The Barn Several years ago there was an old man who lived alone on an old farmstead just down the road from a friend of mine. He was a widower, his wife having died of pneumonia a couple of years before. He kept to himself most of the time, for he wasn't very well liked by his neighbors because of his rudeness to them. On his property there was an old barn that had fallen into disrepair. The roof sagged in places, some of the siding had rotted off, etc. Even so, for some reason, the old man spent a lot of time in there. The man had no children so, from time to time, some of the townfolk would go by to check on him to make sure he was fine and didn't need anything. One afternoon, three women from town rode out to check on the old man. He was nowhere to be found. His old truck, which hadn't been in running condition since his wife had died, was gone. The women thought nothng of it. They assumed the old man had fixed the truck and gone off somewhere. They decided to go back early the next morning to see if he was home. He wasn't. Nor was he ever at home after that. Several weeks passed with someone going out to check on him every few days. Finally, the police, believing the old man had just taken off, went out to the place intending to break in if need be. The door, though, wasn't locked so they went right on in. All the old man's belongings were still there. They searched the house over, believing something may've happened to the him. They found nothing. They went out to the barn. Nothing there. Puzzled, they finally decided the old man had taken off so they left. A few years passed and the old man didn't return. The farmstead became the property of the state and was sold to a young couple from out of town who had plans to remodel the house, repair the barn, etc. Three or four days after settling in, the couple begin to notice weird noises coming from the barn but each time they went out there to see what it was, they found nothing which could account for the noise. It had sounded as if someone were beating something against the wall and moaning as if in pain. They became spooked and the wife begged the husband to find them another place to live. They couldn't afford it though so they stayed on. One night the noise got so bad that the couple finally got up and, together, went out to the barn. Upon entering, they were horrified to see an old man, whom they could see right through, standing at the far end of the barn, slashing at the air with a long bladed knife as if trying to fight something off. The old man, realizing the couple were there in the barn watching him, moaned loudly then slowly dissappeared as if he'd never been there. Scared to death, the couple ran back to the house and called the police. Upon their arrival, the couple told them what had happened. The policemen, there were two of them, looked at the couple as if they'd lost their minds. They searched the barn but found no evidence that anyone else had been in there. They told the couple that whoever had been there was gone now and they didn't think he'd be back tonight and not to worry. The policemen left and the couple went back to bed though neither of them slept the rest of the night. Several days passed without any noise from the barn then one morning before daylight, just before the husband left for work, they heard the noise again. The pounding was relentless and the moaning louder than ever. The husband told the wife to stay in the house, then headed for the barn intent on confronting the being that was in there. When twenty minutes had passed and the husband had not returned, the wife ran out to the barn to see about him. By the time she reached the barn, the pounding and moaning had stopped. There was an eerie silence. She slowly opened the door and entered....and began to scream....for there on the floor, in a huge puddle of blood, lay her husband, slashed to death. On the floor beside him lay the knife they'd seen in the old man's hand the night they'd called the police. It was covered in blood which had begun to congeal in the cool, morning air. She screamed all the way back to the house and called the police. Some of the neighbors had come running when they'd heard the screaming. Soon the police arrived and examined the scene, taking the knife as evidence in the murder which had just taken place. "It was the old man who was here the other night!" she screamed. "I know it was him! He killed my husband!" Upon running a check on the knife, the police found that it was registered to the old man who'd lived in the house before it'd become the property of the state. The next day they went back out to the farmstead to examine the scene of the crime more closely. Only then did they find what they should've found when the old man had supposedly left town. In the back of the barn, where the couple had seen the ghost of the old man, the police found a shallow grave. Inside were the old man's decomposing remains. They ran a fingerprint check on the knife. The only fingerprints on it were those of the old man. They questioned the wife of the murdered man but let her go, for they knew she was innocent of the crime. She left town and the police ordered the house and barn burned to the ground. As they burned, the terrible moaning of the old man's spirit could be heard a half a mile away. When the flames finally burned out, there was silence. As for the young wife, she eventually wound up in the nut house. The old man's property was bought and a new house built on it. Whether or not it is still haunted by the old man's spirit, I do not know and I don't want to know....