Hallows Grove, to this day, is cursed by the dark deeds perpetuated on its soil.
Abraham Hallows owned a large swath of land and it made him very rich. He had Apple Orchards, farmland, and large groves of oaks and maples. Abraham also owned slaves.
As the Union and the Confederacy waged war, Abraham held tight to them. He was a cruel man and master, as were 6 of his sons. Young Isaiah was not like his brothers and father, though. He was kind and gentle of body and soul.
Abraham heard the Union was coming and he declared he’d be damned if they were to free his property, he would see them dead first.
The fog was thick on that fateful night. The light of the moon, full and bright, was barely visible as the shots rang out. “Move!” Abraham’s sons shouted. The cracking of whips and the cries of those being beaten, as well as the chains clanked and rattled in the darkness.
As the slaves were marched through the dark grove, they came to a pond surrounded by trees.
A small dock jutted out onto the water. The sounds of the water slapping the wood melded with the sounds of gurgles and splashes.
Abraham ranted at the darkness. “They’re mine!!!! And I’ll keep them as mine! You can’t have them!”
His sons kept the march moving forward, madness seemed to have taken them all.
Isaiah heard the soldiers riding up the road to the great house. He rushed out, his beaten and broken body as well as his bloodied lip and bruised face showed he had tried to stop his father and brothers.
The soldiers entered the home and found Martha Hallows dead, her throat cut. They mounted their horses and took Isiah to show them the way. As they came upon the pond, only 3 of the 100 slaves remained.
Abraham slit the throat of one shoving him into the water. The next he began to kill as the soldiers yelled out. They fired their pistols at Abraham and his sons. A wide shot took the life of man held by Abraham. A second shot hit Abraham in the chest and the two fell lifeless into the water.
The last slave, an old woman, yells into the darkness something none of them could understand. She grabbed the knife that killed her fellows and held it up.
A scream ripped through the air and it then grew heavy. A shadow appeared on the dock as the crone slit her own throat.
The shadow, in a macabre display, latched its mouth on her neck and drank.
The soldiers do not see this as they fought the remaining sons of Abraham Hallows.
Isaiah, though, is witness to this act and fear grips him to his very soul. The shadow slips into the water, dragging the old woman’s body with it.
As the smell of blood and gunpowder taint the air in a miasma of death and filth, the gunshots end and soon silence remains. The soldiers toss the remaining bodies into the water and soon they march back through the dark and forbidding wood.
In time, the grove of trees around the pond twisted and rotted. The smell of rotting earth and flesh is so strong there that nothing grows and the pond’s water is black like sludge.
People claim to see corpses come from that water. They see them drag things into the water and hear screams of people and creatures as if being ripped apart alive.
Shadows haunt those woods, they say. Cursing the living and attempting to drag people to the water.
Abraham Hallows will never be forgotten for his evil deeds, and some say, even if you try, the land and the curse certainly won’t allow you to forget.
E. L. Knight Writes 