Do You Believe in Ghosts?

Photo by: Ashley Alonzo

It’s time to get spooky, Ottawa University. Halloween is quickly creeping up on us, and what better to get everyone in the ghoulish spirit than three personal, goosebump-inducing ghost stories from students right here at OU.

Jana Jones

“When I was younger, around 4 years old, my family and I went house searching. The neighborhood was very nice, but there was one house that was pretty odd. It was huge but different from the others. As a family, we decided to take a look inside. Meanwhile, the adults were getting a tour of everything upstairs, so my brother and I decided to go to the basement. It was very cold and dark down there. We were kids so we didn’t think much of it. Me and my brother decided to play a game of tag just because we were bored. As we were having fun running after each other we began to hear laughter. It sounded like more children were in the room. We both paused and just looked at each other. Suddenly, by the door we saw two children: a boy and a girl. They were young just like us. They began to speak to us, but before they could finish the man who was selling the house ran down the steps very quickly. ‘Get upstairs! Hurry!,’ he commanded. My brother and I both ran up the stairs as quick as possible. The man pushed everyone out of the house and explained to us that we should go, and we should not buy the house. Even though he was going against his job, he did us all a favor.”

Maria Thompson

“Over the weekend, I went home to my family because my grandpa gave me a call that Friday about my grandmother. She had been sick for a very long time and she only had a few more days to live. I had made it just in time to say my goodbyes to her. It was very hard, but I knew she was going to a better place. I remember as a child she had a big fancy clock in her house that made noise after each hour. She loved that clock; she had it for so many years. Hours passed while we were in hospital, and at 11:40 p.m. she had passed away. It was very heartbreaking but at least she didn’t have to suffer anymore. Late that night we ended up going back to her house to talk as a family. But there was something off about the house; the clock was no longer going off after every hour. It was kind of creepy to be honest. How can it stop randomly just out of nowhere? My grandpa looked closely at the clock just to see what was going on with it. He came back into the room with a stunned face. The time on the clock was stuck. The time on the clock was 11:40 p.m. -- the same exact time my grandmother died.”

Sydney Lehr 

“For my 14th birthday, my mom took a couple of friends and I to stay at The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is said to be one of the most haunted in the country, so obviously we bought tickets to the ghost tour as soon as we arrived. If the tour guide’s communication with a ghost in the basement of the hotel was not enough to have us packing, the room we previously dropped our bags off in sure was. Before it was a hotel, it was a ‘hospital’ for cancer where a deranged doctor performed horrible experiments on sick people. Apparently, the room we were staying in was the room of the doctor’s mistress. It even had a secret passageway that led to his quarters. Safe to say, we got no sleep that night!”