Story: Where I grew up, there is a house on the edge of my block that everyone says is haunted. No one has lived in it for as long as we were there which – we moved there when I was three. Anyways, I don’t even remember who told me it was haunted, it was just a thing everyone knew. The house is super old and looks like it is falling apart, the yard is over grown and sometimes the boys in my neighborhood would throw rocks at it. Anyways, everyone thought it was haunted but I had never seen anything to prove it, until one night when I was around 17 and I was walking home from a friends house late at night. I had to pass the house and I would always glance at it when I walked by because it freaked me out. Anyways, I was walking by and I got the most terrifying feeling ever. I saw the door was open which was so weird because it was always shut, and in the doorway was the shadow of a person just standing there! I nearly screamed and ran all the way home.

Context: The informant is a senior at USC from New York, and told me this story over the phone.

Thoughts: When asked what they think about the story looking back on it now, the informant says that it still terrifies them, and even when they go home to visit they will walk all the way around the block just to avoid walking next to the house.

Analysis: I have never experienced a ghost encounter, however this was definitely creepy. The informant also mentioned that other people had experienced encounters at or around the house as well, and I was wondering if I could find anything that happened at the house in the past, like a death or some sort of tragedy. However, no results came up when I researched it.