The Ball that Came Back

“When I was growing up with my sister, we had shared a bedroom, and this was in Thousand Oaks, California.

And her bed was on one side of the room and my bedroom was on.

My bed was on the other side of the room. We were. One night, we were both in our beds, and we were tossing a ball back and forth to each other.

Right. You know, she missed when she went to throw the ball to me, she had, like.

Didn’t throw enough power, so went underneath my bed.

So it took about, like, you know, 10 seconds. I went, oh, faster. God, I gotta go under here. When I tried to reach underneath there, the ball went flying right to her.

Which scared her and I to, you know, to pieces. This is so needless to say. So that evening we went to bed, and in the middle of the night, I was woken up by my mom saying, are you okay?

Are you okay? And I didn’t know what was going on. I somehow had my tongue underneath. My tongue was severed.

Yeah, so I don’t know how. There’s no way you can bite. You can’t, like, you know, bite your tongue. That’s impossible. It was clean. Like, just a clean cut, too. Just, you know, the thing that attaches your tongue to the bottom of your jaw.

So that was completely cut. So, like, the. We were. I was raised Mormon growing up. I. I’m no longer Mormon. I actually believe in more spiritual, like, Native American Indian spiritual, that type of belief.

Anyway, she. So. So they. The priest came and took me. They didn’t take me to the hospital. I don’t know why. They. I went to church. The church had stitched it up. They did, like. Like, a cleansing blessing, which I thought was interesting in hindsight. This house. This house had. Was. There’s six siblings in my family. We always consider, like, there was just a weird, creepy thing.

This isn’t like that. This is the. The Terrence. It’s like, always weird creepy things that would happen.

Like my younger brother. We had a babysitter. My mom was actually kind of whatever. She went to babies. And my younger brother was somehow pushed out of the second story window.

And, yeah, he. So somehow he ended up being. He doesn’t remember because he was like, four or five.

He got up to the second story window and was thrown out, and he broke his.

Shattered his pelvis and stuff like that. No, he was younger because he was like three. He couldn’t even crawl yet. So he had to be really young. Anyway, this is the same house where this weird shenanigans would happen.

You know, you’d hear, like, you know, knocking, which we thought it was always the, you’re my brother, or, you know, because there’s six of us. You always thought it was like, oh, is one of the siblings kind of messing with you?

Right, right. Well, you know, after that experience of having that ball and, you know, being thrown, you know, you know, across the way and then having my tongue severed, you know, even more strange things started to happen.

That’s just kind of like where it kind of all started, you know, realizing, well, there’s probably more to this.”

Context

  • The informer has been my next-door neighbor for the last 17 years. She talked to me in a Zoom interview.
  • The story takes place in her childhood home
  • She told me this story because I asked if she had any ghost stories to share with me, now that I study this in college, and collecting field stories is one of our class activities.

Her thoughts

She believes this was the beginning of realizing that something paranormal was present in that house, with ongoing, unexplained forces at work. She supported that by adding several other incidents that no one could explain that followed that moment. She also said that this was the moment she started to be more aware and feel things. 

My thoughts

I thought this story is especially compelling because it starts as a game with a playful and innocent object – a ball – in the girls’ bedroom. But then, when the ball is under her bed and not near her sister, it suddenly seems to gain its own energy. She doesn’t throw it back – it “flies” on its own, or by some other force, which shifts the moment from something ordinary into something unsettling.

Later that same night, on that same side of the room, another unexplained event happens, and her tongue gets a clean cut and starts bleeding. The fact that both events are tied to the same space makes it feel less random and more connected, almost like that area of the room holds a kind of presence or energy. It creates a sense of the uncanny, where something familiar – a bedroom, a childhood game – starts to feel unfamiliar and unsafe.

What also stood out to me is that her parents did not take her to a doctor, but instead brought her to the church for treatment and a blessing. I’m not sure exactly why, but it seems like this response reflects their belief system and how they interpreted what happened. Rather than seeing it as a purely medical issue, they may have understood it as something spiritual that required a religious response. That decision adds another layer to the story, because it shows how belief shapes action, especially in moments that are hard to explain.

