I want to thank all my readers- whomever you may be- for reading along with my summer installments. It has been a fun trial and error for me to be able to sit and write stories- even though I used death in a lot of them.
I am sad to announce, that has ended. Death in Disguise was the last story for this summer, as I once again will start classes in a couple weeks and I will not have time to work on new stories.
However, I have a few announcements.
I am currently going through my back-log of stories that I've written over the years. As you saw with the story Tight Ropes, I've written handfuls of stories that have never been shown publicly. I'm planning to put those on this blog to keep the updates flowing.
And second, if you have not followed me before- I do have a self-published book of previous works. You can purchase it on the right hand side of this site. But going along with that, I will also be going through my stories on here that I've written over the summer and I'm happy to announce a second self-published book titled Death in Disguise.
I hope you've enjoyed the summer long writing venture here on A Simple Letter. I will try to announce more when I'm able to. Thank you all for reading, and have a great end to your summer.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Death in Disguise
"Hey Tommy! Tommy! I'm open!" Jason ran the field, the football thrown just out of reach. He fell to the ground, the ball bouncing off into the woods, Craig falling on top of him. "Damn it Tommy, we almost had a fourth down touchdown there."
"Yeah, well game is over anyways- the ball went off into the woods."
"It's just the woods, are you afraid of the leaves and worms?"
"More like, how the hell are we going to find it?"
"C'mon you fags, let's go find the damn thing." Craig was already walking towards the trees.
The two followed into the woods, the trees above with their fall colored leaves not yet bare- still securing the ground from the sunlight. They walked along, crunching the yellow, red, and orange leaves underneath them- some still wet from the rain.
"Hey dumbasses, the ball is right here," Craig said picking up the ball to reveal a hand lying in a pile of leaves. "What the-?"
"What is that?" Jason had come up close to look, but was afraid to get much closer.
"It's a hand, dumbass."
"Shut up Craig. You don't know what it is." Tommy stood back farther than the other boys.
"Then what it is? Huh? Scared as shit back there. You don't know what it is either."
"I know I'm not getting any closer to it. I need to get home anyways." Tommy ran off, leaving Jason and Craig standing there.
"Yeah, Tommy is right- I should go too." Jason began walking backwards a bit.
"And you're just going to leave me here with this thing? We have to see what it is. This could be someone's dead body. What if we found a murderer's victim?"
"Yeah, and what if that murderer is going to kill us right now? It's a hand sticking out of a pile of leaves." Craig picked a stick up, and began poking the hand. "Oh dude, c'mon. This isn't funny."
"It looks so real. It has to be someone's body. I'm gonna move some of the leaves."
"This isn't cool, dude. Let's just call the cops or something."
Craig didn't listen, as he used the stick to move some of the leaves in the pile. As he did, the hand fell to the ground. Maggots began to crawl out of it.
"Oh God," Jason was about to be sick.
"Shit. Let's get the fuck out of here!"
The two ran off, Craig throwing his stick on the ground. They ran out of the woods to the park, out of the park to the street, and down the street to Jason's house. Barging in the front door, all you could hear was their frantic cries for help.
"Mom! Mom! Mom!" Jason yelled as he walked in, hoping to find solitude. But no one was home. He grabbed the phone and quickly hit 9-1-1.
"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"
"There's a dead body in the woods and we found it and the hand fell off and there was bugs and please come quick there's a dead body..."
The police arrived soon after, and the two boys lead them to the same point they were before.
"It's right over there officer. You can see the flies buzzing around it." Jason was scared to get closer.
"Did anyone else see this?" the officer asked.
"Our friend Tommy did. But he was scared so he ran off. We thought there might be a murderer or something."
The officer walked off, leaving Jason and Craig standing there alone- both still shivering and breathing heavy.
"You think he's going to do something about it?"
"I don't know, Craig. He's looking at it now."
The sun had gone down now, and only left bits of light scattered here and there. The officer was looking at the leaves with a flashlight- but the boys couldn't see anything besides the flashing light moving around.
The officer came back, and lead the boys out of the woods.
"You boys did a good thing, tonight. It was someone's body, and I'm sure they'll be happy they were found. Let's get you boys home, though- I need to call for backup first and once they come in we'll make sure to get contact with your parents."
The boys sat on a park bench, not saying anything. When their parents showed up, the police spoke with them first. The boys were tired. They were scared. When a news van pulled up, they were even more scared.
"Would you boys like to talk to the news?" an officer asked them.
"No. We want to go home now." Jason muttered.
"In just a bit, let me see if they can't get you down to the station."
"The police station? But we didn't do anything wrong!"
"Can you just give me the boys' names? How old are the boys?" They could hear one of the journalist trying to get answers as the police worked.
"We've yet to talk to them. There has only been a body found, that is all we have to say at this point. There doesn't seem to have been any signs of trouble."
"Was anything found near the scene?"
"No, the body was under a pile of leaves. Nearby was the boys' football. We have investigators at work, and will update you when we have a chance."
The boys were put into a cop car eventually. Their parents were briefed, and met them at the station. Tommy was there too. No one said anything.
As they were walked in, they saw people sitting around in handcuffs. They began to approach a guy who was talking to everyone who walked by.
"Hey kid, kid- listen, you don't understand. That's a kill room! They're going to kill you in there! Gas you like the chambers of World War Two!"
They were all put into rooms. Small. Their parents by their sides. They told what happened. An officer wrote it down. They were set free.
"Hey man, you gotta listen to me! You got out of there but you gotta get me out! They're going to murder me! It's like that body they laid out in the woods! It's all a police cover up! They'll come back and gas you later!"
Jason didn't like what the strange man had said. How had he known about the body?
"You don't think that weird guy was right, do you guys?" Jason said to the other two as they walked down the street the next day.
"What weird guy?" Tommy said.
"That one guy that was yelling at us. He said the police were covering up killing that person."
"Don't be a dumbass, dumbass." Craig kicked a small rock along the sidewalk in front of them.
"He said something about the cops and covering it all up. I'm freaking out about this, guys. What if he was right?"
"What if he was? We don't know shit. You guys were the ones who found the dead body, anyways."
"Yeah, because you ran away like the shithead you are." Craig kicked another rock down the sidewalk.
No one said anything, as they approached the park. A police car sat parked there, crime scene tape around the area still up.
"Hey you kids- are you the ones that saw the body yesterday?" An officer yelled to them as they approached.
"Um, yeah." Craig yelled to them, nervous.
"Why don't you kids come here a minute? I want to talk to you about something."
They reluctantly approached the officer, who stood at the foot of the woods.
"I need to give you kids something."
"Please officer, don't kill us. We didn't do anything. We just found the body, we don't know if you put it there or not. Just don't kill us, please." Tommy broke down in tears.
"Kill you? Kid, I'm not gonna kill you. I was wondering if this was your football. We found it in the woods. Captain said we don't need it as evidence or anything, so you can have it back if you want it."
They all looked at each other, remembering the ball on top of the hand.
"No thanks, officer. You can have it." Jason said.
"Yeah, well game is over anyways- the ball went off into the woods."
"It's just the woods, are you afraid of the leaves and worms?"
"More like, how the hell are we going to find it?"
"C'mon you fags, let's go find the damn thing." Craig was already walking towards the trees.
The two followed into the woods, the trees above with their fall colored leaves not yet bare- still securing the ground from the sunlight. They walked along, crunching the yellow, red, and orange leaves underneath them- some still wet from the rain.
"Hey dumbasses, the ball is right here," Craig said picking up the ball to reveal a hand lying in a pile of leaves. "What the-?"
"What is that?" Jason had come up close to look, but was afraid to get much closer.
"It's a hand, dumbass."
"Shut up Craig. You don't know what it is." Tommy stood back farther than the other boys.
"Then what it is? Huh? Scared as shit back there. You don't know what it is either."
"I know I'm not getting any closer to it. I need to get home anyways." Tommy ran off, leaving Jason and Craig standing there.
"Yeah, Tommy is right- I should go too." Jason began walking backwards a bit.
"And you're just going to leave me here with this thing? We have to see what it is. This could be someone's dead body. What if we found a murderer's victim?"
"Yeah, and what if that murderer is going to kill us right now? It's a hand sticking out of a pile of leaves." Craig picked a stick up, and began poking the hand. "Oh dude, c'mon. This isn't funny."
"It looks so real. It has to be someone's body. I'm gonna move some of the leaves."
"This isn't cool, dude. Let's just call the cops or something."
Craig didn't listen, as he used the stick to move some of the leaves in the pile. As he did, the hand fell to the ground. Maggots began to crawl out of it.
"Oh God," Jason was about to be sick.
"Shit. Let's get the fuck out of here!"
The two ran off, Craig throwing his stick on the ground. They ran out of the woods to the park, out of the park to the street, and down the street to Jason's house. Barging in the front door, all you could hear was their frantic cries for help.
"Mom! Mom! Mom!" Jason yelled as he walked in, hoping to find solitude. But no one was home. He grabbed the phone and quickly hit 9-1-1.
"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"
"There's a dead body in the woods and we found it and the hand fell off and there was bugs and please come quick there's a dead body..."
The police arrived soon after, and the two boys lead them to the same point they were before.
"It's right over there officer. You can see the flies buzzing around it." Jason was scared to get closer.
"Did anyone else see this?" the officer asked.
"Our friend Tommy did. But he was scared so he ran off. We thought there might be a murderer or something."
The officer walked off, leaving Jason and Craig standing there alone- both still shivering and breathing heavy.
"You think he's going to do something about it?"
"I don't know, Craig. He's looking at it now."
The sun had gone down now, and only left bits of light scattered here and there. The officer was looking at the leaves with a flashlight- but the boys couldn't see anything besides the flashing light moving around.
The officer came back, and lead the boys out of the woods.
"You boys did a good thing, tonight. It was someone's body, and I'm sure they'll be happy they were found. Let's get you boys home, though- I need to call for backup first and once they come in we'll make sure to get contact with your parents."
The boys sat on a park bench, not saying anything. When their parents showed up, the police spoke with them first. The boys were tired. They were scared. When a news van pulled up, they were even more scared.
"Would you boys like to talk to the news?" an officer asked them.
"No. We want to go home now." Jason muttered.
"In just a bit, let me see if they can't get you down to the station."
"The police station? But we didn't do anything wrong!"
"Can you just give me the boys' names? How old are the boys?" They could hear one of the journalist trying to get answers as the police worked.
"We've yet to talk to them. There has only been a body found, that is all we have to say at this point. There doesn't seem to have been any signs of trouble."
"Was anything found near the scene?"
"No, the body was under a pile of leaves. Nearby was the boys' football. We have investigators at work, and will update you when we have a chance."
The boys were put into a cop car eventually. Their parents were briefed, and met them at the station. Tommy was there too. No one said anything.
As they were walked in, they saw people sitting around in handcuffs. They began to approach a guy who was talking to everyone who walked by.
"Hey kid, kid- listen, you don't understand. That's a kill room! They're going to kill you in there! Gas you like the chambers of World War Two!"
They were all put into rooms. Small. Their parents by their sides. They told what happened. An officer wrote it down. They were set free.
"Hey man, you gotta listen to me! You got out of there but you gotta get me out! They're going to murder me! It's like that body they laid out in the woods! It's all a police cover up! They'll come back and gas you later!"
Jason didn't like what the strange man had said. How had he known about the body?
"You don't think that weird guy was right, do you guys?" Jason said to the other two as they walked down the street the next day.
"What weird guy?" Tommy said.
"That one guy that was yelling at us. He said the police were covering up killing that person."
"Don't be a dumbass, dumbass." Craig kicked a small rock along the sidewalk in front of them.
