True Scares and Real-Life Nightmares: The Collection

By Cindy Parmiter

This book contains the combined volumes of my True Scares and Real-Life Nightmares series with a disturbing new tale added for good measure. Included in this collection are true accounts of haunted dwellings, cursed objects, ghost animals, a malevolent entity that attached itself to an unsuspecting couple, zombie legends that came closer to reality than we would like to believe, dreams that foretold the future, Halloween terror, a mysterious presence that stalked people as they slept, a madman who took his obsession with dolls to macabre extremes, a parasitic twin with a mind of its own, a child who was inexplicably stricken with vampirism, merciless killers that preyed upon the innocent, a murderous pair whose method of disposing of their victims made headlines all over the world and much, much more.

Some of these stories originate from the realm that lies beyond our own, while others take place much closer to home. Regardless of the source, the individuals whose experiences you are about to explore faced unspeakable evil. Unfortunately, not all of them lived to tell the tale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cindy Parmiter
• Release date: Jul 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201728830

Book preview

Chapter 1:

The Stranger Is Me

It’s been said that every person walking the earth has a twin that they are unaware of somewhere in the world.  Each one of us, and our exact double, lives our life never knowing of the other’s existence.  At least that is how it is supposed to be.

Tales of these mysterious twins, known as doppelgangers, have existed since the 17th century. The word originated in Germany and literally means double-goer.  It is defined as an apparition of a living person.  Usually, they are considered a paranormal phenomenon.  The school of thought is that the duplicate is not another person at all, but instead is the essence of the existing person that has somehow managed to transcend the body and wander about on its own.

The following are a few accounts of encounters with doppelgangers.  They represent both the possibility that the double is a real person, who happens to look remarkably like another, as well as the theory that the twin is actually the freed essence of a living soul.

No story represents the first scenario more aptly than the bizarre tale of a Kansas City man named Richard Jones.  Jones was arrested in 1999 and charged with being an accomplice to a robbery at a local retail store.  He vehemently denied having anything to do with the crime and even had an alibi for the night in question. 

Jones claimed that he had thrown a party at his house when the robbery was taking place across town.  He couldn’t have been in both places at the same time.  He produced several witnesses who corroborated his version of events. 

Unfortunately for him, just as many people claimed to have seen him commit the robbery.  A few of those present at the scene of the crime recalled hearing someone call one of the robbers by his name.  The name they heard spoken that night had been Rick.

Since dozens of total strangers picked him out of a lineup, he was tried and convicted of the crime solely on the strength of the eyewitness testimony.  It should have been an open and shut case, but it didn’t end there.  Aside from the troubling question of his alibi, there was another detail that could not be explained.

The witnesses to the robbery were certain that the man called Rick had sported a distinctive tattoo on his left arm.  Oddly, Jones had no such tattoo.  Even so, they were sure that he had been the man at the scene of the crime.  Tattoo or not, they recognized that face—or so they thought.

Richard Jones was sentenced to nineteen years in prison for his part in the robbery.  He had served seventeen of those years when something incredible happened that would change everything and lead some to doubt the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

Jones, a popular inmate, began to be chided by one fellow prisoner after another for ignoring them in the yard or cafeteria.  His buddies would claim that they had greeted him only to be met with a blank stare.  Jones, for his part, claimed that he had no idea what they were talking about.  He had not seen them and had certainly not snubbed anyone.

The stories of his rude behavior filtered back to Jones so often that he decided to do a little digging.  He soon learned that there was another inmate at the prison, a man named Richard Amos, who bore a remarkable resemblance to Jones himself.  Looking at the man’s photo was like staring into a mirror.  He didn’t know how it could be possible, but the evidence was right there in front of him.  He knew what he had to do.  He called his lawyer and shared the story of his amazing discovery.

Once Jones’ lawyer saw the pictures of Amos, he knew why all of the witnesses had identified Jones as the robber.  The men were almost identical in appearance, right down to their hairstyles and facial hair.  They could have been identical twins.  There was one noticeable difference that got everyone on the defense team’s attention.  Amos sported an eye catching tattoo on his left arm.  The mystery had, at last, been solved.

