From http://www.theshadowlands.net/places/missouri.htm :

Clayton - Shady Oak Theater - as the story goes, a man killed himself on the grounds before the theater was built. Film has been seen un-winding while sitting on the shelf the lobby speaker has shot off its hook only to be found 15 ft away in the middle of the floor. People cleaning up after hours have felt a weird, uneasy feeling of being watched from the curtains at either side of the stage. Balcony lights have dimmed, only to slowly gain light again. Posters in the lobby have been found off their hooks or turned around when the theater opens in the morning. Cold spots have been felt & even someone saying “tisk,tisk,tisk”, sneering & even faint moaning from behind the curtains that lead to the back when no one is around. Not a place you want to be alone in after it closes.

Have you ever found the freakiest thing that ever happened to you randomly sitting on a stranger’s web site? Something only half a dozen people (tops) knew about?

I didn’t tell that site any of those things, but I bloody well could have. Of course, just about all of those things happened differently than they’re described (it wasn’t film, it was audiotapes; the posters moved not overnight, but within moments of me looking at them on the wall; the speaker wasn’t so much “found” 15 feet away as it was witnessed by me flying at my personal freakin’ head) and the weirdest stuff only happened that one day.

Still, what a day.

The… Incident (bom bom bommmm!) was 10 years ago, and seeing that in print still wigs me. Halloween just wouldn’t be Halloween without the Shady Oak ghostbusting story coming up; one day I’m going to put it on paper in an entertaining fashion, but not today. Frankly, the thought makes me a bit uncomfortable. Besides, if I did write the story nobody would publish it. Too implausible. I don’t believe it myself (ghosts are bullshit) except… speakers flying at my personal head, benches in empty rooms moved in front of doors, tapes unspooling themselves…. When people ask me if I believe in ghosts, my reply is “only the ones I know personally.”

Tantalizing, no? Catch me in the right mood one day and I’ll tell you aaaall about it.

Oh, but I will say this: put down the ouija board, dumbass. Have you ever heard a ouija board story that ends, “We learned a lot about each other that night, and a little about ourselves. It was a cathartic, valuable life lesson”? No, you have not. Ouija board stories end with stuff like “the blood never did come out of the carpet” and “at night, sometimes I can still hear the screams.” And I say this as a skeptic. Best case scenario, you and your friends are freaking each other out like idiots; worst case, you’re talking to the evil dead.