The Haunting

            Time was going by as the church sat vacant, the once loud bell which signaled time for service was now quiet as it hung in its special place in the tower.

            It had been almost five years when in the middle of the night, the church bell rang.  The neighbors all got out of their beds to go see what was going on.

            The church was dark and sat silently and yet it had been the distinct sound of its bell just a few moments ago.

            Lights coming down the street were of the local police who thought vandals had broken into the old building and were ringing the bell.

            As the policeman got out of his car and shone his flashlight around, he could see no evidence of a break in and slowly made his way to the main doors.  Checking them, he found them locked. 

            He walked around to the side of the building looking for broken windows or perhaps the side door had been broken into, but there was nothing.

            As he returned to his police car, one neighbor asked, “What did you find?  Did someone break in?”

            “No, it must have been the wind or something.”        It was a mystery as the townspeople talked about the bell ringing in the middle of the night.

           

            It had been a week when again the bell began to ring in the middle of the night and again the police checked the building but could find no evidence of someone breaking in.

            Being late at night, they decided to wait until the morning and get a key from one of the deacons so they could enter the building to find out if someone was coming in from some other source.

            The police chief and the deacon met at the church the next morning and went inside.  They could see that the dust covered floor and pews had not been bothered and the cobwebs hung everywhere intact.

            They went to the back of the church where the rope to the bell was tied off and could find nothing that would give them a clue as to how the bell could ring by itself or that someone had been there to ring it.

            There soon was a pattern, every week the bell would ring just once in the middle of the night.  It became so common place that people quit getting up to look out to see what it was and the police quit driving by to check on the place.        

            There were all kinds of theories as to why the bell would ring, was it the wind or perhaps the bats which had taken up residence in the tower or mice climbing the rope that led to it.  It remained a mystery.

           

            For six months the bell had rang once a week.  Then one evening when a neighbor had come home late, he thought he saw a light from inside the church.  It was only momentarily but he called the police to come out to check it.

            Nothing was found and the officer told him, “It must have been a reflection.”

            But as time went on, more people complained of seeing a light inside the church and the bell began to ring more.  Sometimes it would ring two or three times a week.

            Word began to spread through the small town about the unusual goings on at the empty church.  No one wanted to believe it was haunted as some had suggested.  Houses might be haunted but not a church, they claimed.

                       

            The bell had been removed from the tower spire and the wooden slats were nailed down to keep out unwanted birds and even the bats.

            For a while, there were no complaints about the empty church.  The bell was silent now and with the windows boarded, no one could see inside.

            But then one Halloween, pranksters decided the empty church would be the ideal site for some pranks.  They ripped off the boards on two of the stained glass windows and one young man picked up a rock and threw it at the glass breaking it.

            As the four young man stood there laughing at what they had done, one of them froze.  “Look!”

            They all looked at the broken window and began to run as fast as they could away from the church.  The mist hovered near the broken glass moving in and out while the boys scattered, scared out of their wits.

            Later as they sat on a curb, the one who had broken the window, “Tell me that wasn’t a ghost.”

            One of the others laughed, “No stupid, there are no such things as ghosts.  I think someone was inside though and I just hope they didn’t recognize any of us.”

            They all agreed that it had to be that.  But as they parted to go to their homes, they each remembered the vision they had seen and secretly didn’t think it was human.

            The church deacon discovered the removed boards and broken window and with help boarded the window up again.  “Darn kids.  I don’t know why they have to cause so much mischief and trouble.”

           

            It had been a year since the four young men had gone to the empty church on Halloween.  They hadn’t gone back as they didn’t want to admit they might have seen ghosts.

            But the old church had been empty for too many years and was showing signs of neglect as well as the weather.  The slats in the spire were broken and missing allowing the bats to use it as their resting place along with other birds.  The window casings were paint bare and deteriorating and no one seemed to care.

            Even the front doors were beginning to sag and one was rotting away at one of the hinges.  The windows were nailed securely now but even then the rotting wood underneath allowed them to be loose and easily could be pried off.

            The neighborhood children all laughed at the haunted church as they would pass by but no one would linger in front of it or want to go by it at night.

            There were still reports of strange noises coming from the church and through the cracks in the shuttered up windows, light could be seen and some said it appeared to be the flickering of candlelight.

            Even the police and the deacons didn’t go inside any more.  The old church was disintegrating and no one seemed to care.

            But on this Halloween night, there was a new curiosity by another group of young men who had heard the stories but didn’t believe in ghosts.

            There were three of them who stood outside the old church looking up.  They’d seen the bats fly out right after dusk and knew they would be gone if they could get inside.

            The hooting of an old hoot owl gave them a start but laughing at the old owl, they proceeded to walk up the steps to the front doors.

            With the rotting wood, one door moved slightly, enough that the lock was dislodged and the three could open it enough so that they could walk inside.

            Armed with their flashlights, they shone them around the sanctuary and remarked about the cobwebs being so thick they were like a wall. 

            One young man rubbed his hand along the back side of the pew and said, “I think someone forgot to dust.  I don’t think this place is haunted.  I think someone is just saying that to keep people away.”

