Reed Music

Eyes open, MMers!

It's that time of year, and we thought we'd pass on a curious story we had sent to us here, at Malevolent Maine. This one involves those swampy, marshy places that seem to pop up all over the place for the few months of mud season, sorry, Spring, but are gone by summer. Here's, Terry from Newfield:

"Those little swampy spots have always freaked me out, ever since I was a kid. My old man told me there were water moccasins in the water and quicksand. He told me about a kid he knew when he was a boy who got stuck in a quicksand pit and died. But that's not what freaks me out. That's just common sense. No, it's the reeds that gives me the willies."

That's right: the reeds. Terry recounts how as a boy he was out playing near one of those swampy patches that formed along the river behind his grandparents' house. He was staying well back from the actual water, remembering the lessons his dad taught him, when he sense something watching him. He looked to the reeds, thinking that would be a great place for someone, or something, to hide, but he couldn't see anything.

That's when he heard it. High-pitched, thin flute-like sounds floated faintly towards him. His first thought was that it was the sounds of the reeds blowing in the wind. But there was no wind; it was a totally calm day. Terry went back to whatever he was doing. Soon he heard it again, coming from another cluster of reeds. Again, he felt like he was being watched.

"It was like being stalked."

"It was like a song," Terry told us. "But not. It was like a madman's idea of what a song should be. It was like one of those backwards played song."

The song kept fading and coming back, always from a different cluster of reeds. It lasted for maybe twenty minutes, and the entire time Terry continued to feel like he was being watched. Finally, he ran back to the house.

He thought nothing of it until ten years later when he was out fishing along a marshy stretch of river. "I heard it again. Same weirdo music, same feeling of being watched." Terry heard it a third time when he was out hunting when he was forty-five. He never saw anything, but the overwhelming sense of danger always made him leave the area quickly. 

"It was like being stalked," Terry said. "Like one of those lion shows on tv. Except I wasn't the lion, I was the deer or whatever. And that music... I've never heard anything like it. It's... it's hard to even explain, but it didn't sound like it came from this world. Like it was something from another world or whatever."

And here's the part that really freaked us out, MMers. 

"It doesn't make any sense, but that weird flute music... it sounded like a growl."

What was hiding in the reeds?

Stay safe out there Maine!

Cinema Nocturna

Okay, MMers, this one is weird even by our standards. It comes to us from a reader named Chen from Biddeford. He told us about a secret movie theatre somewhere in Biddeford or Saco that shows rather, odd arthouse films. 

Downtown Biddeford, ME

The way Chen tells it,  he had a buddy, Abraham were out drinking in Biddeford. They had gone to a few bars and sometime between 11 pm and midnight, the two found themselves walking to their next destination. 

"To be honest, I'm not really sure where we were. We were somewhere around the bridge, but we'd had a few and everything got a little blurry after that. We stumbled around for a bit, down some side streets. There's all these old brick buildings that have been turned into cafes and shops and stuff."

Chen and Abraham found themselves outside of a brick building with no windows and a dark purple awning. There were steps that led down to a thick metal door with a wire mesh window in the door.

"I remember it because that cover over the door. It was purple - like a real dark purple - and I don't think I'd ever seen something like that before."

Thinking it was another bar, maybe one of the speakeasies that have opened in a lot of southern Maine cities, the friends went down to the stairs and knocked on the door. They saw a pair of eyes peer out at them from the window for a second, and then the door opened.

According to Chen a tall, thin man dressed in a tuxedo stood in the doorway, holding a lit candle. "It was an old style tux. He looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie." The man's face was pale and thin, with deep shadows beneath his eyes. "He told us he had been waiting for us and was glad we had arrived."

Artist's rendition

The man ushered Chen and Abraham into a hallway and then into a room. At first, they couldn't see anything because it was so dark. "But as our eyes adjusted we saw that it was like a movie theatre. It was small, maybe not much bigger than like a classroom or something. There were old wooden seats set up in rows and we could there were people scattered around the room, sitting in small groups of twos and threes."

The patrons all seemed to be wearing black or dark clothes and we staring up at a blank, dark screen. The tall man ushered Chen and Abraham to some empty seats and told them to get ready for the show. He was back a moment later, offering the men glasses of what appeared to be wine.

