A Family That Hid A Dark Secret

I used to live in a small town in rural Canada situated around the forests within Ontario. One of the things that you’ll see in our small town is everyone pretty much knows each other. From our neighbor right next door to even the guy who makes the best cookies across the street. This also means that everything noteworthy or even crazy is pretty much known by everyone, from the eavesdropper all the way to someone’s child who probably heard about it from their parents. It’s mostly the usual gossip that people told me that either made me sit at the edge of my seat or just rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of the story.

Then there was this story that I remember still sends chills down my spine every time I heard about it. To give you some context, north of the town is a shallow body of water known by everyone as the “Ridgerock Lagoon”. It’s a pretty sizable body of water where going around it takes like almost an hour before we can get to the other side of it. Across the lagoon are a handful of farmhouses also known by the townsfolk since they come there to either shop for goods or to sell their stock to the people there before they go to the farmer’s market.

The Ridgerock Lagoon itself doesn’t truly have anything interesting there aside from being the one body of water where people fish or maybe swim. Many of the older folks in our home told us stories about what used to happen in that place. My grandpa used to tell me stories when I was a kid about this lagoon. He told me that the place used to be the place where many of the former people in the town voluntarily perish or even disappear completely off the face of the earth for unexplained reasons. He also told me that there was a creature lurking around those areas during the night. He even told me that there used to be a farm house around the area where their entire family just vanished off the face of the earth, never to be seen again.

Now, the stories my grandpa told me are either just gossip that elevated into a local folklore and legend, or complete nonsense. The one story about the town house however intrigued me. I always wanted to know what truly happened, though I never got an answer to it as my grandpa insisted that I shouldn’t learn exactly what happened in that place. The only thing he told me is that the family once lived there a long time ago, then did something, which brought them into disappearance. That changed however when my buddy Josh, once told me the full story during our weekend meetup in the edges of the Lagoon.

The story basically goes something like this. There was this farmhouse north of the lagoon called the “Labileau Estate”. It was the house of the Labileau family, family of staunch Confederate soldiers in Virginia who eventually exiled during the near end of the American Civil War after the Union ordered the Confederates to surrender. The family went running up north, all the way towards here in our small town in Ontario where they decided to turn themselves into a farming family that served the community around 1865. At the time, people didn’t know about the story of the family until people began to ask about their history which revealed their background. 

During the time they lived there, people kinda met the Confederates with suspicion as they thought they were bringing in American South ideals to Canada or they thought they’re going to stir up trouble due to them being on the side of the warmongers as they say. But overtime, they kinda sympathise with them more as a bunch of people saw them more as a people displaced away from their homes during the war than a bunch of slavers–Then again, there are actual other Confederate supporters who exiled Canada, but that’s a different can of worms altogether. 

One night however during 1872, The residents of my town saw the family leave the house for some unknown reason and never returned. At first it sounded pretty simple; perhaps they were moving out of the house and leaving the town for good. But days after their sudden disappearance, their house was burned to the ground, leaving not just their own house into burnt cinders, but even the environment around them were burnt. It was basically the story of the Labileau Family, though the circumstances before the house’ destruction were pretty strange to say the least.

Josh then told me another part of the story involving this. During the night of August, the town folks overheard from the village chief that the family was performing some sort of activity that many didn’t get a good glimpse of. The chief of course tasked the watchmen to pay the family a visit, check up on them and see what they are up to. Those guys actually did not return back to report. The chief was immediately worried that the watch men he sent there were in serious trouble and immediately began to ask a couple of his men and set off on his journey towards the house.

Now their journey abruptly halted as before the Chief left the town, he saw one of his watch men who went missing finally returned, though his physical condition was not exactly pretty sound. Wounds run all around his face, his arms, and even his body. The watch man pleaded to the Chief that they should not go to the house. He claimed that the house was “Cursed” and that the rest of his colleagues were killed during their initial entry. He also said that the family is not what it seems and they should never get anywhere close to the house.

