Day 13: Stories by the Campfire

[Lawrene0]

It's Friday the 13th, so for Day 13 I am going to go with the scary stuff that has happened this year. I host a camping spot, so pull up a stump, take a sip of hot cocoa, and lean in so our faces appear in a ring in the flickering firelight.

The first one, I already mentioned here in the forum:

Scary Story #1

I ask my guests to park beside the tin man (one a friend had made for fun and was throwing out - corrugated iron man would be more precise) on the driveway near the road. 

A guest who was here in February, the boyfriend of the primary booker who had not received the parking instructions himself and had not noticed the tin man when they parked as a snowstorm was brewing, was sent back to the car after dark to get something. It was still storming, and he fought his way the kilometre up the footpath to the car in snow and wind by flashlight. He felt his way around to the passenger door, where the tin man suddenly appeared in his beam. 

He screamed.You would scream too.

Scary Story #2

Since apparently nothing happened in history in Canada in August, we have a made-up day off called the Civic Holiday. We're cool like that.

My neighbours had leftover Canada Day fireworks, about four small rockets, and shot them off that night to entertain their visiting relatives. They are well down the road, so it was four short pops faraway and some brief sparkles on an otherwise dead quiet evening. 

My guests that night were from Detroit, Michigan, a city in which four short pops can mean something other than fireworks. They told me, the next morning, that at the sound of the first they ducked below the windows, and stayed there. 

They napped in the hammock the next day to make up for their mostly sleepless night.

Hideout

Scary Story #3

A friend was throwing out (you are seeing a decorating theme here "A friend was throwing out...") a fake bronze, painted plaster bust of Franz Liszt last year, and I scooped it up to add to the bend in the footpath. Bit of fun for guests to spot.

Weather gradually made him super scary.  

He has been moved to the barn where I store the firewood. Now the barn is super scary. I keep forgetting he is there when I walk in.

FunScary

Scary Story #4

Although I work with the conservation authority to defend the fox snakes and milk snakes that are species-at-risk here, they make me shudder.  As my guests are mostly experienced hikers, they are mostly cool with them. So I play it cool. 

This fall I was guiding new guests down the trail to the treehouse when I was startled by a snake on the path. I played it cool, and pretended my sudden intake of breath was delight. "Oh look, a snake!" 

My guests chimed in with "Oh, nice!" but all three of us were backing up. They were playing it cool for the host; I was playing it cool for them. None of us cracked.

The snake took her time moving off, possibly interested in the mini lecture, How Snakes Help Maintain a Healthy Ecosystem,* I was making to fill the time, but more likely having a laugh. 

It is winter now. No snakes.

* For information on How Snakes Help Maintain a Healthy Ecosystem, just book my treehouse and catch me on the trail pretending not to be scared of snakes by lecturing about them. 

[Laura2592]

I have stayed at a STR I am convinced was haunted. Here is my true story.

It was around Halloween and we were traveling to a remote location to visit some nearby towns. I have an online business selling antique and estate jewelry so I am often traveling all over to visit with attorneys liquidating estates, poke around flea markets and sales, etc. On this trip my husband and I brought our dog and booked an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.

It was charming and I immediately liked it-- I LOVE old houses and we have bought a few over the years to renovate/decorate and flip or live in. I always walk through admiring the details and thinking about colors I would paint. When we arrived,  the lights were on, which was probably so we could see it on the dark, unlit street. As soon as we opened the door, I felt like SOMEONE was there and my brain logically flipped to "oh they must be putting the finishing touches on cleaning" though it was almost 10pm. (Hey, we have cleaned that late after a few guests, so its not impossible.) We walked through the house calling but found no one.  My husband, who is not at all superstitious, said out of nowhere "do you feel like someone is watching you?" and I had to say "yes." We looked for a camera (I am ashamed to say this as I think this concern is WAY overblown for hosts) but the feeling was just that strong, though not threatening or bad per se. Even my dog seemed really apprehensive. Which, honestly, sometimes he does as he is a rescue, but he's usually a good traveler and this place had a big fenced yard-- typically that is all it takes to make him bounce around joyfully. He sniffed a lot and stuck to me like glue even outside. 

After unpacking and watching a bit of TV we went to bed. I picked one bedroom and then immediately moved into the other which seemed to have a better feel for some reason.  This bedroom had two closets facing each other with no doors and open shelves. My dog slept in his little bed in the room with us. At 3:17 am a light went on in one closet and woke me from a sound sleep. The light then went on in the other. Our dog jumped up and started snarling and barking. My husband said "quit turning the lights on and come back to bed" before he noticed I was still in bed. The dog chased something under the bed and kept barking like a hound that had treed a raccoon. In this chaos I got up and looked in the closets thinking maybe ( a mouse, a rat? eek!) had somehow turned on the lights,  but the lights were pull cords. No switch to easily flip. Nothing under the bed. I turned on all the lights and went downstairs toward the front of the house, my husband went down the back staircase and inspected things at the back of the house near the kitchen and laundry. Our dog followed me like my shadow with his hackles up.  It took a good hour to return everyone to normal but we found nothing.

In the morning my husband told me that he thought I was rooting around in the (empty) closet the night before because he thought he saw a female figure before realizing I was still beside him-- he wrote it off as a dream but how freaky is that??  I took matters into my own hands. I sat down in the bedroom that felt "off" and started having a conversation to the "ghost" who I figured was a woman. I told her that we really thought she had a beautiful house and that we liked it a lot. I asked her if she would please not scare my dog or wake us up at night, and that we would take good care of her home and were glad she was here with us. My husband heard me talking and yelled "ARE YOU TALKING TO YOURSELF NOW??1" up the stairs because he was fully convinced I was nuts. 

It seemed to work! The dog was super peppy after this, tail wagging and happily running around. It was a big switch. The presence felt...lighter? Happier? I don't know. Its probably all in my head. 

We asked the hosts if they had experience with this and I am sure they thought we were just being difficult. They said no one had reported anything like this. The rest of our stay was perfectly pleasant. 

I would absolutely go back as I don't think we were threatened. It felt....lonely. I dunno. Nothing ominous, But it was freaky. 

[Andrea-and-Francis0]

Ha ha love your post. It made me laugh, thank you 🙂

[Helen427]

For those who are missing Halloween guests this year, let's take a wee trip down memory lane with these priceless photographs and stories started by @Lawrene0 

@Laura2592 

Have a look through historic newspaper archives for the history of the home you stayed in to see if there's any history recorded that relates to the home or people  in the location. If you find any, maybe share it with the current Guardians.

 It adds to the dynamics of a home & location