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Halloween Terror On Captain Ellis Lane

 

It was Halloween night and I was a small child of 8 years old, preparing to go trick-or-treating with a group of neighborhood children. I was going with my friend Jenny, her friends Haley and Allie, and Jenny's older brother who would be supervising us. We had just gotten our costumes finished and were grabbing our candy bags. Just as we were about to leave, Jenny's mom announced that she had a few rules for us that must be followed: we must be home by 9 PM, do not speak to strangers, and wherever we go, DO NOT go down Captain Ellis Lane.

"Why can't we go down Captain Ellis Lane?" I asked her mother, to which the reply was, "That's the rule. Now have fun." No further explanation.

I knew where that road was because I had driven past it in the car with my mother multiple times, but never gone down. It was 3 streets down from mine and through a series of side streets was connected to my street, as well as to the main road. All I knew was that it was desolate and dark, much more so than the other roads in its vicinity, and had an old abandoned farm a little ways down the road. From the main road, no houses were visible, the road looked completely empty.

After a passing thought of "Oh, that street is a bit dark and poorly lit, that must be it," I put it out of my mind and left with my friends, ready to enjoy the evening. We went down several other streets and had gathered a lot of candy. People loved my costume, I was having a great night. I was ready to head home and mentioned to my friends' brother that we should start heading back. My friends had other plans.

On the way home, we stopped right in front of Captain Ellis Lane. I was perfectly content not going down the road but my friends all said "What are you waiting for? Are we going or not?"

"NO, no, we cannot, did you not hear what Jenny's mom said? We are not supposed to go down this road!" I exclaimed. But by that point it was too late. They had already descended into the darkness, leaving me behind, and I ran ahead to catch up.

I looked down the street and from the view of the main road it was completely unlit and looked abandoned, in complete contrast to the other streets in the area which were well-lit and densely populated. I heard the rattling of a flag against a flagpole but could not tell where the sound was coming from and the bristling of the wind through the trees. All I could see was one house immediately to my right, an old house that looked like a farm house at what appeared to be the end of the street, and a large, fenced off plot of land to the right far ahead. The left side of the street was covered with trees and brush. It felt like I was walking down a road in the middle of nowhere and something was lurking in the shadows waiting to jump out. I did not like it one bit.

The road forked. I looked to the right and saw that the street did, in fact turn into a more "normal" looking, and better lit street with several houses. To the left was a gravel road encircling a large, fenced off plot of farmland. I could not see the end of the farm but I could barely make out that in the distance was a small white shed.

All of a sudden Jenny shouted "1, 2, 3, I'll race you to the shed! Let's go!" and I immediately protested. I insisted that we were trespassing, that the farm likely belonged to one of the houses we had just passed. I did not want to get in trouble and I will not lie, I was scared! But I also knew I would be left behind in the dark to fend for myself if I did not take off running toward that shed.

Just as we prepared to go, with my heart racing and pounding out of my chest, I heard the creaking of a door which came to a hard THUD as it shut. We all froze and stared at one another trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Allie said it must be from the shed. The door was probably not firmly secured and had blown shut in the wind, she said, an explanation I was prepared to accept but did not truly believe. It was so far in the distance I could barely see it, just the vague outline. I was ready to turn and run back but they began walking ahead of me on the gravel road, now slowly walking and trying to listen for sound of activity.

As we walked, I felt the distinct sensation that someone was following us. There were 5 of us, but whomever was walking furthest back said they could hear footsteps immediately behind them, but when we stopped they stopped with us, and when we turned around there was no one there. Jenny's brother called out "Is there someone there?" but no response.

As we approached the shed, I heard the rustling of leaves and footsteps in the woods to the right of the gravel road. These were not the sounds of an animal but they sounded like human footsteps. I was not even thinking of the paranormal right now, I feared we were being followed by a living person and I was terrified. Even with 5 of us, it would be difficult to fend off an adult attacker. Haley shouted out that she swore she saw a shadow dart in front of the shed and then disappear. I didn't see anything but I also was too nervous to think.

