Jack

I am a stay at home mother of three boys. We haved lived in our current home since 1990. I noticed strange things happening when my boys were quite little.

The very 1st thing I remember happening is things were turning up missing. I had an antique egg carton I kept on top of my cupboards along with other antique goodies. This had been up there for a few years and my hubby always razzed me about buying it. Now I was so used to it being up above I rarely really "looked" at it.

Then one day I had the strangest feeling to go into the kitchen and look at it. It was if I "had" to go and look. Almost like something was telling me to go check it. When I walked into the kitchen I fully expected it to be there......it wasn't! I was shocked to see it gone. I called my husband and work and asked him if he moved it or hid it as a joke. He swore up and down that he didn't. He figure I accidentally threw it out. Now, this was something I NEVER took down. Although this inc ident bothered me a little I just kind of blew it off.

Now the next incidint involved my tape. I was busily running around getting ready for my nieces birthday party. I went to wrap the gifts and the tape I had laid out on the table had vanished......I had put it along with wrapping paper on the table and turned around to open a juice box for my son and when I turned back(it was a matter of seconds) it had VANISHED. Now my hubby was here and we hunted high and low for this tape...we couldn't find it so we grabbed the babies bottles and loaded the boys up and stopped on the way to the party to buy tape and wrap her goodies in the car.

SO hours later we come back home and I go the fridge to get another bottle for the baby and I froze. There propped up against the baby bottles was the tape. It was as if someone propped them up there.....almost as saying "haha....here's your tape". The hair on my arms stood straight up. Now I know that was not there when we left as I had grabbed a bottle to take with us.....I would have seen this as I had a special section where I kept all the bottles in the fridge! MY husband of course, claimed I was overtired/stressed and I accidentally put the tape in there......(I know that this was not true).

Ok, a year or so goes by. I am getting the boys around for school. My oldest son, was in 2nd grade when this happened....he was my witness. We were hurriedly running out the door....my two other boys were waiting for us in the car. We ran out the door only to realize(before I even shut the door) that he'd forgotten his lunch box..I of course, opened the door and we walked through the door and STOPPED!

All 6 chairs that normally are around the kitchen table were stacked on the table. Only seconds before they were around the table....I was too stunned to say anything. Now my son asked" Mom how did the chairs get up there like that?".....I didn't know what to say but I didn't want to scare him so I lied and said I was going to mop the floor so I put them up there.....he looked confused as he knew they weren't like that a few seconds ago.....so I grabbed his lunch and we bolted! Again my hubby felt I was overworked with three small children and all. I know this was NOT the case.

Anyhow, for awhile things were quiet and then my youngest son started hearing/seeing things (he was 4 at this time). As we were sitting on the couch one morning he claimed that grandpa had come to see him him. I asked what he meant as his "poppy" lived two hours away and his granpa d. wasn't around the night before either. He said no, my other grandpa.(My husbands father had been dead for 4 years) his step father is who my son knew as his Grandpa d.....none of my boys even met my husbands father as he wasn't a part of my husbands life....he lived in another state when he was alive. We had no pictures of him either as he wasn't a part of my husbands life at all.

Now he did know my father,"poppy" as he called him. And he was very insistant that it was not either of them. He told me that he woke up to someone saying Jack come here. He said he went downstairs into the kitchen. At this point I asked him if he was at all afraid. He said no. He said the man said Jack I am your grandpa and I just wanted to say hi. My son said at 1st he thought it was dad because he looked so much like daddy. I didn't know what to say. My mom in law had a picture of my hubbys father and my husband does really resemble him. Also we do have his ashes here in our home. Maybe this has something to do with the activity???

Girl in my Basement

This story is true.

Strange things have been happening in my house whenever I was left home alone. It started about a year ago, the lights would turn on and off mysteriously, the doors would shut and open by themselves, and screaming and weeping would be heard form the basement.

One Friday night my friend Adriana spent the night. My parents went out to this restaurnat about twenty minutes away. They said they wouldn't be home til' late, so behave. After they left we watched halloween 2 and then were telling scary stories in my room. It was bout eleven thirty and we started hearing scary noises. We just ignored them thinking it was just my cats. My friend got thirsty, so we went down stairs.

While we were getting water we heard footsteps coming up from the basement stairs. I kinda got scared so I went to make sure that the basement door was locked. My friend went around the whole house to make sure the other doors were secured.

We were going up to bed when we heard a little girl scream. Thats when we decided to go downstairs to see what was happening. My friend and me were nervous. So she pushed me down the staris first. Now my basement is finished and we were looking around and we saw nothing. After looking around we thought it was just our imagination. So we went back upstairs.

