Coolest Story of the Month

A Fort Drum Phantom
by Phillip Y.

About three years ago, I was stationed in Fort Drum, N.Y. and residing in civilian housing off base. It was your normal apartment complex and it was fairly peaceful. My wife and I had been living there for only a few months before things began to happen. For example, we may be sitting in the living room and talking about no specific subject and a book would "hop" off from the bookshelf and into the center of the room or shadows without any source would move slowly through the hallway. Later, events would prove that such relatively minor events would be something that we wished would happen more often as opposed to what would eventually occur.

After work one evening, a friend was invited over for dinner. I had previously discussed to him what all had occurred in the apartment and he, being an open-minded spirit, believed what I had to say. Sometime that evening, I decided to take a picture of my wife with a camera that I had just purchased. Upon development, I discovered that one of the pictures had not been developed. Being curious, I slipped the negatives into a photo-negative adapter that I had with my scanner. I was not amused. My wife on the couch was certainly in the picture; however, another image (rather a shadow) was present in the photograph. Holding it sideways, it showed the profile of what appeared to be a male. I testify even to this day, that there was nothing in the room that could have given off this shadow.

Showing this to my friend intrigued him, to say the least. I invited him over for dinner the next evening in which we continued to discuss the strange events. Little did we know that we were in for a show that evening. Now, let me retrace my steps. In the neighborhood, there was this black cat, whose owner was unknown, which continued to make himself present on my doorsteps. He would always run whenever I came home. A few times I even attempted to catch him and/or give him some food, as he seem malnourished. He continued to evade me so I eventually gave up. Now, let us return to that evening. En route to the kitchen, I decided to take a look out the peephole on the front door. There was the cat, just looking up at the door. Quietly I opened the door, an action that I dearly regret. Suddenly, all three of us hear a scream, not unlike a panther, pierce through our heads. Thinking I was merely hearing things, I wide-eyed my wife and friend whom both were frozen with a look as though they had seen the Grim Reaper. Whereas if I was the only one that heard it, I may be skeptical as to whether or not what I heard was real or not, but knowing that all three heard it at the same moment I, without a second thought, slammed the door and quickly moved myself into the living room.

Later that week, my wife’s legs went into a state of paralysis. It happened twice in one week, the reason still unknown. All that I know is that she could not move them whatsoever for several hours.

On a Saturday, he stayed the night. The next evening, we decided to hold a séance. We read on the proper and "safe" procedures and ensured that they were placed in the format that evening. Nothing, save a few flickering lights, occurred that evening. However, we decided to tape the event to playback later in hopes to capture some EVP [electronic voice phenomena]. We did. Though most of it was unintelligible, we were able to discern two different voices. One was quite feminine, stating something along the lines of "My name is Jacqueline"; the other was more harsh and masculine. And although I knew better than to incorporate a Ouija board, I did so nonetheless. Whereas the planchette did move now and then, during the playback we could distinctly hear a voice speaking the letters prior to the planchette moving to them.

We all decided to do nothing for a while. It was rather calm for a few days. However, one night I was in for an experience of a lifetime. Until that night, I had never had an OBE (out-of-body experience). Yet, one night as I was sleeping, I found myself above both the body of my wife and myself. Turning to face the opposite direction, I also saw the body of another individual who was very much not asleep. I can vividly recall "his" physical features. He was a middle-aged male, short (perhaps around 5'2"), bald, powder-white and wearing orange clothing. I knew that he was the source of the problems. Staring at each other only a few moments, we then engaged in hand-to-hand combat, though I am not sure who initiated it. Moments later, I reached out and somehow grabbed a dagger, that I kept near the bed, and thrust it in his chest. As to how I formulated a physical dagger into the astral is unknown, but the stab in the chest made him disappear. Seconds later, I found myself back in my bed nearly in shock from the experience.

Save a few shadows dancing through the hallway, the ghostly events came to a halt after that night. Shortly thereafter, my wife and I had decided to get a divorce as our personal life has been delved into turmoil in ways that I wish not to speak about. Whether the apartment had anything to do with the divorce or not is irrelevant, as I am now happy that I am neither in the Army nor living in that apartment anymore.