Santa Bob

short stories

I wrote and posted this last year and decided to redo it again for those who didn't see it the first time.  I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. 

Santa Bob

Bob had been retired for over 10 years from him management position and enjoyed time with his wife Eileen. Together, they traveled all over the country and to other countries as well. A couple of years ago, Eileen had passed away from her long battle with cancer. Their children had families of their own and lived in other states. They couldn’t see Bob as often as they wished but made frequent phone calls.

For many years, Bob looked forward to the time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He loved the smell of pine, the cold weather, holiday lights and music but especially his job as a mall Santa Claus. Bob never felt like it was a job because he loved it so much and the children loved him. Bob even looked like the real thing too. He wore his own outfit, had long white hair, a white beard and mustache and round belly. He had a jolly laugh that made people smile.

He would get up every morning and after breakfast, put on the outfit and headed out to the mall. He stood behind the Santa’s house waiting for the time to make his appearance. He was always excited in anticipation of seeing the children and hearing their wishes for Christmas. The mall line was long because all the parents wanted to take their child to see Santa Bob. “He was the best”, they would say.

As Bob approached the seat he could see the excitement in the children’s eye as they saw Santa Claus sitting down on his throne. One by one they would come up. Some would talk and talk and some would just cry. Some just sat there, while others would not. Each parent was trying to get a good picture of their child with Santa Bob but it wasn’t always easy. The last kid of the day approaches Santa Bob, sits on his lap and proceeds to give him a list of toys he wanted. Bob listens with excitement, smiles for the picture and watches the little boy leave with his mother.

Exhausted and tired, Bob goes to the back area behind to house and takes a moment to rest. An elf, Charlie, asked him, “How can you do this?” Bob turns to him a bit puzzled and asked, “Do what?” Charlie then says, “Play Santa and have all those little brats all over you all day long?” Bob walks over to Charlie, put his hands on his shoulders and says softly, “I do it for the children who are innocent, their excitement and especially their love. They are what is most important to me. Besides, I love it and will be Santa Bob till the day I die.”

The Zombie Book and Dream

short stories

My contribution is a story that I wrote and a wild zombie dream that April wrote.

Possessed by a Zombie's Soul

By Adsila

Jason stared out the misty windows of his loft apartment in Manhattan, and wondered why he had a bad case of writer’s block. He never had trouble coming up with the staggering words that made his mystery/horror novels so popular. With his publisher’s nagging words pounding in his head informing him the deadline for his book was due; he knew that getting out of the city to a more secluded place was what he needed. His Grandpa Walter owned a cabin deep in the woods of Kentucky where he visited often as a little boy. The small three bedroom cabin held lots of memories for Jason and he knew this was the perfect place to write his latest novel, which had no title yet.

Jason drove to the end of a tiny dirt road to reach the cabin before nightfall. It was much smaller than he remembered, and had a porch with a rickety old rocker sitting on it. He remembered countless time his Grandpa would sit in the rocker, whittling wood and drinking his homemade booze. Jason and his brother Dylan would sit for hours while their Grandpa would spin many tall tales about his strange neighbors. “They are zombies”, he would insists, and they responded by saying “oh Grandpa, you are just trying to scare us”.

After unloading his gear, he made a sandwich and went outside and sat down on the rocker. The sun was all but gone by now and the eerie darkness of the woods surrounded him. He noticed the wooden trunk at the end of the porch where his grandpa usually left his homemade booze, which he always referred to as his juice. Jason lifted the lid and found a half empty bottle sitting amongst the cobwebs. He grabbed the bottle, sat on the rocker, and contemplated about taking a drink. He pulled out the cork and a strong smell hit him, burning his eyes. After several minutes, he decided to take a swig. He could feel the fire in his throat as he swallowed the elixir. He had an overwhelming rush come over him as the effects of the booze took over. He decided to take another drink and then another, with each gulp getting easier to get down. After polishing off the bottle, he sat back on the rocker and stared into the dark woods. He felt better than he had in months. He was free from all the stress that prevented his creative juices from flowing.

He had been sitting there for several hours, when he noticed a figure coming from the dark woods. As it got closer, he noticed it was a female with pale white skin, piercing red eyes, long flowing dark hair and a body that any woman would envy. He felt it had to be a hallucination because she didn’t look real, almost like a ghost. The woman approached him, and without saying a word, grabbed him with a strong embrace. He didn’t know what to think. Before he could say anything, she bit him in the neck, chewing off some skin, and causing him to bleed profusely. As she let go of her forceful grip, he fell to the ground and passed out.

When Jason woke up, it was still dark. He wasn’t sure how long he was lying on the porch or if that was an intense dream brought on by the strong elixir he drank. He slowly got up, went inside to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face. He wiped off the dirty mirror and expected to see some type of bit mark on his neck, but what he saw was even more frightening. The person looking back at him in the mirror was unrecognizable. His blue eyes were now a reddish color, his skin looked pale, his hair was disheveled, and he had an overwhelming desire to feast on human flesh. Angry and confused, he wondered who that bitch was and what did she do to him. He decided to look for her and get some answers. As he wandered through the woods in the darkness, he came across a campsite. A father and son were camping and asleep in their tent. Jason couldn’t fight his desire to feast, so he attacked the unsuspecting pair and made a meal of their flesh. Satisfied and wanting more, he sniffed out more humans to eat. He spent most of the night looking for the zombie bitch and gorging on any innocent victims he came across. By the end of the night, before the sun came up, Jason found himself back at the cabin. Weary and completely fulfilled, he dropped down on the porch and passed out.

When he woke up with the sun shining in his eyes, he slowly got up and grabbed his laptop to write about the odd dream he just had. The words flowed through him like water. Before he knew it, the book was done and titled, “The Zombie's Soul”. He called his publisher and told her he was coming back to the city with a completed novel. He wasn’t sure if it was Grandpa’s special juice or the extreme sequences of events that he dreamt last night, but he knew this was the best story he had ever written. Feeling unusually full and different, he packed his things and was ready to head home.

Jason enjoyed the success of the book but the experience that created the best seller still haunted him. The dreams of him hunting and feasting on innocent souls continued almost nightly. In the mornings he would find himself on the couch next to a cup of coffee and the newspaper. He picked up the paper and noticed the headline read, “Another body was found in an alley mauled to death”. “Hum”, he remarked. He laid the newspaper down, looked up with glazed eyes and said licking his lips, “yeah, I know and they were tasty too.”

Zombies and Pancakes

By April

I have always had the weirdest dreams, and this one I thought was funny, so I thought I would share. Let me know what you think….

I had this dream about 2 years ago.

I dreamed I was staying in a cabin in Sedona for the weekend with some friends (people I knew in my dream but not really anyone I really knew). When we got to our cabin, we were told that some people had been murdered in one of nearby cabins the year before. Since we were there the year before it seemed to freak out the group of people I was with. It didn't bother me at all. I was very hungry and all I could think about was eating some pancakes. I had brought some from home and had been waiting to eat them. My friends wanted to go over there to check out the cabin. I was like, whatever. I guess I could wait, so we walked over there and talked to the people staying in the cabin. They told us where the murders happened and how the cabin was remodeled because of the damage. They said that the reason they died was because they had zombies in the woods. That seemed to make everyone laugh, but I was like oh yeah… I deal with zombies all the time. (Evidently, I seemed to unconsciously remember that I dreams about Zombies all the time, and that's why it really didn't faze me.) They laughed, and jokingly told us that there is no such thing as Zombies.

