Halloween Ghosts & Spooks: "Have You Seen Charlotte?"

Let's begin our story with a little ambiance. Get up and turn off all the lights. Then click here. (Don't be afraid to turn the volume to 11.) 

Ready?

On a dark night in Beaufort, there was a chill in the air as our horse-drawn carriage clopped through the streets of this low-country town in the south.

Ghoulish characters

 hosted the tour and told stories of ghosts and haunted houses

along the route.

 

Spectors with harrowing tales popped out of the dark and beseiged us with their woes.

"My husband promised me a plantation house and upon marriage I discovered it was only two rooms with a false facade," the widow wailed.

"Who dares to come on my street on this night?" barked the marauder with the lantern.

"Have you seen Charlotte? Have you seen my Charlotte? I can't find my Charlotte. Have you seen Charlotte?" asked the bewildered Confederate soldier repeatedly as he wandered the street.

It was told that spirits are stirred each time an old house is renovated.

Another wandering soul appeared from the dark. This character had a face half-burned when her house went aflame.

As we passed a plantation, we saw couples twirling to a minuet on the back lawn. Around and around they danced in no syncopation to the music.

Our carriage wound through streets overhung with Spanish moss. A cat howled in the distance. Did you see the shape of someone standing in the far right window or was it my imagination?

The carriage started where it began and an odd couple bid us adieu. 

The roach entangled in the rusted chain around her neck scampered away. The noose from his neck dangled with unintention. 

My friend and I tried to mask our fright, ran to our car and sped home. As the driver clenched the wheel, I held an unlit match out the window to ward off any spirits with notion to follow us back to Hancock Street.