Of course, the theatre was haunted, but that was tradition…theatres are supposed to be haunted, or so I have been told! There were always stories of phantom footsteps beyond the footlights, of doors opening and closing, and the sounds of a conversations, kept low and quiet. While the theatre had originally served as the stable for the estate that once occupied this part of the campus, I never heard any stories of people hearing horses neighing, or stomping their feet, nor of anyone smelling oats or hay, or seeing a ghost in livery. As far as I know, no students ever died there in the building, so I am not sure who would have been haunting the place, but perhaps there were some thespians who were so dedicated to their art that they could not leave the site of their youthful passions.
While I never experienced anything strange in the theatre, other than a few avant-garde interpretations of Shakespeare, I agree that any good theatre should have ghost, and ours was no exception!
It was said that the English House also had a ghost or two. Although the theatre did not deliver any chills, I did have some questionable experiences in the English House. It was used for English classes, obviously, but is also housed the campus newspaper, The Gazette. I worked on the paper Freshman and part of Sophomore years…when I still thought I wanted to be a journalist. On occasion, I would put in some hours on the paper in the evening, when the building was empty…or supposed to be, and I would often hear someone walking up the stairs, hear doors swinging open on creaking hinges, and even the sound of someone talking, as if far off. I could never hear what was being said, and when I investigated, I never found anyone else in the house.
I never saw anything strange though, and everything else could have easily explained away, as the door was not locked and it is possible that I was not as alone as I thought I was. Nonetheless, it makes for a good story.
However, this story is not the story that I want to tell now…it is not about the theatre or the English House, it is about the ghost of North Hall!
North Hall and South Hall were wings of the Peter J. Froeberg dormitory, North was for men, and South for women. It was built in 1958 in the midst of an optimistic period, when enrollment was going up every year and the two other dorms, Nelsenius and Bremer were filled to capacity! Both wings could hold up to 550 students, most two to a room, but a few were fortunate enough to have a room to themselves! These were not luxurious rooms, they were small, cinderblock affairs with one window and two large armoires with drawers and a space to hang clothes at one end of the room, with desks against the wall, under the window.
Years later, when I visited the Montgomery County jail annex in Eagleville PA (really, just visited) and that their rooms were very similar to those in North Hall.
While the rooms in North Hall were small, some had connecting doors, and if you were lucky enough to get along with your neighbors, you could open up all the doors and have suite of rooms! Each floor had an RA (Resident Assistant) who stayed in room that was situated in the corners, where the hallway curved…these were bigger, and much nicer…but came with responsibilities that few wanted. The RAs often had to resolve arguments, straighten out room assignments, clean up messes, and make sure maintenance was called when there was a problem too big for the RA to fix.
When I lived there, the building had no air conditioning, and the heat was questionable, making it too hot and humid in the summer and too cold and damp in the winter, which reminded me of home, as my parents were not a big fan of A/C and we had old cast-iron stem radiators, and a thermostat which was seldom set about 60 (but this is another story).
One nice feature of the dorm was that there was a communal study room on each wing…which we occasionally used for study groups, but usually just as a place to meet up or hang out/party, play cards, etc. Of course, they also had communal bathrooms, which I was not pleased with…but I put up with it.
All in all, the best thing about North Hall was being able to leave and visit friends down in the townhouses, where we had more room to spread out, with bad 1970’s paneling, sticky carpets, stoves, A/C and grass to befoul.
I lived in North Hall during my first semester of Freshman year…sharing a room with a guy who tolerated me, and vice versa, he was not a bad guy at all, we were just different. We were friendly, but did not hang out a lot, I tended to gravitate towards guys who were more into music – like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, or the Grateful Dead, etc., and who liked to smoke pot AND drink.
However, one of the people I made friends with was a guy named Lerone, who was a Sophomore. He was not a big drinker, and I never saw him get high. He was highly intelligent, but a little eccentric. Lerone was also a student of history and politics, as well as a huge fan of Johnny Carson. He knew a lot about popular culture, and obscure facts that we would refer to as ‘trivia’ these days.
Lerone was one of the fortunate few who had a single room. The room next door was empty and locked, and according to the rumor mill, that room had been unoccupied for years, and was in fact, empty…no furniture or anything, just a vacant cinderblock room.
