My grandparents bought a farm in Wayne, West Virginia, and in the summer of 1998 my family came to visit them. One day, my cousins and I were out exploring the property and playing around when we came across an old well. My cousin Jay, who was the oldest at 12, lifted the lid that covered it. Inside, I noticed a small piece of red sheer fabric.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Looks like curtains,” my cousin Dale joked.
It was starting to get dark, so we hurried to find our way back to the house.
That night, I shared a bedroom with my brother Sam and my cousin Dale. I woke up to the sound of someone crying. At first, I thought it was my brother, who was 8, but he was lying next to me sound asleep. The crying got louder, so I sat up and saw a dark-haired young woman standing there. She looked to be in her early twenties and was wearing a red sheer dress. She cried for a moment, then suddenly let out a screech.
My brother and cousin woke up, and our parents and grandparents came running into the room. Of course, none of them believed me.
Two days later, Granny Gin was in the kitchen cooking when she saw the same ghost. The woman screeched at her too. She told us about it over meatloaf. Even then, I still was not sure everyone believed what she had seen.
The next night, my dad, Pete, was in the shower when the ghost appeared to him. He said she came right through the shower curtain, and then somehow she left behind a note.
It read, “See you at noon, at the well. Love, Jill.”
After that, my dad and Uncle Roger went to talk to some of the neighbors. They learned that back in 1980, a 20-year-old girl named Jillian had been having an affair with the father of the children she babysat for. According to the story, his wife found out about their meeting and got to Jillian first. Some said she pushed her down into the well on their property.
Jillian went missing, and 12 years later the wife reportedly went crazy and confessed to what she had done.
Three months later, my grandparents sold the farm and moved away. They hated to leave, but they believed the place was haunted.
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