Illinois Ghost busters

by laylaorentea1985

[The Hours] A new twist on The Hours starring Melody Farmer, Rachel Milligan, and EIU ghost Mary Hawkins. It's really interesting. Please review!

Illinois Ghost Busters

This story is about three different people: Mary Hawkins, Rachel Milligan, and Melody Farmer. Melody and Rachel were in the last novel, but there were not any chapters dedicated entirely to them and Sally Hawkins is new to the mix. The story does recount the ever so popular story about the Pemberton Hall Ghost, Mary Hawkins, but in a new way, like how many lives did she affect and why she really did go insane.

Mrs. Sharp and Mrs. Stone's stories are over with because they were resolved, but fear not! They return in this story to accompany their daughters!

The "Mary Hawkins's Legend" is very true to it's word, but it's not certain in some aspects, like did she have a sister and there was that confusion whether she was a student or a counselor? According to ghost buster Troy Taylor she was a beautiful woman with blonde hair and a bright disposition and she was a counselor who discovered the girl roaming around Pemberton Hall with bloody feet. It is true that she and that ghost haunts the fourth and third floor of Pemberton Hall.

Melody Farmer

Ever since she was twelve years old, Melody Farmer had always loved the ghost stories told about Southern Illinois. Every chance she would get, Melody would explore the mysteries and urban legends of Illinois, since that was as far as this ghost buster was allowed to drive.

During her free time, Melody would surf the Internet and look up local haunts. The closest one she could find was in Woodlawn on Witch's Bridge. She was sixteen at the time.

Melody and her friend Jenny Lewis drove to the bridge and placed the car in neutral. Then they felt a force trying to push them off and they freaked out and placed the car back into drive and sped off the bridge.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Jenny as she floored the car at 55mph off the bridge. "That was freaking freaky!"

Melody's stepfather, Ray pulled them over because they were going ten miles over the speed limit. When Ray found out that it was Melody and her friend, he had them stay over night in the prison and made sure that their records were cleared of that event.

Melody's mother Abby did not like that at all. She had just returned from a trip to Arcola and was miffed that Ray got that incident off her record. That would be the second time in the month that happened.

"Ray," she sighed. "You cannot keep doing this. I want Melody to learn right from wrong."

"I know, but she's my kid, sort of," said Ray. "I sort of feel more like a father to her than her own father."

Melody's mother divorced her real father when she was about five years old and her older brother, Henry was sixteen, and Megan was fifteen. Abby divorced Jake Farmer because they were not getting along and they felt that a divorce was the best answer.

Melody remembered watching her father pack his bags and drinking a glass of Brandy before taking off.

"Daddy," she said weakly to him.

"Daddy is going to go away," he sighed as he gently touched her cheek.

"Why can't I go with you?" asked Melody when she was five years old.

Melody watched him leave and then she chased after him, as he pulled out of the driveway in his blue car.

"Daddy!" she screamed. "Daddy! Daddy!"

Abby just watched her daughter in dismay. Then little Melody came back to the house and yelled at her mother.

"You drove him away!" she screamed. "I hate you!"

Megan and Henry knew that their mother and father did all that they could to keep the family together. Pretty soon, they realized that it was a lost cause and they needed to move on with their lives. Only Melody refused to believe it.

While Melody was in kindergarten at Ellis School in Belleville, a kid named Jimmy Jenson told her about the Pasta House ghost. Jimmy knew about this because his brother worked at the Pasta House.

"You know that the place used to be a hotel or something," said Jimmy. "My brother said that late at night, you could hear a woman and child screaming."

Melody wanted to investigate this mystery, but her mother would not let her.

"Honey, you shouldn't do that," said Abby. "It's not something that you want to investigate."

It was getting to the point where living in Belleville was too much for Abby to handle. When Allison was in the first grade, Abby decided that it was time to move on.

About a month later, Abby and the children moved from Belleville, Illinois to Mt. Vernon, farm country of Southern Illinois along with the slivers of Woodlawn and Waltonville.

Abby bought a lovely newly built home on Sunset Dr. It had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The girls shared a room, Henry got his own room, and so did Abby.

Abby got a good job at Rend Lake Community College as a music professor and choir director. She was loved by all of her students.

While at the grocery store with Melody one day, Abby met Ray Sharp, a police officer in Mt. Vernon. Melody was about six years old at the time. When she saw Ray and her mom talk, she knew that they were going to get married because her mom really liked him.

Abby and Ray were married on April 21, 1990. In between then and their going on eleven years of marriage, the Sharps had one child together, Parker in 1992.

Now it was 2001 when Melody's story went into full swing. She hates her stepfather because she feels that he is trying to replace her father, whom she only hears from on Christmas and her birthday and it is usually in the form of a card.

Rachel Milligan

Rachel Milligan's story begins in 2005, the last year of college. She went to Rend Lake Community College for about two years and then she went to Eastern Illinois University, like her mother did many years ago.

Just like her mother, Rachel resided in Pemberton Hall on the third floor. All of the residents told Rachel about the ghost of the fourth floor named Mary Hawkins.

"She got killed one night while playing the piano on the fourth floor. That's why it's closed off," said a girl named Lee Wilson.

"No! That's bullshit! I heard that she was a counselor and she got knocked off by an axe murderer on the fourth floor," stated Tina Peoples. "Then he raped her! I know this because my great-grandmother was a student here when it happened."

"Hell no!" said a girl named Janie Wall. "Mary Hawkins was not murdered here, she was killed herself in a sanitarium."

Rachel was getting very intrigued with the story. It was lucky for her because her journalism class assignment was to do a story on Mary Hawkins.

