This story a part of the True Ghost Stories page on Obiwan's UFO-Free Paranormal Page. Please do not copy or distribute without permission from Obiwan and/or the original author!
From: FireBbrand@aol.com
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 16:49:29 EDT
To: ghost-discuss@aurora.cdb.com
Subject: my point of view............(long one)
My name is Jack M. I have been keeping up with the ghost stories and discussions for the past month now through my roommate/cousin Rebel and mother, Vette6666/Bonnie M. I would like to share my point of view on the story that you have all read recently about our Haunted house in SE TX and " The Road " as we have come to call it..... Even though the events are the same the perceptions and experiences were very different.... you will enjoy it.
THE HOUSE:
" Wanna go? " The question peaked my curiosity since she told me about this house, and that was my sisters question. " Danielle, I promise you, when I come up to visit we will go, deal? " And that is how it all began....
After going to Houston this past weekend and celebrating a festival on Westheimer in Houston, we decided to take Sunday as a break to day to recoup from our excitement the night before. And that is exactly what we did... my significant other, Chris and I took my mother out to have some Chinese food and to have a nice discussion about our festivities for the past weekend. As the place closed down we packed up our food and left....
We went back home to meet my sister, Danielle and to catch up with Rebel and her husband David. They had all been seriously discussing going to the Haunted house here in town... curiosity got the best of all of us, including their two kids, Aaron and Daniel. We all decided to go.... the sheer excitement of it all was enough to capture our hearts cause we all love adventure and the unexplained in our own ways. Making the plans, we pondered what we would encounter, if anything at all...
" Jack, please tell Danielle to bring Bekah."
Huh? My mother looked at me with an intensity that meant she was serious about me to ask my sister to bring my 3 year old niece. I personally didn't have a problem with it, however, my sister has gone to this house about 5 times previously, from what I understand. Each time she has gone she has been frightened beyond her limits. Needless to say, my niece, Bekah, went with us....
We decked out in silver, supposedly for protection... as to the validity of it I don't know, but it seemed to give my sister, Chris, and my mother a sense of comfort.... so we all wore a piece of silver jewelry... Then the time came.. we left.
On our way up there we laughed and joked about things we might see and hear, but at the same time we learned that a police officer lived right next door to this place. He is paid to watch this house and keep trespassors off the land....( either we are really good, or he isn't doing is job well enough...lol)
The time came when we slowly neared our destination.. .suddenly the air seemed different. Chris, Rebel, Danielle, and David said that it slowly became thicker, more pungent. I disagree, it was like the air became more crisp, clear and alive with electricity... I looked out the window and watched the lights fade away with the main road... the moon was our only light. Excitement started to sweep through my mind and my body... anticipation. Just the idea of being able to see outside paranormal activities, other than the ones our family has grown accustomed to over the years, gave me an excitement that was unique to myself and myself only.
( My mother and I have had many discussions about ghosts and paranormal activity. I am, what one could say is a "seer". Since the time I was born I have always been able to tell who is on the phone before the phone rings. I know when something has gone wrong in the family. I know about events before they happen. I know that these are extra-ordinary claims and of course require extra- ordinary proof. However, I have none to offer other than my stories, and the confirmation of them from my friends and family. )
" Pull the car over there, behind the tree. " My sister told chris as she glanced down the dirt road.... I noticed it cause I protruded into the street just enough to become a sore thumb on the main drive. Chris pulled the car over behind the trees enough to be out of sight incase the cop decided to come snooping around. Rebel and David followed.
We all banded together and walked in silently, as a group. Since we had the kids with us our goal wasn't anything other than to simply see the house and to find out if there was something odd that we could see. We walked around the wall of trees and positioned ourselves where Danielle said to do so... and showed us in which direction to look.....
There it was, the windows, the lights, the shadows... I saw them slowly glow into existance, not bright, not protruding, but rather soft and comforting. I almost had to look twice to make sure that I was seeing what I was seeing. But then the determining factor happend. Over my years I've come to familiarize myself with something that I've never heard of anyone else doing before.... When a place becomes important to me... my mind, so to speak, "zooms" in on this place and memorizes it, sometimes I'll see a flash of what is to come, sometimes I won't. But when I looked at the windows, not sure of what I was seeing, my mind raced forward, so to speak and engrained the windows in my brain. Over and over it did this at different points of the lights glowing on and off..... I was entranced by the windows, studying them. I heard someone say somthing and my concentration was broken. I glaced at a tree that we were looking through to see the house, and noticed something else, something looking back at me, staring me down. My mind zoomed forward and caught a snap shot of it. It was an animal, definately looking at us... watching us... It went from branch to branch.... I would have to say that it was about the size of a possum, however, it had an orange glow.
" David, come here. Tell me what you see. " I pointed to the tree.
