BDay Party

[00:00:00] Foreign I'm Ben and welcome to the show where you and I gather around this campfire to hear some of our fellow campers scariest experiences. Whether you're a new or returning one, I'm glad you're here Tonight you'll hear a story submitted by a camper named Eli who experienced a ghost at his friend's house when he set up for a surprise party. [00:00:27] Now, without further ado, do you want to hear a ghost story? [00:00:34] I don't think I'm going to do anything like this again. [00:00:37] It was supposed to be a surprise. [00:00:39] A dumb, harmless surprise for my best friend Mika's birthday. [00:00:45] He and his parents had gone to his grandma's house for the weekend, so I figured it'd be funny to sneak in and decorate before they got back. [00:00:54] I had his garage code and knew the back door never locked perfectly. [00:00:59] I'd be in and out, just like I had been a thousand times before. [00:01:05] It didn't feel like breaking in. It felt like a prank we'd both laugh about. [00:01:10] I'd bought balloons, streamers, and even those funny little party hats. [00:01:15] The house was dark when I got there around 8:30 at night. [00:01:20] I didn't want to wait until the next morning because because his mom always said they'd get home later than they really did. [00:01:27] I was trying to keep the whole thing under wraps, even from her. [00:01:31] I slipped in through the garage and into the kitchen, flipping on the lights as I went. [00:01:37] Everything was quiet, normal. [00:01:40] I set the decorations on the table and started unrolling streamers. [00:01:44] That's when I noticed something weird. [00:01:47] The dining room where I was planning to set everything up had already been decorated. Just a few blue ribbons strung across the ceiling, drooping like they'd been up for a little too long. [00:02:00] And there were paper stars hanging from the corners of the rooms, all hand cut. [00:02:05] Jagged really, like maybe a kid made them with some dull scissors. [00:02:10] I thought perhaps Mika's mom had already done something, but she was never really the arts and crafts type. [00:02:17] The tape holding the stars to the ceiling seemed brittle and yellowed. [00:02:23] It looked old. [00:02:26] I moved closer and saw that one of the stars had writing on it, scribbled in crayon. [00:02:31] He's seven now, it said. [00:02:34] That's odd. Mika's turning 15. [00:02:38] I backed away, trying to think logically. Maybe it was from a past birthday. [00:02:43] Maybe his mom just never took down these old decorations and they got pushed behind the curtains. [00:02:51] But the air in the room began to feel weird, like that heavy pressure before a thunderstorm. I suddenly felt like I shouldn't be there. Like there was somebody there watching me. [00:03:02] I shook it off. [00:03:04] Just nerves, I told myself, remembering that if I was going to be paranoid, trying to remind myself that I couldn't be paranoid every time I pulled a prank. [00:03:13] So I decided to leave them and decorate the living room. [00:03:17] Marching back to the kitchen to grab the balloons is when I heard the laughter. [00:03:22] Just a small breathy laugh. [00:03:24] It came from upstairs. [00:03:27] At first I thought maybe one of Mika's neighbors were outside. [00:03:30] But the house was silent. [00:03:33] The outside was silent. There weren't even any cars passing by and nobody else talking outside. [00:03:40] I stood there, frozen, just waiting. [00:03:43] I stared in the direction of the staircase for what felt like an hour, finally telling myself it was my imagination and that I had work to do. [00:03:52] I turned back around to grab the party hats, but they were gone. [00:03:56] I mean, everything on the table was gone. [00:04:00] And not just empty, cleaned, scrubbed. Like there weren't even any crumbs where the cake box had just been sitting. [00:04:08] I looked around. There was nothing on the counters, nothing on the floor. [00:04:12] I opened the pantry. I opened cabinets. Nothing. [00:04:15] I thought I was losing my mind when I saw one of the party hats spinning at the end of the hallway like it had just been dropped. [00:04:24] It was still settling. [00:04:26] I reluctantly walked down the hallway. [00:04:29] As I picked up the hat and turned back around, every light in the house quickly flicked off. [00:04:34] I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight, catching something in the beam on the wall next to me. [00:04:40] Red crayon WHERE is my cake? [00:04:44] Was written on the wall. [00:04:47] Now I started to panic. I bolted for the door, but it was locked. [00:04:52] It not just locked. Jammed. Like something was holding it from the other side. [00:04:56] And as I mentioned earlier, this door never locks all the way. [00:05:00] I turned around to maybe go through the front door when I saw a small boy standing at the end of the hallway. [00:05:09] Just standing there in the dark. [00:05:11] His face low, head tilted, looking at the ground. [00:05:15] And he looked fuzzy, like TV static, but shaped like a kid. [00:05:21] I couldn't see his eyes. I couldn't see his face, I couldn't see any distinguishable features, but I felt him looking at me. [00:05:29] Mika? Is that you? This isn't funny, I said, even though I knew it wasn't him. [00:05:35] This boy. This thing took one step forward. [00:05:40] The streamers above me started to twist. Not from air, but they were being turned one by one. They curled tighter and tighter until they eventually snapped free and floated down. [00:05:54] I ran out the way I came, slamming my shoulder into the garage door. [00:05:59] I didn't even bother grabbing my stuff I didn't even know where it was. [00:06:04] I just bolted down the driveway and didn't stop until I hit the sidewalk. [00:06:09] Finally feeling a little bit of a relief, I stood there gasping quickly looking back at the house. [00:06:15] Every light was back on. [00:06:18] The dining room was lit like nothing had happened. [00:06:21] There were no decorations and I saw all my decorations sitting on the counter in the kitchen. [00:06:29] But at the head of the table in the dining room, I swear there was this shadow. [00:06:35] Someone sitting at the head of the table. [00:06:38] Small still, like a small boy waiting to be sung Happy Birthday. [00:06:45] The next day I asked Mika about it. Casually. He said he didn't know anything about old decorations. [00:06:52] Said his mom never throws him birthday parties in the house, hadn't since he was a little kid. [00:06:58] Out of curiosity, I looked up his address. [00:07:01] Fifteen years ago a kid named Caleb died in that house. [00:07:06] Choked on a balloon at his own party. [00:07:09] He was turning 7. [00:07:11] Micah had never heard that story. [00:07:13] His family bought the house the year after, moved in when he was a few months old. [00:07:19] I didn't tell him what I saw or what I heard in the house. [00:07:23] But I know this. [00:07:25] I will definitely not be going in there to set up for a birthday party ever again. [00:07:29] I think I know why his mother doesn't throw him parties now either. [00:07:34] Thank you Eli for allowing me to share your story. [00:07:37] This story is not funny, but part of me just has to laugh. [00:07:42] You broke into your friend's house and were effectively tormented by a ghost. [00:07:47] That's almost more effective than a dog these days. [00:07:50] With that, I have no show announcements, but if you'd like a shout out at the end of an episode, Hibbert head over to patreon.com do you want to hear Ghost Story as always, I'm just glad to have you all as campers on this journey. Please keep sharing the show with anyone you think might like these stories or someone you're just trying to scare. If you're enjoying the show, please leave a review. [00:08:10] I would love to hear from you. Until next time.