"He said something about the cops and covering it all up. I'm freaking out about this, guys. What if he was right?"
"What if he was? We don't know shit. You guys were the ones who found the dead body, anyways."
"Yeah, because you ran away like the shithead you are." Craig kicked another rock down the sidewalk.
No one said anything, as they approached the park. A police car sat parked there, crime scene tape around the area still up.
"Hey you kids- are you the ones that saw the body yesterday?" An officer yelled to them as they approached.
"Um, yeah." Craig yelled to them, nervous.
"Why don't you kids come here a minute? I want to talk to you about something."
They reluctantly approached the officer, who stood at the foot of the woods.
"I need to give you kids something."
"Please officer, don't kill us. We didn't do anything. We just found the body, we don't know if you put it there or not. Just don't kill us, please." Tommy broke down in tears.
"Kill you? Kid, I'm not gonna kill you. I was wondering if this was your football. We found it in the woods. Captain said we don't need it as evidence or anything, so you can have it back if you want it."
They all looked at each other, remembering the ball on top of the hand.
"No thanks, officer. You can have it." Jason said.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
My Paranormal Experiences
The following is all of the true recollections of the paranormal experiences in my life that have stood out enough for me to remember. Whether you believe them or not is based on your own ideas, beliefs, and personal experiences. Whether they are explainable or not is also possible. I will not providing any proof via pictures or audio, as I do not have the time nor desire to upload all of them- and many I do not have proof of. For reference of my age, I was born in 1988.
UFOs
Note: I am not claiming any of these are aliens. I am simply telling what I saw, and what I remember happening.
Circa 1995: I lived in a house in a very small town- so small we're technically a village- that was built into the side of a hill. It was a townhouse, with two houses on both sides, one directly connected and one not so directly. We had a small backyard and a nice wooden back porch. Along the side, stepping out onto the porch, if you looked to the right you would see a fence along the neighbor's side. On the left was our neighbors yard, a tree nearby almost separating the two.
Now, I've always found it strange to have this memory. UFO is the best way to explain it.
It was dusk, the sun was just setting- and I believe it was fall or early spring, because I don't believe we had any leaves on the trees. My mom, who had planted a garden along the fence, was digging into it- her head down not looking up. I was outside just running around, because I was forced to since I was a booksmart kid and didn't care to run around much and preferred staying inside and reading or playing games or watching TV.
I remember going to that tree I spoke of before and looking over at my mom, who was down in her garden. I then remember seeing a weird ship, with no noise, coming over our house. Now, on that hill this "ship" was higher up than other houses. But I remember seeing it, then looking down at the ground in front of the tree. I looked up again, and it was gone. I looked to the sky to the left of me- the house to the right of me- and saw nothing.
For years I thought it was an airplane that flew low and disappeared. When I got into the paranormal realm it became clear to me that I hadn't seen a plane, because it had disappeared. Now, I don't know what I saw or what happened to me that night. All I know is that it wasn't the last time I saw a UFO.
Circa 2003: When I got into the paranormal scene, UFOs and aliens were my forte. I would look them up online and see if I could see an issue with the pictures to try to debunk them. Some were obviously faked, others not so much.
In 2003 I knew what a UFO could look like. I had always wanted to see one, hoping one day out my window I could get my own photographic proof. I'm still waiting for that day.
It was night. I was in high school. It was after 10 PM, and I was in bed trying to sleep. I had a box fan sitting in the window, letting my thin blinds move to the side. This let me see the night sky through the window.
As I laid in bed I looked outside. I saw an orange ball of light moving among the tree tops. Now, I'm still on a hill- so anything that looks like it's in the trees is actually in the distance and pretty high up.
I thought- it's nothing. Then I notice there are still lights going by but I can't see them- they're just out of my view. I move down just a bit in my bed and see another orange ball of light, following a blue ball of light.
Now let me explain what these balls looked like the best I can. It wasn't like a solid ball of light that you could tell what this thing is. It looked like a ball of light that was covering something- the fuzziness showing into the night. They moved slowly for whatever they were doing, and moved off into the forest.
I got up out of bed, and walked into the bathroom at this point. My mom was giving my younger siblings a bath (the only reason I know how old I was). She asked what I was doing up, and I told her nonchalantly that I had just seen a UFO. She then yelled at me, saying I would freak my siblings out and that I probably had just seen an airplane.
The issue here is that I know what airplanes look like in the night. They for one don't travel as close as these balls did, and for two don't have the light emitting from them as I saw them. Helicopters would've made noise. There was no noise.
I eventually went back to bed, thinking the UFOs might be landing in the forest in that direction. I have no idea what happened to them. All I know is that whatever happened, what I saw was very strange.
Circa 2005: I live to next to my grandparents. Step grandparents. Whatever you want to call 'em. My cousins on that side live in other states/cities. When they come down here, we have dinner next door on their patio. This is where the next sighting took place.
As we were having a typical summer grill out, we were sitting around on their nice big deck- when we all looked up at this strange object.
Looking at it, it shone in the sun as if made of a flashy metallic substance. It looked as though it was an airplane with no wings or tail. A cigar shaped, silver, metallic object.
My whole family gaped in awe over it. My uncle saying out loud "What is that?". It was quiet. It glided as though it needed no wings. Then they heard an airplane noise. They all went back to talking and eating, disappointed that what they had seen wasn't out of the ordinary.
My cousin and me, who had always talked about UFOs, continued to watch the sky. 20 seconds later a plane flew by. The noise had not come from the metallic object, but from this airplane. I never said anything, because I knew they wouldn't believe me. My cousin and me are the only ones who know what we all saw that day.
Circa 2007: My family liked to go to one of the Great Lakes every year, but I'm not being specific so anyone reading this isn't sure where I'm from. Sorry, it's a habit of protecting my identity on the Interwebs.
This one I'm not even sure about. It's a bit of a stretch, and I've almost put them down to being something else. But I'll still tell the story.
While at this lake, we stayed in a cottage on a private lane. We were talking UFOs with one of my younger uncles, who was also into paranormal things. One evening after dinner as dusk rolled in, my cousin, brother and me sat outside looking at the sky. Then in the distance we noticed these strange white dots that would appear and disappear.
In binoculars they stayed as strange white dots. My uncle claimed he could see them too, but I'm unsure if he was just messing with us or not. They would disappear and then reappear again somewhere else in that area.
Nowadays I've almost dismissed it. The white dots easily could've been a seagull or a mass hallucination or something. I know I saw them, and since I can't identify them: they're technically a UFO.
circa April 2010: This is the one that makes the least sense to me. I had realized I had never had a photo of a UFO and really have always wanted proof. I realized since I had obtained a digital camera years ago that I've never seen a UFO since then. I thought to myself "these UFOs must be afraid of me getting them on camera! Chickens."
Then I was sleeping in my bed one fine night. You know how you can tell someone is shining a flashlight in your eyes? Well I suddenly felt as though I had a very bright shine shining in my eyes. I wake up to see the light dying down. Outside my window is a stereotypically spinning saucer that's illuminated.
Now, my thin window shades are no longer the only thing there. I had two more sheets hanging over that one- making it a very dark room even with the sun shining. This thing was bright enough to shine through that. It then spun a few seconds, then took off to the right of my window. I was in a daze at what I saw, but I was tired. I went "OK" and then closed my eyes again to go back to sleep as if what I had just seen was nothing. It then hit me what I had just seen. I opened up my eyes to see the same scene as before, minus the weird shining disc thing.
It was 4 AM. Freaked out beyond knowing what to do, I stayed up and played video games and watched TV until I had to leave for class. Touche to the UFO, for waking me in my sleep as a kind of "HA! Take that bitch!" revenge for thinking they were chickens to show themselves.
I guess they're more so chickens of getting their photos taken. (Yeah, you heard me!)
Spirits/Ghosts/Demons
Note: I know it might be hard to explain this, but since I was young I've experienced a strange connection with the "other side" as people might say. As I grew older, I've still seen strange things- but I'm glad I can control it a bit more. Whether you believe me or not, as I said, is based all on your personal preferences.
Circa 1991: When I was young I remember playing with human-like forms of fog. I would talk to them, play with them and pretty much act like they were real. This formed a long, hard road for me when I began seeing things when I was older.
Circa 1991-1993: When I was younger I lived with my grandma and mom for a few years. My mom would go to work/school and my grandma would watch me. That usually consisted of us going out to eat a lot, and we'd go to Big Boy's for lunch plenty of times. Over the course of these years, I began seeing a very strange thing at this restaurant.
Have you ever seen that show on Nick Jr. with the hand that is like a mouth and has googly eyes and is made for really young kids? Well, picture seeing that- but without the eyes, and peering from a window. It also sat there mocking you. And anytime an adult would look over there, it would duck under. Then it would come back and laugh at you.
It was almost as if someone was sitting out there in the bushes with their hand and a way to see me, and sat there mocking me. Eventually, as I grew older, it disappeared.
Circa 1993: I had moved into a new apartment with my mom and step dad, started school, had my own room and bed up against a wall. At the end of my bed was a small window, not really big enough to fit much into.
One morning as I laid in bed, I started hearing my name- which at the time was "Jamie" because I was ya know...five.
"Jamie," the voice said. It was literally like those creepy movies where they say it to try to wake someone up. Except I was five and had never seen one of those movies.
"Jaaaamie," it said again. I finally opened my eyes. A giant fucking ghost hand was coming through that window trying to grab me. As it inched closer I believe it said something, it may have been laughing for all I know. I was scared shitless. I backed up onto my pillow as it inched closer to me. And then I had no further to go. I closed my eyes, and as loud as I could yelled (remember now, I'm only five here) "Mommy!".
I then opened my eyes again. The ghost hand was gone. I still sat there, my hands in the same position I was in before, on my pillow, backed up against the head of my bed.
My mom said it was a dream. I'm not one to follow nightmares like that. Could it be? Maybe. But I like telling the story anyways because it's one of those dreams that has always stuck with me.
Circa 2005: I wouldn't have another ghost encounter that I could remember until 2005. This is when I started working at anold folk's home retirement center for the elderly. There were 4 different units in the place: Woods, Courtyard, Terrace, and Gardens (nicer names than 'May shit themselves from time to time' or 'Completely unable to do anything').
As I stated in the note, I consider myself "sensitive" to this things. It's the best way to describe it. Well, for a bit when I walked into the Gardens units (which is the last unit in the building, really) I found myself feeling strange. The temperature would be much different than the other units, and I found as though there was a strange presence of pressure on my shoulders.
Turns out there was a reason for this.
One day I was told by one of the cooks (FYI: I worked in the kitchen) that nurses and residents would sometimes see a little boy in the rooms. Well, turns out that the place used to be an elementary school. Not sure why there's this little boy there, because I doubt he died in that place, but hey- who knows. Apparently the little boy was seen more in the Gardens unit than the other units.
Once I learned that I wasn't just feeling something, I would tell the spirit to go away when I was down there. I've not heard any reports of nurses seeing it since then, nor have I felt temperature or pressure change in that unit anymore.
Other events in the center: Considering the place is home to a lot of ill and elderly patients, death hangs out there a lot. At times I will see shadows or figures out of the corner of my eye as if someone is standing there. When I would look, nothing was there. This happens all the time.
The other strange thing I'll put here, happened in the Gardens unit. I was coming back one time and just felt really awful as I made my way towards the doors out of the unit. It's a long hallway. At the end I felt something I have never felt since, and never want to feel for a long, long time. I felt as though the essence of Death itself was there- almost as if it were sitting on a chair at the end of the hallway. Nobody died that night, to my knowledge. But I got out of that unit as fast as I could.
T-Road Circa 2005-2007: I'm not giving this road it's real name. Instead I'll simply give the story of the road.
