-B.(o).C-®
涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 SOS団
At every summer camp, they have stories about ghosts and haunted cabins, but for the most part, these are just stories fabricated to pass time at a campfire, or to scare the children. At one camp that I went to, though, these stories were based around fact, and were common knowledge among the staff. This cabin was out in the wilderness of west coast Canada, and has been the only camp I’ve ever been to where anything of this nature happened.
I had a counselor one year at this camp, let’s call him John, and one night we were sitting around in the dining hall around the fireplace, and I asked him if any of the cabins were haunted. I had asked this in a jovial, lighthearted manner, and that’s why I was surprised when he turned to me with a completely solemn face and told me, yes, in fact, one of the cabins had been haunted for the past few decades. At this point, everyone else in our group had stopped their casual talking around the circle, and one girl asked him if he could tell us about it. He told us that he would, but only if we promised never to tell a soul what he was about to tell us. As he said this, there was a little twitch in his face, a break in his solemn demeanor, and though it only lasted for about a half a second, I will never forget that look, because it was a look of sheer terror, the kind one would expect from a child in the dark. But this was gone as soon as it appeared, and he proceeded to tell us the story.
Now, I should probably at this point give a little bit of history about this camp. It had been around since the mid-thirties, and was run by a non-profit organization since then. Back before mental illness was as big of a deal as it is now, this camp would hire people who would now be diagnosed as “mentally unstable”, but of course, in those days, it would have made no difference. In the fifties or sixties, they had hired one such man as a groundskeeper, and he would be responsible for odd jobs and labors, such as painting fences and fixing steps. Now, none of the cabins at this camp have front porches, but they had tried to build porches on the cabins while this groundskeeper had been working there. They got this groundskeeper to build these porches, but he had only built one porch, on a cabin far back into the forest, before something came over him, and he hung himself above the porch on this cabin. After that, there were a few attempts to build porches on this one cabin, but each time it was finished, that night there would be a huge crashing sound heard in the woods, and in the morning, the boulder would be splintered, as though it had been hit by a runaway boulder.
John told us that he had a lot of history with the cabin, and back when it was his first year being a counselor, in 2001 or so, he had had to sleep in that cabin with a bunch of kids. One night, he had awoken to the sound of something scratching on the front door to the cabin, and could not understand what it was. So he got out of his bunk, but as soon as he had put his feet to the floor, the scratching stopped. He figured it had just been an animal that had been scared off when it heard him put his feet down, so got back into his bunk. As soon as he did, the scratching started again.
So he decided that he was going to try to scare it away again, and jumped onto the floor. The scratching again stopped, but he decided to just step outside quickly and make sure that it was gone for good. As he took his first step towards the door, though, a knocking sound came through the door, then on the side to his right, then behind him, then to his left. He was hearing knocking on all sides, as though someone was running around and hitting each side of the cabin. He continued towards the door, thinking it was another counselor playing a prank, but as he did, the knocking got louder and faster, until it was moving too fast around the cabin to be someone running. The knocking started to wake John’s co-counselor and kids, and they started to get scared. One camper then started to cry, and as soon as he did, the knocking stopped. John went outside and took a look around the cabin with his light, but saw no footprints in the mud around the cabin, and the plants had been undisturbed. He was pretty freaked out, so he decided to go back to sleep and just forget about it.
A little while later, with a different group of kids in the same cabin, he woke up one time in the middle of the night to hear one of his kids crying and whispering something. He got up to try to console the kid, and hear what he was saying, but the kid stopped whispering as soon as the counselor stood up. He walked towards the kid and asked him what was wrong. The kid said to John that he sometimes saw dead people, and when he did, he had been told that he had to ask them who they were and what they wanted. He told the counselor that he had seen a strange man standing in front of his bunk, and he had asked the man who he was and what he wanted, but got no reply; instead, the man just turned to him and, without speaking, stared him right in the eye for about ten seconds until he just disappeared. John had no idea what to make of this, but he managed to calm the kid down and get him back to sleep.
Later that night, after John had fallen back to sleep, he was abruptly woken by the sound of a kid screaming. After turning on a light, it was the kid who had been awake earlier, talking to the strange man. Now he was just thrashing and screaming out, “No, no, no!”, and had woken up the rest of the kids, who were getting scared. Both John and the kids had gathered around this one kid to try to get him to snap out of it, but he was completely unresponsive, and just kept thrashing and screaming, as though there was something on top of him. He kept at it for about a minute, until he suddenly stopped, then with wide eyes, looked out in front of him, and then his eyes slowly rose to the ceiling, at which point he fell back onto his bed, and was apparently asleep. After all this, John was scared ****less, and could not wait until the morning, as it was his last day in the cabin.
