GORE ORPHANAGE

Tale from Victor E.

"I have been to the gore Orphanage only once. It turned out to be a pretty frightening night.

Apparently, in the early 1900s one of the orphans was walking to the outhouse with a lantern. He tripped and fell, igniting a huge fire. The steps leading from the top floor to the bottom collapsed almost immediately. Townsfolk from Vermilion gathered, but all they could do was stand and watch as the hundreds of orphans many floors above them met their collective doom." They say that it was so gruesome that people safe on the ground died just from the shock of seeing those kids burning in the inferno.

Ever since then, people have said that the ghosts of these orphans haunt the spot on which the orphanage used to stand. Kids from my school said that they had heard strange sounds in the woods, like kids crying and doors slamming shut, even though there are no buildings close by. Some kids even said they actually saw some orphan ghosts, but I never believed them.

When my friends and I went there, I was a bit creeped out by the road leading up to the place. It's really dark because of the overhanging trees, and there's a messed-up looking wood bridge you cross over. When we arrived at the site where the orphanage had once stood, I did hear some strange creaking noises, but I'm pretty sure it was just the trees rubbing together in the night breeze. What happened when we made our way back to the car, however, would change my tune.

As we got close to the car, my friend Jake noticed that all the windows were fogged up. There wasn't another human being in sight, it was a cool night, and there was now explanation as to why the windows were fogged up. Then my other friend, Shawn, saw the back window. There, on the misty glass, were the faint impressions of little handprints. We all freaked out instantly.

Trying to calm down my friends, I pointed out that Jake had a little brother who is only four years old, and the marks had surely been made by him. Secretly though, I was just as freaked out as anyone else there. I was just trying to convince myself that there was a rational explanation for them-which there was not. If those handprints had belonged to Jake's little brother, how is it that nobody noticed then on the way up there that night?"-Victor E.