The attorney presented the new evidence to the court and the conviction was overturned.  In light of this bombshell, the eyewitnesses recanted their testimonies.  Not one of them was willing to point the finger at Jones once they had seen the photos of Richard Amos.  After serving nearly two decades in prison for a crime he did not commit, Richard Jones walked out of prison a free man.

Richard Amos, in spite of his lengthy criminal record, denied having had any role in the robbery that had sent an innocent man to prison.  The statute of limitations had long since run out and the case was filed away and forgotten.

Richard Jones and Richard Amos were not long-lost twin brothers.  They were, in fact, one year apart in age.  They did not know each other and were in no way related.  They just happened to be two men with identical features whose paths crossed in a most unfortunate way. 

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Meeting ones doppelganger face-to-face is thought to be a sign of bad things to come.  In 1860, a man who would change history cast his eyes upon his astral twin and the world would mourn the results for evermore.

On the night he was elected to the office of President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln decided to rest for a while on the settee in his bedroom.  While lying there thinking of the day’s events, he happened to catch a glimpse of his reflection in the floor length mirror that sat across the room.  The image seemed odd so he rose to investigate.

As he stood in front of the mirror, he saw that his body appeared normal, but he had two distinct faces.  One was his face as he knew it while the other was ghostly pale in appearance.  He studied the bizarre spectral image until it faded away.  The same thing happened again a few days later.  The phenomenon then ceased as suddenly as it had begun.

Intrigued, and a bit worried, Lincoln related the story of what the mirror had revealed to him to his wife, Mary Todd.  She was immediately concerned, for she knew the ominous nature of the doppelganger.

Mary told her husband that she feared the deathly image that appeared beside his normal face was a sign that he would be elected to a second term as president, but not live to see it through.  From that moment, until the evening of his assassination, Lincoln lived with the foreboding sense that his days were numbered.  He had been warned by his own reflection.

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Another supernatural story of the dreaded doppelganger took place at an exclusive boarding school for girls in 1845.  Located in what is now Latvia, the school housed the daughters of the wealthy and socially elite.  The facility hired only the best and most respected of teachers.  One of them, a thirty-two year old French woman by the name of Emilie Sagee would prove to be an enigma whose story would echo through the centuries.

At the time that Emilie was hired to teach at the prestigious Pensionat von Neuwelcke School, she had already worked at, and been let go from, nineteen other schools. The reasons for her dismissal had nothing to do with her teaching abilities. She was, by all accounts, a dedicated and talented educator.  It was the terrifying specter she unwittingly brought along with her that continually destroyed her chances of long-term employment.

Emilie Sagee was eager to begin her assignment at the private school.  She was young, pretty, intelligent and friendly to all whom she encountered.  She wasn’t someone who craved attention or notoriety.  They managed to find her, nonetheless.

Not long after her arrival at the school, while Emilie was writing an assignment on the blackboard in front of a room full of students, her exact double appeared beside her.  The other Emilie was mimicking the teacher’s movements.  It performed the action of writing on the board although it held no chalk.  Everyone in the classroom, over thirty girls, saw the image before them.  Emilie was completely oblivious to the ghostly figure standing off to the side as it continued to mirror her every move.

The incident in the classroom was only the beginning.  Before long, Emilie’s spectral image could be seen wandering around the campus.  Once, while Emilie was ill and confined to her bed, visitors to her room could plainly see her specter pacing the floor, a worried expression on its face.  Again, Emilie was the only person who could not see this life-like vision of herself.

Emilie loved to be in the classroom.  On days when she was not teaching, she would tend the flower garden that bloomed on the property.  On one particular occasion, she had wanted to sit in on a sewing class, but had already agreed to work tending the garden.  Students in the classroom could clearly see her through the windows as she worked pulling weeds and pruning the plants.

When the sewing teacher briefly left the room, another teacher took her place.  It was Emilie.  Even though the girls could still see the young teacher in the garden, she was also sitting in a chair in the classroom.  One curious student stood and walked towards the teacher who sat calmly observing the class.

When the girl reached out to touch the image of Emilie, her hand passed right through.  She would later claim that it felt as though she was touching a thick piece of cloth.  Whatever this figure was, it did not possess a human body, or even a solid form. 