Although the room was supposed to be empty, Lerone told me that he heard noises on the other side of the wall, late at night. The sound of furniture being moved, laughing, coughing, and the faint sound of old music, “…like it was from the ‘70s!” And once, he swore, he heard muffled sobbing!
When he told me about this, I figured it was his imagination, combined with the fact that sound traveled throughout the building, as there was a lot of empty space and no insulation! He could have been hearing sound from any where in North Hall, coming up through the cinderblocks.
“Or maybe there are mice running around that room.” I said to Lerone when he mentioned the strange sounds.
One night, when we were hanging out with the RA, who was friends with Lerone, he asked about the vacant room, and this is when I first heard of the story of the ghost! While I had grown up on campus, and knew about the theatre and the English House, this was a tale I had never heard before.
It happened during the Spring Semester of 1972. As usual, there were two students assigned to the room in the Fall of ‘71, and like my roommate and I, the two got along okay, though they were very different people. The two guys were named Jack and Sam, no one really remembers where they came from, or even much about them; however, by October, it was clear that there was some stress developing between the two of them.
Jack was fairly neat and organized, while Sam barely had a handle on his side of the room. He was messy, and his personal hygiene fluctuated, but steadily went downhill over time. Jack told friends that he was annoyed by the mess, but was more concerned because Sam was very secretive. He would be gone for hours at time, and then come back to the room, get into bed, turn his back to Jack and just lay there. Sometimes he would eat leftovers from the cafeteria – which attracted ants, read comics or science fiction magazines, but mostly, he would just lay there, occasionally murmuring to himself.
Jack found it creepy.
Then, in late October of ‘71, things came to a head when Sam got news that one of his high school friends was MIA in Vietnam, then the air raid siren went off in the middle of the night. Of course, it was an accident, but Sam went into a panic, and stocked his side of the room with food that was clearly pulled from the trash, which attracted even more ants, and a few other critters. He also surrounded his bed with jugs of water, and would sleep with a knife under his pillow. Sam was ready for the apocalypse! This made things more tense and Jack snapped, he started yelling at Sam to “…clean up and get some help!”, and stormed out of the room, demanding that changes be made!
As if Jack wasn’t mad enough, Sam put all of Jack’s things in the hallway while he was complaining to the Administration, and barricaded the door!
This led to mandatory counseling for Sam and a new room assignment for Jack!
After a few weeks of therapy, Sam seemed to come out of his shell, his grades had always been good, but his seemed to pay more attention in class, and become more engaged. He was even seen talking to other students while at the cafeteria…something he never did before!
This lasted until finals…when he stopped therapy to focus on studying, and began to withdraw again. Sam got through the exams with passing grades, but when everyone else went home for the holidays, he stayed on…almost alone in North Hall, and he seemed to prefer it that way.
During Intersession, the time between Christmas and the start of Spring semester, Sam took an Economics course, but other than the time spent in the classroom in Beck, he was seldom seen out of his room. It was a cold and snowy January, and there were fewer people on campus, so his strange behavior did not get much notice.
However, this behavior continued into the Spring semester, he had signed up for three classes, and while he attended them regularly, he stopped participating…and the other students started complaining about the smell, and the constant muttering under his breath.
There were also rumors. While Sam seldom went to the cafeteria any more, he still had to eat; students claimed to have seen him digging in the trash dumpsters late at night, pulling out food and putting it in bags to take back to his room. Some claimed to have heard him praying to Satan late at night, and others said they could hear him using a shortwave radio and speaking Russian. A few of the co-eds claimed that they caught Sam looking in through their dorm windows over in South Hall, and there were reports of break ins, but none of these were substantiated. Although, the speculation was that he might have been looking for food.
A few of the professors tried to help him, the chaplain and even Doc sat him down for a good talking too…but to no avail.
Finally, as the weather was about to turn warm and the school was preparing for Hell Week, and Spring formals, Sam was called to the Administration Building and was advised to go back into counseling or risk “…not being invited back for the Fall semester”.
That was the last time anyone saw Sam alive.
As far as anyone knows, he went into his room, locked the door and stayed there. His neighbors complained about him crying and laughing late at night. People would pound on his door and tell him to stop, and usually he would quiet down, but still, if one listened carefully at the door, you could still hear Sam sobbing and talking to himself!
