They say Belmont Lake State Park looks different after nightfall. The air thickens, shadows stretch unnaturally long, and the silence settles in heavy. Beneath the rustle of leaves is something else ... breathing, pacing, waiting.

 

Legend has it long before Belmont Lake was a park, the land was home to the Belmont Sanitarium, a private asylum tucked deep in the woods. In 1923, a fire broke out in the middle of the night. Staff fled, locking the gates behind them, leaving patients trapped inside. Those who survived the flames ran off into the forest, screaming in the dark.

 

For weeks, the nearby village lived in fear - pets went missing, livestock slaughtered, and strange shapes were seen at the water’s edge. Then came the night of the Massacre. Groups of villagers hastily left their homes on carriages never to be seen again. No one knows exactly what happened, only that the next morning, the surreys were found wrapped around the trees, its wheels still turning… and the seats soaked through with blood.

 

Now, every autumn, locals say the same thing: don’t be near the woods after dark. Don’t follow the sound of wheels.

And whatever you do - don’t get in the carriage.

 

But of course… you will.