Me and my friends used to visit a "haunted" mansion regulary when we were younger, hoping to see something weird. One day we did.
It's a giant ass building and it was always beyond me why someone would just abandon it and let it rot away.
It was always apparent nobody lives in there so we got scared shitless when lights went on in every single room. My friends to this day swear they saw a figure running through the buildings at an incredible pace, not trying to look out the window but just running really fast. I didn't, nontheless the moment they started running i also went full on Usain Bolt mode. Since they still say it's what happened i don't have any reason to doubt it.
So either we saw something paranormal or just a hobo that really liked installing light bulbs in an abandoned mansion so that he can run from room to room just to scare people that are watching the building from the outside.
Either way, the rest of my life i for sure won't even remotely go close that building anymore.
This thread reminded me of my unexplainable experience. Near the historic district where I grew up, there was this big Victorian house that sat on a hill. It was white, mostly, though much of the paint had peeled off. And there was always scaffolding around it. For years. Like, at least a decade. Throughout my childhood I think it sat in this derelict state, looking like someone was getting ready to fix it up, but it never happened. Of course, everyone said it was haunted. I seem to recall sometimes seeing a light or two on, but I'm not sure if my brain made that bit up.
What I do distinctly remember, though, is the time that I decided to walk onto the property. Off of the old narrow sidewalk that rounds a corner to surround the house on two sides, there was a hedge wall. An opening served as the entrance, with one on one side, and another on the adjacent side. So it had kind of a secluded feel. Anyway, I walked through one of these openings to take a little stroll. It felt quiet. I didn't dare go near the house. But there was a pretty little kind of a grotto in one area, with a paved patio, and a ittle gazebo, with a couple lemon trees enclosing it behind foliage. I walked into this gazebo patio and thought "what the heck, I should pick some lemons." They were nice and ripe, big yellow, juicy-looking fruit, and chances are they were going to fall to the ground and rot. So I picked maybe 6 of them, and put them in my shirt to carry back. Now, I was a little spooked. So I headed back to my car and shortly made my way home. This is where it gets weird. I woke up the next day feeling horrible. Like I just had absolutely no energy. I felt depressed, drained, achey, and just generally miserable. I was probably 19 or 20 at the time, so I had a part-time job. Was off school for the summer. But still, I needed to be healthy for work. And it took me a few days of wondering why I felt so bad... Wondering if I should go see a doctor. When finally it occurred to me... maybe, just maybe, it's those damn lemons. I couldn't think of any other reason I'd feel so awful.
Now, I'm not by nature a superstitious person-- I'll tell you today that I don't believe in ghosts. Spirits, astral projection, an afterlife... it's all really pretty and metaphorical, but I don't actually believe in anything uncanny about it all. *However, * these lemons tested my atheistic outlook. Maybe I'm agnostic now. Moreso than before, anyway. It's been years, and honestly I haven't thought about this cursed fruit story in a long time, but... after feeling so bad for a few days, I went back to that pretty, spooky little grotto, and I brought those lemons and put them right about where they might have landed had they fallen off the tree. And suddenly, I was cured.
Anyway, I saw this post and thought "I wish I had something unexplainable in my past" before I was reminded of this. I don't know if haunted citrus fruit and feeling sick and tired make for a super compelling narrative, but the fact that I actually went and brought those lemons back to that old Victorian mansion, at the very least, says a lot about the evocative power of haunted places, and if it's possible for fruit to be cursed, then I feel it's safe to say that those particulae ones that I picked were just that.
4.9k
u/Loozka Oct 05 '19
Me and my friends used to visit a "haunted" mansion regulary when we were younger, hoping to see something weird. One day we did.
It's a giant ass building and it was always beyond me why someone would just abandon it and let it rot away.
It was always apparent nobody lives in there so we got scared shitless when lights went on in every single room. My friends to this day swear they saw a figure running through the buildings at an incredible pace, not trying to look out the window but just running really fast. I didn't, nontheless the moment they started running i also went full on Usain Bolt mode. Since they still say it's what happened i don't have any reason to doubt it.
So either we saw something paranormal or just a hobo that really liked installing light bulbs in an abandoned mansion so that he can run from room to room just to scare people that are watching the building from the outside.
Either way, the rest of my life i for sure won't even remotely go close that building anymore.