## When This Girl Looked At Her Vacation Photos, She Noticed An Eerie Figure Watching Them
A young woman is flipping through Instagram, admiring her cousin’s snaps of an adventure in the mountains of Canada. Just a month previously, she had visited the spot herself, recreating the daring pose over a dizzying drop. However, she now notices something sinister in the background: an eerie figure watching her cousin from afar.
Dundas Peak is a popular viewpoint that overlooks the city of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. Reached via a 2.4-mile circular trail, the area is a favorite spot with hikers, birdwatchers, walkers and cyclists. Impressively, it also features Hamilton’s tallest waterfall, the 135-foot Tew’s Falls.
However, these days it isn’t just outdoors enthusiasts who flock to Dundas Peak. With its rocky peaks and stomach-churning drops into Spencer Gorge below, the vantage point has become a popular spot with those seeking the perfect social media pose.
Yet in their desire to capture an Instagram-friendly shot of themselves conquering nature, many visitors are putting themselves at risk. Indeed, authorities report that the number of hikers who needed rescuing from the peak rose sharply over the course of 2016.
Still, despite the risks, Dundas Peak is more popular than ever with adventurers. In 2016, in fact, as many as 140,000 people are thought to have visited the area. And in the midst of these crowds was one man whose photograph would spark one of the most bizarre chapters in the history of the peak.
At first glance, the man’s souvenir snap doesn’t look like anything particularly special. Indeed, there seems to be little to tell it apart from the thousands of other Instagram images featuring visitors posing at Dundas Peak – of which there are currently some 10,000 online.
Wearing jeans and a dark jacket, the man poses on the edge of a rocky outcrop, and like many of the thrill-seeking visitors to Dundas Peak, he sits with one foot dangling perilously off the edge. In keeping with tradition, furthermore, he subsequently uploaded the snap to his Instagram account.
Soon, the man’s cousin noticed his post and the seemingly death-defying pose. And just a few days later, she and a friend made their own way to Dundas Peak. When they arrived, the pair took it in turns to step out onto the rocky ledge and recreate the original photograph.
After successfully taking their souvenir photos, the two friends then headed home. For the next month, life carried on as normal, with neither of them suspecting that there was anything unusual about their trek. Then, something truly strange happened – an unnerving incident that would put Dundas Peak more firmly in the spotlight than ever before.
At some point in 2016 a reddit user known as SlicedUpBeef made a fascinating post on the social news site. Apparently, they had accompanied the unidentified woman on her quest to recreate her cousin’s photograph. What’s more, they had a fascinating story to tell.
According to the reddit post, about a month after their visit to Dundas Peak, the woman was again looking at her cousin’s Instagram images. Suddenly, moreover, she noticed a striking difference between his photograph and the corresponding ones that she had taken with her friend.
In the original photo, a mysterious figure could be seen on the steep hillside beneath the trail. According to the poster, the terrain where the individual was standing was impossible to navigate on foot. So, how could a person be standing there? And why was the figure so strangely thin?
If that weren’t creepy enough, the poster additionally noted that the figure was standing in a bizarrely straight posture – and also appeared to have no face. “I know you’re probably thinking that is probably just a brave hiker,” they admitted. “But trust me, that spot is completely inaccessible.”
Because the poster’s friend’s photographs did not show the same anomaly, it seemed unlikely to be a naturally occurring phenomenon. So, just what did the original image show? Well, while the poster was prepared to admit that the figure might not be human, they appealed to the internet for suggestions.
Soon, the comments came flooding in. Some were quick to point out that people often went missing in and around Dundas Peak. Could, then, the mysterious figure be the ghost of an unfortunate hiker who met with a grisly fate in these hills?
Although some posters seemed to find the photograph frightening, the majority were sure that there must be a logical explanation. In fact, one claimed that it was an illusion created by holes in the rock. Another, meanwhile, said that melting ice was to blame.
Disappointingly, others also came forward to dispel the notion that the location was inaccessible to hikers. “Sorry to burst all your bubbles,” read one comment, “but there’s a trail that leads up to that area and goes around the escarpment just under the rocks. That is, most likely, a person hiking around.”
In fact, reddit user tharchitect42 went so far as to claim that they themselves might be the source of all the confusion. Apparently, they often went hiking at Dundas Peak – including on a date that tied in with the original poster’s timeline. Interestingly, they also recalled wearing dark jeans and a gray top – an outfit whose appearance would match that of the mystery figure.
However, these explanations didn’t satisfy everyone. As the story grew more popular, it was picked up by news outlets from around the world. Then, in the comments section of the MailOnline, one user brought up another hypothesis. Apparently, one Christmas Eve, there was a fatal train crash below Dundas Peak.
