When I couldn’t reach my mother on her home or cell phone as soon as I heard about
the San Diego fires, I packed stuff into my car and headed towards California. I
was driving from Washington State on Highway 101 because it was a straight shot and
way less vehicles on the road! But before I ever made it to Oregon, I saw a sign up
ahead that said; “Bridge Out�? Good Grief! Just what I didn’t need at a time like
this. There wasn’t any traffic ahead of me to follow, just a detour sign directing
me down a side road.

 

Least it was asphalted I thought to myself. But before I took the side road I drove
up the road a bit and sure enough, the bridge was out! I made a careful u-turn and
made my way back to the detour sign and wondered how far out of the way it would take
me before I was back on the highway? I was very concerned for my mother. I would
continue to call and hope that I could get through at least on her cell phone! I
didn’t have a map in my glove box and now I wish I had one.

 

It seemed this road wasn’t taking me anywhere back to highway 101 and it was getting
dark. I kept thinking to myself, “I must be crazy to continue to driving down this
lonely desolate road�? I should have followed my gut instinct and turned around and
made my way back to the highway and jump over to I-5, but I didn’t! I began to wonder
where all the other cars were that had made the detour before me. Worse, I wondered
why I had seen not one car passing me in the other direction.

 

I wondered why I never saw another car following me. I felt goose bumps go up my spine
as I rolled up the window more and turned up the heater! I glanced at my gas gauge and
relaxed a little! I had filled up before I left town so I could make it back to the
highway if only I could find another sign to guide me. Rather then worry, I decided to
turn on my radio for some music but to my dismay, no matter what channel I turned the
knob too, all I heard was static!

 

What the hell was going on? I looked out my windshield to see if someone might have
snapped off my antenna, but it was still there. My radio should have been working
perfectly. I was frightened now! I felt like I was driving down a two lane road to
nowhere! So many questions were racing through my mind and I had no answers. Panic was
setting in and I could feel my heart beating faster and faster! I tried to convince
myself that it was just my imagination, that everything would be just fine!

 

I had plenty of gas! It wasn’t that late. Surely I would come across a small town in
just a short while! But I made a promise to myself that if I didn’t come into a town
in 30 minutes that I would turn around. I’d have to go back home and start for
California the next morning! That was when my car began to shake and stutter to a
stop as the engine died as I stared at the highway suddenly ending in front of me!
This wasn’t possible I cried to myself as I struggled to maintain control of the
steering wheel and apply the brakes!

 

How could this highway just suddenly end? Perhaps 100 yards ahead of me was an old two
story house. The highway was overgrown with grass and tall trees! That detour sign
brought me here I said to myself as tears rolled down my cheeks! There had been no
houses or side roads. Just this damned highway! It looked like this highway had not
continued on for years! How could it? Smack dab in front of me was a huge house! And
what happened to my car? It had been tuned up less then a month ago!

 

It was running great! I shouldn’t have any engine problems! I fumbled in my purse and
found my cell phone! Shakily I pressed 911, but I saw nothing on my screen. I turned
it off and then on again and looked at my power level and to my horror it showed nothing.
My cell phone was dead! I was absolutely positive my cell phone was charged before I
left home! I checked it! Angrily I tossed my cell phone onto the car seat and hit both
my hands on my steering wheel!

 

My car was dead! Suddenly, the full shock of my circumstances began to settle in! I was
alone! Totally and helplessly alone! I was far too far away to attempt to walk back to
highway 101! It would be dark soon! All I was left with was two options! I could remain
in my car, lock the doors, and sleep, then set out to walk back to the highway. Or, I
could make my way over to the house I was staring at and see if they had a phone or at
the least let me sleep in a bed till morning.

 

Maybe they could call a tow truck or give me a lift to the nearest town? Then something
in my mind jumped out and scared me to death! I thought about all of the events leading
me here to this place, trapping me here! It was like I was watching a scene from the TV
show “The Twilight Zone�? That was a crazy thought by a frightened woman I scolded myself!
There’s a logical reason for all this happening! There has to be! Maybe I did miss a
second detour sign. A sign that would have kept me from coming this far!