"Miss Mulligan, I do not want the same story about whether or not Mary Hawkins was a councilor or a student," stated professor Friar. Professor Friar was in his last year of teaching at EIU. He wanted to leave with a bang, some might say. He intended on doing so by having Rachel write about the real Mary Hawkins and how she really died.

Mary Hawkins

The year was 1916 when Elizabeth "Betty" Benson enrolled at Eastern Illinois University (EIU). She resided in Pemberton Hall, which was a girls' dormitory.

Pemberton Hall was a beautiful building with four stories and a red roof. On the fourth floor was the music room where some of the girls would spend their free time and play around on the piano.

One person in particular that Betty and her girlfriends had to watch out for was Miss Mary Hawkins.

Miss Hawkins would not let her students skip class, even though most of them would just because they could. If she saw one of them lingering around Pemberton Hall, she would shoo them off to class, if she knew that they had a class.

"Go to class young lady," she would say sternly with her deep British accent. "I am sure that your parents did not pay to let you wonder the halls."

For the most part, the students adored her. She was a beautiful young woman in her early twenties with blonde hair and blue eyes. Betty would have traded her brown hair and green eyes for Miss Hawkins beauty any day.

Rachel Milligan

Rachel went through the dead files at the mortuary near St. Omer Cemetery to find information on Mary Hawkins. The funeral home director told her that it would be unlikely to find a dead file on Mary Hawkins because they did not keep proper records until the 1930's and she died in 1922 in an asylum. Since then, the asylum had been gone and trespassing was against the law.

Rachel did some more outside work near the headstone. Her photographer friend, Mel Messenger came with her to the cemetery to take pictures of Mary Hawkins' headstone.

It took them awhile to find it because the dead records for Mary Hawkins did not exist and the funeral home director did not know where exactly she was buried.

They found her headstone at the back of the cemetery. Her headstone was a small slab of stone, which read:

Mary Elizabeth Hawkins

1880-1922

Rachel found a note next to the headstone.

"I guess some people write cards to their lost ones," shrugged Mel as he picked it up. Rachel took it from his hands and placed it gently back where it was.

"Mel, you can't do that! It's invasion of privacy," stated Rachel.

"What can they do to you?" chuckled Mel. "Kill you?"

Rachel knew that Mel was right. She picked up the envelope and opened it.

Dearest Sister,

There is not a day that does not go by when I do not think of you. You died so young and in vain. You were always a caring soul, as you are now in Heaven.

Love you forever, even after I die,

Sally

This was news to Rachel. She and EIU did not know that Mary Hawkins had a sister. This is great! What a lark! She was able to write down another version of the story. She was sure that Professor Friar would be pleased!

Melody Farmer

Melody and her friend, Jenny Langston were enthusiasts about ghosts. Since they were sixteen, they had to limit their interests to Southern Illinois that is any city within an hour to a half-hour away from Mt. Vernon and in Jefferson County.

Some people at Mt. Vernon High School thought of Jenny and Melody as the "class weirdies" because they thought that the paranormal interests were creepy.

Abby does worry about Melody a lot. One time her freshman year in English class, Melody told them the tale of Violin Annie of Centralia and described the horrific details of the poor girl's murder in very graphic details.

"Annie loved her father and playing the violin. Her mother was so jealous of that Annie got more affection from her father than she did. So Annie's mother pushed her down a flight of stairs and Annie broke her neck when she got to the bottom," said Melody in her English class.

Three students ran to the bathroom vomiting and one student fainted. Abby just thought that Melody was just disturbed and tried to talk to her about it. Finally, she just realized that it was just a twisted hobby and left her alone.

There was another incident with spooks on Halloween night when Melody and Jenny went into the cemetery and were arrested for trespassing. Ray got her out of that one, just like he did months later with the Witch's Bridge incident.

Melody and Jenny dared a girl to go to the Witch's Bridge before they did and she came back and her face was pale.

"It felt like something or someone was trying to push my car over the bridge," she said blankly. "I never want to go back there again."

Finally, intrigued with her story, Jenny and Melody went to find this fact out for themselves. Unfortunately, before they got to feel the witch pushing them over, Ray caught them and arrested them for being out past curfew. They spent the night in jail and he wiped this little incident from their records because he wanted Melody to like him.Mary Hawkins

One day, Betty's friends, Georgia and Mandy decided to skip class and linger in the Pemberton Hall music room.

"But M-miss Hawkins would catch us," stuttered Betty. She tried very hard not to get on Miss Hawkins bad side, but she went along with Georgia and Mandy anyways.

While Mandy was playing "Moonlight Sonata" beautifully on the piano, the door creaked open. Betty and Georgia jumped and Miss Hawkins came in.

"What are you three doing out of class?" Miss Hawkins asked them sternly. "Aye! Back to class, the three of you! Just remember that I know your schedules!"

"Practicing, Miss Hawkins," Mandy replied nervously.

"Amanda, Elizabeth, and Georgia," sternly said Miss Hawkins. "Your parents paid good money for you to have an education. You all better go to class now or else I will issue you all early bed checks."

Betty, Mandy, and Georgia ran off to their classes and decided to never cross Miss Hawkins again.

"Boy, the Brits are very strict," stated Mandy.

"Here, here," chimed Georgia.

"I told you we'd get caught," stated Betty as the three of them sauntered to their next classes.

Rachel Milligan

"Hey Rachel Mae," her mother said cheerfully on the phone. There was not a day that Rachel could clearly remember about her mother not being cheerful, that was after she married her father, Dr. Arthur Milligan in 1986.

"Mom, I need to ask you something," she said on the phone. "Didn't you once say that you had an encounter with Mary Hawkins' spirit?"
"Yes, what about it?" her mother said, still cheerful.

