6. What chased us through the woods? | Spooky story narration of two haunted tales

0:00 The stories in this podcast may not be suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. If you have a true strange story of the unexplained you'd like to hear narrated on the show, submit it now on madamstrangeways.com or e-mail it to madamstrangeways@gmail.com. That's MAD. AM E welcome, welcome. It's always so good to see you. Goodness, it's raining hellcats and hell hounds out there. Well, not to worry. Make yourself comfortable. I just made a fresh batch of iced hibiscus tea sweetened with poison oak blossom honey. Oh, don't worry.

0:50 It's said that a teaspoon a day protects you against poisoned oak. I'm certainly not trying to poison you. You're not on my list, so put your mind at ease, sit back and listen to some new strange stories here on Madam Strange Ways.

1:40 Terrifying experience in Muskoka ON by Aaron I'm one of those people that tear up a bit when talking about something truly terrifying. I'm tearing up while remembering this experience now. I had a close and dear friend years ago. We went to high school together and instantly became close as we enjoyed the same everything, movies, games, activities and so on. This friend had a beautiful cottage in Muskoka which was about an hour and a bit from the area we lived in. They would talk about it a bunch, saying how awesome it was to go there in the summer as it was right on a river and was perfect for swimming and paddle boarding.

2:28 They also said it was kind of haunted, just passing comments about how it was spooky, how they'd hear things at night, how it was probably home to a ghost. They always said this jokingly like it was no big deal, so we'd usually laugh at the idea that they're beautiful and pretty much newly built cottage was actually a ghost house. Fast forward a couple of years and they invite me out to their cottage in October. The family was going up and my friend asked if I could come with. I was super excited to go because I'd never really been to Muskoka and I knew how beautiful it could be, especially in the fall, and also how often my friend mentioned the fun they'd have at the cottage.

3:14 I want to know preface what comes next with the fact that I have never had any paranormal stuff happen to me ever. I don't disbelieve it and never have, but I've never been in a position where I'd feel like OK this is definitely paranormal stuff until this event. We get to where the cottage is located in this small community called Mathiasville. As soon as we enter I get this weird feeling like a shadow had been cast. It was a beautiful sunny day with good vibes all the way up until we cross the bridge that led into the community. The weather had turned overcast, but it wasn't that. There was a heavy and weird energy. We're driving along the Riverside for some time. I tell my friend about the energy feeling, to which they say, oh I know it's weird right?

4:11 Like heavy. Things lighten up, however, when we arrive at the cottage. This place was absolutely beautiful. New build, 3 floors, big deck on the 2nd floor and tons of windows that went floor to ceiling. It overlooked the river and it had a forest trail at the back. The trail was way too thick with brush and wood to even try navigating, so we spent a lot of our time out by the water and on the big deck chilling. We drive into the nearest town Brace Bridge for some outings and at night we dedicated our time to beating the Call of Duty World at War campaign split screen.

4:55 It was an absolute blast. We went for a long day walk to and saw some of the interesting points of Mathiasville, a big dam, and beyond that a strange and small graveyard that was situated on a slight hill at the very tip end of the community. All of the graves were old and some of them were unmarked, others you couldn't even make out what the stones had written on them. It was eerie, but nothing out of the ordinary happened for the first two nights we spent there. On the third and last night, the dad had to head home early for some work stuff so it was just my friend, their mom, and myself hanging out for the night. The mom was sleeping in the loft way way up on the 3rd floor and we made the basement floor our home for the weekend. We decided to watch a movie and eat snacks, but when that was finished I suggested we go out for a night walk since it was a clear night with a big moon out and I loved going for night strolls.

6:00 Plus we hadn't really been out and about after dark and the place was pretty beautiful at night too. My friend was really against this. They said the place was spooky enough during the day, let alone at night. I managed to convince them and out we went. We were walking along the road that went along the river towards the dam and the end of the community where the graveyard was. We made it about 1/4 way when my friend stopped dead in their tracks. I looked back to see what was up when they were just standing there. They looked defensive. I asked what was up and they said we need to go back. Like now.

6:44 This feels weird and I don't like it at all. I asked if they were scared, like if they heard an animal or something. As soon as I asked that, we heard a deep and loud cracking and snapping of wood in the dense forest above us on a rocky Ridge that was beside the road opposite side of the river. I looked up to where we heard it and it felt like everything hushed crickets and all other night time sounds seemed to have just stopped. My friend quietly said my name. I looked back at them and then suddenly the bushes and shrubs underneath the Ridge on the side of the road exploded as if something huge jumped in them and thrashed around. This made us bolt and I remember just saying run as I followed behind my friend.

7:40 We ran non-stop straight to the basement door of the cottage. We got there in minutes but it felt like seconds. We ran straight into the basement bedroom and both hopped into the bed. I remember saying it was likely a coyote or a raccoon or something. As soon as I said those words, a creaking started forming up above us in the living area of the first floor. The creaking soon turned into slow heavy footsteps back and forth and loud as if someone was wearing work boots or something.