We climbed quietly over the fence and were now in a large plot of farmland. The shed was now only a few hundred feet in front of us. We quietly approached it. I was on high alert for any movement and I was terrified. I didn't know why I didn't just run back home by myself to Jenny's house when I was on the main road, because however dangerous it would have been I would have felt much less nervous than here.

Haley, the bravest of us all, walked up to one of the shed windows and began to peer inside. It was too dark to see anything. She took out her flashlight and began to look inside. For a few seconds she looked around and all seemed normal. All of a sudden, she let out a LOUD, TERRIFIED SCREAM, dropped her entire bucket of candy and ran away from us through the field and back over the fence. She was stuttering as she tried to tell us what she saw. None of us understood what she was trying to say. She was shaking profusely and practically in tears and begged us to run back to her and walk back home. I could tell she was terrified and on the verge of a panic attack.

Lights began to turn on in the few nearby houses and voices could be heard. Haley's scream must have caught their attention. We quickly picked up our belongings, dashed back down the street as quietly as possible and headed back to the main road. No one saw us as we fled as fast as we could down the dark street.

When we got back to the house, Haley confessed what she saw. She said that she was looking in the shed and at first she only saw gardening tools and empty crates, but then she saw a child. Not a normal child, but a small boy with gaping bloody holes where the eyes were supposed to be, a bony skeleton-like emaciated frame, and the most disgusting rotted teeth she had ever seen, smiling in a sinister smile walking toward the window.

We all froze, terrified by the thought. But we all promised that no matter what we did, we would keep it a secret from Jenny's mom that we disobeyed her rule.

To this day I do not know if she really saw the image of a child in the window or if she was playing a prank on us. But recently, I drove down the road during daylight and noticed that the shed was no longer there and had been replaced. I learned that Jenny's mother had almost purchased a home on that street but had decided against it because she preferred the street they ended up living on, and she too had found the abandoned farm area to be creepy and off-putting and did not want us there because it was poorly lit. If only she knew what Haley actually saw that night.

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The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, virulentpeach, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

AugustaM (7 stories) (996 posts)
+2
3 years ago (2021-01-12)
I did some googling and I think I found the lane you mentioned - and the Captain Ellis for whom it was named (https://www.google.com/amp/s/ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KLGF-1MW/captain-nathaniel-ellis-1731-1770) Given the age of the development, it seems reasonable to assume that the street may have been given this name after the family who lived on the premises. Little is to be found on their private lives but for the fact that they did have 8 children - perhaps there was an accident involving one of the kids or a tragic disease (that's presuming, of course, that the ghost you saw was associated with that family). The appearance the child presented seemed like what the body goes through during decomposition - perhaps his burial plot was nearby (you may not have seen headstones as often family plots are quietly removed... Meaning just the headstones and turned back into farm land by later owners). The captain was buried in a church cemetery but that doesn't necessarily mean that the children were too - also if the child died in the winter, his body may have been kept in that shed (or a building that had stood in or near that spot) until the ground had thawed enough to bury him either in a family plot or in the churchyard.
virulentpeach (12 stories) (40 posts)
 
3 years ago (2021-01-10)
[at] The_Lost_Voyage_11: What it looks like to me is that there was initially just a small dirt road encircling a farm, with several houses around it. Then, the main road was built years later, and it runs adjacent to one side of the farm. So the farm and its surroundings are still there, but the main road now includes the addresses of some of those houses and the farm, which were incorporated into the main road.