The final story that he had to tell us about this cabin was when he was staying at the camp in the day between when one group of kids left, and another group of kids arrived. He had just stayed in the same cabin for a week, without incident, and decided to sleep in the cabin for that night, as his stuff was still all in the cabin. His co-counselor for that week had decided to go home for that night, and so John was in the cabin all by himself. He had stayed up late reading, and had just turned off his light to roll over and go to bed, when he heard something outside of the cabin. Remembering full well the previous incidents with this cabin, he turned on a light and strained to hear the sound. It sounded like someone walking around in the bushes outside. He called out to see if anyone was walking around outside, but there was no response, and as soon as he had called out, the rustling stopped. There was then a sound coming from the back of the cabin that sounded like nails scratching at the wood of the cabin. He couldn’t see the source of this sound, as his bunk was set up to face the door. It continued for about a minute or so, before stopping suddenly.
John, who at this point in telling us the story was visibly shaken remembering it, then describes the feeling that he got as though something inside him told him to look back to where the sound had been coming from, even though he knew he shouldn’t. He decided that his curiosity would get the best of him, and he quickly threw his head around his bunk to look at the back of the cabin. What he saw was an orb of light, floating about five feet off the ground, just slightly bobbing up and down. As soon as he saw it, the orb flew out through the back of the cabin, and the only light was once again his flashlight. After this, he grabbed his sleeping bag and pillow, ran back to the dining hall and spent the night in there.
Although a few other counselors have had weird things they can’t explain happen in that cabin, I’m not sure why the majority of them happened to this one counselor. After the night when he ran out to the dining hall, John told the camp director that he never wanted to stay in that cabin again. The camp director said sure, and then they had to rework the schedule to make sure this counselor didn’t end up in the cabin. So he and a couple of other section heads got together to rework the schedule, but they had to keep changing it around to make counselors fit, and at the end, it had somehow scheduled John back in this one cabin. So they did it a few times, and every single time, it would appear that the only way to make the schedule work was to put John in this cabin. I’m not entirely sure what happened after they figured out the schedule wasn’t going to work, but I’m pretty sure what happened was they told this to John, and he was genuinely scared, so he decided to just hang around camp and go from cabin to cabin for the rest of that summer, which was only a few weeks. Nothing else ended up happening after that, but to this day, John refuses to even go near that cabin.
Now, I have been going to this camp for about 6 or 7 years now, and I’ve only ever slept in that cabin a handful of times, and it has creeped me out. Nothing ever really happens, but sometimes I think I hear, just ever so slight scratching. I’ve had a couple of inexplicable instances of my own, such as a picture of me on the last day, and over my shoulder, in the exact direction of that cabin, there is an orb of light, or hearing a crashing sound off in the distance in the middle of the night. I’m not exactly sure what will happen now that I’ve told other people about it, but I’m going back this year, and will undoubtedly have to spend a night in it. So I guess if I make it through the summer, I’ll post the events that happen to me.
I had a counselor one year at this camp, let’s call him John, and one night we were sitting around in the dining hall around the fireplace, and I asked him if any of the cabins were haunted. I had asked this in a jovial, lighthearted manner, and that’s why I was surprised when he turned to me with a completely solemn face and told me, yes, in fact, one of the cabins had been haunted for the past few decades. At this point, everyone else in our group had stopped their casual talking around the circle, and one girl asked him if he could tell us about it. He told us that he would, but only if we promised never to tell a soul what he was about to tell us. As he said this, there was a little twitch in his face, a break in his solemn demeanor, and though it only lasted for about a half a second, I will never forget that look, because it was a look of sheer terror, the kind one would expect from a child in the dark. But this was gone as soon as it appeared, and he proceeded to tell us the story.
Now, I should probably at this point give a little bit of history about this camp. It had been around since the mid-thirties, and was run by a non-profit organization since then. Back before mental illness was as big of a deal as it is now, this camp would hire people who would now be diagnosed as “mentally unstable”, but of course, in those days, it would have made no difference. In the fifties or sixties, they had hired one such man as a groundskeeper, and he would be responsible for odd jobs and labors, such as painting fences and fixing steps. Now, none of the cabins at this camp have front porches, but they had tried to build porches on the cabins while this groundskeeper had been working there. They got this groundskeeper to build these porches, but he had only built one porch, on a cabin far back into the forest, before something came over him, and he hung himself above the porch on this cabin. After that, there were a few attempts to build porches on this one cabin, but each time it was finished, that night there would be a huge crashing sound heard in the woods, and in the morning, the boulder would be splintered, as though it had been hit by a runaway boulder.
John told us that he had a lot of history with the cabin, and back when it was his first year being a counselor, in 2001 or so, he had had to sleep in that cabin with a bunch of kids. One night, he had awoken to the sound of something scratching on the front door to the cabin, and could not understand what it was. So he got out of his bunk, but as soon as he had put his feet to the floor, the scratching stopped. He figured it had just been an animal that had been scared off when it heard him put his feet down, so got back into his bunk. As soon as he did, the scratching started again.
