Spooky Stories from Elgin, IL. was an October feature of stories from Elgin residents about unusual happenings, spooky events or an other-worldly resident that might still be hanging around. In most of these stories names and locations have been omitted or changed to protect the privacy of still living residents and their homes.
These stories are meant to provide a safe and fun scare.
Please enjoy and feel free to share!
S was told under no circumstances was she, or her little brother, to ever go in the little room on the basement stairs.
At 5 years old, this might as well have been an invitation to open the child size door curiously placed in the wall midway down the stairs that led to her grandmother’s basement.
So inevitably, one afternoon while the rest of the family was preoccupied with preparing lunch, S slipped away to see what was behind that little door. It wasn’t very easy to open, but when the door finally popped away from the wall - oh the delight! Inside a tiny cubby hole of a room sat a box of toys! S crawled in grabbing for the box to see what kind of treasures awaited her. As soon as she had fully entered the tiny room, the door slammed shut. Sitting in complete darkness, her first thought was that her baby brother had followed her & pushed the door closed.
Upstairs, S’s mother heard an old familiar sound that chilled her to her bones. She dropped the stack on napkins she’d been carrying & ran to the basement stairs. Her fingers pried at the little door’s edges until she popped it open, revealing her daughter sitting next to a box of antique toys. She reached in, grabbed S & pulled her out. As she slammed the door shut, she gave it an extra kick for good measure. She looked her little girl straight in the eyes, “DO NOT EVER go in there again.” The seriousness & fear in her mother’s face made S leave the door alone for the next 18 years.
****
Growing up in her grandmother’s home was like that. The adults always seemed to know something they weren’t fully telling the kids.
The basement door that led outside to the backyard was frequently found open even after being locked. S & her brother assumed that the most likely explanation was that a robber kept trying to break in. Whenever they discovered the door open yet again, they would race to the backyard in attempts to apprehend the bandit.
One afternoon, on arriving home to an opened basement door, the kids, ready to bound off to the backyard, were stopped by their aunt. “Settle down, it’s just the ghost.” She said handing them each a grocery bag to carry inside. S looked at her brother quizzically, neither knew what to think about this new information. Church told them that ghosts don’t exist, so they felt pretty confident that their aunt was confused or just joking. That was until later that year when it became a lot clearer what was really going on in the house.
*****
During 5th grade S’s cousin would stay with them while her uncle took classes at ECC. During those weeks, the girls loved having sleepovers in the basement. They stayed up late gossiping & then fell asleep on the floor, snuggled up under big fluffy blankets.
It was during one of those sleepovers that S suddenly found herself wide awake in the night. She couldn’t see anything in the dark room, but could definitely FEEL something. Somehow she KNEW there was something was near the glass door that led to the backyard. Too afraid to look, but desperately curious, she devised a plan. Pulling the blanket they were sharing all the way off her cousin, she hoped to wake her up enough for her to get a glimpse of the thing. S knew it was a mean plan, but it worked.
Her cousin rolled over to retrieve the blanket & gasped. She yanked it over both of their heads, whimpering. S not totally certain her cousin had gotten a good look, pulled the blanket down again. Her frightened cousin jumped up to go hide next to her dad who was asleep across the room. S realized then that she was alone next to the something. She pulled the covers tight over her head, turned her back to the wall of windows & eventually fell back asleep.
When S woke up the next morning her cousin was laying on the ground next to her, glaring.
“You saw it!” She whispered angrily at S.
“Saw what? I have no idea what she’s talking about.” S insisted, trying to avoid eye contact even though her cousin was inches from her face.
“It was a woman holding a baby!” Her cousin whispered. S finally looked at her, now wide eyed.
“She looked right at me! She had long hair & her skin was really pale, but her eyes were so BLUE! She was looking outside, but then looked at ME. She was SO SCARY! Who do you think she is???”
S’s mind was racing thru thoughts of disbelief & amazement, both fighting for the final say on what to think about what her cousin had shared. Before S had a chance to process out loud, her cousin’s brother interrupted.
“Hey, what are you two whispering about?”
S’s cousin repeated her story to him, but this time ended it with “Don’t tell Grandma!”
It was a request that, ultimately, he ignored. S knew this because later that evening, when everyone else was getting ready for bed, S saw her grandmother head down to the basement. S’s grandmother never spent time in the basement so she decided to quietly follow behind, wondering what she was up to.
She watched as her grandmother walked with purpose over to the spot where the girls slept, stopped & put her hands on her hips. Her grandmother, having immigrated from the Philippines, spoke sternly in her native tongue, “You are dead. You cannot keep this house to yourselves anymore. We must live in peace, so STOP scaring my grandkids.”
She then gave a firm nod to indicate that she had said her piece & the conversation was over.
S scooted back up to the first floor as her grandmother bent down to straightened the girls blankets before heading back upstairs for the night.
S truly appreciated her grandmother’s brave efforts, but worry began to flood her thoughts. She was pretty sure the ghost wasn’t from the Philippines & most certainly did not speak Tagalog, so likely hadn’t gotten the message. As time went on, S’s grandmother must have held a similar concern & began implementing rules for the family. For the remainder of the time they lived there, S remembers the lights always being on & under no circumstances were the kids ever allowed to stay home alone. EVER.
