Dream House
We all dream of one day purchasing our forever dream house. But one man got more than he bargained for when he bought his. As he took a stroll on his new property, Christopher stumbled upon something that changed his life. Dumfounded, he investigated the mysterious finding further. Little did he know, once he entered the eerie tunnel, there was no going back to his previous life. He continued on his investigation even after a realtor and a police officer advised him not to. As Christopher came to the end of his research, with all the proof laid out in front of him, he knew he had to flee his house and never, ever come back. But what did he find that was so frightful he had to give up his dream home?
Woodland Fields
Christopher Wanliss had bought the property not long ago, it stood on 16.5 hectares of woodland fields, and he was overjoyed by all the space he had all to himself. Little did he know, he could have never have expected to ultimately find a surprising portal in so much land. But as if fate wanted him to do so, he had. One day, Christopher decided to take a tour of his new dream home and the surrounding area. The seasons had been harsh, stripping away the bark and outer layers of the trees. Still, rendering them all the more beautiful. Christopher took in his new scenery as birdsongs came in lulls and bursts, the silence of the woods and the singing working together in perfect harmony. Before he knew it, his feet begun to walk, body and mind both on auto-pilot. But then, something caught his eye.
Mysterious Discovery
As Christopher was still coming out of the haze in which he was, he continued in the direction of the mysterious thing he had seen. It was dark and somewhat small, but still, it looked as if it was hiding. Maybe it’s just another tree? An older, smaller and darker one? He thought. But as he got closer, he immediately knew he was so, very wrong. Overwhelmed by excitement and a little terror, he didn’t judge where his feet were going. Christopher stumbled on and fell 3-feet down. Dumfounded by his fall and covered in leaves and mud he shook himself off and looked straight ahead. There it was. The mystery he had seen from a distance. But it couldn’t be? Could it? He was perplexed. He had just discovered a mine on his own property, and by the looks of it, it seemed to be very old and abandoned. He had to take a closer look. What could be inside this magnificent structure?
Encrusted Walls
The outside of the mine was covered with what looked like moss, but it was way too dark to see inside. Christopher recalls the moment: “When we bought the house, nobody ever told us about the fact that the estate had a lot of mines on it. We just sort of stumbled upon the gold mine one day and that was it. When I first saw it, I was so excited that I almost fell over myself. The only thing that I could think about was Indiana Jones and underground railroads”. Excited for his adventure to begin, he rushes back to his house and gathers a flashlight so he could see everything that this mystery would uncover. Little did he know, this was going to be the worst decision of his life. He arrived at the entrance of the mine with the flashlight in hand. Holding his breath, he takes one step into the mine and is welcomed by ‘sparkly’ pieces encrusted in the walls. What had he just found?
Echo
The old walls were damp and seemed to be about to crumble down on top of him. His footsteps echoed, and he couldn’t help thinking about the tons of soil pressing down above him. He brought a flashlight and three spare batteries just in case, he wanted to be in there a long time. As he approached the walls more, he saw it but couldn’t get his finger around what that unusual sparkle was within the stones. He recalls joking to himself, “What if this was gold?”. But the thought immediately left his mind when he looked down and noticed something that could change his expedition too soon.
Damp And Cold
Whatever the temperature outside, it was rather damp and cold within the mine. He immediately noticed how his footprint had made a 4inch indentation into the soil. Water was coming in from somewhere as the puddles of water seemed to be flowing, no sign of stagnation yet. He released a sigh. He knew this was a good sign as stagnant pools of water in abandoned mines can release dangerous gases when disturbed, it’s always better if the water is flowing so it won’t turn vile. But as he looks ahead of him with his flashlight pointing straight outward, he couldn’t see the end of the tunnel. Something or someone was there. Noises started echoing through the tunnel as if it was behind him. Intrigued, he followed the noise. Little did he know what a mistake this truly was.
No Light
As he continued down the path, there was no light, no movement of air, no warmth. He held his flashlight out as if he was holding a sword and was ready to engage in battle. The noise screeched louder this time. Sounds of machinery and old metal parts coming into play. But then, he hears them. He knows what he has just walked into. Voices fill the mine’s innards but are inaudible to Christopher. “Who’s there?” he shouts. Only to be responded by his own echo. Courage pulsated through his body. He had to find out who was there.
