Alternate Perceptions Magazine, November 2024
The Great Escape
By Nomar Slevik
To turn a hackneyed phrase, small towns have dark secrets, and in my work, I often daydream about the kinds of secrets the towns I write about have. For the Queen City, there are whispers of underground tunnels used during prohibition; there’s one located under Bangor’s Courthouse. The unsolved murder of Effie Macdonald in 1965 is still considered open in the Maine State cold case unit. While numerous secrets are held, the ones that drive my curiosity are the seldom discussed paranormal stories. There are an inordinate number of homes said to harbor otherworldly guests. Sightings of various creatures have terrified families throughout the decades. And, of course, there has been an abundance of UFO encounters; official reports date back to the 1950s.
A portion of Maine authors have dedicated their lives to sharing the stranger side of our great state. One, in particular, has become one of the most well-known modern novelists, Stephen King. Readers worldwide know his stories of Derry; some may have no idea that Derry is King’s portrayal of Bangor. His home, on West Broadway Street, was built in 1858 along with numerous other mansions. While some burned during the great fire of 1911, others survived and have been maintained these many years. But not all remain single-family homes for the wealthy. Since the 1950s, foreclosed or abandoned country homes, factories, and mansions throughout the United States have been repurposed into apartment buildings. Many of the estates in Bangor followed suit; one of those old, converted buildings is where our next encounter begins.
Kevin O’Brien was visiting with his brother one evening in October 2010. After dinner, drinks, and brotherly conversation, Kevin left the apartment at around two o’clock in the morning. He planned to visit a close friend, about a 10-minute walk, and he set off down the road. The next thing he remembered was standing on the sidewalk, eyes closed, and he could hear a female’s voice talking to him. “Kevin… Kevin… it’s ok, Kevin,” he perceived it as feminine, rhythmic, and practically hypnotizing. The voice continued, “We’re here to help, it’s ok, we’re not going to harm you, it’s ok. We’re going to make you feel better.”
After a moment, he started to wake. His eyes stirred under their lids; they slowly began to open. His eyes ached instantly as a bright light from somewhere above blinded him. He stood motionless until his hands reflexively shielded his eyes, and he shifted his head to discern his whereabouts. The brightness dimmed, revealing a room with white walls and illuminated trim at the top and bottom. The upper border had a purple hue, while the lower one was bluish. Upon scanning the area, he noticed two towering figures across the room. Their presence instilled fear in him as they slowly turned to look at him. He described them as “…at least 7 or 8 feet tall, long fingers, [slits] for mouths, and smaller black eyes.” He was terrified but also had the urge to understand the situation that he was in. He started to control his breathing to calm himself. He wanted to know what was happening, and he tried to speak. No sound was heard as he mouthed the words he was trying to say. He realized his words were being interpreted through thought; communications had turned telepathic.
They told him that they did not intend to hurt him. Kevin elaborated, “I asked the alien if they [weren’t] going to harm me, then what are they going to do to me? They replied with, ‘We are going to help you and fix you.’” In an instant, the two aliens were on either side of Kevin. They placed him against a “cold, metal thing” and walked him out of the room; he said, “The thing I was standing against moved on its own and is capable of fast speed.” They walked through a corridor that was “dark cloudy or misty like fog;” he estimated it to be about 40 feet in length. They passed “at least seven to eight Greys in a huddled formation.”
When they arrived at the second room, it too was much darker than the previous room. It was in a “v” shape and smelled of cleaning solutions; he noted that it felt sterile. He was taken to the center of the room, still attached to the metal “thing.” There were five other aliens there who watched and walked around him. One taller than the others stepped close to him and had to bend over slightly to look him in the eye. They stared at each other momentarily; then, the entity carefully placed one of its hands on Kevin’s nose. Another being stepped forward and inserted a black tube into his nostrils. His breathing stopped for a moment, and he gasped and screamed in reaction. That’s when the soothing voice returned; it repeated, “It’s going to be ok; we are here to help.” He could tell it was artificial and intended to calm him, but it wasn’t working.
Suddenly, the metal “thing” he was placed against swung down, laying him horizontally with a thud. Despite the repeating, hypnotic voice, Kevin thrashed about on the table. The beings struggled to hold him in place, and a leg broke free. Kevin recalled, “I began to get hostile and remember cocking my left leg back and kicking the alien to my lower left; he went against the wall and fell. I clearly remember doing it and watching [it] fly against the wall and sliding down.” The other beings appeared frightened and backed away. Kevin then became dizzy.
The next thing he remembered was the smell of asphalt. As his eyes opened and adjusted, he realized he was on the side of an unfamiliar road and clumsily stood. He looked around, confused by his surroundings. It was daylight, but he felt that only an hour had passed. He wasn’t sure where he was and looked for a familiar landmark. As he walked, he realized a police officer was driving slowly beside him. They seemed to have come out of nowhere, but Kevin quickly asked them where he was. He was met with silence. He then asked the officer where a particular street was; again, nothing was said, but the officer did gesture. Kevin recalled, “He didn’t say a word, just pointed and stared with this nasty look.” Kevin looked to where the officer pointed, and when he turned back, the cop was gone. He was confused and couldn’t be sure the interaction even occurred though he did manage to find his friend’s house. When he arrived, he was told that it was after 6am, about four hours of time was missing. He explained the previous night’s events to his friend and, while he felt he was believed, he knew his friend was trying to be more comforting than anything else.
For weeks after the encounter, Kevin was cautious about whom he would share his experience with. His brother and friends did provide him with a support system, but he needed to speak with someone who had gone through something similar. After some online research, he reached out to other Mainers about his experience and spent time at the “Experiencers Speak” conferences. Meetings were held annually in southern Maine and were organized by Audrey and Debbie Hewins, founders of Starborn Support, a non-profit organization that helped alien abduction victims cope with their encounters. Debbie Hewins is currently working on bringing the meetings and conferences back.
Kevin is still on his journey and hopes to uncover what truly happened to him and others like him. Despite his first horrid encounter, he shared that subsequent abductions have been more pleasant; he said, “Be happy and as loving as possible. This is the message I am getting.”
Author’s note: Stephen King owns a few radio stations in Maine. One of them is rock station WKIT in Bangor. In October of 2001, a DJ from the station reported a UFO sighting to NUFORC. The original report stated, “I am an overnight DJ at WKIT in Bangor. A little before 1 am, I received a call from a listener asking me if I knew about the odd light in the northwest sky, just below Orion. The listener said something about it kinda looking like a star at first glance, but if you look at it longer, there is a red light rotating around the ‘star.’ After getting off the phone, I went outside to look for it. I found it and, after squinting, it almost looked like some sort of electronic signal, almost in the shape of an airplane with lights that are red, blue, and green with one central light. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen. It is stationary and is not moving through the sky; so far, it has been in the sky for 45 minutes.”
Editor’s Note: This article is reprinted from UFOs Over Maine: 10th Anniversary edition (2024) with the author’s permission.
