Fear is one of the primal emotions that man feels. However irrational the fear may seem, everybody has felt the emotion surge through their bodies making their hearts thud, their brain freeze in panic and palms go clammy. Your fear may stem from something as simple as creepy crawlies or something more sinister like the noises from your closet in the dark, that silhouette under your bed or that unshakeable chill that crawls down your spine.
While a lot of our terror hides in the dark, the unknown or the imaginary, here are some stories of lore from true incidents that have occurred. So crawl under your covers and give in to some serious goosebumps.
Cachtice Castle, Slovakia
Cachtice Castle was home to 'the blood countess' or the world's most prolific killer by Guinness Book of World Records standards. Elizabeth Bathory, hailing from a powerful Hungarian noble family, was gifted the Cachtice Castle after her marriage. With her husband out fighting wars or studying, Elizabeth would be left mostly to her own devices.
As the story goes...
Something went terribly wrong in the 1600s when young girls from neighbouring areas, who would come to work to the Cachtice Castle in hopes of a well-paid job, would inexplicably disappear.
In 1609, Elizabeth opened a school for young girls to teach them womanly etiquette. Daughters from far-flung noble families would attend the school. When young girls from noble families started disappearing, an investigation was conducted to conclude that Elizabeth along with her accomplices would mutilate and torture young girls.
Mutilated corpses of young women were found in the castle and testimonies from hundreds of people sealed the deal. There were several who claimed that they had seen the countess burning people alive with tongs and dousing them in ice-cold water or biting the flesh of the girls from their arms and faces. Sensationalism gave rise to rumours which said that the countess would bathe in the blood of virgins to stay youthful. The death toll was estimated at around 650.
"These violent delights have violent ends..."
Elizabeth's accomplices were put to a merciless death while the countess herself was walled up in a room in the tower owing to her high status and fed through a slit in the wall. She was found dead in the room years later. Today, Cachtice Castle stands as a desolate ruin.
Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
The 142-room imposing hotel with Georgian architecture and a much-acclaimed whiskey bar has something other-worldly lurking inside, or so is claimed. The Stanley Hotel doesn't dismiss such claims, it rather encourages them. Apart from its world-renowned whiskey and its old-world opulence, the hotel owes its fame to Stephen King's The Shining which was inspired by the hotel's distinct supernatural presence and renamed as the fictional Overlook Hotel. There have been a few mishaps which have fed this view.
As the story goes...
In 1911, an explosion in room 217 caused a chamber-maid to go through a floor and end up with two broken ankles. Many have also sighted a spectral presence on the fourth floor which resembled Flora Stanley, wife to the initial owner of the hotel.
There have been reports from guests who have felt a side of their bed weigh down as if someone was sitting and staring at them but they turned to look and found nobody. Stephen King's own eerie experience provided impetus to his book. Whilst sleeping in one of the rooms he had a dream which left him shook.
“I dreamt of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a fire-hose. I woke up with a tremendous jerk, sweating all over, within an inch of falling out of bed. I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in the chair looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind.”
There is more
There are reports of the piano playing itself, unseen noisy children running down hallways, nightstands which move, shadowy figures and strange apparitions in portraits and photographs. The stately hotel also conducts supernatural tours for horror buffs.
Valley of the Kings, Egypt
Deep in the womb of the sandy desert land of the Valley of Kings, lie interred the greatest of Egypt's nobility dating back to 16th century BC. Excavations revealed 63 tombs, including that of Tutankhamen, gilded in gold with precious artefacts inside giving us a glimpse at the opulence of the regal Egyptian antiquity.
Scenes from Egyptian mythology are inscribed on the tombs along with hieroglyphs. Occasionally curses would be inscribed inside the tomb cursing the desecrator who would break open the tomb and disturb the rest of the Pharoahs. Curses inside tombs are rare since such desecrations were considered unthinkable and dangerous to put into writing. The curses would apply to any who opened the tomb. An example of this is the inscription inside the tomb of Khentika Ikhekhi (9–10th dynasty):
"As for all men who shall enter this my tomb... impure... there will be judgement... an end shall be made for him... I shall seize his neck like a bird... I shall cast the fear of myself into him."
Another example of such a curse is the following:
"Cursed be those who disturb the rest of a Pharaoh. They that shall break the seal of this tomb shall meet death by a disease that no doctor can diagnose."
As the story goes...
Something similar happened to members of the excavation team who uncovered the boy king Tutankhamen's tomb. The tomb was opened on 29th November 1922 and soon after, George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who financially backed the venture and was present when the tomb was prised open died on 5th April 1923 of a mosquito bite which got infected.
George Jay Gould I visited the tomb and died of a fever the next year and Prince Ali Kamel Fahmy Bey of Egypt died next year after being shot dead by his wife. More deaths followed - Colonel The Hon. Aubrey Herbert, MP, Carnarvon's half-brother became half-blind and died from blood poisoning from a dental procedure.
