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
tht was creepy. ive heard a different vesion of tht.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 22, 2009 10:24 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
OMG its scary
Posted by: michael mann | March 12, 2010 10:22 AM
cooi
Posted by: Anonymous | March 16, 2010 11:00 AM
Well, that wasn't as scary as all the coments made it seem.... *L*
Posted by: Loo Loo | March 17, 2010 10:10 AM
CREEPY!
Posted by: kaitlyn | March 20, 2010 11:53 AM
that was sooo not scary. but im glad my 18 year old brother and my 17 year old sister isnt reading this..they would prabaly scare me and it would catch me off guard and i wuld freak!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: boyo | March 20, 2010 01:29 PM
iiiiiiii lllllllllloooooooooovvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeee iiiiiiiittttttttt it was soo scary!!!!! best story ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: kcarroll | March 23, 2010 08:09 PM
this thing is SSOOOOOOOOOOO
4 letters
crap
sh*t
O_O wtf is up with this f***?????
i hate u all
+ maddie
Posted by: georgia rose mallory | March 24, 2010 01:15 PM
Soo...
Ive heard many stories like this. Love them all.
Posted by: Makenna | March 26, 2010 10:31 PM
very intresting
Posted by: casey | March 28, 2010 03:16 PM
lol I below 10 and tht didn't scare me its a good story though
Posted by: werewolf | March 28, 2010 03:25 PM
wow, thats intense(:
Posted by: Anonymous | March 28, 2010 05:34 PM
that did not scare me i am under 10 and it did not scare me
Posted by: Anonymous | March 30, 2010 08:02 PM
Thats gay
Posted by: ernie | March 31, 2010 08:59 AM
Fake!
Posted by: Timmy | April 1, 2010 10:06 AM
i am 11 and not scared but a good story!!!
Posted by: mikayla | April 2, 2010 02:37 PM
Im 10 thats crepy
Posted by: Bobby | April 2, 2010 11:06 PM
iam sorry but that wasnt scary at all . you need same new stories and from what the other comments say you really do need new stuff.
Posted by: bbto | April 3, 2010 07:50 PM
amazing0.o
Posted by: sarah | April 5, 2010 11:33 AM
that wasnt scary im 8 and i showed it to my little sisster whos 4 she lol you need to post something thats not s*** heres one. there were 2 kids the lost them selfs in a swomp running away from the killer that try to!!! see you probrably wanna read more
Posted by: Anonymous | April 7, 2010 11:04 AM
that was soooooooooooooooooooooooooo scary[not]
Posted by: noraima | April 15, 2010 02:07 PM
Interesting, a little scary, not much tho. And who cares how old u r the story wz nice nd that's all tht matters geez no offense but yea postin ur age on th web isn't so smart ;)
Posted by: tori | April 18, 2010 04:42 PM
wow, scared the b'jesus outta me.
Posted by: ted | April 18, 2010 08:38 PM
i heard one with a greedy wife who stole a new corpse liver cuz she ate her husbands dinner wen the ghost cums to kill the liver owner she tells it the husband has it.the light goes out and u hear him wail
Posted by: Anonymous | April 22, 2010 09:09 PM
this was lame:(
Posted by: creampuff | April 24, 2010 07:23 AM
that was awesome!
Posted by: creampuff | April 24, 2010 07:25 AM
oh my gosh thats crazy! like, the ghost didnt even take the hand back that i didnt understand thats why she went right to kill him and get the hand right? why not take it? he was dead!
Posted by: lauren | April 24, 2010 07:06 PM
it's not supposed to be SCARY. it's supposed to be ominous. creepy. spine-tingly. every story can't have gory details about the murder! :)
Posted by: Kansas | April 27, 2010 05:07 PM
NICE BUT NOT SCARY.
Posted by: Kriti Aakaanksha.G | April 28, 2010 07:02 AM
oh snapzors
Posted by: Eric | April 28, 2010 04:12 PM
nice,not to much,not to little,gives u goosebumps,but not to much to the point u wanna stop reading,good story.
Posted by: nicole | April 29, 2010 04:16 PM
im 11 but its not scary,but good story.
