In the year 1876, the small town of Windham was quiet and peaceful. People were friendly, and everyone knew each other. But that all changed on a dark and stormy night in October.
Margaret and her husband John were asleep in their small cottage when they were awoken by a loud crash. Margaret sat up in bed, and John grabbed his shotgun. They listened in silence, but they didn’t hear anything else. John thought it might have been the wind knocking something over outside, so he went back to bed.
But Margaret couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. She got out of bed and lit a candle to investigate. As she walked through the house, she noticed that their kitchen window was open. It wasn’t open when they went to bed.
Margaret woke up John, and he immediately went outside to look for any signs of a break-in. He saw nothing, but he did notice something strange. The old oak tree in their yard had been split in half, as if by lightning. But the storm hadn’t been that severe.
John and Margaret were both shaken, but they tried to go back to sleep. But they didn’t get much rest that night. They heard strange noises coming from outside, and they couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched.
The next morning, John went to the local sheriff to report what had happened. The sheriff promised to keep an eye on their house, but he didn’t seem too concerned. He thought it was just some kids playing pranks.
But things only got worse. Margaret began to see strange figures lurking around their property at night. They were too far away to see clearly, but she could tell they weren’t human. They were too tall, too skinny, and their movements were too jerky.
John started to see them too. He would catch glimpses of them out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to face them, they were gone.
One night, Margaret woke up to the sound of scratching at their front door. She woke up John, and he grabbed his shotgun again. He opened the door to find nothing but a pile of dead leaves. But when he looked closer, he saw something that made his blood run cold.
The leaves had been arranged in the shape of a human hand.
John and Margaret were both terrified. They didn’t know what to do. They tried to leave Windham, but they couldn’t. Every road out of town seemed to lead them back to their house.
They were trapped.
One night, John woke up to find Margaret missing. He searched the house, but she was nowhere to be found. He ran outside and saw something that made him scream.
Margaret was hanging from the oak tree in their yard. Her body was covered in scratches and bruises, and her eyes were open and staring into nothingness.
John was inconsolable. He didn’t know what had happened to his wife. He thought maybe the strange figures had taken her, but he couldn’t be sure.
In the end, John was driven mad by the events of that year. He spent the rest of his days sitting on his front porch, staring out into the distance. People in Windham avoided him, afraid of the madness that had consumed him.
But some say that on quiet nights, you can still hear the scratching at John’s front door. And if you look closely, you can see the shadows of the strange figures that haunted John and Margaret until the very end.