It's almost cliche: Girl goes to end of the road with boyfriend, tells boyfriend she's prego, boyfriend doesn't want the kid, so he cuts her guts open. She struggles on the car and is then taken to a bridge and tossed over into a small creek. Now you go down there, flash your headlights three times, and your car will fog up and HELP ME will be written on the fog of your car.
I have been there many times. I'll try to give you a break down of these times best I can.
First time
My first time there at this road was with a friend, Peter- and some of his friend AJ's crew. I have no idea what any of this crew was named, so I'm just going to say it was 2 dudes and a chick and we're going to name them Guy and Mike and uh...Angela. It sounds like they could fit.
Now this first time is a bit...jumpy. I rode with Mike, Peter and AJ- and we were in this cramped little piece of shit car. Angela had a nice bigger boat car to go in, but we went with the shitty tight squeeze where I couldn't feel my legs.
2 cars. Angela and Guy went ahead of us. We were to meet at the end of the road. When we met there, Guy asked if we had stopped at the beginning of the road and then took off for some reason. Apparently a car that "looked just like" ours had done that. Creepy.
I guess I should mention this: at the end of the road is a light. For some odd reason, the light is green. It was one of the first things I noticed when we went down there. It shines green. Add a car into this and it gets worse. I should also mention the ghost had a name, but I don't want to give it- so let's call her Kara.
So we get there, AJ gives me some stone that's supposed to protect me, and then Angela leads a prayer. It's cold as fuck, apparently because of the ghosts (in reality because we were by running water and in the lower part between two hills- like a mini-valley).
We realize, we can't take 2 cars down there. Nor can we fit everyone in the one car. So AJ takes off, Peter following him. Leaving me alone with a bunch of strangers, and them walking a long winding road. Eventually we go down there and meet them at the end. We do the light thing (flash, turn off the car, blah blah) and then get out. AJ starts taking pictures. I never saw any of them, but Peter (who is a trusting friend of mine I wouldn't take to lie) claims that AJ got ghostly figures sitting in the car.
As we're just chillin' not going to the bridge yet, some cars come down. Two of them. Did I forget to mention? This road is also known as a great place for teens to come to smoke dope, get drunk, and fuck. Because it's scary!
AJ starts getting a bit flustered, and makes all of us- but Peter- go sit at the beginning of the road because there's too many cars. So Angela drives us all back to the beginning and we sit there waiting for a phone call. I notice the windows are fogging up.
"Hey uh, guys. Windows are fogging up a bit," because I realize what that means.
"Don't worry about it, it's nothing," Guy says- because he's older and knows a lot more than the high school kid, right?
A bunch of cars go down. They start worrying about Peter and AJ, so we decide- time to pull them out and go.
Angela turns the car on and HOLY SHIT OMG- there's H and part of an E written on the window. Oh hey Guy, guess the high schooler had a reason for saying the car was fogging up, eh? So Guy freaks out, starts taking pictures and then Angela notices a hand-print that slides down on her side of the windshield.
Guy stops freaking out, we go down there, and...cops show up. They threaten to write tickets, blah blah, empty threats, blah blah, you kids are good kids- I'll let you go.
Then came the aftermath. My friend Peter lost his cell phone. It showed up days later on the road, someone who lived around there had found it and called the "home" on contacts. When he showed it to me, it looked as though some animal had taken it and chewed the hell out of it. The only problem with that? The battery was melted to the inside of the case. It made no sense.
Oh, and that Angela girl got her period early or something like that. Apparently Kara the ghost doesn't like women, so she tortures them or something.
And I can't forget that once I got home and tried to sleep- the entire room was in red when I turned my lights off.
Second time
Now, we've gone to this place a lot of times. But this time I got to go with people I knew. This time I got to go down to this bridge. And this time? I got an EVP of a girl laughing.
I had two friends with me: Angelica (not Angela, mind you) and Ryan. We stood on the bridge, and I just did my usual EVP stuff. Can you say anything, blah blah, etc. etc. You've seen Ghost Hunters if you've made it this far. And if not, ya know. Watch it, maybe.
As I said before: sensitive to spirits. I felt as though Kara was behind me while I was doing this EVP session. Suddenly I start laughing, but not like hardcore laughing. Just like a little chuckle. I then stopped recording and we walked away. When I came back to the EVP and listened to it, you could hear very faintly the sound of a girl laughing right before I did. While there was a girl there, she wasn't laughing. It was too faint for it to be her.
Third time
This one we didn't even go down the damn road. I was with three friends: Mandy (who drove), Joe (in the passenger sit), and Fig behind Mandy and next to me in the back. It was late, and we were passing T-Road when we saw some cars go down there.
Now, let me tell you, it's also a prime place to prank the shit out of kids. We got pranked a few times- and I'm surprised we didn't kill them when we found out. We actually were trying to figure out something, and they claim nothing ever happened to them. They never went the times shit happened to me, I guess.
Anyways, we figure: hey it'll be funny if we go down and mess with those guys. So we sit at the beginning of the road before going down there. While sitting there waiting, Joe and me hear a voice from outside of the car. A male voice. This is 2 AM. The closest house to us is pretty far away, and the voice came from the woods.
We left. No idea where the voice came from. No idea what it said. But Joe and me- on the right side of the car- both heard it.
Fourth time
Oh, this was the fun one. This was once again with AJ and Peter, but this time a couple of their friends. We actually went to a bunch of places after this- but I'll come back to those two places at the end of this story.
These guys were very much into the occult. We picked them up at a comic book shop. 'Nuff said? I mean, it was a nice shop and all- but these guys were in their mid-20s and still wearing all black and doing that whole "I can set spells with this magic book" shit.
By this point they had come to the conclusion that T-Road was a hot spot for demons. I got the video camera. AJ was on a nice recorder, with headphones so he could listen as he recorded. We went in as a team, the two goth magic guys apparently casting spells as we went.
Whatever they did awoke something. We got a very seriously awesome EVP out of it. AJ hooked it up to his stereos in the car and played it (ya know like the thing for iPods in the tape deck? Yeah that thing). I sadly can't remember what it said, because I was told I would get a digital copy of it (never did).
Fifth time
Now, I have to say- five times to the same strange place is nothing. This is definitely the sixth of seventh time. Maybe even eighth time. But the other times nothing happened- twice was pranks, once nothing happened.
This is the last time I went down there. Since this time I've not gone back down and refuse to. I speed past the road all the time. I still see flashes in my head, and since I've been writing about this I've had images flashing.
It was Mandy, Peter, and Ryan. We went down there first time, nothing was happening. At this point I was thinking nothing would happen. We went, got drinks, and came back down. I wasn't taking it seriously.
Something came over me. I started getting pissed. I had my tape recorder and just knew "turn it on". Then all I remember is telling them to lock the doors. I then don't remember much of anything until we came back out of the road.
Peter believes I was possessed by Kara- but for some odd reason I was yelling at them to turn around. I didn't want to go down there. Whatever it was that had me didn't want me to go down there. Didn't want any of us.
When we got back out of the road, I felt exhausted. Ryan turned the camera we had on after that. I listened to the recording I had of it. Something deep inside me made me hate whatever the hell it was. Mandy- my friend since 3rd grade- said she felt like it wasn't me.
We stood out in a parking lot of a grocery store, as Peter asked me questions. I felt a link to Kara. It was strange as I stood there answering. I have no idea what I said, or what was asked. It felt as though energy drained from me though until I got home.
Since then the only times I've been down there was once or twice, and it was an immediate turn around. I had no choice, as I wasn't the one driving- and no way was I getting out of the car anywhere near that road unless I had to.
Other stories
As I said up above, there were two other places I went to with AJ's interesting friends. The first was a cemetery.
Still with camera in hand, we went to this small cemetery that was said to be haunted. As we looked around, AJ realized at the top he saw a light. There at the top of this cemetery on a hill (very small cemetery) sat what looked to be a smoldering fire.
I followed AJ up with the camera, unsure of what caused this fire. In the back of it was this open field, with some crop- I think it may have been corn or wheat or something that grows tall. In the back I could see three figures standing there, looking like they were smoking a cigarette.
Well, we eventually started looking around the cemetery when AJ kept saying he heard someone breathing. Good thing he did and the guy wasn't too crazy, because he then found a guy hiding behind a tree. A very small tree, mind you.
The guy was afraid we were the cops, so he said. He looked very out of it. AJ's friends thought he may be possessed by something, but I had a feeling he was either a criminal on the run (thus the small fire) or he had crack or some drug on him and was up there smoking it/using it. Or he just had it on him.
We told him some bullshit story about how we lived nearby and were looking for our dogs. I had the camera on him the whole time. We told him to make sure that smoldering fire was put out, so that the whole forest didn't light up- then we left for an old factory.
The factory was a bit far away- and by this time I was feeling sluggish. It was getting very late and I was tired. Ghost hunting was tiring. The factory was private property, and going on it would result in jail time. Since we didn't want or need jail time- AJ came up with an idea: walk around the factory which is public property.
I on the other hand didn't like the place when we pulled up to it. I had a queasy feeling. That whole feeling like something bad is going to happen? Yeah, that was me.
I stayed in the van. Alone. With a walkie talkie. To put simple: never stay somewhere that's haunted by yourself. Ever. Because I began feeling as though there were voices coming from outside the car of men. Then, somewhat scared and hearing cars pass by yelling at them to leave or yelling some profanity of sorts, heard the voice of a little boy. Not even shitting you. I have no idea what he said, but I heard it.
They came back, I told them what I heard, and they were disappointed because they didn't get shit. They looked around the van for a bit for anything, but found nothing. After that we left and went on home.
The Church, circa 2007: After a bit in college, my friend Peter called me up one day. He had a church that was supposedly haunted and wanted me to go with him on a very short notice. The team would just be him and me, his father would drive us there.
I promised not to tell what church it was at the time, so I stick by that. I also don't remember the name, so it helps me some.
Reportedly what happened was that during a service, a couple women got possessed and the pastor had to do exorcises right then and there. On top of that, the pastor heard footsteps coming down the hallway that would stop right before his door. And a man heard his dead mother's voice calling to him as he was in a closet getting something.
The two ladies- who we'll call Trisha and Rebecca- the man, who we'll call Robert, and the pastor were all there. When we arrived, things had already started happening. They found a picture that was on the wall on the ground.
We started doing our thing, but with little notice I had no batteries for my camera. They didn't last long while I took pictures of the pews and around the church just looking for anything out of the ordinary. When we switched them out- they died almost right on the spot. Trisha swore the batteries she gave me were brand new, but they never worked. I wasn't too sure to believe her.
Peter and me then started our EVP session in the uh...pew room, where mass is held. Learning the trick from AJ, he put headphones on while listening. I trust him, but I never heard any of the EVPs he got. I asked the questions, since I was a journalist then and pretty much always have been. Apparently that means I can interview demons.
I asked something along the lines of "are you against Jesus Christ?" and the voice said "yes". Oh, demon. Yay. Then Peter began taking pictures with his camera, and as we were trying to debunk one of the pictures- I saw very clearly in the flash of the camera- the outline of a little girl. It was very fast, and the strangest thing I've ever seen. There was no explanation for it, but I saw the outline of a little girl in a dress- but it looked as though there were lines through her- as if the flash had been taken through blinds. They hadn't been.
We decided then to go to the basement. The dark, dark basement. We walked around, me with video camera in hand. When we came back, Peter swore he found a door open that wasn't open before. It looked cracked. I don't know if he found out if it was or not.
We then sat in this small area with an EVP session again. I watched as balls of light danced in the room. I watched as a red ball of light moved slowly across the room as we asked questions. Nothing was happening. We turned off all of our equipment for evidence. This was no longer about wanting evidence, this was about getting an answer.