Finally, after about a week, it was decided that his parents would be called. The plan was that Security would go into his room first thing Monday morning, as soon as his parents arrived; however, at 3am that morning his neighbors were woken up the sound of furniture being moved in Sam’s room! It was mostly scraping and banging…and it was annoying! One of the students was going to go pound on his door again, when the noise stopped, then there was a strange strained cry and all was quiet, so the student went back to sleep.
Monday came and went, no one could get ahold of Sam’s parents, and since it was quiet, nothing was done. No more noise, no more strange sightings, and no more complaints, and Same was more or less forgotten until the smell wafted into the hallway!
It was Wednesday morning before Security went in, and then right back out again. One of the guys on the floor said one of the guards came out looking ashen, paused for a moment and then ran to the bathroom! The other, walked out, shut the door, said “I can’t!” and then got on the walkie and asked for help. Within the hour, the Police had arrived, the room was roped off and everyone was evacuated from the building, both North and South Halls. As it was a nice day, most of the students congregated in the Quad; however, a few headed for the parking lot, with thoughts of hitting Mc Donald’s or White Castle. On their way out, if they were paying attention, they may have noticed a couple of vans from the Coroner’s office parked by the basement doors, at the bottom of the stairs!
Some APOs and a couple of Owls walked from the townhouses to see what was going on, and wound up watching the show from the back of a maintenance truck while they killed a few six packs of Old Milwaukee. They later told their friends that they watched as cops came out of North Hall, white as sheets, and one of them ran behind a dumpster to puke! Then the basement doors opened, and a bunch of guys came out carrying three body bags!
About this time, a car from the Star Ledger pulled up, but Security ran them off…surprisingly, none of the other newspapers or TV stations showed up.
My guess is that the college had enough connections to keep things quiet.
After a few hours, the cops all cleared out and the students got the okay to go back to their rooms; but most were having too much fun partying in the Quad.
They had music, and a few barbecue grills, and lots of beer!
For once, the Administration didn’t mind…they were happy that the students were occupied, and things quieted down by 10pm. Of course, Maintenance was not happy about finding a couple of passed-out frat-boys in the back of their truck, but in light of everything else, even this too was forgiven.
Classes resumed the next day, and the school attempted to get back to normal, but there were rumors! Some were wild, but some were closer to the truth, like how when Security went into the room, they found Sam’s parents laid out on the beds, with their throats cut, and Sam was sitting in a chair between them, grinning, after having cut his own throat!
Apparently, his parents had shown up on Sunday night, and a fight had ensued, Sam ended the fight…which explains the noise his neighbors heard that night…and the sudden quiet.
Eventually the rumors died down, as everyone was caught up in studying for exams, and looking forward to graduation and summer. Meanwhile, the room was cleaned, and then cleaned again and then sealed up until the end of the semester.
Over the summer, the entire wing was re-painted, and repaired. When the Fall Semester started in 1972, it was as if nothing had happened, and two new students moved into the room where “the incident” had occurred. By this time, the rumors had become things of myth and legend, as life went on.
The new residents of the room heard the rumors about the room within minutes of moving in. Their clothes were still laid out on the bed, waiting to be put into the drawers of the new armoires, their notebooks and school supplies were still in their boxes and the portable record player was still folded and ready to be deployed. That was when a few of the Sophomores came in saying “We just wanted to see the room, to see where it happened!” One of the new kids asked “Where what happened?” And that’s when they found out about the “incident”. One of the guys immediately put in for a transfer to another room, and it was granted before the day was out, he was actually moved to the overflow, the basement of South Hall. He wound up with a single in one of the most valued rooms on campus, outside of the townhouses.
The other guy was happy to have a room to himself first semester of freshman year, and declared that he was “…not afraid of any ghost stories!” However, even as he made this declaration, the other guys in the room could see a look of doubt cross his face.
Despite any reservations he might have had, the student, Nick, stayed in the room for the entire semester. He never mentioned that he saw or heard anything unusual, but when his friends would go to Nick’s room to hangout, they all reported feeling having a creepy feeling, probably because they knew all the rumors. Not even downing a few beers, or passing a joint helped take the edge off, and usually they all chose to go to another room to party…even though that meant having to deal with roommates.