So he decided that he was going to try to scare it away again, and jumped onto the floor. The scratching again stopped, but he decided to just step outside quickly and make sure that it was gone for good. As he took his first step towards the door, though, a knocking sound came through the door, then on the side to his right, then behind him, then to his left. He was hearing knocking on all sides, as though someone was running around and hitting each side of the cabin. He continued towards the door, thinking it was another counselor playing a prank, but as he did, the knocking got louder and faster, until it was moving too fast around the cabin to be someone running. The knocking started to wake John’s co-counselor and kids, and they started to get scared. One camper then started to cry, and as soon as he did, the knocking stopped. John went outside and took a look around the cabin with his light, but saw no footprints in the mud around the cabin, and the plants had been undisturbed. He was pretty freaked out, so he decided to go back to sleep and just forget about it.
A little while later, with a different group of kids in the same cabin, he woke up one time in the middle of the night to hear one of his kids crying and whispering something. He got up to try to console the kid, and hear what he was saying, but the kid stopped whispering as soon as the counselor stood up. He walked towards the kid and asked him what was wrong. The kid said to John that he sometimes saw dead people, and when he did, he had been told that he had to ask them who they were and what they wanted. He told the counselor that he had seen a strange man standing in front of his bunk, and he had asked the man who he was and what he wanted, but got no reply; instead, the man just turned to him and, without speaking, stared him right in the eye for about ten seconds until he just disappeared. John had no idea what to make of this, but he managed to calm the kid down and get him back to sleep.
Later that night, after John had fallen back to sleep, he was abruptly woken by the sound of a kid screaming. After turning on a light, it was the kid who had been awake earlier, talking to the strange man. Now he was just thrashing and screaming out, “No, no, no!”, and had woken up the rest of the kids, who were getting scared. Both John and the kids had gathered around this one kid to try to get him to snap out of it, but he was completely unresponsive, and just kept thrashing and screaming, as though there was something on top of him. He kept at it for about a minute, until he suddenly stopped, then with wide eyes, looked out in front of him, and then his eyes slowly rose to the ceiling, at which point he fell back onto his bed, and was apparently asleep. After all this, John was scared ****less, and could not wait until the morning, as it was his last day in the cabin.
The final story that he had to tell us about this cabin was when he was staying at the camp in the day between when one group of kids left, and another group of kids arrived. He had just stayed in the same cabin for a week, without incident, and decided to sleep in the cabin for that night, as his stuff was still all in the cabin. His co-counselor for that week had decided to go home for that night, and so John was in the cabin all by himself. He had stayed up late reading, and had just turned off his light to roll over and go to bed, when he heard something outside of the cabin. Remembering full well the previous incidents with this cabin, he turned on a light and strained to hear the sound. It sounded like someone walking around in the bushes outside. He called out to see if anyone was walking around outside, but there was no response, and as soon as he had called out, the rustling stopped. There was then a sound coming from the back of the cabin that sounded like nails scratching at the wood of the cabin. He couldn’t see the source of this sound, as his bunk was set up to face the door. It continued for about a minute or so, before stopping suddenly.
John, who at this point in telling us the story was visibly shaken remembering it, then describes the feeling that he got as though something inside him told him to look back to where the sound had been coming from, even though he knew he shouldn’t. He decided that his curiosity would get the best of him, and he quickly threw his head around his bunk to look at the back of the cabin. What he saw was an orb of light, floating about five feet off the ground, just slightly bobbing up and down. As soon as he saw it, the orb flew out through the back of the cabin, and the only light was once again his flashlight. After this, he grabbed his sleeping bag and pillow, ran back to the dining hall and spent the night in there.
Although a few other counselors have had weird things they can’t explain happen in that cabin, I’m not sure why the majority of them happened to this one counselor. After the night when he ran out to the dining hall, John told the camp director that he never wanted to stay in that cabin again. The camp director said sure, and then they had to rework the schedule to make sure this counselor didn’t end up in the cabin. So he and a couple of other section heads got together to rework the schedule, but they had to keep changing it around to make counselors fit, and at the end, it had somehow scheduled John back in this one cabin. So they did it a few times, and every single time, it would appear that the only way to make the schedule work was to put John in this cabin. I’m not entirely sure what happened after they figured out the schedule wasn’t going to work, but I’m pretty sure what happened was they told this to John, and he was genuinely scared, so he decided to just hang around camp and go from cabin to cabin for the rest of that summer, which was only a few weeks. Nothing else ended up happening after that, but to this day, John refuses to even go near that cabin.
Now, I have been going to this camp for about 6 or 7 years now, and I’ve only ever slept in that cabin a handful of times, and it has creeped me out. Nothing ever really happens, but sometimes I think I hear, just ever so slight scratching. I’ve had a couple of inexplicable instances of my own, such as a picture of me on the last day, and over my shoulder, in the exact direction of that cabin, there is an orb of light, or hearing a crashing sound off in the distance in the middle of the night. I’m not exactly sure what will happen now that I’ve told other people about it, but I’m going back this year, and will undoubtedly have to spend a night in it. So I guess if I make it through the summer, I’ll post the events that happen to me.
