Hollow Horror

A few years ago, my friends Courtney and Whitley and I went down to a place called Crybaby Hollow (or Holler, if you're a true Ozarkian) near Crocker, Missouri. We’d heard the legend that years ago, a young mother had lost her baby in the hollow during a storm, and could hear it crying, but couldn’t find it. Some say to this day you can still hear the baby’s cries if you stop along the road that passes through the hollow. Others say that if you stop your car in the hollow, small handprints show up on your windshield. Needless to say, we were psyched to check the place out.

Near the hollow, my friend Whitley’s grandparents have some land, and on it is an old house. Whitley told Courtney and me that creepy things had been known to happen in the house and surrounding area, like people repeatedly seeing and hearing a little girl, and a guy had been found dead in a nearby cave.

When we made it out to Crocker, Whitley’s grandpa told us stories of his experiences with the paranormal, and led us just before dusk down to the old house. We walked within maybe 300 yards of it, and her grandpa told us he would go no further, which took us by surprise. He made his way back to his own house after wishing us luck and telling us to be careful and not do anything stupid.

We approached the house, and it was in much worse condition than I had expected. It was dilapidated, and the roof looked about to fall in. In the nearby woods, the trees looked ominous, and daffodils were blooming. The whole place looked eerie at best.

We took pictures with our disposable cameras and explored the grounds as dusk fell. We pulled out our flashlights, including a crank light, and kept exploring. At one point, most of our flashlights died, even the crank light, while Whitley was cranking it. Thus, we decided to get the heck out of there. Once we were several feet away from the house, our lights worked again.

As we headed home, we stopped Whitley's Saturn in the hollow, and she shut off the engine. We sat almost motionless. We heard nothing. But when we got back home to Lebanon, it looked like there were a couple of small almost hand-looking prints on the back glass of the car....seriously.

Just a few weekends ago, Whitley and I were visiting, and she showed me for the first time the pictures from Crybaby Hollow. She had gotten them developed finally, after nearly four years. Before she showed me one picture in particular, she asked, “None of us went into the woods, right?” Of course we hadn’t; we were too chicken. Sure, we had taken pictures of the eerie trees, but certainly hadn’t gone very near them. This picture was of the trees, but there was a glowing figure in the photo as well. It looked like a blue-white shoulder and head peeking out from behind a tree. I was immediately intrigued and petrified.

Needless to say, I want to venture back to the Hollow, just to see what will happen. But, I’m kind of glad I never developed my photos from our excursion.

Just a sidenote: Once I get a copy of the pic, I'll definitely post it!