I was like no, I would know, I have been fighting them forever. I was slightly irritated, because they were laughing. I told them that all they had to do was hit them in the head. That they were really dumb, and they could avoid them easily.

At this point, I realized that talking to them was no use because they all just stared at me like I was crazy or something.

I was like, forget this, I want my pancakes.

So I left them in the cabin with that guy and started to walk back to our cabin. As I began my walk, people around me were starting to scream, and run. I was like; oh it's probably the zombies. Ha, wonder if they will believe me now.

I began to shake my head and yelled “if you start to scream, then they follow you"!

I continued on my way. Well, when I got there, the cabin was flooded with people and it was like a zombie food fest. I started to get pissed off.

I was like "What the hell, people." (Kind of the way you get irritated at people and how they can't drive) "It’s not rocket science; zombies are dead, not much brain power! How do you get caught by a stupid dead person?

So, because of the amount of people involved, and infected blood, I couldn't go near my cabin. Pissed off that I couldn't get my breakfast, I walked back. I could hear helicopters now and gun fire, but I didn't care. I was really disappointed. I walked back to the first cabin and saw what was left of my friends, which was friends turned into zombies trying to kill my other friends who weren't zombies.

I got even more pissed off. I was like Why didn't you listen to me? I told you how to kill them!

I just went inside and there was blood everywhere. But there weren't that many zombies so I walked to the kitchen. I went into the freezer, and there in front of me were frozen pancakes!!!! I was so happy. The others followed me in there for safety, and were like what the hell, so they took off. I didn't care, it's was their problem.

I opened the package and pulled out a plate from the cupboard. I put the pancakes on the plate, and that's when I noticed the blood all over the microwave.

I was like, well shit…. Oh well

I just grabbed another plate to cover the top, so I wouldn't get any blood on the food. I popped it in and set the timer. By this point, there were zombies chasing people down the hall, and more and more were coming in. I knew I should leave, but I still had like a minute left. So I grabbed the butter and syrup packets and shoved them in my pockets, and popped open the door with about 30 seconds left. I decided to leave through the back door, and there I saw my friends cornered, about to get eaten. I was like, damn you guys, and I looked down and I shoved the pancakes in my pockets. I began to fight off some zombies, and I saved what was left of my friends from getting eaten. That's when the military came in and pulled us out. They huddled us in a large circle and began to execute all the zombies. Well, I was finally left alone, so I snuck over to the bushes in the corner and finished my food. By the time I was done, all the zombies were dead, and we went home.

...Yeah, I guess I was hungry when I went to sleep... The thing is I don't even like pancakes.

The list of other zombie walk participants:
Ghost Hunting Theories

Gnostalgia
The Caffeinated Zombie
Improbable Frontiers
Anything Horror
The Digital Looking Glass
Monkey Man
Strange State
Hayes Hudson's House of Horror
Echoes In the Abyss
Not Worth Mentioning
The Misadventures of HalloweeNut  
Haunt Jaunts
LeoGodin
Holly's Horrorland

The Blogger Zombie Walk Reminder

short stories

This is just a quick reminder letting you know that the first annual "Blogger Zombie Walk" is this Friday, December 10th.  If you want to participate please let Autumnforest know by sending her an email at: psychic62@hotmail.com by December 8th, and she will add you to the master list.  Everyone who is joining in will have this list sent to them on December 9th so they can add all those participating to their zombie post.  This will give all the followers and others that just happen to come across your blog an easy place to click on and find all the zombie posts of those doing the walk.

Blogger Zombie Walk

short stories

My friend Autumnforest from “Ghost Hunting Theories” has come up with another fun event for all bloggers to participate in. She has announced that Friday, December 10th will be “Blogger Zombie Walk” Day, and all those who wish to join in will be asked to do a zombie themed post on that day.
You can open up your creative juices to any idea as long as it is centered on the zany world of zombies. You can write a fictional zombie story; share photos and stories about any zombie event that you attended; show photos of yourself in zombie make-up and explain in pictures or words of the step-by-step details on how you did it; or you can do a fun and scary zombie video. It will be totally up to you on what you want to present on your blog as long as it is zombie related.

In everyone’s post, you will list the links to the other blogs who are joining in on the zombie walk. If you are interested in participating in the zombie walk, send Autumnforest an email at psychic62@hotmail.com so she can put you on her master list. This must be done by December 8th so she can send the list to all the participants by December 9th to add to their posts on the 10th. This will make it easier for our followers to go down the list and click the next blog until they have finished the list.

You can also advertise the event ahead of time by doing a post such as this one, and adding the zombie walk button to the sidebar of your blog. We would like to encourage all the people we can to come and check out all our blogs. I will be throwing a tweet about it and message on facebook as well.

Join us on Blogger Zombie Walk Friday (December 10th) and have a great time reading all the creative blogs in bloggerland.

The Asthma Attack and the Dream

short stories

By April

This incident happened when I was 16 years old, and was the second time I had a serious asthma attack in 5 months. The previous time resulted in cardiac arrest and a hospital stay for 7 days.

It was a Saturday morning and I woke up early to do my chores. I began with the kitchen. I took the floor mat by the door and began to shake it off outside. It sent up a huge cloud of dust into my face. (Yeah, smart huh?) This set off an asthma attack. My sister was next to me and she saw what happened. I told her to get my inhaler for me. Realizing it was getting bad fast, I stopped her and told her to set up my breathing treatment. She ran into my room and I followed her. My chest was tightening up and I knew it wasn't good. I started to panic and I told my sister to get mom and to tell her we have to go to the hospital. I could barely talk. My mom took me out to the car and we left my sister at the house to call my family. I remember not being able to breathe at all in the car. I was trying to sit up straight and I was pushing onto the dashboard stretching my lungs trying to get some air in. I remember that my mom was crying and she was very scared. I remember at one point telling her that I was going to die. I don't know why (or even how) I said that, but I did and I won’t ever forget the look on her face when I said it.

We lived about a 2 blocks from the hospital, (strategic planning by my mom), so when we pulled up to the ER it had only been a few minutes. When my mom pulled up to the entrance, I just opened the car door and sort of fell out. At this point things started to get fuzzy. I remember doing all of this, but I have no memory of sound or why I was doing the things I was doing. I was told later that it was the lack of oxygen. I walked in the door and I leaned up against a little wall that came up to my waist. There were people sitting on the other side waiting to be seen. There was an old woman sitting there and I started to grab at her and pull at her hair. The next thing I knew, there was a wheelchair being shoved under me. I noticed my mom next to me and she looked very scared. They wheeled me in and that is the last thing I remember. The doctors & family filled me in on what happened next. I guess I became extremely combative right away. It was a lot worse than any of my previous attacks, because I hadn't been breathing for about 5 minutes when I got in. They couldn't restrain me. It took seven doctors to hold me down before they could tie my hands and feet down. Before they could I pulled out an IV & kicked a doctor in the face (giving him 7 stitches). I guess I tried to pull out the breathing tube but they stopped me. Once again, my heart started to fibrillate and they had to use the Defibrillator to shock my heart into a normal rhythm and it worked.

They let mom in to see me. The doctors told her that I was very unstable and that there is a possibility that I still may not pull out of this. She told me later that she came in knowing that it may be the last time she could see me. I didn't wake up until the next afternoon.