One night, Nick had a girl stay overnight in his dorm, but she wound up leaving at 3am and running back to her own room in South Hall. When her roommate asked her about it the next morning, thinking that Nick had done something wrong, the girl said he was not the problem. She told the roommate that she woke up in the middle of the night, to a horrible smell, like rotten meat! When she opened her eyes, she saw something standing in front of the window, although it was just a silhouette, she could see glowing red eyes staring, and just before she screamed, the figure faded away! She got up and out of there right away, leaving Nick sound asleep…only to wake up confused and disappointed the next morning.
She was not the only one to notice a foul odor in the room, underneath the smell of new paint, weed and incense, many others also noticed the rotten meat smell in the room!
While Nick kept saying that nothing bothered him in the room, after moving out, he admitted that he never felt comfortable while he was living there. This led to him drinking more than usually, it actually began to be a problem, but this got better when he abandoned the room early in the Spring semester.
Nick’s neighbors were used to hearing sounds coming from his room at all hours of the night. They figured that he was having trouble sleeping, was drunk, had a girl over, etc. But Nick was well liked, and it never got too bad, so no one complained. However, over the Thanksgiving weekend, one of his neighbors was staying on campus and heard the usual noises coming from Nick’s room. He was surprised because he thought the room was empty, and he went to check on him.
He knocked on the door and noises stopped. He called out “Nick, you okay?” and there was no answer. This got the attention of the RA, who also thought Nick had gone home. After repeated knocks, the RA became concerned, got out his keys and opened the door.
He found the room to be empty, but the noises continued throughout the weekend. When Nick came back on Sunday night, he swore he had been home in Brick Township all weekend, and no more was said about it, until February.
The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was filled with studying, partying and exams…and Nick was only in his room to sleep, sometimes, as he started hanging out with the APOs, and girl who had run from his room.
Even though he was busy, Nick could no longer ignore that there were a few things were off about his room…the smell seemed to grow stronger, no matter what he did, and items like his keys and his school books would wind up in strange places. Also, a few times, after coming home from a late night (or early morning) he would find his radio was on, of his drawers open, as if someone had been looking through his desk!
After the exams were over, Nick went back home for the long break, returning to campus in late January. While he was gone, North Hall was mostly empty, but the few students who stayed, said that they heard some noises coming from the room. However, no one was concerned enough to check it out.
Spring semester started off with a major snowstorm that cancelled classes and kept everyone stuck in the dorms for two days. While some saw this as an opportunity to party…no stores were open, and not all the students had made it back to campus yet. So, Nick wound up spending most of that time in his room, listening to records, reading and watching it snow.
It was late at night, in the midst of the storm, as he was staring out of the window into the darkness. The lights were low, and he could see his reflection in the glass…when behind him, a figure appeared! He was shocked, and about to look when he heard “Don’t turn around!” Then a hand fell on his shoulder and he screamed, jumped up, but the room was empty! That was when he fainted!
He woke up the next morning on the floor. He stood up, got some clean clothes on and went down to the townhouses. He walked into the house where many of the APOs lived, went upstairs without a word to his friends, and crashed out on a spare bed. Nick looked terrible, and the brothers were concerned about him. They ran after him to find out what had happened, but he was already sound asleep.
When he woke up that evening, they dragged Nick up to the Pub and got the story out of him…how he had not only seen the ghost of the murderer, but how, as he looked up from the floor early that morning, he saw Sam’s parents looking down at him, covered in blood, but still looking concerned!
Usually, they would not have believed him, but the look on his face said it all: he was not lying, and his story chilled them to the bone! When he swore them to secrecy they agreed, and as far as we know, they never spoke of it again.
Not even during Hell Week, when all bets were off.
The next day, Nick got his things and unofficially moved down to the townhouses, and his room remained empty for the rest of the year.
When the Fall semester started later that year, two new students were assigned, but they only lasted a few weeks before they requested (demanded) a different room. This pattern repeated for several more semesters. Students assigned to the room all complained of the smell, and many reported strange activity in the room, or would awaken to find dark shadows standing over them at night. The last occupants of the room even brought in a Ouija board and tried to contact the spirits in the room. This was in 1977, and it did not go well. They claim to have heard from Sam, who told them to “Get out!” right before the board rose into the air, spun around and slammed into one of the students, breaking his nose!
After that, the college decided to give up on the room. They said that there were too many rumors, and that made it impossible to get anyone to stay there. The school had all the furniture removed, the room cleaned, and then sealed. Only Maintenance and Security had the key, no one else was to ever go into the room…for years.
