Ghost Hunting was my passion, I love exploring with my friends at old haunted area and having such an exciting time. Sadly, the only places we had to go off of old folk tales and made up stories around the many areas of our small town. We talk and discussed about a real site to explore, being fed up of wasted time and sleep. Upon hours of searching on the internet, I stumble on a place in Weston, West Virginia called The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. I look on their homepage and even videos of this place; countless sightings of ghostly activity.
This is a perfect place! Finally, all our gear won't go to waste I think to myself. Very excited, I went to my friends and told them about the area; they weren't as excited as I was but they thought a road trip plus any place is better than this small town.
We saved all our money, putting a halt on any other ghost hunts and focus on the saving until we could get about two days worth of exploration plus fuel and a hotel to stay in. All through the odd jobs and the extreme boredom we had to endure was well worth with when we made our goal. We set up the date with the owner of the asylum and after constant hours on the road, we manage to get to Weston and eventually to the asylum
On the first night, our group decided to use one of the tickets for exploration of the medical center first, since it was rumored to be the most haunted of the asylum and recently been available. We gathered our equipment from our car and the owner told us the rules; You are being locked in there overnight until about 5 a.m. he said with a sort of monotone voice. It was spooky but then again didn't surprise me, especially since he owned the asylum.
As the doors closed behind us, we had begun to explore the medical center building. We went through the area, more excited than scared, as we had been getting more readings than we ever had, which was none at all. We went from the first and second building using our recorders, ERF, and cameras, spotting orbs and what could be sounded of spirits speaking. We were excited, no more than excited, we were thrilled; it seemed what the it said on the website was true, real ghost sighting. It had to be about three or four hours, couldn't really tell the time, when we heard what could have been a doctor's voice, at least what we decided since we were in the medical center after all.
It had to be about three or four hours, couldn't really tell the time, when we heard what could have been a doctor's voice, at least what we decided since we were in the medical center after all. We asked it a series of questions until it said something strange came from the ERF; we could almost make out though the static but it sounded he said watch out for Jennifer. Although crept out, my friends told me not to worry about it and continued on with the investigation.
As we made it back to the first floor, one of my friends asked the doctor if he was still there and make a noise if he or she was listening; we heard a banging noise that seemed to lead toward a basement. We followed the noise down, as my friend was asking the doctor to make the same noise, which we followed down the hall. We all followed the knocking noise all down the halls of the medical center, closer and closer until the noise sounded like it was coming from the wall itself. We checked the wall and noticed that the wall was not a wall but a door disguised as part of the wall. It took a 30 minutes or an hour, like I said before I couldn't make out the time, but we managed to get it open.
It appeared to be an old office area or some file storage room, couldn't really tell myself, and as curious as we were, we went in, our stupid mistake. Old files of patients that dated by to even in the late 1800's, but one in particular I noticed was old files and some tapes of the same name as the ghost doctor said, a girl named Jennifer. This couldn't be a coincidence I thought, as I was holding the old files in my hands.
I put the files in the bag and told our friends to close the door cause it was time for us to head back. After the doors were unlocked, we went to rent a hotel room for the night, eh, morning, which the guys quickly fell asleep while I stayed up to read the files, since my paranoia wouldn't let me sleep. By what the files read, she was a troubled individual that was locked in a solitary cell in ward F, cause of constant violence with the other patient and workers, attacking them and even killing them. Most stated that in her cell she constantly wrote on the wall, whether it was carved, with food, or even her blood she would write "Can I come out?".
Then I read the doctor's report, I couldn't believe it; Jennifer had many types of theories done to her and none of them work and lead to more harm on patients and workers. Even the lobotomy that was performed on her must have made a mistake in the procedure as she seemed to lose what humanity she had and became more primal, like a wild animal. I was honestly freaked out to the point where I woke the other guys up and told them about the files. We talked about it until we all decided to play the tapes; it was horrible on what we heard.
First couple of tapes discussed the activities of Jennifer and her behavior all though her incarceration. The last tape called "Jennifer's Evaluation" is what scared me the most. We played the tape and listened to her talk to one of the doctors about her life, seeming to try to get some sort of answer of why she was acting as she was.
By what she told the doctor, she lived with her grandparents for the longest time due to her parents slipping up. When they passed on, she had to live with her mother, due to her father passing on earlier before her grandparents. Her mother, as she described, was a bad alcoholic and her stepfather was worse than her mother. She said she spent most of her time in the basement where they told her to stay; she barely got out of the house other than school and when she sneaked out to hang with her friends, she got beat. She ran away with the idea of scary stories and paranormal. Her favorite is what she describes as the "masked demon", her first experience with the unknown.
