What can I say? I'm a sucker for them. I love a good ghost story, no matter how trivial the event. Here are few of mine and some of what people have told me.

Liberty Hills Home
This was the first home I grew up in. I lived there till I was 10. It's not that old of a house; I think it was built in the 60s or 70s. One night when I was six or seven, I had to get up to use the bathroom. My bedroom was directly across the hall from the bathroom. I opened the door and look down the hall and to the right there was a face, a ghostly pale face hovering near my door. Naturally, being however old I was (6/7?) I screamed at the top of my lungs and it vanished. I woke up my entire family but never told them what I saw. To this day I'm not sure what exactly happened. Needless to say it scared me shitless.

Highlands Ranch Mansion
There are a ton of stories about this place. I could go on and on about them. This house was built in the 1800s and is now private property belonging to the city. The first time I went there I was a sophomore in High School. Every year there is an event in September called the Mother/Son Masquerade. I volunteered there and some of the women who have volunteered there for years told us ghost stories. According to legend there are three ghosts inhabiting the place: Julia (the girl who grew up in the house), the old caretaker of the place, and a black mass of some sort.

One thing that happened was to the daughter of the woman helping. They were getting ready to leave for the night and her daughter was in the last room at the end of the hallway (Julia's room). She was standing in the middle of the room, when suddenly the lights turned off in the room and the door slammed shut on her. And of course, as fate would have it, the door handle is messed up in a way that you can't open the door from the inside. She screamed until someone ran upstairs and opened the door for her.

Another story: In the 50s or 60s there was a nun's retreat. All I know of this story is that they were walking down the hall and they saw a black orb or a black mass.

Then there's the usual hearing footsteps and lights turning off on people. One time the woman (the same one with the daughter who was trapped in Julia's room), had put up decorations, left the room to get more tape, came back into the room and all the decorations were on the floor. In Julia's room there is always a light in the room. Even when all the lights are turned off in the mansion, there is this glow that emanates from her room.

These stories are more recent and have happened to me or friends:

One time my friend, Kelly was sitting the coat room taking a break from the volunteering. There is a little courtyard outside the coat room and from that room, if you look up you can see into the old servant's quarters. She looked up and saw an old man (possibly the caretaker) in the window, looking down at her. He had a lantern and long gray hair. Another one of my friend's saw this same guy in the rearview mirror of her car when she was backing out of the parking lot (can you say freaky?!).

One night after we had cleaned up after the Masquerade, we asked a couple of guys to give us a tour of the place for the heck of it. Of course I was anticipating they would do something to us, how can they not when there were seven or eight high school girls there? By the time we got to Julia's room, I knew something would happen and the guys pulled a prank on us, turning the lights off and shutting the door on us. After we left the room two of my friends remained to take a picture. As soon as the camera flashed, they both saw a figure hovering in front of the window. It was instantaneous. We think it was Julia.

Another time, we were at the Father/Daughter sweetheart dance and two of my friends went up to Julia's room to take pictures. In one of them, in the corner there is a clearly defined person standing/hovering in the corner. I could see the outline of a woman's figure and dark hair. She had an old dress on, but I couldn't tell the era cause it was so faint.

And just the general atmosphere in the mansion was unpleasant for me. I got the feeling that we were not wanted there and whatever was there wanted us out. I was terrified of going upstairs by myself. We were in one of the master bedrooms and there was this faint smell of decaying bodies or something. It was not a pleasant smell.

I think those are all the events from Highlands Ranch Mansion. At least those are all I can remember off the top of my head.

Tara's house in Breckenridge

Tara's house gave me the heebie jeebie's. Her bedroom especially...when we arrived there it was really hot and then out of nowhere it got freezing cold. So cold that we all fought for blankets to huddle under for a bit. We decided to leave and take a walk to the lake near her house. As we were standing in the driveway I looked up into her bedroom window and saw a white light. It was a split second before it disappeared but I'm not sure if it was the woman ghost or just the sun light reflecting. I don't think it was cause it looked like a person was turning away from the window.

And when we were going to bed, I was sleeping on the edge of the bed and there was a little gap and another bed. The air between the two beds got really cold again and then at some point in the night it got hot. It was just those little things that freaked me out. The room getting hot and cold in a matter of minutes was weird.

Those are all the stories for now. If I think of more, I'll post later. On to homework now :-(!