I started attending Keystone College in 2004 and immediately started hearing about hauntings in nearly all of the buildings on campus. The first story was told to me by my roommate on the very day I arrived. What she said was that the bathroom in our suite in the dorm was haunted by the ghost of a girl who had killed herself. I was the first of the girls to move in and since my roommate went to stay in her boyfriend’s room for the night, I was the only one in the dorm that night. So I decided that I would take a shower at 3am, and thought that if anything were going to happen, it would be when I was alone in the middle of the night. Nothing did, and since my roommate at the time was a senior I figured she was just trying to scare me. My roommate was switched after about 2 weeks, and then again a couple weeks later after the second girl dropped out. She had only told the bathroom story to me, so the rest of the girls in the suite did not hear about it until later in the semester after a ghost walk event close to Halloween. 

The school holds a ghost tour every year led by John Zaffis. He only takes about 20 people on his tours so I have never been able to attend one, but I’ve been told he senses a presence in the art building, which most students claim is a native American woman, one in Moffatt hall, which is the dorm, and 2 other presences in a building called Ward Hall, which currently houses the photo lab and a lot of offices. There is supposedly a nice female presence and an angry powerful male presence in Ward Hall. Early in the fall semester of 2006 I made a friend who claimed that spirits liked to attach themselves to her, and she would describe stories about some of the other buildings on campus. She told of a student and teacher who had both jumped from the roof of Harris Hall, and that sometimes they could be seen on the roof or falling. She also told us that the cleaning ladies had witnessed televisions and lights turning off and on in another building called Capwell. I had been in most all of these buildings at night and had never experienced anything so again I figured it was just stories meant to scare the younger students. She had begun taking other students on unofficial ghost walks for a time. One weekend she went home to work, and a few girls came to ask if she could take them for a ghost walk. Since she was not there, they asked if I would walk around with them and help take pictures. I agreed but told them that I had never had an experience and didn’t believe they would have one either. They wanted to go anyway. 

The dorms are across the campus from the Art building, so we figured we would start with that building and work our way back to the dorm. They took random pictures on the walk over and didn’t catch anything, and there was still nothing when we stopped in front of the Art building. The next building we stopped in front of was Harris Hall. There are bright lights on the side of this building that you can see clearly from the walkway, and the bottom floor lights were on at the time, but every picture that was taken of this building was pitch black. The camera even shut off about 3 times. I thought that was kind of neat, and the other girls were getting scared so we moved on to the next building. The girl with the camera took a couple pictures of Capwell and one of them had a ton of “orbs” in it. I tend to think that orbs can’t really be considered evidence because it’s highly likely that it’s just dust in the air or even moisture, but it helped to freak the other girls out some. The last building we stopped at was Ward Hall. Now we’d heard that the spirits in this building were on the top floor and in the photo lab, which is in the basement. Since we couldn’t get pictures of the basement from the outside, we took a picture of the window to the top floor hallway on the side of the building. There is a floodlight right beneath that window so I figured it would be completely washed out, but when we viewed the picture it looked like there was a face looking out the window. That’s when I started to get freaked out. I had her email the picture to me and I put a bunch of filters on it in Photoshop to see if I could get it any clearer than it was. I can’t say for certain if it isn’t just lens flare from the light, but it’s still kind of creepy. 

I did take photography in that building later on. I have not had any other experiences on campus. 

I did some research this past year trying to find out anything else about the hauntings on campus, but the only thing I found was an article about a terrifying experience that happened near Moore Hall, which used to be between the Art building and Harris Hall but had been torn down in the late 90s. The author mentioned finding a newspaper article about a professor in the late 1800s who had hung himself in the top floor of Moore hall after being caught molesting male students, but I was not able to find this as the librarians claimed the school did not keep record of local newspapers until recently. 

—Casey

My parents, brother, sister and myself moved to a new home in Oct 2001. Right away things began happening. My mother would usually sleep on the couch in the living room. On several occasions, my mother would ask if we were getting up in the middle of the night and running down the hall, we never did. We started hearing more and more sounds, creaks, footsteps, tapping.