I had the weirdest dream right before I woke up, and although I don’t remember much of it, it felt like it had an importance to it that I did not recognized until years later. I spoke about this dream, just after it happened, as being a product of the medication I was given due to the oddness of the dream at the end, but I could never shake the feeling it gave me. It gradually became apparent to me that it was more than just a dream. When I talked or even thought about the man in my dream, I tear up and I just know. He was the dream, he was why I was there and he was important. He had a presence of power, the kind that gives the wave of goose bumps and nod of truth. I have written down just the tangible bit I remember, I wish I remember more. I hope I can convey it to you as I know it myself. It is what it is and it was real.

I only remember the dream part of the way through. I don’t know what happened that lead up to this point, but I wish I did.

I was in this very large empty room and it was brightly lit with this cream colored light. I was sitting in a wooden chair along with a man who was also in the room with me. I felt very comfortable and content, we had been talking and I knew what we were talking about was very important. I don’t remember this man’s face, but he and I seemed to know each other. I felt like I could confide in him. I remember very distinctly that he was sitting far from me, about 30 feet away, which only struck me as odd when I woke up later. We had been talking in our normal voices as if we were next to each other and the feeling of the conversation was that we just had a serious talk or that something important had just happened. The heaviness in the dream had begun to lift and that was pretty much where this dream began to be more solid for me. It was as if I was coming out of a dream within a dream. All the seriousness and intensity of the dream began to fade, and he seemed to be getting further and further away from me. I know we had been discussing something about my breathing because I was shifting into another topic on how odd it was that I didn’t have to try to breath anymore. I told him how weird I thought this was and how it didn’t make any sense. I told him that I knew if I held my breath, I would still breathe. And I remember saying “watch this, I’ll show you” and I held my breath & after about 3 seconds, I breathed. I remember saying “Did you see that? This is so weird!” I found this very amusing in a childlike way, I don’t remember him responding and that didn’t seem to bother me, as I was extremely excited and distracted by this discovery. As this was happening, he seemed to be getting even further away and is was as if he was never there. I don’t remember anything after that, only that I was coming out of the drug induced coma with the dream fresh in my mind. I was still on the ventilator when I woke up.

I tried to talk and I couldn't, and the tube hurt. It felt like a broomstick was shoved down my throat. It started to gag me and I began to get sick again so nurse came in and pulled the tube out really fast so I wouldn't choke. I was still tied down, both my hands and feet. I had pulled out an IV, so I had blood all over my arm and hand. That freaked me out. That's when everyone filled me in on what had happened. I was in the hospital for 11 days and got out just in time to go to prom (I was a sophomore in high school, but was asked by a junior to go). The doctors let me go on the condition that I took it easy, which I did. I was told by the doctors that it was a miracle that I survived without any brain damage. Another nurse, who was there when I came in 5 months earlier, came in to talk to me when I was in recovery. He sat in the chair next to me, picked up my hand and said when he saw me come in the ER again, his heart dropped. He said I was in such bad shape, he didn’t think I wasn’t going to make it. He told me this with tears in his eyes. He told me to take care of myself and that I truly was given a second chance at life.

It Was All They Knew

short stories

As I sit watching “Back to the Future III” for the hundredth time, I wonder how this modern woman, would be able to survive traveling back to Arizona’s Wild West. It is simple, I wouldn’t! Let’s not forget all those crazy notorious cowboys and women that might shoot you for looking at them wrong, but no air conditioning, asphalt roads and ice water, how barbaric. I am curious on how in the hell they survived the extreme Arizona heat in the summertime. I know that these dusty hot conditions were all they knew, but if they had a taste of what we have nowadays, they wouldn’t want to go back to the Wild West era.

I can relax on my comfy couch, flipping through the cable channels to find something interesting to watch on TV. Next to me you might find my cell phone, laptop and a glass of iced coffee all while enjoying the central air cooling down the house. The Wild West houses were probably made mostly of wood, stone and mud or stucco, with no air conditioning units on the roof. Some of their homes might have some type of fan blowing, but during the high humid months, those are virtually rendered useless. The windows would be left open so the uncomfortable hot stale air would blow through the house in hope to cool the occupants down. Yeah right, that would never happen, but it was all they knew.

Most houses didn’t have electricity or a fridge with bottled water and iced tea inside to quench your thirst. The drink of choice in most places was whiskey. If you wanted water to drink, you would have to stick your head in a horses’ trough providing that the horse was willing to share. If that wasn’t bad enough, try shitting in an outhouse when the temperature is over 100 degrees. If the smell didn’t get to you, the heat would. I don’t even want to know what they wiped their asses with, maybe sandpaper? But again, it didn’t bother them because it was all they knew.

Our Wild West peeps were living and pooping in sweltering structures, but it didn’t matter because their clothes didn’t keep them cool anyway. The dresses, pants, shirts and blouses were heavy and were layered with a petticoat or long johns underneath. The shoes and boots looked uncomfortable with either a hat or bonnet on their head for protection or just for looks. I am telling you that someone would have made a killing selling sandals, flip flops, cotton tees or tank tops and sun glasses to those Wild West folks. But I’m sure that riding a horse wouldn’t have gone well with flip flops. I also wonder how many of them suffered from heat stoke wearing all that thick clothing during the summer months. I’m sure that it was uncomfortable, but that was all they knew.

Let’s talk about their modes of transportation. They either bounced around on a horse for miles or rode in a wagon with wood wheels over the rough terrain being tossed around like rag dolls all while traveling. They didn’t have paved roads to drive on with their factory made cars with rubber wheels. There was no air conditioning cooling them off or listening to their favorite tunes on the radio. Their way of traveling may have been a bit crude by modern standards, but they didn’t complain because that was all they knew.

Would I want to go back in time to Arizona’s Wild West period and miss out on all the things that I need to get me through the day…..hell no! (This is all I know.)

What Joseph Has Seen

short stories

On a warm summer day in July of 1843, Joseph was born in Prince Williams, Virginia. He was the second child of James and Mildred having an older sister named Mary. His papa James was known to his friends as Jas, and was a sailor and farmer. Prior to the Civil War, he served in the county militia which was required by all able-bodied men in Gloucester. Jas also served in “The Gloucester Invincible for Guinea” led by Lt Col. Powhatan Robertson Page. His mother, Mildred, was the eldest child of William and Ana Hobday. Her father owned 200 acres of an estate known as “Little England” near the James River. Joseph grew up with three brothers and two sisters playing on the land of the Virginia estate.

When he was 18 years of age in 1861, the American Civil War, also known as the War Between the States, began. At the age of 20, in March of 1863, Joseph enlisted in the CSA 26th VA, Infantry, Company F. He was listed in the “Ord & Circulars Guard Report” for guard duty on December 1863 to January 1864. At the age of 22, Joseph was present at the final Muster Roll which occurred on February 28, 1865 and then served at Appomattox Court House. While Joseph was serving his time at Appomattox, he had no idea what was coming next.

On the morning of April 9, 1865, the battle of Appomattox Court House was fought and ended the four year battle of the American Civil War. General Robert E. Lee abandoned the confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia after the Siege of Petersburg, headed west in hopes of joining his army in North Carolina. Joseph stood with his regiment when Lee launched an attack at the Appomattox Court House hoping to break through the Union force. He was there when Lee realized that his cavalry was surrounded by two corps of Union Infantry and there was no hope. On that historic day Lee surrendered to Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant by signing documents at the house of Wilmer McLean and officially ending the Civil War. Joseph was among the many men that were present when this battle and surrender occurred. He continued to serve at Appomattox until May of 1865 until he was paroled in Richmond, Virginia at the age of 22 years.

