SC EP:1141 A Glitch In The Matrix

Tonight I will be speaking to Wes who is from Wisconsin. Wes writes "This happened in the late 90's but I'm foggy on the exact yr. I know it had to be around 96 or 97 cause i was still too young to get into the bars and so most of my weekends were at house parties.

This night is no different, I arrive at my friends place around midnight, I wanna say it was early fall when this story takes place cause i can still remember warming up my p.o.s. chevette. There were 3 other guys including myself, it was nothing exciting, just playing goldeneye on the 360, laughing our asses and enjoying life. Then suddenly one of the guys says that he's sick of sitting around and that we should go do something, we were all curious as to what he had in mind and suddenly my other buddy shouts out "the baby grave or or columbia mansion!!" We all looked at each other through bloodshot eyes, started laughing and shouted "lets go"!

The "baby grave and Columbia Mansion" have been the haunted "goto" place for yrs around the Marshfield Wi area and they are both relatively close by in proximity, (within a mile or 2) tonight was no different. It really is the only "cool" place to go and possibly have any kind of paranormal experience, or so we were told.

All 4 of us dragged our asses into one of the more reliable vehicles (89 grand prix!!) and got comfortable cause it was about a 45 min drive.

The drive down was uneventful, we just joked around, talked about girls, shared the latest drama/rumors and that was pretty much it. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally arrived on columbia rd. Which was out in the sticks to say the least, if we had broken down or anything, I'm pretty sure I never would've found my way home. Luckily my buddy DJ (the driver) knew the approximate location of the baby grave but wasn't quite 100% sure. So we drove around for another hour trying to find this stupid baby grave,we were all getting impatient and one of us mentioned that we should just stop by the first house we see with the lights on. (as i'm remembering this, i couldn't believe our level of stupidity, I mean it was now about 2:30 in the am) but that didnt seem to effect our decision making, as you'll see, plus we were seriously lost now. After about 10 more mins of wandering aimlessly, now just looking for any sign of civilization instead of the baby grave, we finally came around a corner and saw this amazing iron gate that stood about 20 ft high.

Right above it was a dim orange light glowing in the darkness, I yelled stop cause I saw this light, and another light on the porch front of this beautiful home.

All 4 of us rubbernecked this huge iron gate and realized someone was awake in the room adjacent to the porch cause we could see them walking around. Now this was no ordinary mansion, it was reminiscent of an old barn that had been converted into a home, It looked lived in, but not dilapidated or unloved. It was quite beautiful. The paint was fresh, the gate looked new. The driveway leading into the yard looked well used and well manicured, the yard or what we could see of it, did look a little unmanaged, but not forgotten. I looked over at my buddy and said, "the gates open". My buddy kinda mumbled something like, "i'm not going in there". I looked at my friend, "Dawson" and he's like, "let's go". So myself and my buddy dawson squeezed through the open gate and approached the lit up porch.

I still remember the feeling I got walking up those creeky steps, it's hard to explain, but I didn't feel fear, just a sense of something was wrong with this picture. Dawson didn't climb the steps, he just stood there waiting for me to knock. So I did. After about 30 seconds of uncomfortably waiting, I heard the inner door creek open and then the outer door popped open and I stepped back to let it swing by me. My first reaction was "what the fuck!!" cause what I was looking at was no ordinary old woman. This woman was about 4'11", had long thinning white whispy hair, looked to be over a hundred yrs old, she was wearing what seemed to be 1800s style clothing, the light on the deck was gas or a candle and what caught me even further off guard was she was holding a tray with a candle lit in it. But as soon as I noticed that I just as quickly forgot about cause she started talking to me. She spoke in old english, using the words "ye" and asking where our wagon was. Dawson and I were baffled and speechless. She then started asking about our shoes and where would we get something like that at this day and age. I didn't answer any of her questions, I just apologized for bothering her at such a late hour and asked if she could give us directions to the nearest town. She responded kindly and started telling us to take these "wagon trails" this and that way and we'll eventually find the town of Columbia. I said thankyou so much for your help and apologized again and we quickly walked back to the car. Dawson and I sat in the car silent. After what felt like hours but was probably only a min or 2, I looked over at dawson and asked if that really happened. He was in as much shock as I was and whispered, " I think so".

Our other 2 friends were now in the front seat and kept asking what happened, who did we talk to, did you find out how to get the hell out of here? I was silent. I stared out the window and could still se her silhouette moving around. Dawson asked our other 2 friends to stop asking questions and turn around, get the hell out of here. We used the directions the lady gave us and that took us to what we had been looking for, this whole time. The baby grave. We parked the car, got out and told our other 2 friends the story of what we had just witnessed. They were as baffled and speechless as dawson and I were. But thats when we heard it. At first we couldn't make out what the sound was, but i kept getting louder and louder...and louder until it sounded like it was in the bushes 20 ft away from us. It was a baby crying, long terrible cries. Cries that make you wanna run to the baby and console it, do anything to comfort the child. It was terrifying and incredibly disheartening. I could feel my eyes welling up for this screaming baby, knowing theres nothing I can do to help it. All 4 of us just stood there looking in all directions and we could all see fear in each others eyes.

Without a word we jumped in the car and headed back the way we came, spinning the tires off our 89 grand prix, somehow knowing our night wasn't over and dreading every second. Nobody was speaking, all of us had one thing in mind, get to the highway, get home. Thats when we saw it. "Theres no possible way, I was thinking, what am I looking at? This can't be the same house"! We were now looking at the iron gate. (the same iron gate that was new an hour ago) Dj slowed the car to a crawl, it no longer was new, the light above it no longer glowed. The gate now hung off it's hinges, rusty, just barely dangling there. The driveway was overgrown, the porch had a tree growing through it, weeds had invaded and took it over, 7 ft tall briar bushes, were now where we had just walked an hour ago. The paint was flaking off badly, some places no longer had paint, just exposed boards, half the friggin house was caved in, the porchlight was hanging off the wall for what seemed to be for years. But one thing had remained the same throughout this impossible adventure. The little old lady was still pacing around with her candle lit in her tray. All 4 of us could see her, and all 4 of us felt like our minds were lost.

Confusion had set in, we started arguing. "how could this be", "are we sure this is the same house", "that can't be the little old lady", all these questions were being shout out. Dawson and I both shouted at what seemed like the exact same moment, "floor it" and so DJ did. No words were spoken, I could hear our friend Knetter crying. I placed my hand on his shoulder and told him that we'll all talk about it after we get back. But sadly after we got back none of us ever really spoke again, this memory has been with me now for about 35 yrs and last year I received confirmation that it did happen. An old highschool friend reached out to me, telling me that she had heard about our story from one of the other 3 guys. She mentioned that her mom grew up just kitty korner from the "columbia mansion" and there have been several similar ghost stories that have happened throughout the years, not just to her mom, but to her moms friends. What's even weirder is the town the old lady told me to goto, was called "Columbia" and all that's left of that town was the baby grave. Oh and one more thing, upon the drive home from that crazy night, I realized we were visiting both these places in between 3 and 4am.

I think about this night often, constantly remembering it, wondering what we had witnessed. Did we get caught in a time slip, would it happen again if I went back? How was this even possible? So many questions, especially now that it's been confirmed.

The second story is much more recent. It involves some kind of weird cryptid that was invisible. But if you wanna hear that one let me know."