There are many scary stories about the Winchester Mystery House, this is just one of them.
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I grew up in Santa Rosa, California so going to fun events in the Bay Area was always easy for my family. Every year for Halloween we would go to Great America and enjoy the Halloween fun, but there was one year where we really didn’t have enough money to do so and my mom’s boss gave her tickets for the night at the Winchester Mystery House. We had the flashlight tour and VIP tickets. With the flashlight tour they turn off all of the lights and give each person a flashlight to roam around in the dark.
The first time through was creepy, but I was with my mom and brother so it wasn’t a big deal. I was 12 at the time. The funny thing is, I really looked 20 so the next time in they just let me go without my mom. She was having problems with her ankle again and my brother was extremely bored so they sat out in the car together while I went in again. It was fun going through the house, but around the middle of the 2nd time around I saw something really weird. In the corner of my eye there was something white moving in one of the closed off rooms. It looked like a person. Instead of following with the crowd, I turned off my light and backstepped then crept in under the rope that blocked off the room. No one seemed to notice or say anything.
I don’t even know what the room was. It was bigger than the others and it had a hallway that led to some other part of the house I guess we weren’t supposed to go into. I wanted to see who that was, maybe it was a trick to make it seem scary? As a big skeptic of haunted houses I wanted to out them in a big way. I just kept on walking and turning corners until I stopped and didn’t have a clue where I was. I was using the light of my phone to get through the hallways, but as it dimmed due to the battery I was suddenly in the dark. I couldn’t see anything. I tried my flashlight but it too wouldn’t work. I felt my way through room after room trying to get to where I was before but for all I know I could have been going around in circles.
Then I saw a dim light. At first I thought it might be a doorway but as I got closer there was no way this was a door. As I used the wall for guidance, I tiptoed closer to the light and the room became horribly cold. There was no substance to this light, it was simply in the middle of the hallway like the reflection of the fog. I moved my hand through it and it was icy cold.
Jerking my hand back as fast as I could, I fell back into the wall and it creaked opened. I tiptoed inside hoping that maybe this was a new walkway into another room but instead it just led to more doors and it was so dark in the room that I barely see at all. I turned on my flashlight that barely flickered on and I could see there were several doors that I tried yet all of the doors were locked. All, but one. I went inside and found stairs leading down. I didn’t want to go down, but it was my only option. I was stuck inside a room that didn’t have a way out.
As I continued down the stairs, the room grew colder and the air thicker. I could even see my own breath in front of me. It seemed like hours and hours but I just kept walking until I hit the floor. This room was warmly lit. There was older music playing. Not music like classic rock, but old music from the late 1800s or early 1900s I suppose. I walked around, searching for another door or something but only saw the stairs leading up. Then it appeared again, the mist that led me here.
“Help me,” an eerie whisper filled the room.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“Help me,” was the only response it gave.
I turned to try and find where the voice was coming and before me stood a child with her back to me. She had long brown hair and was wearing a white night gown. She looked probably to be around 6 years old and was clearly sobbing.
“How can I help you?” I put my hand on her back.
She whisked around to look at me and I gasped at the stare of death. Her skin was pale white and stretched over her bones like a starving child. Her eyes were gray and sunken into her skull. I jerked my hand back and held my breath as she spoke again.
“Help me,” she held out her hand to me.
Trembling, I took her hand into mine and fell to the ground as a shock went through my body. She cried and knelt by my side as I dropped before her. I felt her tears burning my skin as they fell and her sobs were deafening.
“Set me free,” she whimpered.
I looked up at her as she spoke and the music on the old phonograph played on. Her eyes sunk deeper into her skull revealing two empty sockets. The air was so thick I felt like I was going to suffocate but still I was mesmerized by the deep pools of black where her eyes should have been. As I stared, little off-white worms began falling from the sockets and on to my arms where they burned. I suddenly realized that the tears before were not actually tears but maggots.
I wanted out of there. At this point I would say and do anything to leave that place.
“How can I help you?” How can I set you free?”
Her voice echoed in my head as her face moved closer to mine.
“Dieeeeee” Her breath smelled of rotting death as she hissed.. “Dieeeee”
I room began to swim around me as I shut my eyes. She continued to chant die until I felt someone shake me awake.
“Diana!”
It was my mother. She shook me by the shoulders and then hoisted me up into her arms. “Diana, we have been looking for you for hours.”
“I’m sorry momma, there was this ghost and I followed her.”
“Baby there are no ghosts. You must have fallen asleep in the dark and had a nightmare.”
Her hold on me was comforting as she rocked. I nestled into her and felt safe for a moment realizing it probably was just a horrible dream until I felt the a burning on my arm. I looked down and noticed several blisters forming on my skin. Blisters where the tears of worms fell from the little girl’s eyes.
