Batesville, MS
There are two things that you need to know about me….The first is that I love the mystery of the paranormal. I love watching ghost hunting shows, going on ghost tours and reading pretty much anything I can get hold of about the paranormal. The second thing is when I’m actually confronted with the paranormal, that love dissolves and all that is left behind is fear. I admit it, I’m a coward, just like Scooby Doo!
That being said, I was totally psyched to meet Jadewik and Scarygirl! I had already met Skatha back in 2009 during a ghost hunting seminar weekend in a little town in North Florida. We all hit it off even better than I had imagined. I’ve met enough of my internet buddies to know that not everyone clicks, but we really lucked out. We also lucked out with the absolutely gorgeous plantation home that Skatha found for us in Batesville.
Batesville….here’s a funny little sidenote. Every day on my way to work I pass the T. M. Ralph Funeral Home and on a regular basis I see the delivery truck from the Batesville Casket Company out in front of their building. When Skatha told me where we’d be staying, I didn’t make the connection. It was weird to be so far from home and see so many of those delivery trucks putting around town. But that’s neither here nor there!
Batesville Casket Co.
The afternoon and evening with the girls was a hoot and a holler! By the time we turned in for the night, my sides were actually hurting from the laughing and my cheeks were sore from smiling. I was incredibly tired…whenever I fly it totally drains me, but I also have a thing about staying in a strange room alone. So, basically my strategy when I’m confronted with such a situation is to stay up playing on my iTouch and updating my Facebook until I literally cannot hold my eyes open any longer.
It was very late and I was lamentably not sleeping when I heard the footsteps. At first I didn’t pay them much mind, because we had been throwing back the lemonades and ice teas with abandon earlier in the evening. Surely someone had to run to the little girl’s room. I know I had done so not too long before. But after a while I noticed the footsteps again and again, as if someone was feeling restless and couldn’t sleep. I even peeked my head out once when I heard the steps coming around again, but I didn’t see anyone. I was confused….okay, let me be straight, it was at that time that I started getting a little freaked out. Like I said, I didn’t like being alone in the room in the first place. Add strange noises outside my door on top of it and you have one scared ScoobyFan! I really wanted to sprint down the hall to Jadewik’s or Scarygirl’s room (I didn’t have the guts to go all the way downstairs!), but I also didn’t want to seem like a nervous Nelly and end up waking my housemates. That and the fear of what I might encounter in the hallway kept me in my room.
Not too long after I peeked my head out of my door, I heard another set of footsteps, but these were firmer and, if this makes sense, more “real”. It’s like I thought the other sounds sounded like footsteps, but when I heard the second set, I knew they were footsteps. I listened while these new sounds walked all around the top floor and I even heard the door to the second floor porch open and the footsteps passed by my bedroom window. I was beside myself by that time. I turned on every light in my room and just sat there, quaking. The footsteps came back inside and walked quite purposefully right up to my door and I almost died when I heard knocking. I forced myself to take a deep breath and calm down. I was hoping that it was one of the other girls and sure enough, there was Skatha standing outside. I was so relieved, I almost wilted.
Happily (at least for me) she didn’t want to go back to her room all alone. I felt much better with her there with me. When we heard that loud thud…it was more like a slam really, I was able to take it with much more courage than I would have if I were alone. Alone, quite frankly, I might have peed myself!
Courage or not, we were still kind of frozen in place for a moment or two and in the silence following the slam, we heard the sound of running feet and a door swing open. We burst out into the hall just in time to see something black brush by a shocked Scarygirl, who promptly let out a yell. All three of us watched while the black thing seemed to rush towards Jadewik’s closed door. Then, abruptly, the form wasn’t there. It didn’t dissolve, it just wasn’t there. It gave me pause…making me wonder if perhaps I had imagined the black thing.
“Did you see that?” I asked inanely, but Skatha was already hurrying with Scarygirl to check on Jadewik. We were all wondering why she hadn’t stirred from her room during the ruckus!
The Witching Hour 