We forgot to shut and lock the basement door so we went back, and before we shut it we noticed this little girl walking up the stairs. Now this girl was very scary and hideous. She had long curly brown hair and a pink ribbon. She looked innocent until you saw the blood running down from her eyes. We tried to scream, but nuttin came out. We shut the door and locked it and we ran up to my room. We hid under my bed until I heard my house door unlock. It was my parents we ran down and hugged them. We couldn't tell them what happened because they would never believe us. So, we let it go. We tried to got o bed but we just kept pictuirng the liitle girl.

So, it was bout three in the morning and my friend said she was going to use the bathroom. So, she went in and she came back terrified, screaming Omg you have to come to the bathroom with me. So, I got up and when you opened the door a cold breeze went down ur back and when you looked in the tub you saw the liitle girl bathing in blood. she said," Stay away from me and my family or you'll regret it. We turned around not even for 5 seconds and she was gone.

The next day we were on my computer and we googled my house it said that a little girl named Elizabeth lived here with her parents. And it said she was found dead in her room and the murderer was never found, and that the parents died of depression.

Boy Of Chlorine

I had just moved in my new house, it was buried by dirt though because of an accident. A little boy had been sitting along side the pool waiting for his swimming lessons when he had fallen in and since he couldn't swim...he drowned.

Every night i can smell a very stong scent of chlorine, and when i look out my window i can see a figure outlined in a light green, and when the figure comes closer to my window the scent is stronger than ever.

Most nights when my parents are sleeping I sneek outside to see the figure and everytime i do it says '' i was too young to die, why didnt you come back for me?'' . I would always be confused when it said that, then it would disappear and return the next night.

It was a really hot sunny afternoon and i was home alone. since we had just moved in i had every window open to air out the place. I was just wiping off the table when the I could start to smell chlorine, I knew it was coming. I ran out to where the pool had been buried in and i tried to dig, dig to the bottom but everytime i did something would tell me to stop, and it was no use trying.

The sun had setted and it was dark outside, I sat in my room waiting for it. I looked out my window and to my suprise it was standing over the buried pool, then the figure looked at me and moved its fingers in a motion telling me to come to it. So i did just that. I came out the front door and boy of chlorine said '' I need your help, i died because of you. You left me here to drown when you knew i couldnt swim, i fell in and sunk to the bottom.''. I started to say something but the figure walked right down in the dirt into the buried pool, just vanishing like every other time.

It's been 3 months since this and I still get visits from him but not as often, I tried to help but i still can't figure it out. It turns out i look very similar to the boy who used to live in my house and i guess the ghost got us confused.

The Screaming Tunnel
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

There is a tunnel under the old railroad tracks just to the west of the Queen Elizabeth Way in Niagara Falls. It is known locally as the Screaming Tunnel. A path wanders through the tunnel and then up to an empty field on the hill. But the field was not always empty.

At one time, a large farm house stood in the field at the top of the hill, and in it lived a happy family. Then one night, the house caught fire. A young daughter was trapped in the house, and the only way to escape was through a wall of flames. The brave young girl covered her face with her arms and ran into the fiery doorway. Her long hair and her long nightgown began to smolder as she burst through the flames and rushed out of the house.

When the night air struck her smoldering clothing, it burst into flames, enveloping the girl in a raging inferno. The girl screamed in agony and ran blindly down the hill, away from the fire-stricken house. She staggered into the tunnel under the train tracks, her screams echoing and re-echoing through the night. Overcome by the flames, the girl fell to the floor of the tunnel, wailing in agony. She rolled frantically on the floor of the tunnel, trying to douse the flames, but her efforts were weak and ineffective. She was quickly overcome, and burned to death in the tunnel under the tracks.

After that night, anyone that dares strike a match in the tunnel under the tracks will hear the agonized death screams of the burning girl, and a ghostly wind will instantly blow out the match.

Screaming Jenny
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

The old storage sheds along the tracks were abandoned shortly after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was built, and it wasn't long before the poor folk of the area moved in. The sheds provided shelter - of a sort - although the winter wind still pierced through every crevice, and the small fireplaces that the poor constructed did little to keep the cold at bay.

A gentle, kindly woman named Jenny lived alone in one of the smaller sheds. She had fallen on hard times, and with no family to protect her, she was forced to find work where she could and take whatever shelter was available to someone with little money. Jenny never had enough to eat and in winter her tiny fire barely kept her alive during the cold months. Still, she kept her spirits up and tried to help other folks when they took sick or needed food, sometimes going without herself so that another could eat.