We heard from the neighborhood kids that the man who lived there had died of a heart attack in the living room. This made me uneasy since my bed was straight down the hallway from the stairs in my bedroom. I always felt like someone was watching me and my sister’s dog would stand and stare at the wall at the bottom of the stairs and bark.

Around Christmas time I remember going upstairs to my room upset about something and all of the sudden a tube of chapsticks I got in my stocking started whipping back and forth on my nightstand. I went running downstairs. Not too long after that, I was standing with my mother in the kitchen while she was making dinner. She dropped a fork in the middle of the floor and bent to pick it up. As she did this, a roll of paper towels came flying off the counter and hit her in the back. I saw this with my own eyes. I said something to my mother about it and she responds with “yea, things like that happen all of the time.” I was shocked. I began taking photographs around the house. They were FILLED with dense, bright orbs and streaks, ESPECIALLY in my bedroom. I started investigating outdoors taking pictures and mist would show up that wasn’t physically there when I took the pic (summer time). In one picture in particular, I took right outside the porch door, to faces are clearly formed in this mist staring at me. It was undeniable. Every time I opened the photos on my computer, noises would start up, until one day, I tried to open the pictures and the whole computer crashed. I lost all of them.

A couple years later, a friend of mine and I decided to experiment with a Ouija board, against my mother’s wishes we snuck it in the house. We asked it silly questions that any teenager would. The next morning I woke up and my parakeet was dead. Then my friend’s cousin, who I was also good friends with, was in a drunk driving accident and died. I started seeing a shadow man walking through the halls of our house. I would be doing homework on my bed and see in my peripheral, a shadow going into the bathroom (at the top of the stairs, end of the hall). I would expect to hear the door close as if someone went in there, but it wouldn’t. I’d go down to look and there would be no one there. I began hearing my name whispered randomly throughout the day, at home, at school walking through the halls, etc. My sister and I jokingly named the ghost “Juniper”, for what reason, I’m unsure. We would sit in the living room late at night and watch tv and in the front closet you would hear a knocking coming from the inside, as if someone wanted to get out.

The scariest day I encountered, I was home alone. It was the weekend and I was playing on the computer, my sister and parents were gone, my brother was at a friends house down the street. I heard a noise coming from my parents bedroom, knowing they were gone, I got concerned. I got up to check and yelled my brother’s name thinking it was him. No answer. Standing at the bottom of the stairs I heard a noise like someone rustling through bags. It became loud and rapid. I got scared someone had broken in. I turned to find the phone to call my parents and the back garage door was wide open. I ran out of the house to the neighbor’s house to find my brother and call my parents because I thought we were being robbed. No one was in the house. After this incident, my parents did not want me home alone at all.

One night and I was on the computer again and I thought my father was home with me, while my mother was out shopping with my brother and sister. I called up to my dad for something, no answer. I yelled again and I heard footsteps through the ceiling coming from his room, but again, no answer. I went to the bottom of the stairs and all of the sudden I heard a man begin laughing loudly, and it was not my father. I ran outside and looked, my father’s car was gone. I was home alone. The shadows, voices, objects moving and sounds were just pushing me to the edge. I wasn’t sleeping, I couldn’t concentrate at school. I cried to my mother and she suggested taking the Ouija board out of my room. I told her she would have to because I couldn’t bare to touch it. She removed it, and it stopped. There are random little happenings here and there, but the shadow man was finally gone.

—Amanda 

In October of 2010, my husband and I were doing yardwork at a house we are renovating.  It was my mother’s house but no one has lived there for quite some time.  He mowed the backyard and headed for the front.  I was inside the house that faces the backyard.  I distinctly heard two men talking and putting a ladder against the roof on the back of the house.  For some reason, I was scared and decided to remain quiet but watchful.  I couldn’t make out their conversation but they were hammering and moving the ladder along against the roof.  I didn’t look out of the window because I was fearful.  When my husband came in, I asked about the men but he said no one was in either yard.  None of the neighbors were outside either. I have no idea who they were. I’m still freaked out about it.

