True Ghost Stories: A Bloody Handprint in a Dark Gym, a Shapeshifter on Palomar Mountain, and a Brother Who Called to Say Goodbye

This is one of the original Tell Me A Ghost Story calls from the early days of the show. Short, raw, and exactly where it all started. All three of these calls were later incorporated into longer compilation episodes with full host commentary if you want the complete experience.Hey, it's Michelle, and this Halloween episode has three true ghost stories that each land in a completely different register. One is frightening and unexplained. One is terrifying and possibly deserved. And one will break your heart. All three are real.James from Greeley, Colorado, calls in with a true ghost story from when he was six years old, living in a foster home in Loveland. While parents watched a swim meet at Thompson Valley High School, a group of ten kids snuck into the empty dark gym. They started running around. Then every folded chair in the room flew into each other and crashed at once with nobody near them. Every child bolted for the same door simultaneously. James and his brother were last out. They turned and looked through the small window in the gym door and saw a bloody handprint smeared down the glass. When they told the parents, the adults assumed the children had knocked over the chairs themselves. James was six. He knows what he saw.Erica from San Diego calls in with a story about what happens when you invoke something you were raised never to name. Her grandparents had Native American roots, and Erica grew up with the specific cultural warning that speaking of flesh pedestrians and shapeshifters draws their attention. On a camping trip to Palomar Mountain, her father started joking about shapeshifters near the observatory at the top of the mountain. A friend threw a rock at a deer. They laughed and got back in the minivan to drive down. Halfway down, the brakes failed completely. The minivan hit sixty miles an hour with nothing to stop it. Her father tried a dirt bank on the side of the mountain. It almost flipped them and did not slow them down. It felt like more than gravity was pulling them. With fifteen yards of guardrail left before a sheer drop, he pushed the passenger side into the rail and ground them to a stop ten feet from the end. Erica does not think it was a coincidence. Her father was the one talking. The passenger side was the side that hit the rail.Vicki from Hammond, Indiana, calls in with the kind of true ghost story that does not frighten you so much as it stays with you. Her older brother drowned in Lake Michigan when Vicki was nine. He had been living in the basement of their family home. Months after the funeral Vicki came home from school alone and heard the kitchen wall phone ring. The cordless phone in her hand did not ring. Only the kitchen phone. She ran to answer it. Nobody was there. She hung up and walked back toward the bathroom. In the hallway, she heard her brother say her name as clearly as if he was standing right behind her. She knew it was him. She did not turn around. She ran into the bathroom and sat with her back against the door until her mother came home. The kitchen phone was near the back door that led down to the basement, where her brother used to live. She believes he was trying to draw her to him to say goodbye. The portable phone in her hand never rang. Only the one by the door to his room.Three real callers. Three true ghost stories for Halloween.If you have a real ghost story of your own, a haunting experience, something you heard, something you cannot explain, I want to hear it. Call 1 (701) 484-2666 or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tellmeaghoststory.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to share your story. You might end up on the show.Support us with official merch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠newmanmedia.shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, catch us on YouTube at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @tellmeaghoststory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and follow along on Instagram at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tellmeaghoststorypodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Theme music is Sexy Sax by Cool Cascade. Production by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newman Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.