The Buchanan family has a house on the beach on Paures Island in South Carolina, USA. The youngest son Phil of this family misses his little life on the island very much. He missed all the delicious seafood by the sea, the salty sea breeze, and the simple folk customs there.
In October, when he was 40 years old, he decided to return to his childhood home with his wife. Phil is a journalist in Atlanta. His intense work makes him feel exhausted, affects his physical and mental health, and makes him increasingly alienated from his family. He needs a place far away from the mundane world like Paures. Revitalization.
His colleagues are very surprised that Phil, who is usually desperate at work, would also think of going on vacation, and chose the season when there might be hurricanes. But Phil believes that at this time the number of tourists on the island is becoming scarce, and he is in need of peace. So Phil took his wife Susan and two daughters to the island by car.
When he came to the island, Phil was happy to see. Their ancestral home is still intact. Among the modern buildings sprung up on the coast of South Carolina, their old-fashioned wooden house with gable walls and porches around the house is very prominent. A boardwalk extending from the front of the house leads to the beach. Phil remembers passing this path every morning when he was a child to watch the sunrise on the sea. The next morning on the island, Phil drank a cup of coffee, put on warm clothes and a windbreaker, and walked to the beach. He wanted to regain his childhood memories.
The sunrise on the beach is truly magnificent. The sky was burning red. Phil was walking along the beach, when suddenly a gray mist rose from the sea, which made him feel a bit horrible. Before he knew it, he had already reached the end of the island. When he turned back and was about to walk home, he suddenly felt a strange feeling that there seemed to be someone else nearby.
He turned his head and found that his instincts were correct. He saw a figure in the distance, walking in his direction along the seashore. Phil turned and walked towards the house, stopping from time to time to look back, only to see the gray shadow trailing behind him with firm and steady steps. The man was of medium height and dressed in gray.
Phil felt something was wrong, he speeded up his pace and walked towards the house. When he looked back, he found that the figure also picked up his pace and seemed to be getting closer and closer. The mist enveloped them. Phil couldn’t see the man’s face clearly, he couldn’t determine who it was, the local fisherman? An early runner? Or a road thief who committed robbery?
The faster Phil walks, the closer the figure following him will chase him. Phil’s heart began to “pound” wildly, and there was still a long way to go from home. He wanted to run, but immediately felt it was very stupid. After all, he is now a journalist in a big city,He has seen many crimes of all kinds.
Although he was still a little scared, Phil turned and bravely walked across from the man. The figure suddenly stopped on a sand dune, looking down at the turbulent water under his feet. What happened next surprised Phil. I saw that person slowly turned around, facing where he was, and then gradually disappeared in the mist!
Phil couldn’t believe his eyes. He flew to the sand dune, searched back and forth for a while, but did not find any trace of this mysterious man. And then it made him even more horrified. When Phil turned back, he found only one line of footprints left on the beach—only his own.
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That night, there was a heavy rain on this island, Susan lit a candle in the house, Phil was still thinking about being on the beach in the morning Things that happened. A legend that has been circulating on this island for centuries kept popping up in his mind. It was a story about the “Man in Grey”, a ghost wandering on the island of Paures. According to legend, the appearance of the gray-clothed man indicates that a disaster will come, especially in the two months from September to October each year when the “gray-clothed man” is most likely to appear.
For this interesting legend, Phil has always laughed. When Susan asked him what he was thinking, he even told her the story as a joke. After the two daughters heard it, they were very interested and pestered him to tell stories.
“Tell us ghost stories, tell us the story of the’Grey Man’!” The two children screamed.
Phil was not in the mood to tell a ghost story at the moment, but he couldn’t hold back the strong curiosity of the two children, so he smiled and sat down and told the children that he had heard from his father since he was a child Coming story.
It is said that the island of Paures used to be a summer resort for some planters. They live in the manor most of the year. When summer comes, they will cross the water and come to this island to avoid the heat and mosquitoes in the summer manor. They have built many beautiful summer villas all over the island. In fact, some of the locals living on this island are the direct descendants of these families.
