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Ok. I'm going to include the pictures we took here -- one is DESPERATELY blurry, as several of them were. *shiver* We were heading to Macon on Highway 341 Saturday; see, 341 turns into 41 in Macon, so it was the perfect way to go since we wanted the "scenic route". If we'd gone down I-95 and picked up at I-16, it would have been FASTER by only ten minutes or so, and we wouldn't have seen anything. The South is different than anywhere else. Old buildings generally are just left to rot because we find them terribly picturesque, and we saw a lot of great stuff that we didn't get pictures of because we were looking for the Musgrave House or Wufei & Zechs's house in "The Vow". We'd said, "We'll get it on our way back!", in other words. We DIDN'T go back that way, but there's a reason ^_^;;; On our way through Dodge county, we crested a hill after being in pine-forest for a while.... and both turned our heads at the same time. I don't think either of us even said anything when I stepped on the brakes! There was a historic marker that we pulled past, but we pulled into a dirt road that led to a tiny dirt entrance that led to the house; empty from what I could see, with curtains in the *upstairs* windows, but none in the *downstairs* windows o.O;;; Well, we got out, and Yoiko was looking at a shed when she heard someone(thing?) say, "We'll look in there when we get back." I, however, did not say this o.O;;;; I was looking at *The House*, and at the buckets and things on the back porch. It was in a state of renovation or something, probably, but I hated that there were buckets there because it ruined a perfectly good shot, and as I was feeling a bit odd, I wanted to get my picture and leave ^_^;;; However, I couldn't, so we decided to walk towards the paved road. Now, Yoiko didn't want to walk on the grass. I think it wasn't bothering *me* because I was on the grass right next to the road, close to her, and not near the house ^_^; Several friendly dogs ran over from next door, a BEAUTIFUL Husky and a couple of smaller ones and one that was maybe a mutt, I dunno. Their owner called them back, and then took their small children inside with them ^_^; About the time we got to the beginning of the dirt road (not quite; close, though), a lady drove up. Now, we'd been practically silent as we walked along, which is strange for us, but Yoiko was still practically shivering (because she'd been thinking thoughts that reflected precisely what the lady told us a few minutes later) and I was sort of "blank". I don't know how else to describe it, it's something I do when I go places that I've "seen" or "heard" things at before, and especially in places where someone's died or been buried. I know. I'm a freak ;_; But I do it, and it helps sometimes. Anyway, the lady wanted to know if we knew about the house or knew if someone gave tours. We said no, that we had just stopped to get a look at it. She said that was a shame, because they'd renovated it but then done nothing with it; that it was a house that had *particular* historical significance in the area, blah, blah, blah, yellow pine, blah, and then she said it. You know, right? That a man had been murdered there. She was from there, and you KNOW how people love to talk. She said something about her daughter knowing one of the renovators, and about how the man was a big logger and they were fighting over bad deeds and some folks had been swindled out of their land so he could ship lumber up north and that someone had shot him, at the foot of the stairs. *grins* Then came the old blood-stain legend, you know the one, about blood there that couldn't be washed away, but... But I don't know. Too much ring of truth that time, you know? And looking back, I think someone had mentioned this house to me before, in high school (when they talked about Bethel Church; typical scary kid stuff, I thought then, but...) So, we bid her goodbye, skirted the house even further as we walked down to read the plaque (picture included here, crystal clear >.o;). We then headed back towards the car, snapping pictures as I went across the yard. One of the little dogs had stayed with us; he stopped when we stopped, watched us carefully, and pretty much stayed between us and the house. And on our way back, Yoiko SWEARS she saw something in the upper left-hand window on the front. *whimper* I wasn't LOOKING, to be honest; sort of blocked, blank, like I've said, because I wanted to get the damned pictures and get *GONE*. We hadn't really even talked, or mentioned any names, because we had been excited to FIND It because of kumiko... It didn't have all the gingerbread and stuff I wanted, but.... Still. Anyway, I took a couple of up-close pictures (the film was utterly black on the closest one) =( and Yoiko got brave, asking if I'd like her to peek in the windows (she would have made a GREAT Boy! Bravado in the face of terror...). I said "No". Not just no, but hell no, to be frank. We got in the car, drove off, with the daddy from that house next door watching us. And we didn't talk about it 'til we were out of sight, it was honestly that creepy. THAT'S Why we went home the other way. To be honest, we didn't want to chance anything seeing us *twice*, because Yoiko said that what she felt was unfriendly and I'll say now that while I could pretend to be unafraid in the daylight, I was bloody terrified that night with the worst nightmares about it *sheepish*. Woke Yoiko up, even, gasping in breath to *TRY* to scream, because I never can when I'm truly terrified... But that's because, on the way home, she said, "You know, I'm glad we didn't look in that shed." I said, "What?" And she mentioned that I had told her we could look in it when we got back.... except I *DIDN'T* say any such thing, because we were mostly silent the whole while. Just thinking about it now, I'm shivering and have chill-bumps, absolutely shaking, to be frank. So. *sigh* It might have been nothing, but I tell you now that *I* think it was, because I love to peek in old houses and to look at places like that and only very rarely do I have such reactions. So. Here's the house. Whatta you think? |