Listener Stories: True Horror Tales

A demonic presence from a dream that appears in real life. A ghost that knows people better than they know themselves. And a little girl who thought her friend in her basement was just imaginary.

We're diving into real tales of horror sent in by listeners.

Subscribe on Patreon for bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to ad-free listening and bonus content. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after show called Footnotes.

Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to ad-free episodes and bonus episodes when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Follow on Tik Tok and Instagram for a daily dose of horror.

We have a monthly newsletter now! Be sure to sign up for updates and more.

SOURCES

Listeners!

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to heart starts pounding, a podcast of horrors, Hauntings and mysteries, I’m your host, Kaelyn Moore

I love letters. I’m not talking about mail. Mail is electric bills and junk from insurance companies. I’m talking about LETTERS. The forgotten art of writing something personal to someone. Funny enough When I started moving into the new Rogue Detecting Society headquarters, I found a box full of old letters.  But I haven’t had the chance to look into those because lately, I’ve been getting a lot of new letters from you all. Ones that contain stories of terrifying encounters you’ve had with the unknown. Just the sort of stories I imagine we’d tell gathered around the fire in the drawing room after dinner.Some of these letters in particular have really stuck out to me, and left me quite freaked out like this one from Julia. It reads:

My story starts when I was young. I lived in an old Victorian house that had a creepy basement that no one wanted to go in. You would often hear noises that weren’t explainable and sometimes see things out of the corner of your eye. When i was just a kid and would talk to, what my parents thought was an imaginary friend. but I remember seeing a girl. She was around 10 and wore a white night dress. She told me her name was Natalie. I would often ask her to come to school with me but she told me she  couldn’t leave the house. 

I forgot about these encounters for a really long time, and eventually my family moved out of the house.

But Last year we got a message. I’m an adult now, so it’s been years since i lived in that house. Our old house was being demolished for a new development. While they were working they found a hidden door in the basement. It must have been cemented over or something. The door was bolted shut and when they got it open they found 2 bodies. . One was a man who was very Tall and Next to him was a little girl. Told to be around 10 years old in a white night dress. She was most likely killed with a knife. 

Now I didn’t believe in ghosts but this experience shook me to my core. 

Julia, that one shook me too. Gives me chills. So today, I want to share some of these stories from listeners with you. And as a reminder you can always send me your heart pounding stories through our website, heartstartspounding.com. And it doesn’t have to be tales of the paranormal, it can be other terrifying tales. Maybe you were followed home once or got a bad feeling from someone who wouldn’t leave you alone. Any time something made your heart start pounding can be shared with the show.

Ok, we’re going to jump into some letters after a short break. And as always, listener discretion is advised. 

Our first story comes from Bianca. Bianca had a terrifying encounter with her child. At least, what she thought was her child….

“My mother in law was staying with us over lock down to help with my 3 kids due to home schooling as my husband and I were essential workers. I work in inhome age care.

It was a Sunday morning and I had a 7am start time so I needed to get up at 6am. This particular morning when I woke up I noticed my 3 year old daughter was in bed with me and my husband. this wasn’t unusual- she had just been moved to her own room and was still adjusting to the change.

I got out of bed, kissed her forehead, covered her tiny body back up then went to shower and get ready. My mother in law was sleeping on the spare bed in our lounge room which was directly in front of our room, so As I left the room she called out to me to have a good day. That’s when I walked down the hall and noticed my daughter’s bedroom door was still closed. That immediately caught my attention because normally she would leave it open when she came into ours in the middle of the night. Honestly, though, I didn’t think too much about it as it was 6:45 in the morning and i hadnt had cofe

I got home just after 2pm and everything was normal. I Made another coffee and sat down to talk with my mother in law. and what she told me, I’ll never forget.

she said  that she was so impressed that my daughter had stayed in her room all night. I looked at her with a confused expression and said what do you mean? she explained that she was up reading that morning when I left for work, and about 5 minutes after I closed the front door on my way out, my daughter came out of her room and got in bed with her and they watched frozen till everyone else was up. 

According to my mother in law, all of the color drained from my face. I immediately called my husband who was still at work and asked him if our daughter was in bed with him when he woke up. he said no she didn’t come in at all, and he is a very light sleeper and wakes up when she crawls in with us). I asked him 3 times with a panic in my voice and he was adamant that she was not in our bed, I then explained to him what had happened when I woke up and was met with silence, he had no idea. I told my mother in law and she said no she definitely came out of her room she didn’t even go into our room…. Which is when I remembered her door being closed when I left.