In total, 15 people lost their lives on that fateful day in 1934. So, could some of their tormented souls still be haunting the rugged landscape where they met their deaths? Although most locals seem to have taken the story with a pinch of salt, the mysterious photograph continues to send chills up many people’s spines.
It seems that for some people, witnessing a suspected supernatural presence can occur much closer to home. Take cartoonist Adam Ellis, for instance, who has drawn in a million internet users with his tale about the ghostly figure that supposedly lurks around his New York apartment. And the artist has apparently even presented visual proof, too.
Do you believe in ghosts? Well, even if the answer is a resolute “no,” you may find yourself swayed by the story of Dear David. New York cartoonist Adam Ellis claims that a young boy of that name has been haunting his apartment. And the spooky goings-on that the artist has shared with his Twitter followers are eerily convincing, too. Internet users are, however, always quick to say “pics or it didn’t happen.” But now Ellis alleges he has unnerving photographs to prove that the phantom presence is anything but a work of fiction.
Supernatural sightings are still surprisingly common among people of many faiths and none all over the world. In fact, there are countless claims that ancient structures are haunted – from the Colosseum in Rome to the Pyramids of Giza. Tourists and staff at the iconic Egyptian site have reportedly witnessed ghosts of both a pharaoh and the cursed pyramid discoverer Howard Carter. But apparently it’s not just world-famous historic locations that apparitions choose as hang-out spots.
Yes, there are also numerous claims of spirits appearing in more modest apartment buildings and houses across the globe. One such claim comes from Adam Ellis, a cartoonist based in New York. Ellis’ story encompasses all manner of strange, unexplained occurrences and spooky phenomena, all of which seem to point to the existence of something out of this world.
It all started back in August 2017, when Ellis first made an eerie tweet to his thousands of followers. He began, “So, my apartment is currently being haunted by the ghost of a dead child, and he’s trying to kill me.” That original chilling update has racked up tens of thousands of retweets and likes. And in his subsequent 260 tweets on the ghostly topic, Ellis has succeeded in capturing the imagination of the online community.
Ellis claimed to have originally seen the spooky spirit in a series of dreams, but he now says the hauntings have since passed over into reality. Using his considerable artistic skills, Ellis drew a picture of the ghost that he claims to have witnessed. And there’s no denying the disturbing nature of the visualization. It features a frightening figure with an enormous head, squashed on its right side and complete with sunken eyes and wispy strands of hair.
Ellis has said that in one of his dreams he learned from a mysterious young female figure that the spirit was called “Dear David.” The girl apparently informed the sleeping artist, “He’s dead. He only appears at midnight, and you can ask him two questions if you [say] ‘Dear David’ first.” Like any good ghost story, however, this rule came with a creepy caveat. Ellis said he was told that if anyone had the temerity to ask David a third question, the malevolent spirit would murder them.
Not long after acquiring this seemingly arcane knowledge, Ellis tweeted that he had once again dreamed of David. According to the artist, he dreamt that the apparition had been sitting in a green rocking chair that Ellis kept at the bottom of his bed. And, despite the previous warning, the artist said he had accidentally asked the spirit three questions concerning the circumstances of his death. Apparently, the first two queries were answered: he was killed in a store, and it was a consequence of someone pushing a shelf on top of his head. But when Ellis asked who had pushed the shelf, two things reportedly happened in one instance. David fell silent, and Ellis woke up in a state of terror.
Over the months that followed, Ellis tweeted about a series of strange incidents that he said had occurred in his Manhattan apartment. He said things were literally going bump in the night, with all manner of unexplained noises keeping him occupied during the hours of darkness. He claimed that every night at midnight, his pet cats would inexplicably stare at his front door. He also reported that Polaroid photos he’d taken of his hallway came out entirely black – despite the space being well-lit. And in late August 2017 Ellis said that a string of phone calls made to him from an unknown number ended in a tiny, almost inaudible “hello.”
Subsequently, a perturbed Ellis installed nanny cams in his apartment. And soon enough he reported that they had captured something spooky. Ellis claimed that the cameras filmed the green rocking chair that he had previously kept in the bedroom swaying in the empty living room overnight. Yes, the very same chair in which he said David had appeared to him. And while it could potentially have been put down simply to a draught in the building, the cartoonist claimed that he kept all of his windows closed to make his air-con effective. Over the course of these strange goings-on, Ellis therefore became increasingly unnerved – and turned to solutions suggested to him on Twitter by his now-enraptured and growing audience.