Well, I asked "Do you want us to leave?". Trish spoke up and said "I just heard 'Get out' whispered into my ear." So we left. As we were leaving, I felt as though there was something at the end of the hallway. I could feel it, just as I had felt death at work. We stared at each other, and I felt as though I could make out a figure and another red ball of light. But nothing showed up on the camera.
We went back upstairs, and decided to let the others take a break while we went into the pastor's office and tried a session there. Peter and me sat across from him. I had something playing with my hair. Peter claimed he had something move his chair a few times, like bumping it a bit. I don't recall my chair doing that.
We then were done, and Peter realized he had left his tape recorder in the pew area thing. He did so in order to try to get some type of response out of whatever was there. Rule #1 of ghost hunting: never go alone. So I went along with him, and as we approached the front of the room we felt a pressure on our shoulders. It grew and grew as we got closer and closer to the front of the room.
Peter ran up, grabbed the recorder, and we both ran out. The second we were out of the room, the pressure lifted. At that point the pastor saw us run out, and we told him what we felt. He had seen enough: they then held an exorcism of the church then and there. We were done there.
Sadly, the exorcism didn't work. They continued to experience strange things: the pastor found a strange goopy liquid on his floor one day dripping from the ceiling. When he went to try to clean it up, it suddenly was sucked into the floor. They continued hearing noises. And eventually the entire church almost turned on each other- to the point of the pastor leaving.
Another road, Circa 2008:
My last ghostly encounter that I can tell you about is another supposedly haunted road. I had been given requests to check places we could go to ghost hunt when Peter came back into town from college. It's hard to find a good place to ghost hunt that's a house- people are reluctant to let you. Instead, we went to a road. A bunch of roads, actually- but one in particular felt like it had something.
It could be the whole sensitive thing (and the others but the one jumping aboard) but it was strange. Let me explain: nowadays when something strange is being talked about by someone and I know it's true I get this weird feeling. I feel like I'm about to cry, and sometimes I wind up crying. It doesn't make sense, nothing is sad about it. I don't feel sad- and yet the tears come. But for some odd reason, I don't do it all the time- only when I feel as if something is true or real.
This road was supposedly haunted by a woman in a car crash. She would stand on the side of the road and asked for a ride and then disappear, etc. etc.
Well, we didn't see any woman but for some odd reason every time I went passed this point in the road I would start crying. Now crying while driving is not something I just randomly do. This was also our last road to go on- the two prior had absolutely nothing on them. It was dead. It was boring. It was lame. No crying, no nothing.
But just driving on this road? I started balling like a kid got lost his pet. Peter and Ryan claimed they too felt something. Our friend Fig felt nothing and was bored the whole time.
Conclusion
I have too many ghost stories. This is most of the interesting ones. I do see shit all the time. I used to see figures in the backyard at night. I see figures in my house all the time. I've randomly smelled cigar smoke in our basement. It's an old house we live in, and the basement was supposedly for hosting parties- where they even had a window for bartending and serving drinks. I can't fit every little thing out of the corner of my eye into this, but these are the best ones I have.
Seeing the future/strange psychic abilities
I'll be honest- this part is even a bit strange for me. I don't understand it anymore than you reading it. Or your boyfriend reading it. Or girlfriend, I'm sure...guys and/or lesbians might read this.
My first strange vision of the future came when I was in 4th/5th grade. I went to my friend Neil's house and knocked on the door to see if he could play or not. He wasn't home. As I turned away I saw a flash in my head. His mom driving down the road in front of his house, him in the passenger seat. As I walked away and down the steps- there came the exact same thing I had seen in my head only seconds later and in actuality.
Since then I have been able to know strange things before I actually know them. Three events though come to mind that are significant in this aspect.
My cousin and me were at the lake one summer, bored. He took out a deck of cards and began asking me "red or black?" I began to get more and more right. He would then pull up two cards and say "which one is red?" and I could pick out the red one. Now mind you, the cards were backwards and I had no idea which one was actually red until he flipped it and I turned out to be right. After I kept getting the cards right, he eventually decided to try to trick me. He asked "which card is red?" and held up three cards. I looked at all three cards, couldn't figure out which one it was. I then realized and said "none of them are red". He slammed the three cards down: all of them had in fact been black.
On the same subject of cards, comes another story. This time I was with friends just a year or so ago from the time of writing this. We were playing the card game euchre, which consists of all the face cards, the 9s and the 10s. All the other cards aren't used- minus 2 sixes and 2 fours for score cards. As we sat around I began making a joke with the part of the deck not in use. It was split into two parts, one on my side. I said something along the lines of "If this card is a six, my team will win." Then I turned it over. It was a six. They would be impressed. I then kept doing it. Four cards into it I began thinking about it- and the second I did I finally missed one. Who knows what that means?
Speaking of guessing numbers right: I've guessed a Pick 3 lottery drawing right. Right before it aired without thinking I blurted out three numbers. The numbers were all right. It was too bad I couldn't have actually played those numbers!
The last thing I've done is incredibly disturbing. At work one night, I brought dinner down to the Gardens unit (apparently everything happens in that unit). As I was walking down the hallway I heard a nurse's aide yell to one of the residents in her room. Suddenly the thought "she's dead" went into my brain. Now, I don't get those thoughts often there- because truly any of them could pass out and be dead right now as I'm writing this. But for some reason I got those words in my head, and a bad feeling in my gut about it. Their trays came back late that night. They gave me the lady's card and said, we had a passing. It was the same lady I had previously thought "she's dead" to. Now, I don't know if she was dead when the nurse's aide came to get her or she died after or during dinner. All I know is that she died that night, when I said she would. And it's disturbed me ever since.
Other weird stuff
I'm probably forgetting a few things, but other weird things have always happened to me without explanation. I can't seem to dodge the number 5. Names come back to haunt me, and typically in ironic fashion.
I once swore I saw what looked like a man made of sticks run in front of my car one morning. He ran into a bunch of trees. It was like a giant stick bug- but it ran just like a man would. It had no head- it was just a long stick.
I've almost died plenty of times. Once I recall because of a cop chase in which a car came barreling down at my mom and me in the wrong lane. She swerved to the other lane and the car kept going. I'm surprised at how many accidents I've been able to avoid, due to timing things correctly and a lot of pure fucking luck.
For example: I once was driving in bad road conditions in the snow to get to class. There were cars stopped in front of me because of a car crash. I begin slowing down, my car's steering wheel goes back and forth. and I begin skidding on the ice. The next thing I know, I pull my emergency break. My car stops. I'm in the middle of both lanes, my car turned sideways- right before I hit the car in front of me. Had I kept skidding, I would've hit that car at 30 mph at the least and done serious damage.
I've almost been hit by traffic a lot more than you'd think. Once on the highway a kid didn't check his blind spot (from the looks of he didn't check at all. He got over into a lane I was in. He and I both got lucky: my reaction was to move out of his way because honking my horn wasn't going to do anything fast enough. I got over into the lane next to me without looking. I was lucky there wasn't a car there. I've also once had a car swerve into the lane I was in, right before swerving back into their lane.
And how I survived as much snow as I have, I'll never know.
Other strange things? I've been able to time trips at times so that I don't hit a single stop light. This somehow has allowed me to make it somewhere that usually takes 40 mins, to only take 30.
Oh, and I can't forget the strange marks on my body that I used to get. I used to get, and occasionally still do but haven't for awhile, strange cuts in areas that are usually covered up with clothing. AKA my privates. These wouldn't be very deep cuts, but they would heal within two days. I once had one on my arm that was somewhat deep- deep enough it was bleeding. I woke up with this cut. My mom swore it was fingernails, but mine are not that sharp and never have been. It also healed within only a day or two.
Final conclusion
No matter what, we will have strange things happen in our lives. Maybe we're all dreaming. Mass hallucinations all over the world. Maybe we're in the Matrix and ghosts and UFOs are simply glitches in the code we live in (yes, that's actually in the movie!). Maybe all of this has to do with something we can't and won't understand.
And as humans all we want is an understanding. So hey, if the government is hiding what the hell UFOs are- it's OK government(s). We just want to know what the hell they are, if you know. Same with ghosts, by the way...if you got anything on that.
And God, hey- listen Dude (see I capitalized it because it's like saying He but more cool-like) if ghosts are the souls of people then you mind telling us? Send us another Bible revision or something. Write it in the clouds. Or ya know what, since enough strange things have happened to me just let it fall out of the sky. Maybe then I'll get some answers!
One more thing: if any aliens are reading this, and you've been abducting me, please stop the anal probes. If you were doing them. Unless they somehow help me keep healthy, then proceed I guess. Also would love to have some drug to cure cancer or AIDS that I could sell to people. Make some money. Try to make this world better and more tolerable by doing so, ya know?
And thank you reader for making it this far. I'm surprised. Unless you skipped to the end, and if that's the case: fuck you. But if that's not the case: thank you, I appreciate it. Leave a comment or something? Read some of my fictional stuff? Awesome, thanks again!
UFOs
Note: I am not claiming any of these are aliens. I am simply telling what I saw, and what I remember happening.
Circa 1995: I lived in a house in a very small town- so small we're technically a village- that was built into the side of a hill. It was a townhouse, with two houses on both sides, one directly connected and one not so directly. We had a small backyard and a nice wooden back porch. Along the side, stepping out onto the porch, if you looked to the right you would see a fence along the neighbor's side. On the left was our neighbors yard, a tree nearby almost separating the two.
Now, I've always found it strange to have this memory. UFO is the best way to explain it.
It was dusk, the sun was just setting- and I believe it was fall or early spring, because I don't believe we had any leaves on the trees. My mom, who had planted a garden along the fence, was digging into it- her head down not looking up. I was outside just running around, because I was forced to since I was a booksmart kid and didn't care to run around much and preferred staying inside and reading or playing games or watching TV.
I remember going to that tree I spoke of before and looking over at my mom, who was down in her garden. I then remember seeing a weird ship, with no noise, coming over our house. Now, on that hill this "ship" was higher up than other houses. But I remember seeing it, then looking down at the ground in front of the tree. I looked up again, and it was gone. I looked to the sky to the left of me- the house to the right of me- and saw nothing.
For years I thought it was an airplane that flew low and disappeared. When I got into the paranormal realm it became clear to me that I hadn't seen a plane, because it had disappeared. Now, I don't know what I saw or what happened to me that night. All I know is that it wasn't the last time I saw a UFO.
Circa 2003: When I got into the paranormal scene, UFOs and aliens were my forte. I would look them up online and see if I could see an issue with the pictures to try to debunk them. Some were obviously faked, others not so much.
In 2003 I knew what a UFO could look like. I had always wanted to see one, hoping one day out my window I could get my own photographic proof. I'm still waiting for that day.
It was night. I was in high school. It was after 10 PM, and I was in bed trying to sleep. I had a box fan sitting in the window, letting my thin blinds move to the side. This let me see the night sky through the window.
As I laid in bed I looked outside. I saw an orange ball of light moving among the tree tops. Now, I'm still on a hill- so anything that looks like it's in the trees is actually in the distance and pretty high up.
I thought- it's nothing. Then I notice there are still lights going by but I can't see them- they're just out of my view. I move down just a bit in my bed and see another orange ball of light, following a blue ball of light.
Now let me explain what these balls looked like the best I can. It wasn't like a solid ball of light that you could tell what this thing is. It looked like a ball of light that was covering something- the fuzziness showing into the night. They moved slowly for whatever they were doing, and moved off into the forest.
