Majanka Verstraete's Blog, page 6
February 17, 2022
Real Haunted Houses: Old Shelby Hotel
Built in 1863, the Old Shelby Hotel, formerly known as the Dannemora Hotel was located next to the Shelby Iron Works. The hotel was a popular weekend destination for the public, but the employees of the Iron Works also used it as a boarding house. It was the first hotel in Alabama that could offer electricity and internal plumbing to its guests.
The Union Army destroyed the Shelby Iron Works in a raid in 1865 (considering they were supplying iron to the Confederate Navy). The hotel survived but burned down a few decades later, in 1898. By that time, the Iron Works reopened and were quickly capitalizing on the growing industrial demand. The owners rebuilt the hotel in 1900 on the original brick foundation. The new hotel was called the New Dannemora Hotel and later renamed the Shelby Hotel.
The last owners of the Shelby Hotel were Mr. and Mrs. Rummel. They operated the hotel from 1956 until its closing in the 1970s. It is Mrs. Rummel who is supposedly haunting the old Shelby Hotel. Some passersby have smelled her cooking, perhaps still prepping meals even in the afterlife, and some have even claimed to have heard her voice.
Unfortunately, on May 26, 2019, the old Shelby Hotel burned to the ground in what was likely arson. The once beautiful and renowned old Shelby Hotel sadly is no more.
Real Haunted HousesPreviously in this series:
Real Haunted Houses: Franklin CastleReal Haunted Houses: Villesca Axe Murder HouseReal Haunted Houses: The Sallie HouseReal Haunted Houses: LaLaurie HouseReal Haunted Houses: The Bell Witch FarmReal Haunted Houses: Ann Starrett MansionReal Haunted Houses: Sturdivant HallReal Haunted Houses: Whaley HouseReal Haunted Houses: House of Seven GablesReal Haunted Houses: Woodruff Fontaine HouseReal Haunted Houses: Cedar Grove MansionReal Haunted Houses: Sauer CastleReal Haunted Houses: The Pink PalaceReal Haunted Houses: House of DeathReal Haunted Houses: Joshua Ward HouseReal Haunted Houses: The Lemp MansionReal Haunted Houses: Los Feliz Murder MansionReal Haunted Houses: Winchester Mystery HouseReal Haunted Houses: Bliss MansionReal Haunted Houses: Croke-Patterson MansionReal Haunted Houses: Thornewood CastleReal Haunted Houses: Drish HouseEnjoyed this article? Read Fractured!
When Piper discovers an old antique mirror on the attic of her new home, she has no idea what terror she unlocked.
Eerie shadows lurking in the night and estranged voices crying out for help are only the beginning. As Piper’s world comes crumbling down, she realizes everything that she believed was imaginary, might have been real all along.
Something is very wrong with that mirror. And if she doesn’t find out what, the mirror might end up killing her.
With some help of old and new friends, Piper tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. One thing is for certain: the mirror preys on the guilty. But what exactly is she guilty of?
Release Date: September 16, 2013
Format: eBook and Paperback 
Price: $3.99 for eBook and $13.99 for Paperback
InkSpell Publishing | Amazon (PB) | Amazon (Kindle) | Kobo | B&N | ARe
February 16, 2022
Sims 4 Story: Josie, The Vampire Slayer – Episode 1.7 Bullies
I’ve started working on a new Sims 4 Story, one involving vampires, romance, and lots of teenage angst and drama.
Here is the blurb:
Welcome to Vampsville, where vampires rule the night, and one girl from a long line of vampire hunters needs to defeat them.
Meet Josie Van Helsing. Sixteen-year-old vampire hunter with a complicated love life – and “complicated” is an understatement.
Episode 1.7 Bullies is live today.
The story will be updated every Thursday, so you can expect Episode 1.8 Dangerous Affairs next week.
