Urban legends and scary stories

Since it's October and we'll be going into Halloween shortly, I thought it might be fun if everybody here recounts their favorite urban legends and ghost stories and such.

One that I always think of, it's not an urban legend but it's in one of those Scary Story series books by Alvin Schwartz or something...this woman goes to church early one morning, early that it's still dark and nobody's out, and she gets into the church and sits down, and sees a bunch of people she's never seen before. She recognizes the woman next to her, but that woman died a month ago, and it dawns on the woman that she's walked into a service for the dead. The others look at her and are angry, and the woman next to her whispers 'leave, right after the benediction, if you care for your life'. So as the priest is saying the prayer, the woman gets up and grabs her coat and leaves. But the ghosts get up behind her and chase her out of the church and through the cemetery, grabbing at her coat and hat and ripping them away and yelling 'get out!' 'you don't belong here!' 'Don't come back!'

The woman finally gets out of the cemetery and back onto the street, and now the sun's coming up and the ghosts are gone, and she wonders if she had dreamt the whole thing. Later her friend comes over carrying her coat and hat, or what's left of them...they had been found in the cemetery, torn to shreds.

There once was a woman who lived all alone, except for the company of her beloved canine friend. Every night the dog would curl up in his basket beside her bed, and every night the dog would lick her hand to say goodnight. One night, she woke up in the middle of the night to hear a "drip...drip...drip..." sound coming from somewhere in the house. She got out of bed, and went into the kitchen where she tightened the tap. Then she went back to bed, the dog licked her hand goodnight and she went back to sleep.

Another hour later she woke up again and once again she heard the consistent "drip...drip...drip" sound. She got out of bed and this time went into the bathroom where she tightened the tap. After feeling that this time she had done the trick she went back to bed, received a lick on the hand and went to sleep. The next time she woke up, morning had dawned. She got out of bed, and made her way to the bathroom. Although when she entered the bathroom, she was greeted by a shocking sight. Her dog was hanging from the shower curtain, and it's blood was still going "drip...drip....drip...."

Damn, Alan...I read that when my dog was outside to go potty. Got him in fast. LOL.

I have been kinda freaked out by the neighbor cats. We are not in a rural area, but she has cats that she feeds after the momma cat birthed them on the patio. So, now there are all these cats...well, actually, just three. But they will start to mate if they are not all the same sex, and we will have cats all over the place.

It's a short story but a little too long to copy and paste here I think so here's a link to a pretty good tale, The Monkey's Paw...

http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/creating/downloads/The_Monkey's_Paw.pdf

You can also check out a short story called That Hellbound Train by Robert Bloch.

alan smithee wrote:It's a short story but a little too long to copy and paste here I think so here's a link to a pretty good tale, The Monkey's Paw...

http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/creating/downloads/The_Monkey's_Paw.pdf

I got a CD last year, or the year before, called Around the Fire with Uncle Guts, has a bunch of the famous ghost stories and The Monkey's Paw is the very first one, and it's so brilliantly acted out, it's just bone chilling, especially if you're in the dark and alone when listening to it.