A Very Special Lady

From: S (gi_ayuru@hotmail.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Phantom Hill Cemetary (Abilene, TX)
Source: Form Submission
Date submitted: Sat Sep 22 11:06:55 2007

For years, Fort Phantom Hill Lake has been a ghost story all of it's own for the residents of Abilene, Texas. After all, where else can you take a date to make out and have the crap scared out of them all at once? Not to mention it's a sweet fishing spot, whenever the sun is on the rise. You couldn't pay me enough to get out on the water after the moon is out. And here is why.

Everyone talks about the Lady of the Lake, but I've seen her, I've had her look at me and weep. While there are many various stories as to where she came from, we all know that she's been there since before Abilene itself was there. Some say she's been wandering those paths and that lake for over 150 years. Some will say that she's an old pioneer's wife that accidentally killed her husband, or that she's a young woman looking for her drowned lover, or that she's La Llorona herself, come to rest here after murdering her children and drowning herself with remorse. I don't care about all that. All I care about is that I saw a woman, covered in lake water, looking up at me with dark, murky eyes. The night my brother and I saw her was the night that we laughed at death.

We had heard the urban legend about Fort Phantom Hill cemetary that states: "if you flash your headlights three times then some of the tombstones will glow," Thereby, my brother and I gathered up three friends in a big stationwagon and trucked ourselves out there for a good night of spooky fun. Cody and I had not yet learned to be afraid of Fort Phantom Hill or the Lake nearby. This was before our incident with the car. In fact, this was the start of all our troubles. We had seen things in the past, but nothing like what happened that night. We flashed the headlights and naturally, nothing happened.

Cody and I sat in the front seat, with a girl wedged between us, and when nothing happened, he and I exchanged a look. The girl between us moved towards the back to exchange whispers with the other kids, leaning to look over the seat and out into the graveyard. The trio in the backseat were already nervous, already fighting back yelps of fear whenever something made even the smallest noise, and naturally, being Texan, we decided to have a little fun with them.

Cody sat up straight like he'd seen something, though there was a smile at the corner of his mouth. "Hey. Did you see that, Sam?"

I saw nothing, but I played along, knowing that he hadn't seen anything either. I heard a commotion start in the backseat as everyone clamored to sit forward and look out the front window. "Yeah, I did." I whispered seriously, my face never betraying the inner amusement. They leaned forward some more as Cody whispered, "Oh shit oh shit oh shit." over and over again. His shoulders were shaking, and I knew he was laughing. He raised a hand and I knew we were about to turn and scare the crap out of our companions.

Then I saw a man stand up from beside a tree, a darker outline over the shadow. My jaw dropped and I felt my skin go cold. I looked over at Cody. He had gone all white, his eyes wide. It was a look I would later become accustomed to. A look that told me he saw it too.

I turned back to the cemetary and saw the man turn to look over at the car. He was wearing a top hat, or a cowboy hat of some kind, and while I watched him, he walked through a grave on his way towards the car. I heard Cody hyperventalating. "Drive." I hissed and he started the car in a jerk. "Drive!" I yelled and the group behind me went into a fit of terror, clammoring for seatbelts and huddling into each other. We backed out of the driveway to the cemetary in a hail of gravel and dust and peeled out towards town like there was no tomorrow.

We weren't even halfway toward town whenever the headlights and the interior lights flickered, the engine rattled and the car died, coasting to the shoulder of the road. There was a stillness in my chest, like I was frozen in place, and I could hear terrified whimpering in the backseat. "Gas." I said, trying to rationalize. "We must have run out of gas." I finished, and everyone agreed with me. It was easier to think we'd run out of gas than to know we'd made fun of something that didn't want us to get away. We talked and argued, then finally agreed that as soon as another car came by, someone (Roy) would take the gas can and get some gas at the closest convenience store.

After an hour of waiting Cody and I needed to smoke or kill someone. There was silence in the car, no one was talking, and we were not creatures of silence. Therefore, instead of trying to kill one of the people in the backseat, we both got out of the car and lit up on the hood. We sat there, smoking, talking in quiet tones about what we had done. "We laughed at Death." Cody said in a grumble.

"Yep." I agreed, without shame or pity. "Now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere, barely 8 feet away from a dead body." I stated, pointing toward the carcass of a dead possum in the road. When I pointed, I froze. Cody looked up, and went white again.

She was standing on the opposite shoulder of the road, about 20 feet from us, looking at us with her head tipped to the side, her eyes half-lidded in mild irritation, looking at us from behind long dark lashes. Here eyes were like night waters, deep and black, and I couldn't see the whites of them, no matter how hard I tried. The moon was bright that night, the road illuminated like we stood under a streetlight, but I still couldn't see the whites of her eyes. I focused on her, and usually when you focus, the image disappears. She didn't. Her lips, full and slightly bluish, pursed in a small frown of distaste and I shivered. I could smell moisture in the air from her shawl, like old damp lace, even though we weren't anywhere near the lake. I felt the air go still around her, like the moment was frozen in time. There wasn't any sound, not even the little bugs and birds that twittered through texas nights. She was a young woman, with wavy dark hair and a white shawl that hung across the top of her head and shoulders. Her dress was white, but stained at the hem with mud, her feet were bare and blistered. She stared at us for a long time, as long as we were staring at her, then I turned my head to look at Cody. I wondered if he saw her just as clearly as I did, if he smelled the damp lace, if he knew the shade of her lips. I still don't know if he did, but I knew from his face that he had seen her, at least a little bit. When I looked back she was gone.

I heard a cricket chirp and almost jumped, and just like that the night sounds started up again. I could hear giggling from the car and knew they were in there talking, and might have been talking for some time, but until then I didn't hear a word. I felt like I had been frozen there, watching her irritated frown, and I felt like a well scolded child. We sat there in dumb silence for a long time, then Cody flicked his long gone cigarette down to the road and slid quickly off the hood in a jerky movement. I was doing the same. "I'm gonna try the car again." He said quickly, rattling keys as he opened the driver's door.

"Okay." I answered, already half in the passenger's seat. I could hear laughing from the backseat, but I was cold all over. I kept praying for the car to start. Oddly enough, it did. With a full tank. Cody looked at me, and I at him, then without another thought or question we took off and sped back to town.

We never went back to the cemetary again, but when I saw this picture on a ghost-hunter's webpage, I felt a shiver go down my back. It looked like a man in a cowboy hat standing next to a withered tree, head down, as a woman from the SGHA took pictures around him. Creepy.