A collection of scary stories from students will help you stay in the spooky mood. Here are the stories students submitted to The Indy.

 

Taijai John, Sophomore

Family’s Ranch, as told by John.

In the summer of 2023, John and his cousin began their work on a shed on their family's ranch deep in the woods. The first few nights went without incident, but all changed when he and his cousins began to explore around. 

Nearby, there was a burned-down church that is said to have had children stuck in there. Carved in a tree was a cross, where John and his family go by to leave offerings.

One night, while he and his cousins were telling jokes while building a fire, they began to hear things in the woods like running or rustling. There was an eerie feeling as everything began to freeze and utter silence. 

“Hey you. Hey. Where's my mom?” Said a little voice from the silence, in Navajo.

John and his cousins sat there with the voice speaking right by their ear with no one there. By the fire they begin to pray. 

That is when they heard another noise, a humming of a melody, that kept going throughout the night. Nothing else happened that night until they woke up the next morning. 

A bull's head was in the fireplace. It was the family's bull named Barricade. They looked around and found the bull’s body. It looked as though the head was ripped off from its body. 

In the surrounding area, little footprints were found around the trees. There were branches purposefully bent with thread that looked like deer hide. 

After a ceremony, things died down until this past winter. John’s parents went back to the ranch to do a check up.

About two in the morning, something from the treeline threw a baby owl onto the windshield. John’s parents said a quick prayer as they left the ranch. 

“F— you, f— you.” said a voice past the treeline, in Navajo.

Haunted House, as told by John.

When John was 13 or 14-years-old, his cousins and friends were all playing in the backyard. In the middle of summer, they were playing on the trampoline when he said they started hearing rustling.

They thought it was a dog, so they started to look around. After not finding anything, they all went back inside. That was when John said you can hear the noise in the attic. 

The noise sounded like something running across the attic, John said. His whole family was not home, so no one should have been there except John and his friends. 

The only way up into the attic was through his sister’s closet. Looking at the attic entrance, he said you can see black hand prints. 

They didn’t want to check up in the attic, so they went to the living room. John said that the noise came back again. All across the drywall was the sound of running. 

Over time, John's brother started waking up in the middle of the night, freaking out after having dreams. His family then went to see a medicine man.

“Yeah, there was a dead person buried by your guy's house,” he said.

That same night they had a ceremony. When the medicine man came, all the lights turned off. When they looked at everyone else's house their lights were on. 

While singing, running can be heard in the hallway. It kept getting worse from there, said John.

As they were getting to the end of the song. Something grabbed John’s right shoulder. 

“It was a firm grip that tried pulling me back,” he said.

Freaked out, he went outside to get some air. On his shoulder, he said there was a bruise in the shape of a hand print. 

 

Brighton Young, Freshman

Hide and Seek, as told by Young

Young was staying with his grandparents when the night turned. He and his cousins wanted to play spotlight outside in the wide open area.

One of the cousins had the flashlight and counted for 40 seconds. Everyone including Young scattered to find a place to hide.

He hid inside an old truck, while everyone else hid in and by nearby trees. After a while Young was found first. 

After everyone was found, the cousin with the flashlight asked if anyone was hiding behind a hill.

There were six including Young, none of them said they were hiding behind a hill. 

From what the cousin recounted, when he was trying to find everyone, he could hear people talking and giggling coming from the darkness.

Young's cousin taunted by saying he was going to find all of them while shining the flashlight into the darkness.

He went over a hill, and behind a bush was someone in a black hoodie. Whoever it was, they weren’t anyone they knew. 

After the game ended, the group checked back behind the hill and no one was there. Everyone decided to head back to the house. 

Walking back, Young said they saw someone with another flashlight following their flashlight. It was a good 100 yards in the distance.

They had no one living by, the nearest neighbor living a mile or two away. 

After a while the light went to a nearby abandoned house. That was the end of it. 

Young’s grandparents tell them never to go near the house since evil things happen there. 

 

Cynthia Acostau, Sophomore, 

Doll in the family, as told by Acostau

Acostau was staying at her grandma’s house in Mexico when she was seven or eight years-old. 

At her grandma’s house is a porcelain doll that has been in their family forever. The doll was pretty with its glass face. The one thing that made it scary was a single crack in her face.

Acostau’s grandma talked about the doll and showed her, even telling her that her uncles and aunties were all scared of that doll.

As night time fell, she was sleeping on her grandmother's couch while her cousins were in the bedroom. At two or three a.m., Acostau felt a hand touch her head. 

As she turned to see who had just touched her, the doll fell from the couch.