"We were looking to hit up one last bar, but we found this little artsy movie theatre. We were just drunk enough to think this whole thing was pretty funny, and besides, we got some free wine. It was pretty bitter and didn't taste like any wine I'd ever had, but we thought whatever, right?"

All of a sudden the light on the projector came on and the room was filled with a pale light. The tall, thin man was standing in front of the screen.

"Welcome to the cinema nocturna!" the man said. "We are ever so glad you could make it. What you are about to see is an original creation. I hope it will grab you as it grabbed me."

Then he clapped his hands twice. The theatre went dark for a second and then the movie began.

Chen described the film to us.

"There were all of these creepy images."

"It was black and white. It was a bunch of random shots. Like, there was a a shot of a fox slinking through the woods. There was another one, like one of those time-lapse shots of a mountain like crumbling or eroding or whatever. There were lots of real random stuff. I remember there was a skull. There was a fire that died down, and then I think they reversed the video and it sprang back to life. I can't remember a lot of it. But there was this awful music playing. Like screeching violins kind of. Maybe some sort of weird flutes. And, here's the crazy thing, that music sounded like it was coming from inside the room. There wasn't a band or anything, but it sounded like it was right next to me."

Chen began to feel dizzy. Maybe it was the alcohol or the film or some combination of the two, but he started to feel sick. "My head was swimming. I felt like I was outside of my body, but also deeper inside than I had ever been. It was like... like being high, but not in a good way. Not going to lie, I started to get pretty freaked out."

Chen looked around, but everyone else seemed entranced with the film. He tried to get Abraham's attention, but his friend stayed focused on the movie. "I remember looking down at the wine glass and it looked like... it looked like blood. I pout it down on the chair beside me and stood up."

Chen told Abraham he was going to be sick and he needed some fresh air. His friend made some noncommittal response, and then Chen lurched away. He thinks he remembers seeing the tall man staring at him questioningly, but he admits that could have been a false memory. He staggered his way out of the cinema as the images continued to flash on the screen and the music kept blaring.

"The images were getting more and more disturbing. And that music just drilled down into my brain."

Finally after what felt like a long time, Chen crashed through the door and up the steps. He leaned against the cold brick building and breathed in the fresh night air.

"I don't know how long I was out there. I must have passed out or fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew it was morning."

But here's the real kicker, MMers, the brick building with the purple awning was gone. Chen was in an alley behind a coffee shop and a law firm. 

"I figured maybe I just wandered off. Like I said I was pretty drunk. But I've gone all over Biddeford and Saco looking for that building. It's a purple awning, right? How hard should that be to find? I can't find it anywhere. It's like it never existed. I've asked everyone I can about that place and no one has ever heard of the theatre or the cinema nocturna."

As for Abraham, no one has seen him since the night they wandered into the movie theatre. There's security footage of Chen and Abraham walking out of a bar at 11:17. Street cameras have them walking up Main Street. They turn off onto a side street, and that's the last anyone has seen of Abraham. At the time of this writing Chen has been cleared as a suspect, but the whereabouts of his friend is unknown. If you have any information about Abraham Baldwin, please contact the Maine State Police.

Abraham Baldwin, missing since May 16, 2020

We asked around and we have heard some rumors of an underground theatre, the cinema nocturna, popping up in other towns. Westbrook, Auburn, and Bangor have all had unconfirmed sightings of the underground arthouse. Several witnesses remember the tall, thin man, and one person, who wished to remain anonymous, experienced similar symptoms as Chen. Who or what this obscure theatre is and what its true purpose is, remains unknown at this time.

Stay safe out there, Maine. 

Needle Ghost Mayhem

We hear a lot about ghosts here at Malevolent Maine, but this one is crazy! At a mental health institute up in Augusta we have reports of a terrifying and powerful apparition haunting the halls. Jeff Patrick, former night janitor and caretaker of the facility, has reported that he had an encounter with the ghost, and it changed his life in the worst possible way. 

Jeff reported that the institute gave him the creeps since the very first night, “I came in for my shift on the very first day, and there was this super weird sound coming from the second floor. I went to see what was up, and there wasn’t anything at all. Second night same thing but there was a weird floating orb. I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t stay there long after I saw that I ran back, put my headphones in, listened to some Floyd, and went about my night.” 

