Name: Remain anonymous at the request of the storyteller.

Age: 27

How many people involved with the telling of the story: 1

Who told you the story/where did you first hear it: My creative writing teacher from a small town outside of Rockford

Location where the story takes/took place: High School

Date when the story takes/took place: The 80’s

Subject/Main focus of the story: Sister Witches

The story as you remember it: “In high school, my creative writing teacher (I'll call him Mr. J) told us a strangely detailed story that he claimed was 100% accurate. He was a nice older teacher and his last year before retirement lined up with my final days as a senior. He told us this our last few days.

He claimed that when he was a new teacher at the school (the 80's) he was staying late to grade papers one night when an old janitor made his way down the hall and into his classroom. The janitor busied himself cleaning the room but hesitated by the window that faced the courtyard when he asked Mr. J what the date was. He left and returned a while later, the janitor sprinkled pine needles and 3 pine cones across the threshold of the doorway. When Mr. J asked what he was doing the janitor told him that every year ( I don't remember what the specific date was- sometime in May or June) on this night the three witch sisters roamed the school looking for their youngest sister.

Mr. J had explained that years ago during the town's settling a young lady was murdered in the woods for suspected witchcraft, and that the three older sisters had gone looking for her only to suffer the same fate. Their house had been built on the same spot the school's courtyard now rested on ( a small walkway with some pine trees in the middle of the campus) that I will admit always gave an unsettling feeling to walk through alone. Mr. J had laughed it off, and the janitor left.

Later that night Mr. J mentioned that he left to use the restroom and cleaned up the pine needles and pine cones across his doorway. When he returned he made it halfway to his desk before noticing three hooded figures seated in the back of his room, Mr. J said that they glided past him as if hovering across the floor. He remembered the hazy outlines of black hooded gowns. As soon they left he heard rustling outside his window in the courtyard and he rushed to replace the needles and cones from his trashcan. He hid under his desk as he heard scratching and clawing at his door followed by terrible shrieks in the courtyard.

Mr. J then left some pine cones and pine needles on his desk and told the juniors in the class to let the new creative writing teacher who would take his room know about the story. He mentioned that he would have thought he had a strange stress-induced dream had he not seen the old door that maintenance replaced the next morning. Mr. J claims the scratched-up door is still in the school’s basement.

That is the best that I remember the story and I did not try to verify the legend of the sisters.”

“User Submitted” ghost stories are shared by actual people and posted without edits. The purpose of these posts is to allow the readers of The PBI to share the ghost stories they had once heard about in their past, as well as possibly learning if other readers from around the world have ever heard the same stories before. The PBI makes no claim on the validity of the story above, but allows you, the reader, to decide for yourself.

-The Pine Barrens Institute

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