Ghost In The Road

The Summer of 1988 was probably the pinnacle of the paranormal activity experienced by my family. We had been experiencing inexplicable occurrences in our house for several years. I am no expert in these matters, but the activity seemed more like demonic or poltergeist activity.

The activity included feeling like something was sitting on me at night when I would try to sleep, feeling something sitting on the corner of my bed, and growling sounds right next to my ear. Other family members described seeing tall, dark, cloaked figures in the house. One visitor to the house (my old boyfriend home from the Navy) witnessed one of the many times my name was called from down the hall. The name callings would sound slightly similar to a family member's voice, but when you would go to see who was calling you, nobody would be in that part of the house. I could write a book and still fail to describe all the events which occurred.

The activity was most unwelcome, as we were a family of born-again Christians who wanted nothing to do with darkness. We tried prayer and spiritual house cleansing, but none of our efforts had any lasting impact on the situation. It was an isolating experience, because, who would we tell? It sounded so crazy, who would believe us?

Curiously, these experiences began shortly after a nasty church split, when it was claimed the pastor was dabbling in the occult. This pastor was particularly upset with my dad after we left the church. I have no direct knowledge of the veracity of the claims of occult involvement.

Perhaps the most interesting occurrence involved two separate episodes in the car. In the first episode, I was driving with a friend on the old Highview Road in Washington, Illinois. I believe it may be called Centennial Drive now. It was the summertime, and my former boyfriend was home on leave from the Navy. We decided to go to nearby Peoria for Subway sandwiches because, at that time, Peoria was the only town in the area that had them. On the return trip, we were driving on Highview Road along a particularly dark stretch of the road.

Suddenly, a male figure appeared just in front of the car out of nowhere. He was in the middle of our lane, and there was no way to avoid hitting him. The headlights lit him up, and the figure was only visible from the neck down. I don't know that there wasn't a head, but the headlights didn't illuminate a head. The figure was wearing what appeared to be old work clothes, and the image was similar to an old sepia photograph. What I mean is, you couldn't really see any color in the clothing. It was just shades of brown and white. The figure was standing still, and my friend only had enough time to reflexively slam on the brakes and we immediately drove right through the figure.

My friend was understandably shaken, and he may have even cried in spite of his military pride. Incidentally, it was after we returned to my house that the aforementioned name calling incident occurred. My mom reported having experienced an identical phenomenon a few months later while driving on Cole Hollow Road between East Peoria and Pekin. Cole Hollow Road is a number of miles away, so I feel it's unlikely to be a ghost attached to a particular area. I suspect it was instead connected with all the other weirdness occurring at the time. A couple of years later, some horror film was running on the television (perhaps it was Amityville Horror?) and it depicted a similar event.

If anyone has any ideas about the origin of these phenomenon, I would appreciate your input. I haven't experienced any strange goings on since Christmas Day, 1994. Yes, I remember the last event, and I am truly thankful that the intervening years have been "normal". Still, I am curious and it would be nice to have an explanation. My brother and I talk about it from time to time, and wonder why we're both not crazy. Maybe we are and just don't know it. Thank you for reading my story!