Hand Prints

In the late 18th century in upstate New York a pastor and his family; his wife, young daughter, maid and himself were all found dead inside their home. Cause of death was identified as quadruple suicide.

The pastor had been devoted to both the church and his family for years, when his behavior suddenly changed. His sermons began spreading fear and paranoia through the town as he claimed that the Devil and his demons had infiltrated the town. He even claimed to have heard the voice of the Devil inside his home, telling him to hurt his wife or to ‘touch’ his own child. The voice even told him to kill his neighbors as they were all two faced liars who in the end would betray him.

Fewer and fewer patrons attended service, repelled by the repugnant and outrageous claims by the pastor. As a result he locked himself away in his home, forbidding anyone from coming or leaving the small property.

One night horrific screams were heard coming from the lonely property. The pastor was yelling at someone or something, demanding it to leave while at the same threatening to kill his wife and child.

The neighbors of course feared for their own lives and refused to check on the family until daybreak.

Terrifying growls, snarls, breaking glass, snapping boards, mournful cries, pathetic weeping, screams and gunfire filled the air for hours only to become eerily silent in a single moment.

The local authorities checked the house and the family only to find that the house had its doors and windows boarded up from the inside. Breaking down the door revealed a gruesome sight in the small living room.

The maid was sitting in an armchair in front of the fireplace, a Bible in her lap and a large knife clutched in her dead hand. The fire had long since died out, leaving a thick pile of black ash that spilled onto the floor onto her feet. The fingernails on her hands were broken, chipped and a few were even missing, leaving behind painful bloody wounds on the ends of her fingers. She was sitting upright but her head hung low as her lifeless body remained on display. Her throat had been cut, from ear to ear. Her dark red blood ran from her slashed neck and down her blue dress and onto the Bible.

Bloody, massive hand prints stained the walls, the floor and even the ceiling as if someone had been playing in her spilled blood.

The blood trail didn’t stop in the living room. Blood was found smeared on all the walls of the house. Deep scratch marks marred the doors and the large boards that covered all exterior doors and the windows. The marks didn’t look human save for a single board which contained the fingernails of the maid, who was unable to escape the house.

Walking upstairs the authorities discovered the body of the wife in the master bedroom. She was hanging by her neck in the closet doorway. Her face was frozen in horror as dried tears stained her face. Tears that had been wiped away by a bloody hand. The rope around her neck was dirty, frayed and covered in blood even though there wasn’t a single mark on her body. On the nightstand near the closet was another Bible and on top a note: ‘I’m so sorry. I failed to protect my child, I failed to stop my husband. I can’t live with myself, may God have mercy on this family.’

The windows in the bedroom were broken and several boards had been pried loose as if someone managed to escape the house, but no footprints were found outside indicating that anyone had leapt from the window, let alone walked away.

The bedroom across the hall belonged to the daughter. She too was found dead with a look of horror on her face. She was laying on her bed with a bottle of some kind of poison in her grasp. Blood and foam stained the side of her mouth and left a sickening puddle on the ground beside the bed. Like her mother she left a note behind, it was found rolled up and tucked inside the now empty bottle: ‘Please forgive my daddy, he did was he thought was best. He didn’t let him inside.’

Bloody hand prints covered her body and her bed. A single hand print on her face showed that someone had shut her eyelids after she died.

Searching the rest of the house the investigators checked the attic. More bloody hand prints lead up the small ladder and into the attic where they found the body of the pastor. There was a blood hand print stained on his throat. Blood, claws marks and multiple bullet holes littered the floor and wall, while a single bullet wound was found in the side of his skull. The gun was in his hand, all the rounds spent, while his personal Bible remained gripped in his other hand. A note was found tucked inside the Bible, written in faded black ink: ‘I didn’t let him in. God help us all, he’s still here.’

The case was closed and labeled as a tragedy with no suspects being investigated and no one standing trial for the horrific events that took place in the humble town.

Years went by with little to no activity on the property. The entire town feared the now deserted home and refused to approach. Those who dared to examine the house claimed to have heard terrified screams, undecipherable whispers, pounding sounds on the walls and windows, inhuman growls and gun shots.

Stranger still whenever renovations on the house were attempted workers and decorators would find blood drops on the floor, find brand new windows broken with dirty hand prints at the center of the cracks and muddy hoof prints all through the house, with the mysterious beast walking inside but never walking out.

In 2002 the property was purchased with the sole purpose of turning it into a haunted attraction bed n’ breakfast, only to have work on the house stop abruptly and never resume. The new owner of the house was found dead in the large bathtub. He had apparently drowned himself, as there was no one else on the property at the time of his death, but two large bruises on his shoulders in the shape of hand prints told a different story. He was never alone.

The property has since been abandoned and left to rot, but by some unnatural force it’s still standing. Curious onlookers be warned. Mysterious hand prints have been found on the windshields and windows of cars that park too close to the house…