Fort Davis, Texas, is an old settlement.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, people began to flock there during the summer, but the habit has since been lost.
Moreover, beyond the Fort Davis National Historic site, there isn’t much to see in Fort Davis that cannot be seen anywhere else in Texas.
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Updated 2/11/2020 – Yet, if you drive north-east on Texas Highway 17, you might get to visit a peculiar place.
What secrets hide on the road leading to Fort Davis?
“The thing is,” our source told us, talking about the time he and his girlfriend visited Fort Davis, “no one knew we left.”
His girlfriend thought that Fort Davis would be a beautiful place for a summer holiday.
It was anything but.
They left after only a few days.
No one saw them leaving town at the crack of dawn.
As soon as the town disappeared behind, a stretch of dirt road opened on the side of the highway.
Their car swerved toward it.
“I told my girl, who was driving, to pull over and turn back,” he said.
But, she didn’t react.
Instead, she drove along until they reached a dark, dilapidated barn.
“The thing is, we took the 17 on the way to Fort Davis, and I did not see the dirt road then, mind you I wasn’t looking for it either.” he said.
His girlfriend got out of the car, and he had to follow.
It was incredibly hot outside.
Ten feet from the barn, his girlfriend turned around.
“What are we doing here?” she asked him.
She did not remember the drive.
Then the barn shook, and birds flew out, big and dark, hundreds of them, maybe even thousands.
They glided on their massive black wings and swooped towards the two.
“We dropped down, hands over our heads.
The birds kept getting closer and closer, eventually taking swipes at the couple.”
Their car was too far away.
They ran into the barn.
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“It was pitch black,” he said.
“And bitterly cold.
I could feel someone, no, some thing, watching me, waiting.”
The Shadow moved and surrounded them.
Demonic whispers penetrated their ears, their minds filled with visions of death and hellfire.
“I could feel myself bleeding from a cut on my forearm as I fell to my knees again.”
He braced for the fall, and the blood hit the ground.
Light penetrated inside.
The black birds and the Shadow were gone.
If you stray off the highway, you might not find your way back
When the ordeal was done, the couple went back into their car and drove back.
It seemed to take a very long time.
But, the cuts on their arms were gone, as if they’d never been there at all.
There aren’t many legends in Fort Davis, but the legend of the Cursed Barn of the Shadow trumps them all.
No one knows who built the Cursed Barn or why.
They say men and women over the years would hear the tale and go looking for the Shadow.
Bravely, they want to exorcise the barn and drive the Shadow away.
Sometimes, they are found wandering down a rural road, speaking in a harsh, demonic language.
The Shadow has taken them whole and left a shell behind, a vessel for the Shadow and the evil spirits it commands.
So don’t stray off Highway 17 when leaving Fort Davis, or you might end up like that too.