"I need to know if you knew who she was?" said Rachel.

Faith had to think for a moment. "Well, I think she was a counselor who went insane and killed herself in an asylum, which is no longer around. Then there were the stories about the janitor murdering her in the middle of the night with an axe. That's all I know baby."

"Did she have a family or anybody?"

"I don't know sweet one. This was way before my time," said her mother. "Why do you ask?"

"I have to do an article about her for my journalism class," said Rachel.

"Hon, just make sure that it's not the same as the other articles that I have read," smiled her mother. "I got to go now. Pastor Wallace is coming over tonight with his marriage counsel group and he wanted your father and I to explain to them about how we make our marriage work."

"Tell him I said hi. Bye mom, I love you," said Rachel.

"I love you too, Rachel Mae," said her mother. "And I miss you, but I'm proud of you, dear."

They hung up and Rachel continued on her search for Mary Hawkins' past.

Melody Farmer

Melody and Jenny spent the night in jail for being out past curfew. Melody's mother tying up some unfinished business in Arcola, whatever that might have been and Ray was left in charge.

When Ray brought Melody home the next morning, Abby was just pulling into the driveway from her trip.

"Ray, what's going on?" asked Abby that morning.

"Our little ghost buster was out past curfew and so was her friend," he grinned.

Abby was mad at Melody for being out past curfew and she was furious with Ray for wiping Melody's record of that event.

Abby told Melody to go into the house and get ready for church and then she talked to Ray.

"You got to quit doing these things for her, Ray," she said firmly.

"I know, Abby, but I want her to like me, even though I am not her real father and he is about a million miles on the other side of the country," said Ray.

Abby sighed: "Ray, he may seem like a million miles away, but he is only a few blocks away and you know that."

Rachel Milligan

Rachel went back to the cemetery and found another card on the headstone. She looked around and made sure that nobody was in sight. Then she gently picked the note up and opened it carefully:

Darling Mary,

Richard died last week. That's why I did not write too much to you like I usually do. His death reminded me of your death all over again. Oh Mary, Mary quite contrary, I love you so much that it hurts!

Love you each and everyday and 'til we meet again,

Sally.

This was deep, Rachel thought as she carefully folded the letter back into the envelope and left it where it was when she got there. The groundskeeper snuck up from behind her and startled her.

"Beckon me pardon, ma'am," he said kindly. The groundskeeper was scruffy looking and very dirty. Of course, he dug the graves for their new inhabitants. "Didn't mean to scare you none."

"Quite all right," said Rachel as she slowly got up.

"Are you Ms. Hawkins's kin?" he asked politely while giving her a bumpkin-toothy smile.

Rachel did not know what to tell the scary looking groundskeeper.

"That's okay, I read the notes that Mrs. Gibbons leaves for her each and everyday. What can they do? Bit me head off?" he cackled wholeheartedly with a wheeze.

"Did you need to know something 'bout them?" he kindly asked Rachel. Rachel smiled and knew that she could trust him.

"Yes," she said strongly. "I need know more about Sally. Where does she live?"

The groundskeeper smiled and said: "I believe that she lives yonder that away. Only a few homes from St. Omar."

Rachel got into her car and drove down the block to Sally Gibbons' home.

Mary Hawkins

One cold night in January of 1917, Mandy was upstairs playing on the piano. She was practicing for her upcoming performance seminar and the fact that she could not sleep, she hoped that the soft music could help sooth her to tiredness. Miss Hawkins usually did not care that her students would stay up late practicing on the piano as long as they played it properly. Nervousness and stage fright were what kept Mandy up that night. The music was soothing for Miss Hawkins and would help her relax on the nights she got to actually sleep.

One of the three janitors came into the Pemberton Hall and went up to the fourth floor where the music room was. He went upstairs and attacked Mandy. He grabbed her savagely and pummeled her with his fists. He tore off her nightgown and attacked her, rapping her, beating her, and leaving her alone to die in the room as he made his escape into the night.

Mandy was not dead. She made her way into the night leaving a bloody trial in her wake and crawled down the stairs. She pulled her bloody body along the hallway, weakly scuffing at the doorways trying to get some assistance. Nobody answered.

Finally, she made her way to Miss Hawkins' room and scuffed the door and thankfully, Miss Hawkins was a light sleeper and she answered her door immediately and saw a bloody Mandy in doorway.

"Amanda!" she said in horror.

Mandy dropped dead right there in her doorway. "Amanda!" Miss Hawkins screamed.

All of the residents woke up and ran over to Miss Hawkins' room. They saw Mandy's lifeless body on the floor.

Georgia gagged at the sight of it and Betty looked the other way to prevent from getting sick, but that did not work because she threw up on Suzie Manning's shoes.

"Back to bed, everybody," Miss Hawkins said in a trancelike tone. "Go on, go back to bed. We have classes tomorrow."

Then Miss Hawkins went to the payphone on the first floor and called for an ambulance to take Mandy's body to the mortuary.

Betty looked at the trail of bloody footprints in the hallway and saw that she came down from the fourth floor and screamed.

"This is Mary Hawkins at Eastern Illinois University. There has been a death. Amanda Brown was murdered and she's dead!" Tears streamed down Miss Hawkins' face. "She's dead! She's dead! She's dead!" Miss Hawkins looked around the corridors and saw that all of the young ladies were out of bed. "Go back to bed, the rest of you!"

The young women crept quietly into their dormitories and shut the doors.

Melody Farmer

Abby was really ticked off at Melody for staying out late and she was a bit tiff with Ray for wiping her record clean.

