Forgiveness
By: clarkkathleen32@yahoo.com
Hi, I've written recenlty, but toady I'll share something different.
Right after I turned 21 I was in a local bar enjoying too many
beverages. A friend of mine from highschool, Zach, was
there. Noticing that I had been over-served when I attempted to
drive myself home he came out of the bar and offered to drive me.
Although I do not remember much (I was REALLY intoxicated) I do
remember arguing with him and refusing to let him drive me. He
then offered to ride with me on the several mile ride to my
house. During the drive I burnt a large hole in the upholstrey
with a cigarette. To demonstrate how intoxicated I was: this hole
was about an inch deep in the armrest (it was made of fabric). I
am very ashamed of this next part. Finally, when I arrived at my
house I guess I told Zach to "Get the f@*k out"...he walked all the way
back to his house (several miles). Not long after Zach was at the
same bar. It was early in the morning and knowing that he was too
drunk to drive, he phoned several friends to come and get him.
Nobody answered his call that night (this was right around the time
that having a personal cell phone was beginning). Unfortunately,
Zach attempted to drive himself home--he did not make the
journey. At his funeral, I arrived to the church late and was
crying very much. I felt ashamed to be so upset while his family
was taking it so well. I just felt unbearable guilt about how he
had saved my life, how I had treated him so cruely, and how nobody was
there to save his. (He was a great guy: he would work on the
family farm before and after school, and later was a volunteer
firefighter.) I went a to mutual friends house after the funeral
and we sat on the deck and had a drink to Zach (I know). Out of
nowhere a butterfly came and landed on the index finger of my right
hand. If that wasn't odd enough it would not leave. After a
few seconds I became nervous and tried to blow it off. No matter
how hard I blew it stayed on my finger. I could shake my finger
and nothing would happen. Finally the butterfly flew off after I
had really made a huge fuss. I realized later that it was my
friend Zach letting me know that he forgave me.
East High's Haunted Parts
By: luckylittlecharm@gmail.com
East High is haunted in alot of ways, as students, we have scared
ourselves to a point where we shiver each time we walk down a certain
hallway. There is a rumor that there used to be a swimming pool
in the basement of East High School. After a boy drowned in the pool,
they filled it up with cement and closed it off, but the boy's ghost is
probably still there, living in the boiler room. Also, there is a
ghost in the big auditorium named Topper who lives up by the
spotlights. The janitors have felt his presence, and one janitor even
claims she was holding a rosary with beads on it, and as she felt
Topper's creepy presence, she closed her eyes for a few seconds and
when she opened them, the beads on her rosary were gone. Also,
the dance company discovered that if you walk down the haunted red hall
in the basement at night and you are silent, you can hear a woman
screaming, a baby crying, and a siren going off. Another janitor and
one of the teachers were leaving the school one night, and they claimed
as they were walking past the red hall, they stopped and looked because
they saw a boy ghost there, drifting away from them.
Why I Believe
By: kendo311@gmail.com
Thought I would just share some of my personal experiences as this
seems to be the place to do it. I have had several "encounters" growing
up, anywhere from 7 years old till about the age of 25 as I recall. I
don't believe any of these incidents to be related, jus random
occourences. I haven't seen or noticed anything for the last 10 years
which I consider a good thing as I'm not a fan of having the bejesus
scared out of me ;).The 1st time I believe I had a paranormal
experience was as a small child living in a very old home my Mom and
her fiance moved into. I never was comfortable in the room I was given,
the only time I was in there I was to sleep. It was the classic creepy
room. Old, musty, small, windows that howled with the wind, and I had a
closet with no door and in the back of it was a small attic door that I
couldn't stand even lookin at after awhile I heard out of place noises
coming from behind the door almost nightly. Mom blamed the wind. One
day I had gotten some glow in the dark stickers and plastered my walls
with em and waited for night to enjoy them. That night I layed in bed
looking at my cool new stickers once the lights went out, and then it
wasn't long till the noises began, my attention now went to the attic
door where it sounded like chains and somthing rubbing behind the door.
