A Tale of Three Tails

Come closer, and I shall tell you a tale...one that nightmares are made of. Ok, so maybe not nightmares, but definitely a story that should instill fear. I live in a historic town in south central Kentucky. Our town is home to the famous Octagon Hall, and only 8 sided house in the state. Like all old houses, there are stories of hauntings and ghosts. These stories stem from the house being used throughout the Civil War as a hospital and sanctuary. Every year, the Octagon Hall holds haunted tours the entire month of October, and that is where my story begins.

My cousin's and I are thrill seekers, and this particular Halloween, one of our youngest cousins was finally old enough to seek this thrill with us. Upon arrival, we parked in a field and walked toward the festivities. To the right of the parking, was a barn that had been turned into a maze. There was a horrible M.C. standing at the door, calling to random patrons. There were a lot of volunteers tooling around, dressed in black, wearing scary masks, you get the idea. Immediately, I spot someone walking towards us, and I look to the youngest member of our party and say, in hushed tones, "Look Kelsey, it's a ghost!" She starts looking, and I goose her in the sides and she screams bloody murder. All the volunteer could say was "I didn't even have my mask on."

There were five of us touring the house that night and after we finally made it in the house, let me set the scene for you, I am short and slightly wide, Kelsey weighs about 90 pounds soaking wet with a quarter in her pocket and Charlie is well over 6 foot tall and weighs a little more than 90 pounds. I digress.

If you ever get a chance to take the tour around Halloween, it's well worth the money, if for nothing more than shock value. On this particular night, the "haunts" were very active. There were lots of doors slamming, tiny child footsteps, crazy girl digging her nails into my forearm. As our group made its way into the basement, attempting to go three wide down the stairs, the three of us held onto each other for dear life. As a light bulb shattered, a shaky tour guide ushered us into the saddle room. Normal people go through a door one a time, we are not normal. Kelsey, Charlie and I were going through this door as one person. One tiny hiney, and two not so tiny tail ends were attempting to make it into one very small, rather scary room. Imagine the level of failure. We decided not to enter that particular room, and spend the rest of our Halloween adventure walking the plantation, listening for eerie ghost sounds, the Halloween haunting of "Mary Elizabeth" and a stray confederate soldier.

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