THE TRAGIC NEWS
(Kim)
I am Irish, and like most Irish people (or at least the ones I know) I am very superstitious. What I am about to tell you is the truth, however the names of the people involved have been changed. I grew up in Tralee County Kerry, in the South-West or Eire (Rep. of Ireland), When I was 12 I left and moved to London with my mum, and brother. When I left Ireland I was distraught, I had to say goodbye to all my friends. And it was hardest to say goodbye to my two best friends, Tanya and Natasha. They were twins.
At first I kept in contact with the twins but eventually we lost touch . . . .it happens when you're young . . you move on, forget about things. Well about 5 years past and I was just coming up to 17, I had finished school and wasn't studying so I decided to go back home for a while. I had an aunt who lived in Tralee . . and though we weren't close, I didn't think she would mind me staying with her, for a while at least . . until I got myself sorted. My mum phoned, and made all the arrangements etc.
I flew home, I was soooo excited to see all my childhood friends, go to visit the places where I once had spent all my time. That night I stayed at my aunts house. I awoke first thing, partly due to excitement . . . partly due to the fact I was freezing . . . (unfortunately, this has nothing to do with any ghosts or spirits etc . . .it was an old house and had never been introduced to the concept of heating)
Anyways, I had a wash, I got dressed, wrote a note to my aunt and headed for Shanakill. (Shanakill is an estate in Tralee, Where all my friends used to live) Firstly I knocked for Avril. She knew me straight away! we hugged, and chatted for a while, then we went to her cousins house, Lorna. We were all chatting, then I suggested we go and knock for the twins. As soon as I said this both Avrils and Lorna's faces dropped. I asked them what was going on, and Avril was the first to speak.
She said that the twins, lorna, a couple of other girls, guys and herself had been up in the dyke playing (the dyke was just a load of waste land, muddy marshes, which adjoined to some woods), anyway, they were all messing around, about 3 years back. And that Natasha had climbed this tree, (Natasha had always been the sporty twin, and a bit of a show off) anyway she was climbing this tree, higher and higher and everyone had told her to come down, but she wouldn't , she just kept climbing. At this point Tanya had shouted up to Natasha, that if she didn't come down she was going to come up there after her! and if she got hold of her, god help her!
Natasha had found the idea of this absolutely hilarious . . .partly due to the fact that Tanya had never climbed a tree in her life . . . I suppose. (You see tanya is extremely girly! - infact the total opposite of Natasha.) Well anyway keeping to her word Tanya had started climbing this tree, cursing, as she went, complaining, and all the while Natasha was in hysterics! Everyone on the ground was also laughing. Well Tanya was getting closer to Natasha, and Natasha was edging her on! but then, according to Avril, Tanya reached for a branch or something and lost her grasp. She fell. She hit the ground and everyone was silent. She was alive but, she couldn't breath. Natasha raced down the tree to Tanya, both girls were crying now. Well 2 of the boys went for help, and while they were gone Natasha sat on the ground with Tanya's head in her lap. I'm sorry, I'm sorry over and over Natasha was in crying, I'm so sorry. Tanya died in Natasha's lap.
I was mortified. Why didn't anyone tell me? I asked Avril to show me where it happened, she looked at me, and said no! I was confused . . why not? why wont you take me there? Avril simply told me that no one goes to the Dyke anymore. That its creepy up there. So I asked Lorna (Avril was advising her not to take me there, it wasn't a good idea . . etc.) but Lorna, seeing how upset I was did not refuse me. However she made it clear she wouldn't go near the Tree, or the ground which surrounded it. She would wait a short distance away.
It was about 3pm, it was Aug, and unusually warm, for Irish weather. We crossed Shanakill, walked up past the community hall, through a open field, till we came to to the Dyke. We walked through the marshy area (I say marshy , what I mean is a muddy area without grass) until we both came to the edge of the woods. Lorna walked with me a little further till we came to an opening. Then she stopped, she pointed to this large tree, not really big in circumference . . . but very tall. The first thing that stuck out was that all the other trees surrounding it were in full bloom, full of green leaves. but the one she was pointing to, it didn't. It had no leaves and was this grayish colour. I know that sounds weird . . and I thought so too. As I approached the tree I saw a load of dead flowers, flowers that had been left by mourners and had dried out. There were a couple of teddy bears . . and a few burnt out candles.
As I came close to the tree my heart was thumping so loudly I could hear it! I sat down next to it and it was then that I felt this enormous sadness wash over me, So intense But it wasn't a sadness on my part, it was like someone else was feeling it and somehow had pushed all there emotion into me. I blacked out.
I didn't know how long I was out for, Lorna said about 5mins. But when I woke up I was sitting in the clearing. I could see the tree still, but Lorna was standing next to me. She was screaming, she said that I had started rocking back and forth on the floor, that she had been calling me, but I didn't answer. . . I just kept rocking. I looked at her and I knew I had to get out of there, Lorna couldn't carry me any further than the clearing, but she had stayed with me.