That's when I noticed my stickers... the lights hadn't even been off 5
minutes and All the stickers simulataneously just stopped glowing. And
then they started again, and then off. I remember blinking my eyes
thinking there was somthing wrong with them. I watched this for about 2
minutes before terror took over and hid under the blankets until I fell
asleep. The next day I took all the stickers down. Mom shrugged it off
as my imagination, who knows it may have been. I was young. The
next thing that happened was a few years later and I remember vividly.
And this time I knew it wasn't my imagination and was the incident that
made me a believer. I went with my Mom to her friends house to stay the
night with them and my Moms friends daughter (Becky) who was a
childhood playmate of mine. Normal evening, had fun, went to bed. I was
sleeping on Beckys floor, she of course in her bed. I was awoken by the
rocking chair around 3am, I heard and felt it moving behind my head, as
I was laying near it. So I look up to see a shadow figure, which to me
looked like the shape of an elderly woman rocking in the chair. I was
not afraid, and still tryin to get a good focus on what I was looking
at I said "hey Becky, quit messin around and go back to bed", that's
when Becky sat up in her bed and said "what are you talking about, I am
in bed". My head snapped to her, and then quickly back to the chair
that was now empty and no longer moving. While this was all processing
in my head the doorbell started ringing nonstop for a good 15 seconds.
Me and Becky got up and ran downstairs once it stopped, we got to the
livingroom the same time as my Mom and her friend did. All of us
looking a little freaked and concerned, Mom turned on the porchlight
and opened the door and nobody was there, it was near blizzard
conditions and not a single footprint anywhere in the snow. None of us
really talked about it, jus went back to bed and moved on with life
lol. Finally my last little event was at a friends house. A night of
hangin out and movie watching. He
talked about a ghost in his apartment which I always laughed off as I
had been there many times and never saw anything weird. But this night
we heard pots bangin in the kitchen. He told me it was the ghost but I
jus figured it was his roommates. Then a few minutes later, the door to
the bedroom we were in sounded like someone was kicking or punching the
door really hard. It was about 3 or 4 bangs. The door itself was half
open and physics dictates that if you hit a door that hard it would fly
open, but it did not budge. Me and my friend looked at each other and
he yelled "was that you guys?" to his roomates and they yelled back
from across the apartment "we though that was you!". "I told you" he
said, and it literally took me 10 seconds to get my shoes and coat on,
threw him a high 5 and was out the door walking quickly toward my car.
We joked about it later but that shook me. I usually invited him over
to my place after that.Well that's it, jus writing out these
experiences for the first time to share with others that might find it
interesting. These are honest accounts of how I experienced what I
believe to be paranormal.
Original Springs Hotel Okawville, IL
By: Anonymous
My husband and I spent a three-day weekend during a full moon at
the Original Springs Hotel in Okawville, IL, about 40 miles east of St.
Louis. These are our true experiences: In the sealed, unused
attic above our hotel bedroom, my husband and I heard a loud "clunk!!"
that sounded like a large wooden box being dropped, followed
immediately by three heavy footsteps made by a man's leather
boots. The footstep sounds stopped, but we would have heard a
"real" person continue across the old wooden floorboards of this
enormous attic space. Only the manager has a key to the room,
which formerly was used as a speakeasy during Prohibition. She
informed us that she had not been inside the attic for months.
These paranormal sounds occurred on a bright, sunny Saturday
afternoon. The same day, I saw "The White Lady," the fiancee of
one of the original owners who blew his brains out with a rifle in the
late 1800s, after his fiancee broke their engagement.
Interestingly, the fiancee is the only regular visual apparition.
Guilty feelings of jilting her boyfriend, perhaps, keep her around this
old hotel and spa, which has been in business since the 1860's.