I got up out of bed, and walked into the bathroom at this point. My mom was giving my younger siblings a bath (the only reason I know how old I was). She asked what I was doing up, and I told her nonchalantly that I had just seen a UFO. She then yelled at me, saying I would freak my siblings out and that I probably had just seen an airplane.
The issue here is that I know what airplanes look like in the night. They for one don't travel as close as these balls did, and for two don't have the light emitting from them as I saw them. Helicopters would've made noise. There was no noise.
I eventually went back to bed, thinking the UFOs might be landing in the forest in that direction. I have no idea what happened to them. All I know is that whatever happened, what I saw was very strange.
Circa 2005: I live to next to my grandparents. Step grandparents. Whatever you want to call 'em. My cousins on that side live in other states/cities. When they come down here, we have dinner next door on their patio. This is where the next sighting took place.
As we were having a typical summer grill out, we were sitting around on their nice big deck- when we all looked up at this strange object.
Looking at it, it shone in the sun as if made of a flashy metallic substance. It looked as though it was an airplane with no wings or tail. A cigar shaped, silver, metallic object.
My whole family gaped in awe over it. My uncle saying out loud "What is that?". It was quiet. It glided as though it needed no wings. Then they heard an airplane noise. They all went back to talking and eating, disappointed that what they had seen wasn't out of the ordinary.
My cousin and me, who had always talked about UFOs, continued to watch the sky. 20 seconds later a plane flew by. The noise had not come from the metallic object, but from this airplane. I never said anything, because I knew they wouldn't believe me. My cousin and me are the only ones who know what we all saw that day.
Circa 2007: My family liked to go to one of the Great Lakes every year, but I'm not being specific so anyone reading this isn't sure where I'm from. Sorry, it's a habit of protecting my identity on the Interwebs.
This one I'm not even sure about. It's a bit of a stretch, and I've almost put them down to being something else. But I'll still tell the story.
While at this lake, we stayed in a cottage on a private lane. We were talking UFOs with one of my younger uncles, who was also into paranormal things. One evening after dinner as dusk rolled in, my cousin, brother and me sat outside looking at the sky. Then in the distance we noticed these strange white dots that would appear and disappear.
In binoculars they stayed as strange white dots. My uncle claimed he could see them too, but I'm unsure if he was just messing with us or not. They would disappear and then reappear again somewhere else in that area.
Nowadays I've almost dismissed it. The white dots easily could've been a seagull or a mass hallucination or something. I know I saw them, and since I can't identify them: they're technically a UFO.
circa April 2010: This is the one that makes the least sense to me. I had realized I had never had a photo of a UFO and really have always wanted proof. I realized since I had obtained a digital camera years ago that I've never seen a UFO since then. I thought to myself "these UFOs must be afraid of me getting them on camera! Chickens."
Then I was sleeping in my bed one fine night. You know how you can tell someone is shining a flashlight in your eyes? Well I suddenly felt as though I had a very bright shine shining in my eyes. I wake up to see the light dying down. Outside my window is a stereotypically spinning saucer that's illuminated.
Now, my thin window shades are no longer the only thing there. I had two more sheets hanging over that one- making it a very dark room even with the sun shining. This thing was bright enough to shine through that. It then spun a few seconds, then took off to the right of my window. I was in a daze at what I saw, but I was tired. I went "OK" and then closed my eyes again to go back to sleep as if what I had just seen was nothing. It then hit me what I had just seen. I opened up my eyes to see the same scene as before, minus the weird shining disc thing.
It was 4 AM. Freaked out beyond knowing what to do, I stayed up and played video games and watched TV until I had to leave for class. Touche to the UFO, for waking me in my sleep as a kind of "HA! Take that bitch!" revenge for thinking they were chickens to show themselves.
I guess they're more so chickens of getting their photos taken. (Yeah, you heard me!)
Spirits/Ghosts/Demons
Note: I know it might be hard to explain this, but since I was young I've experienced a strange connection with the "other side" as people might say. As I grew older, I've still seen strange things- but I'm glad I can control it a bit more. Whether you believe me or not, as I said, is based all on your personal preferences.
Circa 1991: When I was young I remember playing with human-like forms of fog. I would talk to them, play with them and pretty much act like they were real. This formed a long, hard road for me when I began seeing things when I was older.
Circa 1991-1993: When I was younger I lived with my grandma and mom for a few years. My mom would go to work/school and my grandma would watch me. That usually consisted of us going out to eat a lot, and we'd go to Big Boy's for lunch plenty of times. Over the course of these years, I began seeing a very strange thing at this restaurant.
Have you ever seen that show on Nick Jr. with the hand that is like a mouth and has googly eyes and is made for really young kids? Well, picture seeing that- but without the eyes, and peering from a window. It also sat there mocking you. And anytime an adult would look over there, it would duck under. Then it would come back and laugh at you.
It was almost as if someone was sitting out there in the bushes with their hand and a way to see me, and sat there mocking me. Eventually, as I grew older, it disappeared.
Circa 1993: I had moved into a new apartment with my mom and step dad, started school, had my own room and bed up against a wall. At the end of my bed was a small window, not really big enough to fit much into.
One morning as I laid in bed, I started hearing my name- which at the time was "Jamie" because I was ya know...five.
"Jamie," the voice said. It was literally like those creepy movies where they say it to try to wake someone up. Except I was five and had never seen one of those movies.
"Jaaaamie," it said again. I finally opened my eyes. A giant fucking ghost hand was coming through that window trying to grab me. As it inched closer I believe it said something, it may have been laughing for all I know. I was scared shitless. I backed up onto my pillow as it inched closer to me. And then I had no further to go. I closed my eyes, and as loud as I could yelled (remember now, I'm only five here) "Mommy!".
I then opened my eyes again. The ghost hand was gone. I still sat there, my hands in the same position I was in before, on my pillow, backed up against the head of my bed.
My mom said it was a dream. I'm not one to follow nightmares like that. Could it be? Maybe. But I like telling the story anyways because it's one of those dreams that has always stuck with me.
Circa 2005: I wouldn't have another ghost encounter that I could remember until 2005. This is when I started working at an
As I stated in the note, I consider myself "sensitive" to this things. It's the best way to describe it. Well, for a bit when I walked into the Gardens units (which is the last unit in the building, really) I found myself feeling strange. The temperature would be much different than the other units, and I found as though there was a strange presence of pressure on my shoulders.
Turns out there was a reason for this.
One day I was told by one of the cooks (FYI: I worked in the kitchen) that nurses and residents would sometimes see a little boy in the rooms. Well, turns out that the place used to be an elementary school. Not sure why there's this little boy there, because I doubt he died in that place, but hey- who knows. Apparently the little boy was seen more in the Gardens unit than the other units.
Once I learned that I wasn't just feeling something, I would tell the spirit to go away when I was down there. I've not heard any reports of nurses seeing it since then, nor have I felt temperature or pressure change in that unit anymore.
Other events in the center: Considering the place is home to a lot of ill and elderly patients, death hangs out there a lot. At times I will see shadows or figures out of the corner of my eye as if someone is standing there. When I would look, nothing was there. This happens all the time.
The other strange thing I'll put here, happened in the Gardens unit. I was coming back one time and just felt really awful as I made my way towards the doors out of the unit. It's a long hallway. At the end I felt something I have never felt since, and never want to feel for a long, long time. I felt as though the essence of Death itself was there- almost as if it were sitting on a chair at the end of the hallway. Nobody died that night, to my knowledge. But I got out of that unit as fast as I could.
T-Road Circa 2005-2007: I'm not giving this road it's real name. Instead I'll simply give the story of the road.
It's almost cliche: Girl goes to end of the road with boyfriend, tells boyfriend she's prego, boyfriend doesn't want the kid, so he cuts her guts open. She struggles on the car and is then taken to a bridge and tossed over into a small creek. Now you go down there, flash your headlights three times, and your car will fog up and HELP ME will be written on the fog of your car.
I have been there many times. I'll try to give you a break down of these times best I can.
First time
My first time there at this road was with a friend, Peter- and some of his friend AJ's crew. I have no idea what any of this crew was named, so I'm just going to say it was 2 dudes and a chick and we're going to name them Guy and Mike and uh...Angela. It sounds like they could fit.
Now this first time is a bit...jumpy. I rode with Mike, Peter and AJ- and we were in this cramped little piece of shit car. Angela had a nice bigger boat car to go in, but we went with the shitty tight squeeze where I couldn't feel my legs.
2 cars. Angela and Guy went ahead of us. We were to meet at the end of the road. When we met there, Guy asked if we had stopped at the beginning of the road and then took off for some reason. Apparently a car that "looked just like" ours had done that. Creepy.
I guess I should mention this: at the end of the road is a light. For some odd reason, the light is green. It was one of the first things I noticed when we went down there. It shines green. Add a car into this and it gets worse. I should also mention the ghost had a name, but I don't want to give it- so let's call her Kara.
So we get there, AJ gives me some stone that's supposed to protect me, and then Angela leads a prayer. It's cold as fuck, apparently because of the ghosts (in reality because we were by running water and in the lower part between two hills- like a mini-valley).
We realize, we can't take 2 cars down there. Nor can we fit everyone in the one car. So AJ takes off, Peter following him. Leaving me alone with a bunch of strangers, and them walking a long winding road. Eventually we go down there and meet them at the end. We do the light thing (flash, turn off the car, blah blah) and then get out. AJ starts taking pictures. I never saw any of them, but Peter (who is a trusting friend of mine I wouldn't take to lie) claims that AJ got ghostly figures sitting in the car.
As we're just chillin' not going to the bridge yet, some cars come down. Two of them. Did I forget to mention? This road is also known as a great place for teens to come to smoke dope, get drunk, and fuck. Because it's scary!
AJ starts getting a bit flustered, and makes all of us- but Peter- go sit at the beginning of the road because there's too many cars. So Angela drives us all back to the beginning and we sit there waiting for a phone call. I notice the windows are fogging up.
"Hey uh, guys. Windows are fogging up a bit," because I realize what that means.
"Don't worry about it, it's nothing," Guy says- because he's older and knows a lot more than the high school kid, right?
A bunch of cars go down. They start worrying about Peter and AJ, so we decide- time to pull them out and go.
Angela turns the car on and HOLY SHIT OMG- there's H and part of an E written on the window. Oh hey Guy, guess the high schooler had a reason for saying the car was fogging up, eh? So Guy freaks out, starts taking pictures and then Angela notices a hand-print that slides down on her side of the windshield.
Guy stops freaking out, we go down there, and...cops show up. They threaten to write tickets, blah blah, empty threats, blah blah, you kids are good kids- I'll let you go.
Then came the aftermath. My friend Peter lost his cell phone. It showed up days later on the road, someone who lived around there had found it and called the "home" on contacts. When he showed it to me, it looked as though some animal had taken it and chewed the hell out of it. The only problem with that? The battery was melted to the inside of the case. It made no sense.
Oh, and that Angela girl got her period early or something like that. Apparently Kara the ghost doesn't like women, so she tortures them or something.
And I can't forget that once I got home and tried to sleep- the entire room was in red when I turned my lights off.
Second time
Now, we've gone to this place a lot of times. But this time I got to go with people I knew. This time I got to go down to this bridge. And this time? I got an EVP of a girl laughing.
I had two friends with me: Angelica (not Angela, mind you) and Ryan. We stood on the bridge, and I just did my usual EVP stuff. Can you say anything, blah blah, etc. etc. You've seen Ghost Hunters if you've made it this far. And if not, ya know. Watch it, maybe.
As I said before: sensitive to spirits. I felt as though Kara was behind me while I was doing this EVP session. Suddenly I start laughing, but not like hardcore laughing. Just like a little chuckle. I then stopped recording and we walked away. When I came back to the EVP and listened to it, you could hear very faintly the sound of a girl laughing right before I did. While there was a girl there, she wasn't laughing. It was too faint for it to be her.