When he was 25 years of age, he married Catherine Alice in Norfolk, Virginia. She was 21 years old when they married on Christmas of 1867. Together they had one child named Mary Maude, and continued his career as a waterman/sailor. Joseph died at the age of 59, two years before his daughter, Mary, died from Typhoid Fever.

Joseph Fleming was my great great Grandfather on my Dad’s side. His daughter Mary was my great Grandmother and married to my great Grandpa George. They were the parents of my Grandpa Wilton whose tragic death I wrote about in my post, Will Rogers and My Grandpa.   Wilton was only two when his mother, Mary died, and my father was only two when his dad, Wilton, died in the plane crash.

There are many stories of the ghosts seen at the Appomattox Court House. Along with the sounds of battle cries, guns, cannons, horse hooves, many have claimed seeing apparitions, especially of gray ghosts. Most of the apparitions seen have the civil war uniforms on and appear to be still fighting the battle. My cousin and others have reported experiencing that eerie feeling like you are being watched by many unseen eyes. They have also mentioned the feeling of heaviness as if many souls were surrounding them. I’m not sure if my Great grandpa Joseph’s spirit is there, but I know one thing, Appomattox is on my bucket list of places I need to visit.

These Old Doorknobs

short stories

When you look at the doorknobs in the picture above, all you probably see are a couple of old doorknobs. To me, they represent my Mother’s family’s history and have lots of stories to tell. They used to be on the house that my Grandpa built and my Mother was born in. The crystal knob sat proudly on the family’s front door and the other was attached to an interior door.

My Grandpa Frank came here from Italy as a young man in the early 1900’s. Shortly after his arrival, more of his family came to American, and then my Grandma followed. They married in Rhode Island, built a home and had six kids, three boys, and three girls. My Mother was the baby and the only one born in the house.

These doorknobs saw the birth of my Mother and a family goes through ups and downs during the depression. They saw my Grandpa start a successful landscaping business and beautiful gardens that surrounded the house. The crystal knob sat steady on the front door while my Grandpa sat on the front porch with his cup of coffee and greeted his neighbors every morning. With a smile on his face he would say, “Good morning Mr. or Mrs. ……” and rattled off something in Italian. The neighbor thought he said their name in Italian but in reality my Grandma was calling them a “fish face” or “dumb ass”. That was my Grandpa.

The doorknobs were there when my Dad came over to court my Mother. They watched as my Dad kept a low profile during dinner because there was lots of shouting in Italian and the arms were flying everywhere. Later he found out that they were just talking about the business and their day. One by one each child left and the second floor was turned into an apartment for family. The knobs were there when my Grandma was diagnosed with cancer and died a few years later. They saw my Grandpa go through depression, move upstairs and not socializing with anyone.

When I was two, my Father was stationed in Germany. While my Mother, siblings and I were waiting to join him, we stayed at my Grandparents house. The doorknobs were still on the house when this little two year old decided to climb the narrow stairs up to the second floor. When I got to the final step, I was greeted by my Grandpa sitting on a chair. He never uttered a word but scared me anyway. While running down the stairs, I fell and broke my collar bone. Shortly after we arrived in Germany, my Grandpa died from what I was told was “a broken heart”.

Years later the house was remodeled. Those old doorknobs were removed and replaced by more updated knobs. They were placed in the dusty old basement on a shelf, until I rescued them in 2005. My cousin and I went down in the basement and found all kinds of old antique items that my Grandpa used. My Uncle Joe told us that we could grab anything we wanted and I took several items including those old doorknobs and the keys in the picture below that my Grandpa always carried around. I know it may sound silly to some because they are old doorknobs and keys, but to me it represents many stories about the history of my Mother’s family. They now sit proudly on a shelf in my house next to photos of my Grandparents and other old antiques from my two Uncles that both passed away in 2005.

In 2005, when I was in that old dusty basement and climbed those narrow stairs I once fell down, I could feel the spirits of my Grandparents, my Uncles and Aunts that had since passed and once lived in that house. I was once told by my cousin that there have been reports of some hearing unseen voices and footsteps, seeing objects move on their own, and apparitions of my grandparents that appear now and then.

Are they just old doorknobs and keys or much more?

~Julie~

Will Rogers and My Grandpa

short stories

On the evening of Wednesday, March 4, 1930, 28 year old Wilton climbed in the cab of H. Decker and headed off to the Lincoln Airways, Inc. flying field in California. Wilton had listed his occupation as aviator and/or airplane mechanic. This young man had a wife and four kids with one on the way. His wife, Luzette, was in Virginia while Wilton “worked” elsewhere. There had been rumors of affairs but none were proven.

As H. Decker pulled his cab up to the airfield, he handed Wilton his card. Decker gives each person who rides with him his card which has his name, phone number and Diamond Cab Company, the name of the company he worked for.

Wilton met up with pilot Morey Johnson and Wilton’s friend Jean. By the time they all arrived at the airpark, the employees working there had left for home. The weather was pouring rain and not a good time to take a plane out on a night flight. They all boarded the plane and Johnson took it out of its stall and flew away. The flying field watchman was concerned for their safety and immediately turned on the flood lights. He kept the lights on until 8:30 but the plane never returned.

In the morning a watchman on the Will Rogers’ Ranch found the mangled wreckage of the plane and called the authorities. The wreckage was in the Santa Monica Mountains about one mile north of Will Rogers’ Ranch, in the hills back of Sawtelle. The crash site was not assessable by vehicles, so they had to carry the bodies on stretchers most of the distance.

By the looks of the wreckage, they concluded that the Travelair biplane must have been flying low and crashed into the side of the rugged mountains. The motor was buried deep in the ground and the wings were scattered in many pieces. The bodies were found crammed against the instruments causing instant death. Wilton’s chest was crushed and he sustained other injuries. In his pocket they found the card given to him by Decker and a note. The note said that Wilton was employed as an oiler on a vessel from December 29th to present date. With the two pieces of evidence found on Wilton, and Decker’s information given, they were able to find out his identity. It took the authorities a few days to locate Wilton’s family. His parents were notified as well as his wife Luzette. He was cremated at Inglewood crematory on March 18, 1930. Morey Johnson’s body was identified by the information they recovered from the plane wreckage, but I don’t know anything about how Jean was identified.

Wilton and Luzette were my Grandparents, my Father’s parents. My Dad was only 2 years old when he lost his father. The story goes that my Grandma knew of his affairs and in a telegram told the funeral director that she only wanted his gold ring and tooth. She wanted nothing else from him. Sadly, my father knew nothing about his Dad’s side of the family until I started researching his family’s history. I am glad that I was able to give him lots of information about them before he died.

Five years after my Grandpa Wilton died in a plane crash, Will Rogers met his end in a plane crash as well. William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers was born on November 4, 1879. He had many titles such as a Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor. His son, Will Rogers Jr., was a WWII veteran and U.S. Representative.

Rogers’ genealogy was from a prominent Indian Territory family and he was known as Oklahoma’s favorite son. To his credit he traveled around the world three times, did more than 70 movies and wrote over 4,000 newspaper articles. Will Rogers became a world famous figure. His most famous quote, “I never yet met a man that I didn’t like” was just one of a long list of quotes.

