Halloween Story: The Mysterious Case of Ariana Lake

Ariana Lake was driving home after work one Halloween evening when she jolted to a stop, suddenly unaware of where she was. The ground seemed familiar, and yet there was something very wrong with this area. A large structure that appeared to be some kind of old factory was standing where no building had existed before.

Ariana traveled this road, Ferry Avenue, almost every day and had never encountered this mysterious structure. It looked haunted and scary enough to send chills up her spine, and yet she could see people entering the building as if reporting for work.

Confused but still curious, she stepped out of her car. Strangely, the ground underneath her feet felt soft and moist, and yet it hadn't rained in almost two weeks. There were no people entering the building now, so she went up to the door and attempted to open it. However, it was locked. She then tried knocking several times but there was no answer.

Still wondering why she had never seen this massive, peculiar building before, and curious about what it was, she decided to have a look around. She started to peer into some windows. Since it was so late, the lights were on and there were no shades or blinds pulled down. She could see equipment and a few desks and tables filled with supplies and paperwork but no movement of any kind.

Finally, she walked down to a lower area and peered into a basement window. At first she saw nothing, but then some shadowy movements appeared. Then she heard yelling and shouting and observed four men arguing heatedly with each other. Eventually two of them left and the other two remained. For a brief moment, there was silence.

Then something went horribly wrong. One of the men, a person with a long and very noticeable scar on the left side of his face, hurriedly threw a rope around one of the overhead pipes. Ariana could see a dangling noose and feared the worse. Just at that point, however, the man with the scar pointed to the rope and the other man hung himself as Ariana watched from the window in shock and disbelief.

The man with the scar suddenly turned to the window, smiled and winked at Ariana, and then just stared coldly at her. Gravely frightened for her own safety now, she backed away from the window, stumbled, and fell to the ground. She quickly got up, ran frantically back to her car, and raced away.

A distance later, she pulled over and stopped in a lighted parking lot. She felt wet and uncomfortable from falling to the ground but didn't think much about it. She was still in shock, cold, exhausted, and crying. She sat quietly for about five minutes, took some deep breathes and tried to calm down.

Finally, she started her car and looked in the rear view mirror. Then she let out a horrific scream as she looked at her face and then down at her skin and clothing. She was covered in blood from head to foot.

Suddenly there was a tap at the window that startled her. The man identified himself as a police officer and asked if she was all right. Ariana immediately told him what had happened and answered some questions he asked her. Then he took her license, asked her to wait for a moment, and went to his car a short distance away.

For some reason, Ariana suddenly felt an extremely powerful force compelling her to leave the scene immediately. She started her car and raced out of the parking lot as the officer angrily noticed and started to follow her.

But Ariana never saw him again after she left the parking lot. She started to head home as she thought about changing her clothes and getting at least a few hours of sleep. She would contact the police as soon as she could in the morning.

However, she never made it home. Instead, even though she was familiar with the route, she kept finding herself back in front of the factory. Increasingly, she felt she was living in a nightmare and hoped to awaken soon. Nothing was making any sense.

By the third time she ended up back at the factory, she decided to get out of her car and return to the window where she'd seen the horrible tragedy. However, the room looked entirely different now and there were no signs that anything unusual had happened. Thinking that perhaps she had the wrong window, she began to back away. Suddenly she bumped into someone. When she turned around, however, she was shocked to discover that it was the scar-faced man from the basement. He asked her if she was all right and invited her to come in, adding that he had something important to show her. She gave an excuse that she couldn't stay and wondered if the man would say anything about the blood on her. But the man insisted she go inside and, for some reason, he seemed to project a powerful force that compelled her to go with him. He extended a bone-chilling, disfigured hand to her as they entered the building together.

When the sun came up hours later, the police received a call about an abandoned vehicle on Ferry Avenue. They discovered that it belonged to an Ariana Lake. They also located and talked to the police officer who had been with her in the parking lot.

The officer mentioned that she had taken off on him and he had not been able to locate her. Strangely enough, it seemed to him as though she had just vanished into nowhere as soon as she left the lot. He also mentioned that she had spoken about a hanging and described the incident and the scar-faced man she had seen. Additionally, he informed the police and detectives that a real estate development existed on the street and in the exact place that Ariana said the factory was supposedly located.

The investigation continued for months. It was discovered, however, that a factory had actually existed over seventy years ago in the area where the real estate development was now located. It was also learned that the factory was forced to close after two people had gone missing during their shifts and several more had died in mysterious ways. While no one was ever convicted due to lack of evidence, rumors persisted over the years about who was responsible and what really happened.

Due to the Ariana Lake case, however, the investigation was reopened. It was discovered that the owner of the factory, Joshua Elliot, and his top manager, Morty Hayden, a scar-faced man with a violent temper, had been responsible for a number of unsolved or unrecognized crimes, including the one that resulted in the death of William Lake, Ariana's great-grandfather, on Halloween night, 1936. While both Elliot and Hayden had died many years earlier, it was Ariana's descriptions of the incident that finally helped solve the case as well as put William Lake to rest.

As for poor Ariana Lake, she was never found. The case was eventually closed.