The phenomenon continued for several months.  Emilie would be observed eating in the cafeteria with her duplicate sitting beside her, mimicking the movements of eating even though it held no utensils.  The other Emilie never spoke or engaged with any of the students or staff.  It simply moved about doing whatever Emilie was doing or, at times, the things that she wished to be doing.

When confronted about the eerie figure that shadowed her every move, Emilie had no explanation.  She wasn’t aware of the image.  Although all those around her could see it, she could not.  She did relate that on the day the double appeared in the sewing class, Emily had longed to be in the room instead of in the garden.  She had wished it to be true and, apparently, something inside of her had made it happen.

Emilie went on to say that if what people were saying was true, a part of her was leaving her body and acting on her thoughts.  She couldn’t control it and didn’t mean for it to happen.  Her essence, or will, was so strong that it had the ability to break free from her body and act on its own.  While her living spirit was outside of her body, Emilie would say that she felt drained of all of her energy.  She would become emotionally and physically spent until it re-entered and took its rightful place inside of her.

Even though Emilie could not control the supernatural happenings that plagued her, she was let go from her teaching position.  The parents of the girls who attended the school threatened to pull their daughters out of the facility if Emilie was allowed to continue working there.  The school could not afford to lose the revenue or sully its spotless reputation.  Emilie understood and moved on.  She would never teach again.

What could explain the strange case of Emilie Sagee?  There is a phenomenon known as bilocation whereby a person can seemingly be in two places at once.  There have been documented cases of people being seen in two cities, or even countries, simultaneously.  Theories abound as to the reasons.

These cases could be examples of bilocation, a form of waking astral projection in which the spirit of a person manages to leave the body and travel on its own without the knowledge of the host.  This could explain why some, like Emilie Sagee, feel a crushing sense of fatigue during the period when their essence is outside of the body.

Could it be that everyone really does have a physical duplicate somewhere in the world?  It’s possible.  It certainly was the case for Richard Jones.  In his case, his doppelganger was very real and quite human.  Not so for people like Emilie.  Hers was undoubtedly psychological, or perhaps paranormal, in nature.

It is said that if one comes face to face with their doppelganger, death awaits them.  Perhaps this is why Emilie was spared the sight of her spectral image.  She would go on to live her life as a caregiver for her nieces and nephews who had no issues with the ‘twin’ who haunted their aunt.  Emilie’s doppelganger followed her throughout her life without her ever seeing it.

Abraham Lincoln saw his spirit double face to face and believed that his fate had been sealed from that moment on.  Sadly, history would prove him right.  A meeting with one’s doppelganger, even in a dream, is death foretold.

So, if the occasion ever arises that you find yourself facing your own living image, look away.  The emotional shock of having ones physical being encountering its wandering soul while still living is more than a person’s psyche can take.  It would be the equivalent of coming face to face with your own ghost.  The shock will prove fatal—eventually.

Chapter 2:

The House of Living Dolls

In the quiet town of New Hamburg, New York, on Main Street, U.S.A. there sits a house shrouded in mystery.  The two-story, wood frame house has occupied its place on the block since 1845.  It was one of only two houses that survived a devastating fire that swept through the area in 1877, wiping out every other dwelling on the street.

As interesting as those facts might be, they are not what makes this historic house an oddity.  For many years, and without explanation, life-size female mannequins have appeared regularly on the front porch.

The realistic looking dolls are always dressed in period clothing from eras long past.  They sport hairdos that have been out of style for decades.  They usually appear in pairs, but sometimes a third joins the duo.  The dolls are sometimes seated, legs crossed, in rocking chairs.  At other times, they lean against the railing and gaze off into the distance at the railway station that lies two hundred feet away.  On the occasions when they are not focused on the depot, they will turn their heads toward the only other house that managed to escape being destroyed by fire.  That dwelling, decimated by time, has long since been abandoned.

Even though the neighborhood has been restored and houses line the block, not one person has ever seen the human resident, or residents, of what is known as The John Lawson House.  The dolls appear on the porch every day and stay there until the sun goes down and yet no one knows how they get there.  The only time the dolls are absent is when rainy, or otherwise inclement, weather keeps them indoors.

The dolls are often observed clutching various household objects.  It is not unusual to see them holding baskets that contain kitchen towels or brushes.  They have also been known to be in the possession of books or other reading materials.  A witness even claimed to see one of the dolls holding an antique bird cage on its lap.

