Spooky Scary Stories
Cassandra Barboza
October 23, 2023
October is the time of month for all sorts of festive, scary, and paranormal activities for Halloween. I wanted to focus on all types of scary experiences students and teachers have had throughout their life. I grew up loving scary stories and always listening to my mom talk about duendes. I was very excited to write this piece and interview others on their experiences. Scary stories are a MUST for October and it really sets the mood for the month with other festivities like pumpkin carving, going to pumpkin patches, corn mazes, trick or treating, and dressing up as favorite characters or objects. October has to be one of the best times of the year due to popularity in scary movies and the holiday Halloween itself.
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One of the teachers I interviewed was Carina Marie Casissa A freshman English and Journalism teacher shared an experience that had happened to a friend of hers when “she was about 4 or 5”. She added that the mother of her friend had been searching for a home for some time and that they had finally discovered the ideal mansion in San Jose. The only catch was that the previous owner had thrown a party in which a woman had fallen into the swimming pool; they didn't notice her body until a couple of minutes later. Her friend's mother “did not care about the problem” and since then has been living in the house without a care. While living there the family has reported strange poltergeist-like activity in the house. An example would be
doors opening and closing on their own, faint talking in hallways, and figures who
appear and disappear. The family do their best to “ignore” these events but fear consumes them. They believe it is the doing of the woman who died in the swimming pool or it could be something far more demonic lurking in the house walls waiting for its perfect moment.
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Anahi Morales, a Junior I questioned gave me a really good story about a personal experience that ended up affecting her family as well. She told me a story of something that happened in the old house she had lived in a year ago when she was 15. What happened was that the old owner of the house went mentally insane and ended up taking up his and his dog's life in the house. With her family knowing that, they were a little uneasy to move into the house but they needed a place to live so that was their best option. She described the first couple of months as “not being that bad” and she liked how nice the house was and really liked her room. She described her room to be “very still but the perfect place to read.” Nevertheless, weird activity started to occur. Activity like weird scratching on the bottom of doors, like a dog was trying to get in, items missing and reappearing after replacing them, and even physically harming things like waking up with little scratch marks. These problems were getting worse and worse to the point that Anahi’s younger brother got greatly hurt by this. Francisco Morales, her younger brother, claims that while he was walking down the stairs on the second story of the home, he felt something shove him, breaking his arm. At this time they are living in a new house to get away from the negative energy and haven't had any experiences with it since.
In closing these scary stories were so perfect for this time and halloween less than a week away! Halloween is supposed to be scary but it is a time for people to really express themselves through costume contests, house decorating, pumpkin carving and more. It is important to always stay safe on halloween due to high crime because of the holiday and a lot of children go missing, some never to be seen again. If you are planning to go trick or treating for your own safety, being accompanied by a grown up can keep you safe and prevent anything life threatening happening. Even if it could be a myth make sure to check your candies before consuming just because you never know what people could have hidden in it. Don't let this frightening advice ruin your Halloween experience and live life to its fullest with no risk!
