“The Haunting At Lookout Lake”

“Lookout Lake is one of our towns few tourist attractions so we don’t often talk about it’s history with outsiders!” the librarian said loudly in what was almost a scream then quickly covering an embarrassment caused red faced mouth with one hand due to the volume. Right then I knew I was on to something. I asked to see any information they had and trembling from either fear, old age, or both the librarian led me to the back where old microfilm machines and rotting newspapers were and provided me with a pile of information to sort through. I had just acquired the property from an online auction and was surprised at the low price and wanted to learn more about it. By the librarian’s reaction I knew then I was about to learn more than I’d bargain shopped for.

I left the library in a shock! I couldn’t believe what I had read. “Wasn’t there some kind of disclosure law regarding real estate events and particularly hauntings?!?” I wondered practically in tears getting into my vehicle coming to terms with both what I saw earlier combined with what I had just learned via research. As I looked in the rear view mirror I saw the librarian looking out the window behind me and I couldn’t tell if the expression was wild laughing or crying. I still had to return to the lakeside property one time and convince myself of what I’d seen earlier when I couldn’t find the lake. All I saw was a cheap carnival with a lot of old rides and rude townspeople who ignored me engrossed in their own conversations. Each time I asked any of them where the lake was, was the only time I’d get any response in which they all laughed in unison.

Had I had a nightmare, a daydream, a psychotic break from reality? Had I misread the map? As I drove back up the secluded road I could hear the carnival music, smell the popcorn, even a few vintage, collectible cars passed in the other direction although they all seemed to be speeding and practically just a blur. Then I heard it… What had to be the most simultaneously heartbreaking and terrifying sound I had and have ever heard since. A blood curdling collection of screams that made the hair on my arms stand up from chills suddenly running through my body on what was otherwise a hot summer day. The shrieking was so loud and sickening I literally had to pull my vehicle over vomiting and covering my ears. “No one EVER seems to stay around Lookout Lake…” was the last thing the librarian had said as I was leaving.

I composed myself and continued to drive. When I returned to the area the carnival was gone. The land was gone that the carnival was on. All that remained was the lake. However, I already knew what had happened. The research showed first that the property had been drilled for oil illegally. Due to the secretive practice no one knew about that and the heavy rides like rollercoasters and Ferris wheels created too much weight and vibration on what combined with a cave system made a sinkhole miles deep. There had been a carnival after the illegal drilling on the property and the earth gave way swallowing up hundreds of townspeople and tourists who were killed. Those who weren’t killed in the fall drowned as the water table came rushing in creating the lake. This time all I saw was a lake. A lake with my little plot of land by it. A lake with a little plot of land by it and a deflated balloon on a string floating on the water. I never went back to that property or spoke of it again.