The Ghosts At My Friend's

My friend and his family live in Potts Camp, Mississippi. Perhaps important to note is that his sister-in-law's family formerly owned a plantation near the trailer. In fact, there is an old, run-down slave shack just across the road.

From the time Dakota and his brother and sister-in-law moved into the trailer, he has experienced strange events that seem to have been steadily getting more and more frequent--more and more solid.

During the beginning, the "events" were innocent enough. In fact, several can still be explained away, such as bags and cans and beauty care products falling from their holding places. When David and Samantha were at work and Dakota alone, he would hear footsteps, see shadows. In those times, he tells me, he would search the rooms and even the outskirts of the forest to see if he could spot anyone. He never could.

On one occasion, he and David were together at night when they heard a voice coming from outside. The voice sounded, to Dakota, as though it was walking around their home, giving a description about the trailer. That may not be what the... Whatever... Was talking about, however--the voice was never understood. When the two of them looked, no one was there. On another time, Dakota was alone with a pitt bull by the name of Gigi. The same voice could be heard again, but this time it sounded as though it was yelling right outside of the door. Frightened, Dakota got the shotgun and went out on the porch--the voice started to whisper--and he yelled, "Show yourself!" Something bolted through the weeds (whether it was an animal or something else, he has no idea), and Gigi started at the door, unmoving, for the rest of the night.

Things such as this would persist, but new things would start to happen as well. In these past few months Dakota has told me that he would be taking a bath and hear my voice coming from his room ("Dakotaaa, come here!"--something I usually say when he's in the tub, because he takes well over an hour and I'm typically impatient for him to get out) on a Tuesday afternoon, when I would otherwise be in school. On two separate occasions he has come out of the bathroom and ran into a body--a man, with black shoes, black pants, and a white shirt. When Dakota raises his head to get a full view, the man has disappeared.

David parks his car to the side of the trailer, and Dakota and I like to go out and relax. I once seen something walk past these two trees that stand beside one another. I got scared, but the only way I could describe it to Dakota was this, "It was white, without a head! It didn't have a head!"

I went over to his place last Friday (October 18) and got back home yesterday (October 21). During the weekend several strange things happened--none of which I EVER expected to come across! Even seeing the "white thing" once before, I have remained skeptical of Dakota's supposed paranormal experiences... But not anymore.

On Saturday night, when Dakota and I were getting out of the car and just standing around, he was looking at the wood while I was looking at the weeds--we were just enjoying the silence. But then I heard him say, "Oh my God."

"What?"

"Those two trees, right over there. I seen something walking back and forth right over there! It had on a white shirt!

"Hello? Who are you?"

Dakota's dog's name is Padfoot, a lovable border collie. We were able to hear Padfoot growling across the yard, but I heard something else--a man's laughter. I wasn't sure what to do about that, so I laughed right along with it.

Dakota picked up the kaiser blade for defense and threw a rock in the woods. I heard nothing, but he claims that the footsteps stopped; a second later, he heard the footsteps approaching us. Needless to say we ran up the porch and got inside, like the cowards we are.

Of all of these happenings that I myself have experienced, however, none of them compare to the return of the voice on Friday night.

Like the past times that Dakota and I have seen or heard something while together, we were outside, though this time we were closer to the top of the hill. I don't recall what we were talking about, though I don't believe it to be of importance. What is important, I believe, is that we heard it. The voice--the voice that seems to be talking about something, speaking through a megaphone, but is impossible to make out. Dakota and I stopped talking to listen to it. Its speech (and I say "speech" because that's the impression that I got: it was giving a speech to an audience... Though whether or not there actually was an audience, aside from Dakota and myself, I cannot say) was not continuous, but kept "breaking up," or perhaps he (certainly male) just waited a few seconds between each sentence or point to speak again.

At one point I asked, "What are they doing?" The ghost (if that is what it is) responded, "... What are they doing..." I don't know what it said before and after that phrase. I just know that it said that.

Dakota wasn't able to make out what it said there, though I don't know why. Perhaps because the ghost copied me on that instance, or perhaps just because I got "lucky?"

The two of us got brave and decided to walk past the woods. We climbed up the hill--the voice persisted--and crossed the bridge. Half-way across the bridge, however, the voice changed positions: it was no longer in the wood beside Dakota's house, but in the wood near the former slave shack. When we got to the edge of the county we turned around and retreated, and the voice died out.

I'm not sure what to make about all of this. I don't know if the entity is friendly or violent, or if there is more than one (I personally think that there are at least three: the voice that copied me, the man that we never see the head of, and the voice through the megaphone, but that's just me), or if some of them are friendly and some are malicious. It's hard to say.

My mother told me that if the entity copies you (such as the one that impersonated my voice, or the voice that copied my question), then it shouldn't be trusted. Any thoughts? Any advice?

I should be going back over to Dakota's on the first weekend of November, so if anything happens again I'll report back.