Scariest Night of My Life (2017) s01e12 Episode Script
The Apartment; It Came from the Basement
-August 18, 2002.
-December 12, 2011.
-August 29, 1982.
-December 1st.
June 15, 1991.
-was the scariest night -was the scariest night -was the scariest night -was the scariest night was the scariest night of my life.
All of a sudden, there is a ghost.
I was terrified.
Did you see that? We're starting to see what look like the shadows of people.
He's materialized halfway through the bed.
Instinctively, immediately, my defenses took over.
She was looking at me, and she was screaming at me.
Get out! [ Child laughs .]
[ Clock ticks .]
August 2002 my mother and I had flown to Scotland for 30 days to drive around the country as my graduation present to myself from high school.
I had begged my mother to stay in a castle because it's Scotland and castles.
This was a trip of a lifetime, especially since my greatest passion was writing, and I knew all the great writers came from Scotland.
I knew I was gonna be inspired here.
Having the chance to spend a night in a real castle was a dream come true.
I was so excited to be in that castle, surrounded by history.
I was thrilled to be here and wanted to see every inch of the castle.
But when we entered into the castle, it already felt like there was somebody watching.
And that feeling got stronger.
It was constantly feeling like there was someone behind me.
And I would turn around at random points and I'd be looking for whoever was watching, even in the middle of conversation with my mum, while looking at art or what have you.
It was foreboding.
I felt that there was somebody staring at me.
And when I glanced there wasn't anyone there.
The further we got into the castle, it got worse.
[ Clock ticks .]
Mum was in bed by 9:00 that night, so I grabbed my laptop to go find the perfect place to write.
Aren't you coming to bed? Think I'm gonna go write for a while.
I found this really cool place down the hall.
I won't be too long.
Well, we're going hiking tomorrow, so don't be too long, please, please, please? I'll be back by midnight.
Goodnight, Mum.
Goodnight, sweetheart.
ELLIE: A castle is a perfect place to be inspired.
I picked the really ornate sitting room to write.
It was perfect.
It was everything I needed to create.
I started writing straight away.
It was so quiet and peaceful.
[ Clock ticks .]
It's well after 2:00 in the morning, and I feel a dog.
It had rubbed up against me.
I just reached down with one hand and pet the dog.
Didn't look.
It felt like any other dog -- warm to the touch, wiry hair that was soft.
Well, I went back to typing with both hands.
Maybe a minute or two later, that dog started whimpering, like it was scared and rubbed its body against my leg.
[ Dog whimpering .]
So I go to pet it again, but this time I look, and there's no dog there.
There's no dog.
There's no sign that there was a dog, though I had just felt it.
I got up.
And I'm looking around the room, and I'm trying to see if the dog had skimpered off to the other side of the room or jumped on a couch or something.
And that's when I saw the heavy velvet curtains move like there was a breeze running through them.
Velvet's really heavy.
I walked to close the window so that it wouldn't get cold in the room, and that's when I realized that the windows were painted shut.
That wind wasn't coming in the windows.
[ Clock ticks .]
ELLIE: When we entered into the castle, it already felt like there was somebody watching.
I felt that there was somebody staring at me.
The further we got into the castle, it got worse.
I feel a dog.
I just reach down and pet the dog.
I look, and there's no dog there.
And that's when I realize that that wind wasn't coming in the windows.
That wind wasn't natural.
Woman: Get out of my castle! I didn't want to be there anymore.
[ Woman screams .]
[ Clock ticks .]
Nothing was right.
Nothing felt right.
Every concern that I wasn't alone came rushing back in tidal wave.
I did not want to stay in a room.
That wind wasn't natural.
So I took off and ran up two stories' worth of staircases back to where my tower and my room was.
Besides being terrified, I felt like the ghostly wind blowing the curtain chased after me.
[ Exhales .]
I jumped into bed, promptly pulling the blanket over my head.
[ Heartbeat .]
I'm panting for breath because I just ran really far, really fast.
And never thought to wake up my mum.