Consequently, it appears that the artist turned to his kitchen cupboards. Yet while avid horror fans will recognize the use of salt and sage as supernatural deterrents, they didn’t seem to do the trick for Ellis. In September the same year he left for a trip to Japan – but even traveling almost 7,000 miles didn’t distance him from his supernatural preoccupation. You see, while sightseeing in the city of Sapporo, he spotted a strange statue – and to his reported horror, the cartoonist noticed a detail that apparently bore an uncanny resemblance to Dear David.
By now, it seems, thoroughly unnerved, Ellis returned to Manhattan and his apartment. Then in November 2017 the artist took to Twitter again to tell of more bizarre noises – this time coming from above. Ellis’ apartment is on the top floor of his building, though, and he maintained that there’s no means to access the roof. However, that’s exactly where he claimed the noises were coming from, so this new source of unrest appeared especially disquieting. And then, so we’re told, he remembered about the hatch…
The cartoonist had apparently never investigated the access door that’s situated in the ceiling above his stairway – not least because he had no way of reaching it. In order to determine the source of the unexplained noises, then, Ellis sourced a long pole from an internet seller. His aim was to push the hatch open – but when he did so, he claims, a strange object fell at his feet: an old child-sized leather shoe.
Ellis claimed that he then called his landlord, who brought a ladder to have a proper look. At this point, it seems that the proprietor found a crawlspace and called down to his tenant that it was empty – until something glinted. The landlord then apparently reached in and retrieved a child’s marble, the design of which suggested that it was more than 100 years old. This gave Ellis no comfort, though, and he carried on tweeting about the dreams that seemingly continued to plague his sleep. The artist recounted that in one of these dreams he was using his smartphone to snap photos of David slowly and menacingly edging towards him. And according to Ellis, when he woke the next day he realized that he had indeed been taking pictures in his sleep. However, he said that the real-life shots were of a bedroom minus anything untoward.
As Manhattan meanwhile began to gear up for Christmas, Ellis looked to be gearing up to get to the bottom of it all. In early December the cartoonist tweeted that he had downloaded an app that would help him solve the spooky mystery. This app would enable his smartphone to automatically take a photo every 60 seconds. That night, then, the artist positioned his phone so that it overlooked his bedroom, and then he went to sleep. A few hours later, Ellis has since said, he awoke to find that the app had taken some 350 pictures. And then, with no small amount of apparent unease, he began to scroll through his camera roll.
He reported that for the first couple of hundred images, nothing appeared out of the ordinary. It was just Ellis sleeping soundly in the seemingly normal setting of his bedroom. Normal, that is, until he came across the spine-chilling picture above. The image the cartoonist later tweeted shows a figure – presumably Dear David – standing on a chair in the corner of the room, staring down at the prone artist.
As he continued to scroll through the camera contents, Ellis then apparently found more pictures of the sinister form. The images show the apparition switch its ghostly gaze from the sleeping cartoonist to the ceiling; it then seemingly crumples into the chair. “Dear David” subsequently disappears for a few shots before making a dramatic return – standing on Ellis’ bed. The very last picture in the series is, however, undoubtedly the creepiest.
Yes, the disturbing final picture looks like an especially creeped-out still from a sequence in a horror movie. It’s like the kind of jump scare you would perhaps find in one of the Insidious films. And it apparently gave Ellis quite a shock, too. “I’m at a loss for words,” he tweeted. “That malformed ear, that stringy hair. I didn’t even know what to think. I looked all over my room but couldn’t find anything. And honestly I’ve been so exhausted [that] I didn’t know how to process it.”
Since that night in December, Ellis hasn’t tweeted all that much about Dear David. In fact, the artist maintains that he is mostly fine aside from a few “weird” feelings. He says that he hasn’t been suffering from too many distressing dreams of late – and that consequently he is benefitting from longer and better sleep. Meanwhile, though, his spooky story has been picked up by all kinds of media. Ellis’ Twitter following has since ballooned to more than a million users. But not everyone is convinced that the story of Dear David is true.
For instance, one visitor to The Sun’s website was moved to comment unbelievingly beneath a story about Ellis’ supernatural reports. “This man is a comic illustrator,” the sceptic wrote, adding, “It’s all a ploy to promote his own creation. Perhaps next time he might think about pressing the video button instead of the photo button.”
Whatever the truth, though, there’s no denying the fact that Dear David has intrigued an audience of hundreds of thousands. In an age where supernatural tales have been diluted by hackneyed horror movies, Ellis has presented a fresh twist. Yes, whether we choose to believe it or not, the artist has shared the perfect ghost story for the 21st century – one told via a smartphone and delivered by the medium of Twitter.
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