The Phantom Cabin
I’m still here. Unfortunately, so are the people that would silence me. I wish I had my case files more organized, but the primary copies are gone now. So much of my work gone…
The following is being posted in r/NoSleep as a last resort. I urge you to be open to the contents herein. If published through other channels now, this information would be suppressed. Here, at least, it has a chance to survive in some form.
FILE: The Phantom Cabin
Location: Near Castella, CA
Timeframe: 1888 to 2012
CLIPPINGS:
1 - From Dunsmuir Quarterly (local pamphlet), November, 1888, section title: Spooks In The Hills? "Back in August, C. Mulvaney, our local handyman, took quite the fright while hiking out past Castella. Mr. Mulvaney could not properly explain what had happened, except to tell this Quarterly that a "dirty, old house" seemed to appear in a glade that was well known to him as being empty. He described the cabin as being old and ramshackle, needing maintenance aplenty to his handyman's eye. We certainly don't know of any new neighbors who've taken up residence in the deep woods where Mr. Mulvaney claims this building was found, but we cannot help but speculate that moonshiners may once again be operating in that area. Alerted by Mr. Mulvaney's story, G. Harmon and E. Schlossen of the local Temperance League accompanied Mr. Mulvaney on a return trip to the area, but were not able to locate the house again. The question now is whether the structure was ever there to begin with, or if Mr. Mulvaney may have partaken of some moonshine himself before his trek?"
2 - From Shasta Herald, June 4th, 1909, Section Title: Phantom Cabin? "Last month, local clergyman Rev. Harlan Evensen along with several young congregants witnessed what only can be called a "Phantom Cabin" when taking a nature walk out past the Crags. At least 7 witnesses attest to seeing the run down home, and further that there was a light burning somewhere within and evident movement, viewed through the windows. On the good advice of Rev. Evensen, the group quickly moved on. Returning later on his own, the good Reverend was unable to locate the house again. Anyone with any information about transients or others living in this area are encouraged to contact the editor or First Presbyterian."
3 - From the Long-Bell Lumber Company Newsletter, July 9th, 1930. Section Title: Poachers, Shiners or Spirits? "Milton Ornsey, Head Surveyor, had a scare recently on the job that he certainly can't explain. You may know the stories yourself, about a cabin sometimes found in the woods near Castle Crags; well, here's some new scuttlebutt for you. Last month, while surveying in the area for a possible expansion of operations, Milton discovered a building where by all reports there never before had been one. Described by Milton as old and run down, when Milton approached the cabin to investigate he claims to have heard a scream of some kind, like a woman in fear or possibly an animal in distress. What's more, Milton reports feeling tremors in the ground, while no reports of earthquake activities have been noted by local geologists in the past few months. With these developments, Milton left the area posthaste and we have not been able to learn more about this strange happening. What we do know, though, is that plans for logging operations in that area have been called off for the time being."
NOTE: 21 year intervals - significant?
WITNESSES, secondhand:
Ornsey, Gilbert - Grandson of Milton Ornsey (Ev. 3). recorded transcript, March 15th, 2016:
"Gramps, he'd tell you all about it. Especially with a snoot full, you'd get a whole heap of talk about that damned cabin. Thing never existed - never could've existed. Well, least ways not like old Gramps told it, it didn't. Far as he was concerned, that damned place might as well been the doormat welcomin' folks straight down to hell.
"How'd he used to put it? Right - 'The shakin' started in my toes and shook me right up to the scalp", that's what he'd say. I never much liked hearin' the story, being so young as I was when he was still with us. Much as my folks told me to ignore him it still scared me some. It weren't so much the story that scared me, much as it was Gramp's eyes. He looked wild scared sometimes when he'd talk about it. I suppose that might be the only thing that ever made me think what he was sayin' might be true.
"'The shakin' started in my toes and shook me right up to the scalp,' he'd say, and he'd let his hands give a little shake to show how it was. He'd say he walked up to the place with bright sunshine comin' through the trees, but it was like a darkness was gathered 'round the place and the world got dimmer and dimmer as he got close. He stepped onto the porch, he'd tell us kids, and it was like the whole woods just went dead silent. Then he'd scream at us, the old coot. Loud and as high as he could make it - made my skin crawl every time. That's what he said he heard, a scream like that only higher than he could make the sound. He'd swear up and down it was comin' from inside that house, that scream, and he'd moan about how no one ever believed him on that count. Folks all told him he'd heard a rabbit getting ate, that's all, and they were prob'ly right. According to him, it was so loud and shocked him so that he fell down flat on his ass on that porch. That's when the shakin' started, when he went to get up. From his toes to his scalp - just boom, boom, boom.
"One night, not long before he passed, Gramps got a real snoot full. It were just him and me, and I was trying to mind my own damn business and let him be a crazy old codger by his own damn self. Sure enough, though, he brought it up in slurs and stutters. And you know what he tells me? Says, 'Boy, you want to hear somethin' I never told no one but your Grammy Donna? Well, when I found that cabin out in the woods and got shook from my toes on up to my scalp, I seen somethin' else, more'n what I heard. As I'm getting up off that there porch, I seen me a light inside that cabin window. It were low, son', he says, 'not very bright, but bright enough that I know I seen me a woman in there. She didn't have no face to speak of, neither. No face at all. It were her done that screamin', and I know it to my bones.' Somethin' like that. Crazy old man...
"Hogwash and malarkey, the whole lot of it. Why he was still so hooked on it decades gone I'll never know." End Transcript
WITNESSES, Firsthand:
Anonymous Witness, recorded transcript, March 18th, 2016:
"They all think I'm crazy, and let them. I keep to myself anyways, which is why I live here now. I hate the city, any city. There's just too much going on, it's too frenetic. I came out here to live in peace for the time that I have left. I really thought I'd be able to find that peace here, I really did. I guess now I just have to accept that I'll keep having the dreams until I'm gone...
