THE HAUNTED HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE
When I was 14 and my best friend was 15, we got into the habit of sneaking out our bedroom windows late at night and hijacking my parent's VW camper van. We had it made: all the Canadian beer we wanted for free from a friend who worked and stole it from the local brewery, bags of pot from my loser dealer boyfriend, and wheels!! We would camp at various places (parks, in driveways of partying friends, once in a cow field, once behind the Dairy Queen in town, twice we fell asleep at the drive-In movie theater). Our MO was to get up early and go home in time before our parents got up and then catch the bus for high school.
One night Jody had this great idea. We would camp across the lake at this abandoned inn. It consisted of about a dozen of broken down cabins and a main office. So we chugged around the bay and parked ourselves in front of one of cabins.
We built a camp fire and started telling ghost stories, one more crazier than the other as the evening wore on and the beers got low and we got high. We fell asleep in our usual spots: Jodes taking the back pull out and me squished in the platform in front.
About 3 we woke up to the sound of a door banging. Not just random banging, but a pattern almost Morse code like ...---... or something like that. Jodes was a lot braver than I so she started to venture out with her flashlight. We both saw the front light suddenly go on in the cabin, also doing a pattern of 'on off off on off off' flashes.
Jodes tried to start the VW but either from terror or some other paranormal activity the engine would not turn over. We both peed in the sink because we were so scared and we stayed awake all night.
Right at dawn the banging and the strobe light stopped. The engine started immediately and we drove as fast as the old van could carry us back to our houses.
We never went back and that old Inn has been bull dozed years ago, but Jodes and I remember every detail to this day and haven't stole a car since.
