Since this is the beginning of Summer, I thought it appropriate to tell a ghost story about a house in the woods.
I’m creeped out a bit when it comes to property with woods beyond the property line. This seems to be an ideal place for ghosts and sinister behavior by the living . . . But, we are much more interested in the real ghost stories.
It all began when Julie, her brothers and some neighborhood kids decided to play hide-and-seek in the woods behind Julie’s house.
They had played in the woods before, but now it was beginning to get dark and Julie had an uneasy feeling about hiding in the woods.
Of course, everyone teased Julie about being chicken and other names, but Julie stood her ground. The others did decide to play hide-and-seek and Julie went home.
It wasn’t long after Julie set the table for dinner that her brothers, Sam and Kyle came in looking as though they saw a ghost — which they did . . .
According to Kyle, he and Sam were looking for a good hiding place while Tammy counted to 100. Amy stayed with Tammy while she counted. She wasn’t too keen on the idea of going into the woods and hiding.
Sam saw something or someone following them. Not directly behind them, but off to the side, but every time he moved his head to look straight on, nothing was there.
He felt uncomfortable and started to say something to Kyle, but dismissed it and continued walking deep in the woods.
They did come across an old abandoned house. At least they thought it was abandoned since the porch steps were rotted away and the porch roof sagged. They went to the side of the house to look inside through a window.
Then something touched Sam’s shoulder. He quickly turned around to see if it was Tammy or Amy, but it was a man dressed in black. He looked old and had red piercing eyes.
Sam felt paralyzed looking into those piercing red eyes. Kyle called to Sam, but he couldn’t speak or move. He wanted to warn his brother to stay away, but he couldn’t.
Then suddenly, the man disappeared, but the red eyes still glowed through the row of trees watching him.
Kyle pulled Sam away from the house and towards home. Sam could feel those red eyes on him. He tried to tell Kyle what happened, but couldn’t form the words.
But Kyle saw something looking back at him from inside the abandoned house. It seemed to be a woman dressed in white, carrying a lit candle . . . but there was something strange about the angle of her head. And it seemed as though her eyes were black holes and her hands were those of a skeleton.
The boys got back to the edge of the woods just as Amy and Tammy were starting to go into the woods to find them.
“Don’t go into the woods!” Kyle yelled. “It’s haunted.”
Of course the girls laughed, but they were also relieved that the game of hide-and-seek was over. They did go home . . . and Julie, Sam and Kyle’s father told them a story about that old house in the woods.
Originally, it was believed to be owned by a coven of witches. They were into some dark magic and over time each of the witches either moved on or died right in that very house.
Then a young couple with a daughter moved into that house. They were strange. They kept to themselves. They did go into town from time to time, but grew the food they needed and hunted deer and rabbits. They had chickens and their own dairy cows.
When their daughter was old enough to marry, a stranger came to the old house. He claimed to be an old family friend. He did work in town as a blacksmith and also as an undertaker. Strange jobs for an unusual man, but somehow it seemed to work out for the town.
The day of her wedding, the stranger didn’t show up. He just seemed to disappear. Some thought he ran off with another woman or he met up with the ghosts of the witches in the woods.
There was something strange about that man, as the stories were told, he sold his soul to the devil. He stopped working and spent most of his time in the tavern. He drank and played cards. He would get into fights and spend time in the woods when he should have been working.
Whenever he would show up in town, strange things would happen. People who looked at him would get sick, crops and animals would die along the path he walked. There was death and destruction all about him. The town just about became a ghost town had it not been for some of the men who chased him out of town and told him they would kill him if he stepped foot in town again.
With stories and such, it is difficult to know what happened to the man, but people thought he still lived in the woods and was courting the daughter in the old house. But when he didn’t show up for the wedding . . . one can draw their own conclusions.
In the woods, even to this day, there have been sightings of a young girl in a white dress looking for that stranger. And, yes, there have also been sightings of red glowing eyes in the woods.
It could be an urban legend to keep kids out of the woods after dark . . . or parts of the stories could be true. For Sam and Kyle, they believe they saw the young bride in the old house . . . and the devil himself.
Thanks for stopping by!!
Sharon