You can take a soaking hot bath in their enormous tubs, with mineral
water suppled from their original spring. I saw "The White
Lady's" form fly by the tall, wooden stall where I was bathing, about 7
feet from the ground. She looked like the proverbial Casper the
Friendly Ghost. Ask the clerks at the reservations desk to show
you her intriguing digital portrait, taken one Christmas several years
ago on an inner courtyard balcony. Thank heaven I did not see her
face, because it is really spooky, with black slits for her eyes and
mouth!! :OThe same Saturday evening - we had a busy day at this
hotel/spa!! - I witnessed my first and so far only "orbs." I
climbed the steps from the hot tub area to the massage room on the
second floor. The waiting area with massage privacy cubicles was
so freaking eerie, I almost fled from the room. My husband was in
a cubicle only yards from where I parked on a lounge chair, but I felt
very "alone" in the windowless room. I felt like I was being
watched by an extremely hostile person, and turned my eyes in time to
see two orbs: a smokey grey, olive-sized "orb" floated a couple
of feet away from my head, only to disappear into a nearby ceiling that
did not have any cracks in the tiles. The orb was close enough
that I could see it absolutely was NOT a bug. A second spirit
floated very quickly down a hallway that led to a men's room. I
learned later that men's restroom is haunted and people have seen an
apparition in the little cubicle area. On Sunday morning, I was
in a room off of the same massage reception area, with abrasive face
packs covering my eyes and the lights turned off. The woman had
left the room for 15 minutes. I felt a little cold hand creeping
toward my table, really a psychic impression more than anything, but I
almost jumped off the table. I could not leave, however, because
I would have damaged my eyes if I had opened them with all that goo on
my face!! I learned from later articles about the hotel spa that
particular room has a window overlooking the indoor pool, and many
people have seen someone standing looking out the window, when the room
is locked and unoccupied! My husband used the men's room
outside the restaurant/pool area as we were leaving that Sunday.
He was in a locked stall when the lights clicked off. There is
not a dimmer switch in that room and he said it took some movement to
switch the overheads on and off. No one was in the
bathroom. Being plunged in total darkness, my husband got angry
and told "it" to stop messing around. The lights clicked back
on. I was sitting outside the bathroom and can verify no one
entered the bathroom while he was in there! I would recommend a day
trip to this hotel spa, because the service sometimes is hostile to
guests. The mattresses are old and mushy, most of the air
conditioners only put out tepid air - we were there on a roasting hot
day - and the televisions are about 40-years-old. Still, the home
cooked food in their restaurant is fabulous, the indoor heated pool is
very nice, there's a small game room and the massages and facials are
excellent, although a bit pricey.
Humming
By: lindsaybroland@yahoo.com
Hi, I just wanted to share an experienced that happened to me when I
was around 8 or 9 years old. So here we go! I don't know if this
was my imagination, paranormal, or what. But I know it is quite an
experience. I was around eight or nine at the time. And I was in the
auditorium at my school receiving awards for the good things we've done
over the past year. I was sitting patiently with my friends giggling,
and clapping when they got their awards. Until my teacher asked me if I
could run upstairs to the classroom to get her purse. I really didn't
want to go upstairs to the classroom alone. Because the school was
built somewhere in the 20's. It's so old that my Great Grandmother went
there her whole life. My friends and I use to make up ghost stories,
and scare each other. It scared me very much. And there was hardly no
construction and redoing things at that school. I didn't want to go,
but I said yes anyways to follow the teachers commands. I walked over
to the old, blue, pale stairs and made my way up. It had a damp, musty
smell mixed with dust. When I reached the old hallway, I
heard something. It was a faint humming sound. It sounded like a person
of some sort. A little girl maybe. When I began to walk, a man joined
in the humming. I walked faster, and a woman began to hum. I started to
run towards to room and the humming got louder and louder. I was
sweating very badly, I grabbed the purse, and walked into the hallway.
