Something on the Hill

The “Under the Mask” Blog is an online outlet for the “Dont Go Out There” podcast hosts to further add creative content into the horror community.

Fan Submission by: Sonia Shamoka

Growing up in Hamilton, I have come across my share of scares, hauntings, and ghosts. Hamilton is a very old town, with an ample amount of history. We have a small town within our city, called Ancaster. Ancaster is a small but cute and cozy town, just 15 minutes from Hamilton. In this city there have been stories of hauntings taking place in an area called the Hermitage. The Hermitage is an old abandoned mansion which can be found down a short path to a hidden place with an abundant amounts of history and legend behind it. Many people have experienced paranormal events and have admitted to hearing and even seeing things such as, dark mists, shadows, animals with red bright eyes lurking in the bushes, and a young boy that roams the grounds of the old mansion of the Hermitage ruins. I was a teenager at the time, and the year was 2002. My boyfriend, Aidan, just got his driver’s license, and wanted to go for a night drive. We invited a few of our friends along and decided to take a night walk of our own. We were a bit skeptical back then, and young…so it wasn’t our brightest idea we’ve ever had.

We drove up to the Hermitage, it was about 9:00 PM in December, so it was pretty cold and dark out around that time of the year. We all agreed we would just take a quick walk around the grounds and head back to the car. As Aidan and I began to walk hand in hand through the snow packed grass, we laughed to ourselves about how silly this all was, and there is no way we will come across anything haunted. Then I thought I had seen something up ahead. I pulled Aidan’s arm close to mine and whispered to him… “do you see a little boy up ahead, or are my eyes playing tricks on me?” He squinted his eyes to focus a bit better as he wore contacts and looked at me and said “that’s definitely a little boy..” The boy was sitting at the edge of a pretty high hill, the type of hill that would be used very good for tobogganing. Aidan was hesitant to proceed, he wasn’t sure if what we were seeing was real, or if it was some sort of joke, but what we saw was indeed a little boy, as I got closer he seemed to be more real. He had a rather large strange hat on, not a cap, or a winter hat, a strange looking hat, like a pirate hat. He had long brown hair that fell below his ears, and a very long green jacket that buttoned all the way up, with tall brown rain boots. His pants were tucked into his boots, and strangely enough... he was holding a fishing rod in his hand. The rod looked homemade, it was a wooden rod. That’s when Aidan and I looked at one another with fear and confusion.

Why is this little boy alone? Where are his parents? And why does he have a fishing rod? Is he real? Or is this a ghost? Only one way to find out I thought to myself. I approached the little boy and ask him “ Hi there, are you here all alone, or did you get lost?”. The young boy put down his fishing rod to the right side of him, looked up at me with his large deep blue eyes, and skin as fair as the snow. He began to fix his oversized hat and smiled then giggled and said “Of course not ma’am I am waiting for my father”. You see… we are supposed to be going fishing today, it is rather a nice day to be going fishing, if I do say so myself. I am just waiting for him. He should be here any moment now.” I was officially freaked out, I was just a young teenager myself, why is he referring to me as “ma’am”. He didn’t talk the way a normal kid would talk. His accent, which sounded almost British, it was very proper, and was not from around here. He sounded like he came from the 1800’s or something…and it was not a nice day to be going fishing, it was cold and there was snow on the ground! Aidan grabbed my hand in complete fear and whispered to me “Let’s get outta here, I really don’t think that’s a real kid”. I looked back at the boy to let him know we should be heading home as it’s getting late out; but we can wait until his dad gets back.

I couldn’t believe my eyes…. he wasn’t there, he was gone! There is no way he could possibly gotten up and ran into the bushes or anywhere in sight. We would have seen him or heard him running through the snow. He just vanished, as if he was never there to begin with. The only thing that remained was his wooden fishing rod. I looked at Aidan in complete terror and we both started running as fast as we could. We called his friends who had taken another path to get back to the car because we just experienced something unreal and had no time to explain. They said they had seen some creepy thing too. We all met at the car, and every time we unlocked the car, it would automatically lock again. So we weren’t out of the woods just yet. Aidan looked at me and shouted, “Why do you have his fishing rod?! You should have left it!” I pulled my tote bag from around my body to see what he was talking about, and saw the fishing rod sticking out. In complete terror, I assured Aidan I didn’t take the rod, I don’t understand how it ended up in my bag. Our friends looked at us with fear in their eyes and said “Wait you guys saw a boy near the woods waiting for his dad?!”

We said yes, and were beyond horrified. How could the same boy be in two places at once? This couldn’t be happening. I threw the rod into the bushes and ran back to the car. Ten minutes of trying to unlock the car, the doors finally unlocked. We all scrambled into the car and buckled up. Aidan started the car and locked the doors. He hit the gas pedal as hard as physically possible. I had seen a reflection in the side mirror as we drove off. It was the little boy we had seen at the hill, standing there with the fishing rod I threw into the bushes. He was waving at us as we drove by. But he had a sad look on his face. This time he wasn’t alone. A taller older gentleman was standing behind him with one hand over the boys shoulder. I could only assume it was his father. They slowly vanished into the darkness as we gained speed driving away. Aidan noticed I was zoned out and yelled out “Hello, earth to Trish?! You good?” I didn’t want to frighten him or our friends even more, so I didn’t tell him what I just seen. I replied “Yes, just shaken up…that’s all”. He grabbed my hand and kissed it, and continued to drive away into the cold dark roads. We never returned to the Hermitage ruins again.