Jeff said he avoided whatever made the noise for a few months after those first encounters, but one fateful night two months ago had a different outcome. “It was time for me to mop the second floor hallway, so I got my bucket ready, headed up there, put on my tunes real loud so I couldn’t hear much then I went at it. Halfway through I look up and I see this half see through guy just drifting past me, heading down the hall towards the pharmacy. I yell at it but it just keeps on drifting. I watched it disappear into the pharmacy and I tried following it. Usually the pharmacy is locked up but today for some reason it was open. I go in and see this thing just hucking stuff every which way, I go to reach out and stop it and I feel this sharp pain in my arm. I pull my arm out of the ghost and sticking out of it is a syringe. It must have been some kind of pain killer or sleep medicine, because I woke up in the morning with the security guard standing over me with a big frown on his face.” 

The institute fired Jeff for stealing, and doing drugs on the job, there is even a pending criminal case. Jeff claims that he had nothing to do with the theft and that the “damn ghost” did everything. 

We believe Jeff and truly feel sorry that he lost his job and might end up going to jail over these supernatural shenanigans. If you are ever in Augusta avoid the mental health institute, the ghost there might just get you like it got Jeff. Stay safe out there, Maine!

The Ghost Pig

 Okay, MMers, this one's a bit of a cheat, but it was too good to pass up. As you know, we're really focused on the paranormal and unexplained here in Maine, so when this story first crossed our inbox we weren't sure we wanted to use it - not because of the content, but because of its location. After much internal discussion, we agreed to make this one exception. So without further ado, we bring you the Ghost Pig of Effingham, New Hampshire.

The Ghost Pig

Effingham is a small town just over the Maine border. Boasting just over 1,400 people, the town was actually incorporated back in 1778. The story, which we heard from John Darling, author of the the book, The Wind Beneath the Eaves: An Oral History of Southern New Hampshire, involves Martin Leavitt, the grandson of the town's founding father in the year 1775. 

Martin Leavitt on his farm, 1775

Martin Leavitt was the third son of Moses M. Leavitt. He was a meager pig farmer living in the shadows of his more successful father and brothers. When the British troops came through Effingham (then known as Leavitt's Town) they demanded quarters from the locals. Many of the citizens reluctantly agreed. The commander of the British troops insisted that Leavitt slaughter his prize pig, Rufus, to feed his men. Leavitt refused, he had raised Rufus from a baby and he knew the pig very well could change his fortune. The commander threatened to burn Leavitt's far to the ground, slaughter his entire stock, and seed the earth with the pig's blood. 

Eventually Leavitt conceded, but before he did, he cursed the British. "Eat this pork and its owner will never leave you," were the words he was reported as saying. Some claim he mixed his own blood with the pig's to make a charm, some say his words were more of a jest than a serious hex, but the story seemingly ended there. 

Until it didn't.

For the next two centuries stories of the ghost pig began circulating out of Effingham. Multiple reports claim to have seen or heard the beast outside the area where Leavitt's pig farm once stood. One report from a hiker claimed that while, "walking in the woods, I suddenly heard a deep, grunting sound. There was the sound of the ground being trampled and bushes snapping. Whatever it was, it sounded huge, like the size of a compact car. I turned around, trying to find where it was coming from. All I saw were tusks the size of my arm and two burning red eyes." The hiker ran for his life and when he finally turned around again, he was alone. 

But the stories don't end there. People have reported trampled trash barrels, ransacked gardens, and smashed open camps. The ghost pig seems like a mutated, giant form of Rufus. He has been known to charge people, causing them to be injured leaping out of the way, before disappearing. At least two victims have claimed to have actually been trampled by Rufus, and a third victim appeared at the hospital with gore wounds from the beast's tusks. The one thing all of the stories have in common is the rage of the creature. 

Local citizens have embraced the story oft he Ghost Pig. There's Ghost Pig Brewery over on Route 25. There's Rasta Rufus Dispensary, even a statue dedicated to Martin Leavitt and the Ghost Pig int he center of town. 