" What is that?" He peered at the limbs moving.
" Do you see it?"
" I think so.... what is that? "
" I don't know... what does it look like to you? "
" I don't know.... you are talking about that thing right there.... that has the orange ..... glow/hue?"
I nodded. I was a little suprized that he had seen what I did.... but sure enough it was there. We tried to show the others, but nobody saw it as David and I did.... As a matter of fact, everyone was starting to get a bit jittery about being out there at that time of night. The kids were starting to get scared... they had never seen anything like this and it finally scared them..... I can't blame them I suppose... they really did well.
Danielle, Aaron, Daniel, Chris, and Rebel took off for the car. Whew, we were glad that they were gone, now we had the chance to really look at it without having to whisper " Shut up!! you are going to wake up the cop" or something like that. It was truely amazing... It moved in the tree top from branch to branch without swinging. It was as if it were lurking, watching us to see what we were going to do too. It wasn't hunting us, by no means... it was curious, just as we were. We tracked it's movements by it's orange hue and by the shadowy darkness it cast when it passed infront of the lights..... It was graceful about everything it did... I was captivated by it.... totally in awe.
" C'mon!! " Chris angrily whispered coming back to search for us... We had already figured it was time to head out though... all the kids were in the cars and waiting on us. We really had to go... but as soon as Chris turned he shuddered and took off into a run. David and I really didn't think about it because we figured the jitters had simply gotten to him.... he claims otherwise.
Anyway, it was time to get out of there.... the kids were getting out of hand and were going to give us away... jail stripes weren't my favorite colors.
THE ROAD:
I reached down to the handle of the convertable and reached to get in but the door was locked. I looked inside and saw my sister in the front seat. She quickly looked at me and screamed. I scared her without even trying. She opened the door and I got into the convertable. And we raced away from the scene...
" When I say it is time to go, I MEAN IT IS TIME TO GO!!!!!" was the first words that came out of my sisters mouth. I love her with all my heart, but I don't think that she understands what I saw with David.
" I was grabbed." Chris chimed in. " I saw this figure looking at us on the road... I heard some shouting like it was an angry man. So, Danielle and I took the kids to the cars. Rebel came with us... and when we got back to the car I tried to unlock the door and they wouldn't open. I don't know why but the remote wasn't working."
" I just want to get out of here. I don't want to stay.... let's go!" my sister chimed in again.... with conviction....
We were soon on our way. The house getting further behind us...I cleared my head as the "clarity", that I experienced on our entry, fogged back over, clouding my thoughts again.
One place down... the house now in my past, now comes " The Road. "
Chris rolled down the window and started heaving. " I can't breathe. I need some air." We quickly went to the Diamond Shamrock to get some drinks and give him a chance to catch his breath. As I watched him... I wasn't so sure that he was just freaking himself out..... His color was pale. He couldn't breath..... but it was ok now... we had left the place.....
We pulled in and caught up on our own experiences. Then decided to move on to our next goal.... the "ROAD."
So, off we went.
We drove for about 10 more minuites..... and as we were arriving my sister, Danielle, picked up the story. " I don't know when all this took place, but you really need to see this place. It looks eerie, it's cool. But I had heard that there was this girl who had hung herself from these trees that we are going to see. And the father of the little girl, came home later that day and found her little girl hung in the middle of the road."
We turned on the road...
" Where did you hear this story?" I asked.
" From some friends. " she said. In my head I laughed. This was just a childish pranks some kids played on her recently, I was sure of it.
" I had never seen anything here, but you need to see these trees, they just look totally awesome." she said
I was sitting in the back seat. I bent forward to peer out of the front window.... I was suprized to see that this road had further development. Houses, etc...... Oh, well, she just wanted to show us some trees that looked cool. And cool they were! As we rounded the bends, the trees started to become thicker and thicker. I had to laugh cause we rounded one bend and all of the sudden we heard Chris desparately gasp for air.
" What? " I asked, worried about him and his recent scare. Then I saw what scared him. As we rounded the corner he saw a light.... and before it registered to him that it was a street lamp, it scared the shit out of him.... We all LAUGHED!!!!
I stared out my window and slowly started to watch the trees warp and cover over the road. This road was different from the effect that most people see. Instead of the trees growing straight and tall with the branches covering the road, this time the trees had been warped towards each other, and they were covering the road. The blackness was much darker than usual. The effect was phenominal. Why doesn't this happen with other places? What made it happen here? There is nothing special here......in this area of the city. But regardless, it happend. The trees continued to warp closer as we went down toward the end of the road... it started looking like a cave made out of wood and leaves. If I had been on my own, I would have stopped and gotten out look at the effect in more detail... but that wasn't our goal.
