Nothing speaks to that dark, forbidding place in the shadowy recesses of the mind like a haunted house. Countless books and movies draw inspiration from them, playing on the daunting tales we once told around the campfire. As children, we feared that rambling, vacant house with the overgrown shrubs and the peeling paint and the broken shudders, but what if they were real? What if past inhabitants really stalked thier old "haunts," forever at unrest as they seek to keep new occupants out, or maybe to welcome them in? Perhaps something unspeakable happened there long ago? Maybe someone lived there for so many years that they couldn't bring themselves to leave? On the following pages you'll find many spine-chilling accounts of haunted houses.

Owners, servants, hosts, waiters, bellhops, doormen, and guests alike tend to hang around longer than expected in the world's hotels. Deaths by accident and intent have occurred in most of them, it seems. Parties resume in dusty ballrooms, cigar smoke wafts from nowhere, elevators whisk into operation for no one. Footsteps sound through empty hallways. It's like something out of a Stephen King novel... But is it real?

Castles, in most cases, have been in existance for many centuries. You'd be hard pressed to find an old castle devoid of blood-chilling accounts of horrific deaths, suicides, murders, traitorous acts, family secrets, and unmarked graves. Most castles play host to a fair share of ghosts and lore. Here are a few intriguing places from around the world.

Hard time can stretch on and on, maybe for centuries after the inmates are gone and the last convict released. Murder and suicide spurred by hatred, fear and insanity can leave the echoes of history alive in the darkness of a long defunct prison. Revisit the frightening cellblocks on these pages!