True Ghost Stories and Hauntings 1

and walked to the other side of the road in the direction of the ghost train. I paused when I got in front of it and looked up at the vicious, evil clown that gazed out of the window. On the opposite side of the train there was a haunted house façade with a skeleton in a reaper’s costume wielding his blade. It seemed as if it had been made with a craft and care that most cheap carnival rides no longer had. I climbed up the metal steps that led to the ride and peered into carriages that had once carried passengers into the dark interior of the ride to face buzzers, air shots, lights, and sculptures of ghosts, skeletons, and monsters that would pop out when you least expected them. I sat down in the carriage that was about to enter the double doors of the ride and thought about what it would have been like to be there in the fifties. Just then, the bar on the ride went down over me and the lights suddenly came on. I could hear the low voice of a narrator telling me to stay in the ride at all times. There was also a wicked laugh coming from the evil clown in the upstairs window. My mouth fell open and I didn’t know what to say or how to respond. The ride burst into life and I jolted forward, bursting through the double doors of the ride. I was so afraid; I didn’t know whether to try and flee the ride or not, so I stayed, thinking that was the safest course of action.

A skeleton with an ax came down in front of the ride as it jerked to the right. Then a giant spider came down only inches from the top of my head. The car plunged down a hill into the darkness and hideous laughter could be heard coming form a nearby speaker. Suddenly, a light flashed onto a werewolf statue that lurched forward. Then, an unnatural shaking began as the ride moved forward. I could tell that the ground beneath the track was shaking as if an earthquake were occurring. The shaking became more and more severe, and soon the ride jerked to a halt. I struggled to get out of the carriage as pieces of the roof began to fall on top of me. I began to panic, but finally I got the safety bar to come up. I looked to the left, and suddenly a transparent little girl with blonde pigtails and striking blue eyes was standing by the track. She waved for me to follow her.

“Quickly, this way,” she said. She disappeared as quickly as she appeared. Astonished, I did as I was told, getting out of the building that seemed to be coming apart all around me. Through the facades of swampy trees, the light of an emergency exit was lit up and I ran towards it, through the exit, and out into the sun. Relieved but still a bit shaken, as soon as I got way I thought about Chris trying to climb onto the Ferris wheel and I ran in the direction of that ride.

Chris, however, had already left the Ferris wheel and was now climbing up to the top of the first hill where a car had stopped just before it was about to go over the hill.

“Chris, get down from there!” I yelled.

“What’s the matter, bro? I thought you wanted to ride one of these coaster cars down the hill up here?” Chris said, happy to give me a taste of my own medicine.

“You have to get down! There could be aftershocks after a massive earthquake like that!” I said.

“Earthquake?” Chris said, puzzled. Apparently, Chris had not experienced what I had.

“Get down from there!” I said, annoyed and puzzled as to why Chris hadn’t noticed the earthquake.

I began to climb up the slats that covered the coaster. It was one of those old wooden coasters, painted white with blue rails. I climbed all of the way up to the car where Chris was sitting and attempted to pull him out of the car that was about to plunge over the first drop. As soon as I grabbed Chris’s hands, the ride lurched forward and I fell into the car. I quickly righted myself just before the car went over the first hill. As it continued up the other side, the shaking began again, this time even more severe than before. We could hear the wind rushing around our ears as we swirled around on the track and the noise mixed with what appeared to be screams and a sound akin to what one hears when a building implodes. As the car reached the bottom of the track, large pieces of the coaster began to come down around us. The car stopped at the bottom and as I turned to my left side I was startled to see the young girl I had seen earlier.

“Come quickly,” she said. Despite our fear, Chris and I did as she told us to. As soon as we exited the car, a huge section of railing from the upper part of the coaster fell down right where we would have been sitting.

We ran through the iron fence that surrounded the ride and didn’t look back. The little girl disappeared again, and the shaking suddenly stopped. We didn’t stick around to see if there was going to be another aftershock. We ran until we were through the front gate with Dr. Danger giving us a menacing as we ran past.

***

“I told you boys to be back by seven,” our mother said angrily as we ran in the front door.

“Sorry, Mom,” I said, visibly shaken.

“What’s the matter with you two?” she said, seeing the fear on our faces.

“Uh, nothing,” Chris said.

“Chris, you are a bad liar. You tell me what’s happened. Where did you go?” she demanded.

“We went to the old carnival,” Chris said as