7 Incredibly Scary Stories of Real-Life Ghosts

There are few things as chilling as thinking about what lurks in the darkness when we’re all alone. Ghosts are among the most feared entities, simply because they cannot be explained or proven to exist. There have been countless reported sightings of ghosts across the world—so many, in fact, that it leads one to wonder if there's some truth to them. Depending on your beliefs and background, a ghost can be anything from an evil entity trying to mess with you, a spirit from another world stuck on this one for some reason, or even a loved one who isn’t quite ready to say goodbye just yet. No matter what you choose to believe about these spectral presences, there are some chilling stories out there about ghosts that will creep you out so much that you might not ever want to go into another dark room again! Here are some of the scariest real-life ghost stories we could find:

The “Brown Lady” of Raynham Hall:
One of the most famous ghost stories in history is the “Brown Lady” of Raynham Hall. This story is about a woman dressed in a long, flowing dress described as brown or deep red in color. She has been seen by countless people over the years, though many of them were written off as hoaxes. There were even a few men who claimed they saw the “Brown Lady,” though most of the sightings were by women. The first sighting of the “Brown Lady” came in the 1820s when a man named Charles Townshend was visiting Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England. Townshend was in the library when he claimed he saw a beautiful woman dressed in a flowing robe walk past him and out the door. The next day, Townshend told the owner of the house about what he saw, and the owner explained that he had seen the same woman years ago.

The Bent Bridge Ghost:
In 1889, the people of Wiesbaden, Germany, were terrified by a ghostly figure that haunted the old city bridge. The bridge was said to be haunted by the ghost of a person who died there, and the ghost was described as “extremely tall and thin, dressed in a long, black robe and a wide-brimmed black hat.” Like most stories of ghosts, the entity was blamed for a few deaths, and there was even an attempt to exorcise it. The first known attempt to rid the old bridge of its ghostly inhabitant was made in 1889 by a local professor of philosophy. He claimed that he saw the ghostly figure walk up to him, looked him straight in the eye, and then walked away.

The Grey Lady of St. Albans:
In 1904, a visiting professor at the University of St. Albans in Hertfordshire, England, claimed that he saw the ghost of a young woman while staying in one of the rooms on the top floor of the building. The professor described her as a “tall, slim woman, dressed in a long, grey dress.” He noted that she had “long, flowing hair” and that she looked “very sad.” The professor claimed that the woman first appeared one night when he was alone in the room. He said that he was startled when he saw her at the end of the room, staring at him with a “long, sorrowful face.” Unfortunately, the professor didn’t write down any more details, so we can’t know if he thought she was a ghost or if he just wanted to keep his story on the down low.

The Shadow People That Live in Basement 17:
This story is so creepy that it’s only recently been added to a Reddit thread. Apparently, a woman claimed to have lived in an apartment building for a few years that had a mysterious “Basement 17” that was never used. Residents claimed that they would often hear noises coming from the basement, and some said that they would see shadows moving about. One day, the woman decided to investigate the “Basement 17” mystery, which turned out to be even creepier than she expected. She had one of her friends with her as they found their way into the basement, and they were shocked by what they discovered. The two explorers were met with a wall of boxes containing the bones of hundreds of dismembered bodies. The friend who had come along with the woman said that they were “all piled up, just bones and these black things. We didn’t know what they were…”

Paul’s Story: Encounter with a Real-Life Ghost:
Some of the most chilling ghost stories are the ones told by the people who claim to have seen the spirits themselves. The story of Paul is one that will give you goose bumps. Paul was a security guard for a museum in New York City, and one night he was alone in the building when he felt a presence near him. He said that he felt as if he were being watched, and he could have sworn that he heard a woman’s voice whispering, “Help me.” When Paul turned around, he saw the ghost of a girl wearing a white dress that looked to be from the 1800s. The girl was hovering about two feet off the ground, and her black hair was blowing in the breeze. After Paul saw the girl, he had nightmares and hallucinations for months, with visions of the girl screaming in his head.

The Woman in White at the Royal Burgundy Hotel in Singapore:
This terrifying tale is one of the few that has been documented by researchers. The story goes that a man checked into the Royal Burgundy Hotel in Singapore with his wife, and after the man went to bed, the woman was visited by the spirit of a woman dressed in a white dress. The woman had black hair, and she was wearing earrings, a necklace, and a ruby ring on her left hand. The woman in white is said to have asked the wife if she could rest in the bed for a while because she’d been walking for a long time. The wife agreed, and she heard the woman sigh and fall asleep. The next morning, the woman asked her husband if he had heard anything during the night. When he asked what she meant, she told him about the woman in white who had visited her.

4 Scary Stories from Reddit’s r/nosleep:
These stories come from Reddit’s r/nosleep forum, where people post scary stories of their own experiences or things they’ve heard that are meant to be scary. The first story involves a man who was exploring an old riverbed, and he found a skeleton that was missing its head. The man also found a bag containing some coins and a journal that included stories written in the journal, along with drawings that were very creepy. The second story is about a man who was home alone when he noticed that the lights were flickering. He assumed that they were just loose wires, but when he went to fix them, he saw a little girl sitting in the corner of the room. She was very pale and had black hair, and she was staring right at him. The third story is about a woman who was cleaning out her closet when she came across a box filled with old letters and photos. When she opened the box, she found that it contained photos of a woman wearing a wedding dress. Feeling curious, the woman decided to see if she could find information about the woman online. What she found was chilling: the woman in the photos was her, even though she had never been married before.