On August 15, 1935, Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post, died in their small airplane when it crashed near Barrow, Alaska Territory. On August 15, they left Fairbanks, Alaska for Point Barrow. They were a few miles from Point Barrow when they became uncertain of their position in bad weather and landed in a lagoon to ask directions. On takeoff, the engine failed at low altitude, and the aircraft, uncontrollably nose-heavy at low speed, plunged into the lagoon, shearing off the right wing and ended inverted in the shallow water of the lagoon. Both men died instantly. (wikipedia)

I often wonder if the ghosts of my grandpa Wilton and Will Rogers are roaming around the ranch and the surrounding mountains. I tried to find any stories about any hauntings or ghosts in and around the ranch but with no avail. The Will Rogers’ Ranch gives tours, so I will have to go on one and see if there are any claims of ghosts seen around the ranch by eyewitnesses.

~Julie~

Santa Bob

short stories

Bob had been retired from him management position and enjoyed time with his wife Eileen. Together, they traveled all over the country and to other countries as well. Not long after all the traveling; Eileen had passed away from her long battle with cancer. Their children had families of their own and lived in other states. They couldn’t see Bob as often as they wished but made frequent phone calls.

For many years, Bob looked forward to the time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. He loved the smell of pine, the cold weather, holiday lights and music but especially his job as a mall Santa Claus. Bob never felt like it was a job because he loved it so much and the children loved him. Bob even looked like the real thing too. He wore his own outfit, had long white hair, a white beard and mustache and round belly. He had a jolly laugh that made people smile. The job meant more to him after Eileen had passed away.

He would get up every morning and after breakfast, put on the outfit and headed out to the mall. He stood behind the Santa’s house waiting for the time to make his appearance. He was always excited in anticipation of seeing the children and hearing their wishes for Christmas. The mall line was long because all the parents wanted to take their child to see Santa Bob. “He was the best”, they would say.

As Bob approached the seat he could see the excitement in the children’s eye as they saw Santa Claus sitting down on his throne. One by one they would come up. Some would talk and talk and some would just cry. Some just sat there, while others would not. Each parent was trying to get a good picture of their child with Santa Bob but it wasn’t always easy. The last kid of the day approaches Santa Bob, sits on his lap and proceeds to give him a list of toys he wanted. Bob listens with excitement, smiles for the picture and watches the little boy leave with his mother.

Exhausted and tired, Bob goes to the back area behind to house and takes a moment to rest. An elf, Charlie, asked him, “How can you do this?” Bob turns to him a bit puzzled and asked, “Do what?” Charlie then says, “Play Santa and have all those little brats all over you all day long?” Bob walks over to Charlie, put his hands on his shoulders and says softly, “I do it for the children who are innocent, their excitement and especially their love. They are what are most important to me. Besides, I love it and will be Santa Bob till the day I die.”

It has been several years since Santa Bob had passed away in his sleep from a long illness. Many have tried to replace him as Santa in the mall but none had that special quality that Santa Bob possessed. There had been many reports of seeing an old Santa, faded and lurking in the background watching the kids sit on Santa’s lap. Many swear that it is Santa Bob and he is watching over the children just as he did when he was alive.

…..and they heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Five years ago on this day, December 17, 2004, my father Robert, who many called Bob, passed away from the complications of pneumonia. He put up a brave fight and went peacefully in his sleep. He was my father, my hero and my Santa Bob.

I love and miss you Daddy…..Julie

The Dried Roses

short stories

Many strange things happened after April, her boyfriend, and her roommates messed with the Ouija board. This incident is just another one. One evening, April was alone in the apartment and reading in her bedroom. Next to her bed on the nightstand was a vase with a dozen dried roses she saved from a special occasion. While trying to read, she kept hearing footsteps in the hallway. The footsteps would not let up and she started hearing other noises as well. It sounded like things were being moved, like furniture sliding across the floor. April yelled out and got no answer. Frightened and unsure of what was going on, she managed to muster up some bravery and went to investigate the noises. She started in the living room, then the kitchen and moved down the hall to the bedrooms. She was yelling “hello” and hoping to get an answer from a roommate, but heard nothing. After checking out her roommates’ bedrooms, she looked in the bathroom and found nothing there as well. The apartment door was locked as well as the sliding glass door, and no one else was in the apartment with her. She went back to the kitchen, got something to drink and headed back to her bedroom. As she got near her door, she saw the dozen dried roses lying in the center of her doorway as if someone put them there. Completely startled and scared, she turned around, got her keys and left the apartment. She called her roommates and told them what happened and to call her when they were headed home. She would wait for them outside and they would all go in together. When she finally got back inside the apartment, the roses were still there in the doorway. After that incident and many other strange occurrences, they decided it was time to move.

This is the last of the stories April told me. I am hoping to get with her soon to hear some more.
~~Julie~~

After the Ouija Board: The Mysterious Call

short stories

Another evening shortly after April, her boyfriend and two roommates played with an Ouija board, they had another weird and creepy incident happen. It was very late in the night, one of her roommates was sleeping and the other wasn’t home from her night out yet. While April and her boyfriend were also sleeping, her roommate came home. Right after hearing the apartment door shut, April heard her cell phone ringing in the living room. She looked at the clock and noticed it was 3:00 am, and got up thinking that the call could be an emergency. As she was walking down the hall, her roommate came by and said that it was Kelly calling because she saw her name on the phone. Right when April was about to grab the phone, it stopped ringing. She picked it up and checked her missed calls, and saw that Kelly indeed called her at 3:00 am. She immediately called her back and was very worried about why she would call so late. On the other end of the phone she heard a very groggy “hello” from Kelly. April waited for a second for her to explain the call but she just asked April, what was up. April asked, “Why did you call me”. Surprised, Kelly responded with, “You called me”. Completely confused at this time, April decided it would be best to talk about it in the morning. The two girls hung up and right afterwards April could hear her boyfriend calling her name very faintly from the bedroom. When she walked in the room, she saw him sitting up at the end of the bed, pale as a ghost. He told her that a white mist formed in the doorway shortly after she left, and then sudden rushed towards him. He was so scared that he couldn’t move or speak for a few minutes. Then he told her that he felt the mist was evil, like it was the devil, and it lured her out of the room with the phone call. He continued to say that it wanted him to be alone, so it could attack him. April was not sure of what it could have been, but knows that he experienced something extremely frightening. They stayed up the rest of the night, not getting any sleep. The next day, April checked her phone before calling Kelly and noticed that the missed call she saw last night, was no longer there. Both her and her roommate saw Kelly’s name on the phone and under the missed calls, but it was no where on her phone. So why wasn’t it on the phone the next day? Was it the devil making the call to get her out of the room so he could attack her boyfriend? Who knows?

After the Ouija Board: The Visitor

short stories

One evening, April, her boyfriend and two roommates decided to entertain themselves by messing around with the Ouija Board. After getting drinks and snacks, they went to April’s room and put the board on her bed. Each of them put a finger on the planchette and took turns asking questions. They got movement and some questioned answered. When it got real late, they put the board up and went to bed. The next day, while April was alone, she decided to give their apartment a good cleaning. She spent all day dusting, vacuuming and putting things away. That evening, while one roommate was working and the other was at a friend's, April’s boyfriend came over. At one point in the evening they ended up in April’s room, with the door ajar, playing cards. During that time, they heard the apartment door unlock, open, then shut, someone walking around, and keys being thrown on the counter. Right afterwards they heard a cabinet door open and a sound like a glass was put on the counter. They could hear the water faucet turn on, filling the glass, and then shut off. They sat on the bed and waited for one of her roommates to peek their head in the door and possibly compliment her on how nice the apartment looked. They waited and waited. Finally April decided to yell, “hello”, hoping to get a response, but heard nothing. Now they are starting to wonder what was going on and went in the living and kitchen area to investigate. They noticed the door was locked and there were no keys or glass on the counter. They are extremely puzzled at this point and getting pretty scared as well. The walls of the apartment are thin, but the sounds they heard were coming from inside their apartment. April decided to check each of the roommates’ rooms but found no one inside. She then called each of them finding out that the one was still at work while the other was staying at her friend’s place. Now they are really scared. Who came into the apartment, dropped their keys on the counter and got a glass of water? Who indeed?

