In the summer of ’96
I went on holiday to the West Country with my parents. We were staying in an old farmhouse that backed onto a river. It was a nice spot, although terribly dull to a 16 year old mind. One afternoon, I was so bored that I decided to go and doss about in the room I was sleeping in. I sat on my bed and started to read a book, with my CD player on the bed next to me.

I am a cynic. What happened next I have tried to explain and failed. It is coincidentally corroborated by other members of my family.

You will all know the feeling that you’re being watched. It’s a survival hangover from our days of being hunted by wild animals. I was getting that feeling. I looked around, but of course there was no-one in the room. I figured I was being stupid and went back to reading.

And then I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Again, there was nothing there. I was getting very nervous. My mind and body were telling me that there was something in the room with me, but my senses were saying I was alone.

This is where things got a bit weird. Up until now you could claim paranoia, or somesuch mental thingy. Something sat on my bed.

I am dead certain of this. It sat on my bed. It was right next to me. I looked up and there was still nothing there. No indentation in the bed. Maybe a slight distortion in the air, but nothing I could swear to. I could see and touch nothing but my whole body was screaming at me that something threatening was right there. I began to get goosebumps on my left arm and I seriously started getting scared.

And then an intense feeling of curiousity came over me. It wasn’t my feeling, it wasn’t coming from me, but I could sense the curiousity in the air. And I understood. It was puzzled about my CD Walkman. Now, I don’t claim to be psychic or in any way supernaturally inclined but I got the distinct impression that it was a girl. Maybe about 12 years old or so. I got a picture in my head of a blonde girl wearing a sort of smock thing with an apron. It seemed to be aware that I was scared, too.

I left the room. I spent the rest of the holiday sleeping in my brother’s room. My parents didn’t even question the decision. As it turns out, they’d got the feeling that something wasn’t right in that house, too. The previous night they had slept with the lights on because something about the house was making them nervous. My mum said that she had actually checked on me, the first time she had done so since I was little.

We stayed there for about a week or so and when we left, we went to check the guest book. Yup, practically every message mentioned a ghost.

Great.
( Kroney, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 11:43, 7 replies)

Were you sleepy?
If you were dropping off as you were reading the book, you might have had a brush with an interesting psychological phenomenon.

As you're going to sleep, or just waking up, there is an experience known as a "waking dream" or "sleep paralysis" where you are still conscious but in a strangely odd state. You tend not to be able to move, and you often have the experience that someone else is in the room with you, even if you can't see them.

This is usually given as a simpler explanation of alien abduction, as well as the old stories of succubi and incubi.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 11:53, closed)

Nope
it was early afternoon. I was wide awake, just bored :P
( Kroney, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 12:03, closed)

*shivers down spine*
One day, I shall tell the tale of Alice, the ghost cow.

But not this day. :)

*click*
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 12:05, closed)

@ AIS
I get them...waking dreams.

Bloody horrifying having 'something' in the room with you...even if you know there is nothing there.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 14:50, closed)

Awake, but bored...
...can be a very similar feeling to being sleepy.

And once you feel something odd, your imagination is going to rush in to fill in the details, and you're going to grasp at that imagination and make it feel real as it's better than no explanation at all.

Or...maybe the ghost wanted to listen? Rude of you not to offer an earphone.
(Musuko, Thu 3 Jul 2008, 19:13, closed)

Ahhh
So that's what happened to maddie mcann
(Freddles, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 7:54, closed)

Ghost Cow
@ Devil In Tights

Please tell the story of Alice the Ghost cow
(Ghost Batty Rider, Wed 9 Jul 2008, 13:37, closed)