The Golden Hand
excerpted from Spooky Oregon
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
He never paid much attention to the neighbors living on his city block until the day the pretty middle-aged widow moved in two doors down from him. She was plump and dark with sparkling eyes, and she always wore dark gloves on her hands, even indoors.
He went out of his way to meet her, and they often "bumped" into each other in the street and stood talking. One day, as she brushed the hair back from her forehead, he caught a glimpse of gold under the glove on her right arm. When he asked her about it, she grinned coquettishly and told him that she had lost one hand a few years back and now wore a golden hand in its place. In that moment, a terrible lust woke in his heart - not to possess the lady herself, but to possess the solid gold hand that she wore under her long black gloves.
He courted the widow with every stratagem known to him; flowers, trips to the theater, gifts, compliments. And he won her heart. Within a month, they were standing in front of a minister, promising to love one another until death parted them. Within another month, he was a widower and had buried his ailing wife in the local cemetery - without her golden hand. It had been so easy. A slow poison, administered daily to resemble a wasting disease. No one - not his wife, not the family doctor, not their neighbors - suspected murder. And the night after the funeral, he slept with the golden hand under his pillow.
It was a dark night. Clouds covered the moon, and the wind was whistling down the chimney and rattling the shutters of the town house. He was deeply asleep when the door to his room slammed open with a loud bang and a wild wind whipped around the room, scattering papers and books and clothing and table coverings every which way. He sat up, startled by the sudden noise, and his pulse began to pound when he saw a greenish-white light bobbing slowly into the room. Before his eyes, the light slowly grew larger, taking on the shape of his dead wife. She was missing one arm. "Where is my golden hand?" she moaned, her dark eyes blazing with red fire. "Give me my golden hand!"
He tried to speak, but his mouth was so dry with fear that he could only make soft gasping noises. The glowing phantom moved closer to him, her once-lovely face twisted into a hideous green mask. "You stole my life and you stole my hand. Give me back my golden hand!" the dead wife howled. The noise rose higher and higher, and the phantom pulsed with a strident green light that smote his eyes, making them water.
He cowered back against his pillows, and the hard shape of the golden hand pressed against his back. And then he felt the golden hand twitch underneath him as the mangled green phantom that had been his wife swooped down upon him, pressing his face against the pillow in a suffocating green cloud. He tried to scream, but it was cut off suddenly by a terrible pressure against his throat, cutting off his breath. The world went black.
The next morning, when the housemaid came into the room with her master's morning cup of tea, she found him lying dead on the floor, with the golden hand clutched around his throat.
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Comments
1 word:aaaahhhh!!!!!
Posted by: sasha | October 31, 2009 11:10 AM
scary stories rock and this one i like it is so scary i scared my brother last night
Posted by: bobby | October 31, 2009 12:49 PM
I've heard this one in a different version, that one he was a 'sailor' and he got murdered and some teens came n stole it and in the morning Cops and Bystanders saw the 2 boys dead, throat slit open. BTW, The man was @ a museum.
Posted by: Sk8er Gurl | October 31, 2009 07:54 PM
i heard this one in a different version with an old lady and her bone to make soup
Posted by: jasmine | December 19, 2009 01:28 PM
WOW! THAT WAS SCARY!
Posted by: Mika | December 19, 2009 08:17 PM
omg great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: kaytlin | January 7, 2010 03:44 PM
omg. that waz scary.
Posted by: saul | January 8, 2010 10:43 PM
wow that was scary
Posted by: Anonymous | January 12, 2010 12:14 PM
who would marry for a golden hand?
Posted by: Anonymous | January 12, 2010 07:59 PM
what the hell
Posted by: Anonymous | January 13, 2010 07:22 PM
(love Boboby) anyway heard it and seen scarier then that its not boring but its not scary either!!!!!!!!
Posted by: sara | January 15, 2010 12:48 PM
this isnt scarey!!! im 12 and this doesnt frighten me.
Posted by: maegen | January 15, 2010 08:36 PM
It was cool
i wanna read more!!
Posted by: Kia | January 18, 2010 12:28 PM
omg that was great and scary
Posted by: aj | January 18, 2010 01:37 PM
That's so Dom scary wow I am going to tell that to my friends
Posted by: Anonymous | January 23, 2010 04:57 PM
OH WOW NOT SCARY!!
Posted by: Yasmin | January 23, 2010 06:25 PM
Dear Lord...
Posted by: cookie | January 27, 2010 07:36 AM
woww is scary story
Posted by: abdullahi mohamed | January 27, 2010 03:20 PM
omg this is cool!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | January 27, 2010 05:50 PM
Wow. Creepy stuff
Posted by: Alise | January 28, 2010 05:09 PM
Cool.
Posted by: Alice Cullen | February 9, 2010 05:00 PM
wow what is wrong with that man..marrying for a stupid golden hand
Posted by: Taylor lover | February 11, 2010 12:20 PM
Meh. Not scary. Aaaaah. -_-
Posted by: White Wolf | February 12, 2010 04:18 PM
that was so creepy!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | February 13, 2010 12:56 PM
woooooooooow that was sooooooooooooooooooo scary (not) you guys are right this is sooooooooo not scary and why would any one want to marry for a golden hand and i mean really that is soooo four letters D...U...M...B dumb.
Posted by: taylor | February 20, 2010 12:10 AM
i'm 11 and this doesn't scare me
Posted by: Melissa | February 20, 2010 04:40 PM
That was a good story, but it wasn't that scary.
Posted by: I Love Gage Sparks | February 21, 2010 03:52 PM
Didn't really scare me.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 21, 2010 08:07 PM
omg that is so stupid, marrying a woman for her hand then again i would lol
Posted by: georgia rose mallory | February 22, 2010 03:18 PM
that stupid azzzzz story
Posted by: Anonymous | February 24, 2010 09:53 AM
that is a great story i will read it every day and get realy scared!
Posted by: duaa | February 25, 2010 03:25 PM
not reely
Posted by: Anonymous | March 1, 2010 01:26 PM
cool, i like this site. too bad the stories arent that scary , but i like them. i have to say i would kill my husband if he took my gold hand , not that i have a husband or a gold hand!lol
Posted by: bre | March 1, 2010 04:08 PM
i love this f***** story! i would do it but thats just me haha
Posted by: georgia rose mallory | March 3, 2010 06:55 AM
this story is totally s***. its made up. doesnt scare me and its TOTALLY LAME AND POINTLESS!!!!!!!!!
It was so boring i almost cried thats three minutes of my life ill never get back!
Posted by: georgia rose mallory | March 4, 2010 07:51 AM
this is stupid. you're supposed to marry if u love some1 NOT IF U R GREEDY AND WANT A GOLDEN HAND!!
Posted by: Charlotte | March 4, 2010 07:53 AM
that was pretty scary...
im reading this before bed time and i highly think that i will NOT be able to sleep tonight..
i'll be too scared!!!
i hope a golden hand doesnt come and kill me tonight....
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!
Posted by: libby | March 4, 2010 03:18 PM