"Melody," she said firmly. "Just because Ray wiped your record clean does not mean that you are not in trouble with me. Get ready for church, I'll deal with you later."

Melody wore her khaki skirt with a pink shirt and lied back on her bed to get some sleep. Abby walked into her bedroom to see if Melody was ready for Church yet. She was very miffed when she saw her daughter lying on the bed in her good church clothes.

"Get up and fix yourself up before you talk to me again this morning," she said harshly.

Melody wearily got out of bed and fixed her hair and then the family went to church.

Rachel Milligan

Rachel went to Maple Street in Charleston, Illinois. She felt funny doing this since the woman's husband just died. Bringing up the questions about Mary would probably make her get upset even more.

She put all of her morals aside and gently rapped on the door. An elderly English woman in her nineties answered the door.

"Hello," she said pleasantly. "How can I help you, miss?"

"Hello, I'm Rachel Milligan. I wanted to know if I could trouble you for an interview for the Eastern Paper?" she calmly asked.

"Are you here about that ghost story?" sternly asked the old lady. She smelt of Chenille No. 5 and ivory soap.

Rachel felt a lump in the back of her throat and nodded her head gently. The old lady gave her a dirty look.

"LET HER REST IN PEACE!" she hollered. Rachel slowly backed away from the house. "YOU BLOKES WON'T LET HER REST IN PEACE! WHY? WHAT HAS SHE EVER DONE TO THE LIKES OF YOU!"

Then she just ran away from the house.

Mary Hawkins

Betty, Georgia, and all of the Pemberton Hall residents went to the funeral service for Amanda "Mandy" Brown. They went to Mattoon, which was about twenty minutes west outside of Charleston.

Mandy's parents buried her in Bethel Cemetery, otherwise known as the Rag Doll cemetery because that's where most of her relatives were buried and she was somehow related to that nine-year-old girl named Sally who carried around a rag doll and was murdered in her home.

Betty hated the thought that Mandy was going to be buried in the Rag Doll cemetery because it was haunted by that little girl's rag doll. At midnight, passerby's claim to see the rag doll hanging from a tree looking for its owners murders.

Betty saw Miss Hawkins viewing the funeral from afar. She was feeling guilty about Mandy's death and she just thought that there was something that she could have done to prevent it.

Miss Hawkins was leaning against a tree near the edge of Bethel cemetery, biting her fist to prevent from being seen crying. The British were known for not really crying at all, but the guilt inside Miss Hawkins's soul was so painful that it felt like it was eating at her heart.

Betty went over to Miss Hawkins to see if there was something she could do to help ease her pain.

"M-Miss Hawkins-," Betty started to say, but Miss Hawkins silenced the poor girl.

"Nothing can be done," said Miss Hawkins. "Nothing. In dreams this happened. In dreams! In dreams! If I never slept, my girls would be safer."

Betty crept quietly back to her dormitory. She slipped under the blankets and covered her face. Poor Miss Hawkins paced around the corridors, never sleeping and hardly even blinking.

Melody Farmer

September of their junior year in high school, Melody and Jenny drove for about an hour or two all the way out to Centralia, Illinois. Melody told her mother that she was spending the night at Jenny's house. Luckily, Jenny's father lived in Centralia.

Melody and Jenny went all the way to Centralia to visit the grave of Violin Annie, properly known as Harriet Anne Marshell.

The legend was that Annie was a violin player and played very well for a ten-year-old little girl. Her father was a wealthy doctor and her mother was an insane housewife. While Dr. Marshell was on a business trip, Annie's mother killed her with her own violin and her father came back to find her dead and her mother claimed that she fell down a flight of stairs. It would be a year or so later when they found out that her mother killed her with her own violin.

Her headstone is a statue of herself holding the violin, which was based off a painting of her and her father. At midnight, Annie's music could be heard.

At midnight the night was the time they arrived at the Centralia cemetery. Melody and Jenny camped out at the headstone and impatiently waited for Violin Annie to play her song.

"Are you sure that this is true?" Melody asked Jenny as they waited for the tune to begin.

Rachel Milligan

Rachel sat hopelessly in her dorm room, trying to come up with a way to tell the world that Mary Hawkins had a little sister named Sally Gibbons. She wanted to make it sound like she found out about this woman without ever reading her letters to Mary or from a groundskeeper who just happened to be there when she was.

Rachel wanted to get more of a story from Sally in a sensitive manner, but it would be impossible.

Later that week, Rachel went to Sally's house again. Sally remembered who she was.

"What the hell do you want?" she asked coldly. "Can't you let my sister rest in peace?"

"Madam, my name is Rachel Milligan and-."

"I know, I know. You are with the Eastern, aren't you?" she interrupted.

"Yes. I want to finish off this Mary Hawkins story for once and for all," firmly stated Rachel.

Sally looked at Rachel like she was a child asking her about death. Then she decided that since she was about one hundred years old, she should let Rachel in.

"Well, I suppose you want to know about my sister, Mary," she said woefully as if she were defeated. She got a box out and handed Rachel a picture of her.

"She was lovely," smiled Rachel.

"Yes, she was. She was the apple of father's eye and the ray of mum's sunshine," weakly smiled Sally. Then she hummed that nursery rhyme tune:

Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?

With silver bells and daffodils…

Rachel went through the box with Sally and found documents and forms and letters that Mary had received from her family in England and get-well-cards from her students.

"Everybody loved Mary," smiled Sally brightly. "She really cared about her students and that was what caused her death. She did not sleep and the school had her committed."

"I really appreciate this, ma'am," said Rachel as she looked at the pictures of Mary's arrival at EIU and Mary with her students.

