Part Three: Ghosts

 I used to get really freaked out at horror movies and ghost stories because I was sure they were the closest thing to reality one could get before actually seeing a ghost. That ended when I started having night terrors. They eclipsed everything I had watched in movies, tv, and the internet. The dreams would involve vampires, zombies, and lots and lots of gore. Not to mention storylines that closely tied me to the unwanted action unfolding in my REM's.

Dreams are the only place I can actually say that I've seen 'ghosts'. I know they were only figments of my imagination, but they were very real to me when they happened.

 The closest thing I've ever gotten to a sighting while awake was a few months ago. I had gone camping with some family members and took my camera. I ended up taking around one hundred pictures. Most of them ended up being of the campfire that we had made, just because I liked the effect I could create by moving my camera around while leaving the aperture open for a while. This amused me for hours that night. I would look back at the pictures and see images of flaming dragons, magma spewing horses, and hot as hell wood nymphs in them. I did this so much that the battery of my camera went dead on the first night.

 When I came home three nights later, I started uploading all of the pictures to my computer. After doing so, I began messing around with them in my favorite graphics editor. I started by taking a seemingly nondescript photo of my tent, which had a camper in the background. I then stacked a layer of a different picture of the fire over that one. I messed with the opacity some, then put another picture of smoke on top of that. After reducing the opacity on that one, I noticed something that looked creepy.

 I zoomed into the window of the camper in the background, and there he was. It was a figure of a man who looked to be in his fifties. He was fat, balding, and had beady eyes. Those eyes spoke of grave misdeeds. He was wearing overalls and was holding a dripping section of meat in his hands. He was grinning as if to say "Look what I've done!". I was freaked out, to say the least.

 I started looking at the individual layers to see if there was any such man in my shot. None. Just the camper window, flames, and smoke. I showed the people who were there at the time. They all saw it, except for one guy that refuses to see anything his mind won't allow him to. I think he saw it, but he was too proud to say it.

 Before I could save the work, the power went off. I've since tried to reproduce the effect, but have not been able to choose the same two photographs that I superimposed onto the camper window. I'm still working on it today, maybe I'll get the right ones and be able to post it here.

 To make sure you don't leave empty-handed, I'll post the picture I think most looks like a flaming bird drinking a bottle of magma-brew.

 Have you seen or heard any ghosts or spirits?