These are two short experiences i had when i was fifteen years old, one i am pretty sure was not an encounter as such just a peculiar case of high strangeness in the dead of night. The other…… well i’m not entirely sure what it was. I have sketched what i witnessed from memory so you can judge for yourselves.
The Thing.
The regular visits from the elderly gentleman had started to calm down a little bit, much to my relief, so much so that i felt comfortable enough to switch head and tail ends and push my bed towards the wall closing the black cavernous gap that where i would hear the heavy breathing originate. Having grown accustomed to the haunting of our home, i was mentally prepared for anything or anyone to come and try and creep me out.
Rule number one: Expect the unexpected. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to anything related to the spirits. They will always have the last laugh especially when you have grown accustomed to witnessing them in a certain form. Just when you think you have found your comfort zone with them, they will then surprise you and appear in a way that will boggle your mind, leaving you to go back to the drawing board and remind you that these people…. these things are capable of manipulating energy to appear in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. I am still astounded to this day by some of the quirky, scary and beautiful ways they will materialise.
Rule number two: Think outside the box. Like way outside the box. I have found that the more open to the world of the paranormal, the more downright bizarre it becomes. To the point that sometimes the laws of physics do not apply. I have witnessed a few events where i’m not even sure i can confidently say Yeah that was a ghosts handiwork. Sometimes it seems we are stretching into something far more complex. But we will get into that in later post’s. I digress.
This one particular night i had actually fallen into heavy sleep without much of a fight from my perpetually awake brain. I do not have a clue what time it was when the thing showed up. I do not know how long it was standing there watching me, but i know it was watching me and it wanted me to see it first hand. My eyes shot wide open almost as if held open by some invisible force and i knew in an instant that i was not dreaming because they started stinging and watering like hell at the abruptness of me being stirred awake in a split second. Even though it was pitch black in my room i was instantly faced with this figure stood directly next to me by my bed.
Judging from my position being lay down it wasn’t overly tall. Maybe my height if i had been standing so around 5.1/5.2 I immediately noticed the large round white head as it stood out in stark contrast to my blackened bedroom. It was not a perfectly round shape it was slightly oval like a smooth pumpkin, with large black eyes and it was tilted at a slight angle as if deep in contemplation silently staring at me. I saw no other features no nose or mouth that i recall. Its body was bizarrely thin dressed in something tight fitting and black. The shoulders had a square like edge to them and i remember thinking how could such a skinny body hold up such a big head. It made no sense.
Now you would think that seeing an entity like this would have scared the absolute shit out of me, but the palpable fear that i was used too didn’t sweep over my body, i did not try and hide or sink down under my quilt to avoid being seen and i never felt a chill creep under my skin. I was calm. I stared at it and it at me for maybe ten or fifteen seconds and then it just gently dissipated leaving me alone again in my room. I mentally thought to myself well that was weird looking but i was never frightened of it.
An experience that is hard to visually describe is very frustrating and i tried to tell one of my dearest friends at secondary school (I will call her Po) she was easy to trust as like me she was used to living in a haunted house. It wasn’t until i went to her house one day and pointed at an ornament on her shelf in her room and told her that was the closest thing i could liken it too did she get an idea. It was her Jack the skeleton figurine and to begin with she laughed about it but with my insistence that it very similar minus a few facial features convinced her i really had seen something quite eerie. Po would go on to be one person i comfortably confided in and we would end up sharing a couple of petrifying experiences together.
I believe that somehow that being kept me calm and i instantly felt safe in its presence even though in hindsight i probably should have been screaming my heart out at the appearance of this odd looking entity by my bedside and i sense deep within my bones that it wanted me to see it. So i will leave you with that startling image and let me know in the comments what you think.
The cat.
Two doors down from my house and next door to Kizzies house an elderly lady lived alone. I was never a fan of hers and she always seemed just off to me. We will name her Mrs Bea. A few years previously when we had lived at another address on a different part of the avenue i had been playing a game of football in the street with couple of other children. I had kicked the ball too hard and it accidentally bounced into her front garden. Seeing as she was out there dead heading some flowers i walked up to her front gate and politely asked if i could retrieve my ball. Mrs Bea turned and fixed me with the most vile look and proceeded to shout at me telling me if i did it again she would call the police and that i was a horrid child. I was about nine years old and as i had always been brought up with manners i did not expect this reaction from her as i had never bothered her before.
I was an emotionally sensitive child back then and after she threw me the ball i got upset and went back to the safety of my own front garden a few yards down the road. My mother chatting to a neighbour and having heard her scolding me was not too happy and went over and after a few harsh words came back and told me it was ok and she was wrong to do that.
“Just stay away from the old cow.” she told me and i did just that thereafter. After moving to number 74 i had a clear view of the front of her house and i would regularly see her lugging heavy pieces of furniture around like it was nothing. Now bear in mind this was a pensioner of eighty six and although she was short and stout it was always quite shocking to see her lifting a solid wooden set of drawers or a dresser to give to other neighbours without breaking a sweat. Most young fit adults would have had a hard time and remembering my encounter with her when i was younger i began calling her the witch.
I had experimented with moving my bed parallel to the small window and i was enjoying having a smidge more space in my box room and a view from my bed out onto the street outside. On this particular school night i had gone to sleep at around 1.30am and nothing was out of the ordinary. I woke up out of the blue a little while later and looked at my digital clock to see what the time was. It was 3.30am and i lay there for a few minutes trying to get back to sleep.
This odd urge came over me to look out of my window as i felt that something was going on out there in the dead of night. Compelled i pulled my curtains back a few inches i saw dark houses and the road was empty but my attention was drawn to the end of Mrs Bea’s drive where much to my surprise i saw three cats that i did not recognise sat on the pavement. It was the way in which they were arranged that drew my attention as they were sat in a small circle a few inches in diameter facing inwards towards each other. A short furred tabby sat with its back facing me, next a darker heavy set cat and what looked like a tortoise shell.
I was watching them surprised as they were not fighting and caterwauling waking every body up as they were in such close quarters. It looked intimate and private and i never saw an agitated thrashing tail warning of an impending battle. It just seemed odd like they were communicating in a different secretive way. Now i know what you must be thinking They are just cats doing cat things. I did say this was probably not an encounter, but what happened next sent chills up my spine none the less. The tabby cat that was turned away from me abruptly turned and stared straight at me. I actually dropped the curtain in an instant and let it fall back into its normal place as if i had been caught spying upon something i shouldn’t have been. Seems ridiculous now type it out
I chided myself for being daft, and reasoned they were just cats. So i slowly peeped out of the curtain again just in time to see a neat little line of three cats wandering out of sight and around a corner to conduct their cat like business else where.
Photo by Tatyana Eremina on Unsplas
The spirit in my shadow 