OcraGhosts 2

OcraGhosts 2

Ghostly encounters in the lighthouse neighborhood.

This is Part Two of a 5-Part Series of Ghost Stories that we'll post over the next two days. Happy Halloween! 

The Lighthouse Neighbor

Contributed to the Ocracoke Current by Sara Chauhan

I lived in the Lighthouse Neighbor during the summer of 1988 and again part-time in the summer of 1995. The house has a family cemetery plot adjacent. It is located, of course, next to the Lighthouse. This is some of what I experienced. There were many, many witnesses.

The first night I moved into the Lighthouse Neighbor in 1988, my best friend Anne and our three other roommates threw a party. Within minutes, the power went out. Not uncommon on Ocracoke, especially in the ‘80s. So we took the party outside onto the front porch until the bugs and humidity chased us all to the beach. The Lighthouse Neighbor was the only house on the block with no lights. Weird, we thought. 

Not long after (maybe even later that same night?) the five of us were at the house late – getting ready for bed. Anne and I were in the front room that has a door to the front porch and road. The bedroom door was open revealing the long hallway that led to the back door with the 2 other bedrooms off that. The backdoor slammed open, the lights went out and there was a white flash of something in the open back door. The five of us went flying out the front bedroom door into the street, terrified. After a while the lights came back on (again – only house) and we timidly made it as far as the front bedroom, where we all slept the rest of the night. 

Anne and I sat in the living room after work – only the two us – and watched the dial on the stereo turn down. We’d turn it up. It would turn down. This happened throughout summer.

The cabinets in the kitchen opened and closed before our very eyes. This also happened throughout summer. 

The bathroom door almost always opened and slammed shut, no matter how well locked, while you were taking a shower. 

We could clearly hear a baby cry somewhere in the house, but there was never baby in the house. There is, however, an infant buried in the family plot.

The summer of 1995 was much of the same. It got so intense that summer we did a sage cleansing and learned that the spirits were not malicious, making us feel slightly better. And they settled down a little after the sage, but not entirely. 

Not long after, I was talking to Ignatius Styron at the bar, telling him about one of our latest ghost stories. Being familiar with the property and having lived there himself, he starts laughing and says, “Oh, that’s just Mama! She doesn’t like it when y’all have parties in her house. She was a teetotaler, you know. She won’t hurt ya – but she’ll scare ya!” Ignatius’s signature line was, “See how you are?” which I’m sure he ended with, laughing all the way. From there on, when things got spooky, or if we were alone in the house we’d just talk to Mama and I swear the haunting stuff just stopped. 

Up next: A ghostly apparition.... 

 

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