Black Aggie

When General Felix Agnus died, a life-sized bronze statue of a grieving angel, seated on a pedestal was put on the Agnus family plot in the Druid Ridge Cemetery. The statue was an eerie figure by day, frozen in a moment of grief and terrible pain. But, at night, the figure was almost unbelievably creepy; the shroud over its head obscuring the face until you were up close to it. There sculpture was so life-like, it seemed like its arms could really reach out and grab you if you weren't careful.

It didn't take long for rumors to sweep through the town and surrounding countryside. They said that the statue - nicknamed Black Aggie - was haunted by the spirit of a woman who lay beneath her feet. The statue's eyes would glow red at the stroke of midnight, and any living person who returned the statues gaze would instantly be struck blind. If you slept on her lap at night, the statue would come to life and crush you to death in her dark embrace. It was said that spirits of the dead would rise from their graves on dark nights to gather around the statue at night.

People began visiting the cemetery just to see the statue. Some say the visitors were brave souls, others claim they were fools trying to make a deal with the devil. That’s up to you to decide. One fraternity, made up of either brave souls or fools, decided to make the statue part of their initiation rites. Pledge brothers had to spend the night crouched beneath the statue with their backs to the grave of General Agnus.

One dark night, two fraternity members accompanied a new pledge to the cemetery and watched while he took his place underneath the creepy statue. The clouds had obscured the moon that night, and the whole area surrounding the dark statue was filled with a sense of dread and malice. It felt as if a storm were brewing in that part of the cemetery. Like the souls who had gathered at the statue didn’t like the irreverent young men. Suddenly, the two fraternity members noticed that gray shadows seemed to be clustering around the fraternity pledge candidate crouching in front of the statue.

What had been a funny initiation rite suddenly turned deadly. As the frat brothers called out to the pledge, the statue above the boy stirred ominously and a red gleam appeared from the eyes of the statue. With shouts of alarm, the fraternity brothers leapt forward to rescue the young man. But it was too late. The pledge gave one horrified yell, and then his body disappeared into the embrace of the dark angel. The fraternity brothers froze when the statue turned its glowing eyes upon them. With gasps of terror, the boys fled the cemetery.

Hearing the screams, a night watchman hurried to the Agnus plot. To his chagrin, he discovered the body of a young man lying at the foot of the statue. It is said the young man had apparently died of fright. But, who am I to decide? All I know is that so many things happened at the statue that it was eventually removed, never again to plague the visitors of the Druid Hill Park Cemetery.

***

Original story is published on americanfolklore.net.

Vocabulary list:

Eerie (adj.) — strange and frightening.

Obscuring (v.) — keep from being seen; conceal.

Sweep through (phrase) — to move, rush, or pass quickly through something or some place.

Fraternity (n.) — a male students' society in a university or college.

Initiation rites (n.) — acts or rituals that a person must perform in order to be officially recognized as having joined a group or organization or as having achieved a new status.

Ominously (adv.) — in a way that suggests that something bad is going to happen.

Chagrin (n.) — annoyance or distress at having failed or been humiliated.