In many cultures, the ghosts of the drowned
are thought to linger far longer than others. After all, their bodies remain
part of the lake, bound to it forever. The fact that many of those drowned in
lakes and ponds were suicides—or those accused of being witches—makes it all
the more plausible that their vengeful ghosts would linger even centuries
later. Ponds and lakes serve as a medium for the dead to connect with the
living, the perfect hunting ground for the undying creatures to seek revenge
and gain resurrection.
Over the years, many horror films have
played upon this primeval fear of water. Yet these three, quite real, sources
of water have been hosts to tragic histories that cemented their place in
horror lore. The true tales of these haunted waters, which have grown into grim
folklore, inspired my short story “The Pond.”
The Witches Pond (Bucharest, Romania)
The Boldu-Creteasca Forest is home to a
small, algae-covered pond. Surrounded by dense forest, at first glance it might
seem an unremarkable spot. If you were to wait and watch, however, you would
see no animals approach to drink the water. No frogs or fish live beneath the
surface. In fact, nothing disturbs the surface.
It is known as the Witches Pond, and its
bloody history begins with Vlad the Impaler. For those who aren’t aware, Vlad
was the living inspiration for the later character of Dracula. Vlad was said to
be one who enjoyed dining among his tortured enemies by impaling them, while
dipping his bread in their blood. Rumor has it that Vlad had been beheaded beside
the pond, the notorious blood-drinker’s own blood seeped into the water. The
Witches Pond seems to have stolen the immortality he sought; its power
continued to grow.
Since then, the pond has been the site of
inexplicable weather phenomenon and ghost sightings. Modern Wiccans continue to
use the pond as a gathering place, as spells cast over the surface of the pond
are said to always succeed. Local women with unwanted pregnancies have claimed
that bathing in the pond induces spontaneous abortions.
The Witches Pond is a well of power far
deeper than its physical measurements, just over six feet deep and 16 feet
across. Despite recorded attempts to fill the pond, it has swallowed truckloads
of rock and gravel without noticeable effect. No matter the weather, heavy rain
or long dry spells, the size of the pond never changes. The Witches Pond will
outlive us all.
Okiku Well (Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan)
Like many true stories that pass into
legend, the tale of the Okiku well has several versions. In each, however, the
Well itself remains constant.
Recorded in the 19th century,
the story begins with a woman, Okiku. In the popular version, she was a stand-in
maid for a samurai who approached her, repeatedly, trying to convince her to
sleep with him. When she kept refusing, the samurai, Asayama, came up with a
plan to trick her into submission. He put Okiku in charge of 10 valuable
porcelain plates, while he secretly hid one of the plates in the night. The
next day, Asayama demanded that Okiku bring him all the plates, making her count
them repeatedly. When she could only count to nine and can’t find the tenth
plate, he beat her and tortured her by lowering her into an old well. Each
time he brought her back up, he gave her two options to atone for her failure,
to marry him or to die. The stubborn Okiku refused and was finally killed by Asayama,
when he threw her body down the well.
With her body trapped at the bottom of the
well, Okiku’s ghost would rise from the well again and again, always counting
to nine. Her ghost haunted Asayama every night, eventually driving him mad, but her
spirit always return to the well.
As it happens, Okiku’s Well is real. It
still exists near Himeji Castle and, at night, the old castle walls ring with
the faint chanting voice counting…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9
If you have ever been terrified by Sadako
from the movie The Ring, crawling out of the well to enact revenge, you
have had a taste of the horror of Okiku’s Well.
Lake Lanier (Georgia, United States)
Perhaps the most haunted lake in the world
is Lake Lanier. Of course, was not always a lake.
Winding through the Ozark mountains, the valley
was originally home to several small rural communities, who shared a large
common graveyard. In 1950, the valley was flooded to create a lake. The water
never drained, and the bodies of the dead never left either. No one had told
the engineers about the cemetery and its hundreds of unmarked graves.
In just the past thirty years, Lake Lanier
has killed more than 200 people, setting a grisly record. Numerous divers have
seen odd things beneath the water, things they can’t explain. Fish who are as
huge as the size of cars. Glowing lights. People have even heard sunken
church bells ringing from beneath the water.
A ghostly woman, known commonly as Lady of
the Lake, dressed in a long blue dress is often spotted wandering the surface
of the lake, thought to be a woman who downed in her vehicle in 1958, shortly
after the valley was flooded. Be careful if you see her, or you could be one of
the many who have repeatedly reported arms reaching up and grabbing swimmers,
sometimes pulling them completely underwater. Swimmers have reported feeling
lifeless limbs underwater that disappear a moment later. Perhaps the real
question is whether you still dare enter the cursed waters of Lake Lanier?
References
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Nine Plates. A History of Japan - 日本歴史.
https://historyofjapan.co.uk/2020/01/10/okiku-and-the-nine-plates/
Gardiner, K. (2021, May 3). Witch hunt
tourism is lucrative. It also obscures a tragic history. Travel.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/a-better-way-to-commemorate-the-witch-hunts
Goldstein, D., Grider, S., & Thomas, J.
B. (2007). Haunting Experiences [E-book]. Amsterdam University Press.
Karimi, F. C. (2020, October 31). Lake
Lanier: A Georgia lake’s deadly history has some people seeing ghosts. CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/31/us/lake-lanier-urban-legends-trnd/index.html
Marica, I. (2015, March 31). Welcome to
the dark side: Seven mysterious places in Romania. Romania Insider.
http://www.romania-insider.com/mysterious-places-romania-dark-spooky
Morris, B. (2021, August 21). The
Haunting Of Lake Lanier And The Black City Buried Underneath. NewsOne.
https://newsone.com/4185919/lake-lanier-black-city-oscarville/
Oxford American | The Haunting of Lake
Lanier. (n.d.). Oxford American.
https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-113-summer-2021/the-haunting-of-lake-lanier
Pop Japan. (2019, February 1). Okiku’s
Well. https://pop-japan.com/travel/okikus-well/
Watanna, O. (2004). The Marriage of
Okiku-San. Legacy, 21(2), 235–243. https://doi.org/10.1353/leg.2004.0040
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