The Floating Candle

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The Floating Candle
Candle by the Window / Stock Photo

There are no friends like the ones you have between the ages of 10 and 13. So many experiences, so much fun. Hepzibah is located between Clarksburg and Shinnston, West Virginia. Raised here all my life, it has been a quiet community, one that is ideal in which to raise a family. It was once known as ‘McEntyre Camp’, a community for local miners and their families. The mine has long been closed down, but the community remains.

There was an elderly couple across from us that everyone loved and adored. She adopted all the neighboring kids as hers and always had time to hand out candies or apples. Her only child, a daughter, drowned in the West Fork River on her way to college on a cold winter morning. Her property consisted of two lots, a house on each lot. The second house located behind the main one in which she resided was never used. It was in that house where her husband was found dead in the basement. He had died from a heart attack.

Myself and a couple of the neighboring girls decided to sit outside this house one summer night and tell ghost stories just for fun. Being so young, we had great imaginations!

As one of the girls began telling her story, the girl sitting next to me on the ground noticed a flickering light through the window of the house. We each stood to look in the direction she was describing and sure enough, it looked as though it were a candle. It was the only way to describe it. It moved across the room from right to left. It was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

Our first thought was that a vehicle’s headlights was reflecting on the glass window pane so we walked to the edge of the road and looked towards the top of the road and saw nothing. We each went home completely stunned and scared out of our wits.

Being young and curious by nature, we each decided we would try our story telling session again. Twice we gathered on the ground outside the neighboring house and experienced nothing. To four young girls, it was a huge disappointment!

On our third visit to the old house, we sat down to prepare for some story telling when the girl across from us and to the right of me saw the light! We each stood immediately and literally watched in awe the flickering light move from right to left, then disappear! The hair on the back of my neck stood up and we each had goose bumps. We decided to keep it to ourselves for fear of our parents thinking we are full of nonsense.

This was 29 years ago. We all grew up, moved away and started families of our own. Fifteen years ago, I returned to Hepzibah and bought the home three lots down from where the old house used to be. It has since been torn down, but the main house is still there and has been sold. I often find myself looking in that direction with a smile as I remember how four young girls had an encounter with a spirit.

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Stories are personal encounters that were submitted to us by our website visitors. Unless otherwise mentioned, stock photos are used to help represent the story and are not actual photographs that were taken during the author's experience.