Ventilation System
Water and dirt were all around him now, his boots sunk deeper in with every footstep. A yellow ventilation system had been installed but was falling at the seams. Chains were hanging low, not far apart from each other, rusting and molding all at the same time. Christopher began feeling strange. There was a weird vibe in the mine. Something was pulling him back as he was not invited to wander in there. “The ambient temperature also seemed to suddenly drop all around me at this point, and I felt an even stronger negative presence ahead in the tunnel,” recalls Christopher. He follows the path of water, it must be coming from somewhere, and that’s where he will discover who the voices belonged to. Could it possibly be that someone was living in here?
Swung
Christopher was almost 150 ft inside the tunnel, he turned around and was welcomed with the light coming from the entrance. But as he turned around, he could not seem to fathom what he was seeing. He stayed still for about two seconds until his body reacted; he jumped, not expecting his nails to scrape the walls, his claustrophobia folding in him like the lid of a box. One of the chains had begun to swing. And not just slightly, no, with strength. Someone was watching him. His heart thudded inside his chest as he sprinted to the entrance. He had to get out of there. He had to call someone. But who?
Call One
Desperate and sweaty, he ran to his home. Christopher quickly picked up his phone and called his real estate agent. “When we went to ask about the place, we were finally told that the estate had actually been home to quite a lot of mining sites. A lot of mining was done in these hills at the turn of the century, and there are a lot of little mines that are scattered across the hills” said Christopher. He then continued to tell them what he had found on the walls; the sparkly substance that seemed to give light to the small and deep tunnel. An agent told him someone was on their way to view the mysterious mine. As Christopher ended the call he felt relief, from his toes up to his ears his muscles started to relax, but suddenly, his whole body tensed up again. “This cannot be happening!” he shouts.
Flickering Lights
As Christopher stood in his kitchen where he had hung up his call, the lights started to flicker. He bundled his panic in his chest and breathed rapidly. The flickering of the lights gave him snapshots of his kitchen as a strobe light would, but then, suddenly everything went dark. He fumbled over to where the switch was in his kitchen and began moving the switch up and down. Nothing. That’s when he started noticing the chill. A cold breeze hit his face wicking his nervous heat away faster than he could replace it. He immediately grabbed the flashlight he had used in the mine which thankfully was still in his pocket. He turned it on and pointed it in the direction of his thermostat, he could read that the temperature had fallen quite a bit, making his breath a fog cloud right in front of him. “How strange,” Christopher thought. But still, determined to get his electricity back on he went to his circuit breaker. Surely a fuse had blown, or something had happened.
Faulty Wiring
As he flashed the light in the direction of the breaker, everything seemed to be in order. Everything was where it was supposed to be, and the main fuse didn’t look at all ‘blown.’ As he continued to investigate within the box, trying different switches to see if it would miraculously turn on, Christopher let out an immense sigh when indeed it did. “Faulty Wiring,” he thought to himself, but still couldn’t shake the nervousness throughout his body. He went back upstairs to get a glass of water and calm his nerves, but as soon as he did, his doorbell rang. What could it be this time?
Mr. Rudall
Mr. Rudall introduced himself to Christopher and began to explain how the real estate agency had contacted him because of what Christopher had found on his land. He was excited to see what he had discovered and more so, intrigued to see what the substance on the walls was. Christopher lead Rudall to the mine, advising him to watch his step as he had toppled over when he first approached it. As both men walked in silence among the woods, the sky looked washed in grey as in preparation for a storm. But as they got to the mine, they both get out their flashlights. The sparkle of the walls seemed to be more evident now, the glare hitting them in the face fiercely. As Rudall approached the stone walls inside the mine, he can no longer suppress his excitement, but as he turns to talk to Christopher, something in that mine is trying to send a message. Choked up and creeped out, he told Christopher something that made him have very mixed feelings about the situation.
Nightmarish Eyes
Rudall, with nightmarish eyes, began to tell Christopher how the mine was indeed, to his own surprise a gold mine. And that it had probably been used for that very reason a long time ago. As he looked at the walls, he could tell that the gold had been untouched within the stone meaning that the miners hadn’t finished their job and had abandoned the mine. But why? Rudall continued to explain that there had been a lot of local gossip regarding miners and mines from the turn of the century. But he never knew about any specific gold mines in the area. The only thing that made him wonder was, what had happened there for all that gold to go untouched? Something awful surely. Christopher wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Secret Door
As he summoned up the courage to investigate the mine further, two things whirled in his mind. There could be gold; also, it could be haunted. He got prepared, with his flashlight in hand and spare batteries in his pocket he went inside. As he went down the path, with each and every footstep away from the entrance, darkness enveloped him. Last time he went into the mine he could only muster going in 150-ft. This time he knew, no matter what he had to go to the end. Only then could he get the answers he was seeking. As the light blinded behind him, he kept going. 600-ft in and he finally knew where the water was coming from. But then, he saw it – A door. He bit his lip. A shiver ran through his body like an electric current, and the water dropped on his face blurring his vision. He forced his legs closer sucking in a breath as he knocked on the door, knowing there would be no answer. Then, he twisted the handle. But what he first saw stopped him in his tracks.
