WNC Scary Stories: A presence in the forest

Eric Ivers

Editor’s note: For Halloween, we asked our readers to share the scariest things they’ve experienced in our area. Readers came through with shivery accounts of mysterious occurrences, including this one below.

I lived right off the Buck Spring Trail for seven months in 2017 while working at the Pisgah Inn. Tucked above the inn are the housing quarters for employees. I don’t like to go back there. After seven months on a mountain, a lot of the forest’s sounds become normal. Not this night.

It was a brisk fall evening. I had walked back to my cabin after my shift. I had the main door to the inside of my room cracked open. I was still up, and as I went to wash my face, the screen door outside opened ever so slightly. I finished washing my face and walked back across the cold tile floor.

And that’s when I heard a presence. A young girl outside the door, softly crying, then a muffled whisper of words I couldn’t quite make out. And then a chuckle as the screen door opened gently, then closed shut. Silence followed. And the wind cries Mary.

— Eric Ivers
Asheville

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