It was just another early evening at Three Bears Café, and manager Malia Hennies was carrying food upstairs from a basement kitchen. The staircase light was burnt out, it was dark and she when she reached the top of the platform, she heard heavy footsteps following her. She turned around to thank the cook for helping her - but no one was there.

"It was very clear that someone was walking up the stairs. I got goose bumps and a cold chill. It was definitely creepy," said Hennies. "I believe in ghosts and perhaps another realm … but it doesn't frighten me like that. It's almost playful."

It seems everyone has an eerie, mysterious and unintelligible story. Some think its just their imagination, others deny it even happened and some, like Hennies, believe it is a ghost.

However you reconcile paranormal experiences - meaning something beyond the range of scientific explanation - it's hard to ignore the heart-stopping, skin-crawling and unsettling feeling of possibly encountering the supernatural.

Marietta, a town steeped in Civil War history, with several old buildings still intact and occupied, its not hard to find ghost stories. Joni Goodin, founder of Ghosts of Marietta, a walking ghost tour, collected the tales and now takes people on a 90-minute jaunt through the haunted places in town. She tells stories of a ghost dog in a local cemetery, a grieving sister and a mysterious fireman.

"The Kennesaw House is pretty fascinating. Some claim there are 700 ghosts there since it was once a Confederate hospital and morgue," said Goodin.

The house was built in 1844, and in 1855, the Fletcher family added on a bed and breakfast. They had three daughters, and it's believed that one of the daughters could still be there, according to Goodin.

"I'm not sure why. But they did live through the Civil War, a terrible time of tension and death. The Fletchers were Unionists, and it was really a period when families were being ripped apart and women were being left alone," she said.

Dan Cox, founder of the Marietta History Museum in the Kennesaw House, said he has many pictures of ghosts. "I've heard and seen all types of stuff. When I get here at 6 a.m., I hear footsteps. But I don't really believe in that stuff; it's just the imagination," he said with a laugh.

Ghost investigators and the paranormal community are trying to find out why ghosts haunt certain locations, and advances in technology are making it a little easier than relying on tales and legends.

Kevin Fike with Historic Ghost Watch and Investigation in Atlanta has surveyed several Marietta locations, including Three Bears Café and the Kennesaw House. He uses electromagnetic meters to note changes in currents, thermometers to detect changes in temperature, cameras and digital voice recorders.

"We use all the equipment and see if things pair up because usually you have several things going on," he said, adding that his team doesn't charge to investigate.

Marietta resident Rhetta Akamatsu is a member of a paranormal group called Ghost Hounds, an investigative group. "We want to learn as much as we can, not just think something or feel it. What can back it up," she said.

They do see some commonalities. Usually haunted places or ghost stories involve a young, unnatural, traumatic or unexpected death; one reason Civil War and Antebellum houses may be haunted.

"Old hospitals and prisons are usually haunted and places where a person might have an attachment," said Akamatsu, author of Ghost to Coast, a paranormal handbook to ghost tours, haunted hotels and investigation groups.

Each ghost expert has a different perspective on what these spirits are. Fike, a Methodist, suspects a ghost is a person without a body that hasn't chosen to ascend to heaven, typically because of unfinished business. Akamatsu, a Unitarian, believes that ghosts are energy released from a body after death that's not ready to move on.

Goodin, who fell into hosting ghost tours as a second job in Key West, isn't quite sure what they are - she just loves telling stories.

"The tour is for people who want to hear cool stories and get a huge dose of history … on a cool fall evening, it's nice to gather with a group of people and share experiences and stories," she said.

She said bring your camera and an open mind - people have reported strange feelings of grief in certain locations and street lamps have turned off when they walk underneath them.

"No ghosts have ever jumped out at us, but some strange and subtle things have happened."

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