Ghost Pig Brewing Co, Effingham, NH

"He's a hero to us," said Wayne DeWinter, the owner and head brewer at Ghost Pig Brewery. "We all heard the stories of Rufus growing up. A lot of us have seen or heard him. When I was thirteen, walking through the woods behind my parent's house with Bobby Taylor and Mike Smith, we heard him. He doesn't squeal like a pig on tv, He grunts and snorts, real scary stuff. We just ran, man, but we knew it was him. We knew."

If you're ever in Effingham, stop in for one of DeWinter's IPAs (that's India Pig Ale) or a Ghost Pig Porter, just make sure if you hear anything in the woods, you run away. You don't want to come face to face with the Ghost Pig of Effingham.

Stay safe out there, Maine (and New Hampshire)! 

School's Out

Listen up, Believers! Some readers in the Southern Maine region have informed me of something we need to pass on to you. Supposedly there's an abandoned school hidden in the woods somewhere between Sanford and the New Hampshire border. The story goes that there's a ghost that haunts the old school. It's supposedly the spirit of the old PRINCIPAL. No one really knows who this guy is and no real records of him can be found, but he's had a HAND in several reported hauntings in the area.

Two of our loyal viewers confirmed this is real. They even sent along some pictures of the old school. It's quite a hike into the woods, but if you're up for an adventure, you can find it. They reported that the air inside the old principal's office felt cold, and they heard an eerie laugh float through the abandoned halls.  

Be aware, as is always the case at Malevolent Maine we are not responsible for any bodily or spiritual harm that may come from your visiting any of the haunted sites we report on. You're entering at your own risk and any possessions, hauntings, or emotional damage done is on your own head. Please, stay safe out there, Maine.

Abandoned school in Southern Maine

MMer, Dan (Last name redacted) claims he felt a presence in this classroom.

"This is where we heard that creepy laugh," says MMer, Susan Crennel.

Unanswered Questions - December 2020

 

Welcome back to some more unanswered questions, MMers!

• Who is at the bottom of the old well on the abandoned farm in Chesterville? More importantly, why have they kept screaming "Tenon?" for the past twenty years?

If you hear, "Tenon!" coming from the bottom of a well... run!

• Why will Cobbie, the sea monster living in Cobbosseecontee Lake, only show itself at dusk?

• When is it okay to call the feds about aliens invaders? After the first visit? The second? The third? The Herrins out of Patten are on visit #4!

Fifth time's the charm?

• What lived under the bed in Caleb Clover's room? And why did it move to Lucas Cruz's? Has anyone seen Caleb lately?

• Where exactly is that fountain of youth in the Bethel area? Asking for a friend.

• How do you drive a vampire off your property after you accidentally let him in? Lots of garlic, crosses, holy water, and a blessing or two from the local priest doesn't hurt, according to Norman Reed of Brighton.

No visitors or vampires!

Stay safe out there, Maine!

The Ambassador's Final Ride

All aboard, MMers! We've got a story for you about Maine's deep history of rail roads. This one is a little gruesome, so prepare yourself.

Central Maine Railroad

Maine has a rich history of trains. It may not seem like it nowadays, but the in the late 1800s/early 1900s train tracks crisscrossed the state.  The famous Boston & Maine brought thousands of people to the state. A little less familiar is the Maine Central Railroad which ran from Waterville to Portland along tracks known as the Low Road. Our story comes from 1921 and deals with a train, the Ambassador, full of passengers coming to Waterville to enjoy the Opera House and Colby College's football from points south.

Unbeknownst to the the passengers one person on the train, Edward Clarence, had advanced leprosy. Discovered thirty miles south of Waterville, the conductor immediately made the decision to lockdown the passenger cars. The train continued into the Waterville station where the conductor, Thomas Granger, informed the operators of the infection. Doctors were summoned, but no one was allowed on or off the train. 

In the end the entire train was quarantined. The goods carried in the boxcars were unloaded and the cars were unhooked. Then the passenger cars with all of the passengers and all of the employees were transported to a distant section of the rail yard. There, they were locked in, under guard from the Waterville police.

The fear of spread, kept everyone under lockdown. If leprosy were to infect the surrounding towns, it would be catastrophic. So despite the please of the passengers, they were kept under watch while the infection ran its course.

