Suuuuure it's a church
Okay, so I have a weird story to tell. There's this place, a building behind a tall metal fence with pointy bits on top, and a gate with a keypad. It's like a block away from my apartment; well, one block down and another block south on 19th. Anyway, I don't often walk by it, but I've walked by it probably at least 100 times since moving into the area. Until recently there was no indication at all what the purpose of the building was. No signage, nobody entering or exiting no matter what time of the day it was or what day of the week it was, nobody on the grounds.
Weirdest bit was, no matter how desperately curious I got about the place, I never thought to take a photo of it. Never thought to write a note about it in my phone. Never checked the location on Google Maps. And literally the second it was out of sight, I'd forget all about it.
Now I know I have ADHD, but that's just ridiculous. Even with ADHD there should've been at least one time when my curiosity continued for the block and a half trip home from there long enough for me to post about it when I got home. But no. Every single bloody time I'd get out of sight of it, I'd forget it existed. I didn't remember it at any point before getting there or any point after leaving. Literally out of sight, out of mind.
And because I would suddenly remember every single previous time I'd been by it, it didn't take me long to start noticing how weird that was. I started thinking of it either as an SCP or maybe a secret hideout for witches or faeries. Especially since nobody else in the area ever seemed to notice it or even look its way. Still haven't.
This might have continued for years to come, this weird mystery that I could never remember to speak about to anyone, until today when I noticed someone had put up a sign declaring it to be a church. Which... yeah sure it's a church. I mean, it looks nothing like a church. Churches don't hide behind fancy tall metal fences with electronic gates. Churches advertise because they WANT people going to them, to give them money. Also this place is far too wealthy looking for a church, especially one that never advertised. I've literally never seen any cars or people enter or exit, never seen any people inside, and nobody ever looks at the place but me.
There's still nothing there on the Google Maps page, as well. I just checked. It's there on street view, but there's no information or pin about it. Just a blank spot. I included a screen capture for proof.
I mean clearly the sign broke the spell the place had over me, allowing me to talk about it at last, but I don't for a second believe it's a real church. I don't know what that building is, what it's used for, or if anyone ever goes in there, but I don't believe it's a church. Not even for a second. Clearly someone noticed me looking strangely at the place and decided to do something to deflect attention from it. Given my usual attitude towards churches, I presume they thought I'd be like "Oh, just a church" and ignore it like everyone else. But I can't be fooled that easily!
(I presume someone must go in there sometimes, to keep the lawn immaculate. Unless that's just an illusion?)
So yeah, I can finally talk about this mysterious place but that doesn't make the place any less mysterious to me. If anything it makes it even MORE mysterious. And suspicious. I mean, years of intense curiosity being wiped away the instant I can't see it anymore, unable to remember it exists when I'm not looking at it, and all of a sudden some hastily put up sign breaks that spell? No, that's not a normal building. It's supernatural.
Okay so I looked up their website. It looks more like a website for a corporation than for a church, it's not even a site for the local "church" but for the entire organization. It's creeping me out. I also searched their number on a search engine; apart from their website I also got a whole slew of sites talking about "877 area code" scammers. So I'm even more suspicious of this place than ever before, for entirely different reasons now. I'm thinking if I called them, they'd try to sell me a pyramid scheme.
EDIT: So some of the creepy vibes the place gives off are explained. Apparently that religion is one of those Christian sects that is basically a cult.
https://www.culteducation.com/group/1289-general-information/27227-the-closed-door-church-inside-the-secretive-and-strict-plymouth-brethren-sect-in-manitoba.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Brethren_Christian_Church#Beliefs_and_practices . . . This was cross-posted from https://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/1688980.html
You can comment either here or there.
Weirdest bit was, no matter how desperately curious I got about the place, I never thought to take a photo of it. Never thought to write a note about it in my phone. Never checked the location on Google Maps. And literally the second it was out of sight, I'd forget all about it.
Now I know I have ADHD, but that's just ridiculous. Even with ADHD there should've been at least one time when my curiosity continued for the block and a half trip home from there long enough for me to post about it when I got home. But no. Every single bloody time I'd get out of sight of it, I'd forget it existed. I didn't remember it at any point before getting there or any point after leaving. Literally out of sight, out of mind.
And because I would suddenly remember every single previous time I'd been by it, it didn't take me long to start noticing how weird that was. I started thinking of it either as an SCP or maybe a secret hideout for witches or faeries. Especially since nobody else in the area ever seemed to notice it or even look its way. Still haven't.
This might have continued for years to come, this weird mystery that I could never remember to speak about to anyone, until today when I noticed someone had put up a sign declaring it to be a church. Which... yeah sure it's a church. I mean, it looks nothing like a church. Churches don't hide behind fancy tall metal fences with electronic gates. Churches advertise because they WANT people going to them, to give them money. Also this place is far too wealthy looking for a church, especially one that never advertised. I've literally never seen any cars or people enter or exit, never seen any people inside, and nobody ever looks at the place but me.
There's still nothing there on the Google Maps page, as well. I just checked. It's there on street view, but there's no information or pin about it. Just a blank spot. I included a screen capture for proof.
I mean clearly the sign broke the spell the place had over me, allowing me to talk about it at last, but I don't for a second believe it's a real church. I don't know what that building is, what it's used for, or if anyone ever goes in there, but I don't believe it's a church. Not even for a second. Clearly someone noticed me looking strangely at the place and decided to do something to deflect attention from it. Given my usual attitude towards churches, I presume they thought I'd be like "Oh, just a church" and ignore it like everyone else. But I can't be fooled that easily!
(I presume someone must go in there sometimes, to keep the lawn immaculate. Unless that's just an illusion?)
So yeah, I can finally talk about this mysterious place but that doesn't make the place any less mysterious to me. If anything it makes it even MORE mysterious. And suspicious. I mean, years of intense curiosity being wiped away the instant I can't see it anymore, unable to remember it exists when I'm not looking at it, and all of a sudden some hastily put up sign breaks that spell? No, that's not a normal building. It's supernatural.
Okay so I looked up their website. It looks more like a website for a corporation than for a church, it's not even a site for the local "church" but for the entire organization. It's creeping me out. I also searched their number on a search engine; apart from their website I also got a whole slew of sites talking about "877 area code" scammers. So I'm even more suspicious of this place than ever before, for entirely different reasons now. I'm thinking if I called them, they'd try to sell me a pyramid scheme.
EDIT: So some of the creepy vibes the place gives off are explained. Apparently that religion is one of those Christian sects that is basically a cult.
https://www.culteducation.com/group/1289-general-information/27227-the-closed-door-church-inside-the-secretive-and-strict-plymouth-brethren-sect-in-manitoba.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Brethren_Christian_Church#Beliefs_and_practices . . . This was cross-posted from https://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/1688980.html
You can comment either here or there.