was very depressed. She and my father-in-law were having problems. When we drove away I could see her crying in the driveway and my heart sank.

We would talk often. She was very sad. One Friday night she called. My husband was putting our child to bed. She said not to bother him, that she would talk another time with him.

We were busy Saturday and I remember telling my husband that he needed to call his mom. The evening got away from us and it was too late to call her. That night, as I tried to go to sleep, I heard what sounded like a small party. It was so close to where it sounded like it was downstairs. When I lifted my head to hear exactly where it was coming from it stopped. I could hear it when I laid my head down and as soon as I lifted it, it was gone. I woke my husband up and asked him to listen. Nothing. I told him there were people talking and music playing. He listened for a while then went back to sleep.

I laid there for what seemed an eternity. I could hear voices, but couldn't make out their words. I could hear the beat of the music but could not make out the song! We had grilled and ate dinner in the backyard and there were no neighbors out, so what was this? I listened until I fell asleep.

The next day my husband played golf with a coworker while I had lunch with his wife. While talking at the table a young man approached our table and said that my child was precious. He handed me a bracelet that had small colorful crosses around it. He then left. I didn't think it was strange. I thought it was very kind that he gave her this bracelet. I was in mid-sentence talking about my mother-in-law as this happened.

Later that afternoon, I noticed that I had missed many calls from my sister-in-law and her father. When I called her she was at the airport in Dallas waiting to fly to San Antonio. There had been an accident and her Tia (aunt) was in the ICU and they could not find her mom. I ran to my husband and told him to call his dad.

Olga and Becky were passengers in a car that was hit on Highway 281 and Summerglen. The force was so strong that it sent the car off the highway and into the woods. They had been with a friend and his brother at an early mass and he was taking them to his home to see it. He turned into oncoming traffic for some reason.

As we drove to San Antonio, we got a call from his father that his Tia had died. My heart broke to hear my husband quietly cry.

We learned that Olga was talking to a few teachers at her school Friday morning and told one that she was ready to see her mom. She told another that she wondered if she was good enough to go to Heaven.

I believe that what I heard were late relatives celebrating that Olga and Becky were coming and the young man at the restaurant was an angel. The accident happened at 2:13 in the afternoon. The same time I was talking about her at the restaurant. Later my husband said that while they were golfing, the most soothing wind blew and he said that as it
blew it made the trees sway back and forth in slow motion. All he and his friend could do was stare.

It will be four years since we lost Olga and Becky. There have been unique incidences that have occurred. They do not scare me. I know that they are trying to let us know that they are with us, and not missing a thing!

Last December, I woke my husband up and asked him if he could hear the men talking in our backyard. I was so scared to think this was a repeat of that one Saturday night in 2006. Same thing - when I lifted my head, nothing, when I laid it down- well, I could hear them but could not make out their words. It sounded like a group of men enjoying one another’s company right outside my window.

I got a call the next day that my sister-in-law's father (my husband's brother's wife's father) was killed in a car accident.

I don't believe I have a gift. I just really listen.