A Ghostly Encounter On Vacant Land

One of the unusual paranormal experiences I have had with haunted homes began in August of the year 1999. My sister and brother-in-law at this time bought some land to build a new house. And since the land was still not dug into, the property offered a great opportunity to show my son what it was like to camp in the “great outdoors” with no electricity, and living “off the woods”. It was a fun way to give him a taste of how life was back in them good ‘ol days.

I expected it was going to be hard on him to be without a TV or computer games. But I had some ideas about how to entertain him. There was a small stream off the land, and there was plenty of fish to be caught. And then there was also the telling of ghost stories at night around the campfire, like my uncle told us kids when we went camping.

If the dead can’t rest in peace, how on Earth can the living? ~ Cheri Revai

But the silly ghost stories from my youth soon caught up with me in a very real way.

Behind my sister’s property is an old church that sits behind the land and, while setting up camp on the first day, I noticed there was also an old graveyard. The next day my sister and her husband stopped by to see if we needed anything. We sat around and talked about the land. I asked them when they were going to start digging for the new house to be built and told them of my concerns about the old cemetery behind the church. I wondered if they did any background checking on the land, because I was sure it might be a part of that church’s history. My brother in law was not really concerned about it, because the land was valuable and they got a really good price on it.

My son and I caught some fish for lunch or dinner one day, and at one point I thought I could hear a choir of voices in the distance. I never gave it much thought, because I was focused on the fishing. Later my son asked me if some of his friends could join us, because he was bored. I agreed, and as his friends were making their way to us, I began to think of a really gruesome ghost story I could tell them that night.

All the while I would keep looking over at that church, possibly for some inspiration? Then I started seeing in my mind’s eye small children playing on the side of the church, on the opposite side of the cemetery. I also heard them sing, and they were not the songs that children would sing today. But, once again, I shot it off, as I was more concerned with the details of the ghost story I would tell my son and his friends.

When I’m asked ‘Are you afraid of the dark?’, my answer is ‘No, I’m afraid of what is in the dark’ ~ Barry Fitzgerald

Later that night, when I was finally telling the kids my quickly concocted ghost story, I thought I saw a shadow walk through the tree lines down by the stream. It was my impression that is was an elderly women in a black dress. But after a moment it was gone.

After getting all the kids to sleep, I was rolling around in discomfort, because now the tent we slept in didn’t have as much room as the night before. I then for some reason took out my flashlight and shined it in the direction of the church. To my surprise a light flashed back at me!

At first I thought it might just be a reflection in one of the stained glass windows. But when I switched off my flashlight, it was still there! It was as if someone wanted to let they know they were there. A couple minutes later I felt that someone was walking towards me in a threatening manner. At first I thought it might be a wild animal, since we were after all in the woods. But nothing appeared. The experience left me ill at ease.

Months passed after this event and we had meanwhile stopped our little camping trips, because they were now digging up the land to build the new house. But the project did not run smoothly. At times the heavy machines struggled or didn’t function at all. When the inspector came there were further delays with the approval process. It seemed the house was taking forever to build.

When the house was finally complete, I was helping them move in one day, and once again I thought I saw the old women in black. It was the same figure I had seen months before.

A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises ~ J.M. Barrie

Once my sister and brother settled into their new house, everything seemed fine at first. But, about two weeks after they moved in, I got a call from my sister telling me that really weird things was going on in the house. Her main concern was that she was being targeted by whatever was present in the house. She was very scared. Even my skeptical brother-in-law was beginning to wonder what my sister was seeing. He knew her well enough to know that it had to be real.

Years went by with them having little peace in that place. Finally they put the house up for sale, and since then the house has been sold many times over. Every time I drive by the house and the church I wonder if the new owners were seeing what I saw on our camping trips all those years ago.