Cottage #4: Mummified Body in Bathtub

short stories

There are people that enter in our lives and for some reason become like family who are there for every big event and holiday. In my family it was Audrey. Audrey was like a Grandmother that I never knew and was around every Thanksgiving and Christmas for the family’s party. She made sure that all the grandchildren got a dollar or two, wrapped around a candy cane. For April, it was Ronald.

After April and her sister moved out of the house on the corner, their Mother decided to downsize into a smaller place. She found a two bedroom cottage on a one acre lot a few blocks away from the house they were renting. This lot also had three other cottages that were rented out to others. One of the renters was Ronald. After a few months of living in the cottage, April’s mother heard a quiet knock at the door. She opened the door a saw this tall, thin, unassuming man, with scruffy beard standing there. He told her that his name was Ronald and he lived in cottage 4. After that initial meeting, Ronald came over many mornings having coffee, muffins or some other breakfast meal. Their conversations were of general subjects, never anything personal. Ronald never like talking about his personal life, especially any male companions that have been in his life or any he may be seeing at the time. He always came to her mother’s cottage and never invited her over to visit his. She never questioned why nor had any reason to suspect anything wrong. Even with that, they still had a special friendship. April and her sister got used to seeing Ronald at their mother’s place every time they came to visit. He was like an uncle to them. On Christmas morning, the girls would sleep in the spare room while Ronald slept on the couch. This friendship was strong for over two years.

One day, out of the blue, Ronald asked April, her mother and sister to start calling him Harry. He explained that it was his middle name and most people know him by that name. They thought it was an odd request for him to make since they have known him as Ronald for over two years. They told him that they would continue calling him Ronald because changing things now would be just plain weird. Shortly afterwards, Ronald started displaying very odd behavior and finally just disappeared without a trace.

April’s mother moved months later without ever knowing what happened. One evening she got a visit from the local police asking questions about Harry. She was worried and wanted to know if he was alright or if he did something wrong. They needed to know any information Harry may have told her because he was a person of interest in an investigation. She mentioned that she referred to him as Ronald and that he never talked about his personal life. She also told them that she never was in his cottage. She gave them as much information as she could remember with some questions of her own. Why the police was interested in Ronald or rather Harry?

In February of 2008, the Phoenix police responded to a call to the address of Ronald’s cottage. The owners were in cottage #4 to clean it out and found a mummified body in the bathtub. They rented this cottage out to an adult male in 1995. They received regular rent payments from 1995 to the summer of 2007, when the payment suddenly stopped. After briefly visiting the cottage and finding it abandoned, they did nothing at that time thinking that the owner would return for his things. They never entered the premises at that time either. But after not receiving any payments after that, they went in the cottage to inspect its conditions. They found it to be stacked from floor to ceiling with trash, personal items and was in extremely deplorable conditions. With the assistance of others, the owners started removing the trash. When they reached the bathtub, they found it covered with plywood and plastic. When they removed the wood and plastic, they found it filled with dirt and sand. As soon as they started removing the dirt, a human leg was exposed and the police were called.

The entire bathtub was removed along with the mummified body and dirt. Upon examination they found that the person buried in the tub had been dead for a number of years and they labeled the death as “unknown”. They are not positive that the body is of the original renter, Ronald, or if it could be someone else. Harry apparently took over Ronald's identity, cashed his checks and lived with his dead body for years. There are so many questions such as, how did they know each other and how did Ronald, or whoever that body belonged to, die? Was he murdered or just died of natural causes? Harry is only a person of interest at this time, with his whereabouts still unknown to this day.

This story was all over the local news in Phoenix and around the world. Because the case is still unsolved, the names of Ronald and Harry have been changed for that reason.

Above is an artist drawing of what Harry looked like.

~~Julie~~

The Unseen Intruder

short stories

April was no stranger to pranksters trying to scare her while in her bedroom. They tried by throwing eggs at her windows or just simply knock on them and run. The house they lived in was on a corner and her bedroom was located in the corner/front of the house. Basically it was easy for those who wanted to scare her to do so and made for a quick get-a-way without being seen. She has seen lots of activity in that room, some of which she just can't explain. One Friday night while their Mother was out with friends, April and her sister invited a couple of male friends over for popcorn and movies. While in the middle of a horror flick, their dogs started acting strange. They ran down the hall to April’s bedroom door. The door was shut and they kept growling as if someone or something was in there. Right after they got up to see what was wrong, they heard a loud bang coming from the room. They all froze and tried to come up with a plan on what to do. April’s sister told her that she had all the house keys including the ones that locked the bedroom doors. After one of the guys grabbed a kitchen knife, they all huddle behind him, opened the door, and walked in together. They felt a breeze coming from the room and noticed that her window was slightly opened. The sheets and blankets looked as if someone grabbed them from the top and pulled them to the end of the bed onto the floor. April keeps her window latched because of all the pranksters trying to scare her, so she couldn’t figure out how it got opened. The only way to open them was from the inside. Even more puzzling was how her sheets and blankets got on the floor when she clearly made the bed that morning. While her sister clutched the keys in fear, they wondered if they should call 911. Having no explanation for the window being opened, the boys decided to get brave and search the whole house for possible intruders. They started yelling, telling the intruders that they better leave because they had a knife, and they were not scared, even though they were. April and her sister sat waiting in the bedroom scared and wondered if this was just one of the many unexplained things that have happened since they rented that house. After a full search of the house, the boys came back to the bedroom and reported finding nothing. They went back in the living room, leaving the bedroom door wide opened. Her sister remembered leaving the keys their mother entrusted to her, in the bedroom. She asked April to go with her to get them because of what happened earlier. As they got to the bedroom, they noticed the door was shut and locked. They felt a chill all over because they know that the only way to lock the bedroom doors was with a key and the keys were in the bedroom. The dogs started growling at the door again, so this time they all ran outside scared and shaken. Grabbing the phone, April called their neighbor and told them what was happening. The couple came over and while the wife stayed with the kids, her husband checked out the house. He searched the entire place, finding nothing and no one. He told them that April’s bedroom door was opened, not shut and locked like they had told him earlier. The couple asked if they wanted them to stay until their Mother came home but they reassured them that they would be fine. After they left, one of the boys had to get home as well. He lived nearby and was so scared of what happened that he ran all the way and called April as soon as he got there to see if they were alright. The three of them were still scared and jumpy but decided to watch another movie, a comedy this time. Not long after getting into the movie they heard a loud crashing noise in the kitchen. This time they yelled to see if anyone was in there in stead of quickly investigating. Getting no response and being very frightened, the three of them got up and walked towards the kitchen in a huddle to check it out. When they got in the kitchen, they saw the drying rack and everything that was in it, lying on the floor. This rack was heavy and full of pots and pans so for it to just fall on the floor, it needed some strong force pushing it. It was almost as if someone picked it up and threw it on the floor. They also noticed that the cabinet door above the area where the rack sat was opened. The box of teabags was opened and almost all the bags were thrown all over the kitchen. There was no conceivable explanation for what happened. Still very scared, they cleaned it up and finished right before their Mother came home. Needless to say, neither of them got any sleep that night because of the unseen intruder.

