Southern Gothic

Southern Gothic
    In 1987, I was living in a house in Atlanta with four roommates. We lived there for just over a year and during that time, we had several experiences with what we later became convinced was an actual ghostly presence.

The house we were renting was well over a hundred years old, having been built sometime just after the American Civil War when Atlanta had been burned and destroyed by Union forces.

The house was a beautiful old Victorian home located in an area of Atlanta known as Inman Park. We were all pretty young (in our twenties) and trying to get started in our respective careers, so the prospect of sharing the rent for a wonderful old two story, five bedroom house with a full basement was an attractive one.

One week after moving in, we were all asleep in our rooms when we were awakened by screaming from our roommate, whom I'll call Hanna. We all jumped out of bed and went into Hanna's room. She was sitting up, saying that she had woken up to see the dark figure of a man standing next to her bed, looking down at her. She said that when she had screamed, the figure turned and walked out of the room. She was very scared and highly agitated. Myself and the other male roommate (the housemates consisted of two male/female couples and one single female) immediately checked out the inside and outside of the house, but we could find no intruder. (This happened around two or three o'clock in the morning). We finally got Hanna to calm down and everyone went back to bed. The next day, we just chalked up this first incident to nervousness about living in a new home that just happened to be a creaky and somewhat spooky old antique house. (However, Hanna would not hear of that explanation and in the ensuing days, continued to insist that she had seen this dark figure standing by her bed. She refused to stay in the house alone after that).

About two weeks after that first incident, we were again all asleep when suddenly there was a very loud crash and the sound of tinkling of glass from the hallway that separated all of the bedrooms and a common bathroom. Once more, we all jumped up and ran out into the hall where we found that a full-length mirror that had been mounted on the bathroom door had shattered into hundreds of pieces all over the floor. Since everyone had been asleep, we could not figure out how this had happened as the mirror frame was still securely fastened to the door and only the glass itself had broken. (Atlanta is not prone to earthquakes and the street was not a busy one, so we ruled out the possibility that a large truck or something had passed by and caused vibrations to occur inside the place).

Later, similar "poltergeist" activity would manifest itself in many other ways: there was one instance when I was home alone in the house watching television when, for no good reason that I could later ascertain, three candles that were sitting on the fireplace mantle suddenly fell off onto the floor, almost as if someone had swept them off with a hand. Then there was the phenomenon that we all experienced at one time or another where personal objects and other items would go missing, only to turn up later in a place where the owner would swear that he/she had not left them. (On one occasion, missing car keys were found lying right in the middle of the person's bed after a thorough search had been conducted for them by everyone home at the time). Other strange activity came in the form of knocking and tapping sounds heard coming from either the attic or the basement when it was certain that no one was in either space.

The last incident that involved the sighting of an actual "entity" occurred about two months after we had moved in. We were having a small party at our place and a house guest, who none of us had met prior to the party, was taking a personal tour of the place on her own. She suddenly came running up from downstairs saying that she had just seen a man standing in the corner of the basement. She said that when she had called out to him, he simply disappeared! We immediately went down to the basement to check and of course, found nobody there. This was most interesting because there was only one entrance into the basement and a person who might have been trying to play a trick would not have been able to escape past anyone without being seen. (As noted, that house guest who saw the figure in the basement was a brand new acquaintance whom we later determined had no prior knowledge that our place had any sort of "unusual" activity connected to it).

After about six months of all this, things seemed to quiet down and no more "ghost" activity was noticed or reported by anyone. We began to convince ourselves that maybe, just maybe, we had all overreacted to some degree and perhaps we were all just being overly-imaginative about the whole thing.

Finally, toward the end of our time living in the house, my wife and I were out at a restaurant one evening having a drink and dinner. We struck up a conversation with another couple sitting at a table nearby, two people who were complete strangers to us and whom we happened to meet that night by total chance. When they asked us where we were living in Atlanta, we told them about our place in Inman Park. They said, "Really, we used to live in Inman Park. Which street do you live on?" When we told them, they said, "That is interesting, we used to rent a house on that same street. What is your address?" When we gave our address to them, they said, "Oh my god, we used to rent that exact same house ourselves," immediately followed by the women saying, "Have you seen the ghost yet?" Well, you can imagine that both my wife and I were completely flabbergasted to have received such validation about our "ghost problem" from two complete strangers! We ended up comparing notes with them and they told us about many strange happenings they had witnessed in the house that were quite similar to our own.