The crew of the Ambassador, 1921

Edward Clarence was the first to succumb to the disease, but by then he had already infected many of the others. Leprosy generally takes between one and five years to kill its victims, but the passengers on the Ambassador didn't have to wait that long. Soon the food and water supplies ran out. That's when things got really awful.

Robin Thatcher, Professor of American History at Colby College in Waterville, and author of The Day the Trains Stopped: A History of the End of the Line for Railroads in Maine sat down and talked with us about the Ambassador Incident.

"When the food and water ran out passengers went mad. Combine that with the leprosy coursing through their veins and their fear of the inevitable end, and things got out of hand. That's an understatement. The people started smashing the windows of the train. The police - these were Waterville police, remember. They were used to some drunk college kids or the occasional car crash, not something like this. They kept boarding up the windows. Then some of the calmer heads on the train tried to stop the rioting. That's when the mob turned on each other."

In her book, Thatcher describes how the passengers of the Ambassador "began tearing each other apart." Using whatever they could find to use as weapons, including their own hands and teeth, a violent battle tore through the cars. The attacks raged for three days and nights. The policemen endured listening to the horrible screams of the wounded and dying. One officer was reported as saying, "This is what Hell sounds like. I will hear this forever." Finally, after three days the cars grew quiet.

They remained locked up for two months. When the boards were finally taken off and the door unlocked, what they found was worse than anyone could imagine.

"They had started to eat each other," Thatcher explained. "In the end, with no food or water, they had turned to the one thing they had - each other."

Site of the old rail yard

In the end, every passenger on the Ambassador died. After a year of further quarantine, the bodies were finally returned to the families. The Ambassador was burned in a farmer's field not long after the bodies were removed. Thomas Granger, the conductor, remained in the engine's cab the entire time. It was determined that he was the last to die so dehydration. Soon after the popularity of the rails declined tot he point that many shut down for good. The horribly tragedy of the Ambassador Incident was soon swept under the rug and everyone did their best to move on from it.

But workers at the rail yard claimed for years that they could hear screams, especially at dusk, right before the sun set. Even now, when the rail yard is long gone, visitors still hear screams of rage and pain. Reports of "lunatic sounds" come in at all times of the year. Perhaps the spirits of those who died on the Ambassador's final ride linger close to the spot of the tragedy.

Stay safe out there, Maine!

Midnight Mansion

Off the beaten path in Hallowell, Maine sits a mansion, now well past its prime. MMer Willy took care of the place for a few winters around fifteen years ago. The owner had passed away even before Willy took over as winter caretaker, but the family kept paying for someone to stay there in the winter months, just to keep the pipes from freezing and animals from chewing on the wiring.

Willy thought it was a pretty sweet gig he had going, he was given a food budget, got to spend time in the big house all by himself, and all he had to do was little maintenance tasks to get paid. The house wasn’t in the best shape however, even when Willy took over he realized it would need larger renovations than what he was capable of, and every time he talked to the owners he brought that up, but they refused to do anything major.

The strange part comes in when Willy would wake up in the middle of the night for a snack, a glass of water, or a refreshing mint. As he would walk toward the kitchen, every part of the house that the moonlight hit as it streamed in through the arched windows would look brand new. The faded wallpaper would look vibrant in the silver light, the scuffed tables and chairs looked freshly stained and polyed, the dusty threadbare rugs would be lush. It was strange but he always chalked it up to bad eyes, and his evening double whiskey or three. He never saw anything else strange, but every once in a while he would catch a drift of music throughout the house, some bop from the 50’s he couldn’t recognize.

Willy says the mansion is still there today but it wouldn’t be safe to enter it. He left his job as winter caretaker when the ceiling of one of the rooms on the third floor collapsed, and the family refused to spend money on having it fixed.

Not the actual Mansion, Willy wouldn't share a picture or a specific location

While it would be fascinating to see this midnight transformation in person, we would suggest that no one look for or enter this mansion as it is falling apart, and would be dangerous for anyone to explore. Stay safe out there, Maine!

Genius Party

Here's one that might be music to your ears, MMers. A sixteen year old minor from Falmouth (who we won't name for his protection) recently hosted his sixteenth birthday party when things got a little strange. The boy was acting as DJ for his party while his friends - other kids from his school - danced and cheered him on. 

It was at a birthday party just like this.

