It was a Sunday evening way back when your Overlord and Saviour's voice still hadn't broken.
My mum and dad had rightly ordered my sister and me to bed for school the next day, but little did they know, I had come to dread bedtime. Not because I had to get up at 7 AM the following morning, a routine I loathed — especially during winter. Rather, I had gorged on The Blair Witch Project at a friend's house on that Friday.
For reasons I still can't explain, it scared the bejesus out of Young Watson.
There was something about the stickmen dangling from gnarled branches, the static VHS recorder, and the creepy cabin that kept me eyeing the dark corners of my room suspiciously.
So much so that I had to sleep with the door ajar just to let some of the hallway light spill in.
Oh yes, your Overlord and Saviour was more like Underlord and Failure back then.
Back to that Sunday night:
I was lying in bed, staring at the reflection on my glass shelves, which gave me a perfect view of the hallway and all of its comings and goings. Whilst drifting off to a Snow Patrol song, that's when I saw it.
A slender, female apparition.
I am NOT jesting.
It left my sister's room and walked straight past mine, as if heading towards my folks' bedroom. While the sight couldn't have lasted more than a second, I knew with near certainty it wasn't my mum or sister.
With waves of goosebumps lapping across my skin, I yanked the duvet over my head and stayed there.
Seconds turned into minutes until the hot air became too unbearable to breathe.
Then I peeled off the sheet, centimetre by centimetre, braced for a Ring-like figure to greet me in her white, torn gown.
Only, there wasn't one.
I studied the silhouette of my desk, wardrobe, and then, finally, the glass shelves from which the apparition had appeared.
Nothing.
I waited a few minutes and then bolted to my sister's room, where, to my horror and confirmed fear, I found her asleep with her headphones humming whatever girl band music she was into at the time.
I shook her. "Lauren, did you leave your room? Just now?"
She groggily said no.
"Well, someone just did."
Her eyes shot wide open and, admittedly, she got quite worked up by the situation because now she couldn't go back to sleep. 🤣
You see, unlike our folks, she also had her own supernatural experiences in that house. Both of us always felt something was a little off there, and even our dogs at the time (God rest their souls) would occasionally act "off."
That said, while I'm certainly no clairvoyant or have any connection with the other world beyond writing about them, I can only assume it was a spirit merely passing through, as I didn't see her again.
(Thankfully.)
The experience definitely shook me, though, but it also deepened my love (and fear) of ghost stories in a weird roundabout way. So much so that a decade later, I penned The Curse of Abbey Ruins duology (among other unpublished works).
Similar to The Blair Witch Project, these short novellas take place in a creepy woodland that locals don't like talking much about.
Why?
Well, you'll have to find out for yourself.
Go here to learn more, if you dare:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/COAR
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