Spirits wander in the woods behind the Conjuring House. A group of us are hiking out to meet them on a humid Summer night, just before midnight.
A black creek burbles and splashes ominously, drowned out by an orchestra of buzzing and chirping - crickets singing the world to sleep. The night has come alive.
Our boots squelch through mud and thump softly onto a wooden bridge. We spread out against the timber railings, making room down the center for a pathway. We leave a flashlight down at one end of the bridge. A K2 meter in the center.
We are told to listen for faint drumming in the distance. Knocking on trees. Owls hooting. Orbs that look like green flashes of light against the dense forest.
We stand silently in the moonlight, listening to the wind through the trees, the insects screaming, gurgles from beneath the stream. Slowly, softly, a light rain begins to fall.
“Hello,” our guide says. “We come here tonight to talk to The Student. He comes here often with his dog. I know it’s raining.”
She introduces us to the spirits and explains the equipment we’ve brought.
“You could make some noise out in the water to let us know that you're here, and we're gonna wait peacefully for a moment for you to decide to come forward.”
We all fall silent and defer to the crickets and frogs harmonizing into the soggy air.
“At the very end is that mag light - you call it a torch sometimes. I would like it if you'd turn it on, if you feel like communicating.”
Nothing happens, at first. And then…
The K2 meter ratchets from green to yellow, landing on orange, and back again. It spikes a few times as we hear branches snapping on the trail. We hear a creak or two on the bridge, followed by faint footsteps. We gasp and look at each other with wide eyes. Our guide gestures for us to be patient and wait.
And then… in the darkness.. at the end of the bridge….
The flashlight stutters once, twice, then glows brightly on.
Welcome to your weekend haunt
with Spook Lit, an audiobook club by dreary dendrophile.
I’m your host Lyns, and I’ll be reading aloud our spooky stories. Thank you so much for being here. I really hope you enjoy.
This week, in Ghosts and Family Legends, we’re reading “The Dutch Officer’s Story,” the second chapter in part two of the book.
I’m not gonna lie, part one was getting a little dry for me. A lot of the older language is over my head. I love Catherine Crowe, but I wasn’t getting sucked into the stories… until now.
So far, part two is getting better and better! I thought “The Italian’s Story” was the best I had read until I got to this week’s story, which I devoured in a few minutes before work! And then proceeded to repeat the whole thing to my coworker. I’m in love with this week’s chapter. I hope you are too.
So in honor of this wonderful story about a very good boi - nothing beats a story about a ghost dog - I’m including one of my favorite personal ghost hunting anecdotes that involves animals.
Again, we are going back to my favorite place… the Conjuring House.
Animal Spirits of the Conjuring House
When I pulled into the Conjuring House parking lot, the General Manager Tara met me at my car, wearing a rain slicker in the middle of a downpour. Before I could even set foot on the property, I had to sign a liability waiver. I knew it was going to be a good night.
She led me into the house where I was greeted by a very sweet Shepherd-looking dog. (A living dog.) It can’t be that scary if the dogs are here, right?
After everyone arrived and we toured the home, we settled in the living room to start a dowsing rod session. Along with finding water, dowsing rods are very useful for divination and spirit communication, dating back to ancient times when it was referred to as “water witching.” We were told Abigail Arnold, the resident matron ghost of the house, prefers using the rods.
She confirms there are three spirits present - we confirm it’s her and her little grandson Henry very quickly. We stumble on the third spirit for awhile until our guide asks if it’s a human spirit? (No.) Is it Reeses the cat? (Yes.) Apparently Reeses (nicknamed after Henry’s favorite treat) is a Maine Coon cat who used to live on the property. The little boy Henry likes to talk about him a lot.
Reeses came up several times in our spirit box session with Henry. As did a rocking horse which he called “so creepy,” before adding “I like it!” (I’m obsessed with Henry.)
We told Henry we were going outside to visit the pet cemetery near Perron’s Purgatory, to which Henry responded “It’s raining!” We giggled and told him we’d be back, before we scurried outside to the murky woods.
We communicated at length with “The Student” - the spirit who turned on the flashlight on the bridge. He liked to answer yes or no questions using the mag light.
Our guide told us that an owl usually comes to the bridge most nights whenever she talked to The Student. She hadn’t seen it in awhile, so she asked The Student if they knew where it was and if they could bring it forward.
“Can you please ask the owl to come out? We'll wait a minute. Go ahead, turn the light off and see if you can communicate with the owl.”
We waited for a moment in silence. And then we started to hear a loud dog barking in the distance.
“Can you hear a dog barking? Is the dog waking up the owl for us??” I looked at her incredulously. Had she lost her mind?
She radioed the house to see if the sweet dog who greeted me at the door was the one barking. She wasn’t.
We said goodbye to “The Student” and continued on our way to Perron’s Purgatory and the pet cemetery. Apparently one of the groundskeepers had come across a jar or two in the earth with names of pets written on paper inside. They dug them up and made a proper headstone and memorial for all of the pets who were buried there. They made one symbolic headstone to memorialize the entire cemetery - they didn’t want to disturb their graves too much by adding a headstone for each pet.
After touring the woods and tents around the property, we slowly made our way back to the bridge. We were distracted, taking headcount - apparently it is easy to get lost back there - when we heard someone say “Hey, is than an owl?”
“What?” We all looked around frantically.
“Where?”
“Right there!” he exclaimed, pointing. “It’s on the rock. Holy cow!”
We held our breath, shocked.
It was stunning. Snowy white under the full bright moon. It perched, frozen on a rock at the bank of the stream. Glancing our way, staring us down like it knew who we were, before it looked away and flew off into the night.
We exhaled, loudly, gasping in surprise and delight. This is what the paranormal is all about. Unexplainable wonder. Supernatural.
Never repeatable. Never what you expect.
I ask her “Does he always wake up the dogs and then send them to wake up the owl?”
“No, the dogs were a new touch, but I didn't see the owl last night. I haven't seen him in a day or two. And I was kind of worried that something might have happened to it, but that's awesome. It's always that spot.”
“Does it always wait for you right there?
That same exact spot?” I ask, dumbfounded.
“Yeah,” she responds. “And I can't explain.
I know it sounds crazy, but when I ask them, can you bring that owl to us? It's there. I'm sure it's sitting there probably fishing, waiting by the pond for little baby trout or catfish.”
“Good catch!” We all congratulate the hero who spotted the owl.
“Okay, it's kind of hard to debunk that,” someone else speaks up. “You asked for him to bring an owl out, and then there's an owl… It's not like you have trained owls in the wild.”
“We do not have trained owls in the wild, Tara responds, before leading us back towards the house.
Whether it’s the spirit of a sweet Maine Coon, a giant snowy owl, or the cherished friends laid to rest in the pet cemetery, the Conjuring House is a welcoming place for spirits of all kinds.
What’s Lurking on Spook Lit:
Next week, we continue The Spirits of the Earthbound with “The Old Frenchman’s Story.” Pray I don’t butcher the language.
Until then, thank you for listening to Spook Lit. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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Credits:
*Special thanks again and again to
the former Conjuring House GM and my tour guide during this investigation. I have said it many times, but that night at the Conjuring House was by far my favorite investigation ever, thanks to Tara. She is absolutely amazing!!Audiobook: Ghosts and Family Legends by Catherine Crowe
Chapter: The Dutch Officer’s Story
Artwork: Jeff Bent
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/drearydendrophile
All Spook Lit Audiobooks are public domain.
Hauntingly yours,
dreary dendrophile