The chief listened to his watchman and called off the visit, but not before hiring a 3rd party private investigator to see if he can make contact with the family. He ventured down across the lagoon and eventually found his way to the family’s house.  In the end however, the investigator did not even get a chance to talk to the owners of the house as he was shocked when he arrived there and all he found was the house burnt down to crisp– But how?

When the investigator told the chief that the house was nothing but charred wooden cinder with the only recognizable feature being the frame and the foundation, he was utterly baffled. The town folks never saw a fire, if anything, they saw that thing days before standing perfectly fine when the watchmen visited it the first time and when viewed from a lookout just a bit out of town from a hillside. The nearby trees also never caught on fire, as it would spread and the townsfolk will eventually know a forest fire is about to happen. The idea that a house was set ablaze without even making extensive damage was strange to say the least, almost bordering on the supernatural. The chief in the end was just baffled, and at this point, decided that whatever is happening in the estate, is definitely far from normal and told the townsfolk to never step foot on the place ever again.

Of course as a kid who listened to this story from my grandpa and now Josh with this story, I thought that was the most haunting story I have ever heard in my life, perhaps the craziest story I have heard in a while. The idea that an entire family vanished and their family home set ablaze without anyone knowing and without damaging the surrounding area was something that fascinated me since. I always wanted to see that place and see if the house is still standing. My grandpa objected to the idea as the area surrounding that place these days is filled with thick foliage and during winter, it was practically buried deep in snow. He also told me that the place is cursed. This means in essence, I will never go there all by myself–But I did.

One day during summer, I asked Josh that we should pay a visit to this supposed haunted site across the lagoon. Josh of course shut down the idea at first. He told me that visiting that house would be a waste of time as it was burnt down, so there is nothing really for us to explore there aside from burnt charcoal covering the place or even just one big open lot with lots of vegetation in place of the estate. I insisted that we should check out anyway because I argued that maybe we can see ghosts or something of the sort in that house. Josh reluctantly agreed after the mention that we can probably see ghosts, given that he is more interested with that.

During one cloudy afternoon, we began our journey to that house. The road leading to that house is still a dirt road that leads through the deep wooded area of where we live. It also goes around the Ridgerock Lagoon, paralleling the large body of water as the point of interest for villagers and hikers alike going through the woods further north of the town. The road continued until we found ourselves on one part of the woods we are completely unfamiliar with.

The road started to turn more and more dense with foliage. The road we are walking is starting to turn more and more into a narrow passage with so many ruts and holes for us to even walk straight. Wildlife such as deers, small critters and birds are the only ones we hear during our journey deep in the woods. Suffice to say, this is the kind of place where you can get yourself quickly lost the moment you stray off the path.

We continued our journey until we finally saw short wooden fences, signifying that we are close to the property of the house that I wanted to visit. We hopped around the fence and began to make our way into the heart of the property, which we did… And the house is here?

The moment we saw the house in person, it was completely intact. The house that people said to be burnt down was still here, standing tall in the middle of the forest with bits of the lagoon overlooking it. It’s like nothing happened during the rest of the time we are here. 

The house in question is a two story house with a white coloured front facade. It has a pretty modest porch with only a chair and a table sitting by the door. The front windows looked completely intact, no shattered glass or even an open hole. The front door itself looks to be in pristine condition, almost as if someone was living here all this time.

The fact that this house is still here, completely intact makes no sense. How could people say back then that the house was burnt to the ground, yet here it is, still standing like nothing happened to it. How could they tell me that the house was completely abandoned, but the house is still here in pristine condition.

At that point, Josh, his hand on my arm, told me that we should leave, or else we upset the people in here. I argued that there had to be no one in this house as it sounded quiet in this place, and I told him that there should be people outside the house. Josh insisted that we should leave, and even warned me that he will leave me here in the forest. Of course I thought that it was pretty stupid that he would walk back to the town all by himself and in the woods no less and told him to stick around. Josh eventually agreed and decided to reluctantly stick around.