Over the years, there have been some complaints about noises coming from the room, including those reported by Lerone, but as I noted, it was assumed to be rats, pipes or just sounds from other parts of the building. On the few occasions that Maintenance went in to check something in the room, there was nothing found, no sign of anyone having been in there, not even a mouse turd…just dust!
After a while, the noises were ignored, and the stories were all but forgotten. Over time a few of the new students asked why the room was always empty, but were told that “…no one knows.” This worked until Lerone, who was naturally curious, became interested in the history of room, and the story once again came to light!
A few days after hearing the story Lerone came to me with an idea. “I keep hearing noises next door in that ghost room, and I was thinking maybe we should do an Exorcism, to finally set him free!” “Set who free?” I asked. “The ghost of course, haven’t you been paying attention?” Lerone explained that he had been studying how to do an Exorcism since he first saw the movie “…and it is really nothing like the movie.” He explained. Then, he asked me to come into his room, where he took a small black book out of his desk drawer. “This book contains the Rite of Exorcism; I am going to get into that room and cleanse the evil spirit!”
I wasn’t sure what to say about this plan, so I just nodded my head and said “Cool, good luck with that!” I turned to walk away, but he grabbed my shoulder and said “I need your help.” While I was wary of messing around with anything too weird, I figured that Lerone didn’t know what he was doing, and thought the ghost story was just that…a story, so I said “Sure, what do you need?”
Lerone asked me to sit down, and proceeded to tell me his plan: He was going to find a way to get into the room, and bring in a Bible and some Holy Water (he actually had some) and perform the rite from the book. Lerone believed that this would cleanse the room and set the spirits that were trapped there free. He said that once the Exorcism was completed and the room cleansed, the noises would stop and he’d be able to sleep through the night. “Besides, it should be really interesting.”
Lerone had everything he needed, except for access to the room. We asked the RA, and while he was intrigued, he reminded us that only Maintenance and Security could get into the room. We could not go to Security for the keys, but Lerone knew someone on the Maintenance staff, a work-study student named Phil, who might be able to get the keys for us.
Phil was reluctant to help, although he thought an Exorcism would be cool, he was not excited about losing his job. It took some persuasion, and Lerone had to promise to let him help, but he finally agreed. The only problem was that he didn’t know where the key was! Whenever he could, he searched for it but could not find it anywhere! “There are just too many loose keys around!” Lerone shook his head, and Phil promised to keep trying.
After this bad news, we walked out into the hall, and stood in front of the room. We stared at the heavy wooden door, and when I looked at the doorknob, I noticed that there was some space between the door jam and the door itself. We could actually see the latch, and I said “Maybe we can get a screwdriver in there, to pull the latch open?” “No, we don’t want to break anything, then we’d get into trouble.” Lerone answered, and Phil agreed…he didn’t want to have to fix anything else. Just then, Vince, who lived down the hall walked over. “I was listening to you guys; anyone check to see if the door was unlocked?” Lerone looked incredulous, “What, do you think we’re stupid, think we did not try the door?” With that he reached out and turned the knob, and the door swung open!
Lerone was shocked! “Oh my God!” he said, “All this time!” Vince just laughed and patted him on the shoulder. Then, we all turned to look into the room. It was night, so it was dark inside, but we could see light from the parking lot coming in through the window. At first glance, it looked like any other room, there were bunkbeds, two desks and two armoires, etc. However, when Lerone turned on the light, we saw that the room was completely empty! The tiled floor reflected the overhead light, and the cinderblock walls were painted a light blue. There was no furniture, no bulletin boards, nothing but dust!
“Kind of disappointing isn’t it?” remarked Vince, but Lerone ignored him as we walked deeper into the room. Suddenly, he stopped and shook. “I just got a chill!” he said. I walked behind him and felt the chill myself, but figured it was the power of suggestion. That said, I decided I had enough of the room and I walked out. Just as I did, the door slammed behind me! “Lerone, what are you doing?” I yelled. “What are you doing, open this door!” He shouted back, as he tried to open the door, but it would not budge! I grabbed the knob and tried to open it from my end, but it was locked!
Lerone started to pound on the other side of the door, I told him to let go of the knob and stand back, after a few tries and some pushing against the door frame, I managed to get the door opened, and Lerone came out, looking shaken, and angry! “That wasn’t funny!” he yelled. “We didn’t do it!” Vince, said. “We tried to get the door open, it just wouldn’t budge!” I added.