"All of her students adored her," said Sally brightly. "She was cheerful, yet firm. Mum said that Mary would make a wonderful schoolmarm."

Sally looked at Rachel as if she were Mary, coming back into her life.

Mary Hawkins

Miss Hawkins walked around Pemberton Hall in a trance for the next two years after Mandy's death. Betty and a few other students told the dean and another counselor that Miss Hawkins never slept.

"I see her wandering around when I would get up to go to the ladies' room," stated Betty.

"Miss Hawkins is not doing anything to hurt you girls, so do not worry," said the dean.

One night, Betty saw Miss Hawkins curled up next to the wall and tried to talk to her.

"Miss Hawkins?" said Betty as she kneeled down to her. Miss Hawkins grabbed her arm.

"One must never sleep, child," said Miss Hawkins. She looked like a mess. She had not slept in a year or two because she was afraid that one of her students would be murdered. "Elizabeth, they will murder again! Amanda is gone because I slept. Miss Hawkins stays awake to make sure to make sure her girls are safe." Miss Hawkins hugged Betty closed to her chest. "Don't worry Elizabeth. Miss Hawkins will keep you safe. Shh. I will keep you safe child."

Betty pried herself away from Miss Hawkins. "I am going to go to bed now," said Betty calmly. Miss Hawkins nodded and Betty ran off to her dormitory and locked the door.

The next day, Betty told the dean about her encounter with Miss Hawkins. The dean agreed with Betty.

Miss Hawkins was committed to the hospital for institutionalization. Mr. Loomis and Ms. Jansen accompanied her on the ambulance ride to the hospital.

Ms. Jansen kept telling Miss Hawkins that she would be all right and everything will be fine and she will recover faster than she will think that she will.

"My students, what about my students?" she blankly asked Ms. Jansen. "If I fall asleep, they will be killed in their sleeps or while they play the piano. Miss Hawkins has to protect her girls."

"They'll be fine, madam," calmly said Ms. Jansen. "You are a fine counselor and you know it. You care a lot about those women and they respect you for that."

"My students, my students, my students…" she chanted over and over in her trance.

When they got to the Ashmore Estates, Mr. Loomis and Ms. Jansen helped poor Miss Hawkins commit herself to be institutionalized. While signing her name, Miss Hawkins was heard mumbling: "Amanda liked to be called Mandy. A janitor raped and killed her while I slept."

Two orderlies escorted Miss Hawkins to a room. Since she did not appear to be a danger to herself or anyone else, they decided to put her in a room with another woman. Her roommate was a woman named Imogene Hill.

Imogene was a nice woman, but she had outbursts once in awhile. She would crab at night when Miss Hawkins would pace around the room as she would in Pemberton Hall every night.

"GET YOUR FUCKING ARSE BACK INTO THE FUCKING SACK YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Imogene would scream at least once every night while Miss Hawkins was there.

The orderlies gave Miss Hawkins barbiturates to put her to sleep, but she kept spitting them out. Miss Hawkins kept screaming if she fell asleep, then people will die.

There was an incident when she bit one of their fingers and had to be put in isolation.

"I CAN'T SLEEP!" Miss Hawkins screamed. "IF I SLEEP, PEOPLE WILL DIE! NOBODY DIED SINCE I NEVER SLEEP!"

Melody Farmer

They waited in the cemetery for hours, nothing happened.

"I guess this one ain't true," said Jenny as she got up and wiped the dirt from her pants off. "Come on, Mellie. Let's go to my dad's house so we could be at least half-way honest with your mother."

Abby was never really found of Jenny since she would claim that Jenny instigated it. What Abby did not realize was that Melody was the one who would con Jenny into going to these haunts with her.

Jenny was an easy target for Melody because she was labeled as a weirdo, just like Melody was. They were both loners of Mt. Vernon High School and intended to stay that way for as long as they were at that school.

Mothers may think that their daughters are innocent and harmless, but they don't know exactly everything that their daughters are up to, some of the time. Melody's mother did not realize that she had the interest in ghosts. She had always thought that since she and Jenny ran around a lot since their freshman year at Mt. Vernon High School, Jenny was the bad influence.

Jenny and Melody went the Jenny's father's house in Centralia. Her father knew that Jenny was coming over with a friend, but he did not think that they would here so late.

"Jennifer," he said firmly. He always called her Jennifer, whether he was mad at her or not. "Why are you and your friend so late?"
Jenny bit her lip because she could not think of an excuse.

"There was an accident," Melody blurted out.

"An accident?" Jenny's father said in shock. "Were you two involved in it?"

"Oh no!" modestly said Melody. "Jenny-I mean-Jennifer and I were not, but a woman in a car with two kids were hit by a semi-truck. Everybody's all right though. It was no big thing because the semi-truck driver was only driving 30 miles so he only made a ding in the back of the car."

Jenny's father's laughed at Melody's story.

"Melody, I know what you two were doing," he laughed. "I have been there before. If you want to go ghost hunting, let me know next time!"

Mary Hawkins

The year was 1920 and it had been about three years since that awful night of Mandy's death and Miss Hawkins institutionalization. Her charges that she started with at Pemberton Hall were getting ready to graduate from school and move on with their lives. Some of them had dropped out and got married with children on the way.

One day, Betty Benson paid Miss Hawkins a visit at Ashmore Estates. Betty would always visit Miss Hawkins at least once a month because she had always hoped that Miss Hawkins would be sane again.

Poor Miss Hawkins's long blonde hair was cut short and bobbed up like a boy and the bags under her eyes were big black circles.

"Miss Hawkins?" Betty said gently to her.

"Elizabeth Benson. Likes to be called Betty," she said blankly twice.

