The Hanging Man of Black Leaf Trail.

They were determined to find a ghost come hell or high water, and when the two black SUV’s stopped in front of the three deserted buildings where Black leaf Trail connected to Crows Crossing Road, they thought that they had stopped at just the right place. They got out of the vehicles just after 2:00 pm on Crows Crossing and decided to have a quick look at the surroundings. The whole scene looked old, broken down and decaying, three of them began to walk across Black Leaf Trail to the first dilapidated building- an old weathered, wooden two story structure that sat back some thirty feet from the edge of the road. There were several broken dirty glass windows in the front and a long ramp that went along the length of it.
“It’s the old Manchester feed store.” A cold voice spoke up from behind them.
All four men turned to face it, he was a frail looking, thin, white haired man standing across Black Leaf Trail by the front of the lead SUV. They gave each other surprised looks as they crossed back over to the vehicles.


Jack Danger approached him first - holding out his hand to greet the old man. He was smiling from ear to ear trying to present himself as courteous as possible. The old man ignored the extended hand and gave him a blank stare.
“Sorry, we didn’t hear you walk up.” He smiled nervously. “I’m Jack Danger, from Destination Paranormal.”
The old man didn’t answer.
“You know? Jack Danger? Host of the TV show Destination Paranormal?” He offered.
He gave him a blank stare.
“We film all over America. You know? Hunting for ghosts?”
“Well there ain’t none in there.” He answered. “The only ghost we got around here lives back in the woods.”
He turned and pointed at the trees.
“But you’d have to be one fool hardy sonofabitch to go back in there.”


The Young man that called himself Jack Danger, turned and motioned to his camera man to come over. Moving both forefingers in a circle indicating that he wanted to film something.
“Hey. suppose you tell us about the ghost on film so we have something to go by, who knows maybe you’ll end up on TV?”
The older man drew in a deep breath and nodded.
“Great. Terry! Bring over that camera. Lets get rolling.” He turned back to the old man. “So tell us about this ghost that we’re going to go see back in these woods.”
“They call him the hanging man, his real name was Abe Carther though, bout 75 years ago he and his wife had a small cabin back over yonder bout’ two miles back, one day Abe Came back from huntin and caught his wife foolin around with another feller and he done killed them both right there on the spot. Shot him, chopped her head off with an ax.”


Jack Danger rolled his eyes, looking at his camera man suspiciously, motioning for him to get in closer.
“So. Why do they call him the hanging man?”
“The man he shot was the constables son, and when he found out what Abe did, he came out to these woods with six other fellers and hunted down Abe and hung him from the tree right by his own front porch. Every since then ol Abe seeks out revenge on whoever gets anywhere close to that cabin. They even found a few folks hung back in there. Some as recently as one year ago, don’t reckon anybody’s been foolish enough to try to test ol Abe since then.”
Jack Danger smiled at his camera man, as they walked back to the SUV’s.
“Well Terry, looks like we have our ghost, if this doesn’t help our sagging ratings nothing will, the Art’s & Science channel will HAVE to renew our contracts after this.”
They took four black bags from out of the lead SUV and divided them up between them. They gathered at the entrance to the woods with the star of the show Jack Danger turning to the old man.



He motioned for him to come over to the edge of the tree line. He put his hand on the old mans shoulder.
“Now you just point us in the right direction and the four of us will go back in there and get the exclusive with ol Abe.”
He winked.
“Straight through there- You’ll find a trail twenty feet back in. that will take you right to the cabin.”
The four of them began the two mile hike back into the woods towards the cabin of Abe Carther at exactly 2:30 PM, they weren’t in the woods for thirty minutes before they stopped to get the camera’s ready.
“Alright. We should be getting close now Terry, now we’ll do an entro right by that tree over there and I want the shot to be in tight while I tell the audience where we are. Marvin, you and Dave keep the equipment close in case we need extra batteries or something.”
He turned to face the two equipment men and motioned for Terry to bring the camera. He stopped in front of the tree.
“And in 1- 2 -3. Hello I’m Jack Danger and this is Destination Paranormal.”

He’d barely gotten the words out of his mouth when behind them they heard the sounds of a struggle. Curious, Jack and Terry both moved in the direction of the sound to find Marvin standing there staring into the woods, his face white as a sheet.
“Marv? What happened?”
“I dunno. I was standing here and Dave was over there and we were just watching you when something grabbed him and drug him into the trees. I tried to go after him but he’s- Gone.”
The three of them walked slowly back down the path, Terry was filming every step of the way. Twenty five feet in they found Dave’s shoes. Now curious, Marv bent down to inspect them, and when he looked up in the trees there was Dave swinging from the end of a rope. All three men panicked and went running in three different directions, and when he stopped, in the distance Jack could hear Marv screaming through the trees.

He had to find Terry and get back to the SUV to call the police, he stumbled around for several minutes before he came across Terry’s camera laying on the ground. He bent down to pick it up.
“Terry? Terry? Where are you Terry?”
On a dead run he went back down the trail as fast as his legs could carry him, and when he saw the clearing he just knew he made it back to the road. But when Jack Danger stepped through the trees he felt his stomach tightened when he realized that the two black SUV’s were no where to be seen. He stumbled forward as the noose flew over his head and landed clean on his shoulders, he tried to wrestle himself free as he felt the rope tighten around his throat and drug him back into the trees along the trail. But there was no one to hear him plead for his life, there was no camera there to film his greatest moment, there was no audience to watch him being lifted effortlessly to his final resting place in the tree tops.

The Final Take.
~~~~~~~~~~

Twenty year old Sarah Whitfield almost could not believe her eyes when she saw the frail little white haired man walking along the side of Black Leaf Trail in the down pouring rain, she carefully pulled the Buick to the shoulder and look into the rear view mirror to try to see if her eyes had been playing tricks on her. She turned the Buick around and drove slowly along the opposite side of the road until she saw him casually walking along. She rolled down her window.
“Hey Mister, would you like a ride someplace? I’m heading to Dutton.”
The old man smile and walked over to the Buick and leaned down towards Sarah Whitfield.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t mind? I would want to impose.” He said.
Sarah Whitfield smiled.
“Don’t be silly, it’s pouring out there, get in before you get sick.”
He got in the passenger seat, and told her that he was just going down the road to the old Manchester feed store. She looked over at him.
“By the way.” She said “I’m Sarah. Sarah Whitfield.”
“Nice to meet you Sarah. I’m Abe. Abe Carther.”


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