The farm looks empty and abandoned, but it is part of someone's property.
The_Lost_Voyage_11 (7 stories) (233 posts)
+2
3 years ago (2021-01-08)
Hi virulentpeach, thank you for the additional information. That 'out of place' feel makes more sense, if the road and surrounding streets were built around this farm, it would make everything there look a bit out of place. I am curious however as to why the farm wasn't purchased and then knocked down, so that a better street could be paved and more houses built? That's usually what is done in these cases. Is this road on the outskirts of the town? How old is the farm? You had mentioned in your story the ages of the homes on that road were more recent like the 50's to the 70's, but the farm itself? Was it/is it inhabited or abandoned? My feeling is that something, or perhaps several things happened on that farm property at some point in the past. Something doesn't quite add up about that farm and the area of that road, I'm sure the houses there now were part of that whole farm at some juncture in time. I'm sure your imaginations figured into your encounter, but in most cases, something trips that off, something the mind picks up on but cannot rationalize, then it gets carried away. I believe most of what you related was just as you perceived it. Keep digging if you will and let us know what you uncover, I will be most curious as to what you find, there's a deeper mystery here!
virulentpeach (12 stories) (40 posts)
 
3 years ago (2021-01-08)
[at] The_Lost_Voyage_11: so I was looking up the layout of the road and the history of the region and it appears to me that the farmland and the houses around it belong to a small dirt road that were all once one or two properties which have a small, now blocked, entrance on the main road and that Captain Ellis Rd itself is a newer addition because the houses further down are much newer and look like all the neighboring streets. It appears that the farm already existed and the street was built alongside it and the other dirt road circling it, which is why the entrance to the street looks so out of place next to the other roads. So there is some history there most likely that I have yet to uncover. I felt the footsteps sounded like an adult, not a child but it was so long ago I cannot be sure, I was too busy being creeped out!
The_Lost_Voyage_11 (7 stories) (233 posts)
+1
3 years ago (2021-01-08)
Hi Virulentpeach, great story, creepy encounter. It maybe a mix of overactive imaginations and the overall creepiness of the road that tied in together, however it seemed to me that you noticed something 'off' about that particular area long before the Halloween adventure. It's no accident that there were so few homes and the road and farmland were so desolate. I have a feeling the streets residents also felt the vibe in that area. From what you stated, it didn't appear any of those homes was set up to receive any trick or treaters that evening. I suspect too that even though Jenny's mom didn't want you on that road because it wasn't lit well, that the real reason was the overall feeling she got from that street, the reason she didn't buy a home there to begin with. She couldn't explain a feeling like that to a bunch of kids, so it was easier not to give a reason and when pressed, give you the reason she gave regarding the street's poor lighting, more logical and definitely more rational. The whole area seems to have absorbed some negative emotions and experiences. Your friend saw a boy, but the foot steps, did they sound like someone your age or an adult? I ask because you mentioned as kids you would have difficulty fending off an adult attacker. It may indicate more than one ghost as well. Great story though, I enjoyed it!
virulentpeach (12 stories) (40 posts)
+2
3 years ago (2021-01-07)
[at] Macknorton: I did include it but in the last paragraph. This is what I said:

"I learned that Jenny's mother had almost purchased a home on that street but had decided against it because she preferred the street they ended up living on, and she too had found the abandoned farm area to be creepy and off-putting and did not want us there because it was poorly lit"
Macknorton (5 stories) (646 posts)
+2
3 years ago (2021-01-07)
Thanks for your response Ms Peach.

Yes, I agree; not proceeding down a darkened street makes much more sense in terms of reasoning from Jenny's Mum. It's a pity you didn't include that explanation in the initial story as that would have made much more sense to the reader, in my humble opinion.

I reckon what would have been a better reason for you and your friends to go down that darkened lane would be that Jenny's Mum MADE Jenny take her dog with her as the dog, let's call her "Spot" because she's a Dalmatian, right? Jenny's Mum would prefer you had Spot with you as Spot would theoretically protect you and plus Spot really needed a walk.

So when you're walking past Captain Ellis Lane, Spot suddenly sees a cat and breaks away from Jenny's grasp. Spot chases the cat into the nearby spooky old shed, set back from the road. Spot's barking and the cats hissing and Jenny's too scared to go and get her but Haley isn't. But then Spot suddenly goes real quiet... And then you all hear whimpering. So Haley goes into the shed and finds Spot cowering and staring into a darkened corner, and THAT'S when she see's the phantom boy shuffling towards her, out of the gloom. Then both Haley AND Spot (and maybe that cat too - why not?) all come screaming out of the shed, breaking all kinds of land speed records, candy flying everywhere...

