MY PARANORMAL/HORROR ESSAY STORY

SACRED LANDS... A PLACE NOT TO MESS WITH... HEED THE WARNINGS!

BACK in the late 70s, a not so brilliant idea came from the sister and brother-in-law of our intrepid girl... The brother-in-law had received a prestigious promotion within his computer business. Such as it was, it came with an incredible new pay packet; a brand new car and a fully paid mortgage for a house of their own choosing.

WANTING to help out his mother-in-law, he came up with the idea that he would equip the basement with a fully functional kitchen, laundry room for all, storage, bathroom, plus living and eating areas. Two bedrooms upstairs for the Mum and the wee girl. Ready to move in within a month... A disaster waiting to happen, our wee girl knew from the word: GO! She wasn't to be proven wrong in oh so many ways...

IT WAS a bad idea to begin with as the married daughter did not fair well being with her mother on a daily basis -- after all, she had married the first guy that wanted her as a wife two months after suffering a major break-up from her one true love.

OUR wee girl knew as well as her brother-in-law that sparks were going to fly as soon as. The ladies did not disappoint... However, it was to be expected, nevertheless it wasn't really what caused the worst upset...

TWO weeks into this new venture, strange things began surfacing. The veracity of, if you prefer, the true nature of why the house had been on the market so quickly, in an area that was known to be near impossible to purchase a property and why it had been such a bargain at 1/4 the actual value...

THE whole area where the estate existed had been built on a sacred Indian burial ground. A sacrilege in the first instance and asking for troubles if you didn't keep the peace within your home. Well, guess how that went?

AT FIRST it was subtle happenings... A door slamming by itself: "Oh the wind blew it shut, no worries!" Cushions found on the floor in the morning: "Oh never-you-mind, the cat just wanted to stretch on the sofa, to have more room, he just pushed them off..."

KITTY had been in no way within the room in question, as Kitty slept with our wee girl, cowering under her bed covers or on top of her head staring at the door, or at the fluttering curtains of the closed windows.

AFTER a month of tension, things escalated dramatically. Our wee girl slept in the room at the end of the hallway with her door closed and locked. As it were in the winter months, the heating was on and her windows were closed.

KITTY on her chest, one night she woke up as it dug its claws into her chest, back arched and hissing. Unable to see past Kitty, she just listened... It felt as if they were footsteps around her bed. Once more and for the first time, she saw the curtains fluttering right up to the ceiling. She uttered a few words in Latin.

IMMEDIATELY, all activities stopped... Kitty who just realised his wee (new) mistress was magical, softened his stance, lied down in her chest facing her and proceeded to purr until they both fell asleep anew. Nothing else happened until the following night.

THE mother had the worst room in the house, the one where it backed onto the stairs, but with a slight advantage that it was nearest to the main bathroom. Having had a bad night's sleep, she asked our wee girl to join her in the double bed for the night.

OUR wee girl knew instantly that it would not be restful as Kitty refused to enter the room and ran straight back, tail under belly, into his mistress' room, jump onto her vacant bed and dug under the duvet.

ALL this time no one uttered a single word of what had been going on and the owners were in denial. Always coming up with a proper excuse or explanation as the weird goings on in their new residence.

THAT night, our wee girl was woken up by her mother, who wondered why her wee daughter could not sleep and why on Earth was she moving the closet's sliding door and banging it repeatedly at 4am... The wee girl explained that she had indeed been sleeping and not playing with any doors, least of all banging any...

MONTHS passed and the activities increased exponentially. The worst and scariest incident happened just a few days before Mother and our wee girl moved out. Our wee girl's nephew was having a bath around 6pm. He told his aunt: "Aunty, why is there a clown behind you at the middle of the stairs?"

FRIGHTENED, our wee girl took courage, turned around and looked... Nothing was there. Gently turning back to her nephew and continuing his washing up, she went into denial as well and said: Nephie pooh, you're just tired, there's nothing there, just Kitty... (Who had arrived to protect them - the signs were plain to see - Kitty was in ninja-attack mode ready to strike!!!)

THE final straw came one dark and stormy night. The power went out, the clown showed up, plain to see, in the only place he existed; the tiled mirror wall at the bottom of the stairs. In between flashes of lightning, it seems he was climbing up the stairs. It so happened that our wee girl and her nephew were in the bathroom brushing their teeth.

NEPHEW screamed, a shout of pure terror. Our wee girl turned and the glass in her hand fell to the floor, shattering, just as the power came back and everyone else in the house exclaimed various cries as to the surprises that faced them, when the lights came on so suddenly, and to the devastation of their surroundings.

IT LOOKED as if a hurricane had blown through the house. Not a single item on the ground floor and the basement was where it should be. It was a complete mayhem to behold.

IN conclusion, three days later in a whirlwind of apartment-hunting and rush packing and moving, Mother, our wee girl and in tow, Kitty who had stowed away, in his new mistress' hand-bag, they had moved out, never to return, not even for a casual visit.

THE activities increased and every attempt by the sister and her husband to get the hauntings to end, came to no avail. Another few months passed before, they too, sold this house and moved away. The Mother and our wee girl had done a few rituals so that their kins would get a better house and the same new position, just in another city.

WHAT had been discovered years later, when a freak storm burned the part of the estate that had encroached on the sacred burial land? Bones and more bones... The original Indian cemetery had been cleared of the marking stones engraved in Abenaki language, but not the bodies.

THE owner/builder of the estate had to make restitutions to over 350 houses and the owners. Today, it's a ghost town and at night you can still see the apparition of who was believed to be "The Clown" who could only be seen in mirrors then. Chief Takenawa.

THE END!