Ghost Stories

Dying Girl

Here is aninteresting story that was related to me by a friend. I prefacethis by saying I do not vouch for its authenticity, but must alsosay that my friend was quite sincere and compelling when he toldme this little gem.

One evening around the fall of '81, my friend was driving homefrom work. It had been a long, tiring day, and as he put it,"All I wanted in the world was a hot meal, a cold beer and asoft bed."

Before he could reach his offramp, he ran into a really bad autoaccident. Traffic was being diverted, and he was forced to takean exit he'd never had occasion to take before.

After a few minutes of driving, he realized that he didn't have aclue where he was. At that time, he was a newcomer to the town,and a little shaky in his navigating. He kept his eyes peeled forany sort of road marker which would take him back to the highwayso he could try to backtrack, but saw nothing.

It was only a little after 7:00 pm, but already the sky haddarkened quite a bit since leaving work. He kicked on hisheadlights and saw a Mom 'n Pop sort of convenience store ahead.It was dark and obviously closed for the night, but he thought hemay find a pay phone so he could call one of his buddies fromwork, who could get him on the right track.

He pulled into the dirt parking lot, and, leaving the motorrunning and lights on, climbed out of the car.

While walking toward the store, he told me that suddenly he gotthis really odd feeling, like something was out of sync, butwhat, he couldn't say. He stopped and looked around the woodssurrounding the store, the hairs on the back of his neck tingling.

He saw something at the edge of the treeline, and after a minutemade out the figure of a woman apparently crawling from the woods.

Well, immediately he figured she must be hurt or lost orsomething, and he ran over to her. By the time he reached her,she had collapsed onto her back, and just lay there.

He said she seemed to be in her early twenties or so, plump, butnot fat, with long dark hair. As he kneeled beside her, sheglanced at him, and he said something in his stomach seemed togive a slow tumble. Her skin was very pale, but streaked with mud.He said it was as if she'd taken a mudbath or something. He askedher the usual: "Are you allright? What's happened?" andetc. She never spoke a word, and he decided she must be in shockor something. He touched her forehead, and said it was ice cold.He was in a flurry, wondering what the hell to do. He wasn't evensure where he was, and had no idea how to help until heremembered that he'd stopped looking for a phone in the firstplace.

He told me that he took off his jacket and draped it over her,then ran back to the store. Unfortunately, there was no phone atall, and furthermore, it seemed obvious that the place had beenclosed for years. He was just about to bundle the girl up in hiscar and just drive until he found anything at all, when he sawsome car headlights.

He rushed out into the road and flagged down the car. There weresome kids inside, young high school football player types, as hedescribed them. He explained what had happened, and lead themback to where he'd left the girl.

Well, of course she was not there. Even his jacket was gone.There was no evidence of anyone having been there at all: not aleaf crushed, not a speck of mud, nada.

My friend figured she must have pulled herself back into thewoods, and so with a little pleading, he got the kids to help himsearch. He tured his car toward the woods, and got the teenagersto do the same. My friend searched until he began to worry aboutrunning out of gas in his car, and as he backtracked, followingthe light, he saw the teenager's headlights swing back toward theroad. He ran to the parking lot, but couldn't reach them beforethey bugged out on him.

Well, what the hell do you do? My friend stood there, decidingwhich option to follow, when he said, again, he got that funnyfeeling. He turned around, and by God, there was the girl again,crawling from the edge of the woods. My friend said he felt hishair literally stand on end, because there was no way she couldhave been in those woods and not been found. Not in the shape shewas in. As he stood there, petrified, he saw her collapse on herback again. She lay there for a few minutes, (My friend said hejust couldn't move a muscle) then begin to choke and grunt, asthough she couldn't get any air. Then suddenly, my friend saidshe was gone.

Well, that seemed to break the paralysis, because he said he ranfor the car, smacked into it, fell down, jumped up and somehowfumbled the door open. He said when he turned the car around, asthe headlights washed over the woods, he again caught a glimpseof something pale crawling from among the trees. That, as hesaid, was too much, and he peeled out of there like a bat out ofhell.

Eventually he found his way home, and here, really, the storyended. He told me that for the first few weeks after that, he hadreally bad nightmares about the incident, and also, until he toldme last year, had never related the story to anyone.

What it was all about, he never knew, and I think never botheredto find out. He never told me what town it took place in, thoughI pushed him pretty hard on that. My friend thought I was a sickpuppy for being so interested. I explained that I only wanted tomaybe verify the story, but that was a mistake, 'cause he got madat me for doubting him.

I have a theory, and for those of you who've stuck it out thisfar, I'll share it with you. Maybe someone has a better one, or,(and this is what I really hope) my theory might be close enoughto the mark to strike a chord in someone.

I believe that the girl worked at the Mom 'n Pop store. One nightshe was robbed and shot, or stabbed or something, but not killedright away. The person who robbed the store, believing her dead,dragged her out to the woods and buried her in a makeshift grave.Sadly, the girl possibly regained enough consciousness to dragher way from the ground and back to the store, where she finallydid die of her injuries.

Furthermore, I believe the person who did rob the store was alocal person, and the killing was an accident. A stranger wouldhave most likely left her where she lay, but a LOCAL person,maybe fearing discovery, might possibly try to hide the crime.

At any rate, that's the story. As I said, I won't vouch for itstruthfulness, because I don't have any facts to back it up. Isuppose that is the nature of the ghost story though, and why somany doubt that they could exist because cold, hard facts are sohard to come by.

I apologize for the length. This being my first post, I shouldhave probably trimmed it down a little. But if you want more, Igot more, because I am interested in these strange asides.Unfortunately, I myself have never had an experience evenremotely approaching the ghostly or supernatural. I sure envythose of you who have. All I can do is listen and pass along.