One cold evening in late autumn, Jenny sat shivering over her fire, drinking broth out of a wooden bowl, when a spark flew from the fire and lit her skirts on fire. Intent on filling her aching stomach, Jenny did not notice her flaming clothes until the fire had burnt through the heavy wool of her skirt and began to scorch her skin. Leaping up in terror, Jenny threw her broth over the licking flames but the fluid did nothing to douse the fire. In terror, Jenny fled from the shack and ran along the tracks, screaming for help as the flames engulfed her body.

The station was not far away, and instinctively Jenny made for it, hoping to find someone to aid her. Within moments, her body was a glowing inferno and Jenny was overwhelmed by pain. Her screams grew more horrible as her steps slowed. She staggered blindly onto the tracks just west of the station, a ball of fire that barely looked human. In her agony, she did not see the glowing headlight of the train rounding the curve, or hear the screech of the breaks as the engineer spotted her fire-eaten figure and tried to stop. A moment later, her terrible screams broke off as the train mowed her down.

Alerted by the whistle, the crew from the station came running as the engineer halted the train and ran back down the tracks toward poor dead Jenny, who was still burning. The men doused the fire and carried her body back to the station. She was given a pauper's funeral and buried in an unmarked grave in the local churchyard. Within a few days, another poverty-stricken family had moved into her shack, and Jenny was forgotten.

Forgotten that is, until a month later when a train rounding the bend west of the station was confronted by a screaming ball of fire. Too late to stop, the engineer plowed over the glowing figure before he could bring the train to a screeching halt. Leaping from the engine, he ran back down the tracks to search for a mangled, burning body, but there was nothing there. Shaken, he brought his train into the station and reported the incident to the stationmaster. After hearing his tale, the stationmaster remembered poor, dead Jenny and realized that her ghost had returned to haunt the tracks where she had died.

To this day, the phantom of Screaming Jenny still appears on the tracks on the anniversary of the day she died. Many an engineer has rounded the curve just west of the station and found himself face to face with the burning ghost of Screaming Jenny, as once more she makes her deadly run towards the Harpers Ferry station, seeking in vain for someone to save her.

this story is based on a true story.

Ogopogo, the Lake Monster
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

His mind was full of dark thoughts and the demons spoke to him. His wild eyes and words frightened his people, and he became an outcast, shunned by all. One day in a fury of rage and pain, he attacked old Kan-He-Kan, a local wise man. The demon-possessed man killed the venerable sage on the shores of a beautiful lake near his home, and then ran away, afraid of what the people would do to him when they found out.

But the gods had seen the murder and were angry. They captured the demon-possessed man and transformed him into a terrible serpent as a punishment for the murder of the good Kan-He-Kan. Then the serpent was cast into the lake, condemned forever to remain at the scene of his crime. The people living near the lake called the serpent "N'ha-A-Itk" or Lake Demon. They would offer sacrifices to it before traveling upon its waters. But the offerings did not always appease the monster. Many times, a fierce storm would fall upon the lake and N'ha-a-itk would rise from the roiling waters to claim a life. Once a man who was watering his horse at the lake saw the monster rise up from the depths and pull the poor animal under. And so the curse of N;ha-a-itk continued to plague the residents of the lake.

Then the white man came, and they scorned the tale of the Lake Demon. They began taking timber from the land nearby, and floating the logs down to Lake Okanagan. One evening, as a local man worked on the raft of newly-sawn logs, he chanced to look up and saw a long serpent with a horse shaped head and a green, undulating body. It raised its head out of the water and stared deeply into the man's eyes. The man started shaking from head to toe and scrambled backwards toward shore. The demonic eyes of the giant creature gleamed with malevolence, and he scrambled up the bank and ran for his life.

Not long after, a resident set off in a canoe with his horses roped behind, leading them across the lake. Suddenly, the horses began screaming and thrashing in the water, and then disappeared underneath the waves. The canoe tipped backwards, and the man desperately pulled his knife and cut the ropes just in time to save himself from being dragged into the murky depths. The horses were never seen again.

Thus was N'ha-A-Itk first encountered by the white man at Lake Okanagan. The monster was seen many times through the years. Often, it appeared like a long tree trunk or a floating log, but it would move against the current. Swimmers vanished, boats were attacked, and sometimes the monster would rise up from the waters and grab birds from mid-air.

