Let's Not Meet: A Collection

violin hill

Around two years ago, I finally moved into a brand new house in a brand new building estate in Australia. I was one of the first to have a finished build in the area and was elated to finally gain independence. The first few weeks went by as normal and during that time, I'd often take walks alone with the dog in the afternoons and roam the surrounding estate area.

All the roads around us had been partially completed and all the other properties were marked out, but no other houses were built excluding one that was directly opposite mine. The house looked finished, but there was no driveway laid yet and from what I could gather, noone lived there.

To the left of my house roughly a few hundred meters away was a field with a huge hill in it. I later found out that the whole area was council property, not only was noone allowed to build up there but the whole hill was basically a no go zone. For whatever reason, the council just didn't want people on it so the whole area was surrounded by a huge chain link fence.

The only other noticeable feature in the area was a small abandoned farm house with a shed a few kilometres down the road. I knew nothing about it and often went walking there with the dog as it gave me something mild to explore amongst the vast nothingness I was living around. The entire place was dilapidated and completely inhabitable, but it was still interesting none the less.

About a month or two after moving in, I awoke one morning to the sound of a violin. It sounded extremely distant and quite haunting, I actually enjoyed it and assumed that the neighbours opposite me has finally moved in. Excited that I finally had some people to talk to, I peeked out the curtain and saw the house opposite mine was still as vacant as it ever was. I got dressed but by the time I managed to look outside, the violin has stopped.

This happened roughly every second day for the next week, the violin would wake me up and then just disappear after about 45 seconds. I'd ignored it to the point where my curiosity simply got the better of me and the next morning when I heard the violin playing again I immediately jumped out of bed, threw on my dressing gown and shot out the front door. I scoured the early morning surrounding and there, up on the hill, was a figure playing a violin.

It was barely light, but the person looked very tall from the distance I was at and as they were playing, was doing what could only be described as a waltz-type walk, spinning slowly around in a circle as they played. I took my eyes off the person and walked over to pick up the morning paper and in the 10 seconds that took me, I heard the violin stop.

When I looked up, I noticed the figure was no longer playing or dancing, but was now standing still and most likely looking in my direction. It was so dark i couldn't make out and more and we both just stood there for half a minute not moving before the creeps got the better of me and I went back inside.

After that morning, things started happening. On my walks I began to notice footprints on the surrounding properties that weren't made by me and that I'd never seen before, which I just assumed were from people walking up from the other housing areas down the road. I never awoke to the violin, but I swore I could hear someone walking on the street next to my bedroom window in the early mornings, however I never saw anything.

Other really general things as well, like random tools such as spades and rakes laying around the area which I guessed were left there by construction crews, none of which I ever saw. I'd started getting calls at work that would immediately hang up on me and I also stopped walking up to the abandon farm house, as the experience with the violin player had me a little shaken.

One night as I was heading to bed, I turned off the television in the living room and again, could hear the faint sound of a violin playing, however it sounded more muffled and rehearsed.