We decided to slowly approach the door and check if someone is in the house. We began by knocking on the front door; surely someone is in here that can answer a simple knock–No answer. I knocked one more time and again, no one answered my knocks. We decided to then peek through the window and see if someone was inside the house–We saw no one inside other than light seeping through another window visible from the other side of the house. I returned back to the front door and this time, I twisted the doorknob and checked if the door was locked. To our surprise, it was unlocked as the door spun fully and the door began to slowly open, as if there was something waiting for us inside.

As the door slowly opened, we began to peek from the outside and eventually enter the house. We saw a brightly lit hallway and a staircase facing the front door of the house. Ahead of it is an open window with sunlight seeping through, illuminating the otherwise dark hallway of the house. Within the immediate area of the house are 2 rooms, a living room and a kitchen with a dinner table. 

We began to walk through the living room. In this large space is a couch and a table. Across it is a fireplace that is completely out. On the far edge of the room is a cabinet, and on top of it is some sort of banner. The banner is a purple coloured banner hanging on top of the fireplace. Within this banner is a black circle surrounded by a gold ring around it. I have never seen this logo before, if anything, I have never heard of anything that resembles that banner either. Josh assumed it was some sort of logo that only Americans will know or something of a sort, but who knows.

Josh began to peruse the cabinets and check and see what’s inside. Most of what is inside is mostly junk that is no use for any use. We however came across a diary of sorts; the book however was already covered in dust while the pages were starting to show its age. Josh opened the diary and began to read the pages one by one. 

“Who is Mother?” Josh wondered.

“I don’t know man, maybe it's someone’s grandma or mother or something” I told Josh.

Josh flipped the pages in the diary and continued reading them.

“This person sure does tells her a lot I have to say” Josh joked

I took a peek at this man’s diary and he was right. Within the first 20 pages of the diary, this man mentioned this “Mother” at least 2 or 3 times in a single page. We did actually read what it said and I remembered how much he talks about worshipping this Mother and how in the month of August, he will begin something called the “Nightfall” ritual.

“This man is nuts” Josh quipped

 

“I know, what on earth is this guy talking about?” I joked

In the end, reading this now would not be enough to take everything in this journal. We decided to keep the journal because we figure no one is going to touch this thing anyway, and if the owner returns, well tough luck for leaving your door unlocked when you’re out. 

We ventured towards the kitchen this time. There was nothing of note in this place, apart from the kitchen being just as pristine as the rest of the house. The kitchen top is practically untouched since the departure of its owners it seems. The dinner table is also empty, save for a single pot of roses laid down at the center of the table, and they look like they’re not here long ago. It was your average kitchen if you ever saw one yourself.

We moved back towards the hallway and towards the rear door of the house. Behind the glass leading immediately to a porch is the backyard of the house. This one is definitely left untouched for god knows how long as the grass within the backyard is almost knee length and is completely untrimmed for who knows how long. Considering the winter time here in Canada, we assumed this means the snow there is completely piled up, and when summer hits, the grass would be as high as to our knees.

We then focused our attention to the staircase leading to the upper floors of the house. Josh once more insisted that we should leave the house because he said that the house is giving him the creeps. However, my curiosity is at its peak, and my ignorance is getting the better of me. I insisted that we should continue exploring the house, but I promised him that we will leave the house once we have seen everything this place has to offer. Josh only gave an annoyed groan and we both continued.

Finally, we began to make our way upstairs and reach the 2nd floor of the place. From the base of the stairs, we encountered 4 rooms, all of them had doors wide open for us to see from the hall. The room closest to us on the right led to the small bathroom which contains the usual toilet, sink and a shower-bathtub combo. The curtains covering the shower fell down the ground however, revealing strange, black marks running directly at the tiled wall of the room.

In front of us is a small bedroom, containing only 2 small mattresses laid down on the floor. Next to it is a small drawer and finally, a small closet is set on the other side of the room. The 2 other bedrooms are pretty much the same thing, though the difference is the size of the rooms and what is inside of it. Most of the smaller bedrooms have nothing interesting inside of them.