Although how the dolls appear on the porch is a mystery, their presence is without question.  Numerous pictures have been taken of the pair—or trio—as they sit on the porch, watching the world go by.  They are always very neatly dressed, not a hair out of place.  Their faces are heavily made up right down to the red lipstick that adorns their half-smiling mouths.

Neighbors have claimed that the only sign of life inside the house is an occasional flicker of light that glows in the kitchen window.  This only happens very late at night and disappears as quickly as it appears.  It is surprising that anything can be seen from the outside since all of the windows are covered in thick drapes that, effectively, keep out the prying eyes of curious passersby.

Even though there has never been any real sign of human life in the house, a vegetable garden grows in the back yard and several houseplants, alive and flourishing, can be seen on the front porch.  No one knows who tends them or how they survive.  They are, nonetheless, thriving.

Neighbors and curiosity seekers have tried, on several occasions, to make contact with the inhabitants of the home.  Persistent knocks on the front door go unanswered.  Perhaps the owner is just a recluse who doesn’t like to be bothered.  Or, maybe, as many believe, the story is more complicated than that.  Perhaps the residents of the doll house aren’t equipped to communicate with outsiders.

Who is the mysterious resident of The John Lawson House and what, if any, significance do the dolls have?  The answer to the latter might lie in a tragedy that occurred in the winter of 1871.  It was on that day that the small town in upstate New York would know true hardship.

For reasons unknown, on that fateful day, a train loaded with passengers on their way to New York City crashed very near The John Lawson House.  Twenty-two people were killed on impact.  Other crashes have occurred over the years near the same spot, but none as devastating as this.

Is it possible that some of the souls of the victims of that tragic accident took refuge at the nearest home?  Did a caretaker enable their existence by supplying them with a human form to occupy, at least for the time being?  Could this explain why the dolls are almost always staring fixedly on the train station?  Do they relive the day of their death over and over again from the safety of the Lawson front porch?

It is all mere speculation.  Just as there are simple explanations for most events in life, there are also alternatives, as strange as they may seem.  Of course, a home owner with a sly sense of humor and the stealth of a panther could be placing the dolls outside every day at the exact moment when no one is looking.

For the more open minded among us, it is also possible that the dolls are somehow temporarily housing the lost souls of those taken unexpectedly by tragedy.  Perhaps they sit, day after day, gazing at the scene of the accident in an attempt to make sense of it all.  Such a thing is surely impossible, or is it?  You be the judge.

*Update*

It has been rumored that The John Lawson House was sold in 2016 to buyers unknown.  The dolls are said to have been relocated to a house not far from their former residence.  They are said to now sit not on the front porch, but in the back where they are hidden away from view.  They are, however, still said to be pointed towards the train depot.  The new home’s location, if it exists, has not been revealed to the public.  With that, the mystery of the living dolls continues.

Chapter 3:

Modern Day Ghouls

Sometimes, the evil that exists in this world we share is far more terrifying than anything the supernatural realm has to offer.  Such is the bizarre case of Dmitry Baksheev and his wife, Natalia.  Not only were the pair a rare example of married serial killers, but they also did the unthinkable—they feasted upon the remains of their victims.

The horror that was the Baksheevs surfaced in September of 2017.  It was then that a road crew in Krasnodar discovered a cell phone that had been abandoned in a ditch.  Upon retrieving the device, they were surprised to find that it was still in working order.  It was when they began scrolling through the pictures it held that the nightmare began.  Rather than identifying the owner, the photos revealed evidence of cold-blooded murder.

The men couldn’t believe their eyes as they viewed a series of images that appeared to show a man’s severed head with various human body parts stuffed into his mouth, including a disembodied hand.

There were also photos of a man, in various poses, holding what appeared to be the detached head of a woman.  Another picture depicted a serving plate adorned with fruit and a bloody human head.  The photo was dated December 28, 1999, suggesting that the gory platter had been the centerpiece of someone’s Christmas feast.

Each image was a grisly reminder that whoever had taken the pictures was disturbed beyond anything the sickened workmen had ever seen.  Knowing what they had to do, they took the phone and its macabre contents to the local police station straight away.

It didn’t take long for authorities to trace the