The Posessed Ball

“Hi there. I won’t waste any time—and honestly, I don’t know if this counts as an urban legend or ghost story of Texas so much as a personal experience that happened in Texas. But I can 100% confirm, along with my parents, that this actually happened. Not a lot of spooky stuff ever happens to me, so this one stands out.

Anyway, this story takes place in 2007 when I was 9 years old. At the time, I lived in Mission, Texas.

One night, my mom came home after being out at a dinner party with some colleagues and friends. When she walked in, she was carrying this wooden ball wrapped in paper.

Now, this ball was about the size of a coconut and looked like some kind of decorative sphere you’d find on display in a grandma’s house in the ’90s. It was light brown, with faint paintings of angels and cherubs, along with depictions of heaven—everything done in earthy tones of beige, brown, and yellow.

She immediately sat me and my sister down and, in her most serious tone, explained that she had gotten this wooden orb from a friend who had picked it up during a trip to Mexico. She told us:

“You two need to be very careful with this. This is not a toy. This ball has its own power, and only I am allowed to touch it. If you touch it, you’ll mess up its energy—or worse, it might hurt you. Spirits live inside it.”

Then she made us promise not to mess with it.

Now, my mom taught Sunday school and had already warned us about things like Ouija boards. Plus, I was already into horror movies and games like Silent Hill, The Suffering, Alone in the Dark, etc.—so to me, this all made perfect sense. And honestly, I probably thought it was kind of cool at the time (I still do, by the way).

One important thing to mention is that my mom is a Methodist Christian, so she tended to steer clear of curanderas, Santería, or anything that smelled even remotely of witchcraft. She never would’ve willingly brought something like that into the house. In fact, she told me she thought the ball was ugly, but I guess since it was a gift from her friend, she reluctantly accepted it.

At first, she placed it in her office, where it just sat on her desk—no pedestal, nothing special. Everything was fine for a while, no weird incidents.

But then, one morning around 7 AM, while both my parents were still asleep, my sister woke me up and told me to come look in my mom’s office.

The door was wide open. My sister and I just stood there, staring at the wooden orb on my mom’s desk.

Only—it wasn’t just sitting there.

In the faint morning light, the ball was gently rolling from side to side on the desk.

Now, I know what you’re thinking—it’s a ball, of course it would roll. But here’s the thing: no one had touched it. Both of our cats refused to go near it, and the fan was off. Yet it was moving. And not in a natural way—it would roll to one side, stop in the same exact spot every time, then roll back the other way at the same speed.

My sister and I just watched in silence until I finally asked, “What’s wrong with it?”

And in the most nonchalant tone, my sister said, “It’s evil. That’s why we can’t touch it. If you touch it, you’ll get possessed.”

To this day, I have no idea where she got that from, but I just rolled with it (no pun intended) and went downstairs to watch cartoons—fully accepting that we had a haunted evil ball in the house.

Months later, my mom told us she didn’t like having the ball in her office anymore because she could feel negative energy coming from it. So she moved it into her bedroom instead. Looking back, I have no idea why she’d move it to where she slept—maybe so she and my dad could feel the negative vibes together?

Anyway, one day when my parents were out, I decided to sneak into their room to check out the ball for myself.

When I walked in, I saw that my mom had placed the ball inside a wide-mouthed vase to hold it in place so it couldn’t roll. She must’ve done that after telling us she once saw it moving on its own.

I knew I wasn’t supposed to touch it, but not even the threat of possession could keep my curiosity at bay.

I lifted the ball out of the vase. The material felt like soft, hollow wood. It was surprisingly light and seemed really delicate—like if I squeezed too hard, it would crack or shatter.

I placed it on the nightstand to get a better look. I also noticed something weird—it didn’t roll away. It just sat there, like it was magnetized.

Finally, I decided to give it a little nudge.

It didn’t roll normally. It lightly rocked from side to side, then settled back into the exact same spot I had placed it. The best way I can describe it is like flicking one of those springy door stoppers—it would wobble left and right, then come to rest.

I didn’t believe my eyes at first. Even I could tell there was something unnatural about the way it moved.

So, I poked it again.

And again.

And again.

The whole time, I was giggling at the thought that I was “messing with its power.” I imagined some winged, pissed-off incubus inside the hollow orb, annoyed at me for poking it. But every single time, the ball did its same weird, jerky routine—moving in that strange, controlled way.

Finally, I put it back in the vase and went about my day.

Now, I’d love to say this story has some crazy, terrifying ending—but it doesn’t. Eventually, my mom, sister, and dad all got too creeped out by the ball. One day, my mom just tossed it in the dumpster on trash day.

Years later, I still bring the story up to my mom because it was such a weird occurrence that we all just kind of brushed off. She still doesn’t like talking about it because it creeps her out. I tried asking her where her friend got it, and she said it was from some strange witchcraft shop in Monterrey, Mexico.

To this day, I’m still looking for that ball because honestly, I want one. I’d keep it as a pet.

I even asked my mom if she ever knew what it was called, but she never found out.

My sister just called it the possessed ball.

My mom called it the ugly demonic ball.

But me? I just called it cool.

It was supposed to bring its owner good energy, so I don’t think it was intended to be evil—but I guess that one was… defective.

So if any of y’all know what this ball might be or where I can find one, please let me know.” -Aksel