February 14, 2022
Sims 4 Lots: Blue Cottage (no cc)
This small cottage for two Sims has a small yard, and features only one floor. While it is relatively small, it’s cozy and has an adorable front porch with some decorative plants and a bench.
A view of the house from the other side. The garden is quite small but there’s room for a swing or a playset.
An overview of the layout of the house. Visitors can enter through a relatively large entry. From there, they can walk into the main room, which has a large dining area (suitable for six Sims), a sitting area, desk and an open-plan kitchen that is a considerable size considering the size of the house. There’s a seperate bathroom to the left.
From the main room, there’s access to the master bedroom, which has a dressing area and an en-suite bathroom with tub and shower.
Below are some interior pictures of the house:
Value: 39.643 Simoleans
Lot size: 20 x 15
1 Bedroom, 2 Bathrooms
Uses the following packs:
February 10, 2022
Urban Legends Investigated: The Bleeding House
You would think, judging by the title of this post, that the Bleeding House is just another myth or urban legend. Because let’s be honest here: there’s no posisble way a house could actually be bleeding from its walls, right? Even if a gory murder was committed inside the property, at most you’d find blood splatter colouring the walls, but not blood seeping from the walls. And definitely not in every room of the house.
Blood dripping from the walls in every room of a particular house, that’s the stuff of nightmares. Of horror movies. Of fiction. It couldn’t possibly be true.
Except that this exact thing occurred at a house located at 1114 Foundation Drive in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1987.
History of 1114 Fountain Drive
The house itself was an ordinary house, built in 1945, with six rooms, and by all accounts an ordinary home you would find in just about any street.
The house belonged to William and Minnie Clyde Winston, who had already lived in the house for over two decades before the weird events occurred. They had raised three children in the house, and they were respectively 79 and 77 years old. They had never complained about any odd phenomena in their house, and by all accounts, they were an ordinary couple.
There was nothing that made them or their house stand out from any of the houses in its surroundings, until of course it began bleeding blood.
It happened on the evening of 8 September of 1987, and the phenomenon was not just limited to one room either: the entire house, including the halls and basement, suddenly, inexplicably became covered in human blood.
The evening of 8 September 1987Minnie Winston had taken a bath on that very evening, and when she emerged from the bathtub at around 11:30pm, she noticed that the floor was sticky. Initially perhaps she thought that the cause of the stickiness was water, but when she looked down, she noticed a red substance. It seemed to be spraying through the bathroom’s tiled floor.
Minnie and William started to investigate and found out that the substance was everywhere: the hallways, kitchen, living room, even in the house’s crawlspace. It was on the floor and walls in nearly every room of the house.
The Winstons must have been horrified. Panicking, they called 911, who dispatched EMTs and police to the scene. All the police and EMTs could uncover was that the subtance looked a lot like blood, but neither of the Winstons were bleeding, there had been no crime committed, there was no body in the house – nothing at all that could give an explanation as to why the walls were covered in blood.
The police thought that perhaps it was a sickening prank by someone who had burglarized the Winstons home, but the Winstons had locked their doors and set their security alarm at 9:30 pm that night, at which time the house was clean. Between then and when Winnie made the discovery, the house was soaked in blood, without the alarm being tripped, and without any evidence of an intruder gaining access.
Unnerved but figuring out they needed to do something, the police took samples of the substance and sent it off to the State Crime Lab. The results came back a few days later, indicating what police had already feared. The substance was blood.
But even worse? It was human blood.
Possible causes investigated
One avenue that was checked was if the blood was the result of William Winston’s dialysis equipment – he was a kidney patient who needed dialysis – malfunctioning. But the lab tests confirmed the blood was neither his nor his wife’s. The blood found on the walls was Type O and both Winstons had Type A blood.
The police remained baffled but eventually two possible explanations presented themselves. Either the bleeding walls were a hoax, and police were presumably even suspecting the grown daughters of the Winstons to have planted the blood. It was also alleged that maybe William Winston had received blood from the hospital to be used in his dialysis, and had smeared the walls with it. This theory was featured in the Georgia Skeptic’s newsletter in 1994. But considering the blood wasn’t even the same type as his, this seems elaborate and near impossible. In addition, there is no clear motive for why William Winston would have done this?
