Imagine yourself sitting around a campfire with friends, and there’s a lull in the conversation. “Does anyone know a scary story?” someone says. We’ve all been in that sticky spot – so we’ve given you some stories to take on your next adventure that will make everyone’s skin crawl.
THE WEEPING WOMAN
Maria was a caring woman full of life and love, who married a wealthy man who lavished her with gifts and attention. However, after she bore him two sons, he began to change, returning to a life of womanizing and alcohol. He seemingly no longer cared for the beautiful Maria, even talking about leaving her to marry a woman of his own wealthy class. When he did return home, it was only to visit his children and the devastated Maria began to feel resentment toward the boys.
One evening, as Maria was strolling with her two children on a shady pathway near the river, her husband came by in a carriage with an elegant lady beside him. He stopped and spoke to his children, but ignored Maria, and then drove the carriage down the road without looking back.
After seeing this, Maria went into a terrible rage and turned against her children. She seized them and threw them into the river. As they disappeared downstream, she realized what she had done and ran down the bank to save them, but it was too late. Maria broke down into inconsolable grief, running down the streets screaming and wailing.
The beautiful Maria mourned them day and night. During this time, she would not eat and walked along the river in her white gown searching for her boys – hoping they would come back to her. She cried endlessly as she roamed the riverbanks and her gown became soiled and torn. When she continued to refuse to eat, she grew thinner and appeared taller until she looked like a walking skeleton. Still a young woman, she finally died on the banks of the river.
Not long after her death, her restless spirit began to appear, walking the banks of the Santa Fe River when darkness fell. She was said to have been seen drifting between the trees along the shoreline or floating on the current with her long white gown spread out upon the waters. On many a dark night, people would see her walking along the riverbank and crying for her children.
WHITE EYES
The Interlakes area was a busy place 100 years ago due to the goldrush. Miners turned this whole region upside down in a quest for gold.
Greed can be a dangerous thing, especially where gold is involved. To find more gold meant faster production and digging deeper underground. It also meant sacrificing safety, but that was O.K. because there were a lot of foolish men around looking to make a quick buck.
Well, one day an underground mine collapsed with 16 men still waiting to come up from a full day’s work. Hour after hour went by as they awaited their rescue. The conditions were terrible. It was pitch-black, hot and dusty down deep in that shaft. The men collected droplets of water that seeped down the tunnel walls in an attempt to satisfy their dying thirst. Days went by and still no rescue. To stave off hunger, they ate rats, mushrooms, and eventually… Their dead co-workers.
Despite their hopelessness, they scraped away at the rock and debris to try and dig their way out, confident that others would be digging from the surface as part of the rescue attempt. They dug and they dug, day after day, frantically hoping to see daylight from the surface. The days stretched into weeks, and then from there, the few men left alive lost track of time and started losing their minds.
At last, the survivors broke through and made two very surprising discoveries. The mining company had abandoned the mine and simply walked away. Being underground all that time had affected the survivor’s eyes. Their eyeballs were all white, except for an itty bitty black pupil. And they could no longer tolerate sunlight.
In their rage, they made a pact to hunt down every man who abandoned them in that old mine. Soon after, mysterious instances of men being killed in the mountains around here started.
The locals at first thought it was a bear or a cougar doing all the killing. The victims were usually found mauled, bloody and torn. But, closer examination showed the teeth marks on the bodies… Were from human teeth.
(adapted from http://www.lovetheoutdoors.com/camping/stories3.htm )