I just wanted the safety of my bed.
[ Clock ticks .]
And then I remembered my laptop, the most valuable thing I own.
It has everything on it.
I knew that I had to go back to that room to retrieve my laptop.
So I tiptoed across the room.
The hall was empty.
The tower was empty.
So I slowly snuck down the stairs.
I tiptoed down each and every single one of those steps to the second floor, feeling terror and fear.
[ Exhales .]
That walk was the longest walk of my life.
And when I hit those heavy, oak doors the last thing I wanted to do was open them.
But I did.
I opened the doors and tiptoed into the room.
I just didn't want to be there.
When I went to reach for the laptop, I was scared.
Yeah.
I was terrified, even, at the time.
When I grabbed my laptop, the curtains started moving again.
And the fireplace burst into flames.
That should have made the room warm, or hot even.
It didn't.
If anything, the room got a little bit colder.
But if that wasn't bad enough there is a ghost -- a terrifying ghost in front of the fireplace.
ELLIE: All I wanted to do was get my laptop and get out.
I just didn't want to be there.
The curtains started moving again.
And the fireplace burst into flames.
But if that wasn't bad enough, there is a ghost.
[ Screams .]
I was feeling terror and fear.
[ Woman screams .]
She just appeared in front of the fireplace and hung there.
She had raven-black hair streaming behind her.
She was wearing a long, green dress that was elegant and looked like it was from the early 1900s.
She was angry.
Get out! She screamed at me to get out of her castle.
I can still hear that voice.
"Get out of my castle!" -Get out of my castle! The only thing that moved was her hair and the dress.
She didn't.
She just held in place like stone.
[ Breathes heavily .]
[ Heartbeat .]
ELLIE: All I remember is I didn't feel like I was breathing.
I didn't feel anything but terror and chills and goose bumps.
[ Doorknob rattles .]
I don't know if she intended harm to me or not, but I wasn't going to stick around.
The hatred, the anger -- it was coming off in waves.
[ Heartbeat .]
The negative emotions just rippled off of her.
Get out of my castle! And I didn't want to see what would happen if I stay in that room.
I had to throw my entire weight to swing one door open.
I'm not sure if I was more scared because she was a ghost or because of how much she hated me for being there.
[ Sniffles .]
I'm sorry.
[ Exhales .]
I ran back to my room.
I just kept running.
I don't know if she tried following me or not.
Woman: Get out! I didn't want to risk looking, just in case she was there.
I just ran.
Get out of my castle! I ran down the hall.
I was so scared.
I didn't wake up my mother because Get out! we were three hours away from the nearest city.
And then I just pulled the blankets and the sheets over my head while I huddled there in a ball, curled around my laptop.
Get out of my castle! I didn't sleep a wink.
I just wanted the night to be over.
I spent that entire night hiding under that blanket, not breathing, waiting for dawn to come.
[ Exhales .]
And that was the scariest night of my life.
So, the next morning, I flagged down one of the people working at the castle and asked if they had any dogs staying there that night.
And they said, "No, no," and turned to walk away and paused and turned back and said, "What kind of dog?" And I described a small, little, black-haired Yorkie, and the employee's face kind of drained of color a little bit and said, "Follow me," and led me out of the mess hall where we were eating and around a corner to a different wing of the castle altogether and showed me this huge portrait of this beautiful, pale-skinned woman with dark-black hair and a tiny, little, black-haired Yorkie sitting on her lap and said, "Is this the dog?" And I just nodded because that was the woman that was staring down at me disdainfully from the painting that had screamed at me that night.
Get out of my castle! [ Sniffles .]
It's been 15 years, and this is what this story does to me -- this experience.
I just hope that anyone else at that castle never has to deal with her because I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
Get out of my castle! On March 3rd, 1991, a Boeing 737 airplane crashed just outside of Colorado Springs.
Everyone on board was killed 20 passengers, including 5 crew.
Initially, they thought a severe wind shear was responsible for the crash, but later they found out it was due to a faulty rudder.