That experience thoroughly convinced me that there really is something to the whole subject of ghosts and afterward, I no longer dismissed similar stories that I heard from other people quite so easily.
  

Ghost Encounters

Ghost Encounters

    Some will argue there is no such thing of ghosts. I understand those individuals may feel frightened by the thought of phantoms or banshees roaming our world. Or some individuals may just assume that ghosts are a bunch of silly fictional myths that our kind made up for amusing fairy-tales to be told over the past centuries. However, "seeing is believing," and if I never saw the things I've seen in my lifetime, perhaps, I too would question their existence.

My first real poltergeist experience happened when I was about five years old. It was late at night and I was awoken by a sound coming from the dining room. I heard the dinner table chairs roughly sliding against the tile floor. When I finally realized I was awake and not dreaming I became horrified. A few seconds went by the chairs suddenly stop moving. Then the ever most terrifying thing happened. I heard an unearthly woman's voice call to me. The voice sounded like it came from the kitchen adjacent to the dining room. I can't recall everything she said but I'm pretty sure she was just saying my name over and over. The hardest thing I had to do was get out of bed and run like heck to my mother's bedroom across the pitch black hall. Eventually, after the paralysis wore off, that is exactly what I did. I remember tripping on the laundry basket as sneaking over to my mom's side of the bed. I didn't want to wake her and be sent back to my room. She woke up immediately when I crawled into her arms. She told me it was just a nightmare and to go back to my room. She had to turn on my bedroom light and walk me to bed. Naturally I couldn't fall asleep for quite some time that night, even with my twin sister asleep in the room. I remember having to stare at our Dr. Seuss light fixture for comfort. Every time I glanced at the bedroom door I would quiver intensely. I did not dare go investigate the kitchen or dining room until the next morning.

Of course everyone laughed at me the next day when I explained exactly what happened. My older brother and dad even had an on-going joke about the "ghost chair" (which was the only unassigned chair when the five of us were eating at the dinner table.) They would kid and demand my mother to fix up a plate of food for the ghost. I kept thinking to myself one day they'll see.

That day wasn't too far away, at least for my brother and sister. A few years later on a stormy early evening, the three of us were left home alone. At that time our brother was old enough to baby-sit us but too immature to properly company us. He used to tease us all the time about ghosts. "Ghostbusters" had just come out in the theater so of course that was still fresh in everyone's mind. One time he even made, what he convinced us to believe, a PK meter that would indicate if ghosts were near by. The little stick on the home-made PK meter would move sporadic-like so he would tell us that this house was haunted and filled with ghosts. But during this occasion, he decided to just tell us scary stories instead. With the lightning, loud thunder, our parents gone and my brother's wickedness, we became two very scared little girls. My brother eventually came to his senses and then tried to comfort us. He kept trying to reassure us that ghosts are make-believe. Then he said these words, which I will never forget... "There is no such thing of ghosts; if there was they would show us a sign." BOOM! Instantly after those words came out of my brother's mouth, all the lights went out. They eventually came back on a couple seconds later. My brother never teased us about ghosts since.

That incident may not sound tremendously frightening, but as a child it seemed as if I were living in a horror picture. My next occurrence may very well be the most petrifying. I was about eight-teen or nine-teen years old. My sister and I went for a drive to Siesta Key in Sarasota. The sun was just about setting and we decided, before we go home for the day, we should drive around the Key's ritzy subdivision to gawk at all the pretty mansions. We came across an empty lot, which is unusual because it was fairly decent in size and located right on the canal. All the other lots in the area consist of massive homes neck and neck of each other. It was so peculiar to see such a large waste of space which had so much value. My sister wanted me to pull over on the curb so we could walk around to go exploring. She said "let's pretend we own this lot and we're going to build a big mansion here." As we were walking through the palmettos further within the lot, a sudden freezing cold chill overcame us and the sky instantly turned grey. My anxious sister said "we need to leave NOW!" She believed she was being intuitive and was shown a sign. She imagined something bad would happen to us if we stayed there. She even said "I think someone is living here like a bum or some crazy person." "No, it's okay. We're fine." I hesitantly replied; although I started to sense some uncertainty about staying in that lot. She said "well I'm going back to the car." I then quickly followed her thinking to myself I'm brave but not brave enough to be here alone.

