Something about summer and ghost stories, it just feels right, doesn't it?

This is Avery After Dark, and I'm your host, Avery Ross.

It is sweet summertime here in America.

In this episode, I have a spooky treat for you.

Three true summertime ghost stories.

Real people? Real paranormal encounters.

I am so excited for this episode. I can't wait for you to hear

these stories. They are so good. Our first story. This is the beach house. I've only told this story a few

times, not because I'm scared people won't believe me, though I'm sure some won't, but because I still don't know what to do

with it. I find myself thinking about this incident quite often. It happened the summer I turned 15.

My parents rented a beach house for a week in a small little town on the North Carolina coast.

It wasn't a fancy place, kind of weathered, pale blue

paint peeling off the sides, creaky porch steps. But it was right on the water,

and that was all we cared about. There were five of us, me, my parents, my 12-year-old brother,

Aaron, and my four-year-old sister Lucy.

Lucy was in that weirdly adorable phase, where she made up songs about everything

and carried a different stuffed animal each day like it was a celebrity guest.

The beach house had this long hallway that ran past all the bedrooms and ended in the living room, which had

sliding doors out to the deck. That first night, Lucy refused to sleep in the kid-style

bunk room with Aaron. She said it was too cold, which was weird because the AC barely worked.

But whatever, she slept in my parents' room with them.

The next morning at breakfast, she said something that made my dad laugh, but made my mom and me

...