"This was, God... two years ago now, I guess. I suppose a bit less, since it was summer - not that that matters. Anyway... well... (nervous laughter) I don't like talking about it, if you can't tell. If you hadn't [REMOVED FOR SECURITY REASONS] I never would have even heard you out. I stopped trying to talk about this not long after it all happened.
"I love the woods here. I love the hills. They... call to me. If I'm strong enough when the time comes, I'll probably just wander off like an old dog and no one will ever even find me. But it won't be anywhere near Castle Crags, that's for sure. I'll go the other way. I'd be too scared that in my state I might happen on the place again. God help me, I'd be scared that I'd stay there forever... Like her...
"The house was old. Looked like it was about to fall down when I saw it. If I had to guess, I'd say it was built in the 1800's sometime, or maybe the very early years of the 1900's. There was a hitching post out front - I don't think even the most rural folks around here even have those anymore. So, it was clearly very old. But that makes no sense, does it? I've walked those woods a hundred times now. For five years previous to this, I'd been all over that area. I mean, hell, I was on a game trail I'd been on plenty of times before. There'd never been any kind of structure out there before, but there it was, big as life.
"It was quiet, I noticed, when I first laid eyes on it. Like, dead silent except for the breeze. That was unsettling, but I've always been a man of reason. I shrugged it off. I went to investigate what I'd found, and it almost seemed to get quieter as I walked to the old, sagging porch. I mounted the step, and it was like I was feeling the whole building quake under my footsteps - like an echo that I could only feel through the bottoms of my feet or something. The windows were filthy, I didn't bother with them, since I wouldn't be able to see anything anyway. I nearly knocked on the door, but noticed it didn't actually seem to be latched. I pushed the door open with one finger - it swung right in with only a bit of protest, not at all as I was suspecting.
(Long silence)
I honestly don't even know if I believe what I found in there. I know no one else does, except maybe you. So, since I doubt anyone else is going to ask about it, I guess I should tell you, right? But... I don't want to. My stomach is doing somersaults.. excuse me for a moment.
"Okay, where was I? Of course... what I saw in the cabin. The place was... cute? Quaint? Exactly what you'd imagine you'd see in an old cabin like that, if the outside hadn't looked so damn decrepit. The windows - those filthy windows I mentioned? - they were letting in all the bright sunshine you could ever hope for. I know, I know - I just now said they were filthy and I didn't even bother looking through them as I came up. But they were clear when I saw them from the inside. The furniture I saw looked home-made, and it was all clean and polished. The place was really just one big room, a living room and kitchen in one, with a door leading out the back side. There was another door in the left wall, which I assume led into some kind of bedroom. I didn't investigate, because... well, because she came out of that door before I could.
"From the start I couldn's see her face at all, and she never said her name, if she has one. Her dress was old, home-made looking, and made of some sturdy fabric. She spoke though - maybe to me, probably to someone else who wasn't there. I.. I just don't know. Whoever she spoke to, she called him Abner. And I think she loved Abner, whoever he was. It was in her voice.
"She asked how his day had been. If he'd gotten the flour and other things from her list. She went over to the old wood stove and fussed with it, even though there didn't seem to be a fire in it at all. I don't think... whatever she was... I don't think she'd really noticed me at all while she spoke. So, when I said, "Uh, hello...?" to her, I guess it came as something of a shock.
"She went ramrod straight at the stove, face still away from me. It seemed like a long time passed while she stood that way, the world totally silent now, and her there perfectly, unnaturally still. I was trying to think of something more to say and coming up short, when I noticed the light start to dim. It started slowly, then darkness filled that cabin with a speed that chilled my bones.
"The front door was still open - I was still touching the door with my hand, holding it. Once the light had gone out of the place, except for that coming through the door behind me, she turned. She turned toward me, and god help me, I still couldn't see a face. Where it should have been there was just... blood. Gouts of blood, running so heavy down her face that there were no features at all, just the hint of this rippling, liquid motion. And in the middle of that, a hole - her mouth, I guess? - opened wide. When she screamed, I swear it was the loudest noise I'd ever heard.
"I was terrified, of course. Even before the... the blood... there was something just utterly not right about everything that was happening. And that shriek, god, it seemed to last forever. I stumbled backwards out the door and tripped down the step off the porch. I looked back once, and I saw a faint glow coming through those once again dirty windows. There was a... a kind of thrumming then. Something that rattled my teeth as I took off in the direction I'd come as fast as I could.
"I stayed in my house for a full three months after that happened, on the phone to my shrink daily. I'd had my diagnosis years before this, of course, but... it really was after that that the prognosis took a turn for the worse. It wasn't so much the event itself, I'd say, so much as it was the nightmares. I still have them, I still hear her scream, and I find myself running through the woods. Sometimes, as I run, I'll look behind me and I'll see a faint glow through the trees, a glow that looks like it's getting closer. And that thrumming will be going on, too, and I'll see the silhouettes of the most distant trees just... toppling in time with the pulses.
I don't sleep much these days, and... honestly, I can't wait until I never have to sleep anymore at all."
End Transcript
NOTE: 2014 is in line with the 21 year intervals. ---------------------------------END---------------------------------
More will come as I can release it.
For friends listening, seek the Truth in The Book of the Damned
309/70 61/42 . 641/70 61/42 473/125
309/111 0 762/42 . 309/171 61/42 640/45
Posted Apr 22, 2017, 6:47 PM UTC · edited