The second option was that whatever was going on at The Blood House, it was supernatural in origin. What exactly it was – a ghost, blood demon, a vampire throwing up all over the walls – even the most seasoned paranormal enthusiasts and parapsychologists could not provide a clear answer to. The rain of blood incident seems similar to other events, causes also unknown but presumed to be paranormal in nature, that have happened in the past and were documented in a variety of books, such as rocks falling out of the sky or a rain of blood falling from a clear sky.
What happened to the Winstons?After the events, the Winstons stayed in the house. Understandably, because it had been their home for over two decades, but if it were me, I would likely pack my stuff and get the heck out of there.
William Winston passed away about two years after the incident, but Minnie Winston continued to live for many, many years and eventually passed away in 2015.
The walls at 1114 Fountain Drive never bled again – until this day.
Is it a hoax or not?All we can say for sure is that on the night of 8 September 1987, there was blood smeared across the walls of 1114 Fountain Drive, colouring both the walls and floors bright red. There were police reports of this, and although the case is still open and the cause remains unknown, the fact that there was human blood on the walls, not belonging to the inhabitants, is duly proven.
In other words, the urban legend of the Bleeding House is completely true.
But what the cause is of this blood – if it appeared out of nowhere, due to a paranormal phenomenon, or if it was an elaborate hoax? We may never know for sure.
Urban Legends InvestigatedPreviously in this series:
Urban Legends Investigated: The Noise Coming From Inside ChildrenUrban Legends Investigated: The ExpressionlessUrban Legends Investigated: Dear David – Part 1 / The StoryUrban Legends Investigated: Dear David – Part 2 / Is Dear David Real?Urban Legends Investigated: Slender ManIf you liked this post, you might enjoy my book, Ghost Slayer
Twenty-one-year-old Kaelyn has spent half her life hunting ghosts and killing them. But she’s not like the other ghost hunters who have to rely on spells and curses to banish ghosts back to where they came from, hoping that they don’t come back. When Kaelyn kills a ghost, they stay dead.
But in Mortimer Hall, a behemoth of a house, Kaelyn is about to face the most powerful and life-threatening ghost she ever met, and what she doesn’t know is that the ghost has been waiting just for her.
Release Date: June 6, 2018
Format: eBook, paperback
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
Buy eBook from Amazon.
Buy paperback from Amazon.
February 9, 2022
Sims 4 Story: Josie, The Vampire Slayer – Episode 1.6 Complications
I’ve started working on a new Sims 4 Story, one involving vampires, romance, and lots of teenage angst and drama.
Here is the blurb:
Welcome to Vampsville, where vampires rule the night, and one girl from a long line of vampire hunters needs to defeat them.
Meet Josie Van Helsing. Sixteen-year-old vampire hunter with a complicated love life – and “complicated” is an understatement.
Episode 1.6 Complications is live today.
The story will be updated every Thursday, so you can expect Episode 1.7 Bullies next week.
February 7, 2022
Sims 4 Lots: Victorian House (no cc)
This family home with room for five Sims has a small yard but what it lacks in size, it makes up for with lots of greenery and plants. There is a porch at the front and side.
View from the back of the house. There is a bay window in the kitchen and the porch next to the kitchen allows room for a small table for four sims to sit at.
Floor plan of the downstairs level. Sims enter into an entry area, and from there can either head upstairs or go right, into the living room / parlor. The living room / parlor has a bay window and a fire place.
From there, Sims can enter into the seperate dining room, which gives access to the downstairs bathroom. It’s a full bathroom with bathtub and toilet.
To the left is the large and fully equipped cottage style kitchen, with another small seating area.
