GIBSONS, B.C.

Names in this story have been changed to protect the privacy of the individual(s).

Sometimes the most ordinary looking places can be a magnet for the unknown.

Back in 2015 Adriana and friend, Tim, rented a house on Burton Road, just outside Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast. The home was an unassuming three-bedroom rancher, about 40 years old and situated on a rural property with a long driveway a short distance from town. 

According to Adriana, odd things started shortly after moving in, including hearing footsteps no one could account for, unexplained cold drafts, and feeling uneasy, as if being watched. One night after turning in for bed, Adrianna heard her name being called by an unaccounted for voice. 

Once, while sitting on the couch with mutual friend, Adam, something unseen pinched Adrianna’s arm, understandably leaving both friends shaken. 

Adam experienced things of his own while staying there for a couple weeks, including hearing the same footsteps on his first night.

“The first night I stayed there I was lying on the couch and heard noises in the kitchen, in the back room, noises just like footsteps . . . I’m like ‘what is that?’ I had no idea.” 

He said the noises continued throughout his stay and would start about an hour after everyone had gone to bed. He also experienced strange sensations as he lay there at night, one which he described as “pins and needles all over my entire body,” as well as a weight that would come down on top of him. 

Despite the sounds, feelings, and sensations, no one had yet to see anything. However, that changed one afternoon in September when Adrianna, Adam, and a mutual friend we’re returning from a trip into town. 

As the trio came up the long driveway, both their friend, who was driving, and Adrianna, who rode shotgun, saw a white mass through the enclosed garage windows, watching as it moved to the end of the room, exit an exterior wall, and continue into an adjacent shed on the far side of the property. Stunned, both asked each other to describe what they’d just seen and soon realized they’d seen the same thing. Both described a white mass in the form of a “silhouette.” Adam, who rode in back, wasn’t looking in that direction and saw nothing. 

At first Adrianna tried to rationalize it, wondering if it was just a reflection of the headlights. But it was only four in the afternoon in September and still bright outside, so the theory didn’t hold. 

“Was it just the headlights?” Adrianna recalled. “But it was daylight. I was like ‘no, that was not the headlights!”

Off the enclosed garage, which was being used as a sort of rec room, was a door to an empty spare room in the back of the house, which had a distinctly ominous feel. Once while drinking, a group of friends dared each other to spend a few minutes alone in there. No one agreed. 

The friends have moved on from the home in the years since, though the memories will likely stay for a long time. When asked whether the place had changed his stance on ghosts, Adam said that though he doesn’t normally believe in ghosts he believes “there’s something unexplained going on there.”