We drove off into the subdivision to complete our little adventure in searching for a favorite mansion to drool over. It was now officially night time so we agreed to head out. As trying to find the exit of the Key we unintentionally came across our vacant lot. I stopped the car positioned head on so we could glance at it one more time. Because it was dark out we could see the lights from another home on the opposite side of the canal glaring through the trees.

My sister said "oh look! You can see through those people's windows over there." We both were staring at the same spot and then that's when it happened. A silhouette of man or creature appeared before us, maybe about twenty or thirty feet from the car. It looked like it was staring at us with evil intentions. The odd thing was that this shadow had no face. He was completely transparent. "Do you see what I see?" my sister muttered. I said "Yup." I don't think I ever pealed out of somewhere so fast than I did that day. We were frightened but it made for a good laugh on our way back home.

Up until then I never really felt threatened by a ghost; before they would just make themselves known. This one was different. He made it extremely obvious he did not want our presence on his territory. I would imagine he must have made attempts to horde off any other unwanted guests; after all it was the only empty lot in the whole neighborhood.

My only other evidential ghost encounter up to date occurred about two years ago. One late night I was sitting in my driveway trying to contact my spirit guide who I call Sunbeam. Spirit guides are thought to be predestined spirits who help guide us (subconsciously) through our lifetimes, similar to the belief of guardian angels protecting us. When I communicate with Sunbeam I don't physically see her or hear her voice. I just talk to her as if I am saying my prayers out loud. While sitting there rambling I abruptly noticed, to my left, a luminous apparition of a fair skin woman with long blond wavy hair floating down the street about three feet above the ground. She was wearing a soft blue and white renaissance-like gown and some sort of hat or veil. The instant we made eye contact she vanished before my eyes. I assumed I saw my spirit guide but I didn't have that comforting feeling I often felt when I'd communicate with her. Plus that wasn't how I envisioned her. If anything I thought she would look like just a ball of energy if she chose to appear to me. At times I believe that spirit guides do not prefer to appear to us because they have no desire to prove themselves to us. I then realized I had just seen a ghost.

My theory on ghost or lost souls is that they are deceased people who some how get stuck in a parallel dimension in between Earth and the Afterlife. I don't think everyone will become a ghost after they die. Only those who do not want to face the reality of dying or those who felt they did not want to leave here with any unresolved issues, are the ones who get trapped in this realm. The amount of time as a ghost varies for each individual. Some could be a ghost for centuries or more, some could be one for a couple weeks. It's not uncommon for someone, after they die, to linger around as a ghost for a little while before they cross over and "head towards the light." Some may be confused or in denial and need extra guidance or confirmation of their death. Once they accept their death they should be able to go Home.

If ever encountering a lost soul it is important to tell them they are dead and assure them that they will be okay if they just trust life and have faith. No matter what religion they were, or if not religious at all, they all still go to the Afterlife which is our true home. Keep in mind they cannot physically harm you. Most are just depressed and have no intention of hurting anyone.

Ghost encounters can be very overwhelming. During an encounter many people say they felt an eerie and cold presence. I suggest that feeling we get isn't because ghosts are dangerous or evil, but possibly because we sympathize with their pain.

-Lori Ann Alvarez
  

Ann's House

Ann's House
    In 1978, my parents bought a 30 year old house which was originally owned by an actress who's full name I will not reveal, Ann was her first name... She was famous in the 30' through 50's era. Anyway, I was born in 1979 and from an early age I remember a few instances where I was spooked.