Foor plan of the first floor. There is a large hallway. To the front of the house (near the front porch) is a powder room, and the entrance to the largest of two bedrooms on this level.
To the back of the house, there is a laundry room, a full bathroom with bathtub, and a second smaller bedroom with a single bed.
On the top floor of the house is a huge master bedroom with four-poster bed, an open dressing area, and an en-suite bathroom with shower.
Below are a few close-up pictures of the interior and exterior:
Value: 154.012 Simoleans
Lot size: 20 x 15
3 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms
Uses the following packs:
Have fun!
February 4, 2022
Movie Review: Countdown
Countdown is actually a rather fun horror movie, with an unique spin on an all-too-familiar story.
At a party, a bunch of teenagers downloads an app called “Countdown”. This app supposedly predicts when the user will die. While most of the teens at the party get fifty years or more on their countdown, Courtney only gets a few hours to live. Spooked by the app’s predictions, she doesn’t get into the car of her drunken boyfriend; Evan.
She walks home, but is stalked by a creepy presence, and subsequently murdered in a rather bizarre fashion. At the same time of Courtney’s murder, her boyfriend crashes his car.
He later wakes up in the hospital, where he is treated by the main character, nurse Quinn Harris. Evan tells Quinn about the app, and how he only has a few hours to live – right up until his surgery. Quinn initially brushes it off as superstition, but when Evan dies at the exact moment predicted by the app, Quinn grows increasingly more scared.
Especially because she downloaded the app too, and her life expectancy is just a few days.
Can she escape her predicted death day?
While the movie isn’t necessarily scary, it sure is entertaining. Quinn doesn’t take her impeding death lightly, and she tries to do whatever she can to stop this from happening. She’s also quick to believe in the power of the app – thank goodness, because sometimes, protagonists in horror movies seem keen to turn a blind eye even when a ghost is literally screaming at them.
The movie has some flaws, though. The villain is rather one-dimensional, and the plot is a little thin in some points. There are enough plot holes that it starts looking like expensive cheese. It never really hits the amount of scary you would hope for in a horror movie, and the twists turn out to be rather predictable.
But despite that, it’s still entertaining, and definitely worth the watch.
February 3, 2022
Haunted Dolls: Okiku
While most stories of Haunted Dolls we have featured so far in this series originate from the United States, today’s story comes from the other corner of the world: Japan.
As the story goes, this doll was bought by a 17-year-old boy called Eikichi Suzuki in 1918. He intended to give the doll to his 2-year-old sister, who was called Okiku. The doll was about 40 cms tall, and dressed in a traditional kimono. It had raven black hair cut in an ‘okappa’ hair style (meaning cropped around the jawline, with a short fringe over the forehead).
Photo from Escape.com.au
When Suzuki gave the doll to his little sister, she loved the doll right away and began playing with it all the time. She even called the doll ‘Okiku’, giving it her own name.
However, just a year later, in 1919 tragedy struck and the real, human Okiku died from yellow fever. According to the legend, she was clutching the doll when she died.
After her passing, her family – as is common in Japan – added the doll to the family’s shrine as a way to commemorate their deceased daughter.
The first strange thing they noticed about the doll was her hair growing. It had at first been shoulder-length, but was now significantly longer. Lights started flicking on and off on their own account. Strange noises echoed through the halls of their home. The family contacted local priests, who told them that their daughter’s soul was trapped inside the doll, and was the source of all these strange phenomena.
In 1938, the family relocated to a different district and they approached the local temple and asked them to take care of Okiku – the doll, that is. The priests have been taking care of Okiku ever since, and they have verified some of the family’s claims, in particular the claim that Okiku’s hair does grow. They sent samples of the hair for scientific analysis, which allegedly proved that Okiku’s hair was that of a human child, although I’m taking that with a grain of salt – it is probably as much part of the legend as the whole origin story of Okiku.
Does Okiku’s hair grow or not? If you want to see the doll with the growing hair for yourself, then you can visit Okiku at the Mannenji Temple in Hokkaido.
