I used to live in a small town called Oro Station in Simcoe near Barrie and Orillia when I was younger. My mom worked at an office in Barrie where a friend of a co-worker used to own this house that he would rent out. But for some reason, he always had trouble keeping people in the house. The reason being the house was haunted.

It was a classic haunting by all accounts. Doors would slam in the middle of the night, there were screams, sounds of gunshots, footsteps on the stairs, etc.

Now, of course this house had a past or else this story would be a little pointless. A couple, we'll call them Mary and John, had gotten a divorce. It wasn't a pleasant divorce, but not many are. Mary had moved into a different house with her two young sons and new boyfriend. John never got over the divorce and spent months alone with his jealousy. One day, John finally snapped and went over to Mary's house with a gun. John shot Mary and shot Mary's new boyfriend. John also took his two sons hostage. The hostage situation lasted a couple of hours before the police finally convinced John to let his kids go and give himself up peacefully. By this point, Mary had lost a lot of blood and her boyfriend was dead. Mary was okay, but in my opinion, her soul remains in the house. I'm not sure what happened to the house after that. But I know that my mom's co-worker's friend finally had the doors and windows boarded up.

My cousin and I always loved hearing my mom tell us this story and everytime my cousin visited me, we would beg my mom to drive past the house.

On one particular night, we drove past the house and my cousin and I both looked at the same upstairs window. This window only had one board across it so you could still see inside but it was impossible for anyone to climb in or out of the window. We saw an old woman with wild gray hair that was pulled into a bun and she was wearing a tattered black dress. It was after dark and the streetlights were on.

Now, it's a scientific fact that if light shines on a solid figure, a shadow will appear on the wall behind them. This was not the case with the woman. The streetlight shone in the window and went right through her onto the wall.

The last time I went past the house, it had been fixed up and painted yellow, but I still wonder if the house carries the scars of past.