She also describes this as the moment when she begins to realize that other strange things are happening around her. To me, this feels like a turning point, not just in the story, but in how she understands her environment. It reads almost like a liminal moment, where she moves from childhood innocence into a more aware stage, where everyday spaces no longer feel fully stable or predictable.

What makes the story especially strong is that it combines an unexplained physical event with a lasting injury, which gives it a real sense of stakes. It shows how something small and ordinary (the ball) can become physically disturbing, and how a personal space like a bedroom can take on an uncanny quality, with a lingering sense of “energy” that is hard to explain but clearly felt.

Her Thoughts

She believes this was the beginning of realizing that something paranormal was present in that house, with ongoing, unexplained forces at work. She supported that by adding several other incidents that no one could explain that followed that moment. She also said that this was the moment she started to be more aware and feel things. 

My Thoughts

I thought this story is especially compelling because it starts as a game with a playful and innocent object – a ball – in the girls’ bedroom. But then, when the ball is under her bed and not near her sister, it suddenly seems to gain its own energy. She doesn’t throw it back – it “flies” on its own, or by some other force, which shifts the moment from something ordinary into something unsettling.

Later that same night, on that same side of the room, another unexplained event happens, and her tongue gets a clean cut and starts bleeding. The fact that both events are tied to the same space makes it feel less random and more connected, almost like that area of the room holds a kind of presence or energy. It creates a sense of the uncanny, where something familiar – a bedroom, a childhood game – starts to feel unfamiliar and unsafe.

What also stood out to me is that her parents did not take her to a doctor, but instead brought her to the church for treatment and a blessing. I’m not sure exactly why, but it seems like this response reflects their belief system and how they interpreted what happened. Rather than seeing it as a purely medical issue, they may have understood it as something spiritual that required a religious response. That decision adds another layer to the story, because it shows how belief shapes action, especially in moments that are hard to explain.

She also describes this as the moment when she begins to realize that other strange things are happening around her. To me, this feels like a turning point, not just in the story, but in how she understands her environment. It reads almost like a liminal moment, where she moves from childhood innocence into a more aware stage, where everyday spaces no longer feel fully stable or predictable.

What makes the story especially strong is that it combines an unexplained physical event with a lasting injury, which gives it a real sense of stakes. It shows how something small and ordinary (the ball) can become physically disturbing, and how a personal space like a bedroom can take on an uncanny quality, with a lingering sense of “energy” that is hard to explain but clearly felt.

The Dream After Death

“My brother was killed by me almost 20 years ago. And five days before he passed away, I had just moved back from Aruba and he had called me up and he’s like, hey, what are you doing?

It’s my birthday. And I’m like, I’m just. I don’t know, it’s my birthday, let’s hang out. So we hung out and we had a great time. And five days later I was sleeping and all of a sudden I woke up and I was like I couldn’t figure out why I, like, woke up, like in, you know, like, why am I awake? And about 30 minutes later, I get a phone call, 4:00 in the morning, 4:30 in the morning.

And it was my brother calling me, saying that, you know, my brother was found dead and, and I was saying “no way” because I had just talked to him that night.

I was supposed to go down there for Thanksgiving to hang out with him, and I was moving that same weekend. So I was like, you know what? I really shouldn’t do that. I should just stick to packing my bags and, you know, stay focused and so let’s go out next weekend.

And we hung up. It’s 11:30 at night. And then of course, my brother calls me the next morning saying he passed and I was saying “no”, I just spoke to him, you know, I’m like, “no”.

I kept saying “no”. He’s like, yes. He’s kind of like, well, how. Anyways, he, you know. By the way, the cause of death is basically unknown. Okay. I believe his wife killed him, in my opinion.

Just from what I have gathered, he was trying to leave her, and she didn’t want to grant the divorce for almost a year.

Trying to leave her. Anyway, there was a lot of turmoil that went online.

So I was sleeping and I was trying to figure out, like, how can I honor my brother, right?

And. And I was very upset. And he came to visit me in this dream and he said, “you’re not gonna know what happened to me”.

And I was like, what? Why? He’s like, “they don’t have testing for it”. I’m like, okay. He’s like, “but I’m okay. And, you know, you need to basically let go so I can move on”.

