North Floridian, as well, here—but I grew up in central Florida. On a lake. In a town that had to build its roads around the lakes and springs. Also, in the part of central Florida that happens to be apart of the Bermuda Triangle, so that was fun.
There weren’t as many Civil War cemeteries as I live by now (there is one a tenth of a mile from my house currently) but most the advice I learned or decided was good to just trust my gut on still applies. Mind you, I’m studying physics, so I either learned the hard way or just decided that my instinct was better safe than sorry.
Don’t go near the lake at night. Don’t follow the fireflies toward the water’s edge because they’re not fireflies. Trust the cat. The cat always knows better than you do.
If you’re swimming in a spring and see a winking light in the Mouth, don’t go near it. They say people die because they get caught in the caves. I know that’s only half true. Whatever that light is, I’ve gotten close enough to watch it back deep into the shadows. Actually, unless you’re a strong swimmer don’t go near the mouth of a spring at all in Florida.
Touch the Great Oaks and Live Oaks with tender reverence because they are guardians but only if you show respect. Don’t look at the scrub at night, things with yellow eyes will stare back and you will want to follow them.
What I’ve learned in the Panhandle boils down to: stay out of the woods at night unless you know the Firebreak around your house. Be respectful of the dead in the Cemeteries if you must be there after dusk, because the things within the gates will leave you be—it’s what wanders outside the gates that you have to worry about.
When you leave a cemetery at night, get to your car, and get out as fast as possible. Don’t look back at the graveyard until you’ve put a couple of hundred yards between it and you if you can avoid it (don’t invite the ghost in your car, basically.)
There is always some wooden bridge that lots of people have jumped off of and died that is very much haunted that runs over a river. It’s always a pre-Civil War bridge. It might have been remade and isn’t wood anymore, but you don’t cross it at night, and you NEVER cross it at midnight or later.
In my town, there’s a spot in the river where anything built there is burned to the ground consistently, and never lasts more than seven years.
There is one statue in one of the Civil War cemeteries that no one goes near and has never been cleaned. I didn’t grow up here so no one will tell me why.
Trees forming perfectly geometrically shaped clearings are some of the safest places in the woods. Getting to them, however, is probably not, and often is done at high speed. Carry iron and silver with you in the woods if you go out at night. And on those days where the light is tinted gray, and the needles on the pines look like ash? Don’t go into the woods.
Leave the bathroom fan on because you don’t want to hear the sounds that come from the woods. When the neighbor dogs all go nuts and start barking and yelling and yowling lock your doors and windows and bring the cats in if they didn’t come in already.
Stay away from faerie rings. Especially on college campuses. I don’t know why but around here, University and College campuses seem to have much more… active… Fae. Also, don’t ever, and I mean EVER go near a kitten that is in the middle of a faerie ring. I don’t care how much you love cats. I really don’t. Trust me, it’s not fun.
Ignore the thunk against the screen door. It’s just a moth. It’s always just a moth.
Never say too long at the rest stops along I-10. They’re all liminal spaces and you don’t want something following you home. Also, there is one that has just been finished west and closes to Tallahassee… just… I don’t know what they disturbed, but get in and get out because that place feels WRONG. Don’t look into the woods/scrubs along any of the rest stops in Florida. You won’t like what you see, or what you think you see. There are things in the woods that never forgot.
At 2 am on a clear night you will hear a train’s whistle. There is no schedule for the train and only one set of tracks in town. You can be right there by the tracks and you will never see the train. It always sounds as far away whether you’re at home seven miles away from the tracks or are sitting at them.
Oh, and if you must go look for a pet at night in the woods, don’t speak a human language to call them.
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