Third time
This one we didn't even go down the damn road. I was with three friends: Mandy (who drove), Joe (in the passenger sit), and Fig behind Mandy and next to me in the back. It was late, and we were passing T-Road when we saw some cars go down there.
Now, let me tell you, it's also a prime place to prank the shit out of kids. We got pranked a few times- and I'm surprised we didn't kill them when we found out. We actually were trying to figure out something, and they claim nothing ever happened to them. They never went the times shit happened to me, I guess.
Anyways, we figure: hey it'll be funny if we go down and mess with those guys. So we sit at the beginning of the road before going down there. While sitting there waiting, Joe and me hear a voice from outside of the car. A male voice. This is 2 AM. The closest house to us is pretty far away, and the voice came from the woods.
We left. No idea where the voice came from. No idea what it said. But Joe and me- on the right side of the car- both heard it.
Fourth time
Oh, this was the fun one. This was once again with AJ and Peter, but this time a couple of their friends. We actually went to a bunch of places after this- but I'll come back to those two places at the end of this story.
These guys were very much into the occult. We picked them up at a comic book shop. 'Nuff said? I mean, it was a nice shop and all- but these guys were in their mid-20s and still wearing all black and doing that whole "I can set spells with this magic book" shit.
By this point they had come to the conclusion that T-Road was a hot spot for demons. I got the video camera. AJ was on a nice recorder, with headphones so he could listen as he recorded. We went in as a team, the two goth magic guys apparently casting spells as we went.
Whatever they did awoke something. We got a very seriously awesome EVP out of it. AJ hooked it up to his stereos in the car and played it (ya know like the thing for iPods in the tape deck? Yeah that thing). I sadly can't remember what it said, because I was told I would get a digital copy of it (never did).
Fifth time
Now, I have to say- five times to the same strange place is nothing. This is definitely the sixth of seventh time. Maybe even eighth time. But the other times nothing happened- twice was pranks, once nothing happened.
This is the last time I went down there. Since this time I've not gone back down and refuse to. I speed past the road all the time. I still see flashes in my head, and since I've been writing about this I've had images flashing.
It was Mandy, Peter, and Ryan. We went down there first time, nothing was happening. At this point I was thinking nothing would happen. We went, got drinks, and came back down. I wasn't taking it seriously.
Something came over me. I started getting pissed. I had my tape recorder and just knew "turn it on". Then all I remember is telling them to lock the doors. I then don't remember much of anything until we came back out of the road.
Peter believes I was possessed by Kara- but for some odd reason I was yelling at them to turn around. I didn't want to go down there. Whatever it was that had me didn't want me to go down there. Didn't want any of us.
When we got back out of the road, I felt exhausted. Ryan turned the camera we had on after that. I listened to the recording I had of it. Something deep inside me made me hate whatever the hell it was. Mandy- my friend since 3rd grade- said she felt like it wasn't me.
We stood out in a parking lot of a grocery store, as Peter asked me questions. I felt a link to Kara. It was strange as I stood there answering. I have no idea what I said, or what was asked. It felt as though energy drained from me though until I got home.
Since then the only times I've been down there was once or twice, and it was an immediate turn around. I had no choice, as I wasn't the one driving- and no way was I getting out of the car anywhere near that road unless I had to.
Other stories
As I said up above, there were two other places I went to with AJ's interesting friends. The first was a cemetery.
Still with camera in hand, we went to this small cemetery that was said to be haunted. As we looked around, AJ realized at the top he saw a light. There at the top of this cemetery on a hill (very small cemetery) sat what looked to be a smoldering fire.
I followed AJ up with the camera, unsure of what caused this fire. In the back of it was this open field, with some crop- I think it may have been corn or wheat or something that grows tall. In the back I could see three figures standing there, looking like they were smoking a cigarette.
Well, we eventually started looking around the cemetery when AJ kept saying he heard someone breathing. Good thing he did and the guy wasn't too crazy, because he then found a guy hiding behind a tree. A very small tree, mind you.
The guy was afraid we were the cops, so he said. He looked very out of it. AJ's friends thought he may be possessed by something, but I had a feeling he was either a criminal on the run (thus the small fire) or he had crack or some drug on him and was up there smoking it/using it. Or he just had it on him.
We told him some bullshit story about how we lived nearby and were looking for our dogs. I had the camera on him the whole time. We told him to make sure that smoldering fire was put out, so that the whole forest didn't light up- then we left for an old factory.
The factory was a bit far away- and by this time I was feeling sluggish. It was getting very late and I was tired. Ghost hunting was tiring. The factory was private property, and going on it would result in jail time. Since we didn't want or need jail time- AJ came up with an idea: walk around the factory which is public property.
I on the other hand didn't like the place when we pulled up to it. I had a queasy feeling. That whole feeling like something bad is going to happen? Yeah, that was me.
I stayed in the van. Alone. With a walkie talkie. To put simple: never stay somewhere that's haunted by yourself. Ever. Because I began feeling as though there were voices coming from outside the car of men. Then, somewhat scared and hearing cars pass by yelling at them to leave or yelling some profanity of sorts, heard the voice of a little boy. Not even shitting you. I have no idea what he said, but I heard it.
They came back, I told them what I heard, and they were disappointed because they didn't get shit. They looked around the van for a bit for anything, but found nothing. After that we left and went on home.
The Church, circa 2007: After a bit in college, my friend Peter called me up one day. He had a church that was supposedly haunted and wanted me to go with him on a very short notice. The team would just be him and me, his father would drive us there.
I promised not to tell what church it was at the time, so I stick by that. I also don't remember the name, so it helps me some.
Reportedly what happened was that during a service, a couple women got possessed and the pastor had to do exorcises right then and there. On top of that, the pastor heard footsteps coming down the hallway that would stop right before his door. And a man heard his dead mother's voice calling to him as he was in a closet getting something.
The two ladies- who we'll call Trisha and Rebecca- the man, who we'll call Robert, and the pastor were all there. When we arrived, things had already started happening. They found a picture that was on the wall on the ground.
We started doing our thing, but with little notice I had no batteries for my camera. They didn't last long while I took pictures of the pews and around the church just looking for anything out of the ordinary. When we switched them out- they died almost right on the spot. Trisha swore the batteries she gave me were brand new, but they never worked. I wasn't too sure to believe her.
Peter and me then started our EVP session in the uh...pew room, where mass is held. Learning the trick from AJ, he put headphones on while listening. I trust him, but I never heard any of the EVPs he got. I asked the questions, since I was a journalist then and pretty much always have been. Apparently that means I can interview demons.
I asked something along the lines of "are you against Jesus Christ?" and the voice said "yes". Oh, demon. Yay. Then Peter began taking pictures with his camera, and as we were trying to debunk one of the pictures- I saw very clearly in the flash of the camera- the outline of a little girl. It was very fast, and the strangest thing I've ever seen. There was no explanation for it, but I saw the outline of a little girl in a dress- but it looked as though there were lines through her- as if the flash had been taken through blinds. They hadn't been.
We decided then to go to the basement. The dark, dark basement. We walked around, me with video camera in hand. When we came back, Peter swore he found a door open that wasn't open before. It looked cracked. I don't know if he found out if it was or not.
We then sat in this small area with an EVP session again. I watched as balls of light danced in the room. I watched as a red ball of light moved slowly across the room as we asked questions. Nothing was happening. We turned off all of our equipment for evidence. This was no longer about wanting evidence, this was about getting an answer.
Well, I asked "Do you want us to leave?". Trish spoke up and said "I just heard 'Get out' whispered into my ear." So we left. As we were leaving, I felt as though there was something at the end of the hallway. I could feel it, just as I had felt death at work. We stared at each other, and I felt as though I could make out a figure and another red ball of light. But nothing showed up on the camera.
We went back upstairs, and decided to let the others take a break while we went into the pastor's office and tried a session there. Peter and me sat across from him. I had something playing with my hair. Peter claimed he had something move his chair a few times, like bumping it a bit. I don't recall my chair doing that.
We then were done, and Peter realized he had left his tape recorder in the pew area thing. He did so in order to try to get some type of response out of whatever was there. Rule #1 of ghost hunting: never go alone. So I went along with him, and as we approached the front of the room we felt a pressure on our shoulders. It grew and grew as we got closer and closer to the front of the room.
Peter ran up, grabbed the recorder, and we both ran out. The second we were out of the room, the pressure lifted. At that point the pastor saw us run out, and we told him what we felt. He had seen enough: they then held an exorcism of the church then and there. We were done there.
Sadly, the exorcism didn't work. They continued to experience strange things: the pastor found a strange goopy liquid on his floor one day dripping from the ceiling. When he went to try to clean it up, it suddenly was sucked into the floor. They continued hearing noises. And eventually the entire church almost turned on each other- to the point of the pastor leaving.
Another road, Circa 2008:
My last ghostly encounter that I can tell you about is another supposedly haunted road. I had been given requests to check places we could go to ghost hunt when Peter came back into town from college. It's hard to find a good place to ghost hunt that's a house- people are reluctant to let you. Instead, we went to a road. A bunch of roads, actually- but one in particular felt like it had something.
It could be the whole sensitive thing (and the others but the one jumping aboard) but it was strange. Let me explain: nowadays when something strange is being talked about by someone and I know it's true I get this weird feeling. I feel like I'm about to cry, and sometimes I wind up crying. It doesn't make sense, nothing is sad about it. I don't feel sad- and yet the tears come. But for some odd reason, I don't do it all the time- only when I feel as if something is true or real.
This road was supposedly haunted by a woman in a car crash. She would stand on the side of the road and asked for a ride and then disappear, etc. etc.
Well, we didn't see any woman but for some odd reason every time I went passed this point in the road I would start crying. Now crying while driving is not something I just randomly do. This was also our last road to go on- the two prior had absolutely nothing on them. It was dead. It was boring. It was lame. No crying, no nothing.
But just driving on this road? I started balling like a kid got lost his pet. Peter and Ryan claimed they too felt something. Our friend Fig felt nothing and was bored the whole time.
Conclusion
I have too many ghost stories. This is most of the interesting ones. I do see shit all the time. I used to see figures in the backyard at night. I see figures in my house all the time. I've randomly smelled cigar smoke in our basement. It's an old house we live in, and the basement was supposedly for hosting parties- where they even had a window for bartending and serving drinks. I can't fit every little thing out of the corner of my eye into this, but these are the best ones I have.
Seeing the future/strange psychic abilities
I'll be honest- this part is even a bit strange for me. I don't understand it anymore than you reading it. Or your boyfriend reading it. Or girlfriend, I'm sure...guys and/or lesbians might read this.
My first strange vision of the future came when I was in 4th/5th grade. I went to my friend Neil's house and knocked on the door to see if he could play or not. He wasn't home. As I turned away I saw a flash in my head. His mom driving down the road in front of his house, him in the passenger seat. As I walked away and down the steps- there came the exact same thing I had seen in my head only seconds later and in actuality.
Since then I have been able to know strange things before I actually know them. Three events though come to mind that are significant in this aspect.
My cousin and me were at the lake one summer, bored. He took out a deck of cards and began asking me "red or black?" I began to get more and more right. He would then pull up two cards and say "which one is red?" and I could pick out the red one. Now mind you, the cards were backwards and I had no idea which one was actually red until he flipped it and I turned out to be right. After I kept getting the cards right, he eventually decided to try to trick me. He asked "which card is red?" and held up three cards. I looked at all three cards, couldn't figure out which one it was. I then realized and said "none of them are red". He slammed the three cards down: all of them had in fact been black.
