 |
|
|
UER Store
|
|
order your copy of Access All Areas today!
|
|
|
|
Activity
|
|
634 online
Server Time:
2024-04-23 19:58:10
|
|
|
 | Church in St. Henri
entry by Dragonwings
5/22/2007 7:28 PM
| This was the first exploration I’ve ever been on and I was really excited.
It was Peanut and I, out on the town and we knew our location; a small abandoned church in St. Henri. We didn’t go there right away due to a patrol being initiated due to someone throwing something on their BBQ which caused it to smoke. The authorities in the area must have thought that the church might be on fire again, so we decided to lay low for a while. We went out to Bonaventure to look for the O’Keefe Brewery instead. In our travels, we wandered into a deserted squatter’s haven, crossed a bridge to head back to the place we were scoping out before (the old industrial place on the other side of the canal that the McAllister tugboat is in), headed to the old locks and over to the electrical plant down the way. After that we headed back to the railroad bridge and walked over that, avoiding a train (jk) and ducking under a fence back into the Bonaventure area. We headed over to a depanneur, a university bookstore (to use the facilities) and over to a boarded up building not far from the planetarium. Long story and lots of legal omitting later, we couldn’t get in and moved past the area to Lucien L’Allier (the Bell Centre).
After very little confusion, we headed back to the church but not before checking out some possible areas down the train tracks. Again, blah blah blah, didn’t work. We settled with the church instead.
We walked around the side of the church and entered in through a hole in the side window that wasn't boarded shut. It felt strange and exciting at first, as the sunlight disappeared and was replaced by the neglected gloom of the building, but then there was also the uncertainty. Had I packed everything I needed? Was the majority of the building structurally sound? Would we find ourselves face to face with an army of strung out squatters?
Once we were in, the first thing Peanut said was something along the lines of "oh man, I ain't goin' down there, no way in hell..." and pointed to the basement stairs. The steps descended downwards, creeping into the pitch blackness that was half-hidden behind two defunct doors. I shook my head to put my imagination to rest and replied with an honest, "It's just an empty church, dude."
"Obviously you've never played Silent Hill 2..." She replied.
We headed up the stairs that lay opposite to the ones leading to the basement and found ourselves in the main hall of the church. It was about 6 or so, and the setting sun was filtering through the broken stain glass, pouring over the prismatic shards and pools of rainwater that had settled in the center of the area, where the pews should have been. The steady stream of sun reflected off the pools and shiny surfaces that had been left by one too many misinformed teenagers, casting brilliant shimmering lights every which way. Behind this grand display, we saw a sombre one; the altar, a marble topped artifact, shattered and in pieces on the floor. It was very said to see all the graffiti the place had endured over the period it had been abandoned...
It was then that I decided it was a good time to have my camera in hand. I took a few shots of the sun streaming through what was left of the beautiful stain glass windows overhead and one or tow shots under the eaves, then we moved our exploration over into the left side of the building. Towards the kitchen and office areas. We went through a few rooms that looked the same in terms of interesting content; walls of windows smashed without mercy, doors ripped from their hinges and lying on the ground. There were more stairs leading downward and each one we came across received a different but similar reaction to the one we saw initially. Neither of us really wanted to go down there, but I wanted to photograph the place from every angle and Peanut would go if I said I was game. I had this idea already brewing in my head as we passed out fourth passage to Subterrania and found the kitchen area. I snapped a few there and then we moved up to the second floor. We were astutely careful of what methods we used of getting up (aka using the stairs). Once up, we looked around. There were some very pretty rooms, great views and some debris... all the same, give me a broom and some windex...
We were looking around when these other two guys showed up. First of all, we thought it was the cops or something so we freaked and tried to hide. Turns out it was just a few locals looking around... still I nearly had a heart attack! From there, we went up the next staircase, though this one was decidedly less friendly than the other one, what with missing the banister and all. Cautiously we made our way up to the top floor, looking around some of the rooms and heading out to the roof. Due to a fear of heights, I didn't relish the idea of being out there for all that long. All the same, the view was nice and I did get a picture of the burnt section of the church for my trouble. From there, we headed down, back to the ground floor and then I sprung my idea.
Peanut wasn't happy, but we continued down, into the belly of the beast. We went through the doors at the beginning and, flashlight in hand, we tread the encroaching darkness. As we walked further, I kept feeling that we should turn back. It was strange; I'm not a nichtophobe (I'm not scared of the dark, in other words) but I kept feeling this was not a place I wanted to be. In the end, my mind kept screaming it, while the rest of me continued walking forward. I'm not a little kid and there's no boogeyman so why delude myself?
Peanut was feeling the same and let me know she was getting a little freaked. I gave her the camera to calm her down and went ahead with the flash light. We turned the corner and found a wide open space, light filtering through the gloom through several tiny windows. It looked almost like an elementary school gymnasium; there was a stage for plays, a big area for playing tag and skipping rope and various doors on the sides of the walls, presumably leading to stairwells. Peanut snapped a few shots of the same point because she couldn't get the angle she wanted and I shone the flashlight around to take our bearings. We sloshed through the puddles on the floor and headed for the back of the area, towards a set of doors and a staircase. At more than once, Peanut's over active imagination got the better of her, and here was one such time; we walked through the door and she screamed. I asked her what it was after I started breathing again. She said she thought she saw something in the hole of a gouged door, so I took a shot once she'd given me the camera. We checked out the other rooms and a staircase that went nowhere next, then decided to go back up to the main floor.
I felt a little relieved once we were out of the black and back to the hall; for the most part, I just felt strange whilst in the basement and it was quite nice to see the sun or what was left of it once we emerged. While we were down there, it had started to set and now there wasn't a lot of light left for decent photographs, at least not with my camera. I took a few shots of the altar and what was left of the baptismal bowl (or where it should have been at least). After a few more shots and a lot of complaining from Peanut, we got out of there and I headed home to check out the shots on my computer.
All in all, I thought things went very well and was happy with the shots I got. There were a few minor things that confused me, however. All the shots seemed normal enough until I got to looking at them. Once I got to the basement shots, I noticed strange lights and glowing balls in some of the shots and then nothing in the others. After the basement, this became widespread; there were "orbs" in almost every shot I took, with varying intensity, size and brilliance. In some shots there would be one or two, in another there would be a dozen. What gets me is that it was soaking wet in the church and there wasn't any dirt floating around (that wasn't mud, of course). I have no real explanation for this other than the possibility it could have been skin cells or particles the two of us had shaken off or something, but even that seems unlikely.
Well, it's safe to say that night I didn't do a lot of sleeping...
Soon we'll be going back to do another exploration and I'll see if the same thing happens while we are in the basement. I'll be sure to post these images once I have obtained them.
Modify Entry |
|
Comments: (use Reply to add a comment)
| This thread is in a public category, and can't be made private. |
|
All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire.
To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site:
UER CONTACT
View Terms of Service |
View Privacy Policy |
Server colocation provided by Beanfield
This page was generated for you in 85 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 738826560 pages have been generated.
|
|
