Storytime!

Come children, come gather round, and let me spin a tale that might chill you to the bone.  This tale involves adventure, intrigue, ghosts, and legends of yore (can I still say ‘yore’ if it’s ‘mine’? Hahahahaha-that was a story joke for ya. Ahem, sorry, back to scary inner monologe.)  Our story begins with 5 adventurers and their quest to visit Crosby, TX.  A town where one neighborhood was built on an old slave cemetery.  This was only discovered when one family decided to build a pool, but instead found bodies when they dug in the  backyard.  The neighborhood still stands, with reports of haunted activities abound.  There are 4-5 streets that sit atop the cemetary, with a huge ghasty forest on the edge.   Supposadly, that forest was supposed to be all new development-but it never got built.  2 of our adventurers (Mitchell and Gazaway, 2 of my LT’s from the fire station) have researched this place for about 3 years, and knew where all the streets went and the stories of the area.

 It was a dark and stormy night… No, seriously.  When we met up, it was probably one of the biggest storms I have seen in TX coming down upon us.  I’m already freaked out, and this is NOT helping.  We waiting out the storm a bit before heading out, so we weren’t driving in the torrential downpour. 

                                                                                      Before                          After  

Finally, we headed out.  The night was orange just before going black.  The reflection of the sun in the low hanging clouds provided a false sense of daylight as we watched the lightening streak across the sky a few miles south of us.  An ominous air hung in the night as the lightening show continued the entire hour we drove down.  Big streaks shot across the sky and down to the ground; a crooked finger wagging disapproval at our journey and cautioning us perhaps?  Perhaps…

 We reach Crosby and find the neighborhood.  Immediately upon entry of the streets I felt different.  I could feel that something was just…off.  We found the two original houses that found the bodies in the back yard and parked close by.  As people still live in the houses, we wanted to be very respectful to them as we were sure they were tired of the ghost-hunters coming and bothering them.  Awesome, there the forest about 100 feet from the car.  Even more awesome, everyone wants to get OUT of the car and go see it.  Great, ok, yeah.  I’m already peeing myself.  But we go.  I have two flashlights and my legs are ready to flee as we walk towards this densely wooded area. 

As we walk up, my chest tightens.  And I mean like as tight as when I would have a panic attack tight.  I tell myself that I am just really anxious about this and try to calm down, but as we walk further, the heaviness persists.  After standing on the outside of the forest for a bit, Mitchell and I venture in with the rest of the group.  It’s like right out of a scary movie, holy crap.  It’s dense all around, with some random clearings thrown in and the feeling is incredible.  It’s like your in a mental mist-you can feel the heaviness in the air, you breathe it in and the air is cooler in your lungs.  Cracks and creaks in the trees and underbrush alert you via the prickles in your skin that you are certainly not alone. 

I started just shooting pictures with my camera.  Standing next to Mitchell I would mostly just aim and shoot-I could barely look up.  I kept feeling something tap on my head-it could have very well be rain drops, but I could never feel a wet spot.  Here is what I got:

Now, the things that are out of place in this picture are the those little white orbs that you see.  Ghost enthusiasts maintain that the most common thing you will get when there is paranormal presence are those orbs.  Now, I understand that skepticism may surround your full on belief that those orbs are little ghosties.  I know, it could be dust, or air particles, or whatever.  Here is another picture, taken all in the succession of my 30 second rapid-fire session when I could look up where there are NO orbs:

It’s the same area as the second picture above.  I didn’t move and it was taken directly after that picture.

Here is the next in the que:

As soon as I reviewed that on my screen I was done.  I exited the forest.  The fact that I felt like they were right by me was a liiiiiitle too much for me.  I stood outside the forest and waiting for the others.  Whipping my head around every second at every sound I heard or feeling I got.  I did a couple of ninja kicks for good measure.