8:21 I remember my friend through tears saying, does that sound like a coyote to you? I cannot even describe the absolute feeling of dread that washed over me, like there's something up there taunting us. We lay in complete silence for what felt like hours. We got into the bed around 3:00 AM after our walk, which turned into a run and the footsteps didn't stop for an hour or so. I remember finally falling asleep at 6:00 AM. When we woke up, the first thing we did was of course ask the mom if she had been awake last night around 3:00 AM. She wasn't.

9:08 She hadn't even gotten up once to use the bathroom. She said even if she did, we would have heard her door open and then the footsteps down the loft stairs. Everything was open concept on the 1st floor so it was easy to hear things going on. We packed up and left. My friend's parents sold the cottage a couple of years later. I don't think any of them went back once after that weekend. I was curious about the area afterwards, so I did some Googling and learned that there was once a sawmill or something like that and a tragic accident happened. I believe the owner's son drowned or had a bad accident in the mill. Something tragic like that.

9:56 I want to say that could be a factor here, but who knows. All I know is that night I heard heavy, clear and loud footsteps pacing around above us on the first floor. That was my first and only paranormal experience and I'll never forget it. You know Aaron, I am fully aligned with your friend. You know when they said, does this sound like a coyote to you? Probably not a coyote, unfortunately, unless it was a very large, heavy coyote who wore big, heavy work boots. Maybe then it could be a coyote who also has opposable thumbs and was able to open a door and come inside after you. Unfortunately, probably not a coyote. I cannot even begin to fathom how terrifying an experience that was for you and your friend. I really, I can't blame you for getting a little teary eyed just remembering how scary that was, the dread, you know, that you felt, not just in the forest, not just while you're being chased, but while you're quote

11:29 UN quote safe in bed. And then above you, those steps are just loudly continuing for over an hour as you're both just laying there in abject fear. Just, you know, not a good time. Not a good time. You know, I bet you were sitting there thinking, I sure wish we had just kept playing COD. Perhaps even more terrifying of a concept is that there was an actual living, breathing human being in the forest who followed you inside. And you know, it was maybe just a creep. Maybe just a weirdo who just kept walking around, didn't want to bother you guys but wanted to scare you, which I guess is a type of bothering.

12:21 So I retract that statement. I'm glad though that no living, breathing human beings did anything worse while you were there, and that no ghosts did anything worse while you were there either. I did some research on Google trying to find an abandoned cemetery or history of a sawmill and an accident somewhere in the area. I didn't come up with very much, so I would be really interested to hear the history that you dug up in your research because apparently there were a whole lot of sawmills up in Canada and probably there were a lot of accidents at a lot of them because it's just a whole bunch of saws and OSHA certainly had not been invented yet at the time.

13:13 Thanks so much for sharing your story. If anybody has any thoughts, theories, or similar experiences, please go ahead. e-mail madamstrangeways@gmail.com. That's MAD AM E strangeways@gmail.com Houses on a graveyard by elegant AD 26 O 3. So some back story. In Texas there's a suburb that is just outside of Houston that was built in the 70s over an 1800s graveyard.

13:58 They pretty much removed the gravestones but didn't move the bodies. So as time passes and the community gets bigger, they keep finding graves. The most recent graves that were found were about two to three years ago. And if you go into the forest heading to the lake you may find a gravestone or two. This is a story of a few of the experiences I've had living here and FYI this will be a lengthy post. So anyways, I had no knowledge of this when I bought my first home in 2019. In this community.

14:39 We were so excited and I don't know if the real estate agent knew the history of the land or not so it wasn't mentioned to us. We actually lived there a full year before we started having our first experiences when my wife got pregnant in 2020. We were so excited. It was our first and so we were outfitting my baby's nursery. On this particular day, I was just about to build the crib. I had just picked up the heavy box from inside the garage. I went to open the door while struggling to reach for the door handle. Suddenly the door flew open out of my hands and due to this I was expecting to see my wife on the other side of the door. But she wasn't.

15:23 She was in the nursery. What made this even more weird is that the door was a heavy door, one that would close under its own weight, and it wasn't a windy day at this time. I thought it was strange but really thought nothing of it. The second experience we had in the house actually involves my wife. I was taking a shower and relaxing after a hard day's work. She had gone into the kitchen and started to cook dinner. As I showered she suddenly burst into the bathroom and she claimed that she saw a shadow heading to the nursery and assumed it was me. She said she started talking and thought it was odd. I didn't reply and looked over and saw no one was there. We would have things move time to time but thought we were forgetful and had moved them but both of us never remembered moving the item.

16:24 It wasn't till I bought a second house in the same community and went to rent out the 1st house that I learned the history of the community. A guy looking at the house told me what he knew of the graveyard, and after the conversation with him I became curious and started researching, even finding an Unsolved Mysteries episode about the community and the experiences the first people of the community had, as well as all of the lawsuits that happened. For those wondering, the buyers of the homes lost the cases due to the fact that the graveyard was considered abandoned when the developer took over, so there was no liability on them, or so if I understand what I read correctly.

