Nationality: American
Primary Language: English
Age: 25
Occupation: Self-Employed
Residence: Jupiter, FL
Performance Date: November 11, 2023
Text:
“After I left Florida, I started just driving all over the country, reconnecting with all my old friends that I hadn’t seen in so long. I was actually all the way up in Canada at one point, before heading back down into the States through to Seattle for a bit. Anyways, I ended up with one of my friends from high school in Oregon. I let her book the AirBnB that we were going to stay at that night, and for whatever reason, she only looked at the availability without checking any of the reviews before she booked it. Definitely a mistake, will not be doing that again. So she books it, we’re driving, it’s super late at night, we’re both exhausted, get to the house, and immediately vibes are just off. The whole time we were driving up there the area was just weird, something just did not feel right at all. The house itself was this really big old timey inn, straight out of the colonial era. We walk in and this place is just deserted, like nobody there at all, no one working the front desk for check in. After ringing the bell a couple of times the guy comes and checks us in or whatever, and starts leading us up towards our room down this super long hallway. Super weird thing, there were all of these tables in the hallways that were just lined with these big containers of candy, and all kinds too. Naturally we just start munching on some sour strings, and the guy turns back at us, telling us not to eat any of the candy, that it’s there to appease the spirits. Jokingly, my friend asks him if the house was haunted or something, cause she thought he was trying to mess with us or something. He gave her the biggest ‘are you stupid’ look I’ve ever seen, and said ‘Only the most haunted house in Oregon’, then kept walking down the hallway. We both kind of looked at each other, looked back at him, and immediately started looking this place up on our phones. Sure enough, it was literally the most haunted AirBnB in all of Oregon according to all these reviews we read. It’s too late to try and find somewhere else to stay for the night, so we just decide to stick it out and hope that whatever ghosts might be there just leave us alone. I think I slept maybe like two hours that whole night. The whole time there were all of these banging and groaning sounds coming from all over the place like people were fighting, but we were literally the only guests there that night. And I could feel the floorboards all around the bend like bending, there were all these footstep noises throughout the whole thing, I even felt a hand running up and down my leg at one point. Same thing happened to my friend except it was on her face. It never really felt dangerous or malicious, but definitely weird. Super creepy, we ended up checking out as early as possible that next morning, haven’t been back to Oregon since.”
Context:
CM is a 25 year old woman who has recently embarked upon a continental road trip to explore and reconnect with old friends. While believing in the supernatural and the powers that they may (or may not) hold, CM has held a decidedly wary stance against haunting ghosts, preferring to hear or read about them rather than experience them firsthand. This story was told only a handful of weeks after the initial events transpired, allowing for a fresh telling undisturbed by the passing of time.
Analysis:
Part of me is curious as to whether or not there was really a ghost there at all, if it was a trick the CM’s mind played on her. There were no ghosts or paranormal activities before she learned that the house was haunted, yet suddenly after learning about all of the spirits said to linger around the house, she began experiencing some of the classic tropes of a haunted house. There were certainly a significant amount of classic motifs of traditional ghost stories in CM’s retelling, namely the sharp noises in the middle of the night and the creaking of the floorboards around the bed, which may help alleviate some of my suspicions. What I found to be particularly interesting was the feeling of being in actual contact with a paranormal entity, that whatever it may have been broke the physical barrier. While in some cultures the spirits of the restless dead (or undead) are ethereal, in a significant amount of others the ghosts of those who have passed can most certainly maintain a sense of corporealness that is absence in most modern day ideologies of ghosts. While a significant amount of ghost stories may involve spirits interacting with the physical plain by moving objects or perhaps a piece of furniture, there are perhaps only a select few where the spirit will make physical contact with a person.