When TikToker Hadley (@hadleybar) was 14 years old, she and her mom had the opportunity to live in a haunted castle on an island in France called Corsica.
The castle was on a large plot of land, and the French general Napoleon’s right-hand man, Count Sebastiani, died in it.
Somehow, their flights got messed up, and Hadley ended up arriving at the castle three days before her mom. There was no electricity or running water until her mom came to turn it on. The castle was four stories. When she first got there, the maid showed her around.
“I remember, after she left, I was crying and so upset because I didn’t know how to get to the kitchen because it was that confusing and that big of a castle,” Hadley recalled.
“The castle hadn’t been lived in for years, so it was spooky, terrifying, cobwebs, no furniture. All the furniture that was there had white sheets on top of it.”
Since there was no electricity, she couldn’t charge her phone, and she had to use a candle to see at night. The first night, she heard strange noises, including windows shutting, doors slamming, weird breezes, and even voices.
And, even after a week of living at the castle and exploring the property, she still couldn’t find the kitchen.
Three days later, when her mom arrived, she turned on the electricity, and things were normal for a little while. But Hadley continued hearing voices, and weird things kept happening at night. As soon as the sun set, the unusual activity would start up.
One day, they returned home from the grocery store to find the place destroyed. Clearly, a burglar had broken in and stolen everything.
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They decided to hire live-in help to keep an eye on the castle and deter people from breaking in. There was a 12-foot gated wall surrounding the castle, so it was unclear how the burglars had gotten in at all.
The helpers they hired were two 20-year-olds from Marseille, France, named Clara and Simon. They stayed in the west wing of the castle.
One day, they heard Clara screaming from the attic at around midnight. Hadley and her mom ran up to the attic. As they climbed the stairs, they saw blood splattered on the white walls.
When they turned the corner, they saw the bathroom door completely busted in. The mirror was shattered, and blood was everywhere. Clara was huddled in the corner, screaming in terror and drenched in blood.
While Hadley’s mom talked to Clara, Hadley pulled out her phone to call the police. However, there was no cell service, and the power went out.
They asked Clara where Simon was. She told them that Simon had done this to her and then jumped out the window. Hadley and her mom armed themselves with flashlights and a fireplace poker and slowly made their way down the main staircase.
As they walked down, they saw a shadow move. It was Simon, and he began chasing the three of them. Somehow, they got out of the castle and hid in the guesthouse in the garden.
Suddenly, the cell service came back on, so they were able to call the police. The police came to arrest Simon, but in all the confusion, they couldn’t find Clara.
Hadley, her mom, and the police spotted something moving in the window. But just then, Clara stepped out from behind them. At this point, Simon was in custody, so no one else was in the castle.
“We all remember watching it walk out of view of the window,” Hadley said. “They did a whole sweep. They called in the general armory, which is like the police in France, and there was nothing there.”
Hadley and her mom moved out of the castle the very next day. They went to stay in a hotel and left a lot of their stuff behind. To this day, no one lives in the castle.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
