There aren't many things capable of freaking a person out more than being mid-conversation about death when something really weird happens - a white feather mysteriously appears, a thud comes from an empty room upstairs or a Christmas tree bauble stares back at you.
Alright, the latter may seem a little too specific but carer Melanie Scholes claims that it's exactly what happened to her when she caught a ghost haunting a patient's Christmas tree - moments after a glass bauble mysteriously smashed on its own.
Melanie, 31, had been sitting and chatting with a colleague and a resident about deceased loved ones when a glass bauble fell from the Christmas tree and smashed.
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The newly-decorated tree had not been touched for at least 15 minutes - and Melanie claims the sudden smashed bauble gave the trio a fright.
But it was not until later that afternoon when Melanie took a picture of the tree to send to her mum that she realised there was a face gazing right at her from among the branches.
The spectral vision appears to be grey with a clear eye and nose - with Melanie believing it could be her colleague's deceased brother 'letting her now he was still around'.
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Melanie claims the spooky vision is even on the same side of the tree as where the smashed bauble was hanging on a low branch - and believes the ghost was showing them he was present.
Melanie, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, said: "I see a ghost in the bauble. There's a face in the bauble and it's looking right at me. I think it stands out quite a lot but we didn't see it at the time.
"We had a conversation in the morning because we were talking about my colleague's brother who sadly passed away a couple of years ago. My patient had just been putting the tree up. As we were talking about it the bauble fell off the tree and smashed.
"We all jumped around to see what it was when the bauble broke. We'd been sat down chatting for at least 15 minutes. If it was going to fall off it would have done it more or less straight away. We'd been talking about her brother in that moment too.
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"He'd sadly passed away of cancer and we were having this chat through about it and it was in that moment that the bauble just fell off. My colleague has seen the photo and she said it's her brother. I think it might have been his way to let her know he was still around.
"I don't know if it's her brother or not but I do think it was listening to us, if you know what I mean. Especially with it coming up to Christmas now. It's a family time of year.
"I showed the picture to my mum who saw the face first and showed me it back. She cropped it down a bit and said 'have you seen the face?'.
"I'd missed it at first and then I could see it. Everyone I've shown seems to be able to see the face and some people have even claimed they can see others around the tree too."
Melanie, who also runs a ghost hunting company, claims it is not the first time she has experienced paranormal activity in her work as a carer.
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She once grew very close to a client who sadly passed away - but she saw his shadow gazing at her from his window when she drove past his house a few weeks later.
The fearless paranormal investigator has even dared to brave a night at the infamous East Drive in Pontefract, which is widely believed to be one of the UK's most haunted homes.
Melanie said: "Once or twice at work I've had ghostly activity, and at home as well. We've got our own family owned ghost hunting company so it's something I'm used to. Once I was at my mum's house and my phone was just sitting on the couch on its own and it just flashed.
"I wondered what it was so I went back to my phone and it had taken a picture of up near the ceiling but there's a figure in it looking over me. You can see it looking down towards my phone.
"I spent the night at East Drive in Pontefract. I took a picture of the ceiling because it was a dead old fashioned polystyrene ceiling and you could see someone in the ceiling looking down on us.
"Sometimes I get quite scared from [the memories] because we were there on our own and I could hear people running around and banging upstairs. That scared me.
"The strangest paranormal experience was when I lived in Germany and I used to live in a flat. I lay in bed one night and I woke up one night and I was convinced my son was beside of me.
"I was really poorly and I was convinced my son was at the side of me so I got out of bed and I went out of the balcony for a cigarette. I was convinced my son was next to me in the bed but I could see straight into his room from the balcony and he was in his own bed.
"I went back into my own room and the bed was still indented from where someone had been. I tried brushing it off as myself going a bit doolally because I was really poorly at the time.
"About half an hour later I woke up to a football bouncing at the side of my bed. I jumped out of bed and I wouldn't go back to the bed that night. That's the strangest, scariest thing I've ever seen."
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Well let's hope we can all sleep tonight after reading that, Santa won't be best pleased.
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and MediaTopics: Ghost, Christmas, Community, Weird