Best Ghost Stories Post

The Ghost Stories cases readers rated highest and believed most — the jury's all-time picks.

1. The Man In The Hat Stood At The Foot Of My Bed And Waited To Be Introduced

   I was nine. He came maybe six times over two years. He stood at the foot of the bed. He wore a hat with a brim — I did not know the word fed…

   1512 Upvote · 85% of readers believe this story

2. The Night Watchman Said The Chapel Bell Rings For Him, Not For The Dead

   The cemetery chapel has not held a service since 1998 and the bell has been out of use since before that. The rope is tied off at head heigh…

   1447 Upvote · 91% of readers believe this story

3. Somebody Has Been Tidying My Mother's Grave For Eleven Years

   My mother is buried in a village cemetery three hundred miles from where I live. I go twice a year, which is not enough, and I know it is no…

   1361 Upvote · 89% of readers believe this story

4. The Cat We Never Owned Sleeps On The End Of Our Bed Every Winter

   We have never owned a cat. My wife is allergic. This is a fact of our marriage, like the mortgage. Every winter — and only in winter, and I …

   1288 Upvote · 89% of readers believe this story

5. My Dog Died In March And In April Something Still Scratched At The Bedroom Door

   He was a fat, stupid, beloved spaniel and he died in March, at fourteen, on a vet's table, with my hand on his head. He had one ritual. At 0…

   1198 Upvote · 89% of readers believe this story

6. The Regimental Dog Is Buried By The Gate And He Still Does The Rounds

   There is a small stone by the gate with a dog's name on it and a date in the 1950s. The regiment buried him there and somebody, at some poin…

   1104 Upvote · 87% of readers believe this story

7. The War Grave With The Wrong Name And The Man Who Came To Correct It

   My aunt volunteers with a group that photographs and transcribes war graves. It is careful, unglamorous, deeply moving work and she has done…

   1012 Upvote · 85% of readers believe this story

8. The Hitchhiker I Did Not Pick Up Was Standing At The Cemetery Gate In The Morning

   I did not pick him up because it was midnight and I am a woman on my own and I have a mother who raised me properly. He was standing at the …

   962 Upvote · 82% of readers believe this story

9. The Barracks Corridor Where Everybody Walks Faster And Nobody Says Why

   I did six years. I am not a nervous man and I have never seen a ghost, and I want that on the record before I tell you about the corridor. B…

   812 Upvote · 82% of readers believe this story

10. The Groundskeeper Told Me Which Graves To Walk Past Quickly

    I took a summer job cutting grass in a municipal cemetery, which is the best job I have ever had: quiet, useful, and nobody complains. The g…

    588 Upvote · 83% of readers believe this story

11. The Hat Man at the Foot of the Bed

    I had heard people talk about the Hat Man online and always assumed it was sleep paralysis dressed up as a story. Then I moved into a cheap …

    288 Upvote · 85% of readers believe this story

12. The Cat That Guards the Nursery

    When we bought the house, the elderly seller told us, almost shyly, that there had always been a cat in it. Not a pet — a presence. She said…

    279 Upvote · 93% of readers believe this story

13. The Baby Monitor Knew His Name

    We moved into the apartment when our son was four months old. It was a good deal in an old building, high ceilings, thick walls, the kind of…

    271 Upvote · 89% of readers believe this story

14. My Dog Came Back for One Night

    Rooster was a stubborn old beagle who slept at the foot of our bed for nine years. He had a routine: three circles, a heavy sigh, then a thu…

    261 Upvote · 94% of readers believe this story

15. The Locker That Would Not Stay Shut

    Every barracks has its bunk nobody wants, and ours had a locker. It stood at the end of the row, empty, assigned to no one, because the last…

    221 Upvote · 85% of readers believe this story

16. The Guest in Room 412

    I run the desk alone from eleven to seven at a highway hotel that is maybe a third full most weeknights. The lobby is quiet, the elevator di…

    214 Upvote · 86% of readers believe this story

17. The Third Set of Footsteps

    The farmhouse had been in the family for a century, and after our grandmother passed, my brother and I spent a summer clearing it out. Just …

    199 Upvote · 86% of readers believe this story

18. The Soldier on the Night Watch

    I pulled a lot of overnight guard shifts at an old installation that had been in use since before either of my grandfathers was born. Most o…

    188 Upvote · 85% of readers believe this story

19. Room Service Nobody Ordered

    I travel for work and I have stayed in a lot of hotels, so I do not spook easily. This one was a grand old place downtown, all marble and br…

    176 Upvote · 80% of readers believe this story

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