Thread: Another house, different woods

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In my last thread, I mentioned my friend, David. In '89, his family lived in a house in another rural community on the island. Dave and I hung around together almost non-stop in the mid to late eighties, so I spent a lot of time at this house.

The first I heard about unusual happenings there came from Dave telling me about his father watching tv one night when his truck lights beamed through the living room window. Looking out, he couldn't see anybody in the yard, and it would be unlikely that anybody would be out walking late at night in an isolated area.

This incident would cause us some apprehension later on. We were driving down the highway that led to the road his house was on one night, when his car broke down. A quick check revealed that he would not be able to fix it on his own, so we resigned ourselves to a long walk.

The stretch of highway we had to traverse was about a mile and a half, then another two or three miles on the smaller road to get to his house. As with much of rural PEI, there was a lot of woods along the small road. Being morbid people, we didn't do ourselves any favours with the kinds of things we always talked about on the way to his house ("What would you do if when we get there, we see ourselves already there?").

Needless to say, we were doing a good job of spooking each other. About a mile down the small road, we were passing someone's house, when suddenly a horrific roar broke the silence. I think the two of us achieved escape velocity. When we eventually descended back to earth, we saw the source of the monstrous noise. The neighbour's poodle. How such a small animal made such an impressive noise, I don't know. We weren't sure whether to be amused or disgusted, but at least the rest of our journey was a bit less nerve-wracking.

For the next incident that happened there, a description of the bedroom Dave stayed in is needed. It was a large section of a moblie home that had been attached to the back of the house. It likely had a length of about twenty feet. At one end was his bed and two windows. Down the wall from his bed was the door, and opposite it, another window. The trees were very close. If you opened either of the windows near his bed and reached out, your hand would be in the woods. When I stayed over, I would sleep on the floor, by the wall with the window opposite his bed.

One other thing I should mention. The house had no basement, but it was on blocks that raised it slightly above ground level, enough that a person could crawl under there. There was a storage room we had to walk through to get to his bedroom, and for some reason, there was a hatch in that room that you could go through to get under the house. Perhaps it was originally meant to be a cellar door.

I am rarely able to get to sleep without tossing and turning for awhile, so Dave usually dozed off before I did. One night while I was waiting for slumber, I heard heavy breathing in the distance, but getting closer. I kept getting more and more nervous as it approached. The largest wild animal on the island is a coyote, and this sounded far bigger than that. Also troubling, I could hear no footsteps as it neared.

Eventually, it stopped right on the outside of the wall I was against, and sounded like it was breathing right through the window. I laid there, huddled to the wall, not daring to move or make a sound. I didn't look up, because if it was sticking its head in the window, I did not want to attract its attention.

Eventually, it moved on. I was a long time falling asleep that night. Thankfully, that sort of thing never happened again. To this day, I wonder what it was, but if I had looked, perhaps I might not be here now. It might have been something normal, I suppose, but I can't imagine anything normal on PEI that would have sounded like that.

And through it all, Dave didn't wake up. SOB.

Rictras Shard... your posts are becoming my nightly reading... so keep them up. And based on the numbers of views, it looks as though you are creating quite a following.

Don't forget to compile your posts. In a year you should have enough for your book. And in two years I will have a great book to give my friends.

Thanks, I appreciate your comments. I don't have enough tales of my own experiences to last a year, though. I'm not sure I have enough to make it to Halloween, and there is one I want to save for the holiday itself.

While I'm at work tonight, I'll rack my brain to see if I can come up with enough memories for the next few days.

Maybe Bigfoot?

Aliens?

Or more likely: car thieves or repo men ? Where all of the vehicles still out front in the morning? Did your friend's parents owe money on the mobile home.

But seriously, you presence in your friend's room could have saved his life.

Originally Posted by Rictras Shard

Thanks, I appreciate your comments. I don't have enough tales of my own experiences to last a year, though. I'm not sure I have enough to make it to Halloween, and there is one I want to save for the holiday itself.

While I'm at work tonight, I'll rack my brain to see if I can come up with enough memories for the next few days.

So you have two options:
You can become a ghost hunter.
or
You can move to an abandon house in the middle of the woods and hope that the ghosts come to you.

Originally Posted by propmistress

But seriously, you presence in your friend's room could have saved his life.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but if it was something dangerous and had attacked, I doubt I could have done much to save him other than trying to be chewy.

To answer your questions, the mobile home was attached at some point before they started renting the house, and all their vehicles were purchased secondhand with money up front.

Originally Posted by propmistress

So you have two options:
You can become a ghost hunter.
or
You can move to an abandon house in the middle of the woods and hope that the ghosts come to you.

Uhm... er... can I pick option C, where I marry Alyssa Milano and live happily ever after?

You were being stocked!

The Horrific Roar can easily explained by heightened fear. If, you as per say "spooking" each other pretty well then, it is like people that have panic attacks as their senses are heightened. So, even a Poodle barking would sound like a horrific roar.

The headlights on the truck, you would need to thoroughly investigate the truck for shorts, being second hand the chances for malfunctioning is an increased chance.

The breathing by the window is going to be hard to provide possibilities since you claim only largest animal is a Coyote. But, there are amphibious reptiles that can create very pronounced breathing sounds as well. There are many fresh water Gators that actually adapt to even Saltwater and vise versa. There is a lot of evidence showing that many are inhabiting places that they are not indigenous to an area.

Originally Posted by Propstar

The breathing by the window is going to be hard to provide possibilities since you claim only largest animal is a Coyote. But, there are amphibious reptiles that can create very pronounced breathing sounds as well. There are many fresh water Gators that actually adapt to even Saltwater and vise versa. There is a lot of evidence showing that many are inhabiting places that they are not indigenous to an area.

It would be rather difficult for an alligator to get to the island. The only time it could do so would be during the winter, by crossing about nine miles of ice without falling through.

Here is a link showing island wildlife:

Animal fact sheets - Animals native to Prince Edward Island - Canadian Geographic Kids!

Of these animals, I know there hasn't been deer around during my lifetime, and it has been many years since I've heard of a lynx. They neglected to list skunks, though. We have an abundance of those.