What’s Halloween without scary stories to tell in the dark? Sure, you’ll want to watch (or rewatch) your favorite Halloween movies and see all the witches and vampires, but you’ll also need a dose of creepy in these 11 scary ghost stories from around the country. They’re sure to add a thrilling scare to your Halloween season for everyone from teens to adults, and they are all a short read too.
Get ready to read these scary stories or save them for after dark to read dramatically with dim lighting and some eerie music in the background for full effect. They’re sure to spook any friends and family you invite to listen—beware!
1. Sloss Furnaces | Birmingham, Alabama
Five years after the Civil War, Birmingham, Alabama, was founded. With its birth in 1871 came the need for tons of pig iron to fix the U.S.’s crumbling infrastructure, so Colonel James Withers Sloss began to build Sloss Furnaces. A year later, the company opened its doors to hundreds of employees, according to its official website. Jobs on blast furnaces were advanced but also dangerous, and many workers started falling to their deaths in the furnaces.
By the early 1900s conditions had worsened with a cruel foreman, James “Slag” Wormwood, who took dangerous risks to increase production, according to Reader’s Digest. During his tenure at Sloss, nearly 50 employees died on-site, and many others were involved in terrible accidents. Allegedly, his workers threw him into the furnace in retaliation in 1906.
Today you can still walk the grounds of Sloss Furnaces, if you dare. You may even hear Slag’s voice yelling, “Get back to work!” and witness other paranormal experiences.
2. The Crying Lady in the Dakota | New York, New York
Since its opening in 1884, The Dakota apartment building has been home to many rich and famous residents of New York City. Among them were John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who moved in in 1973. John was also assassinated outside the building in 1980. Before that fateful day on December 8, though, John said he say a “crying lady ghost” walking the halls, and afterward Yoko, who still resides there, claimed she saw John’s ghost sitting at his piano and that he said to her: “Don’t be afraid. I am still with you.”
3. The Bell Witch | Adams, Tennessee
If you’re a scary-movie lover, you might actually know about the Bell Witch. The films An American Haunting and The Blair Witch Project are both based on the story. Way back in the early 1800s, a man named John Bell moved his family to an area in Tennessee called Red River, which is now known as Adams, Tennessee. After they had settled in the new home, some peculiar things started happening. The Bell family began hearing some bizarre noises, including dogs barking, chains rattling, rats chewing, and a woman whispering. Soon, that woman became known as the Bell Witch, and many people believe she’s the ghost of a former neighbor of the Bell’s, Kate Batts. Batts and the Bells had a dispute over land, and she had sworn vengeance on the Bell family before she died. Later on, Bell died from poisoning, and it’s rumored to be the work of the Bell Witch.