But I remember kissing her head, feeling her warm skin and tucking her in and her rolling onto her side when I got out of bed but- I guess it wasn’t her. To this day we don’t know what or who it was. I spoke to a few friends who are mediums and spiritual practitioners but even they didn’t know what to make of it. Nothing like that has ever happened again. Oh, and Just for some added information I mentioned I had 3 kids I have 2 boys who would have been 10 and 12 at the time so it definitely wasn’t them. Open to suggestions about what this could have been, but there was definitely something in bed with us that looked like my daughter.”

That’s actually not the first time I’ve heard a story like that from someone. That story reminds me of a story I told in a bonus episode about ghost stories in Galveston. In one of the most haunted hotels on the island, a family was staying in a room when one of the sons thought his 4 year old sister crawled into the bed he was sharing with his brother, only for his brother to tell him no one was in bed with them that night. The brother had heard him whisper, Melanie get out of our bed, to no one, Melanie was asleep in her own bed. 

Speaking of creepy instances with children, that reminds me of another story someone recently told me. I was on a train a few weeks ago, and my husband and I sat next to this really lovely couple so we chatted for the entire 2 hour journey. Eventually the subject of what we did came up, so I told them about heart starts pounding.

I never know how people are going to react when I tell them about the show, though most people are intrigued and want to hear more. When I told this woman about the show, however. She immediately shot a look at her husband.

Have you ever been to Savannah? She asked. I told her I haven’t yet but I really want to. 

I don’t believe in ghosts, but something happened there that I can’t explain. 

She went on to tell me about the time that she was in Savannah with her mother and daughter, who was three years old at the time. 

At some point while they were there, they learned that the hotel they were staying in was an old civil war hospital

She didn’t give me the name, but a quick google search will bring up a place like The Marshall house in Savannah, which was built in 1851 originally as a hospital for the yellow fever epidemic. Later it was used as a hospital for Union soldiers in 1864 and 1865. 

Many reviews of the hotel claim that the fourth floor is haunted, with strange noises being heard throughout the night and doors opening and closing. 

The woman told me that that was the floor she was set to stay on, and though she wasn’t a believer in ghosts, something still didn’t feel quite right as they were settling in.

Later that night, she was up talking with her mother in the room. Her 3 year old daughter had fallen asleep on her lap and she was stroking her hair and talking quietly, as not to wake her. It was getting late and she and her mother were about to go to sleep, when all of a sudden her daughter woke.

And as she did, she looked past her grandmother, towards the door to the room, and just stared, as if she was watching someone.

Then without warning, she asked her mother. “Mom, who is that man?” 

What man? The mom asked, looking over at the door, starting to feel a hint of worry.

And that’s when her daughter's eyes went wide. “Is that man going to get me?!” 

The little girl was rattled, but as fast ad she was awake, she was back asleep. In the liminal space between awake and asleep, she had clearly seen someone, over by the door. And whoever she saw was threatening enough for her to ask if he was going to get her.

The woman on the train told me that for the rest of the night, she stared at the ceiling and prayed, unsure of what else to do. The next morning, they checked out of the room.

Stories like that absolutely terrify me. When someone who doesn’t believe experiences something that is so bone chilling, it changes everything they thought they knew. But also, what did that little girl see? Was it the ghost of a civil war soldier, or something else?

Our next story was also experienced by someone who felt something otherworldly in the space in between awake and asleep. If you’ve ever experienced night terrors, or sleep paralysis like myself, you know how scary it can be. 

The last time I had sleep paralysis, I was lying in bed and I heard someone violently start banging on my door, begging to be let in. I can still hear his voice “let me in, please, let me in!!” over and over and over again. Honestly, I’m still not even sure that it was sleep paralysis because it felt so real, his voice was so clear. And it was a voice I didn’t recognize, a guy around my age, is it true my brain could have made the whole thing up?

This story comes from Nicole, who wrote that she felt like she had been experiencing a demonic presence for some time.

She said that every night for the last three months she would have the same horrible nightmare of a crowd of people surrounding her, all with stone face expressions, looking directly at her. 

One night while she was having the dream it was the same exact thing, and she looked out into the crowd to see the same, wide eyed, slacked jawed, thousand yard stare directly at her. It was hard to tell what they were thinking, they truly had no expression. Was it disappointment? Did they all know something she didnt?

she tried to look out into the crowd to see how far back it went. And that’s when she saw it. Way in the back, shrouded by people standing on all sides, was a dark figure, inhuman, smiling at her. It stuck out from the rest of the crowd,

Before she could see exactly what it was, she was awake.

Every night after that when the crowd of people would appear in her dreams, so would the dark figure. Standing in the back, smiling.

And slowly, over time, it would get closer. First, it was at the back of the crowd, then a step closer, the next night, another step closer. All the while, the crowd in the dreams was thinning out. Until finally the crowd was small, and in the front, dead center, staring daggers into her and smiling, was the dark shadow figure.