We continued down the road... we crossed the bridge and went to the end of the road and looked to the left..... it was the house of the girl. We all kind of looked at it... I'll be honest, it wasn't what I expected... it was an old run down shack. However, I guess it made sense.... not everyone in the world does well for themselves.... right? We turned down around and started our way back and turned the lights off.... left the running lights on only. We slowly inched forward gazing out down the endless cave of brush. We talked about the story and what we thought about the trees.... and just kookie stuff like that.... but then an eerieness crept in..... as the trees started to straighten up is when it really set in... I asked Chris to stop.....
" Don't you feel that?" Danielle asked.
" Yeah, it's really weird, huh." I replied
" If she really did hang herself I don't think that it was done by the house... perhaps here....do you know where she was found?"
" Nope, haven't got a clue..... all I know was that she was hung." The car stopped totally. I glanced out of my window and was gazing down two lanes in pasture... My head zoomed to the corner.. the corner engraved in my brain. But there wasn't anything special about the corner, but the simple fact that my eyes engrained the picture...meant that something, not sure what though, not yet anyway.
Chris gasped again, " Look, over here...."
"What?" my sister replied.
I motioned for Rebel and David to turn off the lights in there car. They did. Slowly my sister began to see what Chris was talking about.
" Look right through there... I see two figures... one slumped over from behind the tree and it looks like the other one is pacing."
" What? " I question what he was seeing.... I couldn't see anything, but then again I had a tree right in my field of vision.
"Wow, Look, .... " Danielle leaned over for a closer view.
I leaned back cause I couldn't see nothing.. Suddenly, everything was encased in a bright light, no longer than a flash. Everything was lit! The trees, the road, the fence, nothing was visible. Then gone... NOTHING!!!
" What the Hell was that???"
Danielle grabbed Chris as he slammed the car into drive. The windows... I had to look out the windows to look and see if there was someone with a camara or something, but if that were the case, why in the middle of the road and so far back in the woods???? It simply didn't make sense. My head slammed the back seat as he raced down the road...
As we reached the entrance to the road, Rebel and David pulled up next to us and we discussed what just had happend... they saw it just as we had... no explaination.
Rebel shouted " Get out of here NOW!!!! "
We tried to finish describing what had happend
" Get THE HELL OUT OF HERE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "
The window was rolled up, and off we went back to the house to drop the kids off.
THE HOUSE REVISITED:
We dropped the kids back off and tried to explain all of this to my mother, Bonnie M. She was captivated by each of our stories, as I hope that ya'll are cause I know that another person who was involved will be posting his version of what happend up here too.
Mother sat there in awe... could this have really happend? But she has constantly told me that she would not go near that house.... I don't blame her. And here is why.... I apologize for this being so long, but it gets really good hear too.... bear with me.....
I never thought that the words would come from my mother's mouth, did. " Let's get all the kids up and go."
Puzzled, I turned to my mother and looked at her in astonishment, but I wasn't going to say anything cause I wanted her to come.......
We woke up all the kids and separated into the two cars.. Chris, Rebel, David, and myself in Chris's convertable and Danielle and my mother plus all the kids in Danielle's car.... they were like a can of sardines.lololooololol...
Off we went. We met up at the Diamond Shamrock again with mother saying that we have 25 minuites to get there go in and get back. The 4 of us either felt we needed to go back or simply wanted to go back out of curiosity. I was part of the latter. The house caught my attention and that creature in the tree... I wanted to see it again..... I was curious about it... The house was our goal this time. There was nothing stopping us... the inside.... the lights.. the drive was almost exhilerating. I had to pump myself up to prepare myself for what I was going to see, if anything at all.......
The clarity on the drive in never did reassert itself, rather something else had taken it's place. I got the feeling of adgitation, almost as if I had walked in on someone in their most private of moments..... I WAS GOING IN THOUGH... this was my time .. my chance to find out more. We had 25 minuites.. there was no turning back... it was just enough time to get in, check it out, then make a run back. If anything should happen to us.... Danielle was with my mother so they knew how to find us... they knew where to go... it was all covered. The rain started.
Chris parked the car.
We all piled out of the car and walked back down the road and stopped on the same spot we had earlier to watch the lights. We did the same again. I looked intently at the lights....glowing on and off...... They were my challenge. I looked in the trees again... nothing, my curious friend was gone. However, I did feel like a pair of eyes were watching me.... that was alright though... it was an automatic feeling cause of the cop living right next door, and that he could walk out at any given moment and find us trespassing. I watched the lower to lights go out and stay out.... I wasn't sure that my eyes were doing right cause my glasses had been doused with the rain. But sure as everything else.. the lower two lights went out and stayed out while the third floor light continued to glow and dim, over and over.