What is perhaps the most notable room in this house is the 3rd bedroom, the master bedroom. While the room is filled with the usual amenities, something caught our eye during our exploration there. Across the room is what appears to be a large banner hung above the bed and on the floor below that is a symbol resembling that of a small stylized T and beside it are texts written in unknown language. Beside it is a small bag filled with unknown substance that I will never touch, and a skull, yep, a real skull, though this one is pretty pristine, almost as if this was washed earlier. Most of the furniture is moved aside so they can have room for whatever this was.

We were both puzzled at the sight of this entire thing on the floor. We both asked what exactly is the purpose of this sigil on the ground. Josh thought at first that this was some sort of demonic ritual unfolding in here judging by the paraphernalia laid down. I dismissed it due to the fact that I have never seen a demonic symbol that looked like that, and they certainly used pentagrams more for sigils.. He then assumed that this was some sort of ritual that is one part of a larger ritual. I raised that possibility as well. Perhaps this was one ritual that is probably connected to a larger one, though the seemingly incompleteness and the pristine room tells me they never did it at all or maybe, this was interrupted, just like the doors left wide open.

“What do you think this is?” Josh asked

“I have no idea. Maybe this was some sort of one step or something?” I suggested.

We continued to venture around this master bedroom. We noticed the closet left of the bed is empty, except for one article of clothing–A houserobe. I decided to dig a little deeper in that closet and check the nook and cranny of the thing–nothing. Josh meanwhile took it upon himself to search the cabinets. He found a couple of pictures, mostly showing the image of the family. One of the photos seemed to portray a handwriting, telling us the date of the image: 1832.

“How old do you think these guys were when they got here?” Josh asked

“Maybe like our moms and dads or something”  I answered

“That means they’re supposed to be like grandpas at that point when they got here” Josh claimed 

I took a look at the image again and immediately realized something that I never thought of before–I never knew how old these guys are. The image was written with those dates, and the family moved a full 30 years later. Unless the family we saw is the children of these people, then perhaps they were, but most of the pictures we saw so far depict this man and woman to be the people in this place. At this point my head hurts just thinking about the implication of this. 

We decided to move on from this room and we finally began to proceed to the final door that leads to the attic of the house. The room leads to a steep staircase that slowly began to cover in darkness the more it proceeded upwards. We walked towards the staircase and we saw that this led to a closed door, with no light seeping behind it. Josh for the 3rd time insisted that we should leave the house once and for all. Once more, I told him that we should check this last room before we leave–But then we heard a noise.

A faint thud came from behind the door of the attic. We both stayed silent as we listened to what was making that noise. The noise began to move away from the door and is now standing on top of us. This happened for a brief moment before the noise proceeded to the other side of the room, ending on top of the master bedroom. 

“We should go” Josh insisted

It seems that the voice made by Josh made whoever is up there bolted back to the shut door of the attic, making rapid footsteps along the way. The door eventually began to slowly twist. That was the time that we should leave the house

We began to make a run for it back to the ground floor and head straight to the door. We jumped out of the house and began making a break for it back to where we came. What once was the forest that is quiet is now even more quiet to the point we can hear our own breath much clearer than we have expected. The sound of footsteps now is directly behind us. We can hear it seemingly getting closer and closer as we continue our sprint.

 I don’t want to look back, I don’t want to know who or what is chasing us through the woods. Josh however did looked back at us and his eyes widened even more as he saw what is behind us

“DON’T STOP RUNNING!” Josh yelled at me in a frantic tone.

The adrenaline in our bodies kept us running, circling the lagoon in record time until we finally reached the village. Before we knew it, the footsteps behind us eventually stopped just before we arrived at the first house we saw in the village. That was the time during our time where we finally stopped running. Josh downright crashed on the dirt below, gasping for air as hard as he could.

“What the hell was that?” Josh asked, looking at me with the fear in his eyes.

“I don’t know, I didn’t see it” I told him

“It’s like a blur moving towards us. I don’t even know what I’m staring at” He claimed

Before I could even ask another question from him, one of the townsfolk. A guy named Ritchie, the owner of a small bakery in town, saw us and began sprinting towards us.