April's Stories: The Wite-Out

short stories

It was late in the night and April was trying to get her report done for school. The house she was living in now, with her Mother and sister, was on a corner lot. Her bedroom faced the front with two windows at the corner of the room. She sat on her bed, which was near the windows, and placed her wite-out bottle and pens on the ledge. She decided to take a break and get something to drink. Her Mother was on the computer and her sister was sleeping. After grabbing the drink and talking with her Mother, she went back in the room to finish the report. She noticed that the wite-out bottle was not on the ledge with the pens. She looked all over her bed, and checked the side of the bed pressed against the wall hoping that it slid down inside. She moved the bed away from the wall and looked under it. Scratching her head in confusion, she searched all over her room and couldn’t find it anywhere. She thought maybe she took it with her to get a drink, but didn’t know why she would. It wasn’t anywhere in the kitchen or living room. She asked her Mother if she saw it, and her Mother told her that she did not have it with her. Now she’s getting very frustrated and even checked on her sister to see if she was playing a joke on her. When she opened the door, she called her sister’s name and got no reaction. Her sister was fast asleep. April then went back in her room and started looking for it again. She needed to finish the report, that night, and it was getting late. She left her room one more time to get another drink, and then decided to just finish the report without the wite-out. As she approached her room, there sitting in the middle of her doorway, was the bottle of wite-out. The bottle was sitting upright and looked as if someone neatly placed it there. She knows it wasn’t there before or she would have seen it. The mystery of the wite-out still remains until this day, with all the parties involved insisting that they never touched the bottle.

April's Stories: Bloody Mary

short stories

This was always one chant that I refused to do, it terrified me. Many were curious to try it and some had interesting results. April, her sister and friend were no exception. They wanted to see if this so-called urban legend was true. Her friend was religious and didn’t believe anything would happen but decided to join them anyway. It was daytime and they decided to do the chant in April’s bedroom. They put a blanket over the window but it just wasn’t dark enough. Since April loved to read, she had lots of books, so they used them to stack in front of the window to achieve enough darkness. They checked the stacks and were satisfied that the books were not going to move. They all got on the bottom bunk of April’s bed and covered themselves with another blanket. It was plenty dark at this time, so they began. Right after they were done, they heard a loud crashing noise that appeared to be coming from the room. This loud noise was followed by the sound of the blanket covering them tearing right behind her friend. The three of them threw off the blanket and saw all the books lying on the floor as if something tossed them there. That was enough for them and they ran though the house and out the front door. They stood in the yard sobbing, so afraid of what they just witnessed. Shortly afterwards, April’s mother came home. She was very worried to find the girls and their friend crying uncontrollably and was scared to find out what happened. After getting them to calm down, they explained about doing the Bloody Mary chant and what they experienced afterwards. She took them all to April’s bedroom to find the books scattered all over the floor. She then examined the blanket and found the rip that the girls heard, only it was four not just one. The slits looked as if someone forcibly torn the blanket with long sharp nails, causing four long holes. The girls were scared for months afterwards and their Mother was pissed that her old family blanket was damaged. I’m still not doing this chant!

--Julie--

April's Stories: The Orange Ball

short stories

I'm going to do a series of stories about my daughter's friend April. She has had many paranormal experiences since she was a small girl. She shared some of her stories with me just recently with more to come. She has given me permission to share them with you, so I will only be using April's name in the stories unless the story dictates.

The first time April remembers experiencing paranormal activity, she was only three years old. The house she was living in was around 50 years old, but by all appearances it looked like your typical suburban home. Her parents were divorced but both lived in the house, just in separate areas. Also living in that house was her little sister, who was only one year old at the time. April’s bedroom was in the furthest area of the house away from all the other rooms. One night while sleeping, she was woken up by a bright orange ball floating above her at the end of the bed. This ball had the appearance of lava moving around inside of its center, as if the sun itself was in her room hovering above her. She quickly closed her eyes hoping that it was just a dream and the ball would disappear. Instead, with her eyes closed, the ball was so bright that she could see it was getting closer until it went behind her head. She ran out of the room in terror trying to get away from the ball which now appears to be following her. The hallway seemed to be endless as she ran to find her parents. At the end of the hallway was a large mirror where the refection of the neighbor’s porch light from across the street was shining through. She thought it was the ball of light still following her, and kept running until she was in the safety of her Mother’s arms. For over six months April would not go in her room especially in the nighttime. She slept on the couch near her mother’s bedroom every night during that time. One night while sleeping, she woke up to see two angels floating above the couch where she was lying. One looked like a man similar to her father, who is still alive, and the other was a woman. Half asleep, she got up and went into her bedroom, a room she refused to go into for over six month, and grabbed some paper and crayons. She walked back in the living room, sat on the couch, where the angels were still floating above, and drew several pictures of them. After that night, April was not afraid to be in her bedroom and was able to sleep there from that time on. Her Mom still has the pictures in a box with many of April’s other drawings. There is one other thing that her Mother just recently told her, the light from the neighbor’s porch could not possibly have been what she saw in the mirror that night. The house had been abandoned several months earlier and there was no electricity in the house at all.

--Julie--

Part Four: "It Was A Dark & Quiet Night..."

short stories

Chapter Four

How It Came To Be

The newly acquainted group of five sat on the carpet of the second floor loft for a half an hour. John was sitting with his legs straight out and his back against the wall. His eyes were closed, but he had not been sleeping. John had wanted to keep his ears on alert. Mark and Elizabeth sat on the steps of the staircase that led to the third floor. Elizabeth had her head propped on Mark's shoulder. A hand held camera was on Mark's lap, turned off. Paul and Rachel sat opposite of John in the middle of the room. They both sat Indian style and Paul was leaning back on his hands. They all sat in quiet for the past few minutes. One of them had just experienced something that may or may not have been the sole reason for their reason of being in this place.

John explained his story of the footsteps and the shadow moving to the rest of them, and none of them had any reason to doubt him. His experience is the reason why Mark and his wife had come armed with cameras. Mark had heard about the hotel and it's history a few years back and became fascinated with the building. At the time he heard the stories, he and Elizabeth were in film school. His dream was to always be a documentarian. Mark wanted to invest his time to bring real life stories to the world's eyes. Stories that no one knew existed.

Elizabeth had fallen in love with his sense of adventure, and she too had the same passions. She had always been a paranormal buff and it was her that finally convinced Mark to make this hotel his next project. She had done months of research and was able to locate some relatives of the the victims from the great tragedy. Elizabeth had put the thought into play that maybe if some blood relatives came back to this hotel, perhaps it would spark up some of the activity. The building already had a history of supposed haunts. Legends of ghosts and things that go bump in the night began to surface only a few years after the original event happened. Teenagers would break into the building and dare each other to stay overnight. The stories have it that no one has ever made it through a full night. Odd things would happen, and even the bravest of teenage boys would run out screaming, never to return again. When so much death happens in one building, something is bound to stay behind. Mark and Elizabeth had been in the building a few times before, but only to scout it out, and board up windows and prepare it for this very night. In those times, they had seen no other worldly beings or heard no mysterious noises.

