Gretel Road is a location or bad place for hunters to explore.
Overview[]
Gretel Road is a local legend. It's a gravel strip (little more than a driveway, really) that connects two other, larger roads. A few old farmhouses stand in the tract of woods that runs along the mile stretch. About halfway down there's the burnt-out carcass of an old schoolhouse. During the day, not much goes on there. But at night, things change. It becomes unusually dark; light seems unable to penetrate the surrounding woods. Traffic from the main roads can't be heard. Everything seems dead silent. The place has an eerie stillness, as if it's somehow transported from the civilized world into a realm of loneliness and death.
Rumors abound that the stretch of road is haunted. Local myth says that to see the ghost light that frequents the strip, one must park, turn off the lights and wait. After five minutes have passed in silence and stillness, the ghost light appears - a green, ethereal glow that passes through the trees and across the road. The ghost is reputed to be one of a variety of things, depending on whom you talk to. It might be the severed head of a little boy whose father killed him in one of the old farmhouses. It might be the lantern of the old schoolhouse headmaster as he still looks for lost children. Or it might be the Devil himself, looking for people willing to sell their souls.
This general weirdness brings high-schoolers in some weekends. Kids occasionally bring other kids as a weird initiation. Other times, students come to get drunk, high and purposefully scared, Most of them try the trick of turning out the lights and waiting in the dark to see the ghost. Some see it. Most don't. But everyone is creeped out.
And from time to time, a kid goes missing. Nobody worries too much about it. Kids go missing all the time. At least that's what the news says. Most of the kids who go missing aren't so important, anyway. Dropouts, druggies or general miscreants. Who would miss them? They probably just ran away.
History[]
In 1906, Gretel Road was a small stretch of road with a few farms and the Gretel Road Schoolhouse for grades one to 12. Six families lived on that road, and all of their children attended the schoolhouse, under the tutelage of the headmaster (and only teacher), Tobias Scarborough. No more than 20 children attended school there at any given time, most of them learning simple skills such as reading and arithmetic, with occasional lessons in science and agriculture.
Most of the parents didn't like or trust the headmaster. He was an old man when they were young, Now that they were older, Scarborough was still around, an ancient phantom of a man, with skin like vellum pages of a hymnal. He was harsh, and some parents speculated that he was bad for the children. But no other options were available, and Scarborough went to church like everyone else, so what could be done?
In truth, Scarborough was nearing the end of his existence. He could feel his bones aching and he had pleurisy in his lungs. His time was drawing to a close, but he wouldn't have it. He would defeat death. As a reading man, he learned that he could offer his soul to the Devil. It required him turning away from God, but the Lord wasn't going to grant him eternal life, was He? Yet immortality came at an enormous cost, one that Scarborough didn't know he could pay. He had to sacrifice his children, his students.
At first, he refused, but a few weeks later, he started coughing up blood and he knew he had only one choice. One day, toward the close of session, Scarborough stepped out of the schoolhouse, locked all the doors and set fire to the building. The children's screams were louder then the roar of the fire, and the headmaster watched as the building burned. One of the children escaped through a window and ran into the woods. The master, fearing it would ruin his deal, went hunting after the boy and was never able to find him.
That night, Scarborough died. The following night, he returned to life.
The Truth[]
Nineteen children died in the schoolhouse fire. They didn't return as spirits, not precisely. Their tortured souls came back as a poison saturating the very earth. The land itself is tainted with their suffering and inspires an eerie, discomforting sensation.
The "ghost light" that people sometimes see is in fact the spirit of the single escapee. The child did manage to flee into the woods, and struggled home to his farm, but his burns were too severe and he died along the way. Now his spirit haunts the woods and the road. He still things he's escaping, still trying to get home and back to the safety of his family.
Scarborough still lurks in the area, too. He's not a spirit; he's actually one of the walking dead. He was granted the immortality he so desired, but not in the manner in which he expected. His body is falling apart, as is his mind. He's been stalking the woods and hiding in the schoolhouse for close to 100 years. Sometimes he ventures out to look for the missing child, convinced that he can still find the boy. Other times, he thinks he's found the escapee. In truth, he's found a teenager who's come to Gretel Road on a dare, but for a time Scarborough believes that he's finally managed to capture the last student and can complete his deal with the Devil. When he realizes that he hasn't found the right child, he murders his latest victim and buries the body deep in the woods.
References[]
- HTR: Hunter: Urban Legends, p. 119-121