Gold Rush Ghost

From: Jenna (mikadojay@hotmail.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Forest City, CA
Source: Form Submission

I grew up in the Gold Rush area of Northern California in a 100 year old house that was formerly a miner's cabin. The house had an enclosed staircase leading up to the second floor bedrooms. I liked to sit at the bottom of the stairs and read.

One night I was reading at the foot of the stairs when suddenly I had the urge to lean back and look up the stairway. Right on the second floor landing where the stairs curved out of sight I saw a small black ball hovering. It was about the size of a baseball. It immediately shot up the stairs toward the bedrooms as if I had caught it sneaking down the stairs and it did not want to be seen. It was there and gone so fast that I thought I had imagined it and didn't really think anything of it. Just then I had a strange sensation as if ice cold water was being poured over my body starting at the top of my head. It seemed like time stopped for a split second. Then it was over.

The whole thing must have taken only a couple of seconds. I very clearly remember that feeling of cold washing over my body because it was so odd that it happened. I did not feel any fear at the time, thinking that I was seeing things or that there was a glare in my eyes from the light in the hall. It was only after I felt the cold that I questioned what I had just seen floating up there.

I experienced many other things in that house after that. When I was in my room I twice heard heavy footsteps that came up the stairs and went into my brother's room. When I crossed the hall there was no one there. I would hear pacing upstairs when I was alone in the house. My friend's dog often stood right where I sat reading that night and barked up the stairway. My neighbor knew a lot of the history of the town and told me once that a miner had committed suicide in the house. I have never lived anywhere since that had that kind of activity and cannot explain what I saw to this day.