In 1942, the monster came the monster was rechristened "Ogopogo" after a line in an old song. It has been seen many times, and continues to haunt the waters of Lake Okanagan to this day

Sasquatch
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

I got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Larry's place to pick him up. We were going hiking along our favorite trail in the back of beyond. It was a sunny day, but not too hot; a perfect day for hiking. Larry and I walked along the rugged path leading into the woods, chatting off and on as the mood struck us.

The path narrowed a bit as we neared the creek. I surged out in front, listening with enjoyment to the sound of the water flowing in the creek and the chirping of the birds overhead. A strange, rotten smell drifted through the air. I wrinkled my nose as I rounded the bend and then stopped dead in my tracks. Standing beside the water of the creek was a huge, ape-like figure with a hairy body, long arms, and a flat brown face. Its eyes were round and dark, its ears were small and its nose was flat.

I gasped aloud. Then Larry cannoned into me from behind, nearly knocking me over. The creature fled into the woods.

"Hey, watch it!" Larry said. "Why'd you stop like that?"

"A Sa..Sasquatch," I gasped.

"What?" Larry asked.

"I just saw a Sasquatch," I said as soon as I regained my breath.

Larry was skeptical about my sighting - to say the least -- so I walked over to the place where the Sasquatch had been standing and pointed at the ground. A set of sixteen inch foot prints led off towards the trees. The strides were a good four-foot in length, and the footprints were deep enough to be those of a creature weighing several hundred pounds.

Larry crouched beside the footprints, studying them intently. I kept my eye on the woods where the Sasquatch had disappeared. Sometimes they lingered in an area, watching humans with as much interest as we watched them. Then he jumped up and followed the footprints into the woods. I stared after him in amazement. Only an utter fool would follow such a large creature right into his home territory. I trailed after him slowly, ready to run if there was any sign of trouble. As I did, I caught another whiff of rotten garbage.

"The ground is too hard here for any clear prints," Larry called back to me. "It looks like it went into these bushes." He parted the bushes and came face to face with the Sasquatch.

Larry gave a strangled yell, which was echoed by an equally startled howl of surprise from the Sasquatch. Larry took off like a rocket, heading back towards the car. The Sasquatch ran away in the opposite direction.

I stood stock still, staring bemusedly first at the fleeing Sasquatch, and then at my fleeing friend. At his present rate of speed, I estimated that Larry would make it back to the car in under an hour. I looked again at the Sasquatch. It leapt over the creek in a single bound and disappeared into the trees. The smell of rotten garbage faded away.

I shrugged my shoulders philosophically and started back down the trail towards the car, pondering my very first Sasquatch sighting. As I neared the car, I saw Larry sitting in front, drinking his way steadily through a six-pack. I grinned to myself. The next time I told Larry that I had seen a Sasquatch, he wouldn't be so skeptical. Then again, knowing Larry, I was not so sure. I chuckled at the memory of Larry and the Sasquatch fleeing from one another and got into the car to drive my shaken friend home

The Jersey Devil

The legendary Jersey Devil is a dragon-like creature, with a head like a horse, a snake-like body and bat's wings. The Jersey Devil is rumored to inhabit the Pine Barrens in southern New Jersey, and has been known to cause chaos and panic whenever it rears its unattractive head; though there are some who consider its appearance as the herald of good luck. The Jersey Devil was rumored to be the unlucky 13th child of Mother Leeds, who cursed her ill-fated son prior to his birth, consigning him to the devil. Apparently, her curse worked, because the Jersey Devil is said to haunt southern New Jersey and parts of eastern Pennsylvania from that day to this!

Dancing with the Devil
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

The girl hurried through her schoolwork as fast as she could. It was the night of the high school dance, along about 70 years ago in the town of Kingsville, Texas. The girl was so excited about the dance. She had bought a brand new, sparkly red dress for the dance. She knew she looked smashing in it. It was gone to be the best evening of her life.

Then her mother came in the house, looking pale and determined.

"You are not going to that dance," her mother said.

"But why?" the girl asked her mother.

"I've just been talking to the preacher. He says the dance is going to be for the devil. You are absolutely forbidden to go," her mother said.

The girl nodded as if she accepted her mother's words. But she was determined to go to the dance. As soon as her mother was busy, she put on her brand new red dress and ran down to the K.C. Hall where the dance was being held.

As soon as she walked into the room, all the guys turned to look at her. She was startled by all the attention. Normally, no one noticed her. Her mother sometimes accused her of being too awkward to get a boyfriend. But she was not awkward that night. The boys in her class were fighting with each other to dance with her.