It crashed in a park and narrowly missed an apartment complex by 100 feet.
Tea? The crash shattered neighborhood windows, scattered debris all over the park.
My husband, James, was home when it happened, and the impact was so great, he thought there was an earthquake happening.
[ Plane engine roars .]
The plane crash made a big impact in the community and all over the world.
It was all over the news.
It was all our neighbors could talk about, you know, for months, or for years.
What do you say we go and check it out? You and I -- let's go.
I'm not really interested in it, to be honest.
Seriously, I think it would be so much fun.
Come on.
It's Halloween 2006, and out of kind of a morbid curiosity, I encouraged James to come to the park with me that evening where the crash occurred in 1991.
I'm Oglala Sioux, so as a Native American, I was exposed to the concept of a spirit world from a very early age.
James is really skeptical, and I think he just kind of went along as maybe kind of a joke.
It was a little cold that evening, so we wore jackets.
We brought flashlights, a couple of digital cameras.
I guess I was hoping to see something, to hear something, to be able to capture evidence -- something I could prove to James that there's more to this physical dimension of ours.
There's another side.
There's another layer.
[ Clock ticks .]
James and I left the house.
The park was maybe three blocks away from where we lived.
There was no moon.
One of the first things we noticed was a flash of light.
It was one of the park lights.
So, I approached the light and it turned itself off.
And when I backed away, it would come back on again.
James was trying to rationalize it as some sort of short in the wiring, but because of the pattern, it just seemed like something was trying to get our attention.
James kind of knocks on it to see if there's some kind of a short happening.
Won't come on at all.
And then as soon as we back away, it starts flickering again.
Did you see that? What is going on? I don't know.
[ Heartbeat .]
Did you see that? CHRISTOPHER: And we're trying to figure out why we're starting to see shadows moving across the sidewalk.
There's only a minimal amount of ambient light.
There's no moon.
But we're starting to see what look like the shadows of people running back and forth across the pathway.
You see something out of the corner of your eye, and then by the time you turn to look, it's gone.
It was about this time where James turned to me, and he says, "Can you hear that?" So I got really still.
And I remember just this kind of numbness taking over my body.
[ Girl screams .]
I realize I can hear people whispering.
[ Indistinct whispering .]
[ Whispers indistinctly .]
You couldn't quite make out what they were saying.
[ Whispers indistinctly .]
Did you hear that? [ Heartbeat .]
As we turned to leave, that's when this really strange fog began to roll in.
[ Speaks indistinctly .]
This wasn't our breath.
It was cold enough to where you could see some of our breath.
This was something entirely different.
This was a very strange, localized fog.
And that's when I started taking pictures.
I wanted to see if we could photograph this fog.
We're taking pictures, and we're starting to notice that different odd images are appearing in this fog.
We'd never seen anything like this.
They look like they're made out of light or gauze or sheets.
I enlarged the photo on our viewfinder, and James just had no words.
It's like all the life was just completely sucked out of him.
He had never seen anything like this.
I'm getting very excited about what we're seeing, but James continues to feel more and more perplexed.
He's starting to become paranoid.
You know, we're wondering if there's people watching us.
So we start to move our way out of the park.
[ Clanging .]
And that's when I start hearing what I think was a church bell.
[ Clanging continues .]
We tracked the sound toward the source.
[ Clanging continues .]
And we found out that these were swing chains hitting against the metal poles.
In the same way we saw the light flashing earlier, we thought that maybe this was something that was trying to get our attention.
CHRISTOPHER: So, as we turn to leave, that's when this really strange fog began to roll in.
We're taking pictures, and we're starting to notice that different odd images are appearing in this fog.
[ Clock ticks .]
[ Clanging .]
And that's when I start hearing what I think was a church bell.
And these were swing chains hitting against the metal poles.
[ Clanging continues .]
The chains from the swing were banging up against the poles.
[ Clanging continues .]
It was just like they were moving in this kind of wind.
But there was no wind.
