The Dooley Park Curse

“Alright, the car is all packed!” Hedra said, slamming the car trunk closed. I smiled back at her and jumped into the passenger seat. I had waited all year for this and now I was just a five hour drive away from Dooley Park. I know camping at an abandoned amusement park isn’t exactly everyone’s dream twenty-first birthday celebration, but then again, I’m not like most people. Despite hating all things spooky, Hedra, my best friend, was the one that orchestrated the event. 

“So, what’s the story behind this place?” Hedra asked later in the drive.

“Have you ever heard of Shawnee Lake?” I responded. 

“Hmm, it’s not ringing any bells,” Hedra said, furrowing her brows together. 

I laughed. “Of course not. Well, Dooley Park isn’t as notorious as Shawnee Lake, but it shares a lot of the same lore. The story goes that the land that the park is on was occupied by a Native American tribe for hundreds of years, that is, until the colonizers came. A battle occurred that pretty much completely decimated the Natives and forced the survivors out. From there, a man named Thomas M. Dooley took over the land and his descendants owned it for a few hundred years more.”

“Okay, but how is this different from any other white colonizer story?” Hedra asked. 

I sighed. “The lore goes that the few Natives who survived the battle put a curse on Dooley and the land. The curse brought bad fortune for Dooley and any others who trespass on the land. Which, that’s what makes the story interesting, after Dooley took over the land, bad stuff did start happening. Dooley was in a hunting accident the next year and lost not one, but both of his legs. Pretty much every year his crops were either destroyed by abnormal weather events, or they just didn’t yield any profit. Dooley had come from England with substantial wealth, but that diminished quickly and was never regained by anyone else in the Dooley line.”

Hedra put her hand up to stop me. “Alright, but that sounds standard for the time. You know, faulty guns and tricky agriculture in a new country. I thought this place was supposed to be haunted!”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m getting to the good part. There were numerous tragedies on the property over the decades. Years after Dooley died, there was a tavern that was built on the property. The surrounding area was getting more populated and the tavern was the first and only in the town, so it was a hotspot for the locals. On a busy night, a fire started and everyone in the building died. Not one person escaped. There’s accounts from people outside the building that night that swear that it was like the doors were fused shut and the windows were unbreakable. Honestly, reading about it gave me nightmares. One guy spoke in detail about how long he could hear the screams and cries from inside the building, but unable to do anything.”

“Tragic,” Hedra muttered.

“There’s more, too. Since the curse, there have been over forty child disappearances and double that in the amount of child fatalities. There’s a lot of debate on this front. Some say it’s the spirits snatching the kids and others say that the area is a breeding ground for serial killers.”

“Multiple serial killers that stay in the same small area for a few hundred years?” Hedra asked skeptically. 

I shrugged my shoulders in return. “Generational serial killers or vengeful spirits, both sound equally as rational. Anyway, the last Dooley descendant that still lived on the land murdered his entire family, Amityville style. After that, the land sat vacant for decades until an entrepreneur bought it in the twenties and turned it into an amusement park, keeping the Dooley name.”

Hedra grimaced. “Yeah, I think I know this part of the story.”

I made the same face as her. “Dooley Park tragedy. To this day, experts still can’t determine what really happened that night. The only thing that they can agree on is that four rides, at the exact same time, stopped working with passengers still on and the malfunctions resulted in the deaths of over one hundred people, mostly children. The last bit of information that I could find on the place was that the government gained control of the property after the event. Unsurprisingly, the tragedy made it difficult to attract any buyers. I was actually surprised when you booked the trip. I hadn’t heard that someone bought the property and was allowing tours.”

“If it’s cursed, why do you think that not anything has happened to the new owner?” Hedra asked.

“I was wondering the same thing. We’ll have to ask him in about—” I checked the time on the dashboard, “one hour!” I said with a grin. 

I already knew what Dooley Park looked like from browsing YouTube videos and Google photos, but the atmosphere in-person was unlike anything I had ever felt, almost like suffocating. Hedra and I got out of the car and walked to the abandoned ticket booth where a tall man with waist long hair stood. I waived tentatively, realizing that I was a bit more nervous than I anticipated being. 

“Hedra and Cam?” The man said with a soft smile. 

“That’s us!” I replied putting my hand out for him to shake. 

“Welcome to Dooley Park. Great to have you two. I’m Robin Jim, the owner of this land. Let me show you girls around,” he said, ushering us past the gates. 

