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recent grimoire entries
20 Free and Magical Ways to Engage in Self-Care
Feb 15, 2019
20 Free and Magical Ways to Engage in Self-Care
Feb 15, 2019
Feb 15, 2019
11 Valentine's Day dates for badass witches
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11 Valentine's Day dates for badass witches
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Feb 14, 2019
Survival and Truth: How Tori Amos' Under The Pink Changed My Life
Feb 8, 2019
Survival and Truth: How Tori Amos' Under The Pink Changed My Life
Feb 8, 2019
Feb 8, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Monica Youn, Traci Brimhall, Rosebud Ben-Oni
Feb 6, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Monica Youn, Traci Brimhall, Rosebud Ben-Oni
Feb 6, 2019
Feb 6, 2019
How Do We Name Ourselves?
Feb 4, 2019
How Do We Name Ourselves?
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Feb 4, 2019
Your February 2019 Horoscopes Are Here
Feb 1, 2019
Your February 2019 Horoscopes Are Here
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Feb 1, 2019
Kristine Esser Slentz on Polyamory & Being Raised as a Jehovah's Witness
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Kristine Esser Slentz on Polyamory & Being Raised as a Jehovah's Witness
Jan 30, 2019
Jan 30, 2019
Poetry by Brandon Amico
Jan 29, 2019
Poetry by Brandon Amico
Jan 29, 2019
Jan 29, 2019
A Grimoire For Self-Love: A Peek At Light Magic for Dark Times
Jan 28, 2019
A Grimoire For Self-Love: A Peek At Light Magic for Dark Times
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5 Books I Had No Idea Existed and Must Find at Once
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Jan 28, 2019
Vi Khi Nao Reviews Diana Hamilton's God Was Right
Jan 25, 2019
Vi Khi Nao Reviews Diana Hamilton's God Was Right
Jan 25, 2019
Jan 25, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Omotara James, John Murillo, E. Kristin Anderson
Jan 25, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Omotara James, John Murillo, E. Kristin Anderson
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Jan 25, 2019
Brandon Amico on Why He Doesn't Want to Be Unreachable
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Brandon Amico on Why He Doesn't Want to Be Unreachable
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Jan 24, 2019
How To Become A Freelance Writer: On Starting Out, Discipline & Ritual
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Jan 23, 2019
Bewitched: When The Velvet Underground Cast an Identity Spell on Me
Jan 23, 2019
Bewitched: When The Velvet Underground Cast an Identity Spell on Me
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Jan 23, 2019
DIY Gift Ideas for The Magical, the Dreamy, and the Crafty
Jan 22, 2019
DIY Gift Ideas for The Magical, the Dreamy, and the Crafty
Jan 22, 2019
Jan 22, 2019
Review of Christine Stoddard's 'Water for the Cactus Woman'
Jan 22, 2019
Review of Christine Stoddard's 'Water for the Cactus Woman'
Jan 22, 2019
Jan 22, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, Jessica Morey-Collins, Justin Karcher
Jan 18, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, Jessica Morey-Collins, Justin Karcher
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Jan 18, 2019
June Gehringer Tells Us What She's Afraid Of
Jan 16, 2019
June Gehringer Tells Us What She's Afraid Of
Jan 16, 2019
Jan 16, 2019
5 Film & TV Inspired Nightgowns You Need
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5 Film & TV Inspired Nightgowns You Need
Jan 15, 2019
Jan 15, 2019
Music Friyay: Stevie Nicks, Sun Ra, Hamilton Leithauser
Jan 11, 2019
Music Friyay: Stevie Nicks, Sun Ra, Hamilton Leithauser
Jan 11, 2019
Jan 11, 2019
Poetry by Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi
Jan 10, 2019
Poetry by Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi
Jan 10, 2019
Jan 10, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Kay Ulanday Barrett, Devin Kelly, Elizabeth Metzger
Jan 9, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Kay Ulanday Barrett, Devin Kelly, Elizabeth Metzger
Jan 9, 2019
Jan 9, 2019
Poetry by Karina Bush
Jan 8, 2019
Poetry by Karina Bush
Jan 8, 2019
Jan 8, 2019
Hillary Leftwich on Happiness & Why It's Important to Love Childhood Films
Jan 7, 2019
Hillary Leftwich on Happiness & Why It's Important to Love Childhood Films
Jan 7, 2019
Jan 7, 2019
This Moon Playlist Is Everything You Need
Jan 4, 2019
This Moon Playlist Is Everything You Need
Jan 4, 2019
Jan 4, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Chloe N. Clark, Faylita Hicks, Saretta Morgan
Jan 3, 2019
Poetry Weekly: Chloe N. Clark, Faylita Hicks, Saretta Morgan
Jan 3, 2019
Jan 3, 2019
Jordan Rothacker On the Apocalypse, Jared Kushner, and Daily Rituals
Jan 2, 2019
Jordan Rothacker On the Apocalypse, Jared Kushner, and Daily Rituals
Jan 2, 2019
Jan 2, 2019
Your January 2019 horoscopes are here
Jan 1, 2019
Your January 2019 horoscopes are here
Jan 1, 2019
Jan 1, 2019
Music Friyay: Cigarettes After Sex, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lee Hazlewood
Dec 28, 2018
Music Friyay: Cigarettes After Sex, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lee Hazlewood
Dec 28, 2018
Dec 28, 2018
Pixabay

