Tuesday, February 24, 2015

My Encounter with Slender Man

UPDATE: This post was originally written 2/24/15 at 11:25pm after the second incident. I thought my nightly horrors were complete, but I had another encounter the following morning. This update (and title change) were done on 2/25/15 coincidentally at the exact same time.

First I'd like to describe the bedroom of this house. The house its self sits about 5 feet off the ground on an incline on the edge of Lake Lure. The bedroom window faces the lake, is about 10 feet high above a small walking path on along the side of the lake. Between the lake and bedroom are a couple trees. The screened porch is immediately on the left of the bedroom window.

I have a weird fear of open doors, so before bed I close every door in the house, always. That fear sometimes falls over to open windows. After the incidents that happened two nights in a row, I decided I would at least close the window facing the field that Quill was spooked by. After much consideration I decided not to pull the shades on my bedroom window. After all, it faced the lake and no one can possibly look or in unless they had binoculars from the other side of the lake.

Quill and I went to bed after I typed this original post. I'm a very light sleeper, especially in a foreign place, so it's difficult for me to fall asleep and stay asleep, especially with wormy wiggle butt Quill.

Around 5am Quill needed to go out. I tried to have it hold it until at least the sun coming up a little but he couldn't so I reluctantly took him out. Once outside the feeling was actually different, no creepy vibes or even weird sounds, it was absolutely quiet. Nevertheless we hurried and went back inside after he finished his business.

Back in bed I was having some trouble falling back to sleep, but finally I started to. Around 6am (unsure of this time frame) there was a very loud distinct scratching and tapping on my window that caused both Quill and I to bolt up in alarm. The sun was just coming up and there was enough light to see that there, of course, was nothing outside my window. I got up and checked around the window looking for any trees or branches that might hit the window but the closest branch was a foot or so away, and there was absolutely no wind. I turned around and watched Quill who was alert for about a minute and then settled down and rested his head, which was my cue that I could go back to bed.

The second my head hit the pillow the tapping and scratching happened again somewhat louder on my window causing Quill and I to both jump. Quill stared out the window and started his whimpering like he did the night before when staring into the black field. I got up again and went to the window. This time the sound was so loud that I thought maybe the cabin owners miscalculated my check out date and were either trying to unlock the door or were on the porch. I left the bedroom, checked the porch, the porch door seeing it was still locked, checked the drive way no cars (and still no cars at any of the other cabins), absolutely no wind, nothing. 

Quill and I moved to the couch and slept in the living room until about 11am with no further incident.

Upon cleaning the bedroom while packing, I noticed that there was actually a screen on the window. The sound I heard was absolutely scratching and tapping on glass, not the screen, so I don't understand how that happened.

I've left the cabin a day earlier than planned (huge snow storm and I didn't have the money to rent the cabin the extra nights needed to pass the storm) but I can't help wondering if I would have stayed what other phenomenons would have taken place tonight.

I renamed this post to Slender Man, because I fleetingly had that thought flutter in my head jokingly after the first night. I thought about the 1950's unsolved murder and photograph of a "Slender Man" story in Tryon, NC--about 30 minutes from where I was staying. My dad, before I even mentioned this last event joked about it being Slender Man too, so I thought it fit. Just to clarify: though these events were frightening, creepy and left me uneasy, I don't believe that Slender Man exists. Also, I'm not dead, so that's something.

I've been considering emailing the owners of the cabins and asking if anyone else has reported strange occurences, but I don't want them to think I'm odd or take offense to anything. I don't know.

Slender Man or not, that was a pretty bizarre mini vacation.

ORIGINAL POST:
I went to some cabins on the edge of Lake Lure to have a good mini vacation to get away and relax.  It's been great... in the day.  It's cold but Quill and I have gone one walks, and we've watched TV, I've done sewing things and we've been relaxing.

Though the days have been good, the nights have almost been something out of a horror movie.  This camp has 7 different cabins, 3 old ones, and 4 brand new ones.  I'm in one of the brand new ones.  None of the other cabins are occupied at all.  It's been quite.

Last night I took Quill out to potty around 9pm.  We go out, and we're only right at the bottom of the steps off the porch and he pees.  We start walking around a little bit to see if he needs to poop, and all the sudden from, what sounded like, the next cabin down, something BIG started running towards us.  It was super fast, and quickly I pulled Quill (he was in running mode too) and pulled him up the stairs onto the porch, locked the porch door and went inside and locked the front door.  By the time I was in it sounded like it was right next to my car, but we didn't stay on the porch to see what it was.  It was bigger than a raccoon definitely.  When I spoke to mom about it she mentioned maybe it was another dog.  Rarely would a wild animal run towards you, so maybe it was just a friendly dog?  I didn't want to go out there but I needed to take Quill back out.  So I actually bucked up and went out there.  Quill was very reluctant but we did our last pee of the night (11pm) with no incident.

The next day I looked to see if I was still the only person in the area and I was.  The day went good, Quill and I took a couple walks, explored around and so forth.  It was fun.