I made myself stop and listen. It was coming from the very old Janitors
Closet. My Classmates use to say that a long time ago teachers would
lock kids in that closet if they didn't behave. With that thought, I
started to sweat more. I ran across to old hallway to the
door. I ran all the way down the stairs and stopped horrified. Then I
heard a little whisper saying, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
Now that just creeped me out, so I ran back to the auditorium. I handed
my teacher's purse to her, then sat beside one of my friends. She
looked at me oddly and said, "Why are you shaking?" The last year I was
in elementary school, I figured out that a fire occurred in 1921 of an
unknown substance. And that a teacher locked a student in the closet
for misbehaving. The teacher forgot about the child in the closet, and
left with some of the children to safety. The man and the woman (who
were humming) were trying to help the little girl get out. They must
have been teachers or assistants of some sorts. My friend said that
they were all humming together to try to stay calm. They all died
together, humming. My friend found all of the information on her own,
which surprised me. But it was a small town. She said she went around
asking elderly people who went to school when the fire occurred. The
story brought me back to the thought of third grade once more.
Natchez Trace State Park Wildersville, Lexington Tennessee
By: Anonymous
My boyfriend and I saw this state park on our way back from Arkansas to
Illinois and thought we should check it out. We had never heard of this
place or seen it before. We parked in the parking area and got of car
to explore the woods, naturally. I had to use the restroom, so I went
to the bathroom and once I got to the toliet I had a terrible feeling
of being watched and I truely felt someone was in the the bathroom with
me but obviously I was the only one, the feeling of this "presence" was
so unbearing and evil feeling that I ran out of the bathroom the second
I finished with my pants down. Once I got out (of the bathroon) my
boyfriend and I started down the path, within 30 seconds of walking,
and still within 30 feet of the bathroom, my boyfriend and I heard
loud, loud footsteps, crunching the leaves. My boyfriend thought it was
a bear or something because of the heaftyness of the steps, so he was
searching and searching for a bear or anything but couldn't find a
thing. I didn't mention the bathroom to him, but after not too long I
insited we contiune, I know there is something terribly evil in that
bathroom. For a while, nothing else odd occured, and we continued on
the path which goes down to level ground with a large lake on one side.
But soon after we got to this leveled ground area, the sun started
setting and that's when things got uneasy again. We both started to
hear something large walking in the leaves again. Shawn (my boyfriend),
really wanted to see what it was. And at this point, I felt like we
were really in danger, and that something else, unnatural was there. So
we barely started to move farther into the woods when Shawn told me he
saw a shadow or something farther in, then I was done. I told him we
had to go I and I cannot be here any longer. So well, I ran like hell
back to the car and Shawn was close behind me. Once we got to the car I
was at the passenger door ready for him to unlock it. And of course, he
tells me he hears that thing we've been hearing in the sparesly wooded
area directly in front of the parking lot, which is to the very near
right of the parking lot. And that he "has to see what it is", so I had
him throw me the keys and I got in the car. He got in within a minute
and I asked him if he saw anything and he said he just saw that a dark
shadow move behind a tree, but nothing else. Needless to say we booked
it off that mountain. And it really seemed like a car was trying to
chase us down the mountain, but we may just have been super spooked
from the woods experience we just had. But I will note we were driving
at about 65 miles an hour and the speed limit was way less, I forget
now what it specifically was but I want to say between 30 and 40 max.
Plus, it was a mountain road and very windy and frankely difficult to
traverse at 65. Also, during the time I was taking pictures the whole
time we were in the woods, nature shots, that was actually the entire
reason we were there in the first place and the pictures were neat, the
day ones didn't have orbs but the night ones all did. And I though
maybe it was from the lake reflection or something but I took a picture
out of the car window at the moon right after we got in the car and in
that photo there is the moon and like 30 orbs! Its amazing to me, I
mean I've never taken any orb photo ever before. And I took another
photo of the moon out my window about thirty minutes after we left the
mountain and only the moon. I did some research to find anything on the
area. It seems it was established on an old Indian burial ground, but
few findings on much else. And I never found anything on cars chasing
you out of this place. Be careful, during the day the bathroom is
really the worst part and seemingly off the trail. But I just wouldn't
go at night. But also, Shawn didn't seem to have the feelings as
intensely as I did, so if you're the right person the feeling might not
be too overwhelming.