Among the mixture of ancient oak trees and towering pines, age-old farmhouses with large land between, scour the town.
The Legend of Valley is a terrifying tale of hate, and revenge, making this mysterious small town,
America’s scariest places on earth.
In 1924, the town of Valley was a simple farming community hidden in the woods.
Martha Hasel was slow and not loved by her mother. She was always reminded how ugly and unsocial she was. Her mother didn’t want Martha to become an old maid living with her. Therefore, she pushed Martha on anyone. Unfortunately, Martha met an older man, Albert Wise. A man with a wild temper and unclean habits.
After the marriage, he worked Martha like a mule in the fields. Until one night, she found him dead on the living room floor. She grieved embarrassingly loud at his funeral.
Shortly after Albert’s death, a younger man caught her eye. A married man with children, however, she dismissed that fact, only caring about her feelings.
Her family demanded she stop seeing him. She refused and flew into a fury. Fires raged in the fields, animals died, and thefts in the middle of the night. People truly thought it was something demonic. How could one person do this?
On Thanksgiving, through New Year’s, her family and other locals became ill. Poison found in their bodies according to an autopsy.
People believed it was Martha Wise, and townspeople demanded justice for the hell she brought to Valley. Arrested for murder, people testified they seen her running wild in the fields naked, howling like a dog. Neighbors of Martha heard loud banging and seen lights going on and off in her house. Everyone knew about her obsessions with funerals.
Martha denied any wrongdoing at first then admitted to everything, after she heard the only people willing to testify for her, would be unable because of odd circumstances. Her deceased husband’s brother, Matthew, suffered a nervous breakdown and committed to the insane asylum. His break caused after he found his wife dead in their bed; ruled a suicide from alcohol poisoning.
At trial, Martha’s dark black eyes gleam with vengeance with every person who speaks against her. She was given life, however released at age 64, only to return to prison two days later because no one wanted her. In prison, she excelled and fit in for the first time.
She died at 76 in prison.
In her journal, she vowed revenge on Valley because of their wrong.
Entry: Dear whoever,
Forgiven myself for speaking to the Devil but ain’t goin forgive nobody in Valley. I'll haunts and kills each one. They said I's ugly and old, unworthy of love ;so I watchen them choke on their words. Anyhow, the Devils made me do it.
In letters to her family, she admitted the worst thing, her innocence.
Her brothers were the guilty party, always kept from harm because of the loyalty of a strange family. However, if loathed by your blood then it’s you all alone.
1976
Tempter Rd. also known as dead men run, an empty road meant driving fast, a teens dream and the scenic route for older people. Despite the nickname and several peculiar deaths, people continue on the road. The victims had jagged rip marks and deep teeth marks on their body. The locals continue to believe it's Martha, the mad woman getting her revenge.
A few locals and paranormal enthusiast claim they saw a strange creäture run across the road, an old person with a black cloak and yellow eyes.
My mother and I lived next to Martha’s House.
JUNE 1976
Virginia Draco moved into her dead grandmother’s creepy house that sits far from Tempter Rd.
Their grandmother, a crass woman who’s anger showed on her face. She let the house run into despair. Now a dilapidated house, with spooky arched windows, resembles eyes watching you. The turret is the most prominent feature of the crumbling estate.
As they finally settle in the house, it wasn’t long before the screaming and bizarre behavior started.
Virgie didn’t fit in anywhere. She was the girl everyone went to school with or seen in a horror movie. She dressed in grunge oversized black shirts, baggy cargo pants and combat boots. Something you would expect an overweight person to wear. Virgie was small, a 19 teen –year old trapped in a body of a 14 –year old that never developed into a woman.
A weakness her mother took advantage of during fights or just being cruel.
JUNE 7, 1999 MONDAY
Virgie's rest her foot on the kitchen chair as she reads an occult magazine. Her long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. She coils the hair around her finger.Her dark eyes bounce back and forth, watching her mother in secret who’s knelt down on the ceramic floor, rummaging through the pine cabinets. Steel pots and pans bang against one another, her body halfway inside the cabinet. She reminds Virgie of a raccoon, a complaining, smoking raccoon.
The July heat has, Charlotte in a bright red tank top and worn out denim jeans.
Virgie’s eyes wander over to her pale arm, she studies the freckles on her arm. She cringes in disgust.
“I hate my fucking freckles!” she mutters.
Char hears her complaint.
“Watch your mouth, all that ugliness shouldn’t come from an ugly girl.” Char grabs the Formica counter top to help lift her. She grunts as she stands up straight, dusting her pants off, leans back to crack her back. She points her index finger at Virgie while walking over to the cupboard. Chars small hands shuffle around for liquor, the glass bottles clang together. She finds the one she likes; the vodka, her usual pick. She pours a couple of shots for herself.
"I tell you this because I love you.” Char smiles.
However, if you lived in the house or were a complete stranger you could tell that was a fucking lie! Char is devoid of any feeling like a monster.
Whenever Char found a chance to lecture or correct Virgie, she felt fine to drink non-stop in front of her.
“Oh, come on don’t be upset Virgie. You know that’s why you hide in those big clothes.” Char holds back laughter and continues to throw back more shots. She exhales very loud
“Whoa!” Char yells.
“Why do I –dress in big clothes?” She asks her mother.
Char leans against the yellow kitchen counter; she clasps the shot glass in her right hand. Her eyes flutter in irritation.
“Well- If you need me to say it out loud; because your body is like a 14-year-old boy.” Char starts laughing.
“Oh, shit my stomach hurts, I haven’t laughed so hard in a while!” She covers her stomach with her hand.
Virgie sticks her lower jaw out a few times, so she doesn’t say anything. Nevertheless, the stretching didn’t work.
“Well, mother I must have got this figure from somewhere.
“True your father.” She chuckles.
Char throws back her vodka shot.
Lily pushes the table with her boot and walks out of the room.
Right now, she is nice, the best time to scatter before the dark lords of her mind come out and visit.
Char didn’t hide the fact she hated having a daughter. Virgie was nothing she wanted a depressing girl who looks brewing about everything. Virgie was a constant reminder of her youth she wasted with a man she didn’t love.
She is a hard woman, with no interest in small town life or the backwoods people, inhabiting this dark crater on the map. If she hurt someone’s feelings, then she’s telling the truth.
