Favorite Ghost Stories

[kellyd]

What are everybody's favorite local/personal ghost stories? I have quite a few, but I'll start with this one. I've heard it from several different people over the last 10 years who claim to have known the people involved.

Basically, these two college girls moved into a rental house in 4th and Gill, an old neighborhood in downtown Knoxville. The house is laid out with the kitchen, dining, and living areas downstairs, and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The girls had been living in the house for about 3 months. Over that time they had heard some weird noises, but the place was old and the neighborhood was full of college kids, so it really could have been anything. But one night one of the girls decided to stay over at her boyfriend's place, leaving the other girl alone in the house. With her roommate out, the girl stayed in that night and enjoyed having the house to herself. Eventually she locked up and went to bed. She hadn't been asleep long when she heard someone downstairs. She assumed her roommate had had a fight with her boyfriend and decided to come home. The girl heard footsteps heading up the staircase. Something about this set her on edge. They weren't the normal footsteps of her roommate. These were slow, heavy, determined steps, and they made the girl feel very uneasy. She didn't know what to do, the only way out of the house involved going downstairs, and she didn't want to run into whoever was out there. Feeling trapped, she decided just to lay in bed and be as still and quiet as possible. She heard the footsteps approaching her door. It couldn't be her roommate, her room was at the other end of the hall. The footsteps stopped outside of her door. The girl stayed still, listening, hoping that whoever it was would move on. Then, she heard the door knob rattle slightly and then turn. Her door was being opened. She laid in bed, frozen with fear, her eyes closed tight. She heard the footsteps approach her bed and stop right in front of her. Her eyes still closed, she could feel someone breathing on her face. Terrified, she opened her eyes - there was no one there. Before she could breath a sigh of relief she felt two invisible hands grab her, pull her out of bed and throw her to the floor. She scrambled to her feet and sped out of the house, hopped her her car, and drove to a friend's apartment. The next day, she returned to the house and told her roommate what had happened. After a few more less terrifying, but still upsetting incidents, the girls moved out.

The first time I heard this story it was from a guy that said this happened to one of his friends. Another time I heard it from someone who said they lived next door to the house. They added that before those girl moved in, and group of rugby players had lived there. They were a nice but rowdy group of guys. Apparently they had only lived in the house a few months before they all packed up and moved out, not saying why. After the girls moved out, no one ever stayed in the house for more than 3 months or so. Who knows if there is any truth to the story (I'm sure there's not). I moved to 4th and Gill a few years after I first heard it. By then the people I knew that claimed to have known the girls were long gone, and despite asking around I never found house which house this supposedly happened in. Still, it's a local classic, and fun to tell, especially if you're at a party in the neighborhood.