Later, she broke away from the crowd and went to the table to get some punch to drink. She heard a sudden hush. The music stopped. When she turned, she saw a handsome man with jet black hair and clothes standing next to her.

"Dance with me," he said.

She managed to stammer a "yes", completely stunned by this gorgeous man. He led her out on the dance floor. The music sprang up at once. She found herself dancing better than she had ever danced before. They were the center of attention.

Then the man spun her around and around. She gasped for breath, trying to step out of the spin. But he spun her faster and faster. Her feet felt hot. The floor seemed to melt under her. He spun her even faster. She was spinning so fast that a cloud of dust flew up around them both so that they were hidden from the crowd.

When the dust settled, the girl was gone. The man in black bowed once to the crowd and disappeared. The devil had come to his party and he had spun the girl all the way to hell.

Milk bottles
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

She was just another poor, bedraggled woman, struggling to feed her family. He saw them all the time, their faces careworn, and blank. The Depression had created hundreds of them. He was one of the lucky ones who still had his grocery and money coming in to feed his family.

She came one day to his shop, carrying two empty milk bottles, and wordlessly placed them on the counter in front of him. He took the empties and replaced them with full bottles, saying: "Ten cents, please."

She did not reply. She just took the bottles and left the shop. He might have gone after her to demand his money, or called the police, but he did neither. Her need was in her face, and he always felt a little guilty at being one of the lucky ones with money and a job. She was probably one of the migrant workers, he decided.

She was back the next day with two empty milk bottles. He replaced them will full bottles and watched as she hurried out the door. She looked so worried that he wondered if she had a job at all. If she came back, he would offer her a part-time position cleaning the store.

She came again the next morning, and exchanged her empty bottles for full without saying a word. He tried to talk to her, to ask if she wanted a job, but she practically ran from the store with the milk. Her urgency worried him. He followed, wondering what he could do to help.

To his surprise, she headed away from the migrant camp outside of town. She went instead to the graveyard by the river. As he watched, she hurried up to a stone marker and then disappeared into the ground. He rubbed his eyes, not believing his eyes. Then he heard the muffled cry of a baby. It was coming from the ground underneath the stone marker where the woman had disappeared!

He ran back to the store and phoned the police. Within minutes, the graveyard was swarming with people, and the workers started digging up the grave. When the casket was opened, the store owner saw the woman who had visited his store lying dead within it. In her arms, she held a small baby and two full milk bottles. The baby was still alive.

The Telltale Seaweed
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

Two sisters were motoring through Cape Cod late one stormy night in the early 1900's when their car broke down in an unpopulated area. Seeing an old, neglected house nearby, they went to the door and tugged on the bell-pull. When no one answered, they looked through a nearby window whose shutter was banging in the bitter wind. The window was broken. Through the window, they could see a library. The dust lay heavy over everything.

The women decided to take shelter for the night and find someone to tow the car the next day. They brought blankets in from the car, their feet leaving tracks in the thick dust of the floor as they settled in for the night.

Sometime later, they were both suddenly awakened. A bedraggled sailor, dripping wet, was standing next to the fireplace as if he were looking to dry himself before a non-existent fire. The sailor was glowing in the dark. The braver of the sisters finally called out a strangled: "Who is there?"

The sailor muttered something they could not make out and disappeared. Deciding it was a dream, the sisters lay back down to sleep. But the next morning, they found a patch of wet salt water by the fireplace, and a piece of seaweed. And there were no footprints in the dust by the fireplace save their own.

The sisters hurried out to their car. Soon, they were given a tow to the nearest village by a passing motorist. There they asked about the abandoned house. They were told the house had been empty for years. The people who owned it had a son who was driven from home by his father and had drowned at sea. The family had moved away because they claimed strange things kept happening at night.

A few months later, one of the sisters told her tale at a dinner party. A museum curator seated near her volunteered to test the seaweed for her. The curator sent her a message several days later. The message simply said that the seaweed she had found in the abandoned house was a rare type of seaweed only found on dead bodies.

The Death Waltz
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

Within an hour of my arrival at Fort Union, my new post, my best friend Johnny came to the barracks with a broad grin and a friendly clout on the shoulder. He'd hurried over as soon as he heard I had come, and we talked 'til sunset and beyond.

As soon as Johnny mentioned Celia's name, I knew he had it bad for her. To hear him talk, Celia was the most amazing woman who had ever graced God's green earth. She was the sister-in-law of the captain, and all the young men on the base were infatuated with her. Celia was the prettiest of the eligible ladies that graced Fort Union society. She liked the spice of adventure to be found so near the wilds.

