"Are you sure we should be doing this?"
Catherine asked tentatively as the group of three wandered closer to the old, gray, stone chapel. Rafael turned and smiled.
"Sure! It's not aginst the rules, and we have some time before dinner. Sonya and I want to explore. You don't have to come." he replied.
I glanced around. The sky was almost dark, there was just enough light to see the surrounding trees and shrubbery surrounding the chapel. I didn't see any 4-H leaders nearby.
"No, no I'll come too. I'm curious. I'm not scared." I said.
The three of us had heard rumors that the chapel was haunted by older campers. We had just arrived at this three day trip about an hour ago. Sonya and I were thirteen at the time, and Rafael was maybe 15. I think it was around 2014 when this occurred. We approached the wooden double doors. I was a bit nervous, I didn't like ghosts. The other two acted brave, but in reality I didn't think they thought we would actually see anything.
Rafael, who was rather tall for his age, grasped the handle of the right door on pulled on it. The door yielded and swung open with a loud and drawn out creak.
"Ooh~" Sonya mockingly cooed, as we looked through the doorway to see only a pitch black void. I agreed with her, this seemed kinda cliche. I noticed we all were just staring into the dark, so I walked in a few steps and felt along the walls for a switch of some sort. I was scared, no doubt. I finally felt something on the wall to my left. I pushed what felt like a small button and dim, orange light flooded what seemed to be a small foyer room.
The room was abou four by seven, and directly across from is was an open doorway that led to a spacious room, about the size of a large public school classroom. The room was light by fake chandeliers with light bulbs instead of candelight. It gave the chapel a dim, orange glow. Uncomfortable looking wooden pews lined either side next to stained glass windows. At the front was a classic wooden pulpit, two microphones on stands on each side of it, an electric piano on my left and an old organ on my right. After a few moments of hesitation, we all entered the foyer. To our left was another door, when Sonya pushed it open, we saw what looked like a baptism area. Slowly out paranoia faded off as we wandered further in. I explored the wooden pews leading up to the pulpit. I saw my friends meander around the stage and pulpit area, moving over to the windows and generally exploring. We jumped when we heard the front doors open again, only to see two other teenage boys come in. They said hello and we greeted them back, before continuing to look around. We ended up chatting near the pulpit, nerves of anything paranormal almost gone entirely. The chapel had a nice cozy sort of silence to it. We were all by the stairs that led to the microphones, and one of the boys that had joined us made a comment about the really old organ that sat to our right in the corner.
"It just looks old and rusty, if anything in here is haunted, I'd say it's that. It looks older than anything else in here." he said.
Rafael laughed and went over to it, playing a few discordant keys before coming back over to us. As we were about to continue our conversation, we heard a loud key ring out through the chapel. One straight, constant key. We all went dead silent and looked at the organ. One key was pressed down, along with one of the pedals, allowing the note to play constantly. At first I thought maybe the key had stuck from when Rafael had played it, but he had never touched the pedals, and the notes he had played weren't as low as this one. We all stared in frozen silence, not a single person was within six feet of the instrument. Suddenly, the note changed to a higher one, and that's when we all booked it. We ran as fast as we could out of the chapel, Sonya and I screaming, and I'm pretty sure one of the boys was screaming as well. We slammed the chapel doors hair and ran back towards the main pavilion of the camp. Once we were a good distance from the chapel, but still sitting view of it we finally stopped. We all glanced at each other as we breathed heavily.
"W-what was that?!" one of the boys exclaimed.
Rafael and Sonya shook their heads. I looked back at the chapel and saw that no lights were on, at least not that I could see through the many colored glass windows. A cold shiver ran down my spine. We all eventually. eventually started to walk back towards the main area, back to many other campers and leaders.
I don't know what that was. Was it a prank? Possibly. Or what it a ghost that didn't like us playing it's organ? Maybe. It would've been a very elaborate prank, the whole organ would have to have been rigged. It wasn't much, but it scared us pretty bad. All I know, is that none of us went back in there for the remainder of the trip. Nor when I went back the next year.
YOU ARE READING
The Old Chapel-Short Ghost Story
ParanormaleA true, scary experience in an ancient chapel located on the campgrounds of Rock Eagle Camp, Eatontown, GA. Just a short ghost story to chill the reader.