It's ghost story time, people.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was a ghost tour guide in Saint Augustine, Florida for a year and a half. This tour was called the Haunted Pub Tour and we went through haunted bars and restaurants after hours in a drunken herd of tourists over crooked cobbles. As you can imagine leadign this tour was sometimes sticky, tricky and a downright pain, but I must say it was the most fun I ever had with a job. It was amazing being around the people, the ghosts and the town itself. It practically breathes and hums around you at night. I don't think there's anywhere I feel more alive than the night streets of Saint Augustine.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was a ghost tour guide in Saint Augustine, Florida for a year and a half. This tour was called the Haunted Pub Tour and we went through haunted bars and restaurants after hours in a drunken herd of tourists over crooked cobbles. As you can imagine leadign this tour was sometimes sticky, tricky and a downright pain, but I must say it was the most fun I ever had with a job. It was amazing being around the people, the ghosts and the town itself. It practically breathes and hums around you at night. I don't think there's anywhere I feel more alive than the night streets of Saint Augustine.
This particular night was in (I believe) September, or sometime in late summer or autumn. I had eleven tour guests with me and it was a fantastic night. Everyone was on the same wave length. The moon was full and so were our drinks and we were having a wonderful time. We'd already been by JJ's Heritage Restaurant by this point for the free beer for each guest afforded by my tour and had all made friends with each other. Everyone had a steady dialouge going and the spirits were high (no pun intended. Really, I promise).
We made it to our second stop a little late, but it was having a steady night, not too busy but everyone seemed happy. all the conditions were truly optimal for a good tour and we were getting a couple EMF spikes already. This second stop was Harry's Seafood Bar and Grille by the bayfront and is notouriously haunted by Mrs. Catalina DePorros. I may be misspelling her last name. I really hope not beacause that lady is truly awesome, but we'll save the story of her and her husband Joseph for another day.
Besides the married couple the building has other rumors about it and at least two other hauntings. There's the residual ghost of a man in black with a tophat that was burnt up to a crispy critter in a fire in 1887. He isn't really there but the physical impression is of him walking down the end of the corner of the stairs in full fancy suit, tie and hat dress, goes a few more steps, then disappears. There's also the alleged poltergeist, Ms. Bridget who was a scullery maid and is suspected of being the started of the fire that caused our little stairwell haunting.
The tricky bit is what we exerpienced that night wasn't any of them. I don't even know what she is. I'd already been around the ghosts on and around my route for over a year. I knew their habits, the signs of them and what they should look like (Though we physically saw very little). This wasn't like any of them. It was something different alltogether.
Of my eleven people that night I think seven of them were using cameras (or smart phones As cameras) and only one of them caught something, but it was Quite the catch. I had given my EMF (Electro Magnetic Field Meter) off to the guests to check some of the rooms with it when an older couple from my tour approached me with their digital camera and told me there was something I just needed to see, so I sat down and started studying the background of this picture. I was expecting an orb, maybe a light ribbon or something. I was really used to getting those and was a little sad when I didn't find anything even though I didn't expect much. I told her as much and she told me to look again but to look at the front and dead center of the photo so I did and I Still don't know what to think. That was over a year ago now.
In the center of the picture was a woman in grey. I guess there's no way technically to tell it was a woman for certain but I was pretty sure it was. She was wearing a grey hoodie. It wasn't light and it wasn't dark, just right in the middle. Completely neutral. That really doesn't sound like much on its own. I think it's worth mentioning, though, that this woman wasn't in the building. The picture had been taken moments ago by the computer near the stairs on the second floor and had at least three of my other guests in it. The other important fact about her was that this hood wasn't zippered and it wasn't buttoned. It was stitched up completely over her face. There wasn't a gap or a hole or anything. Her entire head and face were covered and the picture was from her upper chest and up over her head. She couldn't have been too much more than five foot, with sharp features, most particularly her nose and chin. The picture was in profile and I'd never seen anything like her.
Being the tour guide in charge of leading these other eleven people there was no way I was keeping them in that room with someone (or I suppose more accurately, something) that I couldn't fully identify, so I called them out and told them it was time to go. I herded them outside in under five minutes, having them chug the last of their drinks and told them I was sorry but the situation had me uneasy and they were more than happy to comply because they were just as jazzed about the picture as I was. With that we turned to head to our next stop.
And witnessed a red pickup truck smash into a trolly tour populated with guests from a recent wedding, still in their fancy, dress clothes.
The guests of the tour and the trolly were all surprisingly calm considering the wreckage but no one was hurt. My guests saw everything and were able to report it to incoming bicycle cops. The wreck itself, the empty beer bottles that rolled noisily out of the pick-up and the driver of said truck stashing something in a small metal box under the seat of his car.
They never sent me her picture, though I wish they had, but I'm sure they still have it. Besides that we had a lovely, energized rest of our night but that little space of time, not more than ten minutes probably, still gets to me. I still wonder about it and what she was. A ghost? Maybe something else? Perhaps an omen of sorts? Who can be sure? Whoever she was I'll never forget her.