On the same subject of cards, comes another story. This time I was with friends just a year or so ago from the time of writing this. We were playing the card game euchre, which consists of all the face cards, the 9s and the 10s. All the other cards aren't used- minus 2 sixes and 2 fours for score cards. As we sat around I began making a joke with the part of the deck not in use. It was split into two parts, one on my side. I said something along the lines of "If this card is a six, my team will win." Then I turned it over. It was a six. They would be impressed. I then kept doing it. Four cards into it I began thinking about it- and the second I did I finally missed one. Who knows what that means?
Speaking of guessing numbers right: I've guessed a Pick 3 lottery drawing right. Right before it aired without thinking I blurted out three numbers. The numbers were all right. It was too bad I couldn't have actually played those numbers!
The last thing I've done is incredibly disturbing. At work one night, I brought dinner down to the Gardens unit (apparently everything happens in that unit). As I was walking down the hallway I heard a nurse's aide yell to one of the residents in her room. Suddenly the thought "she's dead" went into my brain. Now, I don't get those thoughts often there- because truly any of them could pass out and be dead right now as I'm writing this. But for some reason I got those words in my head, and a bad feeling in my gut about it. Their trays came back late that night. They gave me the lady's card and said, we had a passing. It was the same lady I had previously thought "she's dead" to. Now, I don't know if she was dead when the nurse's aide came to get her or she died after or during dinner. All I know is that she died that night, when I said she would. And it's disturbed me ever since.
Other weird stuff
I'm probably forgetting a few things, but other weird things have always happened to me without explanation. I can't seem to dodge the number 5. Names come back to haunt me, and typically in ironic fashion.
I once swore I saw what looked like a man made of sticks run in front of my car one morning. He ran into a bunch of trees. It was like a giant stick bug- but it ran just like a man would. It had no head- it was just a long stick.
I've almost died plenty of times. Once I recall because of a cop chase in which a car came barreling down at my mom and me in the wrong lane. She swerved to the other lane and the car kept going. I'm surprised at how many accidents I've been able to avoid, due to timing things correctly and a lot of pure fucking luck.
For example: I once was driving in bad road conditions in the snow to get to class. There were cars stopped in front of me because of a car crash. I begin slowing down, my car's steering wheel goes back and forth. and I begin skidding on the ice. The next thing I know, I pull my emergency break. My car stops. I'm in the middle of both lanes, my car turned sideways- right before I hit the car in front of me. Had I kept skidding, I would've hit that car at 30 mph at the least and done serious damage.
I've almost been hit by traffic a lot more than you'd think. Once on the highway a kid didn't check his blind spot (from the looks of he didn't check at all. He got over into a lane I was in. He and I both got lucky: my reaction was to move out of his way because honking my horn wasn't going to do anything fast enough. I got over into the lane next to me without looking. I was lucky there wasn't a car there. I've also once had a car swerve into the lane I was in, right before swerving back into their lane.
And how I survived as much snow as I have, I'll never know.
Other strange things? I've been able to time trips at times so that I don't hit a single stop light. This somehow has allowed me to make it somewhere that usually takes 40 mins, to only take 30.
Oh, and I can't forget the strange marks on my body that I used to get. I used to get, and occasionally still do but haven't for awhile, strange cuts in areas that are usually covered up with clothing. AKA my privates. These wouldn't be very deep cuts, but they would heal within two days. I once had one on my arm that was somewhat deep- deep enough it was bleeding. I woke up with this cut. My mom swore it was fingernails, but mine are not that sharp and never have been. It also healed within only a day or two.
Final conclusion
No matter what, we will have strange things happen in our lives. Maybe we're all dreaming. Mass hallucinations all over the world. Maybe we're in the Matrix and ghosts and UFOs are simply glitches in the code we live in (yes, that's actually in the movie!). Maybe all of this has to do with something we can't and won't understand.
And as humans all we want is an understanding. So hey, if the government is hiding what the hell UFOs are- it's OK government(s). We just want to know what the hell they are, if you know. Same with ghosts, by the way...if you got anything on that.
And God, hey- listen Dude (see I capitalized it because it's like saying He but more cool-like) if ghosts are the souls of people then you mind telling us? Send us another Bible revision or something. Write it in the clouds. Or ya know what, since enough strange things have happened to me just let it fall out of the sky. Maybe then I'll get some answers!
One more thing: if any aliens are reading this, and you've been abducting me, please stop the anal probes. If you were doing them. Unless they somehow help me keep healthy, then proceed I guess. Also would love to have some drug to cure cancer or AIDS that I could sell to people. Make some money. Try to make this world better and more tolerable by doing so, ya know?
And thank you reader for making it this far. I'm surprised. Unless you skipped to the end, and if that's the case: fuck you. But if that's not the case: thank you, I appreciate it. Leave a comment or something? Read some of my fictional stuff? Awesome, thanks again!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
The Connection
I'm one of the few no longer connected.
Everyone is connected now to the grid. It's government mandated. They claim it's to help border control and immigration issues. To counter terrorism from other countries. We claim it's to watch us, research what we do, and create political campaigns based on those things as well as products.
It all comes in a card you hang around your neck. You can't forget it. There's no way to forget it. Your house won't lock without your card, and some of the newer ones won't even let you out unless there's a fire or it senses a gun of some sort. Your car won't start without it- unless you scream for it to start due to an emergency. It will if your voice is registered to have fear in it. But only then.
My card? It's a fake. It's supposed to hook up to my online stats- to let people know what I like and what I don't like.
"You like Will Ferrell? Isn't that a little...outdated?"
I hated leaving my house. People questioned things I like. Things my profile said I liked at least.
"Yeah, I guess."
"I love Tommy Mars, have you seen his new stuff? It's all over the Connection."
"I don't really pay attention to the Connection much."
"Really? So you don't watch all the shows they have on there?"
"I couldn't really tell you about it."
"Here, I'll show you this hilarious video of him. Back search." He had picked his card up and talked into it.
"No, really- it's OK. I need to go anyways." I walked away. There was no need for him to talk to me.
"Oh hey, wait up! Karl? Wait up!" He wouldn’t give up.
"Yes?"
“You mind if I follow you?”
“You want to follow me?”
“Yeah- on the Connection. I know you don’t get on to watch videos, but ya gotta update.”
“I don’t update.”
“Well it updates when you do something big anyways. Mandatory.”
“Sure, follow me then. Whatever.”
“Hey- did you know your name is the same as a revolutionary in the 19th century that co-created something called Marxism? An idea that basically critiqued the old way humans lived known as capitalism? Crazy stuff.”
“Yeah- sure is.”
“Who would’ve known that?” I knew it. It’s why I picked the name. “Oh hold on, I’m getting a thought message from my pal in Euroland.”
“What part of Euroland?” Not that I cared to know.
“France
“Ah well that’s great…” I read his name displayed above him by the card. “Lindo Garrand. But I’d rather just get my food and go.”
“Oh no, don’t go. I really want to get to know you Karl.”
“I really don’t care to get to know you, Lindo. In fact, I find this conversation to be boring. Tommy Mars is an idiot. And the fact you like the remake of Snakes on a Plane is even more degrading.”
“But please-“
“Goodbye Lindo.”
I walked away again, hoping it would be the last of it. Then as I turned the corner, my card lit up. New message. I never got new messages. This card isn’t supposed to get new messages.
“Hey Karl- sorry we got off on the wrong foot. It’s Lindo, I’ll meet you in the dairy section. I just love this kind of old styled grocery store. See you there.”
I had to go there. How did he know? Oh right, had to display my checklist to get in. I hate things like that. It’s why I’m not connected.
“Hey! Hey Karl! Over here!”
And there he was, next to the milk. The real milk. It cost a lot, but it was better than synthetic.
“Yes, Lindo?” I grabbed a half-gallon. It was all I could afford.
“Hey, yeah- I found a great price on real ice cream. It’s made from cow milk! Can you believe that? Actual cow milk, like from the old days.
“I know. I only get my ice cream from here.”
“What? You mean you don’t eat the regular blend?”
“No, I don’t eat the regular blend. I prefer the old way to make it.”
“I don’t know, I’ve tried the old way and it’s just not as sweet.”
“That’s because it’s not naturally made. They use synthetic blends to make it sweeter than actual strawberries or chocolate or vanilla beans.”
“Vanilla beans?”
“That’s where natural vanilla flavor comes from.”
“I don’t get why you shop here, Karl. I prefer the Connection’s online store.”
“I don’t get online. The universe might feel real, but it’s not. We don’t live real lives anymore, it’s all synthetic.”
“This store isn’t synthetic.”
“Yeah, but you keep talking about how you live your life. You like things you’re told to like. You don’t explore things the way they used to be. Before the Connection. Did you know we used to have a lot of different ways to connect?”
“What do you mean?”
“There used to be an off button. You could isolate yourself. People could disappear from the rest of the world.”
“The Connection had an off button?”
“At first. Before that we had things called cell phones and text messaging. The Internet, which was just a screen and text. You had to actively log into things. There was privacy.”
“There’s privacy- I can block anyone I want to.”
“After you add them, you can block them. But they can see whatever they want if they’re good at it. You know what a CD is?”
“Ew, a CD? Yeah I know what a CD is, you pervert.”
“No- it stands for compact disc. It’s what music came on before it was all digitized. Video games were on them too, and played with controllers with buttons.”
“Oh yeah, I heard about the uh- something box systems? Some company that doesn’t make them anymore. Not that we’d need a video game system, we just go into the Connection and hook up to stuff.”
“Yeah well, we used to have books and paintings that weren’t just digitized. You had to actively read.” I sighed and started walking to get my next item, crossing off the milk with my hand in the air.
“Why’d you use your hand? Just have it done automatically.”
“Listen, Lindo- I don’t want to be your friend. I don’t want you to follow me on the Connection. I like brick and mortar stores that are made in real life.”
“Real life is boring. Dangerous. People die in real life.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You could die on your way home. The Connection would have a memorial service for you, though. I’d go to it, Karl.”
“And my real body would be thrown away for fuel. I know.”
“I’d buy you the best flowers I could find.”
“You mean the synthetic ones or the digital ones?”
“Well, I’d be in the Connection of course so-“
“Alright- enough. Just shut up. Go away. And stop bothering me.”
“But I want to-”
“I’m going to kick your ass if you say another word.”
“But-“
“OK, fine.” I grabbed for him. My hand went right through his body. “What the hell?”
“What? I’m not going into the real world. I told you that. You could’ve hurt me there.” His hologram disappeared. I stood in the store alone. I grabbed the last of my items and made my way to the front.
They used the old barcodes for most of the items. Others were simply added like magic with the chips embedded on the packaging.
“That’ll be $3,982 and 42 cents.”
I wave my card. My bank account deducts the amount.
“You’re going to have to teleport your groceries home, Mr. Marx. I’m sorry- it’s just a mandatory obligation we have here.” A teenager without a squeaky voice or pimples said to me as he stood at the end of an old conveyor belt.
“I understand, it’s no problem.”
“Good, I didn’t want to have any problems.”
“You go to school around here?”
“School?”
“Sorry, I’m a little old fashioned with this store and all.”
“What’re you, like 28?”
“Yeah, I’m 28.”
“Don’t know how you’re old fashioned.”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
The groceries were suddenly gone. I wasn’t worried about the milk expiring or anything going bad. They would be sealed away, and almost put away like magic.
“There you go Mr. Marx. You have a nice day.”
“You too. And here’s an old fashioned quarter for your troubles.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the quarter. I flipped it to the kid.
“Ugh, I can’t use this. And this won’t buy me anything.”
“I’m sure it will.”