Pixabay

Growing Up In A Haunted House

October 23, 2017

BY MELISSA RAMOS
CURATED BY PATRICIA GRISAFI

It is three a.m. My room is dark. I don’t move, barely breathe. What caused me to wake? When I glance at the red numbers glaring at me from the clock, I see her. A woman is standing in the corner of my room. I try to keep myself together. I don’t want it known that I’ve seen her. But I am too late. She knows. 

This woman in a long, white nightgown begins to walk towards me. She is a pencil outline someone forgot to color in. I stare in horror as this ghost-like woman takes slow, deliberate steps. What will she do? What does she want? I do the most rational thing that pops into my head—hide beneath my warm blankets, hoping it is just a nightmare. 

"Please disappear," I beg the air. When my heart stops racing, I peek back out. 

No one is there. I fall back asleep, turned, facing the window. 

In another room, my mother wakes. She glances at her clock: three a.m. Almost instantly, she feels a chill—one of those someone-just-walked-on-your-grave type of chills. Goosebumps pop up on her arms and legs. A strange tingle runs through her body. Looking over to her bedroom window, she senses something is out there. 

RELATED: Here's An Actual Ghost Story From a Skeptic

My mother senses an evil creature sitting on the AC. It wants to come in. Does she see it? Does she hear it? No. What she does hear is movement out in the hallway. She sees her bedroom door open. She can’t breathe.

The little body that enters is that of her small daughter, my sister. My mother lets out a sigh of relief. The monster has not gotten inside the house. Her little girl has had a nightmare. Pulling her into the bed, my mother cuddles her and nervously glances back to the window. 

On this night, three women in my family shared an odd experience. My mother and I told each other our side of the story in the morning. We didn’t discuss it again after that. It was strange and scared us. We don’t believe in coincidences. On this night, we were in tune to something "other" and unusual, something outside the veil of normalcy. 

It was not our last such experience in this house.

On a sunny day, mid-week, I come home from school and tackle the list of chores my mother leaves for me each day. One chore requires me to fold and put away laundry. Upon walking into my parents' room, I hear voices coming from the closet. Two men are talking, having what sounds like a heated conversation. I peek into the closet. 

The voices stop. 

I look for the feet sticking out, for the people hiding behind the thick layer of clothes. Someone is going to jump out and grab me. I’m the girl who dies first in the horror movies. 

RELATED: I Went To A Seance & This Is Why I Left With Shaking Hands

I don’t see anyone in the closet, and nothing is out of the ordinary. Where did the voices go? I put the laundry down and walk myself across the hall into my bedroom. Then, my door mysteriously closes and locks behind me. I am home alone and don’t know what else to do. I stay put until my mother gets home from work. 

