She Was so Beautiful

Paranormal Transmissions

We received this through an email from a reader. I will admit, I doubt the validity of this transmission. We greatly prefer submissions for Paranormal Transmissions to be real life accounts. However, this was a weird little tale, and we haven't received one in quite awhile.

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She was so beautiful

The story I'm about to tell you is not a fabrication. It's something that I've kept to myself for years. And although the story is strange, that's not the strangest part. I am the strangest part.

I swear to you I have no odd behaviors. I did two years in the Navy, 4 years in college and married a wonderful Indiana girl in my late 20's. I have three kids and two grandkids. My marriage has had its issues like any. But I'm happily married and my children are all grown. One of them has children of his own. Overall I've been pretty darn successful at living the typical middle class life. I play computer RPGs, read old fantasy books and go fishing. I'm normal by all standards except for a secret that I keep.

It was 1985 and I was finishing up my last semester at USF, University of Southern Florida. Tampa in those days was a party town. The fellas and I would go hit the clubs on the weekends to mix it up with the babes. We'd do a crawl where we'd go club to club until the sun came up. It was killer.

One particular Saturday night in my final months we hit the town. I was drinking cocktails, smoking dope and doing a little bit of blow (we all did back then). I was pretty messed up but still upright. At some point I lost track of my pals and wandered into the club by myself.

There was a live band playing so I went up and ordered a drink. My eyes locked with the most beautiful green eyes I've ever seen. A young girl about my age wearing an orange dress with a denim jacket over top. She had sandy colored hair all teased up which was the style back then. After I gawked at her she came over and asked me to buy her a drink. I did.

Her name was Olivia and we hit it off instantly. She laughed at all my jokes and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Eventually she pulled me with her onto the dance floor. We danced to every song together. The last song they played was "I want to know what love is" by Foreigner. We slow danced and she kissed me at the end. It was magical. She was an angel. The most beautiful girl I've ever seen.

At this point I was very intoxicated and she was helping hold me up. We walked over to where we were sitting before. She grabbed her coat and pocketbook and said she had to use the bathroom. She kissed me again and said "come find me again when it's all over. Promise?". 

My drunk ass nodded and said "I promise" and I  sat on the stool waiting for her. I waited for probably a half hour as all the other patrons emptied out. I stumbled over to the bathrooms and peeked in the ladies room to make sure everything was okay. It was empty, both bathrooms were empty. 

I was sure she ditched me. I went outside, hailed a cab and went home. I couldn't get Olivia out of my head. The next days and weekends I spent thinking about her and checking all the clubs trying to find her. No luck. I was completely heartbroken. I never felt like that before. I even stopped partying until I graduated. I skipped all the graduation parties and everything. 

Until I saw in the paper "missing girl found". I knew it was her. They found her body in a drain down the block from where I met her. In the article it said she was the weekend I was there. I blamed myself. They must've snatched her in the commotion of last call and I was too drunk to notice. It was my fault. Olivia was murdered on my watch.

A few weeks later they caught her murderers. Two Cubans. During their trial they admitted everything. On Friday night they snatched her and drug her into the alleyway where they raped and choked her to death. Then they tossed her body in a drain. I was horrified. I was enraged and most of all I was devastated. I couldn't stop sobbing so I drank a whole bottle of tequila. The newspaper had her picture in it. It looked like a graduation picture. She looked so beautiful just like the night that I met her. 

I laid my head next to her picture in the paper and I realized. It said she was abducted on Friday. I was there on Saturday. She was already dead when I met her. I started to really skitz out. Thought I was going crazy. I was so upset that I ran to the bathroom to throw up. In the bathroom I slipped and hit my head on the tub. I passed out on the floor until morning. 

I pulled myself up and made myself some coffee. It must've been some grief and booze fueled delusion. Until I picked the paper up off the floor and read it again. It was real.

I called my friends I went out with that night to confirm that it had be Friday and I was remembering wrong. I wasn't. I was there on Saturday. 

I can't explain to you how or what happened. How I danced and kissed a girl who was dead 24 hours prior. It seems impossible. I even tracked down our bartender from that night. He remembered me and remembered Olivia but was mortified by my question about us being there together. He already knew all about the murder. It tainted the whole establishment as an unsafe place to go.

I attended her funeral and met her family. Told them I was her boyfriend. They gave me photos that I still have to this day. Every year my family travels down to Tampa to visit old friends. My wife loves it. I use it as a chance to leave flowers at Olivia's grave. 

I still think about her all the time. I go over the night with her in my head everyday. I'm in love with her. 

Olivia, I promised you that I would find you after all this is over. I now understand what you meant. I will keep my promise.