[ Heartbeat .]
So I felt like something was trying to get our attention.
[ Heartbeat continues .]
I really started to feel like perhaps I was taunting these things too much, maybe that I was being too disrespectful.
I started to get very concerned for James' safety and mine.
I started to get very concerned that something might follow us home.
So we decided to leave.
I was really anxious to get home.
I was really interested to look at these pictures in more depth, to talk to James about what we had just experienced.
When we got back, James made hot cocoa because we were cold.
And I proceeded to hook the camera up to the television so I could see these pictures in greater detail.
When I hooked the camera up to the TV and blew up these pictures I feel like you need to see some of this.
[ Talks indistinctly .]
-What is this? -Like, ghosts, man.
Just weird.
We were just shocked at the detail of some of these images.
These were more than dust or insects or just fine particles caught in our flash.
These were these were spirits.
-Is that? -Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER: This was the first time I ever had any kind of spiritual manifestation on camera.
This is pretty exciting.
Like, I know I'm feeling elated.
For me, this was just a huge validation that there is another side, that we do go somewhere after we die, that our ancestors are still with us.
I was in a state of total disbelief.
[ Clock ticks .]
We're still a little unsettled.
There still is a level of paranoia that something still might happen to us.
So there is a traditional Native American ceremony called a smudging ceremony where you light sage, sweet grass, cedar.
And this is meant to cleanse your home, your belongings, your person of any unhealing, unloving energy.
After the ceremony, the energy really settled down, but there was still something that was attached to us a mild anxiety, a worry like something bad was going to happen.
It's about 1:00 in the morning when we finally decide to go to bed.
I finally fell asleep.
[ Indistinct whispering .]
And I just remember what I thought was someone blowing.
So, the fan's on, which is really strange because it's October.
We only have this fan on in the summertime.
[ Indistinct whispering .]
And just from the white noise that it's generating, I'm starting to hear those whispers again -- like a lot of people whispering at once, but very rapidly, and again, that's nothing you could make out.
I get out of bed, I walk to the fan, and I turn it off.
And the whispering stops.
I just feel like I brought this back into our home because of all these pictures and this trying to get these spirits to communicate with us -- asking if these things could appear before our camera, if these things could speak to us, if these things could show us what they were, to tell us their story.
I start making my way back to the bed.
CHRISTOPHER: I really started to feel like perhaps I was too disrespectful.
I started to get very concerned that something might follow us home.
When I hooked the camera up to the TV, we were just shocked at the detail of some of these images.
I finally fell asleep.
I just remember someone blowing in my face.
I just feel like I brought this back into our home.
I start making my way back to the bed.
And that's when I see what looks like the transparent spirit of an old man, and I can only see him from the waist up because he's materialized halfway through the bed.
[ Whispering .]
James.
James! James! He's looking down at James, and he's touching his leg.
James! Instinctively, immediately, my defenses took over.
I just felt this very over-protectiveness for James, like I had to protect him.
I hit the bed so [ Normal voice .]
James, did you see there was a ghost right there? James wakes up from the shaking, and he's like, "What's going on? What are you doing?" And I told him, "There was an old man here.
He was right in the middle of our bed.
He was looking at you.
He was touching you.
" Did you feel anything on your leg? He touches his leg, and he says it's ice-cold.
It's cold? He says he feels like he has, like, this weird static electricity all over his leg.
That was the first time I've ever encountered a ghost face to face.
I've dreamt of spirits.
I've heard of people that have had encounters with spirits.
But I've never seen one in my own environment.
And that was the scariest night of my life.
I guess this was the scariest night of my life because I never felt invaded, that something had come in to a place that I hold sacred, that something as innocent as a park can turn into whispers and shadows and chains beating against poles and images of what looked like people looking at us.
I was just very curious, and I felt really bad afterwards that we were intruding upon a site where people had lost their lives to get some pictures, to get some audio, to get some evidence to validate myself, to validate my belief in this other world, to show James that there's more to this life experience.
