Sheila

In the search for real people’s real (or perhaps, not real) ghost stories. I happened upon one rather close to home.  In fact, this story is ongoing and is occurring in the room next door to mine.   While the events of this story have been related to me over time as they have occurred, I sat down with Olivia, one of the participants in the following strange events one evening in her dorm.  Shortly after moving into her dorm room, one of my suitemate’s Hannah, starting experiencing a few strange occurrences.  They began simple.  Books fell of shelves more often than they should.  Random objects would fall over for no apparent reason.  Hannah’s corkboards on her walls, fell down at random times.  Once, she stated, one fell on top of her while she was sleeping.  Now most would see this as just the random acts of a few slippery books and some failing Command Strips, not the work of any ghost.  In fact the idea that some spirit was causing these events is almost laughable, and of course that is how this story begins, as a joke.

One day after what was claimed to be the “like fifth” occurrence of books falling in a few short weeks, Hannah’s roommate, Olivia, made an off handed comment, that went something like, “wow Hannah, looks like you have a poltergeist.”  The comment was laughed off and they went back about their lives.  Only a few days later, however, the story gets stranger.  One night as Hannah slept, Olivia was still awake.  As she laid in her bed she swears she heard a strange clapping noise above Hannah’s bed. She states that it was not a clapping like applause, but rather only one or two loud claps.  The next morning she told Hannah, who did not hear these noises, but was convinced it was just something she was doing in her sleep.  This clapping continued to occur occasionally, and Hannah continued to attribute it to something that either she was doing or perhaps the creaking of her bed, although she herself had never actually heard it.

Then, the weekend of Halloween, Hannah slept in a friend’s room because Olivia’s boyfriend was visiting form out of town.  That night both Olivia and her boyfriend heard the strange clapping noise.  It occurred as usual, over Hannah’s bed; however this time, no one sleeping there.  After this Hannah decided to nickname her poltergeist Sheila, and while she still has yet to hear the noise, in her own words she says, “I like to think that Sheila claps for me because she thinks I’m a star.”  While this is the only evidence that persists of Sheila, the idea of the poltergeist is now an integral part of their dorm, and in some ways our entire suite.  Olivia, who is rather skeptical about the existence of ghosts, is still rather confused by the clapping that she hears.  She jokes that it is Sheila, but she is not ready to admit that Sheila actually exists.  I, personally, have yet to witness or experience any Sheila occurrences, but I like to believe that anything is possible.  Maybe it is just a collection of random events, or perhaps it is the work of Hannah’s poltergeist, only time will tell.

Forbidden city is located in downtown of Beijing with a lot of the oldest and finest architectures in the country, but within the high walls of these buildings, death was normal. With the hierarchy system, people would sacrifice others to maintain their own power and social statues which lead to a lot of injustice death especially among the palace maids and eunuch. “ Also, a lot of women sent into the Imperial Palace were never able to step out of the high walls for the rest of their lives, and if the king did not favor those women, then they would not have any kid and die alone by themselves in the palace.

“When I went on a tour to Beijing, we were able to go into a small part of the Imperial Palace, but the tour guide told us there are a huge part of the palace which is not open to the public due to the unexplainable things happened in there. I don’t remember who but someone in the group told me that she heard a lot of ghost stories happened in there after 5pm which is the closing time for the palace. She was told that the guard for the palace at night can hear people playing music, sometimes can see palace maids and palace eunuchs walking by which she had experienced. Every building has explainable things happened such as people who have been there disappeared or die which is why they were closed down for tourists. It was also believed that In the morning when you looked down in the wells, you could see a lot of brushes and stones, but after 12am, if you look down, you will be able to see reflection of moon and also the reflection of someone’s face but not your face.”

My friend, Xue Li Lin, told me this story that he heard during his trip in Beijing. He was born and raised in Guangdong, China. He told me this story in Chinese, and the translation is not exact with a few reconstructions of sentences. He told me he had never experienced these himself, but believed it could happen in real life.

This is story with historical backgrounds that even after their death, the palace maids and eunuch still have the obligation to perform their duties. They are afraid of the high authorities will “kill” them if they don’t perform their duties even though they were dead already. The legends were rather convincing to me because I had learn some histories about it when I was little. It was very brutal back in the days that even their own parents can kill their own child to secure their powers. I could imagine a lot of bad death within all the beautiful architecture which lead to hauntings.

