Elizabeth's Journal

Entry One

Sept. 25, 2018

Call me Elizabeth,

I live in Kansas, and I love the idea of ghosts and demons and all that weird stuff. Unfortunately, living in Kansas, there isn't much paranormal activity. I guess we have the Sallie house in Atchison, so that's something. Personally, I don't actually believe in ghosts, I have never experienced anything that I genuinely thought was caused by a ghost or whatever. My grandpa Dale has seen a living person's spirit standing at the foot of his bed, and there is a little girl who stands in the corner of my grandpa John's house, but I don't really believe in ghosts.

Much.

I do have a friend who believes in ghosts completely. We will call her Shy. One day I was hanging out with Shy and another friend who we will call T. Shy was telling us about something that had happened to her about a month before.

"I went on a hike with my sister, her friends, and our dogs in a wooded valley behind our house. (I grew up exploring the area, so I know my way around pretty well) Anyway, we drove down the road for a while and then parked the car to walk on foot. The road only goes so far before you couldn't drive down it anymore, ya know? We decided to continue our hike down a dry creek bed.

We walked for a ways, talking and laughing about various things, and eventually left the creek bed and walked through the trees, down animal trails until we came to a fence. It was old, and the grass had grown over it. It clearly hadn't been touched for several years. Seeing forgotten pieces of an old farm is pretty common, so I stepped past without giving it much thought. We walked for a ways more. As we walked, I noticed that it was oddly still. Like none of the birds would sing on that side of the fence. Maybe I noticed the silence because I wasn't part of the constant chatter between my sister's friends, or maybe I was listening for the birdsong, and the rustle of small animals, I'm not sure. I decided to ignore it, after all, it could be that a storm was rolling in. I noticed that the air did have the still, hushed quality that could always be found before a big storm rolled in. We kept walking, and then came to a clearing, sunlight pouring through the trees, creating a halo affect on the area. It made everything look dreamy, and unreal. In this clearing there was a house.

There was something odd about the house. It wasn't old, it was a big house, new in fact, with a perfectly manicured lawn. It had to be at least three storied tall, it was painted tan. When we came into the clearing we stood at the back of this house. There was a big garage and several cars parked in the back, too. I don't know how the cars got there because there was no road leading up to the house that I could see. We were at the back of this house, so we assumed the road must have come in from the front. Even so, the only way down to this area was by walking through the creek bed like we had. Not wanting to get in trouble for trespassing, we went back the way we came. I was just glad to leave this weird house behind. I didn't relax until we came out of the valley, and could see the sky without looking through gaps in the trees. I guess I was really tense after seeing the house, I don't know why.

Eventually I realized how strange it was that this house should just appear in this valley that I had explored my whole life. How could a house appear in the middle of nowhere, without us, the people living on the hill nearest to them, noticing construction in the valley below? How did they drive their cars up to the house? How did we not notice a house that big before? All these questions kept me awake that night, and the next. On the third night I slept. I was too tired to worry anymore, so I decided to sleep and forget about the whole thing. It wasn't like worrying was helping anything."

T and myself were skeptical. This did not seem particularly odd. Sure some things were strange, but it could probably be explained. Maybe she just couldn't see the road that led up to the house from where she stood, at the back of the house. It wasn't odd for it to be still, she was in a valley sheltered by trees. It was very possible that she just couldn't hear the birdsong while they walked through the brush, and while her sister and friends were laughing and talking.