We've been back several times, but when we come back, we bring flowers with us now.
-December 12, 2011.
-August 29, 1982.
-December 1st.
June 15, 1991.
-was the scariest night -was the scariest night -was the scariest night -was the scariest night was the scariest night of my life.
All of a sudden, there is a ghost.
I was terrified.
Did you see that? We're starting to see what look like the shadows of people.
He's materialized halfway through the bed.
Instinctively, immediately, my defenses took over.
She was looking at me, and she was screaming at me.
Get out! [ Child laughs .]
[ Clock ticks .]
August 2002 my mother and I had flown to Scotland for 30 days to drive around the country as my graduation present to myself from high school.
I had begged my mother to stay in a castle because it's Scotland and castles.
This was a trip of a lifetime, especially since my greatest passion was writing, and I knew all the great writers came from Scotland.
I knew I was gonna be inspired here.
Having the chance to spend a night in a real castle was a dream come true.
I was so excited to be in that castle, surrounded by history.
I was thrilled to be here and wanted to see every inch of the castle.
But when we entered into the castle, it already felt like there was somebody watching.
And that feeling got stronger.
It was constantly feeling like there was someone behind me.
And I would turn around at random points and I'd be looking for whoever was watching, even in the middle of conversation with my mum, while looking at art or what have you.
It was foreboding.
I felt that there was somebody staring at me.
And when I glanced there wasn't anyone there.
The further we got into the castle, it got worse.
[ Clock ticks .]
Mum was in bed by 9:00 that night, so I grabbed my laptop to go find the perfect place to write.
Aren't you coming to bed? Think I'm gonna go write for a while.
I found this really cool place down the hall.
I won't be too long.
Well, we're going hiking tomorrow, so don't be too long, please, please, please? I'll be back by midnight.
Goodnight, Mum.
Goodnight, sweetheart.
ELLIE: A castle is a perfect place to be inspired.
I picked the really ornate sitting room to write.
It was perfect.
It was everything I needed to create.
I started writing straight away.
It was so quiet and peaceful.
[ Clock ticks .]
It's well after 2:00 in the morning, and I feel a dog.
It had rubbed up against me.
I just reached down with one hand and pet the dog.
Didn't look.
It felt like any other dog -- warm to the touch, wiry hair that was soft.
Well, I went back to typing with both hands.
Maybe a minute or two later, that dog started whimpering, like it was scared and rubbed its body against my leg.
[ Dog whimpering .]
So I go to pet it again, but this time I look, and there's no dog there.
There's no dog.
There's no sign that there was a dog, though I had just felt it.
I got up.
And I'm looking around the room, and I'm trying to see if the dog had skimpered off to the other side of the room or jumped on a couch or something.
And that's when I saw the heavy velvet curtains move like there was a breeze running through them.
Velvet's really heavy.
I walked to close the window so that it wouldn't get cold in the room, and that's when I realized that the windows were painted shut.
That wind wasn't coming in the windows.
[ Clock ticks .]
ELLIE: When we entered into the castle, it already felt like there was somebody watching.
I felt that there was somebody staring at me.
The further we got into the castle, it got worse.
I feel a dog.
I just reach down and pet the dog.
I look, and there's no dog there.
And that's when I realize that that wind wasn't coming in the windows.
That wind wasn't natural.
Woman: Get out of my castle! I didn't want to be there anymore.
[ Woman screams .]
[ Clock ticks .]
Nothing was right.
Nothing felt right.
Every concern that I wasn't alone came rushing back in tidal wave.
I did not want to stay in a room.
That wind wasn't natural.
So I took off and ran up two stories' worth of staircases back to where my tower and my room was.
Besides being terrified, I felt like the ghostly wind blowing the curtain chased after me.
[ Exhales .]
I jumped into bed, promptly pulling the blanket over my head.
[ Heartbeat .]
I'm panting for breath because I just ran really far, really fast.
And never thought to wake up my mum.
I just wanted the safety of my bed.
[ Clock ticks .]