Posted by: Anonymous | April 29, 2010 05:33 PM
Haha great story! :D a bit dumb, but good
Posted by: Tweaker | April 29, 2010 06:38 PM
I'm 8,sooooo not scary.
Posted by: Rosa | May 4, 2010 08:34 AM
pretty good...i would read more
Posted by: Anonymous | May 4, 2010 11:04 AM
hey fools stop trying to be manly and admit that it was a good and scary story
Posted by: Anonymous | May 12, 2010 09:09 AM
I've Read TONS Of Ghost stories I've Even Listened To Some They All CREEP ME OUT
Posted by: Anonymous | May 16, 2010 11:16 AM
I iz 9. I luv it!!!!
Posted by: 26Bananas | May 19, 2010 03:43 PM
Pretty scary. I've heard scarier though. It's what he gets for being greedy and deciptive though.
Posted by: Sanji's girl | May 19, 2010 06:51 PM
It's not smart to post your age online.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 20, 2010 11:16 AM
wow that was scary when I read it I was to scared to move
Posted by: amy | May 22, 2010 04:11 AM
im 8 and it don't scare me
Posted by: macey dog | May 23, 2010 08:40 AM
holy crap
Posted by: Anonymous | May 26, 2010 10:32 AM
that was really freaky and i think if someone does that it means revenge
Posted by: chantelle | May 27, 2010 06:36 AM
i loved this one!!
Posted by: ann the hippie | May 27, 2010 05:33 PM
You've done it once more! Incredible writing.
Posted by: Sophie Tobin | May 27, 2010 08:40 PM
i am 11, didn't scare me but was good
Posted by: bridie | June 1, 2010 02:09 AM
lol waste of time
Posted by: Alex | June 2, 2010 04:22 AM
ohh yeah right interesting ....can't believe he married for nthng...
Posted by: Monica Santos | June 2, 2010 09:25 AM
what the helll was that was that for real
Posted by: jayla | June 3, 2010 09:09 AM
I'm 11 and it was boring
Posted by: ana | June 6, 2010 07:19 PM
two words freakin crazy
Posted by: vincent | June 7, 2010 09:40 AM
OMG THIS IS VERY SCARYYY!! I FAINT JUST THE FIRST TIME I READ IT SCARYYYYY!!! but it stupid a man wanna marry a woman just for gold hand...he can just steal it!-_-
Posted by: bayu | June 8, 2010 02:31 AM
Wow, im 5 and i dont even think its scary!
Posted by: Anonymous | June 8, 2010 05:06 PM
Holy!!! that was soooooo scary! NOT! I'm 9 sooooooo not scary but very good
Posted by: alexa | June 13, 2010 05:26 PM
coooool i love this
Posted by: nunusha | June 18, 2010 04:30 PM
wow tht was cool
Posted by: Anonymous | June 26, 2010 03:46 PM
Interesting. I'm not one to get scared just by word of mouch (or text) but that was pretty scaryyyy!
Posted by: Beth | June 30, 2010 12:17 PM
spooooooky!!!
Posted by: aditi | July 5, 2010 04:12 AM
omg wth i luved it
so spooky i was alone while reading it and woah i was shaking too
i love scary stories but this one was like wow i really needed that to boost my day
it's so sad though- that both of them had too die for the golden hand that nobody recieved
Posted by: lulu | July 8, 2010 09:01 PM
the one i heard he sold the hand and when the maid found him he was missing his hand
Posted by: ef'qwif | July 14, 2010 07:59 PM
omg that's really scary
Posted by: animepopprincess101 | July 17, 2010 07:46 PM
you know i've heard wwwwwaaaaaayyyyy better ones but this is not bad
Posted by: stasha | July 19, 2010 10:40 AM
i heard this story in a different version with an old lady and a guy and a toe....
Posted by: leale | July 20, 2010 04:15 PM
That was a true story apparently he only loved her because the golden hand was worth so much money and he killed her with a poisong in her wine and buried her in the cementry and came bacj to haunt him and finally used powers to locate her golden hand and use it to slit his throat
Posted by: Heather B 123 | July 24, 2010 07:18 AM