The Lost City

Witness: John Sanders
Location: Rhodesia, Louisiana
Date of Encounter: 1996

I am not a crazy and I don't see stuff like this all the time, nor do I hear voices. I come from a small county full of small towns and most of the other surrounding county's are the same. Around here there is not much to do besides go out in the boondocks (middle of nowhere/woods) and shoot guns, drink beer, fish, or have a small party. When I was in school there was a few spots we would go to hang out at. The one I'm referring to here is called "The Lost City." The reason it is called that is because it is what's left of an oil refinery that exploded over 20 years ago and the area kind of looks like a city. It was left alone and never torn down, and the woods grew up around it. We loved to hang out there because there where lots of places to climb up on, tons of concrete to tag (write on) and it was big enough that if you wanted to get some privacy you could. We had a lot of parties out there.

Well, three of us broke the habit of going out there by the events of one night. Myself and two friends, Greg and Justin, went out there to hang out and see if anyone else showed up. We where sitting in the car talking when Justin told us to hush. He said he heard someone talking in the woods. So Greg and I shut up and listened but didn't hear anything. We started talking again and were trying to decide what to go do when we all started to hear the voices. It was not exactly talking, more like mumbling and hissing sounds. We where sort of spooked but I thought I was just someone messing with us — Greg and Justin agreed.

We got out of the car and started walking around acting like we were tough guys. We yelled and cursed and said it would take more than that to scare us, and that we knew they where out there. The voices did not stop, though, and we did not stop either. We where walking slowly toward the woods with my tire iron and some sticks when Greg saw something move. He stopped and said, "shhhh." He pointed to where he saw the movement and we watched the tree line for more. We could still hear the sound and still thought it was friends of ours. While we where watching we started to see shadows moving around in the tree line. Justin told me to go turn the light in the car on so we could see them. So I walked back to the car and hit the headlights. When I did we saw nothing and the sound stopped. That event scared us but we where still saying that it was somebody and not something. We decided that it might not be someone we know and that maybe we should go, so we all got in the car and as I started to turn around the sounds started back up again.

The noises were not any louder than the first time but we could see people moving all around in the woods and grass. At this point we where scared to death and I was doing my best to get the car turned around. The lights hit one of the figures and as it did the figure was gone. It was like they were there but not there. I hit the breaks thinking I was going to run over someone, but there was no one in front of the car. Now we could see large black forms moving along the tree line and moving out in to the opening toward us. They were like shadows — some big and some small, some looked like people and others more like animals or shapes. I could not move I was so scared, I just sat there looking at the shadows as they moved around. I finally snapped out of it and we got the hell out of there and have not been back since. I don't think any of us ever want to go back. We told a few people and I have been told similar stories of what people around here call the shadow people.