DARE COUNTY, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – There are stories written in ink, some told in whispers and others carved in stone.
One doesn’t have to look too far to find all kinds of stories on Roanoke Island.
“When you’re walking through the woods at night, you feel it. It’s here,” said Angel Khoury.
Rooted in the north end of the island is a mystery older than America herself. Now, 400 years later, it still hasn’t been solved.
“The lost colony mystery, just everything is here,” said Angel.
While the lost colony is part of the local legends, this is a place where the past and the present blur.
“I think when you have tombstones that close to you, obviously stories arise. There’s a tombstone in the graveyard behind my house that says lost at sea,” said Angel.
From her backyard to the streets of Manteo on Roanoke Island, inspiration is everywhere for author Angel Khoury. She’s known for her books on the area, but it turns out, she’s not the only one telling stories.
“It’s little unexplainable things that take place,” said Nadine Daniels.
“Nobody believes my story, they laugh at me,” said Amy Powell.
“I’ve got this story that I believe because I experienced it, but as soon as I hear someone else’s, I’m like that’s bull crap,” said Chris Hannant.
Ask Chris how to sail, or even spearfish, and he’ll have all the answers. But 16 years later, he still can’t explain what happened off the dock near Angel’s house.
“That shadow then slides out and starts sliding down the hill toward the foot of the dock,” said Chris.
Chris has months’ worth of unexplained stories from his time out on the water. One night, he said he was holding onto the railing.
“Then I hear, like BOOM on the railing, I jump back and was like guys lets go, that was the first time of a violent feeling of occurrence,” remembered Chris.
People come in for the stories at the downtown bookshop in Manteo, but Amy Powell has one of her own.
“I always used to joke to people when they come in to ask about stories, well I say, I have my own ghost story,” said Amy.
She worked at a children’s shop just a few doors over. On evenings when she was alone, the puzzles would start to shake.
“And nobody else is in the store, it made me wonder, why are they making noise?” said Amy.
“Our house sits on the corner of Devon Street and Cemetery Lane,” said Nadine Daniels.
Nadine thought it’d be quiet living next to a cemetery, until one day when she heard her daughter up in her bedroom.
“She was giggling, it was like she was speaking to somebody and just carrying on and she was the only one in the bedroom,” said Nadine.
Her daughter was 2-years-old at the time, and Nadine said, the woman’s name was Margaret. She didn’t think much of it until she found an old piece of paper in the walls.
“When we did open up the wall and find an envelope in it and it was addressed to a Miss Margaret and that really freaked me out,” said Nadine.
In every story, there comes a time when things stop being irrational and start to feel…real.
“I believe in ghosts, yes I do,” said Nadine. “My husband, he thinks I’m crazy too.”
Chris said, he knows what happened to him all those years ago.
“I remember just peddling away thinking to myself there must be things we don’t understand or can’t explain,” said Chris.
As for the author, she’s got a story of her own.
“But you just hear stories about ghosts and you kind of wonder if it’s real, but I certainly had some experiences I don’t know how to explain,” said Angel.
Angel said, things got so bad at her house, someone had to come and help get rid of the ghost.
“I do believe,” said Angel. “Since they showed up at my house, I surely do.”
As for this story, maybe Manteo is a place where stories don’t stay buried because they haven’t ended…yet.
Happy Halloween.