"I had the whole set up, my laptop, my Pioneer 4-channel controller, I even had my dad's old turntable, you know, a record player," the kid told us. "I had been mixing for a little while. Everyone was really into it, you know? I'm a really good DJ. I thought I would mix some of my dad's old records in. Like, the old school scratching thing."

After playing through various pop hits of the 80s, the boy pulled out a record he didn't immediately recognize. "It was black, right? I mean, they're all black. But the label in the center was black too. There wasn't anything written on it except, 'Adolphus Winn,' my great-grandfather."

Adolphus Winn was born in 1895 in Portland. By 1916 he had become an accomplished composer and musician. He released several compositions which had gained him some acclaim, but in 1916 he largely disappeared from public life. He continued to compose and record music by himself. By the 1930s he had fully embraced the new technology - vinyl recording.

Adolphus Winn's record looked something like this

What his sixteen-year old great-grandson had discovered was one of Winn's private recordings from his "quiet years." 

"I thought it would be pretty cool to put it on, maybe I could freestyle over it," the boy told us. "So I started spinning it, but it was all this weird piano music. So I thought, I'd reverse it."

When the sixteen-year old DJ played the record backwards that's when everything changed.

"They all stopped dancing," he says. "They just stood there. Then they... they just went crazy."

There were twenty teenagers at the party. Upon hearing Adolphus Winn's music played in reverse they froze for a moment before running around. They all grabbed for things to write with and started scribbling furiously. When they couldn't find pens and pencils, they grabbed whatever they could find. One boy used the frosting from the three tier birthday cake. A girl used a knife to scratch into the wood floor. Several kids tore into their own flesh and used their blood to write on the walls, floors, and tables.

"It was crazy," the teenager told us. "It was like they were possessed or something. They just kept writing. They couldn't stop until I stopped playing that song."

All in all, the episode lasted one minute and thirty-nine seconds before the plug was pulled on the speakers and the adults rushed to quiet the manic teenagers. As the music ended, they began to calm from their frenzied writing, but a new panic had set in. They could not recall what had been happening or what they were doing.

Like this if everyone was writing down genius level thoughts.

When asked about what his friends were writing, the aspiring DJ had this to say:

"I don't know. I couldn't see it all. [One kid] wrote a bunch of math problems, like crazy advanced equations and whatnot. One of the others drew like plans for some kind of machine. It didn't make any sense to me, but it looked advanced, like really complex. I think one of the girls was writing a play. She... she was using her own blood. She'd covered one of the white table cloths."

Four minutes after the music ended, the birthday boy says, men in black suits and cars arrived. They ushered everyone out of the room and began taking pictures. They wouldn't say what had happened or what the writings meant. In the end, of the twenty party-goers who had been affected, eighteen were sent to local hospitals. All are expected to make full recoveries. By the time the boy and his family were allowed back into their home, the entire place had been cleaned.

"It was like nothing had ever happened," he says. "There was even a new cake waiting for me. They  took my great-grandfather's record, though."

What exactly happened when Winn's composition was played backwards? Did it somehow inspire over a dozen youths to spontaneously create. Were they channeling some strange energy?

For now, no one is saying anything. The boy's parents did not want to be interviewed for this piece, nor did any of the victims or their families. For now, this will have to remain just another unsolved mystery.

Stay safe out there, Maine!

Do You Copy?

Who is on the other side?

Hey, MMers. Today’s news comes out of Damariscotta. Marc Henderson, a husband and father in his late thirties, was playing a game of “hide and seek” with his son over the Walkie-Talkies Marc had bought young Peter for his birthday. We were able to get a hold of Marc over the phone for an interview.

“Yeah, it was weird,” Marc recalled. “We would play hide and seek and give clues to each other on where we were hiding. It was fun. But one day, when Petey was out hiding out in the woods...well, all of the sudden his voice changed. It’s hard to describe, but it honestly sounded like me on the other side of the Walkie-Talkie…”

Though Mark and Peter had played this game countless times, this was the first time something like this had happened.