            He hadn’t any more than said it when he felt something brush by him.  He wiped at his shoulder, “Did you feel that?”

            “Feel what?” the other two asked.

            “I don’t know.  It felt like someone brushed by me.”

            They started laughing, “Maybe it was the ghost,” one of them told him.

            “I’m not kidding.  It felt like someone brushed by me.”

            Then suddenly the three boys were surrounded by misty images and just as they had appeared, candles were lit and seemed to be floating with the images as they surrounded the boys.

            Huddling together, they began to look for an escape route.  One said, “Let’s just run for it.”

            But as they took a step, the figures closed in tighter around them with the flickering candles inches away from them.

            They seemed to float in mid air and one of the boys said, “This is a trick.  This can’t be real.”  He took a step forward towards the door when a large mist appeared before him.

            He stepped back, “I think it is trying to tell us something.”  He didn’t mean to be funny or joke but at the same time he didn’t want to show fear.

            The mist seemed to become one large mist as it surrounded the young men and the candles floated around in a circle.

            The boys still huddled together decided to try to break through and make a run for it.  As one began the countdown, they started running, right through the mist in front of them, barely missing the candles.

            They made no hesitation as they shoved against the door causing it to lean from the hinge that had given way.  They continued to run until they felt they were safe back on the Main Street with stores and plenty of light.

            It was late and most people had gone home.  The trick or treaters were finished for the night and the only ones out roaming around were the ones like these boys, young people looking for adventure or maybe trouble.

            They saw some of their friends and went to tell them what had happened.  As the group listened, they all began to talk and thought it would be fun to go back and scare the ghosts.

            As the three young men joined with five of their other friends, boys and girls this time, they all went back to the church.

            The door that had been ajar was tightly closed as they approached and the three young men looked at one another.  One said, “Someone must have seen it and closed it.”

            They went up and it was unlocked so they opened it causing it to slip from the hinge and be crooked.  But it was enough that everyone could get inside.

            They moved as a group towards the altar keeping a vigilant eye out for the so called ghosts.  As they got near, the candles appeared in front of a large misty cloud.

            The girls screamed and started to run away but then screamed again as they saw their exit was blocked with another misty cloud and candles.

            The young people huddled between the two clouds.  As the flashlight were shone on them, they could see through them and soon it seemed there were more mists and even more candles. 

            The noises began; a chanting like sound with a low murmur.

            The young girls screamed for help while the boys were trying to figure out how best to avoid the mist

            The chanting was getting louder as the mist seemed to be inching its way closer to the young people.  As the boys joined in with the girls in screaming and yelling for help, the mist was closing in almost touching them.

            They could smell the wax burning from the candles and a musty smell emitting from the mist.  They had no way out.  The mist was larger and was overtaking them.

            During the night as the police officer made his rounds, he noticed the door ajar on the church.  Taking his flashlight, he walked up to it and peered inside.  He saw a figure lying on the floor and his first thought was to go to them but then he thought someone might still be inside.  He went out to his car and called for help.

            Soon, the police chief, who had been awakened from his sleep along with another officer, arrived.  The three men went inside and discovered the 8 young people lying on the floor.  Feeling for a pulse, they could find none.  They looked at their faces and could see the horror on them.

            Calling for help, the young people were removed and the chief ordered that the church be secured by any means and that someone would stand guard so that no one could go inside.

            The story soon spread around the town about the 8 young people who had been found in the old sanctuary and it was unexplained what had happened to them.

            They were taken to the local hospital, where they began to revive, each one telling the same story about how they had been overcome by a mist and were in a deep sleep.

            It was a miracle that they had survived and after being checked over, the doctors found no evidence of any lingering effects.  They were released to go home.

            Later when the eight young people gathered, they each related to one another how they had felt.  They said it was a peace, but one that brought a deep sleep to them.  They each said they had felt a presence but didn’t know what it was until one of the young men said, “It was the keepers of the church.  I heard them talking.  They said they hoped no one would disturb the church again.”

             “I didn’t hear anything,” said one, another said, “Neither did I.”  One told him, “You are just making that up.”

            “No, I really heard them.  They didn’t hurt us, they just wanted to scare us and then let us know why they didn’t want us there.   They hoped the people would come back and make the church active again.”

            The story was told over and over but the deacons and remaining members of the church had met and made a decision.  The church would not be opened again.  With all the stories of it being haunted, no one wanted to come to it.

            They decided to tear the building down.  With the neglect from sitting empty all those years and the cost of restoring it, the old church was finished.

            The wrecking crew came in to start knocking down the brick walls.

            Some say as the walls crumbled, there were waifs of mist that flew from the remains up over the church site and lingered before disappearing into thin air.

            Others claim it was only the dust that had been disturbed, but for eight of the town’s young people, they knew it was the keepers of the church.

            The site was cleared but no one would buy the lot where the church had stood and to this day it remains vacant.

            Only on Halloween if you walk by or are near enough to see, there are several misty clouds floating over the ground and occasionally some have said they’ve seen the flicker of candlelight in the mist.

Barbara Foster

Copyright (c) 2013 revised

Winner of the Eufaula Memorial Library Scary Story October 2013