Robin started our tour around Dooley Park and introduced us to a few other workers who were on the property. Everything was eerier than I imagined. I could actually tell which rides were the ones that failed that fatal night. They laid broken and on their sides, and some of them weren’t even attached completely. I couldn’t really wrap my head around how something like that happened. 

At the end of the tour, Robin sat us down at a picnic table and touched briefly on the history of the land, going over everything that I had told Hedra.   

“Can I ask you a question, Robin? Do you believe in the Dooley curse?” I asked. 

“Do you?” he said, looking at me carefully. 

“Well, I’m not sure how the past events can really be explained otherwise. How is it possible that so much bad stuff happened on one piece of land in such a short amount of time?”

Robin was silent for a moment. “I’m not sure you’ll like my answer.”

Hedra and I stared back at him intently, our silence urging him to go on. 

“I think that tragedies have a need to balance out. I think that what Thomas Dooley and his people took and did here was so great that it was bound to be followed by an equal amount of tragedy and suffering.” Robin said. 

“You’re not worried that something will happen to you, though?” Hedra asked.

“No,” he said smiling. “For one, enough pain has been experienced here and no more bloodshed is required, and for two, this is my people’s land. It is back where it is belongs,” Robin responded. 

I felt a little bit of weight release from my shoulders. If Robin owns this land now, then that means that the Dooley curse is broken. I wasn’t entirely sure that I believed anything bad would happen to me here, but now I knew that the only thing I needed to worry about was my overactive imagination. 

Robin, Hedra, and I talked for a bit more. He showed us the best place to camp on the outskirts of the actual park next to the adjacent corn field. He explained that the scariest part of the park was the safety hazard that the park posed, and he advised us to keep a flashlight on us at all times. He gave us his cell phone number, wished us good luck, and left with the other two workers that we had met that afternoon. 

“You excited?” I asked Hedra, shoulder bumping her playfully. 

She narrowed her eyes. “I’m only doing this because I love you. My plan is to just pretend that this is a normal camping trip with no paranormal undertones.”

“Whatever gets you through the night, Hedy!” I smirked. 

We set up camp just before it got dark. Before he left, Robin showed us where the control panel was that directed power to some of the park, mostly just lights. If I thought that the park was spooky before, I definitely was spooked after seeing it lit up at night. Hedra grabbed my hand for comfort as we walked around. I could tell that she was having a hard time. 

“What do you think about what Robin said earlier, about no more bloodshed being needed?” I asked. 

“The way he said that gave me the creeps. It sort of sounded like he thought that all those people deserved to die,” Hedra responded. 

“My thoughts exactly, a little harsh, if you ask me. I guess he did warn us that we wouldn’t like his response, though,” I said. 

Hedra started to reply but stopped. “What?” I asked following her gaze. The carousel wheel was moving, all the decayed animals bobbing up and down as they went around in a slow circle. 

“Wait, I thought Robin swore that none of the rides worked?” I asked. 

“Maybe we should turn the power back off, Cam. I don’t like this.” Hedra said anxiously. 

“Sure. Um, let’s turn around and head back.” I said, squeezing her hand firmly. 

We got back to the control panel and turned everything off, locking the panel itself. I put the key in my coat pocket. 

We hung out by our tent for another hour, telling jokes and celebrating my birthday. I was glad that things had gotten a bit lighter and that Hedra seemed less stressed.

“You wanna go for a stroll in the corn maze before we nod off?” I asked.

Hedra looked at me pleadingly. “Ugh. You’re so lucky that it’s your birthday.”

I smirked in return, grabbed our flashlights and started walking to the maze. 

“I think that this might be creepier than the park,” Hedra mused. 

“No way! Corn mazes are fun,” I replied. 

“Absolutely not. Corn fields are a classic horror movie trope. Halloween, Jeepers Creepers, Signs?” Hedra responded. 

I gave her a belly laugh. “Okay, you win.”

Hedra joined in on the laughter but stopped. In a hushed tone, she said, “Shh!”

I looked at her quizzically. 

“Did you hear that?” Hedra asked.

I paused and listened. 

“Uh, no? You losing it, Hedy?” I joked. 

“It isn’t funny,” Hedra said sharply. “I heard footsteps.”

I pushed her a little bit and smiled, but stopped when I heard the noise. It was a set of heavy footsteps coming from somewhere in the maze. It was unmistakable.

“What the hell,” I mouthed to her.  