I walked on out the sliding doors onto the street and looked around me. There were no cars. Teleportation devices were placed here and there on giant sidewalks. It’s all the world was: buildings and sidewalks. People walking.
“Hey Karl, would you mind moving? You’re in all of our way.”
I looked up and there was a man. His name sat above his head.
“Sorry Thiamin.”
He rolled off, not moving his legs. His shoes moving him along. I walked on, using my own legs. Two miles later, without seeing a speck of grass, I arrived home. I didn’t need to take my card out- it unlocked my door automatically. There inside sat my items, already unpacked, already put away, the receipt on the counter.
I looked at my small apartment, on the top floor of a building in a city I didn’t know. My card was a fake I had created myself.
“TV, on.” I said outloud. “News.”
“Reports today are coming out that state the Forever Pills will be seeing a price hike. The maker of the pill, Forever Co., is stating the rate of inflation calls for a necessary price hike. The pills, which can cause people to live up to five hundred years, has seen incredibly improvements since it was founded in the early twenty-first century by Dr. Gregory McMallin who died in a horrific accident involving the introduction of a new pill that was said to make people live eternally. Since then, scientists have found ways to take his original concept, and turn it into the Forever Pills we know of today. In other news…”
“If only that were true. Journalists never could get their facts right.”
I took out another quarter and looked at the date on it. 2012.
I’m not connected because I don’t have anyone to connect to. Everyone dies but me. And I only helped create myself. I only helped perpetuate this future in my youth. It’s why I’m one of the not connected.
It’s why I hate everything changing. Nothing is real anymore. Of course, was anything ever real then either?
I grab my card and look up Lindo. I hit follow. It blocks me from hitting it. I scared him off. My old ways scare everyone off.
Only those old stores that sell real food help out these days. I look at my window and see the sky, a dark blue. Clouds covering it. It won’t matter. There’s no such thing as rain. I liked rain. It was nice and calming. But nobody liked it when they had something to do. Plants gave us oxygen, but we can create our own. Who cares about them?
We can create our own plants better and faster if they aren’t real. No one here has smelt a flower. No one here has seen what the cold winter is like. We can make snow that isn’t cold.
I think every day of jumping out that window. But I know I can’t. I think every day of doing something.
“Excuse me, Karl? Are you home?”
“Yeah, come on in Vanessa.”
She’s not connected. She hates it. But she’s from this time. Vanessa isn’t even her real name, it’s Zinc.
“I saw you were on the Connection. What gives?” She was one of the prettiest women I had ever met. It was sad to say she was created by artificial means. Her parents were both white, but wanted a child with Hispanic characteristics.
“I’m just trying to open up my horizons. That’s all.”
“Open up your horizons? Really now?”
“Yes. Why were you on it?”
“The mandated time we’re supposed to be on it. Since I’m following you.”
“You told me you got out of the mandated time.”
“No, I said I was on probation for helping that protest group. I don’t have to use it as much.”
“Well, is that all you wanted?”
“No,” she smiled. “You know what I want.”
“We can’t keep doing this.”
“Oh, c’mon Karl. It’s just classic X. And it feels so good.” They outlawed sex years ago. The only way to have a kid nowadays was the old way known as in vitro. It’s what everyone calls sex nowadays. It was meant to help stop overpopulation by people accidentally getting pregnant. It also eradicated all sexually transmitted diseases and infections.
“You’re already on probation- do you really want to try to trick the card again?”
“I’ve been ready all day.”
“You ever think of what it’d feel like to jump out of this building?” I asked her afterwards. I caved easily.
“You can’t jump out, you’ll die.”
“I know.”
“Why would you want to die?”
“I’ve been here for so long. You’re the only person I know.”
“Oh no, not this again.” She sat up in my bed. “You’re 28. Shut up and fuck me like I’m nine!” I should mention that girls got married young again. The phrase was meant to be sexual during in vitro, as if to say I love you and I wish I was young and as fertile as I once was. It disturbed me every time I heard it.
“I told you not to say that in here. It’s disgusting.”
“No it’s not, it’s hot. I’d do you if you were nine.”
“Yeah, and then we can do a CD.”
“Seriously? That’s kind of boring compared to this.”
“I don’t even know what a CD is.”
“Connection Drive
“OK. I get it.” I sat up in my bed too, looking out the window again.
“What’re you thinking about?”
“What the past was like. Why everything here is so fake.”
“I’m not fake.” She rubbed my shoulder, her hands caressing my arm.
“No, but your passion for me is. It was the problem with humans before. Before we all lived on passion and sex. Now with that gone, we live on really knowing someone and being in love. Apparently we can’t live without the other.”
“Why do you always talk about the past?”
“Because I’m Gregory McMallin. The pill I took all those years ago made me live forever.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Yes, of course I am. Who would think my name would be something as strange as Gregory?”
“Really- such an odd name. So old fashioned. But I guess so is Karl Marx of all names.”
“It’s not my real name.”
“What do you mean? We’ve been having sex and you haven’t told me your real name?”
“Sorry, it’s how I stay off the Connection. If you knew my real name, you’d wind up giving it up on the Connection and they’d know something was up. I’m sorry.”
“I’ll forgive you if you fuck me like I’m nine.”
I shuddered. The phrase would never grow on me.
I dreamed that night of dying. I dreamed of living back in the old days. I remembered the 1990s- my childhood. I would no longer live my childhood. Everyone had grown fond of other things. Technology had moved on.
“What are you doing up here?”
“Nothing Zinc. Nothing at all.” I stood on top of my apartment building, looking down at the people. Even from up there, I could select a person and read their name. This girl liked Tommy Mars.
“Why’d you call me that? You don’t ever call me that.”
“I’m leaving. This world needs something different. A shake up. You know the number of suicides these days?”
“Karl, don’t jump. This is serious, you have everything to live for.”
“I know that. I have to help people move on. Come here, I’ll show you something.” She cautiously walked over and looked over the side. “You know what happens if you try to jump? Your card will create a barrier. You can’t jump. Guns can’t hurt you. And if you take your card off while on suicide watch? It’ll zap you. And you only need one attempt to be on suicide watch.”
“Why are you telling me this? Are you going to kill yourself?”
“No. I’ve been here for many years. Our cards won’t let us. Mine is too close a replica to yours- since I copied it. Since I integrated into society. But how can we make these people see something different? How can we show that people don’t just die and get burnt to a crisp for fuel? That they need to experience life. To smell a flower, and know what life is all about?”
“I don’t know. How?”
“We can’t make flowers for them to smell.”
“No.”
“And if we tell them to smell flowers, will they listen?”
“No.”
“Here, hold this paper.” I handed her a piece of paper and took a step back from the ledge. “Now, write ‘I want you to stop and smell the roses. The red, red, roses.’”
She wrote. “What does this have to do anything?”
“We’re going to tell them to feel passion before they die. You’ve felt passion, right?”
“Yes. You and me in the bedroom. It was the best moments of my life.”
“And you have no dreams?” No one had dreams. No one aspired. It was the one thing I hated the most.
“What? I have dreams at night.” The meaning had been lost upon them.
“Then close your eyes. Dream now of the passion we had. Let your mind picture us together again. Feel our connection.”
She closed her eyes and held the paper in her hands. And as she felt it, she fell backwards. Down her body went. She wasn’t trying to kill herself. And it would be too late to realize she was falling before she hit the pavement below.
The public panicked. They killed roses. They created measures to assure no one could accidentally fall off a building ever again. And they looked for Karl Marx, but they wouldn’t find me. I would be gone again. No longer connected. And helping others let go of their connection the only way I can: through death.
“Hi Lindo, mind if I come in?”
“Uh, Karl is that-“
“My name isn’t Karl. My name is Adolf. Can’t you read my card?”
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Tight Ropes
This story was originally written on July 7, 2008. This is the first time it has been publicly published and has received no changes since originally written.
The people stood around, watching and waiting for the act to start. A man was to walk a rope, tightly nonetheless, across a giant fountain. The crew was harnessed in, holding the ropes for his long rope- they didn’t want him to die. At least, that’s what the final report said.
Guards stood at all ends, as there was in fact no net or way to save him and if something went wrong they’d have to quickly rush him to the hospital. His name? Why does it matter? Call him John Doe. John Hancock. Hancock Malkovich. Who the fuck cares?
Word was, though, that this John Hancock Malkovich owed someone money. Big money. Had to do this stunt to earn it, and it wasn’t even going to be enough.
And oh, the people he owed? Was already on it. They wanted to make sure everything looked just fine for this stunt. After all, his father had done it close to 40 years earlier and it wasn’t like he didn’t know how to. Except he really didn’t know how to, and had only practiced for the last few months in order to prepare.
And they knew this. They set up the perimeter knowing this.
“Perimeter is clear in F1,” a clerk standing at an outside cart said into his watch.
“Check, F2 clear,” another said, holding his hand to the side of his nose.
“B1 clear,” one said, while yawning.
“B2 dub fub fin.”
They started announcing his start, and then quieted down as he walked across. Nobody cared as they walked right past the people holding the ropes steady, breezing them and hoping they’d slip and make the guy fall to his untimely death. But, that’s not what the final report said.
He moved across the first part fairly quickly, moving towards the F1 clerk. Seemed good. No, it was good. All was good.
“We have movement,” the F1 clerk said, “tall, dark and asshole.”
“I have visual confirmation,” F2 said, touching the side of his sunglasses, “clear for weapons.”
John Hancock Malkovitch was in the middle of his stunt now, his pot belly not stopping him from his accomplishment and the thought of debts being paid off dancing across his mind. The crew held steady, it had been 15 minutes, and the clerks still were selling and scouring the crowd of careless people.
Three out of four of the way there, commonly known as three fourths. Beauty, it was, as the sky was gray with the threat of rain and a random thunderbolt came crashing down- at least in bystanders’ minds- to take care of this daredevil.
“I hope he falls!” some of them yelled, to make sure he heard. Maybe he’d then fall.
“I’m not sure if I’m going to watch or not if he falls,” a manager said to a clerk, who said they were watching and loved the sight of blood. Especially because the children would freak out, be scarred for the rest of their life, and he’d get a kick out of it all. Especially if he fell right in front of him and the blood splattered.
“I just want to see this fountain turn red with blood, so we can go home after it’s all over,” the clerk said.
“We have movement,” clerk B2 said as he started moving towards the guy and touching his sunglasses to assure there was no weapon. He was clean, but they were interested in something else.
“I have a bogey near you F2,” an ominous voice transmitted to all of them.
“Searching,” he said looking around, “Nothing detected. What’s going on?”
Within seconds a couple of kids walked by bouncing a basketball. A carriage on the other side of the street had a crying baby in it, ready for lunch. A man at the front gate looked into the park to see our John Malkovitch falling off. All he could hear was a dud, and hundreds of people freaking out.
The F1 clerk quickly shut down his area and got people to move away from the sides to make room for the rescuers. The crew just stood there still holding the rope, frozen in position. At least all but one, who had fallen to the ground. They were unsure if it was before or after he fell though.
He was still alive, luckily, and quickly was put on a stretcher. He gave a broken thumbs up as he was brought along the crowd. Two shots rang out killing him. The four clerks hit their sunglasses and scanned.
Then more shots.
“I see hi-“ F1 was shot.
“Where’s his loc-“ F2 was shot.
“Guys?” B1 was shot.
“He’s nearby, I’ve got sight!” but B2 was already shot before he started to even try running.
The big banner with John Malkovitch’s name on it fell down. Below it was graffiti that said “DON’T MESS WITH US.”
A man in a baseball cap with two kids left through metal detectors. Nothing went off. Probably because they didn’t have a gun. At least, that’s what the final report said.
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