Nicole went on to say that this has only gotten more frightening for her. Within the last month, she’d wake up in her room after the dream unable to move. And there, in the corner of her room, standing in the doorway, would be the figure, eyes boring holes into her, and smiling. She lay there paralyzed, unable to do anything while it watched her.

But unfortunately for Nicole, thats not where it ended. Nicole said that in the last dream she had, the creature left the doorframe and bolted towards her while she lay there, paralyzed. It grabbed at her, and all she could do was cry in terror until she woke up.

She had to remind herself that it was just a dream, a scary dream, but just a dream. When she saw herself in a mirror the next day though, it looked like she had small bruises around her neck…

What do you think? Can the creatures from our dreams and night terrors be real? Was the shadow figure from Nicole's nightmare more real than she imagined? And does that mean that there was maybe someone standing at my door one night, begging to be let in? It makes me shudder just thinking about it. 

More, after a short break

Our next story is a letter I recently received from a listener that I could not stop thinking about. It reads:

So my aunt lives in a house that has been in our family for generations. It was where her dad (my grandpa) grew up. There’s been a lot of love and joy in that house, but also a lot of heartbreak. When my aunt was just a baby growing up in that home, her aunt, my grandfather’s sister, who had also been raised in that house.  passed away

When you walk in the front door, you walk into the living room and off to the left is a doorway leading to a small sunroom. There is a loveseat, chair, and some other furniture, but my aunt never used the sunroom. She never even used her front door as an actual front door. Anyone entering the house always uses the door on her back porch, and she keeps a large baby gate there to block the front steps so that people do not come that way. 

Occasionally, she’ll open the front door in summer to let in some fresh air, leaving the screen door closed.. One summer, she was planning to redo the landscaping in the front yard; she spoke to a local landscaping company who told her they would come by that week to see it and talk about what she was wanting. It’s a small town, she knew the manager of the company, and she knew he was a man of his word. However, about a week later, he hadn’t come by and hadn’t called her back. She happened to run in to him in the grocery store, so she asked if he had an idea when he’d be able to stop by. She was shocked by his response. He said “I did come by last Thursday. The front door was open and the little old lady sitting in the sunroom came to the door and told me you had changed your mind.” 

My aunt hadn’t changed her mind, and also like I said, she never hung out in that sunroom. She knew it wasn’t her who spoke to him, so She asked him what the lady looked like because she had no idea who it could have been. 

He went on to describe someone my aunt had seen before, but only in old family pictures.  She immediately called her sister, who is my mother,  filled her in, and gave her the exact description she had been given. Once my mom confirmed who the description sounded like, there was no doubt it had been their aunt who had passed away when my aunt was just a baby.  Needless to say, my aunt decided not to change the landscaping.

What is it with ghosts and land scaping? That story reminds me of our ghosts of DC episode, where the ghost of first lady Dolly Madison would be seen in the rose garden whenever someone wanted to tear it down or change it. I mean, I kind of get it, it can be really hard watching the place you grew up change, even if you’re dead. 

This next story also really stuck with me. I feel like I’m saying that about all of the ones I’m telling you, but it’s true. You’ve all been sending me terrifying tales that I’ve really been unable to stop thinking about.

This story was sent in by Hailey, who remembered it after listening to our episode about Hauntings in New Orleans. New Orleans is one of the most haunted places in the country, and although I personally did not have a ghost encounter there, many people have. 

Hailey sent me a voice recording of her mother recounting a really chilling encounter she had in New Orleans, and tragically, the audio quality is a little rough and the radio was on in the background, so I can’t play you the exact recording, but I’ll tell you the story as I heard it. 

So Hailey’s mom, Stacy, was in New Orleans with some friends in March of 2000, and as everyone who goes there should do, she took a ghost tour.

It was a general walking ghost tour of the city, taking her group past the cemeteries and haunted storefronts. When eventually, they came to a brick building and stopped for a moment so the guide could talk to them about the history of the area. 

The area they were in, near bourbon street, had a very particular look to it. French and spanish style buildings tightly packed together. But every few buildings there’d be a tight alleyway that would lead back into a little courtyard. The design allowed some of the houses to have a little green space while also making sure the homes and stores could all be crammed together. There were usually iron gates attached to these alley ways so at night people didn’t just wander drunkenly into the courtyards. 

Stacey took the opportunity to rest. She just had a baby 8 months ago, so i imagine she took every opportunity to rest that was given to her. And plus she hadn’t been feeling all that great recently. She was nauseous and pretty tired. Her friend group walked over to an iron gate attached to an alleyway, and stacey leaned up against it while the guide pointed out a building across the street. 