We huddled together.. something just didn't feel right..... however, none of us had time to figure it out cause we had a time schedule that was ticking down with each rain drop that fell.
Rebel looked at all of us. " There is the gate, either we are going to do this or not. But if we are we need to do this now."
Each of us knew she was right, but still something was wrong..... very unsettling. I tried to place it but couldn't. I personally felt as if I were the one that were being hunted... but I could deal with that... we crossed the fence. Packed together we inched forward so that we could all cross the gate. Step by step we inched forward.... looking to the bushes and through the bushes. The road curved off to the right. The trees covered the road as it began to curve so that we were unable to really see past the moonlight and the occasional flash of lightning.
As we passed a front end loader off to the right... David stopped us and pointed to right behind it down to the ground..... something there.....we all stopped. I stared at it..... and stared.... but I didn't quite see it.... It sort of looked like something, but to me it was more a conglomeration of plants casting an awesome shadow. I shined my flashlight....and that was exactly what it was... plants.... I turned off the flashlight, so as not to alarm anyone who might be up as to trespassers.
We walked further laughing a bit... but not really sure. I sluffed it off as plants from the beginning, but it was rather phenominal.... but when my turned and I saw what I had feared from the time we walked onto the road, my heart sank. Eyes, staring right at me..... I had made the awful transition from being the hunter to being the hunted. The eyes were intently devowering me.... God, what the hell was going on... the eyes... they were floresent yellow. Something reflecting? No, couldn't be.. there was no light and our lights were off...... impossible. THEY BLINKED!!! Oh, Man, OH, God! Oh........ Don't move.... don't move, any sudden move will provoke it.. and we will all be ravaged. THEY BLINKED AGAIN!!!!!! I prepared myself for the worst..... The head turned as it lost interest.......
I looked around me the others were paralyzed with fear too......
I shined my flashlight..... There were two poles with yellow reflective tape on them..... Ok, wait one second... but how could they blink? or how could it turn it's head? This was clearly seen by all of us from different positions.... This couldn't have been us simply fooling ourselves..... I saw limbs of shrubs move back into place.... this wasn't just us making it up to scare ourselves.... but how ?
Chris, Rebel, and David huddled together and continued to walk forward.... slowly. Chris shreiked and turned on his flashlight and aime it right next to him on the other side of the road... nothing.... nothing at all...
" What was it?" I whispered.
" I saw it... it was the shadow."
I shined my flashlight around there too.... nothing. I watched his face... it was seriously getting freaked out... He had seen something in his eyes... but I didn't know what.. just the shadow.
They continued....I waited around... I wanted to look for my animal.....he was here... I knew it... They took off... My heart was in my throat.
As my back was turned, I heard Rebel shreik " no, no, No, NO, NO!!!!" and she was fighting them.... Chris and David whispered something... and she shot past me running back towards the gate.. them folllowing.
I saw David's face, it was true fear... something was going on....
" Where are you going?" I whispered with anger starting flare in my voice. They were leaving me.
" It's following us! " he yelled.... and they turned the corner back to the gate.... I turned around and I saw it. It was blacker than black, moving through the rain.. coming closer, following us. There wasn't any real size that was stable.. it changed as it moved.. It was headed for me... I could feel it now... the gripping power of it eating at my confidence. It turned for me..... and this was coming, moving. What would happen? I was alone.. they were gone and this thing was moving towards me... I turned and ran.... GET OUT OF HERE!!!! RUN FASTER.... KEEP RUNNING!! The gate came into sight..... and Rebel, David and Chris were almost there... " GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!!! " I yelled not caring who woke, who heard, or who hunted punished me later... as long as I made it now.... They fumbled trying to make it through the center of hte gate... I jumped over it... and watched them finish piling through.......
I ran to my previous spot where I had seen the lights.... the fear dropped away.... WHY? I don't know...... Chris and Rebel ran to get the car... I grabbed David's arm and I whispered to him " This is a safe spot." I don't know how I knew but I was sure that we would be safe where we stood... we looked back. I watched the shadow come to the gate... it was there..... and it stood there looking, watching at us. We watched back. As David turned to head back to the car, I saw it change, almost as a warning. I watched it change from black on black to an ash grey. It stood there, almost daring me to come back..... I turned and ran to the car... without looking back.....
We met my mother and shared our experience......
We will go back, some during the day, some at night... but I will be both... this time I am ready to do this the right way.
We took my mother down the road on the second trip but didn't stay cause Danielle got scared so we left, but since then my thoughts have been about that house... I will conquer it.... I will make it there.... I invite anyone who wants to join me to come along. It was one of the most exilerating experiences of my life.... something that I will never forget. I have no particular calling to this house but my curiosity is unsatiable... I won't settle for less until I know that what I saw was truer than true... and those answers will come soon.....
The house waits,
Jack M.