Something at South Side Park

From: Andrew Foster (gespenstjager@juno.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Pauline, South Carolina
Source: Form Submission

I am a paranormal investigator with Soul Trackers, International. To be specific I am the Assistant Director of Operations, and my personal team, the Paranormal Investigators of the Carolinas (http://gespenstjager.tripod.com/paranormalinvestigatorsofthecarolinas), is based in the upstate of South Carolina and covers both of the Carolinas and Georgia.

Anyway, South Side State Park has a bike trail that extends far into a forested area, and about an hour's walk down the path is a small cemetery. The family died off right at the beginning of the Civil War due to an unknown illness, and they buried each other right there. It is just off the path (I do NOT suggest going by yourself! If you would like to visit, email me and my team and I will be happy to accompany you). When my team was just starting out, we thought it would make a good investigation and decided to check it out. Only three of us were present the first night, and we each took one roll each of Fujifilm, 400 speed film. I use a Canon snappy "Q", and my two investigators brought cameras they had bought at CVS.

I cannot possibly explain the forest to you accurately enough for you to understand the environment. Have you ever seen a horror movie where it is so dark in one scene that you can only see the actors? That is exactly how dark it is down there at night. The trees aren't that thickly planted, but somehow they manage to suck all light possible away from the air. Also, there are no animals. I kid you not, in the middle of a forest, there isn't even so much as a cricket chirping in the night. I have returned a few times during the day and seen the skant squirrel or heard a bird in the distance, but never more than that. So, needless to say, walking through a dead silent, pitch black forest at 1 AM is not the most heartining thing in the world, although it is an experience I suggest you try at least once.

We got very near the cemetery, and a tree had fallen over, blocking the path. As we had gotten close to where the tree had fallen, Investigator Bradley and I had begun to feel a small warning to leave, and when we reached the tree it intensified. Slightly upset, and somewhat dissapointed, we turned to leave and all three of us froze. No, nothing jumped out from the treeline or anything like that, just something siezed all of our hearts at once and we all knew we had to leave THEN. So we broke out our cameras, and walking as quickly as we could in the pitch black, we used up our roles of film on the way out. We went to CVS to get them developed and were very upset to find that out of all 3 of our roles of film (that is 92 frames ladies and gentlement) we only had 2 frames come out, and they were mine. One of the map outside the bike trail, and one just inside the forest that revealed a dense fog covering everything--but it had been 100% clear that night. There is more, but I will submit them as separate stories