Melancholy & Missing Lighters

I myself have a similar experience to both J and her mother. It's admittedly less horrifying and a little more odd. I was still fairly young (maybe four years old) when this took place, so maybe it was a hallucination or a warped memory, yet it's one of the few clearest memories I have from my childhood. It was the middle of the day and I had just woken up from a nap. I still recall the plastic bedframe and the dresser at the foot of the bed. On top of that dresser was a merry-go-round type toy. They were ballerina bears. Well, I watched as one of the bears kind of split open, like a door. Then, stepping out of the bear was a thumb sized creature. I remember it looked like a cartoonish alligator, looked to have green skin and a stubby snout. The creature's mouth was gaping open and had a hand in front of its open mouth, like it was yawning.  Freaked out, I hid under the covers. But when I peeked out, the creature was gone.

 After my friend J had informed her mother of the eerie rabbit-like creature slinking through her room, J's mother shared with her daughter her own terrifying encounter. As a child, J's mother had shared a bed with her brother. But her brother was fast asleep beside her when a sprite-sized man dressed in green and face full of reddish whiskers appeared in the children's bedroom. The little girl was wide awake as she watched the small man take a seat at the edge of the bed. They stared at each other a few moments, before the sprite said, "If you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you." Then, he got off the bed, opened up the door just across from the bed, and walked down into the basement, closing the door behind him. J's mother had remained dutifully silent up until her daughter had a similar experience. She was afraid that the sprite had returned for her.

 My fancies are fireflies-- Specks of living light Twinkling in the dark. "Let me light my lamp," Says the star, "And never debate If it will help to remove the darkness." Poem taken from: Rabindranth Tagore , Indian Poet and Philosopher, 1861 - 1941 Translated from the Bengali by the author Cousineau, Phil (editor).  Burning the Midnight Oil: Illuminating Words for the Long Night's Journey into Day.  Viva Editions, 2013.

 This is yet another experience of my friend, J's. It was the eve of Easter. J was at an age when she still believed in Easter Bunnies and Santa Claus. So, like most children holding these beliefs, she would stay up late on these holiday evenings in the hopes of seeing one of these mythical beings.  J was tucked in bed and her door was closed, as per tradition, so that her parents may hide gifts in secret. But when her door knob began to turn, she shut her eyes, squinting slightly.  When the door opened a crack, J watched as a two foot tall rabbit-looking creature slipped in. Something felt wrong. J may have maintained her belief of an Easter Bunny, but she felt certain that creature was not the Easter Bunny.  It had the body of a rabbit, but its face was a grotesque attempt at imitating a rabbit. It was slightly warped and wrong. The rabbit, as it was partway through the door, made an exaggerated gesture of slowly turning its head side to side, like a cartoon charac...

 Growing up, my friend, J, lived in a house full of paranormal activity. One of the strange entities that made frequent appearances lived in the downstairs bathroom, right across from the side door that leads outside. She explained that the creature very strongly resembled the aliens from that movie in the 80's "Critters". That bathroom door was always latched shut, aside from a sliver of a gap to allow their cats to slip in to use the litter box. J said the cats were never harmed. But wheb she would come in through the side door at night, she would always see the creature peering out through the door at her. It was about a foot tall, and had red eyes and a smiling mouth full of sharp teeth.  It never left the bathroom, but that wouldn't stop J from bolting up the stairs every time.

 If choice be mine, for how I'd leave this life, I'd wrap myself in flowers, blooming roses blue, The thorns would pierce my skin and bleed me dry, My form, away from prying eyes, their leaves would hide, As petals softly brush my eyelids closed,   As though I'm lost in scents so sweet.

 When she was a teenager, my friend, J, had gone to a friend, who we'll call A's house to spend the night, along with their other friend, who we'll call B. B was visiting from the next state over, and like J, she had her own paranormal background.  Back at her home, B had been living with a ghost who had become attached to her. When he would make an appearance, the apparition looked to be a young man with black hair and dressed in a black leather jacket. During the night of the sleepover, the three teens headed out into the back yard for some reason or other. When they looked back up at A's bedroom window, they noticed a man beckoning for them to come inside. He looked like B's house ghost.  So, the girls, obsessed with such matters, were not frightened of a possible intruder; rather, they figured he was trying to warn them, so they listened and ran back into the house. Not too long after, the phone rang. It was B's mother. She was frantic, asking if everything ...

