This story wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t include a little background information about the town that it took place in. It’s an old town, and it was smack dab in the middle of the Underground Railroad. The majority of the houses are older houses, and many, many of them have tunnels, hidden rooms, trapdoors, etc… in the basements. The Junior high school is smack dab in the middle of the “historic” part of town, and it was discovered about 20 years ago, that it was built over what used to be a “slave graveyard.” (The story is that the owners of some of the houses having to dispose of slaves who didn’t make it through the “Underground Railroad”. Many, by the time they got this far west were in failing health, and actually passed on in the basements of these houses) Also, there is a mental health facility in this town, it’s almost as old as the town is and is surrounded by rumors as far as the treatment that the patients received in the early days-rumors of torture, etc.. A couple of years ago, the state decided to build and open a daycare facility on the grounds of the mental health hospital-and as they were digging the foundation, found human remains. It was ascertained that these were the remains of some of the early patients in the hospital, ones who had passed away at the facility, and had no family to claim them.
So, the town had a little bit of eerie history in the first place. But my story really doesn’t have anything to do with the history of the town, except that it took place there. There were two other people with me when this took place, and they will both agree that every word of it is true. I was about 17, and my friend Renee was about the same age, and our friend Jerry was a little bit older, he was about 22 at the time. Jerry lived in one of those old houses with the tunnels underneath it, and was convinced that it was “haunted”. (I’d have to agree with him, because of some of the stuff that I witnessed there, but that is a different story altogether). Renee and I were both passingly interested in the paranormal-not to the point of obsession or anything, but the normal curiosity that goes along with being a teenager, I guess.
Anyway, it so happened that Renee had this Ouija board that someone had given her when she was just a little kid, and she never really used it or anything, just kind of stuck it on a shelf in her basement (we used to hang out down there-it was a finished basement) and forgot about it. One night we were hanging out, and Jerry spotted the Ouija board, and wanted for us all to get it down and mess with it. Pretty soon, he got bored in the basement, and suggested that we take it out to the old graveyard east of town. It’s not abandoned, or out of use or anything, but it is kind of weird in the fact that there are shapes, fashioned out of stones, set into the ground. There was a circle, a triangle, and a star. Also, the name is kind of spooky, it’s called Ebeneezer Cemetery. Instead of being sensible and vetoing the idea, Renee and I decided that it might be a cool thing to do. So Renee and I invaded her closet, and both of us found dark colored clothing (to avoid being seen sneaking around the cemetery late at night). We then went to Jerry’s house, and he changed clothes-he already had dark jeans on, he only needed to change his shirt, and he did so in the same room as Renee and I. (This is important later) We grabbed some little votive candles (No, not black ones) and a blanket, and off we went to the cemetery at the edge of town.
It was pitch black, the road leading to the cemetery is a country road, and the streetlights are few and far between in that area. Pretty much the only light was that of the moon. You could see the lights of the farmhouses in the surrounding area in the distance, but none of them provided any light where we were. We decided to sit in the middle of the “star”, because the stones that formed the star would be good, flat places to put our candles. (I, for one, was glad that we brought candles, I wanted MORE LIGHT!!!) So we got all set up with out blanket and candles, and got the Ouija board situated. The three of us sat down, and as soon as we all three put our hands on the little planchette of the Ouija board, we heard what sounded like all of the dogs for miles surrounding us start barking and howling and just generally going nuts!!! (I should have followed my instinct and just gotten the heck out of there then!!) That only lasted for probably about 45 seconds or so, though.
Jerry was the one who wanted to ask questions. Like I said, he was convinced that his house was haunted, and he wanted to ask questions about it. I don’t remember what the first question was, because Jerry started off normally, asking his question, but a couple of words into it, he made this deep, gurgling, almost growling sound-it’s almost impossible to describe. But it didn’t sound particularly MENACING, just really, really primal. My first reaction was that Jerry was just fooling around, trying to trick us and scare us, so I just lifted one of my fingers off of the planchette and tapped Renee’s hand with it-then we both looked up and looked at Jerry, and although he wasn’t making the noise anymore, his eyes were kind of rolled back in his head, and his mouth was slack and hanging open-of course, I’m still thinking that he’s fooling, and I said something like, “Oh, Jerry, quit fooling around” then, all of a sudden, there was this blinding flash of light, either behind Jerry or right next to him-it almost looked as if it was coming from him-almost like a camera flashbulb going off, just for a split second-and when my eyes adjusted again, Jerry was lying on the ground. Renee and I immediately got up and ran over to where he was, and started shaking him. It took about 10 seconds for him to really become lucid, and when we asked him about it, he couldn’t remember anything after the dogs barking. He kept complaining that his side hurt-and I figured that he’d hit something when he fell over-needless to say, after an experience like that, we were ready to go, so we got all of our stuff packed up and got back in the car-Jerry got in and kept his door open so that the dome light would stay on, and lifted up his shirt to look at the spot that he said hurt, and there was a red spot the size of the palm of my hand just underneath and to the side of his right nipple, and in the middle of it was a blister, like a burn, about the size of a half dollar. That is when I became convinced that he wasn’t faking, because remember when we changed clothes?? Renee and I were both in the room and saw him without his shirt, and if that injury had been there at that time, there would have been no way we wouldn’t have noticed it.
As soon as we got back into town, we pulled up behind a store, and threw the Ouija board into the dumpster. I’m sure that each of us has told the story a time or two, but none of us has ever mentioned it to any of the others again. (Well, unless Renee and Jerry have talked about it in my absence)