The story I'm submitting here was partially inspired by a recent poster who described the feelings of dread and anxiety, of being watched by something or someone unseen lurking in the shadows of a haunted home. It was also inspired by my recent trip home to see family, wherein the subject of family ghost stories inevitably arises. I realize there may be explanations for some of this, I concede that fact, but will share the story and let the reader decide. Of course I'm open to ideas, discussion and will entertain questions, as best I can. Please bear in mind, that I myself have never visited the property but heard plenty enough of what went on there.
The house or more accurately property in this story has been in my family for decades. The story goes back quite far, into the 1950's. I first heard the story from my grandmother and great aunt (father's side) when I used to stay with them. They would tell stories of bizarre events while I sat there listening, fascinated. It was these story telling sessions where I first heard the stories of the house on North Street. I believe it was partially from these story sessions where I became enthralled with ghost stories and started reading them.
The house and hill was owned by my great uncle. It was part of a farm of sorts and had no electricity. It's not that it wasn't available, it was just something my great uncle never bothered with.
One night in the 50's (my dad and his siblings still quite young) my great uncle and his whole family showed up at the house on North Street visibly shaken. They seemed as if they had been terrorized and like (pardon the pun) they had seen a ghost. They asked my grandfather if they could stay the night on North Street and then asked if he would help them immediately relocate. They offered no explanation of what happened, just begging for help. The were clearly traumatized according to my grandmother. Of course, being family they were taken in for the night. My grandpa helped them move to a place a few miles further from their home. They would return to the house to retrieve only some clothes and personal possessions.
My grandparents were only able to piece together what had happened in fragments. My great uncle and his family had just sat down to supper when something happened that scared them so bad, they fled the property that night, leaving all their furniture and even the hot dinner on the table. Other than going back for a few items as I mentioned, they never returned. They never talked about it to anyone, and my family tried for years to get them to speak about that night. My great uncle, like my grandfather (who scoffed at these ghost stories) was a no nonsense kind of man, not taken to flights of fancy (so I'm told). The family relocated a few miles away and tried to start over again. They never sold the house and property and it remains in the family all these decades later.
The house sat abandoned. In the 60's when my dad and uncle and their friends came of age, it became a place to hang out, kind of like a teen clubhouse. My dad and his friends would usually gather on North Street and hang out first. Their idea of fun was much tamer than today's generation (and even some back then) they got together and cooked up batches of french fries and ate and shot the breeze. At some point, they would drive up on the hill and hang out in the old house. One night they too fled the hill, never to return. They saw a bat on the house, but that wasn't what drove them away. My dad typically doesn't like to talk about these things, when asked about North Street, he kind of got short with me, saying he didn't remember. His response came too quickly though in my opinion. When I asked him about the hill, he said more to me. He told me, it wasn't what they saw that night, so much as what they felt. He described a feeling akin to terror and extreme anxiety that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once and pursued them until they left the hill.
As the years went on, the house decayed and was left to vandals and thugs and things were stolen and graffiti left everywhere. My brother and his friends would visit for a thrill and to scare each other, but he admits there was something creepy about the place and even a few of his friends ran from the place. As my brother got older, he began to hunt on the land, but told me he always left before nightfall. He informed me the place changed at night, and as soon as the sun set, you felt as if you were being watched. You could never see anyone, but it was a heavy feeling that permeated the entire property, not just the house. The feeling inspired anxiety and fear but with no visible or audible source. To avoid it, he just left before it got dark. He said he wasn't the only one. Others with permission to hunt on the land described almost the same feeling and always after sunset.
It's possible of course that over the years, the stories handed down about the place could feed the fear factor and cause some of these encounters. However again, no one saw anything, it's only what they felt and the stories were consistent, even from people not familiar with the place. Also still there's the original event, an entire family that just up and flees from their home? My brother had encountered the older children who still tended the property and when he asked them about that night (the night they fled), they would quickly change the subject.
My brother told me an interesting story, that one of the adult kids of the original family had actually taken an interest in the old family property and lovingly restored it. The house was knocked down, the pond cleaned up and the acreage mowed. My brother told me this was kept up for some time and for awhile things simmered down. A person could be up there without the awful feelings and the property took on a more pleasant feel to it. Eventually one of the other kids though, started to let people hunt up there again and they tramped all over the place and it fell into disuse again.
On my trip home, my brother and a close friend whom we grew up with gathered at my brothers house one night to hang out and catch up. My brother had purchased the house next door to my parents. It had once to belonged to an old couple we knew growing up and the old man had passed away years ago in the house. My brother had told me the old man still hangs around the place, apparently unable to move on. So that night as my brother and our neighbor/friend laid into a generous supply of beer while we reminisced, the focus of our conversations inevitably turned to ghost stories. My niece and her friend were upstairs playing games and filming dancing videos etc (and making quite a bit of noise) However as it got late, they came downstairs and became interested in what we were talking about. At first we discussed the old man at my brother's house. What was strange was my niece's friend suddenly said she saw the image of a hat, like the one on the couch. The hat she pointed at was a smaller version of a fedora, something more fashionable that kids wear. What she described though fit the description of an old fisherman's hat. It was what the old man frequently wore. How would she have know that? He died well before her time? Perhaps my brother or someone had mentioned it to her, but she didn't seem to know the stories about the old man and my brother probably wouldn't have been descriptive enough to mention the hat. Either way, we hadn't it mentioned prior on that evening so I know they couldn't have been listening from upstairs with the racket they were making.
