Everyday Paranormal Experiences, Interview #4
This story is a recollection of something that happened when I was in high school… so yes, a long time ago, back in the 90’s. Though I’ve actually ventured to the location that this story centers on, I have not actually had any of the experiences that I am relating. Nor is this an interview, at least not in the strictest sense, as it is a re-telling of the facts and supposed events.
The story came to light on Monday morning when Chuck and Randy didn’t show up for class. As unusual as it may be, Chuck and Randy were both popular and intelligent which led to the fact that everyone knew they weren’t at school when it was not in their characters to miss class. By the end of the day, with credit going to Chuck’s one-year-younger sister, everyone had heard that the two friends had been in a car accident the past Saturday, and were in the county hospital one town over.
The official story, which we (the school) finally heard a couple of days later was that Randy, the driver, had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed head-on into another car going the opposite direction. As facts would have it, this was true – the other driver was in the recovery room next to the one Randy and Chuck shared.
The other driver, recently moved up from Texas, had broken both legs and every bone in his left hand. Chuck was relatively unharmed, but Randy suffered: he broke both legs, his upper and lower left arm and hand, and had severe lacerations on his face and chest not to mention broken ribs and bruises. He spent the next 7 months in a wheel chair.
After we were sure that Chuck and Randy would survive, and especially once they both returned to school (Chuck that week, Randy a few weeks later), they got teased about their accident – as kids are wont to do. This was especially true for Randy, who suffered numerous jokes about falling asleep at inopportune times. Eventually, Randy and Chuck decided to tell their friends the truth – their truth, at least.
The explained how they had wanted to go out to see Wolf Hollow, both for academia and the thrill of exploring a supposedly haunted place. Neither of them had expected to run into ghosts or vampires on the trip down the poorly maintained dirt road, but they did expect to feel the creepy feeling of an evil place. You see, Wolf Hollow is the colloquial name for an estate that has fallen into disrepair due to its reputation.
The reputation of Wolf Hollow is that of a Klu Klux Klan’s home and meeting place. More than that, it is rumored to be the site of numerous execution-style killings of African-Americans in the years following the Civil War. Hangings, be-headings, shootings, torture and rape were the deeds that haunted the air about the place – if the stories were to be believed. Randy and Chuck believed the stories, and thought that visiting the abandoned place would be an excellent “History of the County” article for the school paper.
It took several hours to find the estate, the countryside of Missouri is crisscrossed with unmarked dirt roads which traverse wooded hills and river-basin farmland, and no one seemed to be sure where Wolf Hollow exactly was. By chance, they saw an old wooden sign at the end of a dilapidated fence at the corner of a T-intersection which read simply: “Wolf Hollow.”
The dirt road went into the woods, which at this point were becoming darker. For fear of never finding the right place again, Chuck and Randy agreed that a quick look before the sun set would satiate their curiosity. The road quickly became a deeply-rutted path that was much overgrown with tall grasses and tree limbs stretching out to scrape along the side of Randy’s 1989 Acura Integra. As the road curved towards a series of hills the road grew steeper until Randy made a decision: they would leave the car and walk to the top of the bluff along the road.
His decision was based upon the fact that Randy would have to drive in reverse all the way back to the intersection if this road turned out to be nothing, and that the road was steep enough his car might simply stall. They left the car and hiked up the path, flashlights (intended to explore the dark interior of the house on the Wolf Hollow Estate) ensuring a sure step as the dusky sky was fading quickly.
After what felt like only 15 minutes, the pair spotted a two-story farm house. The house’s windows existed as jagged splinters, the front door hung on its hinges apparently broken from whatever tore a chunk from its top corner. A large shed sat off to one side, a chain hung from the shed’s splintered roof and swayed in the light breeze, tapped against the wall. In front of the house was a large and well-worn circle of dirt with a covered well in the center which made the area resemble a round-about. Behind the house was a large clearing spotted sporadically with small trees, what may once have been a modest field of corn or soybeans.
