I had a troubling experience in Tennessee this past spring. I was on spring break from college, and I went down to Cleveland, Tennessee (very close to Chattanoga) with a friend to visit her family. I'd never been that far south, and I was excited to explore the town's supposedly haunted site: a mausoleum in the center of town, constructed of Italian marble and done in the ornate Gothic style. The story goes that in the later 1800's (can't remember the date), the richest family in town lost their only child, a daughter of 8, when she and her grandfather were run over by a train. Actually, only she got run over- her granddad escaped with only scratches. The poor girl was dragged under the train until it was able to stop. The family erected a large mausoleum in her honor. The town keeps it in excellent condition. Her sarcophagus is the main feature of the tomb. Long inscriptions from the Bible and about the family's love for this girl cover the sarcophagus' base. A bas relief of her emotionless face with cherub wings is on the ceiling. The rest of the family was eventually buried in there, too. Well, here's where is stops being tragic and gets just plain weird.

You can walk up a few steps and look inside...but the archway that covers these steps has an odd feature: it gets rust-red patches that seem to appear from WITHIN the marble itself. The "bleeding marble" is only present on the entry archway. This phenomenon has gone on since the mausoleum was built, and even though it gets cleaned off every so often, it keeps coming back. If it's a fungus, why would it only happen on this one specific part of the structure?

The evening after we first visited the mausoleum, my friend and another friend who was with us went into town to rent a movie. Now I ought to mention that her family lives in a large house outside of town, in the woods. It gets dark at night, and extremely quiet. At this point, around 9 PM, I was waiting for my friends to get back from town, and her mom was at a prayer meeting, so it was just me and my friend's dad, and about 4 dogs. We were sitting in the kitchen, just chatting, when I heard one of the dogs bark on the porch. I figured my friends were back, so I went to the door. As I approached the door, I distinctly heard a female voice calling my name and saying something like, "We're back...come on...let's watch the movie now". I threw open the door and said, "Hanna, is that you?". Nobody. Was. There.

I called for her again, but when I saw that her car wasn't in the driveway, I closed the door. Her dad was behind me at this point. He asked who was there. When I said, "Nobody, but I heard a voice", he paused thoughfully then said, "You know, the people who built this house had a daughter who died in a car accident. She was about 17, but she didn't die near the house. They moved out after that happened and we bought the house soon after." But no one in my friend's family had ever seen or heard anything like I'd heard- and they'd lived there for nearly 30 years. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to go home. I was afraid that my close encounter with the mausoleum (I pretty much stuck my head inside) had left some sort of other-worldly influence on me! Luckily, those creepy feelings left me as soon as I returned home. But I still can't look at the photos I took of the mausoleum, so please don't expect pictures to get posted!

Hi Vera, and welcome to the ghostly (and coolest) bit of UM.

Could you reconsider about those photographs? You've got us all curious now. You just have to post one so we can see the creepy mausoleum.

Please? Pretty please?

Okay, you're going to be mad, but I can't find the photos! I had them on a disk...I thought I had it here at my apartment, but I'll have to check when I visit my folks next (probably this weekend). There's no orbs or anything in the photos- believe me, I looked.

But here's some more info about that experience: it totally ruined my spring break, and neither of my friends or my friend's family really believed me. Also, that trip marked the beginning of a rift between my friend and I. After we got back to college, we started hanging out less and less, and whenever I called her to hang out, she'd either decline or not pick up her phone at all. I haven't seen her since early September. Oh, and the DVD they eventually brought back that night: THE RING. The Ring, for crying out loud! All and all, a pretty traumatic experience.

Ooh, nasty...it had to be The Ring of all films.

Doesn't matter about the photos. Maybe someone can pull a picture off the net, from somewhere? Any takers?

Here is a link to some more information. As to what casuses the blood stains, I dont know.

Click Here

Good work, Lionel.

It is pretty creepy looking, even in daylight. Going on what Vera told us in her story, and the tale in the link, maybe the ghost followed her home?

Or maybe not. I don't want to worry you, Vera.

Wow guys, good work finding a photo and more info! As you can see, the monument is very ornate and looks extremely out of place. It's right next to the local library and post office, if I remember correctly.

Yes Cuff and Agent, that's exactly what I thought at the time, but I was too scared to tell anyone how I felt. I didn't think they'd believe me. I got very aggitated after I visited the tomb and I couldn't get little dead Nina out of my head (oooh, what a great screen name that would've been: "Little Dead Nina"!). And finding out about the teenaged girl who'd died only made it worse. For the rest of the trip, I did kind of feel like I was being "followed", but I didn't want to dwell too long on thoughts like, "Did I open up a portal? Is Nina or the other girl with me right now?" If that's the case, then it sort of stands to reason that Nina's spirit would've "latched on" to me (if such a thing can happen). I'm generally a very happy, playful, fun-loving person- all the things Nina was lacking in her childhood relationships. But I didn't know about the girl's specter or the crying noises...interesting. I don't think that spirits tend to inhabit the places their bodies are buried, unless they have a reason to be restless, which is why I usually feel comfortable exploring gravesites and cemetaries.

To wrap things up: by the end of the trip, when I was barely sleeping at night, I thought about asking my friend's mother to take me to her chuch and get blessed or something. But since I don't belong to any religion (I wasn't even baptized), I wasn't sure how'd she react. I didn't want her to think I wanted to convert! After a few days, I calmed myself down by telling myself that I was just homesick for my family and boyfriend. And when I got home to my parents at the end of the week, I felt better immediately. But I won't lie to you guys: when we crossed the Kentucky state line, I was thinking in the back of my mind: "Nina you little brat, stay put already!"