My first odd experience occurred one normal night when I was about 4 or 5 years old. For some reason I awoke and got out of bed. I heard something in the kitchen which was directly down the hallway from my doorway. It was very late or early in the morning. When I peered down the hallway I saw a rabbit on our kitchen counter; its eyes were bright and its body was almost see through - like a projection. I was scared and tired, so I ran across the hallway to my older sisters room and slept there the rest of the night. Sure enough nobody believed me the next day. Over the next few years I always heard noises in my closet and cupboards in my bedroom. And all the while living there I always heard shuffling and pounding in a large walk in safe in the downstairs part of our house. In the ten year span living there I always felt like I was being watched, and I would never go inside the house unless my parents or someone else was with me. When I got off the school bus, I would wait outside until my mom got home. It was not until my mother told me a few things that she probably would not have revealed had she known how I would react. I overheard my mother talking to my aunt about how the previous owner told her that an actor, by the name of Ann "blank", had built the house. Even more interesting, the previous owners laughingly said they would occasionally see her walking down the halls. Once, my mother even admitted to me that she was home alone reading in the living room when she felt someone touch her on the shoulder, it was a comforting gesture but scared her when she turned and saw no one around. I was scared of that house.

When I was about 12 we moved to a house my Dad built, same city but miles away from the old house. The first night staying there I remember waking and looking out my bedroom window to see a white figure running down the lonesome road at a swift and graceful pace. Also, my beloved dog was in my sight and he ran from the object with tail in between legs... not typical, this dog was a butt kicking machine. It was weird but I was able to fall back asleep, next day nobody took me seriously. The last incident happened shortly after, I remember just laying down in my bed, it was a matter of seconds before I saw this woman hovering over me and she did not speak but it was like she said "I have followed you". I layed there paralyzed but managed to say "GET OUT, LEAVE ME ALONE". And ever since I have been totally ghost free, knock on wood. Long, maybe boring story for you guys, but real to me, too real.
  

An Old House and My Apartment Building

An Old House and My Apartment Building
    I was in the Navy and living ashore at Norfolk, VA in the early '70s. It was an old two story house. The main floor had a kitchen, dining room and living room. The second floor had a master bedroom, that nearly half the size of the house, a smaller bedroom and a bath.

One day I was in the master bedroom folding laundry. People came and went all the time (had a couple of roommates and they had friends) so the doors were seldom (if ever) locked.

I heard the front door open and close and called out I was upstairs. I heard heavy, plodding footsteps on the stairs, pausing at the bend in the middle. It was as if whomever was really tired and it was all they could do to walk up the steps. From where I was standing I could see clearly down the hall to the top of the stairs. The footsteps continued to the top and down the hall towards me. No one was there. The steps were quite audible. At the treshold of the bedroom door they stopped.

I stood there shaking like a leaf then quickly exited the room. Some time later I returned home to find every light in the place on. A roommate was sitting in the living room, white as a sheet, holding a poker from the fire place, in front of him. I asked what was wrong. He said he was watching tv when the door to the outside (the former front door since the house at one time faced Chesapeake Bay but at sometime was moved across the street, and turned around, so our "front door" had been the back door at one time and our back door the front) began turning on its own. He asked who was there and no answer. Then the door started shaking as if someone were trying to enter but couldn't. He went to the door and called out again, no reply. He opened the door and no one was there. And, the screen door was closed and lashed, with no breaks in the screen for someone to reach in.

I told him of my experience earlier and he said he had heard footsteps as well when no one was home. He never told anyone believing they would think him crazy.

Eventually others reported hearing strange things as well. The old house is no longer there. It was on a spit of land which has since been "re-developed" with freeways, ramps, etc. -sigh-

My apartment building, in Huntington, WV, has several spirits. Residents in two apartments on the other end of the hall (I live in the back) have reported seeing an old woman, in a white blouse and long black dress enter their apartment, walk through and exit. At one time this building had a landlady from who owned the place from about 1911 to '51. This could be her keeping any eye on her property.Huntington, WV (I am the senior resident in the building -three story brick apartment, erected in 1906- having moved here in July, 1979, and people will ask "You've been here a long time, have you heard of this or that happening?")

