I am going to tell you a story that I have been told is true. Since I did not experience it firsthand I am only able to repeat to you what was told to me.
This event took place in the mid 1960’s in a small town along the Long Island coast. This little town is located adjacent to the coastline of one of Long Islands Rivers. The town looks like many small New England towns you may find along the Coast of the Eastern seaboard of the United States.
Many of the houses and buildings in this little town date back to the 1600’s. It is an old area full of history. One of the houses, an old mansion was built during the 1750s, still remained at the time of this event, a few hundred yards behind a little church that was built about a hundred years later in the 1850s.
The event I am going to tell you about occurred in the mid 1960; s .At that time the old house still existed with the church built in front of it with an old graveyard filled with broken headstones and fallen grave markers attached to the side of the church. At the time of the encounter the church, graveyard and old house had stood together in this old town for as long as anyone could remember. Everyone at that time in this little town believed the house was haunted as well as the graveyard known to have a ghost or two wandering its grounds supposedly seen by many in town.
The church was renovated in the very early 1960s. That was the same time period a new young pastor took over the congregation. He was determined to build the church back to being strong and beautiful. Along with the renovation of the old church a lovely little cottage was built on the grounds for the pastor to live in.
The old house behind the church was commonly known in the little town as not only being haunted but also very dangerous.. Everyone in town knew to stay far away from that house. The only ones who went near it were the people hired to be caretakers of the property.
Now and then, back in the 60s, you would hear a story floating around town that someone in town heard screams or saw strange people looking out of the windows of the old mansion. There were old word of mouth stories told that once a very crazy doctor and his witch like wife lived there. Town legend claims the couple practiced monstrous experiments on both animals and humans killing and burying the dead on the mansions property. Claims of seeing both ghostly figures of people and animals wandering the place have been passed on for as long as anyone could remember
My knowledge and interest in this old mansion and the church and graveyard came by way of my cousin who lived in town during the 60s. She would tell me the rumors and handed down stories of this mysterious property.
My cousin is older than I am. She was in her late teens at the time of the incident. It was October about a week before Halloween when the event happened.
My cousin and her boyfriend were driving around this sleepy little town looking for something to fill there boredom with a few friends when one of them brought up the old mansion and all the ghostly tales that were told about it. They decided it would be fun to take a closer look at the old house and the graveyard and go on a little ghost hunt of their own. Being young and foolish it never occurred to them that this may be a very dangerous even deadly thing to do. They soon found out that fun was far from what they would encounter on this cool October night.
My cousin, her boyfriend, two other girls and one other boy all were packed into the bright red ford mustang that belonged to my cousin’s boyfriend. Slowly and silently they entered the dirt drive way of the old mansion that drove along the side of the old graveyard, church and pastors little house. They parked the car at the back corner of the graveyard so they were in between the house and the graveyard.
The group of friends got out of the parked car and made their way in to the graveyard to see if they could find a ghost and have a giggle. The five teens walked along under the moonlight reading the old grave markers while the wind blew the red and gold fall leaves about their feet. It was a typical fall night in the northeast and perfect for hunting ghosts.
As they walked along the rows of old gravestones the five teens began to feel uncomfortable and a bit frightened. The two girls in the group started to hear noises behind them as they walked along the grave markers. One of the girls insisted she could hear someone or something following them. The group started to feel very uncomfortable walking among the dead and decided it may be more fun to venture on to the deserted mansion to have a look around. The five teens had no idea what a dangerous decision this would prove to be.
Together they walked towards the old mansion. They were giggling and acting silly as they continued on with their ghost hunt. As they approached the old house one of the girls noticed something in the window on the second floor in the front of the house. She stopped dead in her tracks hushing the others pointing for them to look at the window. The five kids stood there watching the dark house when my cousin’s boyfriend whispered: “Did you all just see that?”
He too saw something or someone standing at a window on the second floor. The group stood still silently watching. The other boy in the group suddenly yelled out- “BOO”- which sent the other four kids jumping clear off the ground. The group laughed and continued walking around to look at the side and back of the strange old house.
As they made their way to the back side of the mansion they noticed a broken down shed in the corner of the yard of the house. The group of five walked towards it to see what the little building was used for. The shed was a small duplicate of the large main house. The teens thought it may be an elaborate playhouse and wanted to take a closer look.
The small building was about the size of an old fashion double garage. Bigger than a single garage of today but not as big as a modern double garage. The little house was exactly like the big one including a open front porch. The teenagers wandered onto the porch and tried to look in the windows. The windows were so dirty and the night dark making it impossible to see inside. One of them twisted the front doorknob and to the shock of all the door flew open as if someone pulled it from the other side.
The teens stood there looking at each other. They decided to just take a peek in to see what was inside. The five of them walked in to find a large open room filled with walls lined with shelves. In the middle of the rooms was a large table. The place was filled with cob webs and dirt. The group walked around looking at the shelves which were lined with bottles of different sizes.
