Adams Media - A Haunted October: 31 Seriously Scary Ghost Stories

Heres to a Very Scary Halloween Season!

The Hitchhiker Who Never Died

Ghosts Ride for Free

Robert the Doll

A Gift from Beyond the Grave

A Haunting Melody

Cheering from the Other Side

Prince John Rides Again

Dream House, Nightmare Guest

Tag, Youre It!

The Tale of Tiggers Return

The Ghost of the Traveling Pants

Sound Torment

A Lovers Last Breath

The Phantom Horse

Whispers in the Night

Las Fantasmas de Santorio Carlos Duran

Game Over

An Unwanted Gift

Lenin Marches at Midnight

The Haunting of Cherry Valley

Friends for Faye

The Spectral Train of Mushroom Tunnel

A Watchful Eye

The Prank

Locked Up for Life

A Message for My Fianc

The Night I Met Mary Gately

You Cant Catch Me

Just Passing Through

Great-Grandfather Knows Best

The Fox Sisters of Spook House

Its that time of the year the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer, pumpkins are transforming into jack-o-lanterns, and the chill in the air matches the one down your spine as you read these terrifying true tales of ghosts and ghouls.

A twisted take on the seemingly sweet devotional, A Haunted October is your ghost-a-day collection meant to spook and scare and help you start celebrating Halloween on the first of the month. Thirty-one frightening stories and firsthand accounts will take you on a haunted tour across the country and throughout the world.

So turn off the lights, get to reading, and let the glow of your e-reader keep you from jumping at whatever goes bump in the night!

The world has a long tradition of haunted roads, and in America, most states boast stories of phantoms seen by people in cars. Many of the stories are mere folklore, and the ghost hitchhiker is one of the most popular and frightening urban legends. For every legend out there, a true ghost, witnessed by locals, makes itself known. Most of these cases borrow from the classic myths.

New England has its own version of the story. In some versions, the ghost is a scary but sympathetic figure, but the Red-Headed Hitchhiker of Route 44 is the exact opposite. A large man with red hair and a thick red beard, dressed in a flannel red shirt, is the terror of one of the most haunted areas of southern Massachusetts. His eyes are always described as giving him away. They have been described as vacant or empty, and at times, they have been said to glow red or yellow.

Although he has never physically attacked anyone, his intent is to scare, and few who have come across him are sympathetic to his plight. He has been known to appear in peoples cars and scare them or to take control of a car, making himself known over the radio or causing the automobile to stall. Many have seen him on this dark and lonely highway, hitchhiking or resting on the side of the road. Witnesses have looked out their windows to see him staring at them, even as their cars travel at high speeds. As with many roadside apparitions, drivers sometimes hit him when he is in the middle of the road. When they stop, there is no evidence of hitting anything and no sign of the red-haired man. They do hear him laughing and taunting them. On rare occasions, he has forced cars to stall and then appeared in their headlights when they stop, staring at them before dissolving.

Over the years, many people have spotted the ghost, but more have heard stories from their friends about other people who have spotted the phantom. Much of the lore of the Red-Headed Hitchhiker has fallen into the realm of urban legend. One new tale is that if you drive to the town line and honk your horn three times, he will appear in your headlights. They also say that if you are driving with three people in the car near the town line, he will appear in the empty seat. To some, this means he does not exist, but do not be fooled. The original reports were told by reliable witnesses, and more genuine reports come in if a researcher is patient and sifts through the legends. The people in Rehoboth know him to be real, and they drive with their knuckles a bit whiter at night.

The dead are all around us, asking to be heard and seen. They might have a reason to make contact, sometimes just for contacts sake, but their cries go unheard. Sometimes we make contact and do not know it until the moment is over. We are left with a feeling that something happened and usually feel that we would do something different if it happens again. Usually, we have one shot at it, and the moment is frozen in time, unexplained.

Jenny was a morning radio personality at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and would often take the bus into work. At that time of the morning, the bus carried a few students and commuters but was empty for the most part. She would usually be half-awake as she traveled when the winter mornings were really no different from the winter nights.

It was 5:00 A.M. , and the winter was very dark at this time, Jenny recalls. I was listening to music on my headphones and looking out the window when I caught the reflection of a woman smiling at me. She was a white woman and had short dark hair. Her smile was pleasant enough. Jenny says there was nothing about the woman that made her think anything was odd, except for perhaps the smile that early in the morning. But when she turned, she realized something that was different about her friendly commuter.

I turned to look across the aisle where it seemed she was sitting, but nobody was there. When I looked back at the window, she was still there smiling at me. Once more, I looked back at the seat across and still did not see her. There were only a few other people on the bus with me but not the woman I saw in the window. When I looked back at the window to see if she was still there, she was gone.

The sighting had a profound effect on Jenny, and she still carries it with her today. I felt paralyzed and sick and remember that I had goose bumps all over. I was so disturbed I had to take my headphones off. Once in a while, I would carefully look around the bus to catch another glimpse of her, but I never saw her again. I held back tears the whole ride to school and cried a lot as soon as I got off the bus.

Years later, she remembers what the woman looked like and the way she felt. I was pretty disturbed the rest of the day but had to carry on with my normal activities. Overall, I feel lucky I had such a life-changing experience that very few people get to encounter. When it first happened, I wondered if she was smiling at me because I reminded her of someone, but I do not know. I considered myself an atheist before the incident, but the experience made me unsure of a lot of things. I am not as scared of death or dying. My grandpa died about a week before I saw the ghost, so in a way, it made me feel better about his death.

Robert Gene Otto was born in October 1900. His parents were known to be cruel to their servants. When Robert, now called Gene, was six, one of the servants, who practiced voodoo, made him a doll. Naming the doll Robert, Gene made it his constant companion. When things went wrong for Gene, he blamed it on Robert. Visitors to the house swore they had seen Robert move and heard him giggle. Finally, in an attempt to bring peace to the house, Robert was banished to the attic.