We picked up pace and started to run through the maze. The footsteps were coming behind us and were getting heavier and heavier. I could hear Hedra whimpering next to me. We started to run. Suddenly, Hedra flew to the ground with a thud. I whipped around dropping to her side. I could hear her hyperventilating.

“Someone grabbed my foot!” she said hysterically. I shined my light into the corn hesitantly and saw nothing. 

“Hedy, you just tripped. It’s okay. Let’s get you up,” I said reassuringly, although I was not sure at all. 

“Cam, I’m being serious. Someone grabbed me!” Hedra replied. 

I got her to her feet again and after another thirty seconds more of running we got to the exit. Hedra ran to the tent and grabbed her phone. Before I could say otherwise, she was calling Robin. 

“What the hell is going on here, Robin! If I knew this was part of the package, I wouldn’t have booked here. I did not sign up to have people chase and grab me in a freaky corn maze!” Hedra yelled. 

I could hear Robin from the other side of the phone assuring her that we were the only two people at Dooley Park for the night; there had been no other reservations made. He said that sometimes teens sneak onto the property to have some fun and then said that he would be over in about twenty minutes. Hedra made me wait in the tent with her holding pocket knives she brought just in case. 

Robin arrived, in what felt like much less than twenty minutes, with another worker that I recognized from earlier in the day. They walked around the perimeter of the property, including the corn maze. 

“All clear, ladies. If some teens had snuck onto the property, they are long gone now,” Robin said. “You’ve got options. Do you want to call it a night or would you like to give it another try?”

“Hedy, it was probably just the echoes of our own footsteps. Think about it. It was perfectly matching our pace.” I left out the part that we weren’t walking when we first heard the footsteps, but I was certain that we were just spooking ourselves out. “Let’s give it one more try.” 

Hedra took a long time to think it over. Finally she nodded and Robin told us that we knew where to find him if anything else happens. After Robin left we decided to go to bed. We laid side by side in our sleeping bags nearly asleep when I heard the noise: rustling from outside our tent. My heart began to race and I was praying that Hedra didn’t hear anything because I didn’t want her scared even more than she already was. I looked over at her and saw that she was snoring. I unzipped the tent and looked towards the corn maze in the dark. 

“Cam,” a deep voice called from the maze. 

My heart nearly collapsed in its chest. I kneeled by the edge of the tent in horror. 

“Cammm,” the voice called, dragging out my name this time.

“Come here, Cam. It’s time to play,” the voice giggled. 

My fight response in my body finally set in and I started moving in a frenzy. I reached over and shook Hedra violently. She murmured and looked at me confused. 

“CAM,” the deep voice bellowed. “IT’S TIME TO PLAY.”

Hedra started to scream. We shot out of the tent and started to run toward the park and to the exit. Suddenly, all the lights in the park turned on and circus music started to blare. Hedra and I both covered our ears. Even over the music, I could hear heavy running behind me. It sounded too fast, almost unearthly. 

“No, no, no, no, no.” I whined to myself. 

We made it to the exit and booked it to the car, jumping in and peeling out of the parking lot. The smell of burnt rubber filled my nose as we headed down the road, far away from Dooley Park. 

Walking out of the shadows and into the glow of the amusement park, Robin made his way to the gate and smiled, slowly shaking his head and chuckling. Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed his keys and locked the gate. “It never gets old,” he said to himself.

A week later, I built up the courage to ask Hedra exactly how she found Dooley Park. She said that she saw it advertised on a flier in town and she went to their website to book. But when she looked again to find the confirmation email or the website she booked on, she found nothing. It was like it didn’t exist. 

“There is no way that’s possible,” I said. 

“Maybe it’s off season now and he’s closing up for the rest of the year so he shut down the website?” Hedra countered. 

“Off season in the summer?” I replied. 

Hedra suddenly gasped. I leaned over to look at her laptop screen, and it was my turn to gasp. We stared in disbelief. On her laptop was a photo of Robin, only he didn’t look the same as when we met him. It was him, but in a different era. He had face paintings and wore a headdress. The caption read that the man in the photo was the chief of the tribe that occupied the area prior to Thomas M. Dooley colonizing it. The text under the picture explained that the chief was thought to have died in the battle, but his body was never found. It also mentioned that he was known for his strong spiritual abilities and was considered a mystic by many.

“What in the hell did I just read, Hedy? That can’t actually be Robin?”

“All I know, Cam, is that we are never going back to Dooley Park. That, and we’re celebrating your next birthday at Texas Roadhouse.”