Sir Archibald Douglas-Reid, a radiologist who x-rayed Tutankhamen's mummified body died from a mysterious illness in 1924. The others fell victim to an assassination, an illness and a suicide. It was rumoured that the curse of the Pharoah had hounded them to their deaths.
Aokigahara Forest, Japan
If you aren't already chilled to the bone, this one will do the trick. The sprawling 21 km of Aokigahara forest in Japan, is so thick and densely packed with foliage that it is called the Sea of Trees. This isn't your average forest you go on a trek to; the forest has a nefarious reputation of being the world's third most popular place to commit suicide in. At an increasing rate of 10 to 30 per year, hundreds of people have gone into the forest to never return. The forest is so impenetrable that those who are found by volunteers and the police are carried out but there are many which lie in the depths of the forest in various states of decay.
It gets worse
It is a common belief that if the corpse of a person who has committed suicide is left alone, their yurei (ghost) gets agitated and screams through the night and their lifeless body will move.
It is very easy to get lost or go off course in the dense vegetation and the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the volcanic soil of the forest render compasses and even cell phones useless. You're completely cut off from the outside world in the dark Aokigahara forest. It is believed that something dark owing to the suicides in the form of paranormal activity prevents those who enter from escaping the forest.
It is alarming because nobody knows if those lost in the forest are egged on by paranormal force to take a fatal step. Above the forested floor strewn with personal artefacts like photographs, shoes and other memorabilia, there are signs on the trees fastened by the police bearing messages such as “Your life is a precious gift from your parents,” and “Please consult the police before you decide to die!”.
Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts
The site of a gruesome unsolved double-murder case, the Lizzie Borden house is now a bed and breakfast. The morning of August 4, 1892 may have started normally but took a horrifying turn when Andrew Bordan, patriarch of the family and his wife Abby were found brutally murdered with an axe.
The couple lived with their two grown daughters, Emma and Lizzie and their maid Bridget Sullivan. Emma had gone to visit friends and that left Lizzie and Bridget in the house. Bridget's alibi was that she was cleaning windows outside the house and had an eyewitness to corroborate her statement. All suspicion then fell on Lizzie who harboured an alleged resentment in her heart for her stepmother, Abby.
As the story goes...
Andrew Bordan was struck with eleven blows and his face was disfigured beyond recognition. He was relaxing on a couch when the incident happened. Abby was struck with nineteen blows and was found dead in a bedroom. Lizzie's position seemed precarious as the day before she was found to have asked a chemist for cyanide who said he couldn't possibly sell it without a prescription. An eyewitness also pointed out that he had spotted Lizzie burning a dress on a stove. The method of the murder would also have generated a lot of blood splashes which led to speculation that the murders may have been committed in the nude by Lizzie.
On grounds of inadequate evidence, Lizzie was let off and the case went dead. Whoever the culprit was, they took their secret to the grave.
The haunt of spirits
The bed and breakfast is not for the faint-hearted. There are reports of giggling children in the attic and a spectral presence in the bedroom where Abby was killed. Many wake up at around 3 am inexplicably and cannot go back to sleep.
Chateau De Brissac, Brissac-Quince, France
A magnificent example of Renaissance French architecture in France’s scenic Loire Valley, the sprawling castle houses a ghostly resident few would wish to encounter. The story that follows is as dramatic as the ghost.
In 1462, the castle belonged to Jacques de Breze, the seneschal of Normandy and one of King Charles VII’s favourites. The king gave his illegitimate daughter, Charlotte to Jacques in marriage. It was believed that the wedding between Charlotte and Jacques would be politically favourable.
As the story goes...
However, Charlotte and Jacques had very different personalities and theirs was a loveless marriage. Jacques loved to be outdoors hunting or taking care of the estate’s affairs while Charlotte was more inclined towards a sophisticated, courtly life which she had led before coming down to the countryside in Chateau de Brissac.
Understandably, she pined for the same life she was accustomed to before. Before long, she fell in love with a man named Pierre who was part of her husband’s retinue. Then followed a passionate love affair with Pierre who was both handsome and refined. One night Jacques returned home from hunting to find his wife in bed with her lover. Maddened with rage, he killed them both and the bodies were never found. Some say that Jacques went on to kill them with his hunting axe while others warrant that he killed the lover first and then strangled his distraught wife.
The haunt of restless spirits
The painful moans of his dead wife and her lover soon filled the castle, forcing Jacques to leave it behind. The ghost of the lover seems to have moved on but the ghost of Charlotte roams the castle with holes for eyes, wailing and wandering around in a green dress.
Make sure your feet are tucked firmly in. Something might just be waiting under your bed...
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