"I came by to say hello," said Betty, like she did almost once a month.

"Betty, Betty, Betty," said Miss Hawkins. "Hello, Hello, Hello."

"Yes," said Betty.

"It's so nice of you to visit me in this place," said Miss Hawkins. "I must have been a good enough person for you to visit."

"I had to come by and say hello," said Betty.

"You were always the sweet one," smiled Miss Hawkins. "How are my girls?"

"They are about to graduate," said Betty.

"Betty, why am I here?" asked Miss Hawkins as she paced around the room. "I was a good counselor, weren't I?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Betty.

"What happened?" asked Miss Hawkins.

"You were an insomniac, ma'am," said Betty nervously. "You were depressed and you needed help."

"Because I did not sleep?" she asked. "I could not sleep because I had to watch you and you and you."

"Yes and we were afraid that you would go insane and now you're seeming to get better," said Betty. "I better go now."

Miss Hawkins grabbed Betty's arm before she would let her leave. "Betty, Betty, Betty," she cried. "DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!"

Betty looked at her in horror as tears streamed down Miss Hawkins's face.

"Don't leave me here," she whispered tearfully. "Betty, Betty, Betty, don't leave me here, please." Miss Hawkins nervously looked around to make sure that nobody was near. "They are all insane here in the booby hatch. I am a proper woman with a position in life as a member of the English Parliament's daughter. I have a stature in life that I must maintain. Father is embarrassed about me and I have to make things right for him. Betty, Betty, Betty, I must make things right."
"M-Miss Hawkins, I know that you'll be all right," whispered Betty. "I just know you will."

Miss Hawkins gave her a tearful smile.

"Betty, Betty, Betty, I can't sleep here at all. I haven't really slept since the death of Amanda. I must stay awake to make sure nobody else gets hurt. When I sleep, people die. The men try to drug me, but they hate that I am smarter than them. The drugs don't work."

"That only happened once," said Betty in horror.

"No, people do die in their sleep or they are murdered," said Miss Hawkins. "Betty, it happened once and I'll be darned to let it happen again."

Miss Hawkins started pacing around the room muttering "Amanda" over and over again until the orderlies got a hold of her.

"All right, Mary, time for your nap," one of them said politely.

"No! NO! NO!" cried Miss Hawkins. "I can't sleep! I shall not sleep!"

Betty watched this event in horror, but she kept her faith that Miss Hawkins would get better.

"Betty Benson, I'll see you again," wildly smiled Miss Hawkins as the orderlies took her away to her room. "In dreams they die! IN DREAMS THEY DIE!" Were the last words Betty Benson would ever hear from poor Miss Hawkins.

Later that night, Miss Hawkins started pacing around the room again. The orderlies tried giving her a barbiturate and could not get her to swallow it. Miss Hawkins learned how to tongue her medication so the doctor did not know that she did not take it. Ever since October of 1919, Elise Hathaway had been her roommate. Elise was a sound sleeper, so she did not wake her up at all.

Rachel Milligan

Sally gave Rachel Milligan some of the things that Mary left behind she died.

"Rachel, I am not going to live long," sighed Sally. "I am over a hundred years old and so was my husband. For some reason, God wanted us to live long lives. I was about eighteen years old when I came to America to gather Mary's things. Mum and dad did not want to make the trip because dad was a member of parliament and he was embarrassed that his eldest daughter went insane and was sent to the booby hatch."

"What I do not get is why did we never know that Mary Hawkins had a little sister?" said Rachel as she surveyed Mary Hawkins' mementos.

Sally sighed and folded her hands as she studied the girl. "I was trying to hide from the publicity over at the college where Mary used to work. Photographers, newspapers, and the Board of Trustees to start up a scholarship foundation in honor of Mary berated me for many a years." Then she sighed again. "I never wanted Mary's death to cause all of this publicity. I strictly told the college that I did not want the world to know that Mary had a younger sister named Sally Gibbons. It's bloody shame that somebody finally found out, but I guess that you are a nice person. You do not seem to want to let this drag on forever. Instead, you want to put a stop to it." Then Sally paused for a moment and looked at her sister's picture. "For the both of us."

Mary Hawkins

The Ashmore estates called Mr. Loomis at his office and told them that Miss Hawkins killed herself last night when nobody was watching. The guilt of Amanda Brown's death had finally gotten to her, he thought.

He had Mrs. Pierce, the new counselor in Pemberton Hall gather all the residents in the lounge to tell them about poor Miss Hawkins.

"Ladies, I have some bad news to tell you." He had to think of a gentle way to tell the young women that Miss Hawkins was never going to get well and she was dead. "Most of you may remember that Miss Hawkins was here when that horrid act of hennas occurred on the fourth floor in the music room, which led to her leaving us. You know she never slept." She wiped her forehead and looked at the young women. Now it was time to get ready for tears. "Ladies, Miss Hawkins took a turn for the worse. She won't ever get better and she is gone."

Betty and Georgia were shocked because they remembered Miss Hawkins for who she used to be. She was a vital young woman of twenty-something and she had a bright disposition. Everybody in Pemberton Hall loved her. That was 1916-1917. Now it was 1920 she was insane, rough looking and now dead.

"I just saw her yesterday," sobbed Betty. "I thought that she was going to be well. I thought that she was going to come back." Georgia put her arms around Betty and told her that everything would be okay.

"Betty, have no fear," said Georgia as she was comforting Betty. She knew how much Betty adored Miss Hawkins. She was the only student from Pemberton Hall who would visit her monthly, even though Miss Hawkins never looked like she would get well. Betty had faith that God would heal Miss Hawkins from her misery, but he didn't. Instead, God had put poor Miss Hawkins out of her misery.