“So, I kept walking on, but it wasn’t Petey. It was someone, something, else. When I asked for a clue, he said ‘right where you and your wife made that brat of a son of yours.’ - I went out into the woods and found the small clearing laden with birch trees where Maddie and I would go for a nice picnic, sometimes with wine or cocktails…”

The birch tree clearing

Marc went on to describe what he found out there, but the first time it was nothing. No one was there, and he found Peter hiding in a pile of dead leaves on his way back to the house. A week later, Marc had a similar experience. He was led to the same clearing again, hearing himself over the Walkie-Talkie. When he got to the clearing, he saw a blanket laid out with a basket of food. He was trembling with fear and started screaming out to whoever was on the other side of the Walkie-Talkie.

“I kind of freaked out. I was stressed, and I didn’t know where Petey had gone, or who had put out that blanket. So, I turned to go back to the house, and I saw a man, dressed in the same clothes as me, running away towards the house. I ran as fast as I could, but I couldn't catch him, and then I tripped over a rock and fell and scuffed up my arm pretty good. I lost him, but I know he was there.”

Who knows what crossed signals are out there to be intercepted, MMers? Maybe you might even end up talking to yourself…
Stay safe out there, Maine!

The Wells of Lucifer

Here's a creepy one for you, MMers. Over in Hiram, the locals report a phenomenon that defies explanation. They call it the Wells of Lucifer and the citizens of Hiram will warn you away if you ask about it. 

The Wells themselves are a series of three holes in the ground, arranged in a loose triangular configuration. Each one is about three feet in diameter, about the size of an old well. Hot air seems to rise out of the holes. No one is quite sure how far they go down, but at least three hundred feet is the most current guesstimate. The origin of the wells is unknown, the landowner claims they just appeared one night in 1974. 

One of the Wells of Lucifer

But the appearance of these devil holes isn't what makes them terrifying; it's the sounds that emanate from the wells.

Their screams can be heard on the surface

Multiple visitors to the Wells have noted that screams that rise up from the depths. The stories claim that these are tortured souls, screaming from the bowels of hell. These strange sounds are no mere myth either, they have been reported and recorded  multiple times. However, the twisted screams seem to have physical reactions in the people that hear them. The most common is a feeling of slight nausea and sinus pressure. One visitor claimed it was like his brain had suddenly swelled and was trying to push against his skull. The longer a person stays and listens to the screams, the more adverse the reactions become. To date, the longest a person has stayed, leaning over the wells, hearing the screams has been just under five minutes. That person was hospitalized and later released.

We talked to several people who have visited the Wells of Lucifer and all of them agreed that the area had an eerie aura to it. They felt as if someone were watching them. They all agreed the screams, which start low, seemed to get louder and louder, the longer they stood there. In the end, each one of them stumbled away, feeling disoriented and sick.

We also visited the Wells, and can confirm their supernatural nature. We were able to lower some recording equipment down into the hole, about two hundred and fifty feet down. We were only able to record a few seconds of audio before our equipment broke. We've posted the audio below. Listen at your own risk, MMers, this is pretty scary stuff.

The Wells of Lucifer

Stay safe out there, Maine. 

Tiverton

Heads up, MMers! We've got a real spooky story for you on this Friday the 13th! This one concerns the town of Tiverton in Franklin County. Not many people have heard of Tiverton and that's because there are only 12 full time residents! That's because Tiverton is known a vortex of dark energy. Visitors to the town, which was originally settled by Puritans in 1692, have reported seeing orbs of light, wolf-shaped black shadows, and hearing disembodied voices whispering their names. 

Then there's the mysterious group said to patrol the woods around Tiverton. They're called the Dark Watch and some say they're a cult of descendants of the original inhabitants. Others claim they're a group of black magicians who want to keep people from entering the town.

If you do visit Tiverton, make sure you don't take anything home with you. Reports say that anyone who takes an artifact from the town will be cursed. Dark shadowy figures will follow you around and terrorize you. 

One loyal MMer, Torey from Bath, claims he took a small statue he found in an abandoned building. He said that at first he just had some bad dreams. Soon he began to see shadow people around his house and heard strange noises, like a cross between a growl and some sort of whispering. He said every night the shadow people got closer and closer to his bed.

We haven't heard from Torey in some time, but we're sure he's fine. If anyone hears from him, please let us know. And as always, stay safe out there, Maine.

courtesy of Torey, 2019

courtesy of Torey, 2019