Lerone calmed down, and then looked back into the room. “Maybe HE did it!” “Maybe he did…” I replied, “…something weird is going on here!” Just then, the door began to slowly swing shut. Lerone stopped it, and pulled some tissues out of his pocket and stuffed it into the door jam. “I can’t have this door locking up on me, we have to do the Exorcism…and do it soon!” Then he stepped away from the door and let it close. Lerone then nodded to us, and went back to his room and shut his door. We were left in the hall way, just looking at each other. “Sounds pretty wild to me.” Said Phil. “I’m a Christian, and this ‘spirit’ stuff bothers me…a lot.” Vince told us. I told them, “I’m curious to see how this all plays out.”
A few nights later, Thursday, I was in the Pub with a couple of friends, sharing a pitcher and some stale chips, when Lerone walked in, and sat down with us. I offered him some of the beer, but he declined, “I need to keep a clear head, I’m getting ready…I’m going to do this tomorrow at Midnight!”
By the next evening, the campus had mostly emptied out, as many of the students lived within commuting distance of the college. This is what Lerone had hoped for as we had most of our wing to ourselves, the perfect setting for an Exorcism…at least we would not be bothering too many people if things got…noisy!
Lerone asked Phil and I to meet him at his room at 11pm. Vince had stayed on campus that weekend, and he came out of his room when he heard us in the hallway. As he noted, Vince was a religious person, and was not too keen on the prospect or facing a ghost or a demon, but he was also a skeptic and did not think that the story was anything more than just that…a story! Being bored, he thought this might be interesting to watch, even if from a distance.
When I got to his room, I saw that Lerone was wearing a black bathrobe over a white shirt, making him look like a priest at first glance. He was sitting on the floor, and had his book of rites and a Bible. “Wow you really are serious about this!” Phil exclaimed. “Of course, this is nothing to mess around with!” Lerone answered.
I could tell that this made Vince a bit uncomfortable, and I was not far behind him. “I hope you mean that Lerone, because it’s not good to make fun of the Gospels.” Vince told him, adding, “I’m not sure that this whole thing is for me.” Lerone gave Vince a serious look, and said “I understand, I am dead seriously, but we’re friends and we’ll still be friends if you go back to your room.” Vince nodded, and said he’d stick with us for a little bit longer. Lerone said “Thank you, and remember, you can leave whenever you like.”
With that, Lerone told us it was time to get started. He had Phil hold the Holy Water and the candles, while giving me the Bible. By the time we walked out of his room to go next door, a few other guys had gathered in the hall, including Chuck (Phil’s roommate) and Adolphus, a big guy, who was a member of the football team. So, we had an audience as we opened the door to the empty room, and walked in.
Lerone set up a small TV tray in the middle of the room, lit the two candles, asked Phil to turn off the lights, and opened his book to the Rites of Exorcism. “Where did you even get that book from?” Phil asked. “It was in the library, in the Reserve Stacks!” Lerone answer, and then he turned to me and said “When I tell you to, read these verses here…” pointing to Mark 5: 1 -13, the story of Jesus casting out the demon called ‘Legion’. I agreed, but was feeling a bit anxious, as the atmosphere in the room grew heavy. That was about the time that Vince turned and walked back out to the hall, to stand next to Adolphus. They both looked uneasy. This did not help me feel any better, as “Dolphie” was never afraid of anything!
For a moment, Lerone stood before the table, silently reading through the Rite, while our audience grew and got louder. He turned and said “Please…we need silence for this!” There were some snickers in the back, but for the most part the guys got quiet. A few were drinking beer and a little buzzed, and while amused, they were trying to stay respectful. Lerone was a little bit “off” but we all liked him.
Once it was quiet, Lerone stood for a moment, and then began reciting the words from the book. As he continued, the room seemed to close in on us, the air got heavier, and it seemed to get even darker! I knew this had to be my imagination, but it still freaked me out! I looked to Phil, and he also seemed anxious. Then I noticed that the brightly lit hallway seemed a lot farther away than 15 feet!
Then, at the moment when Lerone asked me to read from the Bible, the door slammed shut, and the candle blew out! Phil jumped when the door slammed, then he tried to turn on the lights, but they did not work. The door would not open either, and Phil yelled to the guys in the hall to “Open up, that wasn’t funny!” I too thought the guys were playing a trick on us, I knew the circuit breaker box was open, and figured they killed the power too. I was about to join Phil, when Lerone told us “Stop, be quiet…we’re close!”