Mr. Loomis went through Miss Hawkins personal belongings that she left in her room to see if he still had her parent's phone number. After she departed for Ashmore Estates, he gathered all of her belongings and stored them in a box and put the box in a corner in his office for safekeeping incase she did come back. He did call Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins to let them know that their daughter was being committed. They never visited her in the hospital because a Hawkins going insane is unheard of. They told her relatives that she was busy with her job at Eastern Illinois University and could not leave her charges, who remained on campus over the holidays, alone on campus.

Mr. Loomis called them up to let them know that their daughter was dead and the funeral was going to be a closed casket because the asylum did not want her disease to be spread around. Mr. Hawkins told him that he and Mrs. Hawkins send their sympathies, but will not be able to attend on such short notice. Now they have the perfect excuse for Mary never coming home. She was dead.

Mr. Loomis convinced EIU to pay for Miss Hawkins funeral since she was the way she was because of one of their janitors killed Amanda Brown, which led to her insanity.

For the first time ever, Mr. Loomis went through Mary's things. He pulled out a picture of her and surveyed it.

"I guess you are at peace, madam," he sighed heavily, trying to think that it was for the best that she killed herself. "Maybe you were supposed to die and go to heaven to escape this misery."

Miss Hawkins had a lovely little funeral service at St. Omer Cemetery. All of Pemberton Hall who knew her and faculty members attended the service. Mr. Loomis said a few words about his colleague.

"Mary Hawkins was an extraordinary woman. She cared a lot about her students," he said woefully. "She was one of a kind all right." He paused and wiped his forehead. "She was a great woman, who will be missed. Her mother called me this morning and wanted me to tell you that if she could have been here for Mary, she would have said that Mary was a wonderful little girl and she was happy to see Mary grow up to be an extraordinary lady. Her only fault was that she cared too much for her students."

Mr. Loomis sat down as the reverend proceeded with the burial procession. Betty sobbed and buried her face into her hands, mourning over the loss of Miss Hawkins.

Rachel Milligan

"Mum was devastated though," said Sally solemnly. "Mary was the sunshine of her life. She would recite Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow? With silver bells and daffodils and everything all a glow! Mum had her nursery rhymes for all the children. My brother John was Hey diddle diddle my son John slept in his bed with his clothes still on. One shoe off and one shoe on! Diddle diddle diddle my son John. Mine was not a Mother Goose tale, but a lovely tongue tier: Sally sold seashells by the seashore. Some were red while others were blue. Sally sold seashells by the seashore. Isn't that a silly thing to do! When Mary died, mum sang her nursery rhyme almost every single day until the day I left. Sometimes, I would get letters from her with it written out.

"I decided to stay in America because I was mad at my father for how he treated Mary and if I went home and suddenly lost my mind, he would treat me the same way.

"He treated mum that way when she went insane with grief. He committed her and said that she was dead. At least with Mary, he said that she was at Eastern with her charges who chosen to stay on campus over the holidays. Bloody hell, he was glad when she died though. It meant that he did not have to lie about it to the family."

Rachel leafed through the letters and pictures of Mary. She never recalled there actually being a picture of Mary in Pemberton Hall. There should be because she was well liked by the former residents.

"I want you to have these since I am getting along better in years, but I want you to promise me that after you are through with them, I want you to give them to Lloyd Loomis's grandson, Hector. Hector is my late daughter's husband in Harrisburg. I never see him anymore since he married Jane Hock of Mattoon. They moved down south and now I never see him anymore."

Mary Hawkins

I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places…

Was gently playing on the radio while Betty was in her dorm room packing a few bags so she could be ready to go home with her family right after she graduated from EIU. Betty was going to receive a degree in Education.

Late that night while Betty was packing her bags, she noticed that her clock was being turned back in time and it stopped at 2 a.m. Betty just thought that her clock was broken and she ignored it. Next, her radio went off and she just thought that a bulb burnt out. Then she heard voices in the hallway and opened her door to see who it was. She saw nobody and closed her door, leaving a small crack to let some air circulate through the building. Then suddenly, the door was gently shut. Betty tried to open it, but it was locked.

Then she heard music from the fourth floor, which had been boarded up since the death of Mandy Brown. Moonlight Sonata was hauntingly playing on the piano perfectly and Betty was starting get frightened.

Finally, Betty's lights went off. She jumped into the bed and pulled the blankets over her head, whimpering. Her roommate Wendy Milligan woke up from the sounds of Betty's whimper.

"Betty, go to sleep," yawned Wendy. "I have to look good for my graduation!"

Betty's face was as white as snow.

"Betty, what happened?" asked Wendy.

"I saw a ghost," quivered Betty.

"A ghost?" quivered Wendy. "Whose?"

"I don't know," replied Betty as she was shaking.

"How can you not know?" asked Wendy.

"I just don't know."

Irritably, Wendy got out of the bed and went to her door.

"Wendy, it's locked," said Betty.

Wendy opened the door.

"Locked, eh?" said Wendy.

While Wendy headed for the bathroom, she slipped on a wet spot. She got up and turned the hallway light on and saw bloody footprints on the floor, just like there were on the night Mandy died. Wendy also got blood on her nightgown. She looked at them and her nightgown in horror and went back to the dorm room.

"I-I saw blood!" she said nervously to Betty as she showed her the blood on her nightgown. Betty got up and went into the hallway and saw the bloody footprints.

Betty saw the trail of bloody footprints coming from the stairway, which led to the fourth floor. She was on the third floor.

The lights flickered on and off until they completely went off. Betty and Wendy ran back to their dorm room.

