In the eighth grade my class took a trip to the historical
Civil War battle site: Gettysburg. I was only thirteen at
the time and staying in a hotel room with three girls of
the same age, and we had a group of two teachers rooming
next to us with a connecting door.
The first day that we were there, I was unpacking in my
room with my friend Julie. The two other girls, Laine and
Beth were checking out the hotel and waiting until later to
pack up their stuff. Julie and I were unpacking our hair
and teeth care items by the sink in the small bathroom when
we heard a dripping noise coming from the bathtub behind
us. When we turned around to check it out the water came
bursting out of the shower head at full blast. As soon as
it had started it stopped. We were incredibly scared at
this and when the two other girls came back we told them
about the weird happening and vowed that we wouldn't use
the bathroom unless someone else was sitting outside of the
door.
Later that day we were on a bus tour of the town and one of
the teachers from the room next door was telling a parent
about a haunting in the hotel. She said that the last year
when they stayed in the same hotel a girl from room 261 (my
room) had been brushing her hair and looking in the mirror
on the wall when she saw someone else's reflection standing
behind her. The girl said that it was an old woman with a
shawl covering her head and crying. When the girl turned
around the old woman wasn't there and she never saw the
reflection again. However, it was enough for the girl to
move out of the room, scared out of her mind. I didn't
know if this story was true, but based on the day's earlier
occurrences, I didn't doubt it too much.
That night, for fun the teachers had scheduled a ghost tour
of the city where we split up into groups and a young woman
walked us around the town, pointing out well known haunted
houses and telling us famous and personal haunt stories.
She said something that I will never forget. She said that
sometimes when a spirit was near one could smell a faint
skunky smell in the air.
Later, at around midnight, we were laying in our beds
watching TV in the room and suddenly I smelled it. The
smell of skunk was coming from the corner of the room. The
other girls began to smell it, but as soon as I said I was
scared the smell disappeared. We all decided that it was
probably just a part of our imaginations based on what we
had heard earlier in the night.
The next day we were out most of the day and didn't get
back to the hotel until late at night, when we collapsed on
our beds and fell asleep in no time. Nothing noteworthy
happened that day.
However, the next day when we were packing up our
belongings to leave we decided to take pictures so that we
would remember our decidedly haunted room forever. Beth
had a Polaroid camera and we decided to use hers for
faster development. We all gathered on my bed, near the
corner and got a group shot. When the film developed we
saw a white figure in the upper corner of the photo. To be
sure that no one had just touched the film, making the
figure, we took a few more pictures, all which turned out
the same way. Then, we got a few other girls in our room,
all of which took pictures that developed with the figure
in the corner. Because of these figures I refused to go
over to the side of the bed where the figure was floating
and made someone else pack up my belongings.
I never got a copy of the picture of the spirit, in an
attempt to forget the experience. However, I don't think I
ever will forget my ghostly experience in one of the most
haunted towns in the US.
Contact me here: rori795@aol.com
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