One evening in the early '80s a neighbour and I were playing cards. No radio, tv, or such on. Suddenly we heard loud noises coming from his apartment, as if it were being ransacked. Scott went to check and nothing was out of place. I have also had the feeling someone would be watching me from that apartment when no one was living there. (My kitchen windows and that ones form a sort of L shape.) I named the spirit "Casper", after the cartoon character Casper, the friendly ghost since he means no harm, merely curious. And when I have feeling of being watched I always wave and greet him. :)

There is also a ghost in my apartment.

It was August 2nd. A hot, muggy night. The cat I had then was laying on the floor facing the closed bathroom door. This was before the Net so I was watching tv and Muffy was in my line of vision. Suddenly she roused herself, started a low growl, twitching her tail, looking at the closed door, then to me, back to the door. I told her there was nothing there. Like a scene from a cheap movie I went to the door, put my hand on the doorknob and said, "See, there's nothing in there" and opened the door. Suddenly a cold rush of air passed through me, at least 20 degrees cooler than a moment before. After that Muffy was calm again and went back to her dozing... For a couple of years on that date I could feel the presence. I haven't for the last few years.
  

My Aunt

My Aunt
    About 5 years ago my aunt moved in with me and my family because she was really sick and her kids lived out of state. I was always real close with my aunt and looked forward to her living with us. I was closer to her than I was with my mom.

Anyway, she stayed with us for about 5 months, then decided to move out west so she could be closer to her kids. After about 2 months of her moving out west, her daughter called me and told me my aunt was in the hospital and the doctors didn't think she was going to make it. I was upset, but I was also thankful that I had a chance to become even more close to her in the 5 months that she stayed with us. A week later I was laying on the couch half awake and half asleep when I had a dream that my aunt was skipping down my driveway telling me good bye and that she would be back. She was real adamant about the fact that she'd be back. She climbed into her SUV and drove off. Just as she was driving off in my dream, the phone rang and woke me up. It was my mother telling me my aunt just died. I knew that's what she was going to say even before she got the words out.

What was weird about the dream is my aunt looked healthy. She actually had some weight on. She was always skin and bones because she was so sick and the fact that she was skipping. My aunt could barely walk let alone skip. Plus she didn't own a car because she was always too weak to drive. I like to believe she came to tell me good bye in my dreams, but as far as her coming back, I kind of wish she would. I say I 'kind of' wish she would because I've never seen a ghost and know for a fact that I would go insane if I did.

Well, I'm curious as to what everyone thinks and if anyone agrees that she came to me in my sleep to tell me good bye. Thanks!

  

The Haunting of Buffalo Ridge

The Haunting of Buffalo Ridge
    One of the infamous spots around here is Buffalo Ridge, a hilly road that's just a bit northwest of Cincinnati in Cleves. It's actually home to the Mitchell Memorial Forest, a park complete with a nature trail, lake for fishing, and a playground for the kiddies! Woo hoo! Not only that, but SUPPOSABLY this road is where Charles Manson himself spent his Cincinnati years! (I say supposably since I know his family lived around here at some point, but I never really looked into whether or not he grew up around Cleves. Not that it's important to the story anyways) Well, the urban legends of this road are outrageous. Stories range from being chased across the road at night by white vans, to phantom cars from failed gang initiations, an evil dog with glowing green eyes, ghosts that run across the road searching for their missing parts for all eternity, and most importantly, the Crematorium. You see, the urban legends say this road was the site of a corrupt crematorium that dropped bodies out in the woods, blah blah blah. And now supposably bodies are still out there somewhere.

Well, in high school I actually had an english teacher who told me that one time he and his friend drove down there, pulled over and juuuust happen to open a random barn door for whatever reason, and found chickens hanging from the ceiling on chains, and their blood being collected on leaves below. So they ran back to their car, and of course Gravedigger or some other monsterous truck comes tearing out of a driveway and chases him all the way out of Cleves! EXCITEMENT!

