The Beginning

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:05] I'm Ben and welcome to the show where you and I gather around this campfire to hear some of our fellow campers scariest experiences. Whether you're a new or returning camper, I'm glad you're here. [00:00:17] Tonight we're going to hear a very special story. [00:00:21] Well, at least to me, because tonight we're going back to the very first story I ever told. [00:00:27] A story sent to me by a woman named Marie about the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City, New Jersey. But the reason why I want to retell this story is because I've become nostalgic to a sense about the expansion of this show and everything that's come along with it. The opportunities, the doors that it's opened and well, my general abilities as a storyteller, I think have come a long way. [00:00:53] My ability to tell a story and create a captivating episode. And so I think every so often I'm going to revisit one of my episodes. [00:01:02] Not too often, but whenever I'm feeling nostalgic. [00:01:07] So without further ado, do you want to hear a ghost story? [00:01:15] It was 2002. [00:01:17] My husband and I had just married. [00:01:19] We didn't have much money for anything extravagant, but both of us grew up in Philadelphia and were very familiar with the Jersey shore. [00:01:30] We opted to head to Ocean City to stay at the Flanders Hotel at the recommendation of my new mother in law. [00:01:38] Considering how our first night unfolded and how she audibly voiced her doubts of compatibility between myself and her son, I cannot help but wonder if this was her way in attempting to sabotage our marriage. [00:01:53] But in the days and years since, she has always denied any knowledge of the ghostly happenings at the hotel she sent us to. [00:02:03] It was a hot summer evening when we checked into the Flanders. [00:02:07] The sun had just set, casting an orange glow over the building. [00:02:11] The hotel was considerably ornate and lavish, at least compared to all my previous experiences at the Holiday Inn. [00:02:20] Still, amongst our palpable anticipation for the night, there was an unsettling aura that I couldn't quite shake off. [00:02:28] The hotel seemed to be watching. [00:02:31] I don't know how else to explain it. You always felt like there were eyes on you even when no one was around. [00:02:39] I remember asking my husband if he felt off, but he, a firefighter, didn't really believe in hocus pocus. [00:02:48] Our room was up on the fourth floor over the boardwalk and ocean. [00:02:52] You could see and hear all the commotion and liveliness the crowds below. [00:02:57] Since this was our first time in Ocean City, we decided to check out the boardwalk. [00:03:02] We ended up in the Castaway Cove theme park arcade and played skeeball until it closed. As much as I tried to beat my husband, he was unusually good at most arcade games, but at least he used all of his tickets to get me a teddy bear at the prize counter. [00:03:20] Upon arriving back at the hotel and heading up to our room with the excitement of enjoying our single night of honeymoon, I was again struck by how quiet the hotel had gotten, and again was struck by that feeling of being watched as we made our way to our room. [00:03:38] Upon returning, I wanted to freshen up, and by that I mean I wanted to put on something a little more comfortable. Wink, wink. I pushed my husband onto the bed and put the teddy bear beside him, made my way to the bathroom, and after touching up my makeup and quickly running my fingers through my hair, I came out of the bathroom and saw my husband was no longer on the bed waiting for me. [00:04:02] Instead, he was right outside the door, his head against it as if he were eavesdropping. [00:04:08] Considering I was not expecting him to be there, it gave me quite a jump scare and I punched him right in the chest. [00:04:15] He asked me what I was humming in the bathroom. An odd question because I wasn't humming. I told him as much as and we must have had other things on our minds because we both quickly forgot and moved on. [00:04:30] As we were finally getting ready to sleep, I heard a faint. [00:04:42] And I told my husband to knock it off, to which he responded, so you heard it that time too? [00:04:49] Then again, This time it distinctly came from the bathroom. [00:05:01] My husband, a man able to run into burning buildings, was unwilling to investigate it. [00:05:10] I decided that it was my duty to go check it out. [00:05:13] I got up from the bed and made my way to the bathroom. [00:05:17] The first thing I noticed was that the door was ajar and I was confident that I had closed it. [00:05:24] But admittedly I had been a bit preoccupied when heading out a few hours earlier. [00:05:30] However, that sense of being watched washed over me as I pushed open the door. [00:05:36] The teddy bear my husband had won me was sitting facing the door in the middle of the bathroom floor. [00:05:44] Now I know that is not where I had left it, and there was no way in hell that during my husband and I's honeymoon activities that it flung all the way from the bed through