The Hackleman Ghoul
You remember the Salem witch trials? Men and women being rounded up for execution on the grounds of practicing black magic? “The deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America”, as Wikipedia describes?
Well... I don’t think the puritans were very thorough.
Every Christmas, there’s this wiry man with lumpy skin, dressed like some kind of early-1700s bounty hunter, who patrols the streets of Hackleman in search of supernatural misconduct. They call him the Hackleman Ghoul- I first learned about him from Grandma Berkenshire, the old lady who manages the local bakery. Supposedly, at the start of winter, he steps off a train that’s no longer in operation and hunts down whomever may be causing mayhem in town using his Egyptian-descended powers.
Yeah, I thought it was insane, too. To satisfy my curiosity, however, I decided to indulge in the idea and poke around the old railroad. It’s on the other side of Lookout Park; you have to hike downhill a few miles in order to find the drop-off. There’s a tunnel on either side- the train would emerge from one, stop for a spell, then exit through the other- when it was still running, of course.
Here’s the thing I found odd: the tunnels don’t go anywhere.
No, seriously, I checked. You walk into the exiting tunnel? The tracks stop at a solid wall. Look into the other tunnel? The exact same thing. Historians have told me that the tunnels were dynamited, but then why build brick barriers to cover up the rubble?
I decided to drive out of town a ways to see for myself where the railroad led. Back when it was first constructed, it connected the town to the capital. It was built along a trail that witch hunters would take to execute their “findings” in front of a broader audience.
Don’t believe me? Well, I’m reciting what I learned at a historical sight, and it seems to be that they were dead wrong. The railroad- if it ever existed- can’t be found anywhere. All that’s left is the two blocked-off tunnels, and a single strip connecting them.
So, what’s going on? Who is this “ghoul“, and why have only a few people seen him? Where does the train come from, year after year, and why is there so little track left? Is the town haunted? Who knows.
That’s all for now.