I'm from Myrtle Beach, a town in South Carolina
that is not known for ghost stories. It's known
more for it's tourist attractions and golf
courses. However, many little surrounding towns
are home to folklore and ghost stories.
This
story takes place in Georgetown, a town about 30
miles south of Myrtle Beach, and is entirely
true.
Old Gunner's church has always been said to be
haunted. It was built in the early 1900's and
caught fire in the late 1930's, supposedly
killing many members of the church who were
attending service. Not only is it said to be
haunted, but also dangerous to enter, seeing as
though the foundation is no longer stable
because of fire and having been abandoned for so
long.
In my senior year of high school, a group of
friends and I, one night, decided to drive out
there and see what all the hype was about. None
of us believed much in the paranormal, having
never had experiences with it ourselves. That
night would change everything.
At around twelve-thirty one evening, myself and
four friends had pulled the car up to the gate
at the end of the long dirt road. Woods
surrounded the whole area and the closest thing
to civilization was the gas station over six
miles back.
Because of the fact that I was the
smallest, I was made to crawl under the hole in
the fence and pull the fence back so the big
guys could get through.
The second I stepped
under that fence I had this huge sense of
dread. It was as if something bad was about to
happen. I, however, chalked it up to nerves
because of the stories i'd heard about that
place.
We split up, two of us going to the steps of the
church, and the other three going around back.
Myself and my best guy friend at the time were
the ones who ended up on the front steps of the
church. As soon as we were on the top landing,
it became very cold, where we could see our
breath. Since it was a hot southern August, I
was extremely unnerved by this fact.
I turned to look at my friend, and right as I
did, we heard loud screams coming from inside
the church. They sounded like screams of terror
and pain, and I had a brief flash of an image in
my head of a woman. She was running towards the
door, and her face was burning off.
My friend told me he had the same vision.
Things
just kept getting louder and more intense. The
doors began to shake and the screams were
unbearable. I had to hold my ears because they
were so loud. I looked at my friend, and the
look on his face was answer enough.
We took off
running down the steps. As soon as we were off
of them, the screaming stopped and the hot,
muggy summer air came back. We heard our three
friends running towards us. When they arrived,
they asked us where we'd been. We looked at them
confused and told them we'd been standing on the
front steps.
They proceeded to tell us that when they'd heard
the screaming, they'd come running, thinking it
was us, but when they'd gotten to the front
steps, we weren't there. They said they'd
circled the church numerous times, and couldn't
find us.
Looking at my watch, I saw that it was
1:47 in the morning. They said we'd been gone
for over an hour.
After recounting what we'd heard and felt, and
hearing their experience, we hauled butt out of
there, and have never returned.
However, to this
day, on occasion, I have dreams about the woman
with the burning face, and my boyfriend says I
scream blood curdling screams in my sleep, and
it takes him a long time to wake me up.
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