Now to me, that's a bit more of an underpants-filler...what do you reckon? A bit much?

Peace

Mack
virulentpeach (12 stories) (40 posts)
+5
3 years ago (2021-01-06)
[at] lady-glow: I did not see anything personally but I did hear noises around us (footsteps, rustling leaves, etc) that made me feel we were being followed/watched, and I did feel a "presence" but that was it. I have researched the history of the property and noticed that the houses in the area were built in the 1950s through the 1970s. So they are not that old. I have driven through the area recently and while I did not see anything, I did feel "off" like there was something not quite right. Whether this is supernatural I cannot say.

[at] Macknorton: She did not want us on the street because it is poorly lit, dark, and in the middle of nowhere (it descends into a desolate area that is connected to other darkly lit streets). She wanted us on well-lit roads only. I do wonder if her "warning" made us perceive things that were not there or our minds were playing a trick on us, but my own mother has said she too feels "off" in the area even though she is a nonbeliever in the supernatural.
Macknorton (5 stories) (646 posts)
+6
3 years ago (2021-01-05)
Hi Virulent Peach

Thanks for posting your hair-raising adventure. I'm on the fence with this one but tend to agree with Lady-glows summation. This is one of those apparently true experiences that raises questions for me.

Everyone's different and we all lurk on this site for different reasons. Personally, I have an interest in trying to better understand this life force that permeates the entire Universe. We only really understand it when it leaves our material bodies, reducing them to ash, dust. But this life force, it seems to continue existing independent of it's physical body. But how, and where? And why do these souls, spirits, ghosts return to show themselves to us? How do they do it? Why can't we see them all the time if the Spirit world is all around us?

Why don't those who we love with all out hearts and whom have transitioned into the Spirit world return (a lot more than they appear to) and show us they are still alive and that they are always near and that they still love us?

Why do we seem to get accounts like virulentpeaches, whereby we get emaciated ghouls with missing eyes and bad teeth lurking in sheds terrifying random Halloweenies?

Anyway enough rambling... One aspect that rang bells for me was this:

Why would Jennys Mum say to these young kids: " we must be home by 9 PM, do not speak to strangers, and wherever we go, DO NOT go down Captain Ellis Lane.

"Why can't we go down Captain Ellis Lane?" I asked her mother, to which the reply was, "That's the rule. Now have fun." No further explanation..."

Anyone who's a parent would know that the quickest way to get kids to not do something is to say not to do something and then give NO reason whatsoever. If Jenny's Mum had genuine concerns about the kids safety in that area (which looks delightfully middle-class on Google Street Maps by the way) then she would give a reason.

What, exactly, did Jenny's Mum know about Captain Ellis Lane but wasn't going to say? Did she know about Casper in the shed that's set way back off the road on someone's private farm? If she did, then how? How did she know the children would go to THAT shed? My God, did Jenny's Mum actually murder that child and gouge his eyes out? Was she a Satanist? And if she knew that this lad was 100% going to manifest then she's made a massive scientific discovery regarding the paranormal that needs further investigating. Goddamn it! Jenny's Mum is holding out on us everybody! Someone track her down!

However, for a scary story's purpose, this vague warning creates great tension and then later is further explained by the unfortunate encounter with the ghoul boy. Ties up neatly.

Well written story virulentpeaches; keep working on that craft. Right, I must have some actual real work to do somewhere...

Peace

Mack
lady-glow (16 stories) (3149 posts)
+3
3 years ago (2021-01-05)
Nicely written though, in my opinion, it's hard to say if you kids had a paranormal encounter or if this was a case of collective suggestion, or even a good prank.

Have you ever since heard about anyone else experiencing something similar around that place? Now that you are an adult, have you researched the history of that property?

Whatever it was, it makes a good campfire story. Thanks for sharing.

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