During the summer of 1990, my friend Tracy and I were 14 and the best of friends. We went to the same high school, liked the same music, and spent countless hours and weekends together. Naturally we were thrilled when Tracy's mother won a trip to the Pocono Mountains and invited me to go along with them. One of the local radio stations was having a contest. I don't remember what the question was, but Tracy's mother called in, gave the correct answer and won.
We were so excited, laughing and planning our whole vacation in the car as we drove to Pennsylvania. Everything was going to be perfect except for the fact that my stomach was starting to hurt. I thought, oh no I can't be getting sick now so I tried my best to ignore it. The 100 mile drive from New York to the Poconos finally came to an end and we drove up this long dirt road that lead to a little white cottage in the middle of the woods. We thought it was great and Tracy's parents were happy because they didn't have to worry about us being loud and disturbing anybody.
When we arrived it was still early as we left very early to beat the traffic. Tracy and I spent the whole day investigating the cottage and the woods surrounding it. Her parents spent most of the day inside, setting up the kitchen, and putting away groceries. This is when Tracy's father started to notice little things like; something he put on the table would all of a sudden be on the counter, a pushed in chair at the table will later be pulled out, and sounds of footsteps upstairs when he and his wife were downstairs. Tracy's mom brushed it off as a creaky old cottage, but her father suspected something else. We were all pretty tired from the drive up and decided to go out for dinner. Tracy's father told us that every time he closed the window in the living room it would be open when he came back in. We just looked at him and laughed, thinking he was trying to scare us. So, he closed the window and bet us that when we got back it would be open. Sure enough when we came back from dinner the window was open! We were surprised being that we all saw him close it, but not ready to jump to the conclusion that it was something supernatural. Tracy's mom said that it must be the spring on the window or something and told her husband to stop trying to scare us.
That night... Tracy and I shared a room that had two double beds in it. Still not feeling well, I woke up in the middle of the night with sharp pains in my stomach. I turned over on my side now facing Tracy in her bed. I opened my eyes to see if she was awake and floating above her was a white mist. It had no specific shape, just sort of like a white cloud. I gave it a questionable look and remember saying to myself. "Wow I really must be sick" Turned back over and went to sleep.
The next morning I was still trying to ignore the pains and was determined to have fun. Tracy and I went on a little nature hike and found a small brook which we spent some time sitting around and taking pictures. Later on in the day we met up with a girl that Tracy knew who lived in the Pocono area. She drove us around, showed us some local hot spots and we just hung out. By the time 9:00pm came around the pains in my stomach were so bad I couldn't ignore them anymore. So Tracy's friend drove us back to the cottage and I went to bed. In the middle of the night we woke up to the sound of her mother screaming at the top of her lungs. We both jumped out of bed and ran into her parent's room to see what was the matter. Her father told us it was nothing and to go back to bed. Her mom was so scared she was shaking. We asked her what happened and she said that she opened her eyes and saw something floating above her. I said... Was it a white mist? Everyone just looked at me. She shook her head yes and asked me how I knew. I said because I saw the same thing floating above Tracy last night. Well I thought Tracy was going to pass out, she couldn't believe that I saw something and didn't say anything to her about it. I explained to them that I thought I was hallucinating because I wasn't feeling well. Tracy's mom wanted to leave right then and there, but her father calmed her down and said whatever it is it's probably just curious and hasn't done anything to hurt us. So we went back to bed, but none of us slept the rest of the night. We were all up listening to the sound of the chairs being dragged across the kitchen floor downstairs.
The next morning Tracy's father was the first to go downstairs. He said he found all the chairs pulled out as far as they could go from the table. We were all talking about the events that took place during the night and finally agreed that there was something or someone else in the cottage. That day I was feeling worse than ever. I had pains, fever and was throwing up. We were all supposed to go see The King And I, which was playing at the local theatre, but I chose to stay behind. Everyone thought I was nuts for wanting to stay there alone, but I was so sick I didn't even care. When they left, I got myself comfy on the couch and said out loud. "Look, I know you're here, you know I'm here. You can do whatever you want just please leave me alone because I don't feel well." It must have heard me because I was totally fine, there were some creaks and footsteps upstairs but nothing happened the whole time I was downstairs. I watched tv and even took a nap. By the time everyone came back I had started to feel better. They asked me if I was scared and if anything happened. I told them no because I made a deal with the ghost, it did what it wanted upstairs while I was downstairs. Tracy said I was crazy and we just laughed. The rest of our vacation was a blast, and we had no further sightings of the cottage "resident".
Here we are 19 years later and Tracy and I are still friends. Every now and then when we tell people about all the crazy things we have done growing up, the haunted cottage is always one of our first and favorite stories. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed it.
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