“This is the story I was told, the way my cousin told me when her best friend moved to Australia because she was so terrified after this experience. This is a real story. So, there’s this girl and it’s her prom night, but it’s on the same night she has a lacrosse game, so before the game she has to set up all her stuff for the dance in the locker room because she doesn’t have time to go home and get ready. So she has to get ready in the locker room and go early to help set up for the dance. So she wins her lacrosse game and she goes into the locker room to start getting ready and she had set up her curlers and dress and so she walks into the dark locker room. For some reason, her curling iron light is on, and the red light is illuminating the dark room. She was so confused as to why the curler was on and why it was pitch black except that one light. And she thought, “Wow this could have set the place on fire, why is this on?” But she is ready to curl her hair anyway. All the sudden she hears this voice, and it says, “Don’t touch it.” Startled, the girl says, “Hello? Is anyone in here?” She tries for the light switch but it doesn’t work, but the power clearly isn’t out because her curling iron is working. So she follows the light of her curling iron and in the dim light, she sees the shape of a girl, wearing a sparkly prom dress and it’s lightly illuminating her face. So she says, “Oh hi, you scared me, did you turn my curling iron on?” The voice responds, “Don’t touch it. It’s hot. It’ll burn you.” And the girl responds, “Oh, I know…Thank you..” Then the light starts to move away from her and she says, “Oh that’s mine, please don’t touch it, I need to use it. Have you just been in here in the dark..?” And the voice repeats, “It’s hot. It’ll burn you. Burn you.” And the girl responds, “Umm okay, sorry I need to get ready now.” And she runs and grabs her dress and throws it on. Then the light of the curling iron goes off. And now there is no illumination in the room whatsoever. So she is freaking out and says, “Okay.. I’m leaving now..” and she narrates her thoughts as she walks out of the locker room. She finishes getting ready in a different bathroom and is really shaken up by the whole experience. She didn’t know why the girl was there, but since she had been wearing a prom dress, she figured she was going to prom as well. So anyway, she goes to prom and the next day she comes to school and is telling her friends about the weird experience she had that night and what happened. She picks up a school newspaper and at the bottom of the paper, there is a commemoration saying “In Memory of Beth James, who was killed on the night of prom in a fire on campus.” And she drops the newspaper and starts screaming and crying because she sees the picture and realizes it’s the girl she saw the night before. It was the same face that had been illuminated by the red light. The reason why she kept warning, it’ll burn you, it’s hot, don’t touch it, is because she had died in an electrical fire in the old gym 20 years prior. The girl was so traumatized, she moved to escape from the memory of what had happened. The End.”

This story exemplifies many common motifs found in ghost stories. The dark locker room creates a mysterious, eerie setting. The red light creates even more of a spooky atmosphere by casting a dim light on everything. The repetition of phrases by the ghost also adds to the terror of the girl. I think this ghost story perfectly captures an event that seems very strange in itself, which is then concluded by proof that the event was truly ghostly.

“My cousin’s friend, Daniel, was asked to house sit a new house while his friend’s family moved their belongings into the house. As the family drove down the coast, Daniel went to the house and it was very empty. Only a few boxes and furniture and an old piano were in the front room. He went upstairs and most of the bedrooms were empty except there was a small woven red ball in one of the empty rooms. He went over and as soon as he picked it up, he heard a women screaming. So he put it down, and as soon as he did, the screaming stopped. He went downstairs to the basement where there was a couch set up. As he stayed down there, he heard footsteps throughout the house and faint piano playing. He went upstairs to find no one had come to the house. In the kitchen, he opened the new refrigerator and suddenly felt someone watching him. He shut the refrigerator and in the reflection he saw a Native American man in full traditional clothing and head dress. He turned around and the man was no longer there. Scared, he returned to one of the furnished bedrooms and tried to sleep. In the middle of the night, he woke up to the feeling of hands tucking him tightly into the blanket all the way up from his legs to the rest of his body. He kept his eyes shut in fear for what he would see. He felt someone pick up his arms and cross them in front of his chest. He didn’t sleep at all that night. The next morning when the family came, Daniel told the family he’d never come back to the house because of what had happened. The family learned that the house had been built on Native American buried grounds and that the tribe traditionally buried their dead by tightly tucking coverings around the body and arms folded flat across the chest.”

This story is a classic example of the problems that arise when disturbing Native American territory. After being forced off their land and treated poorly, the Native Americans have continued to haunt certain areas that they once claimed. The fact that the house was covering burial grounds and not respecting the territory led to the haunting. Some motifs are the footsteps of the ghosts upstairs and the sounds heard. Another is how he saw the reflection of the ghost, but it vanished once he tried to get a proper look. This story exemplifies traditional motifs in ghost stories and the consequences of disturbing Native American territory.

[Told at breakfast]

So, um, this guy is going to stay in a hotel for a night because he’s in town for a business trip.  And, um, so he goes to the cheapest hotel he can find, and he goes to the manager and says, “Hi, I need one room, just give me the cheapest room.”

And the manager says, “Oh, we don’t have any rooms open.”

And he [the guy] is like, “ Really? Surely you have some rooms open.”

And the manager looks really cagey and he’s like, “Well, okay, I guess if—if really, like, ANY room…”

And he [the guy] is like, “Yeah, just give me a freaking room.”

And so the manager’s like, “Okay.” And so he takes him to this, um, to this room, and, uh, and the guy’s like bringing up—lugging up his suitcase and he gets the key in the lock and, like, and it won’t open. Like the door just won’t open. So he’s like pounding on the door and trying to open it and everything, and it won’t open. And so he like looks into the keyhole, because it’s like one of those old-fashioned ones, to see if there’s like anything blocking it or whatever. When he looks in all he sees is read, just like plain red, as if someone is holding up a sheet of red paper to the other side of the keyhole. So he’s like, oh my god, okay, what is happening. So he goes and finds a maid and the maid has like the master key and, um, when he asks, “Hey, this is my room, can you let me in? The key’s not working for some reason,” she looks really, really terrified. So he’s like, whaaaaat’s the problem…

And so the maid tells him that exactly a year ago two people were murdered in that room. Like the guy just like came in and stabbed them to death. And so ever since then there’s been a legend that their spirits haunt this room, right? And so she says the most terrifying part about these spirits is that they have completely red eyes.

Listener’s comments: the ending is a real BAM twist. I like that there was no “ghostly figure,” just red eyes.