Flower Girl

Ever since high school, I have heard different stories and legends of different ghost sightings or hauntings in the different areas of my town. I was living in a small Ohio town, one that I won’t name here, and every week it seemed a new story would be conceived out of the minds of the creative, yet morbid, teenagers of the town. One week, some kid spread the story of a homeless man living near a bridge which lured small children to be murdered. The next week, a legend of the ghost of a psychic elderly woman, destined to live as a spirit to curse those who encounter her. Although, looking back at it now, these stories were obviously fiction, when I was 16, these frightened even the "toughest" of the school population. We were obviously not very brave.

While most of these stories were fake, one story disturbs me, even to this day. The story was called "Flower Girl." The story went that a young girl, one who was told to be around the age of nine, was to be a flower girl at her aunt's wedding. Hours before the wedding would’ve occurred, the girl was lured to the far end of the park, which was the location of the wedding. The wedding was at night, so the park was dark. No-one knew exactly what had happened before her body was found, but her body, bloody and bruised, was found stripped from her clothing, including her purple dress, in the lake near the pond. Her injuries, which included head trauma, multiple cuts and bruises, and a slit throat, were found to be fatal, and her death was not caused from being in the lake. It was not hard guessing what the culprit, found out to be the groom, had done to the girl previous to her death. Meters away, the groom was found in the same lake, who had drowned. His motive was not completely clear, as no note or anything similar was found, but the girl’s aunt stated that the groom acted oddly around the girl weeks before the wedding.

The entire legend of Flower Girl didn't end there. While I did not, and currently still don’t know if this was part of the “original” Flower Girl story, many people did say that the ghost of the murdered girl remained in the park. Rumor told that that the girl lured her victims, mostly young adult males, the same age range of the groom, to follow her to the edge of the park. Their bodies were later found in the same lake her body was found in. Many of these men were to be wed soon, or were already married. Those who they left behind were said to be haunted by the Flower Girl, until they eventually killed themselves.

Despite the story being nearly obviously fictional, with the excess amount of detail not adding to the overall “realism,” this story was one of the majorly popular ones in my school. Many students were dared to enter the park at night to look for the girl's spirit. Obviously, those attempts were unsuccessful, as no students, or anyone were found dead in the lake. Despite most of us knowing the story was most likely fiction, we still enjoyed being scared. Looking back at that now, I wish I still thought it was fiction. While the whole story of the girl’s murder may or may not be fiction, an experience I had was dangerously similar to the story. This experience involved me and my former fiancé, Jerald. It was 2011, and I was going to be married to my former boyfriend of 3 years, Jerald, who I met in college. We had a lot in common, both loving music, art, and other similar things. We were both majoring in game design as well. He had proposed to be in late 2010, and we planned to marry in June of 2011. I, at the time, wanted to visit my old childhood home in Ohio, and we decided to visit for a week, for my parents still lived there. Everything was planned, and I was excited to visit my old town.

The first three days of visiting were rather uneventful, with Jerald and I mostly sightseeing and going to old places I went to as a kid, such as my old schools. We fooled around, ate a lot of food, and despite it not being extremely eventful, had a great time. That all ended on the night of our fourth day visiting. We both had discovered the old park, now seemingly completely abandoned. The grass was overgrown, and the playground equipment had been falling apart and ruined. Ignoring this, we had decided to head there at night to mostly mess around. I had told Jerald about most of the stories I heard in high school, and knowing this park was one in which one story took place, Jerald was ecstatic to visit. I was as well.

The night we visited that park is a night I remember all too well. We headed into the park at around 10:30 P.M, and nearly immediately went towards the tall, uncut trees, and climbed them to the near top. The night was particularly foggy, and we wanted to see how far we could look into the fog. After climbing the trees, we headed towards the old playground equipment, and then towards an open patch of grass to stargaze, which was rather pointless, because large clouds covered the sky. Up until that point, the night was near perfect. Near 11:50 was when the enjoyment of this night ended. Jerald and I decided to play a game of hide and seek, with the two flashlights we brought to the park. We thought it would be more enjoyable in the dark, and soon began the game.