a cracked door and landed sitting up, waiting for me to find it. [00:06:02] I reached over to pick the teddy bear up. [00:06:07] The humming was right in my ear, as if someone were right next to me. [00:06:13] I screamed and finally my husband came running in asking me what happened. [00:06:21] I told Him. I heard somebody hum very loudly in my ear. [00:06:25] After he consoled and helped me calm down from a near panic attack. [00:06:29] There was a knock at the main door. [00:06:32] I said it was probably our neighbor or hotel staff coming to ask if we were okay after I'd just screamed bloody murder in the middle of the night. [00:06:41] We weren't straying away from each other at this point, so we both went to the door. [00:06:46] My husband looked through the eyehole and said no one was there. [00:06:50] He began pulling his head away from the door when bang. Bang. Bang. The door visibly rattled from the forces of the knocking. My husband threw the door open immediately. But there we were both staring blankly into an empty hallway. [00:07:09] Came echoing from down the hallway. [00:07:13] It was then we saw someone turning the corner. [00:07:16] Well, we saw what looked like the end of someone's dress following them around the corner. [00:07:23] At this point we thought maybe some teenagers were pranking us. [00:07:27] We started to become angry after all, at this point. It was after 1am we decided to follow in the direction of where we saw this person. We walked to the end of the hallway and turned the corner to find it led to the stairwell. [00:07:42] We quickly got in and heard someone aflor below us. We descended the stairs in pursuit and entered a part of the hotel called the hall of Mirrors. [00:07:53] The entire room was was mirrored floor to ceiling. The whole hallway is reflected. [00:08:01] We entered the hall from the side to see the reflection of a person we had been chasing. [00:08:10] As we turned the corner into the room. [00:08:12] No one was in the hallway, but we could still see her in the reflection. [00:08:20] She had her back to us with reddish brown hair and a flowing white dress. [00:08:26] She turned and made eye contact with me through the mirror. [00:08:30] She stopped and began humming walking towards us. Her invisible body made no noise on the polished floor. [00:08:38] We both stood frozen as we watched her advance mirror by mirror. [00:08:45] The humming got closer and closer and closer and closer until the air began to feel cold. [00:08:54] I swear we could see our breath as we looked at each other in disbelief. [00:09:00] We looked back at the mirror. The woman was standing right before us now. She glanced back towards the mirror again making eye contact with me as she smiled. [00:09:11] It looked as though she was wrapping her arms around us. When she disappeared, we both flinched and turned around to see the front desk attendant standing behind us in the front of the hallway. [00:09:23] Are you guys okay? [00:09:25] Before we could respond. [00:09:29] Well, I suppose I know the answer to that. The real question is did she smile at you? [00:09:35] I responded with an airy yes, unable to find my full voice. [00:09:42] Well, that's good. That means Emily approves. [00:09:46] But you guys should get back to bed. It is very late. [00:09:50] My husband and I almost ran up the stairs back to our room. [00:09:54] Although neither of us slept the remainder of the night, it was quiet the following day. We couldn't check out fast enough. [00:10:03] We learned from the morning front desk attendant that we had encountered Emily, the resident ghost of the Flanders Hotel, and pointed to the painting of a woman with reddish brown hair and a white dress in the lobby behind us. [00:10:18] As we left and walked past the painting, I could hear one last. [00:10:28] We returned home and shared our story with his family. And while his mother never let on that she knew the tale, she never once again commented on our compatibility. [00:10:39] On the other hand, I was happy to receive some ghostly blessing, but it is safe to say neither myself nor my husband have ever been back. [00:10:50] Funny enough, though, our son is now getting married and like my husband's mother, I too have some doubts about his fiance. [00:11:00] I am tempted to recommend them the Flanders to see if Emily will smile on them. [00:11:07] Thank you, Marie for allowing me to share your story for a second time. [00:11:12] And thank you to all the campers who have been here since the beginning. [00:11:16] I hope you've enjoyed this re imagining of this journey we started together. [00:11:23] With that I have no show announcements this week, but if you'd like to support the show and gain access to our monthly bonus episodes and early access to show episodes, head over to patreon.com do you want to hear Ghost Story? [00:11:36] But as always, I'm just glad to have you all as campers on this journey. So please keep sharing the show with anyone you think might like these stories or someone you're just trying to scare. [00:11:48] If you're enjoying the show, please leave a review. I would love to hear from you. [00:11:53] Until next time,