Maps

Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. The story in today's episode goes back to the same style that we had in the very beginning thanks to some messages that I've been getting over on Instagram and TikTok, and if you want to follow you can. You can search for me over at Edwin Cove. That's ed Wi NCV. I'm just starting out, so you'd be one of the first to get in touch with me over there. But anyway, let's just get started with today's story and we'll go from there. My name is Edwin and here it's a scary story. It was during a drive to the northern part of the country when this happened. Just like most things that our minds have a tough time believing, I started finding reason after reason, some real and some fake that would help me prove that it did not actually happen. My wife and I had just gotten married, and I had made no plans to go on honeymoon, and when we finally came around and wanted to plan one, it was too late to save up money and be able to travel right after our wedding. Instead, we chose to take my dad's car on a long drive from the east of the US and then through the North, going state by state and staying at cheap hotels or campsites. Gas was much cheaper back then, but then again, lots of things were different than which you're used to now. At gas stations, for example, they would sell books of maps, usually updated every couple of years to reflect the new streets and buildings that cities were building, and so you had to look up where you were going on the directory. That would then show you a grid of the map, and you would have to look it up in the book. A pen was handy at this time. You would mark the road and circle the intersection, so you would know that once you pass a certain highway you had to keep an eye out for an exit. Cell Phones were only used by people in offices, or so I thought, but they were becoming popular, so the idea of getting one was already on both of our minds. Alice, my wife, was really good at maps. She had studied history at school and cartography was one of the courses she fell in love with when she took it as an elective. It's usually during autumn when our memories come back about our experience, and it still baffles her. Although we don't talk about it very much. So much time has passed, and yet we still don't have an answer. There was a bed and breakfast that her family knew about a little past midspring in a town called Browning. The thing was that she wanted to be there at that town in the morning. She had already called to set up the times and everything for her drive with our other activities around town earlier that morning. In order to make it, though, we would either have to get there really early, like at four a m. Which meant driving all night, or not stop when we were planning on spending our Wednesday, and keep driving taking turns behind the wheel to get there the night before, and then we would be all ready for her morning at Browning, and then we would later check into the bed and breakfast and everything for the brochure. She showed me. The bed and breakfast did look nice. It was an old stone home with enormous walled gardens surrounded by creeks. Visitors spoke wonders of the hostess, and after Alice's cousin had gone for a weekend get away after her work conference, it was all Alice would talk about. The town had little bakeries antique shops and parks that looked like something out of a fairy tale. Seeing her so excited about it made the drive worth it to me, so we decided to push it and drive straight there, skipping several towns like dairy Mint, Spring and Alpine. The drive was as you would expect it to be, having its boring moments and fun stops to eat and park at the viewpoints. We ended at this nice hilly area by a long winding river just as the sun was setting. Being surrounded by that and with the person you had just married, was the definition of feeling on top of the way world. The sun set and we came back to the reality that it would be my turn to continue driving, this time with the headlights on. Everything started up fine, driving down into the valley, surrounded by the hills we knew were beautiful, but had turned into deep darkness, the kind where your eyes can only see what's in front of you. The trees were zooming past us as we started going through the wooded area, and despite me trying to get my mind off being the only car around for miles, I kept feeling like the trees were closing in on the car. Suddenly I felt. Alice's hand grabbed my forearm as I kept looking at how close we were to the trees, even in that two way road, wondering how a car might go past us if we were heading toward each other, so I slowed down. We were driving an old car through the dark woods, completely alone out there, and to add to everything, I started noticing how much resistance and it is the steering will needed to get it to stay on the lane, like wind hitting us from the right side of the car. Alice had turned on the light that aimed at her seat as she flipped through the map. I knew to give her her time with it. She knew what she was doing, but I couldn't hold in my question any longer after seeing the look on her face, Where are we? I asked her. She just kept looking at the maps, no matter if we got the most updated ones from the best publishers. I mean. She was a big fan of Furman's maps or Omacki's. She would blame them for only updating them every once every couple of years. I had heard her complain so many times over the same thing, but this time she wasn't as frustrated like she normally was. About the topic this This road isn't on the map. Then she looked at me. As I turned my head around to look behind us, it was pitch black. I parked the car. Wait, she said, just as I had put the car in reverse. If you go straight for a couple more miles, we'll end up at the same highway we were on before. Let's keep going straight and make her right when you see it. I watched her relax and sink back into her seat, looking over at me and smiling the map book on her lap. I changed the car back to drive and moved slowly along that road when suddenly I started seeing some lights in the distance through the trees. Alice hadn't seen them yet. Her face was turned instead toward the side of the car out the window. More and more lights appeared through the woods as I got closer, until they were bright enough for both of us to see. Alice turned on the light again and flip through the pages of the book until she closed it and put it back on her lap, and then looking straight ahead. It's not on the map, she whispered, shaking