 

Maybe as a prank someone tipped over the sign? Yes that’s it! They hid the sign, that’s
why I never saw it! Then I realized that I never saw a side road on my left or right! I
was trembling now! I took a deep breath and told myself not to cry! I had to get out and
see who lived in that house. If I sat here all night, I’d still have to go to that house
to see if I could get some help!

 

So I put my cell phone back into my purse and got out of the car. I made sure it was
locked and began to walk towards the house. I hadn’t walked twenty feet when I suddenly
stopped! My ears strained to hear the wind, squirrels, crows, or the sounds of cars or
people working outside but there was nothing! Nothing but the sound of dead silence!
There were 5 trees from left to right ahead of me as I began to walk on grass and dirt,
instead of asphalt!

All five looked dead. A sixth tree was the only green thing I saw. Even the tall grass
looked a dead brown!  The house was huge! All of the windows, at least on this side of
the house were exactly the same! It was awkward for me now climbing through brush and
brambles to reach the house! I could see the right hand corner of the old house better
then the left side, and it appeared to have lawns in the front, a large clearing!

 

At least that would make for easier walking. I tried to make myself calm by telling myself
that there were probably several vehicles parked out front of this place! A family with
smiling faces to reassure me that all would be ok! But as I walked around the house and
to the front, I stopped in my tracks when I realized everything wasn’t going to be okay!
I saw a large circled driveway leading to the front door of the house, but I saw no cars.

The lawns hadn’t been mowed in years!

 

There were just three smaller buildings! I felt what little hope that remained inside me was

gone! To my right a winding paved driveway led uphill disappearing into the foggy forest!

Walking up that narrow road was definitely “NOT�?an option! At this moment, my only

option was to get inside this house and lock myself into a bedroom and try to sleep!

In the morning I had no choice but to walk the entire road I had driven on to get back to

highway 101.

 

Something in the back of my mind told me I wasn’t going to encounter another lost driver!
Someone or something brought me to this lonely place and I prayed that I was wrong! I
looked to my left and right and found a rock big enough to hopefully break the lock on
the front door, or maybe a window. But first, I sat the rock down to the right of the
door and I walked up and knocked loudly on the front door!

 

I used my fist the second, third and fourth times because the door was so hard. By the
fourth knock, no one had answered! So I lifted up the rock with both hands, steadied my
grip and slammed it against the door! Nothing happened other then the rock falling to
the ground. By the fourth time, I saw the door jam or lock was weakening! Desperately
again and again I hit the lock with the rock until it broke free! As the door pressed
open a stale musty air escaped! It was like the house had been shut up, deprived of
fresh air for years!

 

Nervously, I pushed the door all the way open, allowing more and more light to chase the
darkness away! I could see a winding stairway to the left of me and a living room full of
white sheeted furniture to my right! For that I was grateful because that meant that the
bedrooms most likely had beds too! I had never seen such a huge house in the country
before. Whoever owned or had owned this place must have been rich. I cleared my throat
and called out loudly time and again; “Hello; is anyone here? I’m lost�? But I heard
nothing but silence! As my eyes got accustomed to the darkness I could even see paintings
hanging on the walls!

 

There weren’t many hours of daylight left so I walked back to my car and got my bags and
returned to the front door. I had some food and water at least, so I could make it till
morning and even all the way back to the highway. I was scared about sleeping in this
house. Something about it kept me on the edge! But I felt safer locked in a bedroom and
sleeping on a mattress better then sleeping in my car! So I reached down picked up my
bags and stepped inside the house!

 

There was dust all over everything, including the floor and I saw not one foot print! I
was positive that no one was here! It didn’t make me feel any less uncomfortable though.
I sat my things down at the bottom of the stairs to the left and decided to check the
upstairs rooms and see what room would be the best one to sleep in. The paint on the
walls was in decay, peeling off year after year! Dust and pieces of paint covered the
steps.