From Cindi B.

I walked into the living room and was met by boxes. More boxes than I remembered bringing in the night before. This was the part about moving that I hated above all else. The ritual of the UNPACKING OF THE BOXES.

Before I knew it, time had flown by and it was near noon. I was tired and hungry. Ok, more hungry than tired at that minute. I took a lunch break, and then decided that if I didn’t take a nap I would die from excessive box unpacking. Google it. It’s a real disease. Well, if it’s not it should be.

As soon as my head hit the pillow on the bed in my new room, I fell asleep. The next thing I knew, I was in that half awake half asleep stage. I could feel the sunlight coming through the window by my bed and warming my face. The quietness of the moment was broken all of a sudden by the sound of a door opening somewhere in the house. I heard voices talking. Then the sound of a radio started up.

My first thought was that the teen age son of the people I had bought the house from didn’t know that I had moved in. I figured that he was having a little final party with his friends before the new owner arrived. That seemed the most logical explanation for what was happening.

I didn’t experience any fear yet, even though unknown people apparently were in my house with me. Then in less that a beat of my heart, terror gripped me. A voice spoke inside my head. “What ever you do, no matter what happens, do not open your eyes.” The sunlight that had been coming through the window was cut off. I knew that something or someone was standing over me, blocking the light from the window, looking down at me with an intensity I could feel as strong as if I had been touched.

I felt at that second that evil had just come in to pay me a little visit in my new home. I truly believed that if I opened my eyes, if I let on that I was not in a deep sleep, that I would be struck dead. But not before I would see something that would turn me mad first.

I felt the light once again upon my face. I was aware that the house was once again still. It felt peaceful.

The Evil was gone.

I opened my eyes and the room looked just as it had when I came in to lie down. I got up and ran through the house, checking to see if all the doors were locked, if anything had been disturbed. All was as it had been.

I knew though, I had not been home alone.

From Tina S.

It happened 10+ years ago. I’m a night owl and it was about 3am and I was watching TV. I was feeling tired and I wanted to go to bed. I went downstairs to go to the bathroom, and while passing through the hallway, I heard a woman whimpering in our spare bedroom. I paused for a moment, and put my ear up to a basketball-sized hole in the adjoining wall. The whimpering was definitely coming from in there. I didn’t think much about it, because my parents were frequently arguing and in the process of divorcing. I assumed my parents probably got into an argument that night, and my mother probably decided to spend the night in the spare bedroom just so she wouldn’t have to be in the same room with my father.

I continued to the bathroom and heard the whimpering the whole time I was in there. I went back out into the hallway, paused to listen again, and then went upstairs to bed. The following day, I asked my mother who spent the night in the spare bedroom. She said no one. I told her I heard someone crying from that room last night at 3AM. She said it wasn’t either one of them. That’s when the chills went up my spine, because I realized I put my head up the the hole in the wall, and that whoever or whatever it was, could’ve grabbed me.

My mother then told me that our house was built about 10 years after the civil war ended, and that several of my family members have died in the house in the early 1900’s. And back then, they used to hold the viewing in the home of the deceased. I’ve never forgotten what my mother told me that day, and every time I passed by the spare bedroom, I kind of cringed a little.

A few years had passed, my parents were finally divorced, and the house was left to me and my brothers. Again, it was late at night and I wanted to go to bed, but had to go to the bathroom. I went downstairs to the bathroom, and while inside, I started hearing the same whimpering I heard a few years ago. I was completely petrified with fear. I didn’t know what to do. I was terrified to go back out into the hallway and pass by that room, which was now a storage room.

I spent about 2 hours trapped in the bathroom before I built up enough courage to venture out into the hallway. I opened the door and ran as fast as I could. The whole time I felt like something was right behind me. I ran into my room and bolted the door shut. Filled with fear, it took me about 10 minutes to calm down. Afterwards, I slowly opened my bedroom door and listened. I was still able to hear the whimpering.