Melody Farmer

Melody and Jenny drove back to Mt. Vernon that very next morning. Melody and Jenny had to leave at about seven in the morning because they told their mothers that they would be home by nine in the morning.

Jenny dropped Melody off at her house and then Melody went into her bedroom and plopped onto the bed. Abby knew that Melody was home so she went into her bedroom.

"Hey Melody," she said politely.

"Hey mom," Melody said wearily.

"I guess you girls had one heck of a night, in Centralia and all, would you like to explain it?"

Melody popped straight up from her bed and looked at her mother nervously.

"I ran into Jenny's mother at Wal-Mart last night and she told me that she was nervous about you two driving all the way out to Centralia by yourselves and asked me if I felt the same way too," said Abby.

Melody looked nervously at her mother.

"Melody, what were you and Jenny doing out in Centralia, which is about an hour away from here?"

"We stayed at her father's house," silently said Melody.
"Melody, I know that I am extremely busy teaching at the college and tutoring piano students, but this was totally uncalled for," stated Abby. "Melody, I may not be there for you all the time, but I need you to be trustworthy while Ray and I work."

Melody looked away from Abby.

"Don't you dare look away from me," Abby said firmly as she made Melody faced her.

Melody looked terrified.

"I need you to be more honest with Ray and me," she said firmly. "I need you to be more honest with me."

"Mom, I was honest with you," said Melody. "I was sleeping at Jenny's house and technically, neither house belonged to Jenny, but her parents, who just happened to be divorced and we stayed at her father's house and I was back by nine, just like I promised."

Abby slapped Melody across the face.

"Melody! You are grounded!" she said firmly.

Abby left her in her room and Melody just lied on her bed.

Rachel Milligan

She thumbed through all of the documents in her dorm room at Eastern. Rachel found a very lovely picture that she would have loved to give the school to make a monument for Mary Hawkins.

In the picture, Mary was sitting ideally with her blonde hair tied up in a bun and rosy cheeks. Since this picture was taken circa 1910's, she posed a serious look. Mary looked like a scholar rather than a counselor. The dress she wore had to be of navy blue and a white blouse. She looked so sophisticated perched on that chair and looking at the camera. She had to have been about eighteen or nineteen, Rachel guessed.

She read through the letters that were written to her and everything.

The next day, Rachel went to the library on campus to work on her report. She was there for about three hours typing and researching.

Her professor knew that she talked to Sally and was pleased that she actually got an interview with the deceased's surviving next of kin, her sister.

"I see an A," Professor Friar said.

Rachel did not really care about the A anymore. She then felt that she only had a main purpose to write this article for Sally's sake.

Mary Hawkins

The story of Miss Hawkins has never really ended. In fall of 1952, there were reports of loud banging noises that seemed to be coming from inside the walls and lights being turned on the fourth floor when nobody had been up there in the last thirty years.

Another incident occurred in 1976 when the lounge furniture were found to be turned over or rearranged and every time a RA would restore them back to order, the ghost would rearrange the furniture again, so the RA just gave up and left the room as she found it.

There were other reports throughout the years with the windows being opened and shut on the fourth floor when nobody is up there and sometimes an apparition of Miss Hawkins appears in the hallway or in the dorm room. Sometimes, a faint melody from the piano playing could be heard from the fourth floor music room. If the students had television sets or radios turned on after hours, she would turn them off.

She was not scary at all, but a friendly spirit. She would not harm anybody. All that Miss Hawkins wanted to do as she did in 1917 was to make her presence known.

One night in 1969, a young woman from Centralia named Faith Salt had an experience with the famous ghost. She was only a year from getting her degree in Concert Piano Performance. She was going to the bathroom one night and the ghost made an apparition in the hallway. Faith looked at this woman and figured that she had to be the infamous Mary Hawkins.

Miss Hawkins stared coldly at Faith, as if she were telling her to go to bed and stay there until the morning. Faith slowly made her way back to her dorm room and crawled back into bed.

Rachel Milligan

The day after Rachel's story went to the print, Sally died in her sleep that night. She was about 104 years old. Rachel was glad that she died in her home and not in a nursing home or hospital.

She went to the funeral at St. Omer Cemetery. Sally's son-in-law, Hector was there. She did not recognize him at first, but she immediately knew who he was when he said that his name was Hector and he was glad that Sally had a friend nearby. The last time he saw was about a month ago when her husband died.

"So you are Hector," she said casually. "After the services, would you follow me to my car, please?"

Hector nodded his head.

After Sally was lowered into the ground, Hector and Rachel went to her car. Rachel popped open her trunk and took out the box with all of Mary's things in it. Hector started to smile.

"I remember my granddad talking about Mary Hawkins in his day," he grinned as he looked at Mary's picture. "She said that she was something all right. Boy, was he ever right!" The old man smiled at Rachel and Rachel smiled back. "He never knew that I was married to her niece, Lord rest her soul, because he was dead. I didn't know that she was related to infamous Mary Hawkins until I met her mom and dad and her mom had a picture of Mary on the mantle next to their wedding picture. I think it's still there."

After the funeral, Hector and Rachel went to Sally's house. It was weird walking back in there since she was dead. Sally must have felt the same way when her husband died shortly before her.

Hector and Rachel went into the house and looked on the mantle to see that Mary's picture was still sitting next to Sally and Richard's wedding picture. Mary was prim and proper posing in a dress coat with a serious look on her face. Hector looked at Mary's picture and gave it to Rachel as a memento of her article.

Rachel and Hector talked for a few minutes and then Rachel turned back and saw that Mary Hawkins' picture was gone…

The end (?)