Haunted DollsPreviously in this series:
Haunted Dolls: Annabelle, a creepy Raggedy Ann DollHaunted Dolls: Robert The DollHaunted Dolls: The Island of Dolls: A Nightmare Come TrueHaunted Dolls: MandyEnjoyed this article? Read The Doll Maker!Interested in reading more about haunted dolls? “The Doll Maker”, a scary lower grade chapter book focuses on possessed dolls. It’s a great book for kids – just the appropriate amount of scary.
Derek’s little sister wants one of those creepy-looking dolls, staring at him from the strange new doll shop in town, and what his sister wants, she gets. Now they’re stuck with a doll that looks so human, it gives Derek the creeps.
When Derek tells his friends, Martin and Jamie, about the new shop with creepy human-like dolls, they want to see for themselves. That has “bad idea” written all over it, but he takes his friends there anyway.
They meet the mysterious doll maker, who reminds Derek of Dr. Frankenstein, and who brainwashes Martin into buying one of those scary dolls. Derek and Jamie push and pull Martin out of the shop, but something isn’t right with their friend. He’s shivering all over, and he has no memory of what happened in the shop.
Martin’s condition worsens every day, and Derek’s sister grows more and more obsessed with her new doll. Derek and Jamie have to find out what’s going on, and fast, because….
…the doll maker seems linked to a bunch of mysterious disappearances, and the last thing Derek wants is his sister, or his friend, being next on the doll maker’s list.
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February 2, 2022
Sims 4 Story: Josie, The Vampire Slayer – Episode 1.5 Mr. Cross
I’ve started working on a new Sims 4 Story, one involving vampires, romance, and lots of teenage angst and drama.
Here is the blurb:
Welcome to Vampsville, where vampires rule the night, and one girl from a long line of vampire hunters needs to defeat them.
Meet Josie Van Helsing. Sixteen-year-old vampire hunter with a complicated love life – and “complicated” is an understatement.
Episode 1.5 Mr. Cross is live today.
The story will be updated every Thursday, so you can expect Episode 1.6 Complications next week.
January 28, 2022
TV Series Review: Clarice
If you enjoyed the classic horror / thriller The Silence of the Lambs that iconized the legendary Hannibal Lecter, godfather-of-sorts of serial killers, then you will probably devour Clarice. Not literally. I hope.
A year has passed since our heroine, Clarice, has come face-to-face with Buffalo Bill, the horrific serial killer who wanted to make a woman-costume out of the skin of actual women. She has lived to tell the tale, as did Bill’s latest intended victim, Catherine, who is the daughter of the current Attorney-General of the United States. Clarice has been forced to spend the majority of her time behind her desk, hidden away in the basement of the Bureau. She is forced to see a psychiatrist, who often seems to ridicule the horrors Clarice went through, and all in all, despite being considered a public hero, her co-workers generally avoid her.
The Attorney-General, Ruth Martin, calls in Clarice’s help. It’s meant to be a one-time thing, for a specific case, but soon turns into a regular thing once Clarice joins Ruth’s ViCap team. While Clarice is trying to solve the murders of three women, whose bodies have been found in the river, mutilated, her own past also continues to take a toll on her. It’s not just the events with Buffalo Bill, but also scars much older and perhaps even deeper, than come back to torment her.
The series develops slowly, but the pacing is exactly right. The series manages to keep the suspense high, making viewers jump immediately from episode to episode once the previous one ends. The topics that are touched upon in the background of the series: corruption by multibillion dollar companies, dealing with trauma, the misogeny in the work place that Clarice faces, the blatant racism some of her co-workers are suffering,… all make the series all the more intriguing.
It is no longer just about serial killers, like it was in The Silence of the Lambs. In fact, they barely play a part in this series. It’s still about evil, though, but now it takes on many more faces and gets more layered and more difficult to recognize, making it all the more terrifying.