We decided to venture to the other side of the neighbor hood and started to walk back to the car.  Just as an afterthought, I snapped one last picture towards the woods we just left:

In spite of myself, I gasped.  I’m sorry, that is NO DUST PARTICLE.  There is NO way my little point-and-shoot could capture that if it was since my flash is good for only 5-6 feet away and that’s for large objects-like that Do Not Enter barricade (oh, whoops).  We thanked the spirits for coming out and in peace, and we got in the car.

 Mitchell wanted to take us to an area that he had been before.  He told us the story that the last time he was here, his wife was driving, and the four people in the car saw a black mass dart in front of the car.  She swerved and ended up in someone’s lawn.  It’s just as short hop over a main street to the other side, and as we drove entered the street, I felt the most incredible sense of sadness that I have ever felt in my life.  I felt utter despair fill up my chest and my eyes instantly teared.  I have never felt sadness like this, not like the usual dull ache when you might feel low or have a bad day, but the pure feeling of being completely hopeless and distraught.  I didn’t tell anyone else in the car about it, but it dissipated pretty quickly. 

We didn’t see anything run across the road and continued on to other streets that surrounded the forest.  We were trying to get to a road that entered into it, but the community had blocked them off (I totally faked being upset at that.  Aww…we can’t go into the horror movie forest?!  Bummer!  I’ll go back to hiding my face on the floor.)  We did stop at a little field that had some good activity. 

Hold on, watch this.

No orbs…

Orbs!

No Orbs…

Orbs!

We found a church that seemed to have no one there and butted up right against that creepy forest.  We drove back and right up to the wooded area.  This time, I did NOT get out of the car.  I couldn’t. I felt so much around me just sitting in the seat that there was no way I could even fathom of being out there.  As I sat there and snapped pictures from my Jeep fortress, I kept watching the three others out in front of the car.  Once, I saw a pair of legs standing next to the guy on the end.  Just the legs, nothing else.  Another time, I was looking at something that Mitchell had on the laptop screen ( he was sitting in the front passenger seat and I was leaning through the middle), and the illuminated shadow of someone walking in front of the drivers side head light caught my eye. I thought it was one of our people and turned to say something, but there was no one there.  I vividly remember the motion of someone walking and the shape of a person.  It was undeniable to me.

Here’s what I saw in the woods outside my window:

I’m sorry, DUST DOESN’T DO THAT!  Do you seem the different depths of the orbs?  The brightness?  The colors?  Ah!  Ah ah ah.    

Finally, we felt like our time in Crosby was sufficient.  Two people tried to go into the forest and walk to an old plantation house that apparently was still standing (there was no way I would even entertain that thought-they couldn’t pry me out of the car for that), but it was so dense and thick that it wasn’t a possibility.  We weren’t happy at the thought of trying to replace Gazaway’s shifts after he’d been eaten by spirits.  He did get an amazing picture though from the little ways he was able to venture in.  He got what looked like bright white smoke in a hazy pattern, but no one was smoking.  And of course, the next shot, nothing was there.  I saw the picture, it was crazy.  There was no doubt in my mind before, but especially then. 

 We decided to end our adventure with two bridges that are actually about 10 mins from my apartment.  It’s supposedly an area where civil war soldiers marched through, and if you sit on the bridge for a bit and are very quiet, you can hear tapping on the ground. 

We didn’t hear any tapping on the bridge, but sure as heck heard it just off of the bridge.

Again, I didn’t get out.  I physically couldn’t make myself leave the car.  I am not sure if I let my mind trick myself into things, but I could feel pressure around me.  It’s like when I walk outside of my office building in the summer and it’s humid.  After being in the AC and then walking into the wet air, you feel the moisture.  That’s what it felt like-but just not wet.  The air around me was dense.  And the temperature would vary.  I would feel a chill, then normal.  Then another little chilly breeze, then normal. 

We didn’t stay for very long on the bridge, as by that time it was almost 2am.  We headed home, our little ghost brains tuckered out.

Uh yeah.  Most awesome thing I have done, yet I am very disappointed by my lack of bravado.  Maybe, maybe, I will attempt it again. Maybe.  Probably not.  Ok I might.  No, I can’t.  We’ll see. No one ask me please.