And then I remembered my laptop, the most valuable thing I own.
It has everything on it.
I knew that I had to go back to that room to retrieve my laptop.
So I tiptoed across the room.
The hall was empty.
The tower was empty.
So I slowly snuck down the stairs.
I tiptoed down each and every single one of those steps to the second floor, feeling terror and fear.
[ Exhales .]
That walk was the longest walk of my life.
And when I hit those heavy, oak doors the last thing I wanted to do was open them.
But I did.
I opened the doors and tiptoed into the room.
I just didn't want to be there.
When I went to reach for the laptop, I was scared.
Yeah.
I was terrified, even, at the time.
When I grabbed my laptop, the curtains started moving again.
And the fireplace burst into flames.
That should have made the room warm, or hot even.
It didn't.
If anything, the room got a little bit colder.
But if that wasn't bad enough there is a ghost -- a terrifying ghost in front of the fireplace.
ELLIE: All I wanted to do was get my laptop and get out.
I just didn't want to be there.
The curtains started moving again.
And the fireplace burst into flames.
But if that wasn't bad enough, there is a ghost.
[ Screams .]
I was feeling terror and fear.
[ Woman screams .]
She just appeared in front of the fireplace and hung there.
She had raven-black hair streaming behind her.
She was wearing a long, green dress that was elegant and looked like it was from the early 1900s.
She was angry.
Get out! She screamed at me to get out of her castle.
I can still hear that voice.
"Get out of my castle!" -Get out of my castle! The only thing that moved was her hair and the dress.
She didn't.
She just held in place like stone.
[ Breathes heavily .]
[ Heartbeat .]
ELLIE: All I remember is I didn't feel like I was breathing.
I didn't feel anything but terror and chills and goose bumps.
[ Doorknob rattles .]
I don't know if she intended harm to me or not, but I wasn't going to stick around.
The hatred, the anger -- it was coming off in waves.
[ Heartbeat .]
The negative emotions just rippled off of her.
Get out of my castle! And I didn't want to see what would happen if I stay in that room.
I had to throw my entire weight to swing one door open.
I'm not sure if I was more scared because she was a ghost or because of how much she hated me for being there.
[ Sniffles .]
I'm sorry.
[ Exhales .]
I ran back to my room.
I just kept running.
I don't know if she tried following me or not.
Woman: Get out! I didn't want to risk looking, just in case she was there.
I just ran.
Get out of my castle! I ran down the hall.
I was so scared.
I didn't wake up my mother because Get out! we were three hours away from the nearest city.
And then I just pulled the blankets and the sheets over my head while I huddled there in a ball, curled around my laptop.
Get out of my castle! I didn't sleep a wink.
I just wanted the night to be over.
I spent that entire night hiding under that blanket, not breathing, waiting for dawn to come.
[ Exhales .]
And that was the scariest night of my life.
So, the next morning, I flagged down one of the people working at the castle and asked if they had any dogs staying there that night.
And they said, "No, no," and turned to walk away and paused and turned back and said, "What kind of dog?" And I described a small, little, black-haired Yorkie, and the employee's face kind of drained of color a little bit and said, "Follow me," and led me out of the mess hall where we were eating and around a corner to a different wing of the castle altogether and showed me this huge portrait of this beautiful, pale-skinned woman with dark-black hair and a tiny, little, black-haired Yorkie sitting on her lap and said, "Is this the dog?" And I just nodded because that was the woman that was staring down at me disdainfully from the painting that had screamed at me that night.
Get out of my castle! [ Sniffles .]
It's been 15 years, and this is what this story does to me -- this experience.
I just hope that anyone else at that castle never has to deal with her because I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
Get out of my castle! On March 3rd, 1991, a Boeing 737 airplane crashed just outside of Colorado Springs.
Everyone on board was killed 20 passengers, including 5 crew.
Initially, they thought a severe wind shear was responsible for the crash, but later they found out it was due to a faulty rudder.
It crashed in a park and narrowly missed an apartment complex by 100 feet.
