The night grows late, and darkness surrounds the cabin as you keep searching for some clue about Luke, the resident ghost. Finally, around two in the morning, you stumble across a very old newspaper article about Pittman Center, Tennessee. It turns out your cabin is actually on the outskirts of Pittman Center, and not in Gatlinburg proper.

The faded looking newspaper clipping is on a website about ghost stories and strange phenomena that covers all of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It talks about the founding of Pittman Center, and how the area was first settled by Frederick Emert, who brought his family over around 1785. Along with Emert, many other settlers arrived in the area and built a very small, but sturdy village.

As of the year 2000, the town only has about 500 residents. The newspaper article itself was printed in 1930, and on the side of the main page, there is a small, one-column story about the tragic passing of a resident: Lucas Schultz. You have to squint really hard to read most of the print, but you gather that the young man died in a logging accident.

Crushed to death while shoving his toddler sister out of the way of a falling tree.

You wince in sympathy. He was only nineteen when he died. But it would be hard to tell if that really was the same Luke that is your ghost. Lucas is a common enough name, and maybe Luke isn't a nickname, but his actual name. Some people are very specific about what you call them.

You rub at your tired eyes. Whatever the case may be, you'll probably have better luck thinking about it when you're not so tired. You shove the laptop to the side and lay down, leaving the lamp on at your bedside. Despite the fact that Luke saved you from a painful landing, you still find yourself a little scared of what else the darkness might hide.

Even with the light of the lamp, sleep finds you quickly and soon you're dreaming.

[Go to chapter: Thirty]