Voices from the Grave

Story: I am 18 years old, and I reside in Waukegan, Illinois. I used to live in Park Ridge until last March, when me and my family moved out here to Waukegan. I am e-mailing you because I would like to share with you my experiences at the house on Rainbow Road, and give you a little update about that “glass house” that someone talked about in a post on your website.

About a year or so ago, (I can’t give you an exact date because I don’t remember, but it was during my Junior year of high school around winter time) my uncle who lives in Barrington, told me about the house on Rainbow Road, and how it is haunted. So of course, curiosity killed my cat and I got some friends to come with me to check it out. What I saw there, absolutely freaked me out. What’s interesting is none of my friends saw it. I was the only one that experienced it.

As you know, you go over the gate and walk down a long road that eventually leads to a fork. It takes you to what I remember to be a silo to the left, and another road to the right. You keep walking down that road to the right and there is the mansion. We had seen boarded up windows that had “keep out, police order” spray-painted on there. The door had been chained, so we could not get in that way. On the side of the house, there was a window that had no glass or wooden board covering it. We entered through there, and what I saw next scared the crap out of me. There was a wooden table in the corner, and two chairs. There was nothing there for a second, and when I reached into my pocket to look at my phone to see what time it was, my phone had shut off, which I thought was odd considering I had it on the car charger the whole ride over there. When I looked up, I saw two figures sitting at the table, what appeared to be a mother and a daughter. They were looking at each ot her, not saying anything. They then turned and looked at me, and just stared at me. And it wasn’t a friendly stare. It was a cold, hateful stare, like a “get away from us” kind of stare. I turned to my friends, and told them that it was freaking me out. My buddy asked me what I was talking about, because they didn’t see anything. I was like, “DO YOU NOT SEE THESE TWO PEOPLE STARING AT US?!” That’s when it happened. I felt behind me, what felt like some kind of pressure. Then, a ghostly figure walked right through me, and it from what it seemed like, he was the father. He lit up the whole room with his glow, and once again, my friends didn’t experience any of this. He then turned around, looked at me, and in an evil, deranged voice, stared at me and said, “get out.” I grabbed my friends and told them to jump out the window and run. We hauled out of there, and as we ran, I heard screaming. A loud, painful screaming from the room that we were in. We hopped the gate and went back to my car. As I sped off and out of there I told my friends what I saw, and they said they didn’t see any of it. I reached into my pocket and took out my cell phone, which was no longer turned off, but back on with a full battery. I did not turn it back on. We went home, and I said I would never go back there again.

What happened that night has never happened to me before, and I’ve never had a supernatural experience since. But I will tell you this, what I saw that night was ghosts. They were ghosts that were very deranged and cruel. They looked just like human people, but very lightly transparent, and they were glowing. But by the way they stared, I could feel the hatred. The man who told me to get out said it in such a deep, deranged voice, it seemed as if it was satanic. And the painful, ear jarring screams I heard when I ran away, it was almost unreal.

Can you explain to me what happened? Have you ever heard any stories like this at Rainbow Road? What I experienced there does not match the story behind that house, about the mafia or whatever. I would just like to know what I experienced, and if I am in any danger for telling you this story. –Alex Gratys

P.S. ~ About that glass house, it is not haunted. My cousin’s (the son of my uncle that lives in the Braemar subdivision) girlfriend lives in that glass house. She says that she has never experienced anything in her house, but has seen things when walking home at night.

Response from Scott Markus: Alex, Can you tell me about the house you went into? Is it the image shown here:
From Alex: Yes that is absolutely the one.

Response from Scott Markus: I cannot explain exactly what you saw as, as you put it, it doesn’t go along with the house’s backstory (which, so far doesn’t actually include the Mafia).    The likely scenario is that your subconscious and fears bled into letting you see something that wasn’t truely there.

However, let’s go along for the ride and find a supernatural answer/theory!  The actual mansion, which was burned as part of a fireman training exercise in the mid-to-late ’90s contained a storm cellar.  (this is all true, by the way…this isn’t the theory part).  In that storm cellar of the abandoned mansion, people broke in to be able to practice some dark arts in the privacy of the cellar.  This is according to trustworthy eye witnesses who visited and can attest to finding strange markings on the floor, burned-out candles and animal remains, presumably the result of animal sacrifice.

Perhaps, much like the story behind the Stickney House, someone  opened a ‘door’ that they didn’t know how to close.  I bring this up mainly due to your use of the word Satanic to describe the feel you had when seeing these phantoms.  I would love to see if anyone else comes forth with similar stories, but as of now, this is the first I’ve heard of anything of the sort.