The group was silent as they carefully looked around. Finally one of the girls picked up a bottle and held it to the sliver of moon light coming through the dirty window. She yelped in disgust and tossed the bottle back on to the shelf. The bottle had what appeared to be a dead animal floating in it. The group of teens began to look more carefully at the bottles lining the shelves. To their revulsion they all had what looked to be some type of fetus or partial piece of some kind of living creature. The group was stunned and quickly became disturbed by the sight of the bottles and frightened. They decided it was time to leave and quickly ran back out into the yard to make their way back to the car. The five teens could not contain their fear and started to run towards the front of the old house towards the waiting Mustang. That is when it happened.
The two girls and other boy were ahead of my cousin and her boyfriend. They were running full speed towards the car. As the group ran across the yard my cousin slipped on the fallen leaves and fell hard to the ground. Her boyfriend stopped running to help pull her to get back up on her feet. The other three teens kept running full speed towards the car.
Quickly my cousin and her boyfriend were alone on the side of the dark old house. My cousin’s ankle was badly sprained and she could not walk much less run. Her boyfriend lifted her to her feet and half carried half dragged her along towards the front of the house to make way to the car. Their friends were long gone and they were alone. Without warning, without any sense it was coming, my cousin and her boyfriend were hit by a force that sent them both flying in to the air.
The two were flown in to the air landing about ten feet apart on their backs on the dark side yard of the house. Before either could react to what had just struck them my cousin started to scream as she immediately began to fight with the night and what appeared to be an invisible attacker. Her boyfriend watched in horror as my cousin tried to fight off something that he could not see.
He ran to her side as she punched and fought with the air. He could not believe his eyes. He tried to pull her up from the ground. Each time he would reach down to pull her up he would be shoved back and then slammed down on to the ground a few feet away from her. He could see her face was bleeding as she continued to scream and fight. Her boyfriend made a few more attempts to help her only to be thrown in the air away from her. My cousin’s face was covered with blood as were her arms. He knew he needed help and started to run and scream for the others to help him.
The teens ahead heard the struggle and started back towards the yelling when they saw my cousin’s boyfriend being thrown through the air like a rag doll. Thank fully one of the girls knew immediately that they needed help and took off at a full run for the pastors cottage to find help and a phone. The girl made it to the pastor’s cottage in seconds. She pounded on his door half yelling half crying for help.
The young pastor was home and quickly opened the door stunned to find the hysterical girl at his door. She was able to tell him her friends were being attacked by something invisible at the old mansion and needed help. The young pastor did not blink or think twice. He grabbed three things, a bat, a large wooden cross and a bible.
The girl and the pastor ran quickly back towards the old house. The scene before them was terrifying. My cousin lay on the ground covered in blood still fighting against her attacker. The other teens were trying to stop the attack only to be thrown all over the yard each time they tried to approach my cousin to help her.
The pastor began to yell as he prayed as he ran to the group of teens fighting this evil invisible thing attacking them. The young pastor ran to the side of my cousin and placed the cross on her chest. It was thrown immediately into the air. The pastor yelled for the others to get it. He placed it back on her body holding it firmly in place with all his strength. He told the boys to help him and they all pressed the cross to her body. The pastor started to pray holding his bible to his heart. The beating stopped. The pastor was cautious as he pulled my cousin to her feet. For a few seconds it seemed as it was over. The young pastor instructed the group to run towards the church. The pastor and boyfriend were dragging my cousin who was now badly beaten.
The group were nearly to the church yard edge when they all heard and felt it coming. Behind them they could feel the ground shake as thunderous pounding footsteps charged from behind towards them. The pastor screamed for the group to continue running towards the church. The corner of the old graveyard that belonged to the little church was only a few yards ahead of them when the pounding footsteps coming towards them stopped. The three teens entered the church owned land first and kept running towards the church at the commands of the young pastor. The pastor, my cousin and her boyfriend were right behind them. As they passed the line from the old mansions property on to the church property they no longer felt their attacker behind them. The pastor and her boyfriend continued to drag my cousin towards the church when all of a sudden they heard it. From the yard of the old house came a howl of rage so horrifying all five teens broke in to tears.
The group made it to the church. The pastor brought all five teens in side of the little church and prayed over them before doing anything else. He then took them in to his cottage where he called the police. My cousin was taken by ambulance to the local hospital where she was treated for her cuts and bruises and released. The police wrote the incident up as teenagers assaulting each other. The hospital listed it as my cousin being in a fist fight. The young pastor was laughed at and ridiculed for playing in to the fantasies of the teens who let a haunted house trek get out of hand. My cousin, her boyfriend and the other three teens along with the young pastor all tell a different story. They tell of the night they came face to face with evil, fought it and won.
I believe my cousin of course. I know her to be a logical well balanced adult who had lived a productive good life. I will tell you she stayed in contact with that pastor her entire life. The haunted house was fenced off at the pastor’s insistence shortly after this incident. The old house was finally taken down about 20 years ago. It did continue up until that time being known as the haunted house behind the church.
Who knows what evil lurks in dark places? My cousin will tell you only that it does exist.
Happy Halloween
♥ Copyright © 2013
Chris Holly’s Paranormal World
http://endlessjrny.blogspot.com/
email [email protected] 631-887-4818
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