I was like, oh, gosh, okay. And I woke up from that dream, and I was like, I felt better because I’m like, at least he came to visit me, you know.”

Their thoughts

The teller believes this was genuine communication from her brother after death, reinforced by the psychic’s confirmation later. She thinks her brother showed up so they can both move on to the next part of their journey; she felt like she did not need to think about how to honor him, and he could move on to the other side and rest in peace.

My thoughts

I found this story interesting because it blends her grief over her brother with her belief in the afterlife.  This story showed how ghost stories can offer comfort and a sense of closure. I was also moved by the fact that after this experience, she chose to meet with a psychic, and that the psychic was able to share details about her brother that felt very specific and personal. That seemed to reinforce her belief that the person she saw in her dream was actually her brother, beyond any doubt she might have had before.

At the same time, I found myself having questions that I didn’t ask during the interview. For example, I was wondering about the timing – was the dream before or after the funeral, and how soon after his death did it happen? I also wondered whether her brother appeared to other family members, especially since she mentioned that her mother and her sons have similar abilities.

I was also fascinated by the uncertainty around his cause of death. The idea that there was “no testing” for it, and that this detail was repeated both in the dream and by the psychic, adds another layer to the story. It creates a sense that some things remain unknowable through conventional means, which may be why the dream and the psychic experience carry so much meaning for her.

The Presence in the Bed

“So one time I was over at my mom’s place and she just, you know, moved out.

This is later on in life. And I had this. This. This place where my mom was staying had this weird energy.

I mean, really kind of like you got a bad, you know, feeling in your stomach.

So I’m laying down in her bed, and she was in the shower.

And as I’m laying down in her bed, I’ve had my eyes kind of shut.

I’m just kind of relaxing. I felt what felt like someone kind of came up behind me and kind of spooned me.

That was weird. So I opened it. When I open my eyes, there is no one there but you. I mean, you literally clearly felt someone getting on the bed, you know, each step and then putting their body next to you and putting their arm around you.

And I kind of jumped up and freaked out a little bit.  What the heck? What the heck was that? That’s a little uncomfortable. It. And it didn’t feel like it. It didn’t feel like it had good intentions, if you know what I mean […] yeah, nefarious. So then, okay, so that’s just one other experience.”

Storyteller’s thoughts

The teller interprets this as an encounter with an unwanted or negative spirit. She mentioned the “place” had weird energy, the kind that gives you  “a bad, you know, feeling in your stomach”. And so the spirit was from the same space and gave her that bad feeling. 

My thoughts

Here were several points that made this an interesting story. The first one is the timing – she said it was much later in life, especially compared to the first story where she was a child. She also mentioned that her mom had “moved out,” and I didn’t ask for more details, but it made me wonder what led to that: was it a divorce, a death, or some kind of transition? She also refers to the space as just a “place,” not a home or even a house, which stood out to me. It almost makes it sound like the space itself is temporary or unsettled, and she even describes it as having bad energy, like nothing good can really happen there.

Another thing I kept thinking about is that she was lying on her mom’s bed. Why was she there? Was she stepping into her mom’s space, even temporarily? It made me wonder if whatever she felt might have been directed at her mom, and not at her – like maybe whatever presence was there didn’t realize someone else was in the bed, and then “left” once it did.

She says, “when I opened my eyes,” which made me pause. It sounds like there was a gap between feeling the touch and reacting to it. I wonder why – was she frozen, trying to process it, or unsure of what she was feeling? That moment feels almost suspended, like a liminal state between sleep and waking, where the body and mind don’t fully react right away.

This story stands out because it involves physical touch, which makes it more intense than typical ghost stories. It creates a strong sense of fear because the experience feels clearly unwanted by the teller. At the same time, there are still things left unsaid – like whether she told anyone afterward – which adds to the unsettling feeling, because the experience stays somewhat contained and unresolved.

