A chilling excursion to a ghost town in the lofty hills of Catalonia concluded with a mystery which remains unresolved, as four friends confronted the unknown in La Mussara, deserted since the 1960s.
Courageous souls occasionally venture to the haunting village, particularly during the three-day Spanish Hallowe’en festivities. However, for one individual, the adventure led to an inexplicable vanishing.
The podcaster Mr Ballen relayed the tale of Enrique Martinez, a 36 year old man collecting mushrooms on October 16th, 1991. Accompanied by his wife Anna and friends Jorge and Sophia, the group approached the forsaken hamlet as dusk approached, enticed by the spooky allure to investigate.
Just as the notorious fog began to envelop the area, narrates Mr Ballen, Jorge guided his companions to a certain rock known as La Piedra del six. Surrounding this stone were whispers of arcane abilities, including a legend asserting that leaping over it could cast one into another realm.
Jorge, gripped by the intense history of La Mussara, placed a hand upon the stone and boasted to his cohort about its dark reputation. “Jorge placed his hand on the top of this strange rock,” Mr Ballen narrated, “and looking very very satisfied with himself he would tell his friends this is the Sixth Stone and people say it contains dark powers. The Sixth Stone was actually one of the oldest things in all of Mussara.”
“Back in the day Muslim armies used to march through Mussara which actually got its name from this Mussara means the place to march and so these armies would pass through Mussara making their way to the valley down below they would always stop at the Sixth Stone because they believed it had magical powers that could help them defeat their enemies in their upcoming battles.”
Jorge encouraged his friends to join him in touching the “supernatural” stone, and eventually, they obliged all except for Sophia who was keen to keep her distance from what she perceived as a peculiarly mystical boulder. As the mist around them grew denser, they reckoned they could make out the sound of frogs from a nearby pond amplifying in volume.
However, Enrique was soon distracted by an ominous occurrence: “There was lots of fog blocking the church, and for a second the fog parted and Enrique got a full shot of one of the windows of this abandoned church.”
He observed in shock as “In the window was a dark figure are just standing there staring at Enrique and his friends. Enrique sees this thing in the window and in a second it was gone and then the fog rolled back in and covered up the window and Enrique couldn’t see anything anymore and so Enrique just stood there in stunned silence having no idea if what he just saw had really just happened or if it was in his imagination.”
None of the other individuals in the group had witnessed the peculiar apparition, and Enrique attempted to dismiss it from his thoughts. However, as the fog began to envelop them, they persisted in their exploration of the eerie deserted town.
As the visibility deteriorated, they found themselves in a graveyard where Anna inadvertently stumbled into a gravestone, causing it to topple over and shatter. As if this wasn’t ominous enough, the already thick fog intensified to such an extent that they started losing sight of each other, and Anna realised her husband was nowhere to be seen.
“Sophia was clutching Jorge’s arm tighter and tighter, and Jorge who had been jesting about the evil nature of this place was also beginning to feel unnerved by the unfolding events.So, they quickened their pace towards the sound of Anna’s voice, and as Sophia and Jorge neared Anna, the croaking of the frogs in the nearby pond amplified until it drowned out Anna’s voice.”
However, the cacophony of the frogs abruptly ceased leaving only the sound of Anna’s sobs.
“Jorge and Sophia couldn’t actually see Anna due to the dense fog but they followed the sound of her crying, eventually finding Anna hunched over with her back to them, exactly where Enrique had previously stood, gazing at the church window.”
All Anna could utter through her tears was “He’s gone.”
Due to the dense fog and diminishing light, Anna Sophia and Jorge were unable to carry out a comprehensive search of La Mussara. However, they informed the authorities and the following day, the police scoured the area.
“Enrique was never found,” Mr Ballen reveals. “his, wife his friends, the authorities… they still have no idea what happened to him.”