Lorna and I ran, we ran as fast as anything and we never looked back, not once. When I got home that night I felt sick. Was it Tanya? had she somehow possessed me? why would she do that to me? we were friends! It couldn't be, I put it out of my head. I would go and speak to Natasha tomorrow.
The next day I did go and see Natasha, but I was amazed when I saw her, she had dyed her hair, she had piercings, she was completely different, I couldn't bring myself to tell her what had happened. As I left her house, I asked her why she had changed so much? She told me that she couldn't bear to look like Tanya, every time she looked on the mirror she saw her, that she didn't want to remember her.
I left Ireland some months later, but I have never been the same since my experience. Even now I get these sudden feelings of pain wash over me. I almost feel as though Tanya is with me, and some how punishing me, for what though? I don't know.
What I do know, is that Tanya's family suffered a great tragedy, and the sadness that surrounds them is unbearable.
THE BANISHED DEMON
(Niamh)
I was 7 and my sister was 9. We were staying at my grandmothers house for a couple of weeks in the summer of 86. My grandmother's house is an old, old house built in the early 1700's. It has always had its own "personality" like a room that we didn't like going in to, a door that just wouldn't close, a draft that no-one could find, that sort of thing.
My sister and myself were tucked up in bed and my grandparents were downstairs watching TV. I was just about to doze off when my sister nudged me and asked if I could see someone in the doorway. I looked, and there silhouetted in the light was my uncle. He had died earlier that year, and had been in a wheelchair for the last years of his life. As I looked, it became clear that he was sitting in his wheelchair and had a really unpleasant look on his face, almost as if he was sneering at us. Both of us cried out to our Granny and she came running up the stairs to see what was the matter. By the time she came up, he was gone.
My grandmother is my maternal grandmother, but my uncle is my paternal uncle. I never really thought about it that much, until my sister pointed out that if it had really been out uncle, he wouldn't have been in his chair, and he certainly wouldn't have been looking at us in that nasty way. And why was he visiting us at a house that he didn't have any connection to? I didn't see anything there again, but my sister said she felt something pushing her a few times while she was going down the stairs - which were right outside the bedroom we had been sleeping in.
A few years later, my uncle was downstairs, in the living room, a little worse for wear from a night in the local pub. He was lying on the couch and something started to growl at him. There were no animals in the room with him and he was alone on the couch. All the rest of the family were upstairs in bed. My grandmother said that all she could hear was this growling and my uncle shouting profanities at it (he was slightly drunk) He finally said "get out of this house. I'm sick of you being here and tormenting us" and the growling stopped.
After that there were no-more strange occurrences inside the house. Outside was a different matter. My grandmother had 2 small dogs, one male and one female. A family friend was visiting one night and noticed that the female dog was outside the window and barking madly. He went outside to see what was bothering her - thinking there was a stray dog in the yard or something. He got out to where Fang (the dog) had been but she had moved further around the house, as if she was following something. He was calling her and following her barking and ended up completely circling the house. He caught up to her about halfway down the entrance lane (about 100m long. Enclosed on both sides by walls and hedges. The house is in the country so there were fields on either side of the lane) Fang went tearing past Michael back towards the house. Watching her go, a little bemused, Michael turned to see what had scared her. About 4 feet in front of him were 2 smoldering red eyes, around about where a fully grown horse's eyes would be. Thinking that a horse or cow had stumbled into the lane, he began to move towards it slowly to see if he could catch it. A car passing in front of the gate caught his eye, and he noted that as it went past, he didn't see anything in front of him. No horse, no cow, but the eyes were still there, blinking at him. He got a strong sense of evil from it and, finally, legs shaking, he turned and ran back towards the house.
He was as white as a sheet when he came back in and couldn't speak for nearly an hour and when he did, nobody could say a word. He was one of the most "straight and narrow" people we knew, and he wouldn't make up something like that. He never went outside at my grandmothers house at night again, and was forever looking over his shoulder while there, even in the daytime.
I went back with my older sister a couple of years ago. The house was the same as ever, same door, drafts and room, but the overall oppressive feeling was gone. It felt warm and welcoming. We thing that whatever was in the house had been banished by my uncle, but only to outside the house. There were certain spots down the lane that we couldn't walk through without feeling a strong urge to run. You could almost feel someone standing behind you, breathing down your neck. I never went out without a crucifix necklace and had no shame in reciting the Lords Prayer while I was walking along. I never was bothered, but my sister swore that she could see something down by the yard gate at night.
It happened over a few years and there were other encounters as well, but nothing as significant as those three. (Read another story submitted by Niamh on Australia page.)
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