Ghost Stories!

**WolfVanZandt** · 01-19-2015, 02:20 AM

I used to host a campout called the "SEHowl" and we tended to be a "weird magnet".

A while before one Howl, one of the participants was with two more visiting a fourth. The woman got an impression that there was something trapped in an old, abandoned lighthouse nearby and wanted to go check it out. They did and managed to open a portal, but didn't notice anything until they got back to the apartment. The lady went into the bathroom and the others heard her struggling so they broke in. She was curled up under the sink. She said something had attacked her, crushed her down and was strangling her. It "left" when they broke in.

Later, when they got to the Howl, I had gone hiking and it had gotten dark before I got back. The others were standing around the campfire talking when one told another to move over carefully. He did and, when he looked back, he had been standing close to an old, really ugly woman, who immediately disappeared. The thing stayed up on the rim or the canyon, not daring to get any closer but not wanting to leave, for the entire Howl. It had "ridden" the woman all the way from Florida to the Howl in north Alabama.

I think I've told about my brush with the thing in the waterfall, but it was in the woods, so.....

Another Howl in the Bankhead National Forest in north Alabama, we were hiking on the trail called the Randolph Trail. It's an uneventful hike for most of the way but ends up at the Sypsey River at a really impressive waterfall. Well, I always have to have my photo taken at the base of a waterfall so I gave a friend my camera and asked her to photograph me when I positioned myself. I started scrambling over the considerable boulder field under the fall and climbed up on a boulder just in front of where the water was hitting. She took the picture and, when I climbed off the boulder, things started going terribly wrong.

I hyperflexed my knee and, as soon as the pain hit me, I felt "it" wake up. Something big was in the waterfall. A strong, freezing cold wind started blowing out of the water face and I was stuck there. because I was about to faint from the pain in my knee, but the cold wind didn't let up and it was sucking the life out of me, so I decided that, faint or no, I had to get off that boulder field or I was going to die there. I started scrambling and managed to make it back to the group, at which time I collapsed onto my back. My friend stood over me and asked, "Are you alright?" I just said, "No."

**Zack** · 01-19-2015, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by WolfVanZandt

I used to host a campout called the "SEHowl" and we tended to be a "weird magnet".

A while before one Howl, one of the participants was with two more visiting a fourth. The woman got an impression that there was something trapped in an old, abandoned lighthouse nearby and wanted to go check it out. They did and managed to open a portal, but didn't notice anything until they got back to the apartment. The lady went into the bathroom and the others heard her struggling so they broke in. She was curled up under the sink. She said something had attacked her, crushed her down and was strangling her. It "left" when they broke in.

Later, when they got to the Howl, I had gone hiking and it had gotten dark before I got back. The others were standing around the campfire talking when one told another to move over carefully. He did and, when he looked back, he had been standing close to an old, really ugly woman, who immediately disappeared. The thing stayed up on the rim or the canyon, not daring to get any closer but not wanting to leave, for the entire Howl. It had "ridden" the woman all the way from Florida to the Howl in north Alabama.

I think I've told about my brush with the thing in the waterfall, but it was in the woods, so.....

Another Howl in the Bankhead National Forest in north Alabama, we were hiking on the trail called the Randolph Trail. It's an uneventful hike for most of the way but ends up at the Sypsey River at a really impressive waterfall. Well, I always have to have my photo taken at the base of a waterfall so I gave a friend my camera and asked her to photograph me when I positioned myself. I started scrambling over the considerable boulder field under the fall and climbed up on a boulder just in front of where the water was hitting. She took the picture and, when I climbed off the boulder, things started going terribly wrong.

I hyperflexed my knee and, as soon as the pain hit me, I felt "it" wake up. Something big was in the waterfall. A strong, freezing cold wind started blowing out of the water face and I was stuck there. because I was about to faint from the pain in my knee, but the cold wind didn't let up and it was sucking the life out of me, so I decided that, faint or no, I had to get off that boulder field or I was going to die there. I started scrambling and managed to make it back to the group, at which time I collapsed onto my back. My friend stood over me and asked, "Are you alright?" I just said, "No."

Wow. Whatever's under that waterfall sounds like something you wouldn't want to play games with.

**WolfVanZandt** · 01-19-2015, 07:10 PM

Hmmm, yeah. I didn't want to play games with it, but life throws you curve balls.

I went to DragonCon in Atlanta one year - a generally unpleasant situation except for the primary reason I went - I was attending the PathWaysToDarkness Vampire/Werewolf party (I like diversity and am a sociologist so.......inquiring minds, y'know). That was enjoyable and so were some of the sessions I went to. The Georgia paranormal research team was speaking and one of them told a story.

He was visiting a notorious place in Tennessee (I think....it might have been Kentucky) - several people had died in the house including a couple of paranormal investigators - heart attacks and injuries and such. He decided to set up his equipment upstairs so he dragged all the stuff there and started opening cases. He said that he very explicitly felt when the house noticed his presence and there were knocking sounds coming toward him. That was when he figured out that it might not be a good idea for him t0 be doing this particular study alone so he got all his stuff together and started out. He would have added to the fatalities had he not kept a strong hold on the bannister going down the staircase because, on the way down, it felt as though there were a tripwire across the stairs and there was a distinct feeling of a push between his shoulder blades.

I have read a study that showed a very high correlation between hauntings and proximity to large bodies of moving water (what I figure to be water moving through fractal environments). After the talk I had a conversation with one of the paranormal team members. They had mentioned that one of the most haunted places in Georgia was the Lawrenceville cemetery. I asked him if there was a stream in he area and mentioned the study. He said that, no, there was no stream in the area, but then he looked thoughtful and added that there was an underground river beneath the cemetery.

I have had a lot of experience with the "paranormal" (I have my own ideas about what's going on and I don't think that most of it is para-normal - it's all part of normal reality). When I was three (I know I was three at the time because we were living in Griffin, Georgia, and I was still in my youth bed). I woke up one morning with both my hands clasped under the pillow - except that I noticed that one hand was down by my side. I raised my head to look under my pillow and there was a green scaly hand clasping mine. I quickly let go, stood up in bed and jumped up and down. The wayward hand zipped under my cover and vanished. That was my first experience with waking dreams.

Selma, Alabama, where I lived for 20 years, is one of the most haunted cities in America. By the time I moved there, I must have developed a reputation as someone entities don't want to be around (I told you above that the "hag" at our campout avoided us. There's a reason for that.). Although most of the residents had had experience with the local haunts, when I came around, nothing was haunted, except the Smitherman Building. It has a reputation for being very haunted and I found that the haunts there considered it home. As soon as I got to the top floor, I felt immediate hostility. It was a palpable push toward the stairs, so I did the tourist thing, said, "Okay, this is your home and I'm obviously intruding," and I left. There are all kinds of ghost stories floating around Selma. If you're interested in that sort of thing, you should visit. They have their own swamp ape and that is one of the places where there have been Werewolf sitings (Real Wolfmen, Linda Godfrey).