Randy and Chuck were very excited that they had finally found the fabled Wolf Hollow, but as their feet touched the packed and worn dirt on the round-about their excitement died. In fact, it turned to terror as they heard a car horn in one long honk from back the way they had come. It was Randy’s car horn that filled the air and caused crow and sparrows to launch from their perches and vacate the area.
The pair was conflicted with returning to the car and finding what had caused the horn to sound, and staying in a place that had just become considerably more spooky. But the decision was made easier with the next events.
“Leave now…” hissed through the woods as the wind picked up.
Suddenly there was laundry flapping on the clothes-line between the house and shed, clean and white linens alongside overalls and yellow dresses. The chain in the shed had friend, all clanging against one another, rattling. The limbs of the trees creaked as if something heavy hung from them each, and then the sounds of crying and malicious laughter filled the air.
The gentle and mysterious voice urged again, “Leave now…”
It was cut off by very clear and understandable voices arguing whether or not the boys were here to join them or spy on them. Who was speaking was not apparent, but there were no fewer than a dozen voices arguing over it.
As the boys ran down the steep bluff side they heard the distant scream of a woman and rushing feet, as if the arguing voices were now pursuing them. As they recount the tale to us they mention it must have all happened within the space of a few heartbeats, and they had forgotten about the car’s honking as they rushed back to it. Randy started reversing down the road before Chuck had even closed his door, the nearness of the tree limbs caught and scraped Chuck’s arm and tore his khaki’s.
In record time, and probably losing his oil pan, Randy made it back to the main dirt road and sped back the way they had come eventually coming out on State Highway N. Randy was speeding north, back home, both boys quiet for fear and shivering with the rushing adrenaline. Just as they were about to pass what Randy was sure was a Sheriff’s Deputy (since he was doing 80 in a 45mph zone) coming the other way, something grey materialized between the boys and shouted, “DIE!”
Randy and Chuck share the story-telling, and end the story by saying the next thing they knew they were in the hospital.
Again, this is Randy and Chuck’s version of what happened. As I stated previously, I visited Wolf Hollow and did not experience anything other than being a little creeped-out. The house is creepy, it is hard to find (took me and my friends three weekends, because Chuck and Randy wouldn’t say), and I went in full daylight rather than dusk. There is, however, a sign pointing to the estate and it is labeled, “Wolf Hollow.” Could their story be true? Is it a better story to say a ghost scared you into crashing or that you fell asleep? I have heard that the house has been bulldozed by the current owner of that property a few years back – but could it still be haunted, if it really ever was?
Next Week’s Everyday Paranormal Experiences, Interview #5: “The Forgotten Princess”
On the Article Series:
I myself am a huge skeptic of all things paranormal or extra-terrestrial and I tend to take most tales of either with a huge grain of salt – sometimes even an entire salt shaker, depending on the tale that’s being weaved. I have even had a couple ghostly and otherworldly experiences myself, which I may relate in later stories – and I’m skeptical of those! Is what I experienced the truth of the experience or is there an empirical explanation that I simply have not yet unlocked? Regardless of my skeptical nature, ghost stories and alien encounters have always fascinated me as they have all of humanity for thousands of years.
It is this fascination that I wish to convey in a unique and different paranormal or alien experience every week – Thursday, to be exact. I will be conducting interviews with everyday people to hear their stories and relate them back to you, the Paranoid Gamers. Perhaps I’ll be interviewing some of you, as well.
Do you have an experience of a haunted item, place, or person? Have you been visited by aliens or heretofore undocumented intelligent life – terrestrial or extra so? If you’d like to share your experience and possibly have your tale published in this series of articles, please contact me and we can relive your experience.
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Philip
August 30, 2012 @ 5:51 am
Very scary…sounds true to me.
Rustyn Clark
August 30, 2012 @ 9:01 pm
Haha. I wonder. But I don’t judge true or not, just present the story with more adjectives than the originals.
Tiffany
August 31, 2012 @ 5:26 am
I always love paranormal stories…I don’t necessarily believe, but I want to! And I do remember Wolf Hollow…that place is definitely creepy…. you know the KKK still meets in that area nowadays, at least that’s what I have heard.
Rustyn Clark
October 12, 2012 @ 5:11 pm
I seem to recall something along those lines, as well.