By Jack O’Dwyer
Staff Writer
There’s a chill in the air. Can you feel it? The ever so slight ghosting of cold that seeps in through your skin and sits inside your bones? It came on so suddenly. Then…did you hear that?
A gust of wind whistles through the trees outside, making them shake and tap against the window glass. They cast shadows in the darkness along the walls. An eerie aura rolls in like fog on the harbor. You get the feeling you’re being watched. There are eyes projecting their scalding gaze upon your back, making the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. Something is here – you don’t know what, but it’s here. It sees you with its ethereal, otherworldly eyes. It’s…
Over….
There!
You whip around to see nothing but empty space before you. It was nothing but your imagination, right?…Right?
Simmons College has been plagued by ghost stories since it was around for ghosts to haunt the place. Tales of the girl on the fourth floor of Morse who hides behind doorways, and the unexplainable knocking on the fifth floor of South and the auras in the basement are quite commonplace. Most upperclassmen have a story or two to tell about their own paranormal experiences just living in the dorms. While none of them have claimed to see John Simmons, himself, a few have seen an older man checking up on his daughters in the lower halls.
Frightening, huh? The question is, are there any shreds of truth to these rumors? Well, here’s your chance to find out for yourself.
Simmons College Radio, the Shark, is having its second annual Spirit Hunt this Friday! The event will be held in Quadside and broadcast live from 7:00 – 11:30 p.m. It’s a night full of fun, fright, and fantastic adventures that promises to be even better than last year. Although not much can top the most infamous paranormal encounter of the first Hunt, when radio faculty member Leonard Mailloux was called a “dope” by a spirit just outside Alumnae Hall.
Not only will students get to explore our campus after dark, but they may also be able to explore Wentworth’s campus as well. This kind of spooky partnership can only mean one thing: twice the stories. The station will be telling live stories all night, including some sent in by listeners, and there has even been talk of an ouija board reading.
That’s just the tip of the phantom iceberg for what happened last year. One group of students encountered the ghost of a woman who graduated and were able to confirm both her name and place in a past yearbook photo a few hours afterward. While exploring the tunnels that connect North and South underground, another group of students was able to make contact with a stone mason who had worked on that passageway.
If spooky stuff isn’t your style, don’t worry! There will be much more for you to enjoy during the event including free snacks, a costume contest, and a live performance by the station’s Music Director, Catherine Conley (a.k.a. Little Musket).
Don’t be a ghost—come join the Spirit Hunt! We’ll be waiting…