I was hiding first, and I had climbed a tree near the playground to hide in. I hid in that tree for more than 20 minutes, and I started to get worried. The park wasn’t extremely huge, and I hadn’t seen Jerald anywhere near my tree. I exited my hiding spot, and went to find Jerald. He was not in any trees, in the playground, not anywhere. I soon grew worried, and I couldn’t call him because we left our phones at home. I only had a flashlight and my watch to check the time. After 12:20, I was desperate. I had called out to Jerald multiple times, and I did start crying after a bit. I guessed that Jerald was probably trying to scare me, but it had worked. After crying for a few minutes, I had found something on the ground. It was a note.

The note read:

Jenny,

If you are reading this, you obviously haven’t found me.

''How sad, really. I am in the place most obvious to your knowledge.''

Remember that old story?

Check the water.

At the end of the note was, what I had thought to be, a signature. It was illegible, and it seemed to have been scribbled out. The handwriting of the note wasn’t Jerald’s exactly, but somewhat similar. I thought that Jerald might’ve intentionally changed the way the handwriting looked to add somewhat of a disturbing effect. After reading it the note, I headed towards the lake, which was the only body of water nearby. “Of course he was at the lake, he’s trying to scare me with the Flower Girl story!” I remember thinking. Soon, after walking through the seemingly endless fog of the park, I reached the lake. The water had been dark and murky, with branches and leaves scattered throughout the water. I had called out to Jerald again, but I heard no response. I walked further towards the lake, before stepping on something else. This was the exact moment that I realized the story of that murdered girl, may not have been entirely fiction.

On the ground was another note. It was muddy, while also being covered in a different red substance. I had put the paper up to my nose, and after smelling this odd substance, I had made the shocking discovery that this substance was blood. I almost dropped the paper, but I was curious to what it read. While avoiding touching the blood, I read the note.

Jenny,

Your game is over.

Don’t the flowers look lovely this time of year?

After reading this note, I noticed something in the water. It was a dark figure, obscured by the dark water. I stared at the figure, before noticing that it was an actual body. I had screamed, and fell backwards. The figure was floating towards me, but was not moving itself. I soon realized that this body.. was Jerald’s. After realizing this, I quickly dove into the water to retrieve him. This had been just a sick joke, right? After removing Jerald from the body, I, in a panic, desperately shook him to just get him to drop the act. I cried, I screamed, I even started hitting him over and over. Jerald never moved. He didn’t even breathe. I looked over his body, and it seemed that he had drowned. Jerald knew how to swim, and the water wasn’t that deep. Either Jerald jumped into the water and drowned himself, or he was forced into the water. After figuring this out, I found a flower attached to Jerald’s jacket. A pretty purple flower. Attached to that was one final note.

Jenny,

I hope you like the flower.

-Flower Girl

After this experience, I soon lost interest in horror stories. What had happened was extremely disturbing to me, and to this day I still do not understand what exactly had happened that night. Did Jerald commit suicide, and add the notes and references to Flower Girl just to disturb me? Was someone else involved, who murdered Jerald? I don’t know. I try to see the more logical side to this entire event, but a part of me, unfortunately, believes that this was an act of the Flower Girl herself. Between that event and now, I have barely interacted with anyone besides my parents, and a few close friends. I have remained single, and I plan to continue being single. Being in a relationship brings back too many bad memories. I mostly remain in my room, not seeing anyone. This was until I started seeing a little girl in the corner of my eye. While I do not see her whole figure, I do see a head of red hair, along with a purple dress.I do believe this is just me being paranoid. This couldn’t be the Flower Girl, right?

I believed this was just paranoia, until I got a letter in the mail.

Jenny,

Jerald was so fun to play with!

He liked the flower I gave him.

You will get your flower soon.

-Flower Girl

A purple flower was attatched to the letter.