Brenda Newby / Mary Jo Woodruff
The Ghost Stories of Terrell, Texas, 2nd EditionA Collection Compiled, Experienced, and Told by the Terrell Ghost Walk Paranormal InvestigatorsYou’re Not Alone in the MorgueFor one season, I was able to take my tour guests into the Anderson Building’s basement. This space had always been rumored to house the county morgue during the building’s days as a small hospital. It seemed to be the most active and least populated area. Everything about that place was creepy, but it wasn’t long before I began to feel at home there.It was a beautiful mid-spring evening, and only three people showed up for the tour that night... Finally, I didn’t feel like I was putting on a dog and pony show. Instead, I could sit and relate to the young birthday girl, who had just turned twenty, and her two grandmothers. They were my captive audience that night. As I walked into the basement, I could feel a static charge in the air, like the feeling you get when lightning strikes too close during a Texas thunderstorm. The static caused the hair on my arms to stand up, and the three women looked absolutely frightened. Since there were only four of us, we were able to commandeer the only four folding chairs... There wasn’t much light in the basement; actually, it’s quite dark. The space has two separate rooms, and we were sitting in the interior one.Aside from the static, there was something else peculiar about that night, something I hadn’t experienced before. I turned on my gadgets, and they immediately went a little bonkers. I had three devices with me, and they were all behaving as you might expect in the presence of a high level of electromagnetic energy. Before I could even get my bearings... I saw him.There stood a man, so black and shadowy it was as if he were a void, sucking the very light out of the room. The entire upper half of his torso was exposed, and I could even see his hands wrapped around the door frame. It was clear that he was watching me, and I got the intense sense that this being, whoever or whatever it was, was just as curious about me as I was about it.I didn’t think. I jumped to my feet, dropped all my equipment, and ran toward him. The second I moved; he retreated beyond the frame of the arched door. It was a futile attempt to hideHe was so clear and so detailed that as he jumped back, I could see his hands wrapped around the door frame. By the time I made it to the threshold, he was long gone. No trace of him. I searched for a rational explanation, but I knew exactly what I had seen. There was no way to explain the encounter as anything other than coming face-to-face with an interdimensional soul.After a sighting like that, you want to identify anyone else who might have witnessed the same thing... I quickly turned to my guests to see who else had caught a glimpse of the curious shadow figure. My guests were nowhere to be found. They had fled up an extraordinarily narrow wooden staircase, out a heavy door, through the gym, and I found them waiting for me on the sidewalk. They had left me alone in there. Of course, I didn’t mind. I knew I was safe. I made absolutely no mention of what I saw to the three lovely women. All they knew was that if the investigator was running toward something, they had best run away from it.