 When my friend, J, was a teenager, she had been sitting on her bed in her room, when her door suddenly opened. She couldn't see anyone, but she heard what sounded like a boy and a girl talking to each other as they walked into her room. The girl then asked, "Should we try talking to her?" The boy replied, "She can't even hear us." J, chimed in "Uh, yes, I can hear you." The room went dead silent, as though the sound of J's voice scared off her two invisible visitors.

(Source) Last night the rain spoke to me slowly, saying, what joy to come falling out of the brisk cloud, to be happy again in a new way on the earth! That’s what it said as it dropped, smelling of iron, and vanished like a dream of the ocean into the branches and the grass below. Then it was over. The sky cleared. I was standing under a tree. The tree was a tree with happy leaves, and I was myself, and there were stars in the sky that were also themselves at the moment at which moment my right hand was holding my left hand which was holding the tree which was filled with stars and the soft rain – imagine! imagine! the long and wondrous journeys still to be ours. Poem taken from: Mary Oliver , American Poet, 1935 - 2019 Cousineau, Phil (editor).  Burning the Midnight Oil: Illuminating Words for the Long Night's Journey into Day.  Viva Editions, 2013.

 My friend, J, also had an experience with a ghost in her bed. This took place when she had been living in a cottage with her boyfriend at the time.  The couple were in bed in the early evening; J was reading while her boyfriend dozed off to sleep. J then became aware of a lump moving under the blanket near her legs. Then, she felt what felt like a hand grabbing onto her shin. The hand started shaking her leg while laughing. Tense and frightened, J shook her boyfriend awake. But when he woke up, the hand and laughing stopped. Annoyed and not believing what J was telling him, the boyfriend turned back over to sleep. Shortly after, the hand started shaking J's leg again. Then, of course, when she woke her boyfriend up again, the hand once again had stopped. J ended up just letting the ghostly hand shake her leg until it became bored.

 This was another experience my aunt had shared with me. When she was younger, she had been renting a room in an old, large house. I believe it had only occurred one time. But while she was lying in bed, there was a sudden shifting at the edge of her bed. It looked and felt as though someone lunged onto the bed, ran across it, and then jumped back off.

My body trembles, existence regretfully true, I'm trapped inside this form I cannot break, I feel a rising swell that's crushing bones, I feel a fire that's melting flesh in my head–  Return me, far from here, primordial seas, Return to tides, a current pulling me under, Beneath the waves, disappear, like salt dissolves.

 My aunt told me about this experience when I asked about the name "Tom" that was scratched into the concrete floor at the bottom of the concrete stairs. She had become a bit nervous. But with an uncomfortable laugh, she informed me that Tom had been the house's previous owner. Apparently, he also died in the house. Then she went on to tell me when she had met him. She was certain she was in a dream, because she had gone to sleep, but then she was suddenly looking around her room. Then, out of nowhere, a much older man appeared and started strangling her. Before she could pass out, he vanished just as suddenly as he had appeared. ... Other Spooky Season Stories: Zombie Girl

  Happy October! This is my favourite month, not only because it's my birth month, but of course, because it is also the month of Halloween 🎃🧹💀🍂 To celebrate, I'll be posting 10 creepy (allegedly) true stories recounted to me by family and friends.  I'll be posting these every Saturday and Monday until Halloween.  The first story I'm sharing is a favoruite one of many paranormal encounters shared with me by a friend of mine. Please enjoy~  The following story is my friend's, who we'll call J, experience.  ... Despite a lifetime of otherworldly encounters, this one, which took place six years ago, J says, was the most recent one. J had grown up in a house that seemed to have been a hub for paranormal activity. But, when she moved into her current house with her mom (sometime in the late 90's), there was very little activity, aside from the knocking at the front door. Every night, they heard the knocking, but they could never see anyone through the peepho...