Their goal was to film a documentary about a building that had become lifeless. They wanted to tell the story through the words of the relatives. In some way, it would have been a kind of redemption tale. The main goal was to capture proof of the existence of these ghostly beings. Elizabeth grew up in a strict Christian home. Her mother always told her that to believe in ghosts was to be a follower of Satan, but she never once believed that. Elizabeth went to church every Sunday, and she loved God. She had begun to realize over the years that perhaps some of the things she read in the bible had been a little outdated. She applied the things in her life that needed to be applied, mainly love. Her belief in ghosts had never turned her away from loving God or anyone else. In some sense, she wanted to do this to prove her mother wrong, but she knew even if she came back with proof, her mother may be more dissapointed in her. She will probably accuse of her of some kind of witchcraft.

As they all sat around in the quiet, Mark finally decided it was probably time to film everyone's testimonials. He thought this would be the best time, before all the real action started to happen. He went around to each person and they essentially gave their story, and how it came to be that they all were here together.

The two film makers didn't have much trouble convincing Paul and Rachel to join in on the documentary. Paul jumped at the option. He had been living on his own for close to eight years. He was once the popular guy in school, but once high school ended, he realized who his true friends were and there weren't many. Paul learned that people attached themselves to him because he had a face that everyone knew, after all he was on the football team. There's always that myth that if you are on the high school football team, you have to be a mean, ruthless jock who only hangs out with the cool kids. Paul never wanted to be that person, he just loved playing football and he was good at it. One graduation ended, people went their separate ways and Paul somehow got lost in the mix. He had spent the next ten years trying to rebuild himself into the person he wanted to always be. He wanted a family, he wanted a good career. That's what he worked for in high school, but everyone wanted him to be that star.

His parents were killed a year after he graduated and so he had to make a life for himself. He's worked several different jobs and was never able to go to any college classes. Any dreams he had of becoming a successful family man seemed a lifetime away for him. A few months prior, something amazing happened to him. He was approached by a documentary director and was asked to be in a film. Elizabeth had uncovered that Paul was the grandson of the town mayor that was slaughtered years before. Paul's parents never relayed this information to him, but since they had passed on, he would never get to know why. For the first time, Paul felt he was needed for something, that someone wanted him. That moment was a breath of fresh life for Paul.

Rachel grew up thinking that her father left her mom when Rachel was just a baby. When she was a teenager, she started hearing the legends of this hotel and town. She knew the story, everyone did. It wasn't until she was in her late twenties that her mother finally told her that her father was the sheriff that was killed that night. Her mother told her this as she was dying from cancer, and she wanted to lift some of the regrets off of her before she passed. She told Rachel that she didn't want her to feel connected to such a horrific event. A mother who simply wanted her child to live a normal life and not have to deal with kids adding her to the stories and legends.

Rachel never really knew the details behind what really went on however, only what she had heard through the numerous tales. Rachel had hate in her heart for her mom. For more than twenty years she thought her father was a dead beat and running free in the world without a care in the world that he has a daughter. A man she grew up hating, now is a man she has deep sorrow for. Her intentions of coming to this place were a bit selfish. She wanted in some way, to meet her the father she never knew. She wanted to have a connection with him, not matter how brief or out of this world it may be. Rachel had hoped that by going to that hotel, her father may be there as well.

John had lived a troubled life. His parents both passed when he was a young boy, and he lived with his uncle for close to fifteen years before he too passed away. John was home schooled most of his life because his uncle was always moving. John's father and uncle were the two children of Adam Jacobs, the man who destroyed a whole town. When Jacob's killed his wife, the two kids were sent away to live with relatives. John was well aware of the story in it's entirety, because his father told him when he was five years old.

He finally found himself in an actual high school starting his junior year, but he never made friends. In fact, he was bullied almost every day by kids higher up on the high school food chain. They tripped him, threw things at him, the works. John could never figure out why, because he had done nothing to deserve it. But he soon learned that all it takes to be ridiculed at school is simply to be a person people classify as a loner. John started ditching school and failing classes, but his uncle never seemed to care or even notice. He would hang out by himself someplace secluded and wish he were someone else.

He realized that he felt more unhappiness on a day to day basis that any iota of true happiness. No matter how hard he tried, he could not make himself happy. John would get angry for no reason, he would lash out at people trying to help. When he was eighteen he tried taking his own life, but failed. This is when all the treatment began, and he had to see numerous therapists. He ended up being diagnosed with a manic depressive disorder and had to down several pills a day to balance his life. His life became dependent on medication.

When he was twenty he did his own research into the massacre that destroyed his family as well. He learned that his grandfather showed signs of the same disorder he had. He had discovered that his grand dad was put in an institution when he was a teenager for killing a dog in a brutal way and his only excuse was that he was bored. There was a report that mentioned that Adam Jacob's claimed his mind was taken over by the Devil's manipulation. He said that Satan had taken control of him and it was the devil that killed that dog and his wife many years later but everyone thought he was crazy. John had started to piece together that maybe his grandfather had passed something on to him.

For the past year, John had become a member of his local church. He had found a saving grace. He at least knew that there was one person out there that had nothing but love for him, and that was God. The town he had lived in was well aware of the massacre, and it didn't take long for the people to realize who John really was. They all knew he was that loner kid who no one liked. People in his own congregation would tell him to leave because only the devil lives in his blood. John had never experienced anyone truly loving him and seeing him for the person he was. He so desperately wanted people to look at him and get to know him and really know that he is a good person. He wanted them to know that he was not his grand father.

Once the knowledge became widespread in the town he lived in that he was related to the madman Adam Jacobs, people would torment him. People from his own church would leave threatening letters on his door telling him to leave. There was no one in his life to protect him. No one other than God. He prayed every night for it to get better. He could not understand why people in this day and age would act like this towards him. Why would no one give him a chance? It came to a point where had to bring his uncles gun with him where ever he went to protect himself.

He had decided to finally move on with his life and get out of that dreadful town. Not a day passed, and he was found by Mark and Elizabeth. He rejected their offer a few times, but they were adamant. They finally offered to pay him a large sum of money, and he finally accepted only because it was help make his move much easier. The whole drive up, he kept debating whether or not he should even do it. He wanted nothing more than to move on from the lingering dread that this place brought him. He almost turned around several times but eventually did not. John had finally come to the conclusion that maybe confronting this place would bring him some form of closure. This was a demon he had to face, one last time.

Mark had finally finished recording everyone testimonials. "These will all of course be edited in throughout the movie when it is completed, but I wanted to get them out of the way," he said. He had done them all privately, he knew it could be difficult for some of them to share their stories in front of the others. He set his camera down and began to address the group. "OK everyone, I think what were are going to do is split up into groups and each group will have a camera. I think what we will do is have me, John and Paul in a group and the girls will be the other one." He stated.

Elizabeth looked a little thrown off, "You are going to make the ladies be on their own?" She said almost jokingly.

"You can handle yourself sweets," Mark said back. "So the guys will do the third floor, and I do have the key," he pulled out the key and showed them, "and gentle-ladies, would you like to do the kitchen and dining areas?"

Rachel shot him a sarcastic "screw yourself" look. Elizabeth interjected, "As much as I would like to say he's being a sexist ass, that would be a good place for us to start, 'sposed to be a lotta stuff goin' on down there," she explained to Rachel. Rachel just nodded her head. Mark handed them their camera and showed Rachel how it worked. He gave them the military salute, and they went on their way.

"Alright sirs, let us venture upstairs into the great ghostly unknown," Mark said to them. And with that, the three guys walked up the stairs, and the loft was left in an eeire and quiet darkness.

...TO BE CONTINUED.

--Mike--