She described this beast in full detail on the tape; Tall and thin, with red leathery skin and look like it had very huge bones but barely any flesh. It had long black claws and long coarse hair that would stay on one side and it always wore a mask: it resembles a jester, one side is smiling and the other frowning, which was colored black and white as well as the frown side eye part was exposed a scared eye with no eyelids. She said she saw this demon in her dream and was amazed by it, almost enthralled. She said she spent months in her room, researching and constantly figuring out how to contact it other than her dreams. She even drew the demon constantly, and made her own mask that resembled the demon mask.
Her parents saw this happening as was fed up with her stupid obsession; She said her stepfather came to punish her. She said he broke the mask in front of her, and when she tried to fight back, he smacked her in the face. Then he told her that you will be leaving the house by tomorrow and told her to pack her stuff. She was broken, as her words, and cried on the floor picking up the mask pieces. She said she saw the demon in her mirror, which looking behind her saw nothing. It pointed to her crafting knife and then upstairs as it was looking at her.
She was shocked, but then realized that it was trying to save her; she said that she and it wanted to be one and by her power she would welcome it. She took the materials she used to make the mask and branded the same patterns of the demon mask to her face, feeling the heat and knowing she was emerging with the demon as she did it. When night came, as she said, she openly and calmly said she stabbed her parents repeated until they did not move no more, then remembers waking up here in this cell. Then there was a loud thump and the doctor grunted after a couple of seconds of silence. Then suddenly she spoke, seemly she was close to the recorder "Well doctor, can I come out?" , then the tape ended.
I looked back to the files, it said she was put in the asylum around the year of 1992 and went missing at the asylum after her lobotomy, that was twenty-one years ago, which means she is possibly still alive. Looking at the dates on the tapes and the reports, the evaluation tape just before her lobotomy. We all panicked for a long while, until one of my friends said we don't need to worry, she'd probably not around anymore. We eventually went back asleep and when night time came, headed back for our second day of ghost hunting in the asylum.
Being paranoid as hell, I cautiously went inside the main building. There was four of us, we are fine I played in my head over and over. We eventually went to the first and second floor, getting good reading, orbs and ghost voices, until we went to the third floor, Ward F; where her cell was located. We looked around with our cameras and asked questions with our ERF until one of my friends caught a glimpse of a huge shadow moving and all our ERF got a slight static. We stopped and looked around with our cameras where he was talking about and couldn't find nothing; my paranoia was getting worse, breaking into a sweat. As the ghost activity seems to slowly diminish, my friend saw the huge shadow move again, but seem closer my friend said; we noticed that the static on our ERF was getting worse. This was going on until all of us had a clear look at it, we were frightened, it was the demon that was described in the tape.
It looked like it almost took up the whole hallway; This can't be real! I thought, There's no way . It darted into a cell, disappearing completely; we waited, staring at that cell from the distance but nothing happened. As it darted in the cell, the ghost activity got quiet, it just stopped. We slowly walked to the cell, not eager to look in the cell but we got enough courage of what we had left to look in, we could not believe it.
We saw a pale, gaunt woman with long, black hair and what looked to be an asylum uniform and a torn up stray jacket, stained with dirt and filth, standing in the cell with her back turned. She turned around and we could not believe our eyes; she had surgery marks all on her face and the same brands she said in the tape. She picked up a rusty knife and cut her palm, showing no fear or any pain, and started writing something on the cell wall. We watched in awe as each letter was written in her blood, forming words until they spelled out the phrase as before, can I come out?, before she started to walk towards us.
All four of us ran, in complete terror, screaming for our lives; my mind was racing, Am I going to die here, in this asylum!? I wondered. We ran down hallways and stairs,hearing footsteps behinds us. We reached the door and saw the owner unlocking the door, seeing what was all the screaming about. We told him what we saw and later the police showed up. The police were in the building for a while and took us to the station. We told them about Jennifer and what we saw in the asylum; they told us that they wanted our footage and recording to see if they can get some answers.
The next day we got our camera and recorders back, telling us they will try to figure out what went on. They said that they had to take all the evidence they can so they replaced our SD cards with new ones for our equipment, and took the files and tapes on Jennifer; seem very strange now I think about it but back then none of us even cared.
It's been three days and haven't slept since I have seen my friends, one by one, go missing reports in the newspaper and I feel that I'm next. I have been seeing her outside my house each night, seeming to come closer and closer each night. If I don't make it tonight, I want to warn you all, beware the masked demon, beware the words, beware of Jennifer.