Summer Camp Spooky Story: The Police Chief’s Daughter

Age: 19

I interviewed my informant, HP, on a story she heard from a peer at summer camp. In the interview below, she shared the story and her personal thoughts on the matter. Q refers to me, the interviewer, and A refers to HP, our interviewee/informant. The Q&A is a direct transcript, which is why some of the sentence structure is very casual. Below is my personal reflection on the ghost story.

Q: Where did you source your ghost story from? 

A: I heard this from summer camp, and it was from a girl, and we were camping, and she shared it was the setting in which she told a story, like, kind of spooky, or, yeah, it was dark, and we were on this island, and we were in, like, our camps, we were in our tents and everything, and the wind was like, blowing a lot, and we were just about to go to sleep, and then we decided to share some stories 

Q: That’s really interesting because, like, that’s an exact reflection of what we talk about in ghost stories, which is how you get your ghost stories, not through written stories, usually, but through your peer groups. And I think that like summer camp in the United States, like summer camps in our youth are like the best example of that right now.

A: Yeah, I think most of the stories I have are from summer camp especially.

Q: Have you heard many over the years?

A: Or Yeah, I would say some of them often get repeated, but yeah, I would say most of the ghost stories I hear are from friends.

Q: Okay, so can you tell us the ghost story that your friend told? 

A: So it’s a story about this girl, and her name is Grace, and she lives in an apartment in New York City, and she is just with her dad. You know, he’s a single dad. She lost her mom when she was very young, and her father is the chief of police for NYPD. So they are watching the news.

A: They’re just watching their like weekly night show, just some father daughter bonding time. And then on the news, it comes on and it says, “serial killer let loose from the prison. Like everybody, take cover, be alert, be aware.” So her father immediately jumps up, and he starts suiting up, getting ready and everything. And you know, Grace is kind of used to this. This is just usual as the daughter of the chief of police, and then the father, you know, he looks very seriously at Grace, you know, it’s almost as if something is out of the ordinary. And he says, “Grace, lock the doors, deadbolt everything. Don’t answer any knocking, I will be able to open the door myself. You go to bed. Don’t answer. Do not answer.” So then she’s like, “okay, dad, like, stay safe. I love you,” everything. And he goes out into the streets to, you know, catch the serial killer and protect the citizens. So, you know, she’s a little freaked out, and she just says, “Okay, I just need to go to bed. Just not think about this. It’ll all be okay, whatever.” So she’s going to sleep, and you know she’s getting in her slumber. And then she has a dream, and her mother, and she, it’s her mother, and, you know, they’re playing like they did when they were younger. And then all of a sudden it gets serious, and she says, she says, “Don’t open that door.” And then there’s a faint knocking sound, and it just, Grace is a little bit freaked out. She’s like, “Mom, what are you saying”? And then they go back to playing, and then all of a sudden she gets very serious, and she’s like, almost yells at her, and she’s like, “do not open that door.” And then the knocking gets louder and louder, and then Grace, you know, she’s still sleeping, she’s still having this dream. And then it’s, it’s like the mother screaming and pleading at her, saying, “You can’t open that door. You must not open that door. It’s so dangerous.” And then immediately, you know, Grace gets up and she’s all freaked out. She’s, you know, heart is racing and everything. And then the knocking is so loud. It’s, you know, going through the entire apartment. She’s like, this must be my dad. Like, I know he said that he would get in and whatever, but I don’t know. So then she goes checks with people, and she’s like, “Oh, my God, it’s my dad. What is he doing out there?” And then she goes to open the door, but it’s just his head there, and then there’s a note, and it’s saying “you’ll be next.”

Q:  So I have a question. So do you think that, like, obviously, sometimes people see, you know, like their loved ones, their dead ones, in their sleep. But do you think that because the mother was talking to her about something that was happening in real life, in her dream, her mom was talking to her about the serial killer and everything going on. Do you think that there’s a chance that the appearance of the mother in her dreams wasn’t just a dream, but rather like a ghost, apparition, like a communication with the ghost? 

A: Yeah, I think maybe it could be. I think people think, like, you know, all ghosts are bad, but like, maybe the mother was kind of like a guardian.

Q: Like an ancestral ghost. Okay. And where with the whole like father thing, like, just his head? Do you think that, you know, likely the whole head appearing like, that’s all just a dream, like, the entire story, at least the part after she goes to sleep to, like, when she sees the note? Do you think that could just all be the girl Grace dreaming?

