Kim
When people say to me 'do you believe in ghosts?' My rational and logical brain says absolutely not. However, the memory of the following encounter always changes my answer to, 'there are many things we can't explain...I guess.'
When I was 13 I saw a ghost. It was Midsummer. I woke up with a jolt gasping for water at 6am. My bedroom was flooded with sunlight through the curtains. As my room was the attic room, trekking all the way downstairs to the kitchen was not a fun prospect, however my need for hydration won over my teenage laziness.
The house was fast asleep as I crept down two flights of stairs. I reached the kitchen and downed a pint of water. Relieved, I headed back up stairs. But something told me to stop, turn around and look back into the kitchen. So I followed this strange intuition and there under our kitchen clock, next to the back door, stood a big man with wide shoulders wearing an overcoat. I didn’t feel scared. I just went back upstairs and woke my mum to tell her I'd seen a ghost. She said, ‘Oh that's nice darling, now go back to sleep’. So I did. Later that morning I went downstairs for breakfast feeling a little hazy about the events of earlier. As I entered the kitchen I was shocked to see our kitchen clock had stopped at 6.10am, the time I had seen the ghost.
I decided I needed some guidance on the subject of the paranormal. I visited Harold, a neighbour who had lived on our street for about 50 years. I nervously told him about my experience. He laughed and told me, ‘Oh that will be Will'. It transpired that a man called William used to live in our house. William worked on the railways, often at night, and he would arrive home at around 6am through our back door. William died in a chair in our living room many years ago before we lived there.
Harold reminded me it was Will’s house first and I should respect that. He told me I should chat to him when I can and make him part of our lives. So from then on I would always say hi to Will when I returned home. Until one day we moved and I said goodbye to Will forever.
I wonder if he's still coming home at 6am and causing havoc stopping people’s clocks.
Bryony
As our Haunted tales of The Sea Night approaches I have begun thinking about my favourite stories and hunting out new ghost story writing. I would say my favourite ghost story, if you can call it that, is about how I came to be. It is a short story my gran used to tell me and I will try and do it justice. Here goes:
My great grandmother Suzy had her sister Sarah staying with her on the 15th August 1918 to help look after her children whilst her husband was at war. They spent a lovely night together and retired to bed late and both having had a nip of Sherry began to sleep well. Suzy awoke quite suddenly an hour or two later as a familiar voice was calling her name in panicked tones. She ran to her sister’s room only to find her asleep. She checked her children, and they were both sound asleep too. She returned to bed and, presuming it was a dream that had awoken her, returned to sleep. Once again, she was awoken by the same familiar voice calling her name and it sounded as if it was at the end of her bed now and it was in fact a male voice in strangled tones. She, once again, ran into see her sister and this time went to her bedside and described what had happened. Her sister rolled over and said, she had not called her, why should she? and returned to sleep. The rest of the night passed in peace and the next day Suzy forgot that anything had happened.
5 days later Suzy received a telegram to say her husband has been killed in battle. He had been killed in battle that took place late on the 15th August 1918.
Although not a best seller the story has remained close to my heart for obvious reasons and perhaps sparked my appetite for ghost stories ever since.
Haunted Tales of The Sea will play on 31st October 2024 @The Golden Hinde Ship in Banside, London
Comments