Regardless they wanted to hear the family stories and since they were 15 (about the age I had first heard them) I told them and my brother added his experiences. They listened intently and when we started to talk about the hill, my niece's friend stated she saw the color red for some reason. Again we didn't think too much about it, although in hindsight, I wonder if she had some psychic/intuitive senses? As my brother opened up about having some kind of visions on the property (he didn't elaborate on what) that accompanied the feelings of anxiety, he informed us that the house was red (before it was knocked down) I didn't even know that? When we started about North Street, my niece's friend said she saw the color blue. That was the color of the place on North Street. How would she have known that? Neither my niece or her friend knew about the place, in fact my brother and I drove them by North Street the next day and pointed it out for the first time.
What was interesting was that as my brother and our friend became quite inebriated, they suddenly had the brilliant idea to have me drive them up on the hill to experience the bizarre feelings up there first hand. I was the only sober one besides my niece and her friend. This was about 3AM now. I of course knew this was an extremely BAD idea. My brother and our friend had false courage thanks to the alcohol and wanted a thrill. I informed them both in no uncertain terms would they get me within a hundred miles of that place, especially at night. (I was being sarcastic as the place in question was only 10-15 minutes away, but they got the point) Of course they pursued the matter. What was strange was the no nonsense way I spoke about it. Although the place did freak me out, I wasn't scared at that moment. I just informed them that what was up there on the hill, didn't want to be disturbed and it would be a bad experience for both of them. As for myself, I already believed in the afterlife, I didn't need a direct experience, and certainly not one of that caliber. I was talking with a sense of wisdom and knowledge I didn't know I had. It's as if it was coming from somewhere else? No, it wasn't possession, I clearly remember everything and I hadn't been drinking. It's just as if I suddenly understood more about the hill than I should have if it makes sense?
What's even stranger was that my niece's friend suddenly began also speaking in a no nonsense way. She told my brother that "He" didn't want to be disturbed. "He" still considered it 'his' property and didn't like intruders. She didn't speak in a panicked sense, but almost with a passion as it were, like some truth needed to be told if that makes sense? What's even more bizarre, was that I accepted what she said without question, as if on some level I knew it was the truth? I thought there was more than one spirit up there though, and when I asked about 'him' she said she saw him as an older man, like a farmer, but couldn't tell me where this was all coming from? Being younger, maybe she was more open?
I have no explanation for this sudden bout of wisdom and where it came from, for either of us. Perhaps it was a guide or guardian angel or maybe whatever entities that haunted the hill, sensing my brother's intention and trying to put a stop to any shenanigans before they started? I realized afterwards that typically before regaling in the telling of any ghost stories, I protect myself and take the proper safeguards, but this time in my excitement, I neglected to shield myself. Either way, as I continued to talk them both down, they reached that point prior to passing out, so after instructing my niece to hide the keys to the truck and satisfying myself they weren't going anywhere, I went to bed. It would be dawn in only a couple more hours.
Despite everything else, I intuitively knew it was a bad idea to go up on the hill, especially when the two of them had been drinking. I believe it makes people more susceptible to ghosts and encounters. When drunk, a person is more vulnerable and their guard is down. I've known psychics who state drinking punches holes in a person's aura and energy field and I can only imagine if they're sensitive it's much worse. It always amazes me that people disregard a person's ghost story if they're under the influence, because, their senses cannot be trusted. We don't always 'see' ghosts with our physical senses though. In this case and other stories, people can't see the spirit or hear it, but they feel it. They don't physically feel it, but we sense it with something beyond out 5 physical senses. We know it's there. When drunk, the filters a person has to not seeing or experiencing the supernatural are also down, making them more likely to encounter something. I'm not suggesting that we believe everyone who has encountered a ghost while drinking etc, and it should be readily believed. We still need to do our due diligence there, but it does need to be considered that a person could encounter something not of this world more readily in that state than a sober one. It's another perspective.
That being said, the only other thing I can offer is what little I know of the history of the property. Not much is known, Indians frequented the area, (I'm not suggesting such a cliche such as a burial mound) but there were skirmishes in settler times. A fort was burned nearby and the whole area used to be hideout for renegades, pirates, and outlaws, because it was so far out of the way back in pioneering days. I don't know what could have caused the so called haunting any more than what drove the family off the hill that night so long ago, but I thought I would share the story!
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