She is not happy that my chores are unfinished. However, my explanation does not sound like an excuse. She believes me. She checks her room and the rest of the house. 

No intruders. No monsters in the closet. We go on about our night. 

Many years later, after we've all moved out, my dad and I have a conversation about our old house. I fill him in on some ghost story bits. He replies that the house stood empty for years before we bought it. He also mentions that he occasionally saw a little girl in his room and sometimes on the stairs. A little girl that was not my sister.  

Nothing bad ever happened to us. No angry spirits. No poltergeists. No chairs stuck to the ceiling or evil children climbing out of the television. The ghosts were just there, always watching. I grew up with them. They feel like a part of my family. 


Melissa Ramos is a writer and freelance proofreader living in Florida. She is currently enrolled in the University of Tampa’s Low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program. When trying to find her in a crowded room, look to the corners. That’s where she’ll be with her nose stuck in a book.

Patricia Grisafi, PhD, is a New York City-based freelance writer, editor, and former college professor. She is currently an Associate Editor at Ravishly and a contributing writer and editor at Luna Luna. Her work has appeared in Salon, Vice, Bitch, The Rumpus, Bustle, The Establishment, and elsewhere. Her short fiction is forthcoming in Tragedy Queens (Clash Books). She is passionate about pit bull rescue, cursed objects, horror movies, and designer sunglasses. 

In Occult Tags Ghosts, Spirits, Hauntings, Haunted Houses, Melissa Ramos, Patricia Grisafi
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LIGHT MAGIC FOR DARK TIMES  CAN BE ORDERED HERE

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SEXTING GHOSTS
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TONIGHT, Feb. 13, Brooklyn/NYC: join @attheinkwell + Luna Luna for a reading on Self-Love.
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Readings by @lisamariebasile @joannacvalente  @stephanie.athena  @erinkhar cbwilhelm @lifestudies + hosted by @anditalarico!
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When: 7-9 p.m. WORD Bookstore, 126 Franklin Street, Brooklyn A sampling of a few of the poets who will be reading at the FEB. 13 event at @wordbookstores for @attheinkwell: @lifestudies + @joannacvalente + @lisamariebasile + @anditalarico (our lovely host) 🖤Mark your calendars! February 13, 7pm, Word in Brooklyn Want to get into the writing life? @lisamariebasile wrote a guide to starting your freelance life. All about working from home, money & logistics, ritual and mindfulness, finding clients, developing a portfolio, and negotiating your rates. 🙌🏽 Visit lunalunamagazine.com to read! Our very own @joannacvalente has some images up over at @yespoetry from their #Survivor photo series. (There are more at Luna Luna, too!). 🖤 We’re about 200 followers away from 10,000 (!!!!) over on twitter 🙌🏾 Pop over and follow us if you haven’t yet (we’re VERY active there, always having conversations and sharing work and engaging with all of you!) — were going to do a giveaway at 10,000. Thank you for the love, it means the world to us 🎉 LINK IN BIO! WANT TO CONJURE LIZZIE BORDEN? Of course you do. Preorder Lizzie, Speak by our phenom editor & poet @kaileytedesco via the lovely @whitestagpublishing. 👻 The Luna Luna crew! Stay tuned for a reading announcement in February here in NYC. 💜🖤😈 HAPPY NEW YEARS, friends and readers! 🙌🏽 The lovely @joannacvalente posted your January 2019 horoscopes today. Head over to lunalunamagazine.com to check it out. We have good vibes about this year + we hope you had a beautiful celebration!
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PS, as Joanna says: “A lunar eclipse will occur on January 20 during a full Leo moon is going to be emotionally intense. It will stir up feelings about belonging, identity, and love. It might not be an easy moon, but it will  help you shed any unnecessary habits and relationships. Get rid of what doesn’t serve you.” Start thinking about ways you can release those things or people — and what you’d like to focus on instead. 💜🙌🏽🎉

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