“What happened to you guys?” Ritchie asked me

We told Ritchie at first that we were out for a walk in the woods with Josh. Ritchie however noticed that we are afraid of something, like we’ve seen a ghost in the middle of the woods.

“Did you go to that place?” He inquired conspiratorally. 

“What place?” Josh stammered coyly

“You know what I’m talking about,” Ritchie retorted.

We sat in silence. Should we admit that we visited the house all by ourselves? Should we tell them what we saw there? Or should we continue pretending that there is absolutely nothing in those woods? Either way, we found something that we shouldn’t ever disturb back there, and me and Josh decided that was the best course of action… Is to stay silent.

Ritchie already knew the answer in our silence. Like many of the townsfolk here, they knew something was off with that place. Maybe some of the people here actually once go there to check and see if it indeed happened. I assume that some did and decided to keep it amongst themselves and stayed silent about the entire thing.

We did however decide that we should know what is happening in that house, and even answer the questions that have been plaguing our minds ever since we got there. Whatever is in that place has some sort of explanation that can actually be answered matter of fact. Josh managed to hold on to the diary that we found in the house. There, during our spare time, we began to read what is in the diary, and what we found is pretty disturbing.

Josh managed to reach the first pages of the diary. The first couple of pages are pretty mundane, nothing that screams that they are up to no good. It’s only around the next couple of pages where we can see what is unraveling in front of our eyes. 

Within the 20th pages of the diary is where everything starts to become more esoteric or as Josh said it: “Sounds like these guys are turning into bigger lunatics”. Within these pages are a combination of symbols that we saw around the house, the same strange text that we can’t read whatsoever, but then we also saw symbols that I am completely unfamiliar with. The black circle and gold ring motif is still there, but at the same time, there is this symbol of a trident of some kind, but the points are incredibly elaborate, in fact, they are far too elaborate for someone to just draw on a piece of paper, unless it was some sort of stamp. Then the text is in a language I can barely read. 

The next pages after are filled with logs, although, these logs are mostly filled with codewords like “Wood”, “Chosen”, “Winter”. It’s basically unknown to me how this connects to anything other than they may be the ways these guys call someone or something. 

We continued scouring through the diary. We found pictures stuck on the thin paper of the diary. The pictures mostly depict that of a family and occasional unnamed people all across the first page. One in particular is unique as it shows the image of a family who is wearing what looks to me are robes. These robes in particular looked nothing like the robes I’ve seen before. They have this really elaborate seam, weaves, and even looks like parts of it have been cut out to reveal slight bits of skin.

“This must be the uniform they wear” Josh said 

We continued venturing all across the pages of the diary and we saw another 20 something pages of basically text that I don’t even pretend that I understand any of it. The text is once again accompanied by a bunch of symbols that is pretty much consistent with what I have seen in this place. Then the page, where I saw this black bookmark on the side was interesting, and this one is best described by Josh

“Whoa, look at this one. This looks like a group or something. It’s almost like the Labileaus have something in them or whatever” 

He was right. The image in that bookmarked page is a large picture that takes up the entire page, and it portrays a picture of a bunch of people posing for a commemoration of sorts. From left to right, everyone wears the same robes as the Labileaus; those guys we saw standing on the front center of the image, so there is no mistaking the Labileaus being present.

The rest of the pages are empty, which tells us that they actually haven’t catalogued anything this far in their time, though, by the final page, there was an entire block of writing on the entire page. This time however, they wrote all of it in English… And it looked like it’s written with a pen and not ink and quill the ancient people use to write given it’s using blue ink

“It is done my lady. Your will is now part of the message of the newcomers. The world will eventually tremble soon with the combined strength of your children. I have borne 5 children to be then brought forth in different locales that we are aware of.  There, our children will be there to build you a temple far larger, and far grander than we have built within New England. Thank you for choosing me”

Underneath it is another logo of the cult they worship, and finally with a title, “Church of Avon”. 

Whatever I just read here, this was just the beginning of whatever the Labileau’s are making here.