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As an adult, I want to share that I have had at least four significant experiences. I have written about one incidence and it is entitled "The Play" which you can find on Castle of Spirits website. This story is one of those experiences, and in fact, is the very first experience I had ever had. This story takes place in the spring of 1968, when I was twelve years old, and on Easter vacation in Petaluma, California on Arlington Drive. As I entered Grandma's front door, there IT was... "The Shrine". A great big, almost lifelike statue of Jesus. It was there that I first felt something was wrong. The way The Shrine's eyes followed me gave me an eerily unnerving feeling. The Shrine was an image of Jesus with thorns upon his head, blood dripping down his face and he looked sad - very sad. I never walked past that creepy statue unless I had to, especially in the middle of the night on my way to the bathroom. It was Easter midnight mass and we hurried to get to the church. My grandma took care of the priest until the day she passed away. My grandmother was a devout Catholic and my godmother to boot. Our family actually donated land and money to build the church in Tamales, California. I think it was to atone for all their sins and get them through purgatory quicker. I'll never forget the darkness of the church and all the lit candles, then finally the procession with the giant cross with Jesus on it. The memory of how we all piled up in the line to kiss the feet of the dead Shrine on the cross, while the priest droned on and on in Latin. In the dark with only candles lit, Latin sounds even scarier to a twelve year old child. It was later that the real story takes place... We arrived home some time after mass and went promptly to bed. I had a night light in my room because I was afraid of the dark and had requested one. The room I was in had a picture on the wall of a woman with a wreath of thorns upon her head and she was holding a child. The woman appeared to be the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child and she was standing upon a seven headed beast in the Heavens. The picture was done in hues of greenish grays and appeared very ominous and turbulent. It was an unusually warm evening for that time of year and I was having trouble falling asleep when I began to feel light breezes blowing over me. I was becoming more and more trance like as the breezes became cooler and cooler. I looked up and into the corner of the bedroom. I noticed a shadow of a hand moving ever so slowly up the wall to the ceiling. Slowly, the shadow moved toward me on the ceiling and, as it approached, I became colder and colder. As I laid there, I became aware that I was no longer lying on my bed, but rather floating above it with no clothes on and I knew I was not alone in that room. The shadowy hand was now directly over me and had begun its descent toward my helpless body. I noticed a feeling of coldness that I had never known before and it was chillingly frightening. I tried to scream for my grandmother, but to no avail. I had no voice, so I tried to hit the wall. Before my flailing hand made contact, I lost all strength and my hand slid without purpose down the wall. I didn't know what to do and was becoming more terrified by the moment. I am not a particularly religious person, but I want you to know I was desperate, remembering something my mother had told me many times. Mom said to pray if I was ever in doubt and ask for help in the name of Jesus. I began to pray for help and, within seconds, it was gone. I am not saying that prayer is the answer for everyone, but it sure worked for me that night. I never stayed at my grandmother's home again without my parents, and definitely not in that room. I was too afraid that IT would happen again. My grandmother's oldest sister, Josephine, is 103 years old and has promised me she will pay me a visit upon her death to show me that this is not all there is and that there is, indeed, another side. I'll let you know if that ever happens. I hope it does because then, a lot of questions will be answered. You know, the age old question we all have... "Is this all there is?" Just a footnote: This also happened to my younger sister, Gayla, and an older married cousin, Donna, who both had very similar experiences while sleeping in the same house in the exact same room. |
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