Haunted House Stories

            Who doesn’t love a good story about a haunting? Probably my favorite book about ghosts and hauntings is The Shining by Stephen King.

            I’m writing my own ghostly tale, called Free Spirit. Here’s an excerpt when Rachel goes to talk to voodoo priestess Viola for help:

            If anyone would understand what was happening and would be able to help me, it would be Viola.

            “I, uh, have some weird stuff happening,” I said. “I think I’m haunted.”

            Yeah, that sounded as ridiculous as I’d feared it would. At least nobody here was laughing.

            Viola nodded sagely but said nothing. She looked at me for a long time. 

            “You are out of balance,” Viola declared. “Your throat chakra, it is far too open, as usual.” She seemed to wave away the cause of my occasional foot-in-mouth disease. Obviously that wasn’t important right now. “Your heart chakra is the problem. There is a darkness there. Something follows you.”

            Well, great. This visit had been ever so comforting thus far. I thought that leaving my house would be enough to keep me entity-free. Apparently, my ghost was of the take-out variety.

            “What does a ghost have to do with the energy centers in my body?”

            “The ghost has little energy of its own,” Viola explained. “It draws energy from around it to manifest, take action. Become.”

            The ghost was drawing energy from my heart? Ew! “What the hell is the ghost trying to become? She’s already dead,” I said.

            “You know the spirit?” Viola asked. “That is good. It will make things a bit easier.” It was the first comforting thing Viola had said.

            “I think she’s the spirit I saw in the cemetery last night,” I said. “But I don’t know how. She was trapped there in her plot. She couldn’t move away from her crypt.”

            “Your spirit,” Viola told me, “she is free now.”

            It was such a simple statement, and yet it chilled me to the core. Another miracle, given the temperature outside was nearing ninety.

            “How do you know?” I challenged Viola. I’d come to her for her expertise, but at the moment, I wished with all my heart she was a raving loon because I didn’t like her answer.

            Viola gave me a look like I was a particularly slow child. “Because she is there.” Viola pointed at the place my heart chakra would be. “She cannot be trapped in her grave. I know because I see her there.”

            What are your favorite books about ghosts and hauntings? And do you believe in ghosts?