17:10 Skipping to the next house, it started activity immediately. At this point in time, I have a six month old and a toddler. My wife, myself, and the toddler were in the living room. My newborn was sleeping in the master. Suddenly, and with me and my wife both present to see it, a playpen ball flew out of our master and hit the wall. We both tried to figure how that could have happened. We looked at our air conditioning or if a toy was nearby that could have launched the ball. Nothing. We couldn't explain how the ball was thrown that hard against the wall.

17:57 The weirdest thing happens at 3:00 AM without fail. My 2 year old daughter who is autistic wakes and wants to sleep with us. Sometimes she seems like she's scared, sometimes she seems like she's normal. Now. I don't know if this is learned behavior or something more, but I feel it's worth noting. Time and again we think we see shadows and dark masses. My wife says she feels uncomfortable in the kitchen. I feel like I see things out of the corner of my eye. Now to be forward. I won't call this paranormal because this could be my own paranoia and makes me question if the small things I see are just in my head and if this really is what we speculate. It doesn't seem malicious.

18:52 I'll update this if something major ever happens. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. That is terrible. What happened to those poor souls who were laid to rest and then their grave markers removed and houses built on top of them? I think it's actually a lot more common than we would all like to think, unfortunately. Humans are awful. Humans are awful.

19:35 So if anyone is interested, it sounds like this was the Black Hope Cemetery that's mentioned in this story. And if you're curious about watching the Unsolved Mysteries episode that this was in, it was season 12, episode 7 of the original series with Robert Stack, which to me is like the only one worth watching. I tried watching the new one. It's just not, you know, it's just not the same. It doesn't hit the same as it did when it was originally on. But if you want to watch that episode to learn more, that's where you can watch it. Now. As for the happenings at the 1st house that was built on this unmarked graveyard. Unknowingly to you, you know, it sounded like if there was a spirit there, it sounded like they were kind of excited that you had a baby coming.

20:33 Like they helped you open the door to get the crib inside. You know when your wife saw the shadow going to the nursery, like maybe they're excited. They just want to go and see what all y'all had done that day to get it prepared for the baby. You know, it didn't sound malevolent to me, but I can understand that you would feel uncomfortable in a house that you thought had a ghost in it. So interesting that that stuff was happening to you and then you learned about the history of the land. You know, if it had been the other way around, then I think it would be easy to say, well, maybe it is just paranoia, feeling bad vibes in your house. It sucks, it's stressful and it's like you can't be at peace and then you're not sleeping as well and then that's making everything worse. And then it's probably, you know, you're feeding off of your wife and she's feeding off of you with these things that y'all are seeing out of the corners of your eye, which I can only imagine how stressful that is.

21:34 I will say that your daughter joining you in bed, even though that's happening at 3:00 AM and I assume you're picturing 3:00 AM as the witching hour. You know where in people say that spooky stuff happens more often at 3:00 AM, something about the veil, something about demons, etcetera. I will say that 3:00 AM is a very typical time for humans to wake up and it's something about the R.E.M. cycle. But I think that her joining you in bed, I think that's completely normal and doesn't have anything to do with this. However, I cannot explain the ball being launched out of the nursery. I don't know how you both didn't just pack everything up and go stay at a hotel or a family's house for the night after that happened.

22:27 So y'all are brave just putting that out there. But it doesn't sound like this is the same thing you were experiencing in the 1st house, right? It feels different. Assuming that you were respectful of the last home that you lived in, there's not really any reason that something would attach itself to you and follow you to the new house. It might put your mind at ease though, if you and your wife were to make a donation to the Foundation for Black Heritage and Culture in Houston since the Black Hope Cemetery was specifically for African Americans and slaves. So just as an apology to those people that were buried there and then had a house built on top of them, even though you unknowingly lived there, that might be a nice gesture or a peace offering for those spirits. Now, if anyone listening has any similar stories or theories or thoughts on this story, please go ahead. Send me an e-mail at madamstrangeways@gmail.com. That's MAD.

23:38 AM E Thank you to Aaron and Elegant AD 26 O 3 for sharing your stories. And thank you so much for stopping by for such a lovely spooky time. Now remember, if any of the strangeness scared you, remind yourself that you can feel afraid and not be in danger. You're safe here with me.

24:25 Until next time, if you've enjoyed your time here with me today, please make sure you follow the podcast. Follow me on Instagram at at Madam Strangeways and share the strangeness with a friend by telling them about the podcast. Those are the secrets to unlocking my eternal gratitude. Madam Strangeways is produced and narrated by me. Madam Strangeways theme music is by Marina Ryan at marinamakes.co.youcansubmityourownstrangestory@madamstrangeways.com or send in your thoughts or theories on the stories in this episode to madamstrangeways@gmail.com. Thank you for listening.