The Sketchpad

Hangman's Hill

"Oof!" Alex grunted as her truck hit a pothole, jarring her from her previous thoughts. She directed her attention toward the minor highway she was traveling on, instead of dwelling on the mysteries of the day. The hows and whys were too much, and Alex wanted to focus on what she was doing, nothing else.

Trying to concentrate on her driving, she stared ahead intently. Blue and yellow lights flashed and whizzed by as she sped along, and huge, hulking billboards blocked the sky, advertising things like hairspray, toothpaste, and insurance. She passed a McDonald's, then a small, dirty strip mall and a Starbucks.

Alex sighed. She could really use a caramel cappuccino right about now. She considered stopping to get a quick coffee, but resisted the temptation, instead continuing on her route with fierce determination. After all, she had somewhere to be.

A little over twenty minutes later, she pressed her foot on the brake, turning into a small, dusty space that could barely be called a parking lot. The city lights twinkled and beckoned to Alex from what seemed so far away, behind a cover of trees. The parking lot was hidden behind them, and the woods behind it loomed over the dusty gravel, forming hulking shadows and strange, looming figures.

About a year ago, Alex had been required to research a local area or landmark for a project in English class. She had wanted to do something unique, something different. She wanted to research something interesting, but not something anyone else was going to choose, so she chose Hangman's Hill. 

The Hill was actually just a small wooded area outside of town, and it wasn't really a hill, but more of an uprise between a weakly trickling stream and a couple ravines full of trash. There was one side where the soft dirt formed a bridge to the "Hill," and there always seemed to be a couple or a group of teens just trying to get away from the city, drinking beer or just sitting there, talking or enjoying the peace. They would come to Hangman's Hill and camp out for a few hours on the top. That is... if they weren't too superstitious.

Reports dating back to before the 1900's warned of many tragedies that had occurred near Hangman's Hill, and the entities that still roamed the woods. According to local rumors and city records, there had been at least six tragedies that had occurred there, maybe more.

In the early days of the town's settlement, a plague swept through the village, killing men, women, and children, leaving only the strongest adults to survive. A mass grave had been dug for the victims, and it was right at the outskirts of the woods, less than a half-mile from Hangman's Hill. In the mid-1800's, a horse-drawn carriage carrying a prominent family of four had gone off the simple dirt road into the woods near the hill, flipping into a tree and killing the driver and the family. Years later, some children were playing tag near the Hill, when a young girl slipped, falling into the ravine and breaking her neck. Two more car crashes had happened in the 1970's, both smashing into trees in the woods, until finally the township voted and decided to move the road in a curve, away from the ravine and the forest. Two years later, during construction on the road, a bulldozer had mysteriously malfunctioned, plowing into the workers and killing three.

Ever since then, strange things had happened at Hangman's Hill. More than one cult had been known to meet on top of the hill. Weird noises, sounds like children laughing and metal screeching against metal, could be heard from the Hill on quiet, still nights. There were rarely birds in the woods, despite there being lots of healthy trees and berries, and it was said that if you left your car in neutral, it would roll toward the woods, no matter where the ground was tilting in front of it.

The crunch of gravel greeted Alex as she opened her truck's door, stepping onto the dusty space next the the woods where the old road used to pass through. If anything weird was to happen in this town, it would happen here.