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Something Followed Them… And It Didn’t Stop | Real Ghost Stories CLASSIC

·13 min·1 clip

Melissa felt her bedding rustle as an entity slipped under the covers and breathed on her neck in the dark.

This episode features a listener-submitted story about a woman named Melissa and her mother's paranormal experiences. Hosts Tony Bruschi and Carol Hughes frame the episode around the complex relationship between ghost stories and mental illness. They explore how paranormal claims and psychological conditions can often mirror or influence each other. The story details events beginning in a duplex in Alameda, California, where Melissa and her mother heard unexplained crashing sounds from empty rooms. The mother once saw an apparition resembling her son, Dave, walk past a bathroom doorway when she was home alone. Both women reported the sensation of an entity getting into bed with them, feeling the bedding rustle and breath on their necks. After moving to a trailer in San Leandro in 2001, activity continued with toys like a talking Elmo doll activating by themselves at night. Melissa's cat would track an invisible presence moving from a wall toward the toys, its pupils dilating. The narrator, Melissa's sibling, notes the original Alameda duplex has remained vacant for nearly 12 years due to reported hauntings. In the trailer, a grandson saw a white-haired woman floating near the ceiling, mistaking her for his grandmother. Melissa later heard an old woman's voice sharply call her name in the dark. After the mother died of cancer in 2005, Melissa heard her mother's voice whisper, "Melissa I'm still here," the night her body was taken away. The narrator connects the initial activity to Melissa's past use of Ouija boards and automatic writing, suggesting she invited entities into her space. Melissa reportedly began having direct conversations with three entities, who then started dictating her actions. This led to her losing her job, squandering her savings, and being evicted after her belongings were auctioned off. The story concludes with Melissa becoming homeless and estranged from her family, who felt she was no longer acting like herself. The hosts discuss the tragedy, noting the trailer park is populated by elderly residents and wondering how many trailers might be haunted. A key insight is the hosts' consideration that a person experiencing schizophrenia could genuinely be having a paranormal encounter. They also reflect on how the trauma of losing a parent could drive someone to obsessively seek contact through tools like automatic writing. The episode highlights the difficulty families face when a loved one needs mental health help but may not accept it or find adequate resources. Tony Bruschi argues the homelessness crisis is fundamentally a mental health crisis, stating that providing housing without addressing underlying conditions is merely a "band-aid." The story serves as a cautionary tale about the potential dangers of recklessly attempting to contact the spirit world, especially for someone perceived as having a "weak mind." The tone is conversational and empathetic, blending narrative storytelling with reflective commentary. The style is educational, using a specific, tragic case to explore broader themes of perception, loss, and societal support systems. Listeners interested in personal, family-centered ghost stories with psychological layers would find this episode compelling. Those seeking purely historical hauntings or lighthearted paranormal tales might skip it due to its heavy, somber conclusion.

As heard by us

An uneasy haunting story that keeps its strongest scares close to everyday life.

The family moment with a child greeting a woman near the ceiling adds a sharper chill, and the late-night voice saying Melissa's name leaves a mark. The pale man in a red plaid shirt is the kind of image that sticks after the episode ends.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a ghost story that keeps the question open: paranormal, mental illness, or both, without pretending the answer is simple.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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