Tea? The crash shattered neighborhood windows, scattered debris all over the park.
My husband, James, was home when it happened, and the impact was so great, he thought there was an earthquake happening.
[ Plane engine roars .]
The plane crash made a big impact in the community and all over the world.
It was all over the news.
It was all our neighbors could talk about, you know, for months, or for years.
What do you say we go and check it out? You and I -- let's go.
I'm not really interested in it, to be honest.
Seriously, I think it would be so much fun.
Come on.
It's Halloween 2006, and out of kind of a morbid curiosity, I encouraged James to come to the park with me that evening where the crash occurred in 1991.
I'm Oglala Sioux, so as a Native American, I was exposed to the concept of a spirit world from a very early age.
James is really skeptical, and I think he just kind of went along as maybe kind of a joke.
It was a little cold that evening, so we wore jackets.
We brought flashlights, a couple of digital cameras.
I guess I was hoping to see something, to hear something, to be able to capture evidence -- something I could prove to James that there's more to this physical dimension of ours.
There's another side.
There's another layer.
[ Clock ticks .]
James and I left the house.
The park was maybe three blocks away from where we lived.
There was no moon.
One of the first things we noticed was a flash of light.
It was one of the park lights.
So, I approached the light and it turned itself off.
And when I backed away, it would come back on again.
James was trying to rationalize it as some sort of short in the wiring, but because of the pattern, it just seemed like something was trying to get our attention.
James kind of knocks on it to see if there's some kind of a short happening.
Won't come on at all.
And then as soon as we back away, it starts flickering again.
Did you see that? What is going on? I don't know.
[ Heartbeat .]
Did you see that? CHRISTOPHER: And we're trying to figure out why we're starting to see shadows moving across the sidewalk.
There's only a minimal amount of ambient light.
There's no moon.
But we're starting to see what look like the shadows of people running back and forth across the pathway.
You see something out of the corner of your eye, and then by the time you turn to look, it's gone.
It was about this time where James turned to me, and he says, "Can you hear that?" So I got really still.
And I remember just this kind of numbness taking over my body.
[ Girl screams .]
I realize I can hear people whispering.
[ Indistinct whispering .]
[ Whispers indistinctly .]
You couldn't quite make out what they were saying.
[ Whispers indistinctly .]
Did you hear that? [ Heartbeat .]
As we turned to leave, that's when this really strange fog began to roll in.
[ Speaks indistinctly .]
This wasn't our breath.
It was cold enough to where you could see some of our breath.
This was something entirely different.
This was a very strange, localized fog.
And that's when I started taking pictures.
I wanted to see if we could photograph this fog.
We're taking pictures, and we're starting to notice that different odd images are appearing in this fog.
We'd never seen anything like this.
They look like they're made out of light or gauze or sheets.
I enlarged the photo on our viewfinder, and James just had no words.
It's like all the life was just completely sucked out of him.
He had never seen anything like this.
I'm getting very excited about what we're seeing, but James continues to feel more and more perplexed.
He's starting to become paranoid.
You know, we're wondering if there's people watching us.
So we start to move our way out of the park.
[ Clanging .]
And that's when I start hearing what I think was a church bell.
[ Clanging continues .]
We tracked the sound toward the source.
[ Clanging continues .]
And we found out that these were swing chains hitting against the metal poles.
In the same way we saw the light flashing earlier, we thought that maybe this was something that was trying to get our attention.
CHRISTOPHER: So, as we turn to leave, that's when this really strange fog began to roll in.
We're taking pictures, and we're starting to notice that different odd images are appearing in this fog.
[ Clock ticks .]
[ Clanging .]
And that's when I start hearing what I think was a church bell.
And these were swing chains hitting against the metal poles.
[ Clanging continues .]
The chains from the swing were banging up against the poles.
[ Clanging continues .]
It was just like they were moving in this kind of wind.
But there was no wind.
[ Heartbeat .]
So I felt like something was trying to get our attention.