To this day, I have no idea who or what that was. I’m not sure I want to know. There’s been a lot of hostility, hatred, and sorrow in that house, and I believe that a house can absorb emotions from its occupants, and occasionally play it back like a recorder. Our house used to be blessed once per year by our local church. But the stopped in the early 1990’s. Since then, there’s been a lot of strange occurrences in that house, witnessed by all that have lived there. I no longer live there, but my brother still does. And to this day, he still tells me about the weird things that still happen there.

From Bob M.

This happened to me when I was maybe 13 years old. One night, I was lying in my bed with the light off trying to get some sleep, when all of a sudden I heard something in my room. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, then I felt like something was sitting on bed, I was so scared I could not move. Then all of a sudden I hear my name being called “Anna”. I just laid in bed so scared to move, then again I heard the voice say “Anna take my hand” When I heard that I jumped out of bed, with my eyes closed I found the door to a long dark hallway. I could see my mom and brother in the living room, my brother looked up at me, and came running, he asked if I was ok, but I could not speak. My mom grabbed me and my brother went running to get my dad who was in his bedroom, my mom was trying to ask me what was wrong, then I finally told her that some one called my name and then he told me to take his hand. My dad and brother ran outside and around the house to see if there was anyone there, they could not find anyone. My mom said it was a dream but I knew it wasn’t.

Many years after that I got married and moved up north. I was married to a man for about 17 years and I have four beautiful kids, 25, 21, 19, 17. We ended our 17 years of marriage and I moved in to a three bedroom apartment. In my apartment I always felt uneasy, I would always hear noises, my dog would always be scared looking into space then bark at the space, I always felt this heavy feeling, like I was carrying weights around the house, when I would leave the house I would feel better, I would get headaches I would feel mad and always felt heavy.

Then one night, I was upstairs and the kids were at their dad’s house. I was lying in bed with my dog I had the TV on, when all of a sudden the TV got so loud then it turned off. I just thought something was wrong with it, but my dog Bilie started staring off into space and this time she was growling and ran out of the bedroom. I was so scared that I went around the house and turned on all the lights. I got my dog and we went back upstairs and I fell asleep. Then, around 3:15, I woke up to the sound of my name being called “Anna”. I looked around for Billie but she wasn’t in my bed, I was so scared I could not move, then he called my name again but this time it was different, “Anna, take my hand and it will be all over with”. I looked up and I saw this person with a black robe on. I could not see his face, I just remember seeing his hand reaching out and telling me to take it and it will be all over with. I started praying and crying, I called my mom and she prayed with me over the phone, two weeks later I moved out of that house and moved back down to southern California with my mom.

I still hear my name being called, now there is scratching on the wall, things fall off the dresser, sometimes I smell this awful smell, I see shadows and still have this heaviness come over me, and when my boyfriend leaves for work, around 11:40pm he turns on all the lights for me. You see when I have the light on, so I don’t see the shadows, and with the TV on so I don’t hear the noises that go on around me.

From Anna L.

I worked for a cleaning company in Maine. One of my jobs was to clean a Clinical doctors office. I worked there during the night. My first night I heard noises coming from an exam room. While working there I had heard walking or skipping in the hallway, paper crinkle on an exam bed, my vacuum cleaner would stop on its own, and than work fine.

The worst night was when I sat down at the nurses’ station to pick up the phone to clock out at 2:30 am. The fax machine and printer kicked in, like a powering up sound and I heard and FELT a hand move across my back and the back of the chair I was sitting in. My daughter was with me and witnessed this, as I brought her with me sometimes. I believe there was a playful one that skipped in the hall and joked with me. There was also one that I know was not nice at all, a very cold entity and that one kind of bothered me. My daughter saw a glimpse of an elderly man sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting room one night, she says he had his head down and looked worried. (Of course it was not a living patient, the office was closed.)

Quite an interesting job, but these things have happened to me before.

From Claire