OK. True ghost story from moi:

When I was in college in Oklahoma, many years ago, I had a friend, Sarah, who decided to move off-campus into an apartment of her own. The only thing she could afford was a tiny apartment in the corner of the basement of an old, two-story house on the other side of town from the campus. Everyone tried to convince Sarah that this was a bad idea, but she was determined to have her own place.

So when the day came for her to move out of the dorm, I offered to help her move in to her new place. We packed her little bunch of earthly goods and drove across town to her "new" apartment. The second I walked in, I got the creeps. It was dank and poorly lit and had simply a terrible feeling to it. But I tried to be cheery and was burbling along in the kitchen with Sarah as we unpacked. The "kitchen" was actually just one end of the long, single room, and after a while the both of us felt something truly dreadful.

We looked to the far end of the room, in the far corner and saw an almost human figure about a foot above the floor. We couldn't make out any features, but the figure looked as though it were of brown smoke -- a general human shape, but no identifying arms or legs.

We looked at each other for one terrified second and as soon as we were certain the other had seen it, we tore up the stairs, leaped in my car and left as though the Devil were on our tail.

She called the landlord the next day and insisted that he give her the rent back ... and she told him why. He seemed very upset, but agreed to send her a check for the full amount, including deposit. We convinced a couple of friends (guys, of course) to go over and get her things and bring them back to the dorm.

A few days later, Sarah told this story to a woman in the grocery store where she worked part-time, and the woman got absolutely ashen. That man, she said, had been accused and had stood trial for killing his wife, allegedly in that very basement. There wasn't sufficient evidence to convict, she said, but everyone believed he was guilty.

I didn't believe in ghosts, and still don't necessarily. But I believe there was something deeply strange and awful in that house.

ww