Just then, she felt something on her arm, the feeling of someone grabbing her, but when she looked down, nothing was there. It let go after just a few moments, and she could see on her arm the pink and white shading that comes after something leaves an imprint on you. 

She shook it off and tried to listen to the guide, when she felt it again. The same thing. Pressure from five fingers wrapped tightly around her forearm. 

And that’s when a feeling took over her, a feeling of sadness and grief. She described it like someone having a psychic vision, when the hand grabbed onto her, this overwhelming feeling of grief took over

What was happening? Surely this wasn’t something supernatural because the guide hadn’t mentioned anything about this area, she was pointing out something on the other side of the street. 

It happened a few more times, the feeling of being grabbed and released, and each time she was grabbed she would feel that grief, that sense of loss, and finally when it let go, she just started crying. 

And that’s when the guide emerged and announced to everyone that they’d be moving to their next stop. 

One of Stacey’s friends saw that she was struggling with something. Are you ok? She asked. No, she wasn’t. She tried to explain what just happened without sounding hysterical.

You should tell the tour guide what happened, that’s really creepy, one of her friends suggested.

At the next stop, the group was allowed to take a short break to run to the restroom or grab a snack, so Stacey approached the guide, and nervously told her what had just happened.

the guides eyes went wide, like she had heard this story before. “Let me guess, was it over by that iron gate near the alley? She asked

Yes! How did you know?! Stacey asked.

She could have never guessed what the guide asked next. “Are you pregnant?”

No, she laughed. She had just had a baby, she was not pregnant. “Are you sure?” the guide asked. She wasn’t smiling, clearly this wasn’t a joke to her.

I only ask because it’s typically pregnant women who experience what you just experienced. I wasn’t going to say anything but there is a story associated with that area.

The guide proceeded to tell Stacey that almost 200 years ago, the courtyard in the back of that alley way, was an area where Slaves were sold and separated from their families. A young family had been brought to New Orleans, a woman, her husband, and their two children. The woman was also pregnant at the time. 

The family, according to the tour guide, had been told that they were coming to New Orleans for a better life. Remember, as early as 1769, slaves could buy their freedom in New Orleans. Slavery operated very differently in New Orleans from the rest of america, so it’s not unreasonable to think the family really believed they were heading towards a better future.

Once they got to New Orleans, they were told to go down the alley way to see what was waiting for them. And they did, but as they made it into the back courtyard, the dark reality of what was happening set in.

They saw that it was a marketplace, and they were going to be separated. The mother watched in horror as her husband and two children were ripped from her, afraid she’d never see them again. She reached out towards them grasping the empty air as if that would bring them closer

We don’t know exactly what happened to her, the guide explained, but we know that she died in the courtyard. We believe she was crushed.

And now, it’s believed that whenever a pregnant woman walks by she reaches out to them. Maybe for help, we don’t know. But you’re not pregnant, so I don’t know what she was trying to tell you.

Stacey shivered and thought of her baby back home. Maybe the woman knew she had an infant? Or that she had been recently pregnant. Can ghosts even know that?

It wasn’t until a few weeks later that she got the confirmation from her doctor that she was pregnant, and had been on the tour… 

To this day, when stacey tells the story, like she did in the voice memo, she ends it with, “I still dont know if I believe, BUT….”

Well, if that’s not enough to convince you, I dont know what would be….

I love when people hear episodes of heart starts pounding and it jogs their memory, like it did with hailey and her mother. I’m always shocked when I hear how many of you have experiences in places i’ve talked about like New Orleans or even in the military, or with the third man syndrome.

Recently, I did a bonus episode on the dark history and hauntings of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, and a listener, Jess, reached out to let me know that she had also seen something while touring the building.

There’s a hallway in the abandoned tuberculosis hospital that it’s said if you walk down in you can see the spirits of the patients peeking their heads out of the rooms to watch you walk by. 

And jess basically confirmed that yes, that is exactly what seems to happen. On the ghost tour, they have you walk down the hallway alone and as you do, you can see shadows that look like arms reaching out of the rooms. It’s so terrifying.

I also want to take a second to just really thank everyone who shared their stories. A lot of paranormal stories are wrapped up in other kinds of trauma, losing loved ones, going through painful experiences in life, but I’m so glad you still shared them with me, and hopefully by sharing them with our little community it can help people who are also going through the same thing.

Which is also where I want to bring up that I’ll be looking for my next batch of stories for listener stories soon, so if you have a story, please reach out. And like I said at the beginning, I don’t mean just supernatural. We’ve covered scam artists, death bed confessions, the mishandling of human remains, and so much more on this show. Anyone who has experienced anything dark or darkly curious, feel free to reach out, there’s a form on the website to submit stories