Embracing the Spirits: True Stories of My Encounters With the Other Side by Barbara Parks (best ereader for graphic novels txt) 📗

woman. Even her camera was bombarded, and she ran from

the corridor, an hysterical mess.

As she stumbled into the pub with her camera hanging by

her side, we were shocked to see her so distressed. She was

crying, shaking and struggling to breathe. We helped her into

The Night of the Poltergeist 11

a chair and gave her water, waiting for her to catch her breath so we could hear what had happened. She was completely

traumatised, perhaps more so for having been a skeptic just a

few minutes earlier.

It was then that Tony called my name.

“Your turn,” he said.

Having seen how the two ladies before me fared, to say I

was scared would be a ridiculous understatement. All my old

fears came bubbling to the surface. I felt like I was a teenager again; as frightened as I’d been when I was terrorised by poltergeists thirty years ago.

“I can’t do it,” I said, terrified. I could feel my face burning; my body was trembling.

Tony assured me I’d be safe, and the rest of the group

agreed. They reminded me I’d come all this way for a reason, I wouldn’t forgive myself if I backed out now. So with my heart

racing and my breath rasping, I clung to Tony’s elbow as we

made our way down the increasingly cold hallway. Karen (my

fellow competition winner) was armed with her infrared cam-

era and made up the threesome for the third leg of the inves-

tigation.

I forced myself to breathe deeply as we stood in the dark

corridor. The sense of expectation was all-consuming, though

it wasn’t long before the activity kicked in. A loud bang was

followed by the flying stones, it appeared that this was Ted’s favourite trick. One of the stones skimmed my right cheek as

it whizzed past, I was as awestruck as I was terrified. How on earth was this possible? It was beyond my comprehension that the stones were manifesting out of nothingness, they seemed

to be coming at us from thin air.

12The Night of the Poltergeist

Tony addressed the darkness, his voice measured and con-

fident. He’d obviously done this many times before.

“If you want us to leave, just make a noise …”

The response came as a loud rap on the wall in front of us.

I was ready to run.

“OK,” I faltered. “If you don’t want us here, we’ll go.” I

turned towards the doorway, but Tony and Karen had no

intention of leaving. Especially since Karen was capturing a

spectacular display of orb activity on her infrared camera.

I’d noticed that while I was speaking to Ted I started to feel a little more calm. So I tried speaking to him again.

“We’re sorry if we’re upsetting you. We want to know

whether you need our help. Are you stuck?”

Another shower of stones, or perhaps it was more of a sprin-

kling. We heard the stones clatter into the old bath, and made our way towards the bathroom to investigate. Tony held one

of the stones in the palm of his hand, it looked like one of the small orange local stones, and we joked that it was very much

like a large lentil. The atmosphere was starting to lift.

“Ted …” asked Tony. “Do you think you could show your-

self to us again?”

Almost instantly, an orb flew out from the wall to our right.

It skittered around in front of us for a few seconds, before disappearing into the brickwork of the opposite wall.

“Wow!” I said, starting to feel better. We were all blown

away.

“Could you do that again mate?” asked Tony.

We all stared at Karen’s view-finder as the small, bright orb

reappeared. It darted around in front of us, before seeming to disappear into the wall once again.

“Thank you,” I said. “It’s so good of you to show yourself!”

The Night of the Poltergeist 13

This manifestation of spirit energy felt much more accept-

able than stone-throwing and rapping! It appeared that now that Ted had our full attention, he had calmed down significantly.

Also, by now I’d managed to keep my fear in check, so there was no intense emotion available to fuel the disturbance. Karen and Tony had been calm and composed all along, it was just me who

had been on the verge of a meltdown!

By the time we emerged from the darkness, my fear had

made way for awe. I couldn’t quite comprehend what had just

happened. I had read about this type of phenomenon before,

but to experience it myself was another thing altogether.

And to think, the night had barely begun!

Once we’d composed ourselves, Tony set up the Ouija

Board. It was the very thing I had sworn I’d never be involved with. I’d heard too many stories of séances gone wrong. Yet

here I was, seated in the old dining room of a haunted hotel, about to initiate contact with its resident ghosts.

Tony’s Ouija Board is a converted fold-out table, and judg-

ing by its well-worn appearance, it has obviously seen much

use over the years. It had probably once been a pristine white, but was now looking battered with age. The letters and numbers were arranged around its periphery, with a large “YES”

and “NO” in the middle.

I reassured myself with the knowledge that Tony was an

expert in the field of spirit contact, and I knew that he wouldn’t start proceedings without protection being in place first. In an effort to further strengthen my spiritual armour, I said a quick prayer and white-lighted myself, then braced myself in preparation for the séance.

There were five of us seated around the table; Tony, Karen,

Rob, Heidi and myself. Heidi’s friend Sophie sat slightly apart 14The Night of the Poltergeist

from us, taping proceedings on her hand-held tape recorder. We were ready to begin.

Tony asked us to place our hands flat on the table, with

our little fingers extended so as to touch those of the person next to us. He warned us that it was likely nothing would happen for quite a while, if it happened at all. If we did make spirit contact however, Tony told us we’d feel a drop in temperature

and the tips of our