 

With each step I took, the boards creaked an eerie squeak, as if complaining from not
been walked on in decades! With each step taken I wondered why the owners left this
place abandoned and not sell it to someone. As I reached another level I looked out
the window and could barely see my car! I continued on up until I had reached the
second floor! As I looked left and right, I saw nothing but doors on both sides! It
was as if the entire second floor was bedrooms!

 

But who would have a house with that many bedrooms in the middle of nowhere? What kind
of a place was this? I took one last look down the stairs before walking down the hallway!
But the closer I stared at the doors down the long hallway, the more I realized that
these doors weren’t bedroom doors! Most had glass in the doors. Windows that someone
could look into! Some had heavy mesh grills over the glass! 

 

As I began to walk down the hall, I peered into room after room and to my horror; I
had the realization that this building had once been some type of hospital. But why
would a hospital be located in the middle of no where instead of a town? When I looked
into the first room, I saw that there was an adjustable medical bed in the middle of
the room. I pushed the door all the way open and walked in. I saw a huge blood stain
in the center of the mattress with leather straps and slowly walked backwards out of
the room.

 

As I looked into the next room I saw a hangman’s noose dangling from where the light
fixture used to be! What was more troubling to me though was the large stain on the
ceiling! In a bizarre way, the shape of the stain looked like the shape of a person. 
Because the room was totally empty I chose not to enter the room. The next room scared
me more then anything I had seen in this building! It was clear to me that the two open
doors with the sliding shelves inside were the kind that were used in city morgues!

 

What had I stumbled into and what was forcing me not to leave this place! Worse yet was,
what was it they wanted of me? Was I to die in the eerie place? I could feel fear
building up side of me. Then the thought came to me. Maybe I could find some sort of
weapon to protect myself in this place! I found a sink in the next room and I felt I
had nothing to lose by turning it on! But I was wrong! As I turned the hot water knob
on, bright red blood began to splatter onto the sink and I frantically turned the knob
off!

 

I couldn’t believe what I had just seen! How could blood come out of a water faucet? I
felt like I was trapped in a scene from the TV series The Twilight Zone! This couldn’t
possibly be happening to me! I got out of that room as fast as I could! I wanted to run
out of the building so desperately, but something made me stay. Something made me
continue to look into each and every room! That was when I should have not stopped at
the next room, but I did!

 

It too was an empty room, but empty for only a moment! Suddenly a ghostly man with long
black hair appeared and he held the hand of two blonde haired ghostly twin girls. They
each looked at me with sadness and emptiness in their eyes as he spoke to me. “Please
don’t let us continue to be tormented in this evil place! You’re stronger then any of
the other’s! I sense the strength within you to fight the demon. Find the well; you must!

 

You must find the well�? As quickly as he had spoken they vanished as if they had never
been in that horrible room! At that moment I ran down the hall, passing several doors
and I found an empty room and I huddled in the corner. I was terrified and lost! Why
was this happening to me? This place was haunted, with ghosts and some demon that I
would have to fight to set them free! If I died, would I too become a tormented ghost
here for eternity?

 

My heart was beating so fast, I felt it was about to burst! Little did I know my heart
was about to beat even faster! Suddenly; each hallway door began to slam with a thunderous
bang and I got to my feet and ran to the door! One by one the doors were being slammed
by unseen hands, and I began to run down the hallway to the stairs! I was running for
my life and I never once looked back! Halfway down the stairs I slipped and fell hard
against the wall!

 

But I kept running and in seconds I stopped by the front door. I only stopped for a
moment to catch my breath as I held my hand against my chest when I glanced towards
the living room and saw them! I saw a mother holding onto her two small children. Her
children wore pajamas and all three looked so sad! The mother’s stare was hypnotizing
and I was sure she would speak to me, but like the ghosts upstairs, they simply vanished!

 

I didn’t waste a moment to get out of that place! As I ran; I turned to look behind me
at the front door and fell backwards onto the lawn as I tried to catch my breath! All
I could think of doing was getting back to my car. Whether it would start or not was
the last of my worries! If not I was walking, running, or crawling back to Highway 101!
I began to run around the building toward the trees between me and my car! But I never
made it that far before I stopped.