| Arnie |
Mar 26th, 2002 02:26 PM |
Catherine,<BR><BR>Many people might snicker at your request and ten years ago I would have been one of them. My views on this subject changed forever; however, after spending one night at Syrus Aeckney's Inn on the coast of Maine.<BR><BR>My wife has always been interested in "The Occult" but I always thought it was a bunch of hogwash. Still, it never bothered me that she enjoyed it (even I enjoy ghost stories now and then) and if we were at a county fair or the like I would always observe when she went for Tarot readings, tea-leaf readings, seances, etc.. <BR><BR>Her dream was to visit a genuine haunted house and she spent much time trying to determine where the "real thing" might be by visiting the library and doing a tremendous amount of reading on the subject. This was when she read about Syrus Aeckney. It seems that in the 1920s Mr. Aeckney arrived in Maine from overseas. The text didn't say from where but merely that he arrived with “two brothers and a wife.” They arrived in Portland, drove up north to Lewiston and then proceeded directly to the coast where they spent the next three and a half years building a "mansion" on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, near the little town of Hadleyburg. <BR><BR>According to Anee’s (my wife) reading the Aeckneys were not the most social people in the world. Although Syrus was seen in town from time to time, the two brothers and Syrus’ wife were never seen outside the property after the mansion was completed. The townsfolk knew they were there because the family was periodically spotted by people passing on the crest of a hill opposite. The townspeople tried approaching the family several times--both to welcome them to town and invite them to social functions--but Syrus merely greeted them all with a “cold and unwelcoming gaze” and “never so much as uttered a single word to anyone who approached.” Soon, everyone stopped approaching…but not before something unsettling occurred.<BR><BR>During the final attempt by the locals to invite the Aeckneys to a public gathering for the next day, muffled cries were heard emanating from the mansion. This next bit is a direct quote from the text:<BR>“ As we neared the ghastly manor we heard what appeared to be a woman’s moans coming from the place. We stopped, wondering if mayhaps we had chosen in inopportune moment for our visit. Nay, but we did continue on for we knew this was to be the last descent by us, or anyone else, to this unsettling manse. As closer we approached, we heard the moans to become cries, the cries to become screams and the screams to become silent. Our charge was forever suspended.”<BR><BR>According to the rest of the book, it was another two years before anyone attempted another visit to the Aeckney home. When someone finally did call on the them, it was in the form of the newly appointed constable (apparently there had been none two years before when whatever happened, happened). What constable Mathew Stroeble discovered when he broke down the door to gain entrance was described by him as, “crimes of Hell committed here, on the Earth .” The descriptions that followed are unprintable in this forum… <BR><BR>to be continued<BR><BR>
|