In these beautiful villas, a family has a beautiful daughter named Jean, and she has a boyfriend named Burgard. He has been out for a long time, and the girl is very miss him. Finally one day, she got news that her sweetheart was about to return home. The girl was very surprised, and ordered the servants to prepare Burgard’s favorite food to prepare for his return.
And Burgundy also couldn’t wait to see her. He was so eager that he rode on horses with one of his henchmen day and night when he returned to South Carolina. Drive to her house along the beach. Along the wayPegasus galloping, laughter. Halfway down the road, Bourgaard found a path through the swamp, and he decided to take this path because he was full of arrows. When he went deep into the center of the swamp, his horse suddenly stumbled. Burgard fell from the saddle and fell into the thick quicksand, no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t get out.
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His servant hurried over to save him, but it was too far to reach him, so he could only watch Bourgaard go It fell and disappeared quickly.
Needless to say, Gene was distraught after hearing the news. She has been crying bitterly for several days, and she wanders on the beach in confusion every morning, seemingly still looking forward to the return of her Bourgard.
One morning, she saw a gray figure looking at her from a distance. He appeared on the sea behind the dunes, and when she got closer to see more clearly, her heart beat faster. The man in grey is too much like Burgaard! When Gene was only a few feet away from him, the man in gray suddenly jumped up from the waves. She reached out to him, but he suddenly disappeared.
That night, she had a terrible dream, dreaming that she was driving a small boat bumping in the stormy sea. On the sand dunes in the distance, Burgaard waved to her in a gray coat, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get close to him.
When she told her parents about this dream and the story of her encounter with Burgard on the beach. They are very worried. Burgard’s death hit her too hard, so her father felt it necessary to take her to the big city to see a doctor. The next day, the whole family accompanied her to Charleston.
After they left, a huge hurricane hit this small island and almost destroyed everything on the island. This disaster also claimed many lives. When the Genn family returned to Paoures and saw the tragic scene after the hurricane, Genn understood that Burgard appeared on the beach and appeared in her dream. It was to call her to the police and he saved it. She and her family! She knew that even if Burgaard had left this world, his ghost had always guarded her around her.
Phil said, “This is the story of the man in gray on the island of Paures.” The two daughters were so fascinated, they didn’t want to go to sleep.
The next night, the wind and rain intensified, the wooden wall of the house made a whimper, and the windowpanes shook “clammy”. At this time, Phil felt that the story of the man in gray would rather be trusted. They didn’t bring pocket radios, and there was no electricity on the island, and if there was a hurricane, they could not get news. Phil thought, in case there is a hurricane, they might as well leave the island for a night to hide, if it’s okay, just laugh it off later. So, a few hours later, Phil led his family to leave the island.
On the night they left, a terrifying hurricane violently struck the island, destroyed many houses, leveled sand dunes, and uprooted many large trees. This hurricane was the most violent in the history of the island. Almost all houses on the southern end of the island were razed in the disaster.
After the hurricane, the Phil family returned to the island. The hurricane left a terrible sight on the island. Broken bricks and rubble piled up on the streets, as if a war had broken out. Imagining that their ancestral home would suffer the same fate, Phil couldn’t imagine.
But they found that Buchanan’s house was almost undamaged, and even the towels they hung on the clothesline were still hanging there! They were stunned. Only a few yards away from their home, all the houses are in ruins. At this time, Phil remembered the legend of the man in gray. It is said that those who saw the man in gray appear and heed his warning would be protected by him. The joy of the rest of his life caused him to hug his wife and daughter tightly.
In the years to come, Phil Buchanan spent more time with his family. Every year he spends two weeks with his family on the island of Paures. Every morning he would walk on the beach, looking for the friend who saved the lives of him and his family. If anyone has a chance to come to this island in the hurricane season and see the man in grey one morning, don’t take it lightly. That’s him warning you, a sign that a hurricane is coming.