A Halloween Ghost Story

I like ghosts -- and that's because I one hundred percent believe in them.  Not that I've had many supernatural encounters, but I've heard enough stories from friends and family to trust that there are spirits we cannot see.

I had a lot of ideas for a Halloween related post (you don't need me to tell you that YA books are the home of the paranormal), but I decided to simply tell a ghost story.  I heard it a few years ago, and I find it very haunting -- but that's probably because I pass by the place in question all the time.

The Ghost of Tucker Hall

Tucker Hall is an academic building at the College of William & Mary.  Like all the old buildings at the College, it was built in the colonial style, with impressive brick facades and unused chimneys.  Inside, there is a grand staircase flanked by two arched doorways.  It used to house the English department, but if you duck through a gap in the wire fence, you'll see that it hasn't been occupied for years, except to host drug deals or Greek hazings, as evidenced by the crushed cans of Natty Lite that litter the stairs.  No one is 100% sure why the school shut down the building, though most point to the ghost.

Many years ago a girl was studying for finals on the third floor.  She was so stressed that she went into the bathroom and committed suicide, but to this day, she hasn't left.  Since then, there have been several deaths in that very same bathroom.  It happens like this:  she appears behind you in the mirror, looking like a normal corporeal student, and she'll politely ask you how exams are going.  If you say they're going poorly, she will let you be.  But if you say they are going well, then she'll possess you and force you to kill yourself, but before you go, you'll write something on the mirror for others to find.  And you'll write it in your own blood:

."She made me do it."

Tucker Hall has been closed for several years now, but occasionally a light appears in the window of the third floor bathroom.  Sometimes it isn't a light at all, but a strange greenish glow.

There is very little evidence that the deaths happened, nor is there much evidence of supernatural events at all.  The only hard evidence comes from this article.  Who knows?  Maybe the ghost will show herself tonight on Halloween?  (Let's just hope she isn't as violent as the rumors say she is).