The top picture on the left is a group photo of the 1996 summer mission trip. The second picture is a current picture of Molly Layton. I borrowed the picture from her facebook page.Paw Paw, West Virginia for our summer mission trip. We spent the week doing a Back Yard Bible Club (an outdoor VBS) from 8am-noon, and our group did light construction after lunch until 5pm. We closed each afternoon with swimming, sometimes icecream, and time for debriefing and devotion. It was a great mission trip.
When we first arrived at the home where we would be staying, the youth were instructed to find a place in the house where they would sleep. There were couches, beds, and spots on the floor for them to claim as their own. I ended up in a old, uncomfortable lounge chair. Jeff Bledsoe was in the room with me. After we were settled we wandered around the house to see where everyone else ended up bunking.
Eventually we came to a bed room with an enormous, comfortable, king-sized bed. Molly Layton and Jennifer Cook had claimed this area. Jeff and I decided we wanted this room and we were going to get Molly and Jennifer to leave. Knowing how easy it was to scare her, our plan was to scare Molly so badly that she and Jennifer would not want to be in the room.
Day One:
I talked to the owner of the home and convinced him to give us a tour of the home and to include in his explanation of the home that a young girl was murdered in the basement, and that she slept in the bedroom where Molly was staying. At my request, he also added that some people say the basement and the bedroom is haunted. Jeff snuck into her room and unscrewed all of her light bulbs. The next time Molly entered the room, the light switch wouldn't work. Molly saw she had no light she came to ask me where the new light bulbs were, but I lead her back to her room and flipped on the lights to show that they all worked fine (Jeff screwed them all back in while she went to find me).
"Molly, please don't waste my time. I have a lot to do," I said as I headed back down stairs.
Day Two:
All the youth were in the van, ready to head to the work site. I went back in the house to lock up. I ran up to Molly's room and tried to make it look like someone had been sleeping in her bed. I also again unscrewed the light bulbs. We spent the day teasing Molly about how her room was haunted. By the time we were heading home she was fairly creeped out. When we arrived "home," Molly headed to her room to find that someone had been sleeping in her bed and that the lights did not work again. As she came to tell me what she found, Jeff slipped into her room to screw the light bulbs back in, and he made her bed. Molly lead me to her room to show me what she was talking about, to find that everything was back to normal.
"I don't really understand why you are trying to tease me, Molly." I said.
That evening Molly shared with everyone that she was really uncomfortable in her room. Jeff and I were nice enough to offer to switch rooms and let her sleep on the broken down lounge chair. She declined our generous offer.
Day Three and four:
The next 2 days brought much of the same: lights not working, water turning on in her sink, things moved around the room, and her bed looking like it was slept in. Of course only she saw these things, because everytime she went to tell a leader, Jeff or I put it back to normal. By the end of the day she was very scared of her room, but clearly not scared enough to switch with Jeff and I (we continued to generously offer her our space).
Day Five:
The same strange things continued to happen to Molly. In addition she found that the poor little murdered girl had drawn a picture for Molly and left it on the bed. But like everything else, only Molly got to see it. That evening we were eating dinner outside on the picnic tables and I asked Molly to head to the kitchen to get some tea. She quickly returned and told me that the basement door opened up while she was standing in the kitchen (Jeff). I went to check and sure enough it was open. I shrugged it off and mentioned something about the wind blowing it open, then I closed the door.
After sitting down outside, I asked Molly to get something else from the kitchen. She ran back outside and screamed that the door opened up on her again. I once again went to check, but this time the door was closed.
"Molly, you seriously need to stop making up these stories. Here, I'll block the door with chairs, so the wind or whatever can't open it again." I then grabbed 5-6 folding chairs and leaned them against the door.
The third time she went to the kitchen to get something for me the door was open again and all of the chairs had been strewn across the room. Molly ran outside to tell me what had just happened, but when I got to the kitchen the door was closed and the chairs were neatly stacked against it. I showed my displeasure at her for making up stories and then I headed back to dinner.
After dinner we were going out to head to get some ice cream. Molly was extremely scared by this point. We were all teasing her about the ghost, and she was pleaded with us that it was all true.
The moment I told her that I did not think the room was haunted, I thought I saw something moving in the upstairs window where her room was, but I had not planned that. We all were staring at the the window when suddenly the light came on upstairs and then quickly turned off again. I had nothing to do with it, and my stomach leaped in a bit of fright. Molly stared crying to which I felt I had to let her in on the gag. I still had no idea how the light had turned on and off. I took a few minutes to calm Molly down. I later realized that one of my leaders had stayed behind and she was going room to room checking to make sure the rooms were clean. I guess I received a well-deserved fright from that.
Jeff and I headed to bed that night, me in my uncomfortable lounge chair and Jeff on the floor. Molly slept on her big king size bed, and I'm sure she still had nightmares all night, despite Jeff and I confessing our evil schemes.
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