Meet Victoria, Demi Lovato’s childhood ghost friend

This Halloween we’re telling (true) spooky stories from the FADER universe. Here’s Demi Lovato’s condensed and edited retelling from a 2011 radio interview with Mack at Night.

DEMI LOVATO: A bunch of weird things had been happening.

There would be times where my dad would lose his belt and he would search the house, like, three times while my mom, my sisters, and I would help. We’d look all over the place and then all off a sudden we’d go back into his room and the belt would be there perfectly coiled on the bed. It also happened with socks. We’d be looking for my dad’s socks and we would go back into his room and they would be perfectly laid out on his bed. That was just normal for us.

There was another time when me, my dad, and my mom, were watching TV in the living room and all three of us saw someone come down the stairs and go into the kitchen. My dad called out to my older sister Dallas and asked, “Dallas can you grab me a glass of Kool-Aid?” She didn’t answer. My dad was like, “Dallas, answer me. Don’t be rude!” We all look over and she’s not in the kitchen. Moments later Dallas comes walking down the stairs. We were just like, OK, another weird thing.

Then one night I was going to go to bed and I went to shut my closet door. When I shut it, I saw a little girl dressed like she was from the 1800s or 1700s just standing in my closet. I froze and ran into my older sister’s room and I was like, “Oh my god Dallas, please can I sleep with you tonight?” And she was like, “Your face is white, what just happened?” And I was like, “I just saw a ghost.”

I didn’t tell anyone else, but a week later, my mom asked us if we were awake and running around upstairs the other night. We were like, “No, why?” And she said, “Well, for the past week I’ve been hearing footsteps upstairs, but when I go upstairs to check it out because it’s 2 in the morning and you guys should be asleep, you’re all in bed dead asleep.”

So I told her: I did see a little girl in my closet.

And then she hit me with this: “Well, you know, when you were 5 years old I came upstairs into the room by your closet and you were talking to yourself.” There was a picture frame with a little girl dressed like she was from the 1800s — it had come with the frame. My mom came in and asked, “Demi who are you talking to?” And I said, “She’s my best friend, Victoria.”