[ Heartbeat continues .]
I really started to feel like perhaps I was taunting these things too much, maybe that I was being too disrespectful.
I started to get very concerned for James' safety and mine.
I started to get very concerned that something might follow us home.
So we decided to leave.
I was really anxious to get home.
I was really interested to look at these pictures in more depth, to talk to James about what we had just experienced.
When we got back, James made hot cocoa because we were cold.
And I proceeded to hook the camera up to the television so I could see these pictures in greater detail.
When I hooked the camera up to the TV and blew up these pictures I feel like you need to see some of this.
[ Talks indistinctly .]
-What is this? -Like, ghosts, man.
Just weird.
We were just shocked at the detail of some of these images.
These were more than dust or insects or just fine particles caught in our flash.
These were these were spirits.
-Is that? -Yeah.
CHRISTOPHER: This was the first time I ever had any kind of spiritual manifestation on camera.
This is pretty exciting.
Like, I know I'm feeling elated.
For me, this was just a huge validation that there is another side, that we do go somewhere after we die, that our ancestors are still with us.
I was in a state of total disbelief.
[ Clock ticks .]
We're still a little unsettled.
There still is a level of paranoia that something still might happen to us.
So there is a traditional Native American ceremony called a smudging ceremony where you light sage, sweet grass, cedar.
And this is meant to cleanse your home, your belongings, your person of any unhealing, unloving energy.
After the ceremony, the energy really settled down, but there was still something that was attached to us a mild anxiety, a worry like something bad was going to happen.
It's about 1:00 in the morning when we finally decide to go to bed.
I finally fell asleep.
[ Indistinct whispering .]
And I just remember what I thought was someone blowing.
So, the fan's on, which is really strange because it's October.
We only have this fan on in the summertime.
[ Indistinct whispering .]
And just from the white noise that it's generating, I'm starting to hear those whispers again -- like a lot of people whispering at once, but very rapidly, and again, that's nothing you could make out.
I get out of bed, I walk to the fan, and I turn it off.
And the whispering stops.
I just feel like I brought this back into our home because of all these pictures and this trying to get these spirits to communicate with us -- asking if these things could appear before our camera, if these things could speak to us, if these things could show us what they were, to tell us their story.
I start making my way back to the bed.
CHRISTOPHER: I really started to feel like perhaps I was too disrespectful.
I started to get very concerned that something might follow us home.
When I hooked the camera up to the TV, we were just shocked at the detail of some of these images.
I finally fell asleep.
I just remember someone blowing in my face.
I just feel like I brought this back into our home.
I start making my way back to the bed.
And that's when I see what looks like the transparent spirit of an old man, and I can only see him from the waist up because he's materialized halfway through the bed.
[ Whispering .]
James.
James! James! He's looking down at James, and he's touching his leg.
James! Instinctively, immediately, my defenses took over.
I just felt this very over-protectiveness for James, like I had to protect him.
I hit the bed so [ Normal voice .]
James, did you see there was a ghost right there? James wakes up from the shaking, and he's like, "What's going on? What are you doing?" And I told him, "There was an old man here.
He was right in the middle of our bed.
He was looking at you.
He was touching you.
" Did you feel anything on your leg? He touches his leg, and he says it's ice-cold.
It's cold? He says he feels like he has, like, this weird static electricity all over his leg.
That was the first time I've ever encountered a ghost face to face.
I've dreamt of spirits.
I've heard of people that have had encounters with spirits.
But I've never seen one in my own environment.
And that was the scariest night of my life.
I guess this was the scariest night of my life because I never felt invaded, that something had come in to a place that I hold sacred, that something as innocent as a park can turn into whispers and shadows and chains beating against poles and images of what looked like people looking at us.
I was just very curious, and I felt really bad afterwards that we were intruding upon a site where people had lost their lives to get some pictures, to get some audio, to get some evidence to validate myself, to validate my belief in this other world, to show James that there's more to this life experience.
We've been back several times, but when we come back, we bring flowers with us now.