Very Vaguely Creepy III: La Nouvelle Vague

In My Humble Opinion
21

I have a few more I can share, shorter this time. I keep thinking of them while I’m working, so I have a little list…

I used to have a long-ass commute across New Jersey, and about half way through was a fork in the road where two fairly large roads diverged. In the, uh, groinal region, there were always one or two or three vultures flying over head. Everyday. Now that’s vaguely creepy. What was very creepy was one Halloween, I’m driving home midafternoon and there were literally hundreds of vultures flying over that same spot, almost darkening the sky…

When I was going to North Carolina State, I spent a lot of time in the computer lab of my department, which was located in a cavernous top floor of what used to be a textile factory but had been converted to classrooms and offices and the like. While working on my MA thesis, I often went to the lab on weekends when no one else would be there, except maybe the other work-a-holic from my department (but she was usually in her office) and the guy we surmised lived in his cubicle. Anyway, I was there on a day with no one else, my headphones on listening to speech samples, when I distinctly heard a little girl laugh about 5 feet behind me. My first thought was, “Crap, my adviser brought his obnoxious kids, I’m never going to get any work done now.” But I turn around and no one was there…

Getting shivers yet? Just one more, from my grandmother.

During WWII, my grandmother had both a husband and a twin brother in the Navy fighting in the Pacific. One night, she just could not get to sleep. Tossed and turned, knowing something was wrong. She later found out that that very night, her twin brother’s ship was hit and sank…

He was fine, still alive today. He actually went back on board the ship as it sank (supposedly to retrieve the files that were needed to ensure that the sailors got paid, as he was an accountant, after all) and got a medal for bravery.

22

Did you ever hear anything about the 1911 Building being haunted? I encountered several people who claimed something ‘bad’ had happened there, but would never elaborate.

23

Hmmm, I hadn’t heard that, but it looks like the kind of building that would have a rumor like that.

24

Shopping arcades? Pinball/video arcades? What and why?

25

I was a French major at NC State (graduated in 92). At the time, the French department faculty was located in the 1911 building and all my French senior-level classes were in the building. It was a very creepy, floor squeaky, musty building. Never heard it was haunted though, and I spent a lot of time there.

26

I went to the bank today. The entrance to the parking lot has a tree planted on either side of it. As I pulled in, I noticed about eight or nine vultures (Black or turkey, I think, I have a hard time telling them apart) hanging out under the tree on the left side. None of them were eating or even moving very much, just standing very still and quiet in the shade of this tree. The bank was closed, so I turned around to pull out the same entrance and on the other side there were also about seven vultures, again just standing very quietly in the shade of the tree. Maybe this is perfectly natural behavior for vultures, but I got a little bit of a chill driving between them. I see vultures all the time around here, but never so many in one place at one time, and never standing on the ground like that, so still and so solemn.

27

Last week I was at work, after The Boss had left, to close. A friend of hers called, who I had heard of but haven’t met (and I’m not likely to, since she’s in the Austin area now). In the midst of our chatting, she asks me if I’ve met a cousin named Marty in Austin.

The creepy part? That was my dad’s name. Well, Martin, but he went by Marty. And he lived in Austin. But he died in 1993.

I’m still a bit creeped out. And no, I don’t know the guy she was talking about. I hope. shudder

28

In 2003, I visited family out West. My stepfather invited me on an ATV expedition into the nearby mountains, and I brought a disposable 35mm for the occasion. The pictures are nothing special- two guys goofing off in a semi-wilderness setting- except one.

I am standing next to a mountainside spring, hands on hips, grinning at my achievement of having climbed the slope from the trail, about 15 feet vertically. Starting above my head, and flowing around my shoulders, is a glowing pattern of- sort of a combination of vines and lightning, perfectly centered. This was on a north facing hill, so a weird sun reflection isn’t the answer, and not one of the other frames was in any way unusual. And the film was developed at the supermarket; noone had any motive or interest in tampering with it.

So there it is; me and my mystery light.

In the desert. There were no vines of any sort within miles.

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So let’s see it!

30

The other night I woke up and started walking through the dark to go to the bathroom. I stepped on something that made a crunchy squish. It may have been a stale, moldy Cheetoh[sup]TM[/sup]. More likely, it may have been a gigantic insect or a small vertebrate.

I’ve been avoiding that spot for days so I don’t have to know the truth.