A: Yeah, I think so. I mean, it could be fake. You know, it’s kind of hard to imagine that, like, a serial killer could, like, put up the Chief of Police’s head on the door. Like, I don’t know if that could be hard to believe. And like people in the apartment could see it, so maybe it is a dream, right?

Q: Do you think of apparitions, like that, as ghosts? Say, the head was just not real, but like a visual or something? Do you think that could be like a ghost in a way?

A: I guess it could be, there’s just, it’s very hard to tell. I think, maybe the entire story could have been a dream, and it’s like how the mother appeared. It’s like the father appeared in the form of, like, just a head, right?

Q: And do you personally believe this is a ghost story?

A: I don’t know. It could be real. I mean, it’s, it’s not totally out of the question. I think it could be a real ghost story.

Q: Do you, like, believe in ghosts?

A: I mean sometimes there are certain circumstances that, maybe make me, double guess what I believe in but I think for the most part, I don’t really believe in ghosts. 

Q: Okay, and with this story specifically, do you know if it’s derived from any specific folklore, or how close in proximity was this story to your friend at summer camp, if you know? Is it like, derived from, like any old told story, from folklore,

A: I don’t know. I feel like it’s kind of like a modern-ish story, because, you know, there’s elements of the TV and the big city and all that, but maybe it could have been derived just like, you know, different variation, and it’s kind of evolved. But, yeah, I can’t really say what the exact culture is.

Q: That makes sense. And, I find it interesting because like you mentioned it is more recent, [and] the whole word of mouth thing would lead you to believe that it’s not a story that has touched that many people. Do you remember, what were the reactions from other campers when she told this story? Did people think it was real? Or do people get frightened by this kind of ghost story? Or believe it in any way?

A: I think that a lot of, like, I personally, was also freaked out by it, I think everyone else that was intently hearing this. They were like, “Oh my gosh, I have chills.” And, you know, this is really creepy, and, I mean, I remember, the storyteller did a better job of me, you know, like, would mimic, the knocking sounds and stuff. So I’m also much more theatrical than what I just gave but I think, you know, people are definitely freaked out and a little bit more nosy, maybe there’s a serial killer on the island. 

Q: This is my last question. But also in keeping the tradition of orally told ghost stories, and passing them, like, how at camp you share them with a lot of people? Is this the kind of thing that in the future you would tell others, and pass down the ghost story? 

A: I think somewhat recently, it was kind of a similar thing, like I was doing a camping tripSC Outfitters, and we were just sharing ghost stories. And I shared this one just because it’s so creepy. But, yeah, I think it is very important to share it and make sure other people are sharing it and just keep that tradition alive.

Personal Reflection: Personally, I don’t really believe in the part where the father’s head was just hanging there and left by the serial killer with a note, not because of any ghost-belief reasons, but just because it sounds like the sort of thing that would happen only really in fiction. As for the part about the mother visiting her, I find it very hard to decipher between what’s just in the psyche and what’s a ghost apparition in this story. Because the girl was sleeping, I feel like it would be easiest to say it was just an incredibly realistic dream. However, because of the dialogue with the mother, and the fact that she could really hear her, I start to lean towards thinking that maybe this was a friendly ancestral ghost visitation, intended to protect Grace. As a whole, I don’t really believe in this entire story, but I think it’s really cool that it’s been spread between peer groups.

The Ghost in the Mirror

Age: 19

I interviewed my informant, KD, on a story she heard from friend at a sleepover. In the interview below, she shared the story and her personal thoughts on the matter. Q refers to me, the interviewer, and A refers to KD, our interviewee/informant. The Q&A is a direct transcript, which is why some of the sentence structure is very casual. Below is my personal reflection on the ghost story.

Q: Could you first start by clarifying the source of your ghost story? Like where you got it from?

A: I got this story from my friend in middle school.

Q: Was it told just one on one, or a group setting, or, do you remember the context?

A: I remember we were at her house sleeping over, and she wanted to freak us out, so she told us the story. It was like me, her and a group of maybe four other girls.