her head. As we got closer, I could see it clearly. Street lamps glowing orange like candle lights houses with smoke rising from the chimneys becoming bigger through the windshield. As we approached, we crossed a small bridge and suddenly we were on a stone road. Shadows could be seen moving a short distance away on the windows of those gray houses. We were obviously thinking the same questions, where were we? Why does it look like this? But then to my left I could see two silhouettes approaching the car very slowly, a taller man and a shorter woman, out of step with each other. Then they both stopped. Alice was leaning forward trying to look out my window. I just wanted to know their next move, but all we could do was wait. Should we ask them for directions? Alice asked, in a soft whisper that seemed way too loud for the place. I shook my head, No, there was something off about them. The silhouettes didn't move, but as we both looked right in front of us, we vanished. We looked around the area of it. I didn't see them anywhere. It was strange, to say the least, but I was glad that they were gone. Suddenly, from Malice's side of the car, I saw something move. There was another silhouette much closer, this time about four feet away from Alice, a woman in dark clothing, her hair covering the front part of her face as she hunched forward. It was too late for me to say anything to Alice as she started rolling down her window in order to talk to her. Excuse me, she started saying, the woman didn't move. We're trying to get back on the highway, is it? And then she stopped. She kept looking at the woman because it looked like she was frozen solid. What do I do, she asked me, and I signaled for her to roll up the window. Then the woman murmured something and it caught both of our attentions. And then as we both looked, she tilted her head up, the top part of her face completely dark or missing. Her mouth dropped to create an abnormal gap under her nose. I pressed on the acces as Alice rolled up her window. We went past several more houses, and before we knew it, we were back on the small road between the dark woods. It was strange to say that we felt safer there, but only then we were able to see a word to each other again, both of us stunned, obviously by what we had seen back there. Alice looked at me and asked, did she have no eyes. I don't recall the rest of our conversation after that, but I do remember finally seeing a dead end in front of us. Trees to our right and left, and in front of us we could see just trees in the distance. I stopped the car. There was no point to keep going forward. Alice took out the map book and turned on the lights, flipping through the pages while looking at the odometer on the car. It's supposed to be up ahead, she whispered to herself. I looked back, facing the fact that we would have to drive through that creepy town again, so I just turned it around and moved ahead. The car was moving slowly past the trees. As I drove on that same lonely road. We passed a small clearing and then a bridge, and the panic from earlier and trying to leave that town. We must have driven past it and completely missed it. So I kept going, expecting to see the small town at any moment. We never did. Alice was trying to look all around the car to spot where the town would be, expecting to see it at any moment. Was making my stomach turn. Not long after that, we were at the entrance to the Dark Woods. The viewpoint we had stopped at was somewhere up on the hills that surrounded us, but we could no longer see it. We have to make a left and then another left, Alice said, the light of the car still on, with that map book opened up to a different page on her lap. Had we gotten past the town without seeing it this time? We eventually found the way where we had started, and I just turned left around the foothills and we were back in business. So did we take a different way there? Or why didn't we pass the town this time? I asked? Alice was still looking down at the maps. She explained that she was looking out for other forks in the road but could see none. We had been on the same road where the town was, but the town wasn't there anymore. She said that, with a serious expression on her face. It's not possible. Eventually, we stopped for gas about half an hour after that, and once inside, we grabbed a couple of drinks and snacks. That's when she found a newer version of Furman's map books. She flipped through it and found the same we were on fairly quickly. This one actually had it the same road that we went down in the middle of the dark woods. While holding it up to the attendant that the cash register as we were paying, she asked about a town in the middle of the woods about half an hour back. The guy looked at her and then out the window up to the sky. Hm, yep, full moon. No, don't go there, he said, and then leaning in to whisper to us, even though no one else was there. He said, they say some creepy stuff goes on from even before the highway was constructed, stuff like what I asked, a little too loud for him, ghosts and stuff. Man, my cousin got lost there once. We couldn't find him for weeks, and even when he came back refused to tell us anything about it. He would go into a full panic attack. Just don't, Oh, we won't, Alice said, looking at me with that be quiet stare. The first as a married couple. I'll take this too, she said, putting the map book on the counter. Every once in a while, we talk about what happened that night. And even though we had an amazing couple of weeks driving on that road, trip and everything else had been beautiful. Our most memorable experience has always been about that town that wasn't there. When the Internet was becoming a thing and more information was out there, we looked it up but found no trace of the town, except for a couple of posts on forums that mentioned seeing houses in the woods in the daytime. We reached out to the users who posted their experiences never heard back. Scary Story podcast has written and produced by me Edwin Kowarobyas. If you have an idea for a story, let me know. I'm Edwin Cove on Instagram and TikTok that's ed Wi NCV, but you can also email me. And if you like true mysteries and legends, check out my other podcast, Horror Story. It has an image of a forest in yellow letters and it can be found on your podcast app right now. For ad free listening, check out the premium Scary Plus versions available on the premium tabs on your podcast app and you can try it for free right now. Anyway, thank you very much for listening. Let's yea sooner