Even with the lights from the parking lot, it was nearly pitch dark in the room. When Lerone got the candles re-lit, and as their soft light filled the room, we were shocked! The room was no longer empty!
There were two beds, one on either side of the room, two cluttered desks, and two of the standard college armoires. A radio glowed in the corner, and the sound of “A Lighter Shade of Pale” came from it! As my eyes adjusted, I could see figures on each of the beds, not moving, and that was when the smell, a rotten, garbage smell, hit us! Before we could react, a figure materialized in front of the window!
Both Phil and I gasped, but Lerone shushed us and asked me to start reading the passage!
As I read, the figure in front of the window became more solid. The face looked more sad than menacing, and I began to feel great empathy for it as I read through the story of Jesus casting out the demon! When I read verse 8, where Jesus said “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!” and the demon begged to be cast into the swine, Lerone yelled “I cast you out!” and directed Phil to splash the Holy Water! At that moment, the figure burst into a cloud of fireflies! Lerone then reached out and opened the window as I continued to read, and the fireflies flew out into the chilly November evening!
The lights came back on by themselves, and it showed us that the room was, in fact, empty! Then, Vince swung the door open from the hallway, and I could see the shocked look on the faces of the guys gathered in the hall! With the air blowing in through the open window, and the lights back on, the room felt just like any other vacant space!
“I think that worked!” I said to Lerone, who looked as surprised as I felt! “I think it really did!” he agreed, then he blew out the candles, grabbed the table, shut the window and we turned off the lights and walked out of the room. As door closed, I looked at my watch, to see that it was only 12:45am, all this had taken place in the space of about 45 minutes!
As we walked back to Lerone’s room, Dolphie said “Wow, what was that?” Chuck answered, “That was wild!” Vince added, “I hope I never see anything like that again!” It turns out that while we were shut up in the room, the guys in the hall could hear everything that was going on inside. They also reported seeing a bright light coming out from under the door…something we could not account for. They also said they heard a high-pitched scream about the same time that the figure burst into fireflies!
Phil didn’t say anything, he just put the Holy Water down on Lerone’s desk and then he and Chuck went back to their room! I had nothing to say either, though I tried to make some sense of everything, every time I started to speak, it came out wrong. Finally, I just told Lerone “That was amazing!” wished him a good night, and went back to my room.
As far as I know, no one ever reported any other noises or strangeness associated with that room ever again. However, no one was assigned that room again either. The story soon faded to legend, and while only a handful of people witnessed the “Exorcism”, dozens later claimed to have seen it in person, including a few who were not even enrolled in the school when it happened!
By the time I was in my Senior year, the story had grown outrageous, with demons blowing the door off the hinges and Legion itself appearing to the students in the hall! This led to many believing that it was all made up, without a shred of truth, which was fine as far as we were concerned. Lerone and I went our separate ways, but stayed friendly until we were both finished with school, and then we lost track of each other.
Sadly, years later, I learned that he passed away, which was a great loss. They don’t make guys like Lerone every day, to say he was unique would be an under-statement!
The school closed in 1995, and North Hall, along with half of the campus was torn down and replaced by a development of nice, high-end homes (as an attempt to revitalize the community). Shortly before the building was lost, I went back to the campus with my daughter, to show her what was once a big part of my life. As we walked through the abandoned campus, with our Boxer on a leash, the dog suddenly looked up toward one of the windows on the second floor of the building. I followed her gaze and noticed that she was pointing right toward THE room! The windows were now gone, and I could see inside, and for a moment, I swore I could see a shadow standing just inside the room, under a crumbling plaster ceiling. I figured it was a trick of the light, or maybe a homeless person who was squatting. Just then, a cop pulled up and suggested that we were not in a good spot for sight-seeing!
And I left the campus, as I knew it, for the last time.
What I saw, does make me wonder, if the residents of that new community ever wake up late at night to her the sound of “A Lighter Shade of Pale” drifting across their backyards, or feel the hairs on the back of their neck rising, as if a sad and broken pair of eyes have fallen upon them.
Actually, I hope they do not, I hope that whoever, or whatever, was in that room is now free.
Ordinary Adventures 