Q: Okay, cool. That’s interesting because HP had a similar, sleepover situation, since hers was at summer camp. All right, you could just start by telling the story then, please.

A: Okay, so she’s telling us that she goes to this cabin in the mountains every year, and she went with one of her friends, and she went up. Her parents brought her up, but her parents weren’t there when this was happening. They were out at dinner and drinks or something, and they left her and her friend at the house. So they [the girl and her friend] were taking pictures with a flash camera, and when they were looking back through the pictures, there was a mirror behind them, and in this mirror there was a face of a man, [but] there was no man in the house, or allegedly, no man in the house. It was just these two girls, their parents were gone, so they were looking at these pictures, and there was a face in the mirror. So then they started taking pictures somewhere else. And every time they took a picture somewhere with a mirror there was, like, a face. And they checked the mirrors. They checked everything after and they couldn’t see anything. And then later, when I asked her, because I was curious, I was like, “Wait, do you still have these pictures?” She goes, “No. A week later, the SD card was wiped,” and she doesn’t know how

Q: Okay, so obviously, this is something you said happened to your friend, right? So this isn’t like, tied to any folklore or anything like that, but it was told through a peer group. Did you believe it when your friend told you the story? Like, did you get chills? Did you/do you believe in what she was saying, or did she believe in it being a ghost?

A: She acted like she really did believe in it, but I don’t really believe in it, just because I’m not that kind of person. I think she is just making the story to freak us out. But knowing her, she wasn’t really someone who, like, just made stuff up like that, right? And she’s not like a pathological liar. 

Q: Like, do you think there was anything in that story that I guess is a motif that would guide you to believe it’s a ghost, or that kind of thing?

A: Probably just like the face. Like, that’s like, kind of something you see in movies a lot, you see something in the mirror you can’t really in real life.

Q: And do you believe in ghosts ever, in general, is your disbelief applied to every situation? Or is it just like this situation with your friend? 

A: I feel like everything that happens there has to be a logical explanation for it. I don’t really believe in ghosts, but there are some things that I’ve heard of, like stories like, you know, “The Conjuring” or whatever. Like those stories, those real stories that have been made into movies. I find it hard to find the logical reasoning behind it. But personally, in my daily life, or like in this story too, I just find it hard to believe.

Q: If it had happened to you, do you think you would believe?

A: If it had happened to me, and the whole wiping of the SD card thing just would also be confusing. So maybe if something like that did happen to me, I’d believe it right. 

Q: Do you think there’s any chance she just imagined the face there, or, dreamed it all, or something. Do you think there’s, do you think there’s any chance she imagined the face there, or something?

A: There’s a chance, like, we were 12 years old, so, like, maybe just some sort of reflection on the mirror, or some weird camera setting.

Q: In ghost stories we talk a lot about children and ghosts and ghosts appearing to children, because it’s the whole idea of, your life being cut short before, you’ve reached your prime, or before important things happen to you. Do you think there’s any tie between the child seeing it and the parents not being there, versus how she would have reacted if she were older. 

A: Yeah, I feel like, well, like that whole trope of like, ghosts appearing to children was, kind of logical, because children are not mature yet, so they kind of, they won’t really look for like, the logical reasoning behind it. They might just believe it, or like, also, children might be taken advantage of, because if they talk about it, people will be like, oh, like, they’re used to managing it, because children tend to make up their stories. So I feel like that’s why, like, in a lot of literary texts with ghosts and stuff, they never really target the adults, because the adults just wouldn’t believe it. They find a logical explanation. So I feel like it could be possible to get ghost stories by targeting children, mainly because no one will take them seriously.

Personal Reflection: Much like our interviewee, KD, I just find it hard to believe in ghost stories in general, and thinking back to the days when I was little, this sort of feels like one of those small things that I would find and hyperbolize into a huge spooky story for fun. However, I do find this story more easy to believe than the police chief camp story because it aligns a lot more with classic ghost stories. The whole apparition in the mirror and the fact that it was a ghost appearing only to a child really aligns with a lot of traditional ghost stories, so this one is a bit less surprising to me.