More than perhaps any other time of year, Halloween is a good time to set aside the passing troubles of the day and pause to contemplate eternity.
After all, it’s where we’re all spending the rest of our existence, whether we want to or not.
Since worldly events are extra spooky right now, here’s a double dose of high strangeness for Halloween.
Both of today’s spook stories come courtesy of X.
First up, Appalachian Fanfiction shares a tale that, despite the handle, he asserts is t true.
Greentext format: his. Color: mine.
>want to meet my wife in Charlotte
>leave from Charleston in the evening
>drive for a couple of hours
>start to get a little sleepy
>find a state forest in SW VA with free overnight camping 20 min from the interstate
>park the car at a campsite next to an unmarked trail
>stretch legs, eat some snacks>start walking the dog on the trail
>cozy walk for first twenty minutes
>dog sees something move in the distance
>starts barking way more aggressively than usual
>whatever, we are in a new place, probably a squirrel>ten minutes later
>haven’t seen a soul so far
>dog starts barking again
>two women in their forties pass me coming the other direction on the trail
>dressed in all black
>looked extremely surprised to see me
>tell me “you should head back, the sun is setting”
>tell them “I will soon haha have a good hike”>hike another ten minutes
>sun is starting to set
>start encountering strange vegetation
>trail surrounded on both sides by six foot tall dead bushes with sharp and crooked branches
>dog starts barking again
>see something out of the corner of my eye
>turn
>nothing>proceed with walk
>come to a circular enclosure in the dead bush
>there’s a recently extinguished fire
>sigils surround the dead flame
>ripped up dead animal parts litter the enclosure>oh shit
>lungs stop breathing
>heart stops beating
>balls shrivel into stomach
>dog starts crying
>feel presence looming over me
>completely silent
>twig snaps>scream, soil myself, run back to car as fast as I can
>woods have become completely dark
>hear rustling and grunting and panting behind me
>keep screaming, run faster
>arrive at car>cry for two hours while driving to Charlotte with dog
Freakin’ witches, man.
That’s OK. We know how to deal with them.
Next up, Doc Strangelove with one of my personal favorite genre blends: war stories + true horror.
Tonight is another creepy post before Halloween!
The Charlie Company Spirit
As the story goes a soldier from a company in the Singapore Army fulfilling Singapore’s National Service obligation. While the young man’s company was doing a routine march along the Pulau Tekong they ended up losing him which would result in a search. His body was discovered the next day with an autopsy proclaiming he passed from a ruptured stomach due to extremely high body temperature.
Shortly after, claims of odd happenings began surfacing amongst the young man’s company. This would include anything from voices heard, to equipment in the men’s unit going missing or manipulated. Some within the unit claimed that the recently deceased soldier had a penchant for being a prankster with some believing he was continuing to do so.
In the end the occurrences were reportedly so frequent that a third door was built in the companies barrack in order for his spirit to leave peacefully as is part of their beliefs.
While adding a ghosts-only door is a cool concept, I admit to not getting it.
I mean, do they not believe that ghosts can walk through walls?
Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.
And this Halloween, I’m thinking of newcomers to the Burned Book campaign, who are really just backers we haven’t met yet.
So in the spirit of the season, I’m handing out some eye and ear candy.
Today only, back the project at any level and get all 4 Soul Cycle eBooks plus the Burned Book Theme song, even if your perk tier wouldn’t normally include them. It’s my little treat for you.
Don’t miss out. Get your bonus books and music. Pledge now!
“Whether you’re casting Workings or tracking your workout, you can count on your abacus bead bracelet”
Please clarify what you mean by Workings in your Halloween special. Thanks.
Workings are one of the magic systems from the Soul Cycle cosmos. A main supporting character from The Burned Book fashions them using an abacus bracelet.
Fantastic High Strangeness, great way to kick off Spooky Day. As far as Chinese beliefs regarding spirits go and whether or not they can walk through walls….short answer is that “it’s complicated.”
ICYMI, here’s a post on the subject from Halloween past:
https://brianniemeier.com/2019/10/the-place-of-wind-and-ghosts/
Well, while it’s not quite the same thing, the ancient Jewish custom was to leave the deceased’s burial chamber unsealed for three days, after which the spirit was presumed to have finally departed (this is also why it was so important that Lazarus had been dead for *four* days, which to a Jewish observer would be proof positive that he was well and truly dead and not merely catatonic). Speaking of my own home, we have the Wake (a practice that’s unfortunately declining and pretty much only seen in rural areas as of now). Part of that tradition involves closing or covering all curtains and windows in the house except the one in the room where the deceased is laying, so that’s another vague human intuition that ghosts can and may require some kind of aperture to “pass through” to the afterlife. On a related note, another such tradition is to cover or turn around all mirrors in the house during a Wake, due to an old superstition that these can serve as portals to the Otherworld, which isn’t somewhere a Christian would want to go.
Fascinating insight into that Scripture I hadn’t heard before. Thanks.
Vestiges of the Irish custom survived in the American Deep South. There is an old plantation called The Myrtles, said to be among the most haunted houses in America. One haunting is said to concern a mirror carelessly left uncovered during the death of a former resident, whose soul is now trapped in the glass.
Brian
Benjamin Cheah can provide us with insight about the significance of building a door for spirits to exit.
xavier
I understand he lives in the country where the ghost in that story was from.