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From: dlyka@aol.com (Dlyka)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: The Haunted Church
Date: 16 Oct 1997 23:23:54 GMT
Now that it's almost Halloween, I thought I'd pass on this true tale of Halloween from E. Tennessee. It's not terribly frightening, I suppose, but was strange enough at the time that I won't forget it....
Where I grew up there's a lot of appalacian history. A lot of people may have heard of Oak Ridge... The locals were moved out about 50 years ago and a "secret city" built to help harness the atom for the first atomic bomb in WWII. After the war Oak Ridge was "opened up" again, and since has become an interesting mix of modern technology and mountain culture.
I grew up there long after the bomb -- in the late 70's. Just outside of town there was an old, old church (probably still in use -- I'm not sure) that everyone said was haunted. One night in High School two girlfriends of mine and some boys we knew went there about his time of year... You know how it is -- for the same reason couples go to grave yards... scare the girls, hang on the guys, etc... We didn't think anything would really happen but it was fun to be nervous.
Us three girls were sitting outside near the graveyard, huddled close together "pretending" we were more scared than we really were... I remember specifically one girl sat down and something moved under us (scream!!!), and of course she had simply sat on the end of a stick that was beneath us... but we were ready to jump at anything. The guys were exploring about, and one of them decided to go inside the church. We all stayed outside trying to scare each other, etc....
Now we figured he'd come back out with some freaky story made up, and sure enough, a couple of mintues later, out he comes, but he's RUNNING, and he doesn't stop for any of us... just yells "GET TO THE CAR!" We all run for the car, giggling, knowing that he was just trying to firghten us. Everybody piles in and we pull away skidding gravel.... When he turns around to us in the back seat and there's a HUGE gash in his forehead bleeding like no tomorrow!
He told us there had been an old man in there who came after him, swinging a 2-by-4 and hit him in the head. I remember he said he knocked pews left and right trying ot get out of the man's reach. At first we all thought it might have been a caretaker, but with hindsight I doubt even at night a caretaker would "come out swinging" like that without asking questions first... It was probably a squatter. But I'll never forget being so sure that everything was a joke until I saw his face... THAT was scary enough.
Karen & Nicky
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
"If all you're going on is my confession, then forget it ... I'm simply not credible." King of the Hill