My great great grandfather told everyone in my family this story, everyone knew it and when he passed away, my great grandfather told it and my grandfather and so on. I heard it from my grandfather and he told it thousands of times. As oldfar as I know everyone in my family believes it. In fact, there used to be picture "proof." My grandfather's house burned down many years ago along with everything he ever owned. Here is the story, it is true...
1874
My great great grandfather, Michael and his family moved to a VERY small town in the US. I doubt it could even technically be called a town. About 50 people lived there, in a dozen families. 58 people in 13 families when Michael moved in. My great great great grandparents, Michael and his twin brother Matthew, who were 10 years old, and four little girls between the ages of 8-4, came in the end of winter. Two months later, it was spring thaw and the children were restless. Michael and Matthew went to explore the extensive forest surrounding their town. They had fun and played all day in the beautiful spring weather. They weren't paying attention to the sun and soon realized they were lost and it was getting dark. Michael said they should keep walking til thy saw something familiar. Matthew said they should stay where they were and wait for their parents to come find them.. Michael won the argument so they continued wandering through the woods. All of a sudden they see a house, cheerily, back in the darkness. They almost cry with relief. They bang on the door and an elderly woman opens it. They tell her they are lost and she gives them a snack and says she'll show them the way home in the morning. It was too dark and dangerous. Just then the woman's husband came down stairs, greeted the boys and they played some card game (I can never remember the name), until the boys' eyes were heavy. The woman brought them up to the spare bedroom and they slept peacefully. In the morning, after a good breakfast, the man asks them where they live; he gives them easy directions home and two compasses, one for each, to ensure they get there safely. (We still have the compass, my grandfather gave it to my dad when he was little, so it wasn't in my grandfather's house when it burned.) They go home and find literally the ENTIRE town at their house about ready to search for them. They tell everyone where they were and no one believes them. They think they are playing a joke. The old couple that had lived there, Robert and Marie, passed away 5 years ago. The house had since been struck by lightning and had been destroyed. The boys described the house and the couple and a few older people started to get uncomfortable, as their descriptions were accurate. But still the majority of people didn't believe them and they were about to be punished for keeping the whole town up all night worrying. Then Michael said, "Fine, come see for yourself!" And ran off into the woods. Of course everyone followed, fearing he'd get lost again. He gets to the clearing and...
Here's the part where you all think you know this story. The house is either just ruins or not there at all and the boys are punished for lying or something like that, and maybe a few people grumble about "ghosts." WRONG!
The house is there exactly as Michael and Matthew said it would be. No blackened shell or crumbling foundation, but a house, real and solid. And inside are Robert and Marie, sitting at the table. Everyone sees this. Some people run away in fear, some cross themselves, others go inside with Michael to speak to them. Many of them are nervous because they knew the couple in life. They hadn't been dead long. The Robert and Marie on the other hand seemed quite happy to have visitors and would talk amicably about anything except the fact that they were dead. If anyone asked a question about it, or tried to tell them that they were dead and their house had burned down they were completely ignored. The couple stared through them as if the questioner was not even there. Eventually someone would change the subject, and they would go back to being sociable neighbors. By the end of the day everyone had seen and spoken to Robert and Marie. The next day the entire town turned out at their house again to see if they had all been having a mass hallucination. Robert and Marie's house was still there. And so were they. But they were only able to be inside. When they tried to leave they disappeared at the threshold of the door. Three people had brought cameras (my great great great grandfather included) and were taking pictures of the house and the surrounding forest. My grandfather had shown us at least 10 pictures, some of a bunch of people standing around in the woods, some of the house by itself and some of the house with people posing in front of it. My favorite was the one of Michael and Matthew in front of it smiling and waving. Photography wasn't quite main stream yet, so there COULD be another explanation for the oddity of the pictures. All of the shots of the people in the woods came out clear, all of the shots of the house contained a completely blurry and house shaped smudge, where the house should be. The trees and people in the photos with the house were all sharp and in focus. Especially strange when there are live people standing on what should be the porch of a house shaped smudge, or when a picture was taken inside the home and it looked as though the photographer was inside a giant dust storm. The photos were so eerie.
Now, Robert and Marie were not the least bit scary or mean, but these were god-fearing Christians. A priest was summoned. He came to the house, took his own photos, blessed the outside and inside and spoke to Robert and Marie. He was ignored by them as well when he made any mention of the fact that they were dead. He tried to exorcise them, but nothing happened. Nothing bad or good, just nothing. The priest said that the demons (that's what he told them Robert and Marie were) were very very strong and that he couldn't make them leave. He said that though they seemed harmless now, eventually the Robert and Marie demons would steal their souls. He said he would come back in two weeks with another priest and the two of them would see what cold be done.
That did not sit well with the people in town. They were all for Robert and Marie when they had no answer for the phenomenon, but once they were told they were demons, everything changed. There was a meeting and the people decided to leave. They would leave and let Robert and Marie have the quiet forest all to themselves. I doubt everyone thought they were demons, I know Michael did not, though we've been told Matthew did as well as most of the town. They all swore to keep the demons a secret (after all, they had known Robert and Marie in life, and they had been decent enough demons) and by the end of the week everyone was gone. To my knowledge no one has ever been back.
My great great grandfather was proud of the mystery he found, and never did tell anyone where the town was or even what State it was in, though we were told everyone in the family begged him to. I'm sure by now, the ruins of the 20 or so buildings abandoned in the town have been developed on. There are few undiscovered places left in the US.
My grandfather told us that we weren't supposed to tell the story outside the family. He said he didn't want us to invite the demons into other people's lives. (He was a Deacon at a catholic church) OOPS!! He also didn't want people to think we were all wackos! But he told us there were probably a few people in the world who knew the story as well. 12 other families, 50 other people witnessed this and everyone of them had pictures. So somewhere, someone has heard this story before. How I wish we still had our pictures so I could upload them! I saw them quite a few times. I was born in '79. The fire was in '90. My grandfather passed away two years later. My dad has the compass, my dad's cousin, Matthew has his great grandfather's. I can take pictures of them.
Some people in my family believe Robert and Marie were demons. Some people think they were ghosts. I don't think they were demons, but I wasn't there! My bet is on ghosts, but they were pretty solid interactive ghosts according to the story.
Any one ever hear this story? It would be neat to see if anyone else had any pictures of it!
You can join Unsolved Mysteries and post your own mysteries or
interesting stories for the world to read and respond to Click hereScroll all the way down to read replies.Show all stories by Author: 64641 ( Click here )
Spring is coming |