World Of It’s Own
He had wandered into a world of its own. Whatever the weather outside, it was freezing in there. He reached out to the wall – rougher and colder than the walls outside the room. Exaggerating claustrophobia screamed inside of him to get out of that place, but, that’s when something caught a glint in the flashlight – furniture? Lots of junk huddled together, destroyed. But that didn’t make any sense. Who had just run out of there without their stuff? The air suddenly got thicker, Christopher’s chest felt immense pressure. Something freaky was going on there, but he still didn’t know what.
Livable?
Within the junk, he sees a bed spring. It was torn and rusty and answered Christopher’s question. Someone had lived there and from the looks of it, was in a hurry to get away from that place. But, from what? Christopher kept contemplating this idea when something else catches his eye. A mysterious brick hideaway. Who would need a hideaway within a door inside a mine? Someone trying to hide something valuable of course. Intrigued, he goes up to the mysterious hole but is disappointed when he finds it completely empty. As he is about to turn around and start his retreat, he sees something on the wall inside the brick hide-out. Some sort of handwriting?
Hideout
With his flashlight lighting the hide-out, he examined various white scratches on the walls. He couldn’t figure out what it was until he was closer. He could distinctly see how the walls had been scratched in vertical lines 4 at a time. That was very odd – he thought while he put his hand over the scratches and made another discovery. The scratches must have been done by fingers. The depth of the scratches were superficial but still managed to make a mark on the cement. Who and what was so eager to get out of this place? But as he pondered on that question, he saw another thing that will haunt him forever.
Scratches
On the opposite wall of the scratches he had found more, but this time, there wasn’t any lines but a message on it. An unreadable message he had to document. He took out his camera and took a picture of it, maybe later he would put that picture on his computer and investigate further and decipher it. Startled, he heard a noise. The hairs on his body prickled forward and gave him goosebumps. Someone was there. He pointed his flashlight in the direction of the noise. Nothing. He turned around and continued to look at the wording on the wall, but in that instant he heard the sound of metal clashing together, a cold breeze close to his shoulder like a whisper, and a sense of cold washed over him as if he had just passed through an icy shower, having every warm feeling and thought sucked out of him. At first, it appeared to come from behind, then from the front. In only moments the noise and cold were coming from every direction, getting closer, louder, more frantic…He ran.
Run
Shivers went down his spine, and he felt the blood chill his veins as he sprinted. He couldn’t shake the feeling something wasn’t right. His mind told him not to move, but his body dragged him to the light of the entrance like a moth to a flame. When he finally got out, he clutched his chest and fell to the ground. He should have known, everything was so right it was wrong – really wrong. A gold mine? That would’ve been too good to be true. As he got up in a frenzy, he collected himself and continued to run through the woods to his house. The stillness of the air seemed to suck even the sound of his footfalls. Even the trees seemed not to rustle as if they were tense with nerves for what was to come. He ran like he had never done before. He had to find out what was really happening.
Haunted Mine
As he got to his house, he made his way straight to his study and locked himself in. Something weird was happening in that mine, and he needed answers. Creeped out, he googled ‘haunted mines’ and as the results were loading a chill rose up his spine making him shiver. The ‘thing’ that was in the mine was there, with him, inside the house and he could feel it. He whipped around, and sounds of hushed whispering seemed to be erupting everywhere around him. Was he going crazy? A breath so hoarse echoed around him. As Christopher turned his head over his shoulder, the whispering stopped. The air chilled to ice and his labored breathing became the only sound. Then, out of nowhere the google search loaded and the first hit read: “If you want to get rid of the paranormal activity in the mine and subsequently, in your life, you have to face it.” Could he really? Could he go back and make ‘whatever’ this is to leave him alone? There was only one way to find out.
Hello?
Christopher heard the knocks come in pairs of threes, three times. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Hello?” is all he could muster to say. Tentatively taking steps forwards he reached the handle of his study, he twisted it hoping it would give easily and swiftly. It did. And as he crossed over to the kitchen, a small whirring sound made him turn his attention to it. It came from his camera. He went over and picked up the object. He could have sworn he had turned it off as he got inside his house, but when he went to check on the pictures, there were none on the SD card. They had all been deleted. He picked up his camera again and headed towards the mine. This time, he was going to face whatever was in there.