About thirty minutes ago, I took Quill back out to do his 11pm pee-pee time.  Last one of the night.  We walk out there, and he was again weird about walking down the stairs but I didn't think anything of it.  I had the flashlight on my phone on, the front door open so if we happened to run against anything again, that we'd be able to run in quickly without fumbling on the lock on the door.

Standing outside in the same spot, Quill quickly pees and I'm looking around and being extra cautious because of course I'm very jittery at this point.  We take a couple steps to see if he needed to "other potty" and then Quill stopped.  My cabin is the closest to the lake, across the dirt road is one of the old cabins and then a very big empty field behind it.  Quill is starring off into that field.  I think nothing of it, because, you know, he's a dog he looks at weird things.  But then he started to act like he was hearing something.  Okay, so I take a few steps towards the porch steps, but still am kinda waiting on him to go to the bathroom.  Suddenly, Quill is intensely starring into the pitch black dark field and starts growling.  Now, Quill is not a growler.  He just doesn't do it (except at that weird lady in walmart once).  So in a matter of seconds his growl turns into a whimpering cry.

Of course, you know, that's my cue to get the fuck out of there, and we ran up the stairs, and got into the porch and closed and locked the door.  This time I decided to maybe see what was out there, and stood on the porch (behind the locked screened porch's door) and look for a little bit.  You know what dogs get protective the hair on their back stands up on the ends along their spine?  That started happening to Quill as he sat in front of me growling.  It was time to go.  We ran into the house locked the doors, and to hell if I'm going out there again tonight.  I pulled the blinds on the window that faces that field, it just freaked me out to be able to look out (or see in) when it's dark.  Door are double locked.  I've checked the porch door like three or four times, and I know I'm going to check the front door another 4 times probably before I go to bed.

I was suppose to stay an extra night, and leave Thursday morning.  Actually though, the weather is suppose to get really bad over Thursday night and I figured it would be better to leave earlier to get home safe, than try to go through the storm and end up being stuck here and having to pay for a few more nights.  Tomorrow it's suppose to snow up to 8 inches!  After this incident tonight I am actually happy to leave one night earlier and not have to wait to see what surprises tomorrow night holds for me....

Keep in mind, last time I was at Lake Lure I was the sole guest at a famously haunted hotel full of creepy paintings and tons of antiques, Lake Lure Inn, and Church and I had a ball--the weirdest thing that happened there was someone walking on the floor above me all night long when there was no one up there.  But that stuff doesn't creep me out... It's the "what the fuck is out there in the woods looking at me and stalking me".  This is why I'm afraid of open doors.  Also remember, I was the one who lived alone in a funeral home built in 1800's for several months (that's a totally different story)... so I really don't scare easily.  These last two nights though is a very different creepy feeling.

These events made my tummy ulcers hurt.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Quill's First Musical: Wicked



Quill saw his first musical and theater production today, WICKED with Josie, mom and dad.

First, about the musical! It was so good. I've been waiting to see it since it came out, I had read the book way back when that first came out. I always wanted mom to read it because I fell in love with the different perspective. It instills the fact that you can't judge a book by its cover. The music was wonderful, the costumes were spot on, the mechanics, like the Wizard was amazing, I absolutely loved this musical. I cried several times (but my downs from the Ketamine make me extremely emotional I believe.) the story, again, was phenomenal. I can't believe I actually saw Wicked!

Now to the service animal part:
I was so scared about bringing Quill to see Wicked. I didn't know what to expect with the noise level and the crowds and I was so worried. Mom called and talked to the manager before hand, and they said it's perfectly fine and they were more worried about how loud it was and people not seeing him.

Luck would have it, before I even got Quill mom stumbled upon getting the box seats, which (for all you Peace Center goers) it's no more expensive than regular seats you just have to search for them, and they are hard to find. We had our own private seating area, with a door) where we had plenty of room to set Quill up with his bankie and bully stick.

I'm so proud of him, he didn't even make one peep, even when it was extremely loud. He watched the first couple minutes with me and then fell asleep, didn't wake up until intermission and then fell asleep again when it came back on. He did wonderful. Also, the people at the peace center are super service dog friendly. They didn't even hesitate or give Quill a second chance.

The only bad part is that with Quill, it'll be hard to sit in the regular seats, cause he'll have to be on my lap, and the seats are so cramped the can't stay on the floor. When Cookie comes into the picture there is no way regular seating will be possible. Cookie is just too big unless we use him as a foot rest. I've never actually seen service dogs at any plays or shows before, I guess maybe they put them in the handicap area where there's more room? I'm not sure, but (this is going to sound selfish) I'm worried that both mom and I having service animals will limit our ability to do theater stuff, or concerts. 

Anyways, Quill did so good, today was the first time we used the over the shoulder leash, and it worked really well.

I couldn't be happier with how Quill was today. Good experiences like this make me not as scared to have a service dog. Cookies trainer, Nicole, says it gets easier over time to grow a backbone and say "he's a service dog, you can't refuse me service" and be so shaken up about it. Today I was proud to have such an obedient little puppy at my side.