Johnny alternated between elation when Celia talked with him and despair when she flirted with another man. I watched their courtship from afar and was troubled. There was something about Celia that I didn't like. I never mentioned it to Johnny, but I thought she was too much of a flirt. I wished Johnny had fallen for a nicer woman.

About a month after I arrived at Fort Union, a birthday dance was given for one of the officers. To Johnny's elation, Celia agreed to be his partner at the dance. Johnny was dancing on cloud nine all night, until a messenger came gasping into the room to report an Apache raid. With a small scream of terror, Celia clung shamelessly to Johnny and begged him not to go even though he was the lieutenant put in charge of the mission. Well sir, Johnny proposed to her right then and there and Celia accepted. Furthermore, Celia told Johnny that she would wait for him, and that if he didn't come back she would never marry. I doubted Celia's sincerity, but Johnny just ate it up.

I was assigned to Johnny's troop, so I had to leave too. We started out the next morning, and had a rough week tracking down and fighting the Apaches. Johnny split up the troop; taking command of the first group and giving me command of the second. My men reached the rendezvous point with no casualties, but only half of the other group arrived, and Johnny was not among them. They'd been ambushed by the Apaches. I had to take command of the troop. We searched for survivors, but never found Johnny's body. As soon as I could, I ordered the men to turn for home.

Celia made a terrible, heart-rending scene when she found out Johnny was missing. She flung herself into my arms when I gave her the news and sobbed becomingly. The display turned my stomach, it was so obviously insincere. I excused myself hastily and left her to the ministrations of the other soldiers. From that time on, I was careful to stay away from Celia, who mourned less than a week for my friend before resuming her flirtatious ways.

About a month later, a rich handsome lieutenant arrived at Fort Union. He was from the East, and Celia took a real shine to him. Johnny was completely forgotten and so was her promise to him. It wasn't long before Celia and the lieutenant were engaged and started planning a big wedding. Nothing but the very best would suit Celia, and her bridegroom had the money to indulge her.

Everyone in Fort Union was invited to the ceremony, and the weather was perfect on the day of the wedding. Everyone turned out in their best clothes and the wedding was a social success. After the ceremony, all the guests were invited to a celebratory ball.

We were waltzing around the ballroom when the door flew open with a loud bang. A gust of cold air blew in, dimming the candles. A heart-wrenching wail echoed through the room. The music stopped abruptly and everyone turned to look at the door. Standing there was the swollen, dead body of a soldier. It was dressed in an officer's uniform. The eyes were burning with a terrible fire. The temple had a huge gash from a hatchet-blow. There was no scalp. It was Johnny.

The whole crowd stood silent, as if in a trance. No one moved, no one murmured. I wanted to cry out when I recognized Johnny, but I was struck dumb like the rest of the wedding guests.

Johnny walked across the room and took Celia out of her bridegroom's arms. She was frozen in horror and could not resist. Johnny looked at the musicians. Still in a trance, they began to play a horrible, demonic sounding waltz. Johnny and Celia began to dance. They swept around and around the room, doing an intricate waltz. Johnny held the white-clad bride tight against his dead body while a deathly pallor crept over her face. Her steps slowed but still Johnny held her tight and moved them around in a grisly parody of a waltz. Celia's eyes bulged. She turned as white as her gown and her mouth sagged open. She gave one small gasp, and died in his arms.

Johnny dropped Celia's body on the floor and stood over her, wringing his blood-stained hands. He threw back his head and gave another unearthly wail that echoed around the room. Then he vanished through the door.

Released from the trance, the crowd gasped and exclaimed. The bridegroom ran to Celia and knelt beside her, wringing his hands in the same manner as Johnny. His cries were all too human.

Unable to bear the sight of the stricken bridegroom, I took my captain aside and asked permission to take a small detail back to the place where our troop had been attacked by the Apaches to search once more for my dead friend. He sent a dozen men with me. We combed the area, and finally found Johnny's body hidden in a crevice. It looked exactly the same as it had appeared on the night of Celia's wedding.

We brought Johnny back to the fort with us and the captain buried him beside Celia. Celia's bridegroom went back East shortly after we buried Johnny, and I resigned my commission a few days later and went home, never wanting to see that cursed place again.

I heard later that Celia's ghost was often seen at dusk, weeping over Johnny's grave, but I never went back to Fort Union to see it for myself.

KALEBS HATCH

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this story is based on a true story.

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