Southern Belle

This is not my usual post and this is not embellished or meant for aesthetic purpose- I am seriously freaked out.

I've lived these days before. Certain events are repeating even if it's impossible for them to of happened before.

A little back-track, one of my good friends is staying at my place for a month or so. He has never stayed at my home before. Ever. But a few nights ago we were up a little later than usual and he was talking about this and that. I was sketching, listening to what he was saying and occasionally looking up at him to show I was paying attention. I looked up at one point and that's when it hit me.

We have done this before.

It was the w o r s t deja vu I've experienced in my life and can only recall it happening once before that moment, when I was 13. But I just gawked at him on the bed talking about his day as I remembered everything he was about to say, the way he sat, his facial expressions, everything. I didn't know how many times before we'd sat in that room and had that exact conversation. My reaction terrified him and when he asked what was wrong I told him but he didn't notice anything weird. He told me it was strange and I should get some sleep. I walked away and took a breather, because this is surely just a wacky coincidence or some mental thing. There's no way, right?

The same thing happened today, but with a different situation. I was on my bed, having woke up about 10 minutes before. The friend had come up the stairs to my room and stood off the right side of the foot of my bed and was again telling me about how his first day at his job went. His 9 month old dog jumped up on my bed and laid with her stomach up for pets and I obliged.. but the feeling hit again. That intense deja vu and then the memory of That. Exact. Moment.

I was about to tell him I felt it again but decided against it. Maybe this is just some mental thing or I dreamed it up and it was just close enough to that dream that it was like a memory? There is NO way this is from a previous visit because he has been in Florida since we were little kids, and his dog is 9 months, so that's not a factor either.

I've come to believe that my house is legitimately haunted even though before I figured the weirdness was simply passing through. Not to mention the whole town is experiencing mass sightings of those giant wolves I mentioned briefly in my last post, the difference is that they're acting more and more human? We've also experienced a rise in shadow people and what I'd describe as fairies. Also, something keeps coming to me in my dreams, giving me glimpses at what will happen after I wake up. Each day keeps getting worse. Oh! And there's been a rise in black military looking helicopters patrolling at night? That's not normal.

We have creatures akin to werewolves or dogmen. My brother actually sighted one yesterday (as I write this). They range from m a s s i v e wolves (what my brother saw) to humanoids with canine heads. My great uncle saw the humanoid version working in a landfill deep in the mountains back in 84. He claimed that when it noticed him watching it, the creature scaled a sheer cliff and into the treeline above him. They do not appear to be malicious.

There's a super old legend from when the miners came through to head west about a giant albino fish. It's only been caught once -according to the legend. The man who caught it claimed the fish had golden eyes and spoke to him with ten voices and told him there was treasure in caverns under the river. Decades later caves were discovered that did span the lengths of the local rivers.

My grandmother used to talk about disgracing the forest and the things that followed. I remember vividly tying a rope swing to a tree after carving it with meaningless jibberish. A week later, without warning, the top of the tree broke off and fell on me. I walked off with a slipped disk and some serious bruises.

A headless horse with flaming hooves is rumored to wander the woods close to our major waterways, "sightings" occurring most often in the early spring

There's an obscure story I learned about through the grandparents of a friend- the same one whose family owns the old church. The story goes that a corrupt preacher man was riding his wagon back home one evening when in a flash of lightning a coffin appeared on the road in front of him with his name inscribed on the lid.

Sometime between the 60's and the 80's a group of clowns were travelling through the mountains on their way to one of the very popular travelling circuses we have a.. strange number of. The mountain roads are dangerous to anyone inexperienced, as they were and they wrecked on a slick curve. Fortunately they didn't tumble down one of the steep slopes, but two of them passed. This part is a little fuzzy but one of them suffered a horrible head injury that really messed him up and he ate the bodies of the two who died then wandered off into the mountain. I did look into this one but there are simply too many wrecks on the mountains that finding a specific crash that long ago is impossible.

We have our own versions of popular cryptids that I strongly believe are cautionary tales- to an extent. My great great grandmother said once that she saw a goat man. It was written in this letter because she refused to have a phone or something. It's around here somewhere. But one night while she watched out of her window (she did this every night until her death. Really superstitious native American woman, talked often about watching for wild things and spirits) she saw a goat walk up the road. Once this goat got up the hill it stood on its back hooves and walked like a man down the rest of the road. She saw lots of weird things, all written in letters we have stored away somewhere. Great Great Granny wasn't the only one who saw the goat man. A lot of older people who live here say it appears to people who are sensitive to the otherworlds..whatever that means.

There's an airport just on the outskirts of town beside a giant stretch of highway. They fly weird planes and sometimes drones. None of the people who work there are local. The airport doesn't show up on any maps.

On the topic of airplanes, the military uses our airspace and mountain terrain for practice. Drills are common and noisy but sometimes the formations look a little t o o practiced. Other days helicopters fly over at dusk with search lights on. None of the pilots answer when we ask what they are looking for.

Everyone here has weird dreams, some even have the same dreams as other people. Out of every person I've talked to, however, my dreams are the most bizarre..and real. But I'll share the dreams in a later post.