Gathered Courage
Christopher gathers all the courage he can as he looks into the mine. He is welcomed with darkness at first, but then, he realized he made a colossal mistake. The dark and shadowy corridor he had run out of twice already seemed a little darker. He thought that his flashlight was a bit faulty, so he continued on, step by step through the puddles of water until an incredible cold gust of air hits him in the face with such strength, he could have sworn it was a basketball. The cold air leaves him pale even though his blood still runs warm. But then, he heard the noise of metal again. He knew he had to face it, but he never expected this decision to be a terrible mistake.
Awful Sound
As his feet lead the way through the darkened tunnel, his body abruptly stopped. The noise was so close his ears began to ring and screech in pain. The metal noise had turned into a hurricane of metals all clunking together creating an awful sound. Christopher held his head in his hands for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly, everything stopped. The sound was muted, and he looked up. Terror filled his body with the silence more than it did with the noise, and that’s when he saw it.
Little Clearer
The chains that hung from the rock ceiling of the tunnel started swinging rhythmically as if they were dancing. Hypnotized by what he was witnessing he couldn’t even begin to process the noise of swooshing water. As his eyes focus a little clearer, he saw it, a cascade of water coming toward him like a tsunami. “I must be going crazy!” Christopher thought as the brittle silence of before was inundated with the sound of moving water. His head is pounding, every cell in his body is screaming for oxygen as he gathers himself and runs toward the light, the entrance. What could he do now? He couldn’t face whatever it was in there…
Salvation
As Christopher ran out of the mine onto what he believed was salvation, he looked back. Perplexed, he didn’t see any water of any kind, not even puddles in the entrance. He saw his frantic footsteps, but that was all. He began his journey back to his house. He knew then he had to call someone who could help him with paranormal activity as he couldn’t live like this. He walked through the utter blackness of the woods until he was close enough to see his lights on in the kitchen. Had he left them on? Maybe someone was there?
Empty and Alone
He opened the door, but his home felt so empty and alone. No one had been there, he must have left the lights on before. Shuffling through his kitchen, he can’t get the thoughts of that day out of his head. “Did everything really happen?” He thought as he silently sat on his chair in his study and opened his computer up. “Was he really going to do this?” He had never believed in ghosts, or hauntings and paranormal activity, but everything that happened that day…he just couldn’t explain. He opened his search engine again and began to type. A loud wiring noise came from the engine of the computer, and suddenly, it went black. As if it had died, there and then. In a sitting position, he looked in disbelief at the black screen. “What could possibly go wrong next”? Christopher thought as tears filled his eyes. Little did he know, this wasn’t the end of his adventure.
Tired
Christopher was tired, mentally and physically. That day had worn him out entirely. As he cupped his hands on his face, he felt a gentle pull. Without warning, something pulled at his feet. He noticed it like if he was metal and a magnet was pulling him towards it. He stumbled backward, falling in the process. That’s when he made the decision. He had to get out of there as soon as possible and call someone for help, surely all this could be explained. He knew a lot of paranormal cases had been due to many toxic gases or maybe the water in the mine wasn’t flowing but was stagnant, and he hadn’t realized. Whatever it was, it had to be something. He got in his car and drove to the nearest café.
Double Espresso
As he ordered a double espresso, he pulled up his search engine on his phone. Quickly, scared that this too will break, he typed in the box: “Best Paranologist near me.” Surprised, he sees that two different places have matched with what he was looking for, and they weren’t far at all. He got in his car and arrived at the location Google Maps sent him. Before him was a purple sign that said, “TAROT readings.” Good god, he was still in disbelief of everything that had happened that day, but he couldn’t rest soundly if he didn’t know what he was truly dealing with.
Vacated
As the door of the entrance gave off a chime song, he immediately noticed the smell of incense. A woman dressed in red and purple coverings turned to Christopher and offered her hand to him. She then immediately started chanting, something familiar Christopher had heard before. In utter paralysis, he was drawn towards it. He knew. The song that she was singing was the noise he had heard in the mine but now was a lot more melodic. He opened his eyes and dashed out to his car. Christopher went to his mother’s house that night and immediately put his home on the market. The real estate developers in charge of the estate tried to get a hold of him, but they never heard from Christopher. Instead, his mother was selling the property on his behalf and was open to offers for anyone who was willing to purchase it. The remaining questions are: did Christopher, in fact, see something inexplicable on his property? Was the mine really haunted? And has there been someone brave enough to enter it since?