Buffalo RidgeThat's all well an good, but as I soon found out from personal research.. there was never a crematorium there. What IS there to this day, however, is the ruins of Cincinnati's first Planetarium, hidden in the woods. In fact, if you're still reading and want to know more about it, I made a website explaining the whole background of Buffalo Ridge (with pretty pictures!). At the time I made that site, I had tried just about everything and experienced nothing more than a police officer pulling over and literally laughing at us as we explained to him that we wanted to see dead people run across the road. I can feel my self-esteem rising. It also occured to us that the park's staff had rangers in white vans visiting it frequently, thus killing the chased-by-white-van experience for us.

And so! with all that out of the way, I can now explain my story. About two weeks ago, I lead a couple friends that are new to the area down to Buffalo Ridge. These friends being my old friend Jonathan, who's the same age as me and grew up in Indiana, and Kay, his as-of-now-girlfriend. I think. Well, we get there at about 9:00 pm when the sun was close to setting all the way, and as usual I have them park down the road a bit near another road (the name of which slips my mind) and walk back up to a "No dumping or we'll own your butt" sign. Behind which, is a trail leading down the woods and into the ruins of the old Planetarium.

Being the loser who loves to tell the local history that I am, I was talking pretty loudly about the area, while Kay and Jonathan walked behind me. They both carried a couple flashlights to see better in the thicks woods, and I just toughed it out in front. Oh yeah, I'm a real man! ...I try. Anyways, we come to what I can only describe as the foundation of the building. A bunch of bricks and torn metal in the hill side is all I got.

We sat down and started chatting it up, about whatever, and a good 30 minutes passed. Jonathan and I were discussing manly things, like whether we should go get those tiny fries at Steak n Shake, or an even manlier jug of root beer at the Jolly's up in Fairfield. Around then, Kay started mumbling about how "the air changed" or something to that degree. So, in hopes to see something spooky, I climbed down into the foundation of the ol' planetarium, and took Jonathan's flashlight so I could navigate walking around on the fallen stones and what not. At one point, I remember Kay saying we should get going, and by then I had already made my way to the other side of the rubble and was wanting to look around some more. But! Jonathan didn't like making her nervous, so I agreed to climb back out.

So, being the nice guy I am, I started to make my way back across the rubble. At this point, I shined my light back up the wall I had climbed down to see Kay and Jonathan, when I saw it! A man I couldn't really make out from where I was, was approaching the two of them, so jokingly I shouted "Hey, better tell that guy that we aren't sacrificing babies. Or drug dealers. Or drug dealers sacrificing babies!" and went back to my climbing across the rubble. Eventually, I made it up the wall and... no one was freakin there! Annoyed, I walked back up the trail to Buffalo Ridge, and found Kay crying while Jonathan hugged her. Aww. So I asked what happend to our guest, when Jonathan starts RANTING on, and ON about how "This dude just totally came out of no where, walked right up to me.. and vanished!!" Which made our heads spin.

From then on, we were pretty ecstatic, running back to the truck with Kay frightened, while Jonathan was excited, and I was pissed. I want a ghost to walk up to me and disappear! and I didn't even see it since I was walking over some flippin' stones and what not. Never again will I look where I'm going! ...Ok, bad idea. So finally, the story has become one of the only real ghosts we've got to talk about. But it's a fun story none the less, and has actually gone down at the Art Institute I go to as "Jonathan and Alex vs. the Invisible Amish Ninjas."
  

Late Night Spook

Late Night Spook
    One night, after a long day at school, I decided to go to bed early because I had a bad headache. There is a forest in my back yard and I sometimes feel like someone is watching me, but that night it was worse, so I looked around and saw shadows moving. I decided to ignore it and went to bed. As I fell asleep, I started having this dream that a guy was chasing me in the forest. After running for a while, I turned around to see if he was still there but couldn't see him, so I stopped, turned around and he grabbed my wrists very hard. It felt so real like if I wasn't in a dream. I woke up, and to my horror, I saw that both my wrists were bruised in the shape of fingers. I still freak out when someone grabs my wrists.