My town is the definition of southern Christian culture. There are churches on every street. Some are massive and feel empty when you enter while others are small and feel like home. I'm personally not religious but in some of those old wooden pews you can feel another presence sitting beside you.

My childhood friend lived on the same property as a abandoned church. The place was nestled deep in the woods next to a river. It was used as storage mostly. Whenever I'd spend the night with her we would sneak out of their home and play in the church. Some of the windows were broke and the floorboards sagged. At dusk the setting sun shone through stained glass in the shape of an angel. When the sun completely set, we thought we could hear the whispers of a sermon.

That same church has a basement which was always cold even in the summer. The air was heavy and uncomfortable. The mice that lived down there would leave me presents on the top steps whenever I visited. At least I believed it was the mice.

The mountains that cradle our town are constantly changing. Certain peaks wither away within a night while a whole new ridge is carved within a month. The older folks swear that the mountains are alive. I think they are just weathering weird.

There's plenty of old abandoned factories littering the place, mostly downtown. Despite the buildings being abandoned and not exactly operational for decades, men in full S.W.A.T attire guard them day and night. None of them are local either.

Now that I type these out, it feels like a government conspiracy. There were, in fact, several experiments ran on the residents here back when there was no way to prove the government did anything wrong. One such experiment was the observation of the impact of drugs on a population. So I'm not flagged or anything I won't say much more. Who knows who will see this.

There are caves everywhere. Some are deep enough to crawl into while others would barely allow a raccoon to squeeze through. We have the latter on the hill. Almost all of these caves are deep in the woods and very hard to access. All of them have carvings on the mouths of the caves. Nobody knows what the carvings are.

Abandoned railroads riddle the mountains and towns. One such railroad leads into a mountain through an enormous tunnel and goes into a close friend of mine's property. They say sometimes they can hear the train still running the tracks.

While on the topic of mountains, there are many bizarre structures. If you travel past the paved roads and onto the old gravel ones you'll find them. My favorite is the concrete foundation of a house with dolls and teddy bears nailed to the trees around it. If you go up there at sunset the light hitting the foundation makes it seem to glow red.

If you feel so inclined and travel into the trees like I do often, you'll discover fallen trees moved into teepee shapes around still standing trees. I always thought these were made by people camping out but the old bones and shredded carcasses scattered around them makes me think otherwise.

There is, in fact, a whole town under the lake. The lake is named after the town it devours. Nobody talks about the town for more than a few minutes before growing uncomfortable. Every local left when they built the dam, but the old ghosts are stubborn.

The highschool I attend sits cradled at the base of a mountain next to a river. Across from it is a massive field and large house. Every morning fog rolls in, and every morning I swear I can make out the shapes of people in the field.

I can make a whole other post about everything weird with the school, but the one I'll share here is that the school is very haunted.

There are plenty of graveyards on almost every resident's property, even if they don't realize it.

The local library used to be a post office. There are shelves with books which own odd titles and can only be found on certain days. Or so I'm told.. I can always find these shelves.

Also in the library is a staircase that leads up to a catwalk. The door is locked and chained shut with a large gate also locked and chained shut at the bottom of the stairs. Sometimes you can see a gaunt figure pace the catwalk.

The downtown area hosts a historic district where you can strolls through old shoppes, mostly antique stores and diners. Occasionally you'll bump into someone wearing old grassy smelling clothes. They have vacant eyes and never speak.

The river coming from the mountains can be crossed at several points downtown. The most popular is the historic covered bridge. Lots of people go to it to enjoy the spring and summer days. None of them swim or fish. Ducks and geese refuse to go near certain points of the river. I see strange shadows lurking under the muddy current quite often.

My first memory is not knowing my parents, not knowing where or who I was. But we have my birth certificate and paperwork. I didn't know I had a name until I asked my mother what it was.

Went outside one day, the sun hurt and I didn't know why I was burned until the sun started setting. I lost 4hrs of time.

Used to nap on the hill behind my house. Every summer the forest there gets so dark that crickets chirp and fireflies come out in the middle of the day.

I found a circle of bones and dead insects on that same hill. The crickets were silent that day.

Repeating nightmares of the world ending in very plausible ways when I was too young to watch anything but Dora and Blues Clues. The most common was nuclear warfare.

More repeating nightmares of a green feathered patchwork monster that haunted my favorite blanket, which was passed down for years. It never hurt me but its games were unpleasant. I am now a hide and seek expert. These dreams lasted from age 4 to 10.

There's always something watching me. It doesn't speak but I can feel its eyes stronger when I'm in the woods.

One time a bear got some form of rabies and chewed off its own hide in places. It attacked 3 people before getting hit by a car on the highway.

I learned what telekinesis was so I wanted to try it on a playing card. After 3hrs of staring at it I managed to get it to flip off the table, but that was the last time I was able to.

I had a playdate with one of my friends. She had a massive playroom in the basement and when she went upstairs to use the bathroom the door to the playroom slammed shut on me, the lights flickered, and her ZooZoo Pet ran across the floor on its own. The friend found me crying in the far corner. I went home immediately after.