For Brandon Stoker and John-Mark Poe, Auburn is not only the loveliest village but also the most haunted.
As founders of the Haunted Auburn Walking Tour, the pair has been sharing the spookiest of paranormal activities stories with the community for the past five years.
The public was welcomed Saturday with the option of attending the shorter and "less scary" tour at 6 p.m. following another more in-depth one at 8 p.m.
Stoker and Poe are hosting the tour every Friday and Saturday in October, concluding on Halloween.
Tour-goers met at the eagle statues across from Toomer's Corner where Poe and Stoker, who was holding a large walking stick, greeted them enthusiastically over their microphones.
The two storytellers began the tour with a stop at Biggin and Samford halls retelling both first and second-hand eerie occurrences.
Both Poe and Stoker have lived in Auburn their entire lives and have come to understand the history of the town.
"The stories we're relaying on this walk are not just what you can read in a book. Most of these stories have been told to us, or they are our own experiences," Stoker said. "We decided to create a tour off of actual events that have happened to people."
Stoker said that they are not necessarily focused on "ghost stories" but more on the scientific side of things.
Outside of the seasonal tour, they work together at Alabama Spectral Investigators who will investigate any paranormal phenomenon while searching for logical explanations or actual paranormal proof.
Poe graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from Auburn and co-authored the book "Haunted Auburn-Opelika," while Stoker graduated with a bachelor's degree in art.
"It's funny how this tour actually started," Stoker said. "I was actually at the theater department helping with some plays, and one of the guys knew I was a part of the paranormal research team, and he just threw it out there and asked if we could do a walking tour, and it grew from there."
Throughout their time as paranormal investigators, both Poe and Stoker agreed the most alarming thing they have heard of and experienced, according to Stoker, was an event that happened at Fort Morgan.
"I've seen some very unusual things that didn't shock me, but this did," Stoker said. "Down in Fort Morgan, the person I was with and I saw this shadow come walking up behind us and we thought it was one of our friends trying to surprise us."
Stoker said they went on both sides of the wall to try and catch their friend, but when they went to jump out, no one was there, they said.
People could be heard gasping at the particular eerie stories while others listened intently drinking from Toomer's Lemonade. As the tour went on walking by Samford Lawn, a few people joined in the crowd.
Katie McLeod and Ryan Davis joined the tour last minute when they saw the crowd of people walk by.
"We just got back from dinner, and we saw his (Poe's) sign and thought it would be fun to see what's scary on campus," McLeod said.
As the sun began to go down, Stoker stopped the tour in front of Samford Hall to tell a chilling story of how many people have seen what they believe is a ghost in the top window of the building.
Stoker said there have been pictures taken of the figure in the window and as one zoomed in, the face became clearer almost.
Poe said they encourage anyone to come on the tour because if they have a paranormal experience they would like to share, it may be added to the tour.
"We've actually had one woman on tour when we stopped in front of Biggin Hall say thank you to us," Stoker said. "She was happy that we shared the story because now she said she didn't feel so crazy – she heard the footsteps too."
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