Paranormal Intruder Page 16

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ I laughed. Despite everything I had experienced, the thought of the soldiers moving on their own seemed crazy. But curiosity bit. I cursed my short-sightedness and took a few steps forward for a closer look.

  ‘Loads of them have moved,’ Lee said, flashing me an excited smile. The dust marks suggested some of the soldiers had been picked up and deposited elsewhere while others had been dragged. Scrawled lines in the dust revealed shaky movements. Others had just fallen over. I cupped my hands over my mouth and laughed. This was something different, and my mind filled with possibilities. What else could it move? Just what was the extent of its powers?

  ###

  Neil’s comments prior to the soldier incident gave me food for thought. I had an idea and wanted to run it by him. The next day the two of us went out for breakfast, and I brought up my theory. ‘Neil, remember before the soldiers moved when you asked Phil to do it?’

  Neil answered, not raising his eyes from the full English breakfast on his plate, ‘Yes, why?’

  ‘Could you have done it with your mind?’

  ‘What, like telepathy?’

  ‘No, that’s minding reading. I think it’s called telekinesis?’

  Neil took a bite into his sausage and chewed it slowly as he gave the idea some thought. ‘I see where you’re coming from, but it can’t be me. We’ve tested it. If one of us holds our fingers up behind our backs, it taps out the number.’ Neil said, waving his fork around. ‘Also, if we ask it things, it gets it right, even when I don’t know the answer.’

  The thoughts of the entity reading my mind made me uneasy. I took a swig of my coffee, feeling silly for mentioning it. ‘Okay, sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything, just forget I brought it up.’

  The following weekend I attended the pub again, happy there had been no activity in the house, in between. I accepted we were safe in a public place, and felt a tingle of excitement laced with apprehension as we entered a new stage of our paranormal experiences.

  I sat with Neil and Lee in ‘The Rose & Crown’ pub. The small round table soon became active with taps and knocks in answer to our questions.

  Neil disclosed ‘Phil’s’ latest trick of grabbing their leg under the table.

  I shuddered as he demonstrated the grasp, ‘Ugh don’t do that, it gives me the creeps.’

  Lee began to chuckle, ‘Oh I don’t know… if it was a female’s ghostly hand perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad.’

  Neil laughed in response, ‘Yeah, with long painted fingernails, can you imagine it?’

  ‘How rude,’ I laughed, stopping short as something hit my leg. ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘something just kicked me. That wasn’t you, was it?’

  Neil laughed, ‘No it bloody wasn’t.’

  I did not think it was. The kick came too high up on the side of my leg for it to be Neil. ‘Oh, there it goes again,’ I said, in response to another faint kick.

  I giggled nervously, crossing my legs under my chair in an attempt to avoid further contact. Neil described how chairs moving by themselves had become commonplace in the pub. I stared at a customer sitting across from me, wishing they could experience the activity too. ‘Hey Phil, why don’t you move her chair, or give her a kick.’ Leaning back against the wall, I stared at the unsuspecting drinker. ‘Oh!’ I jumped forward as a pointy finger prodded me in the back. ‘He poked me,’ I whispered to Neil.

  ‘That’s what you get for asking him to kick that woman,’ Neil said with a smile.

  ‘Yeah, but it poked me through the wall!’ I jabbed my thumb behind me.

  The small pub became increasingly busy.

  ‘Will we go to another pub?’ Neil said. A loud thump for yes hit the table.

  We laughed in amazement. ‘I wasn’t asking you,’ Neil said.

  ‘Oh, that means the drinks are on you then?’ I said to ‘Phil’.

  The table tapped twice for no.

  ‘Are you sure? Drinks on you?’ Neil said, listening for a response. We were standing up by now, ready to leave. Everybody’s hands were in sight and I had no doubt ‘Phil’ was playing with us.

  Again, the table tapped twice for no. It seemed he was happier spilling drinks than buying them. We tried to contain our laughter as we walked out the pub and jumped in the car to drive the short distance to the pub further down the road.

  Neil’s tape recorder was at the ready, and we sat in ‘The Bell’ pub, which was rumoured to have a ghost of its own. The atmosphere in the pub was homely, and with its cream coloured walls and modern bar, it was hard to imagine anything spooky occurring there. As always, Neil took the furthest table away from the other customers. Neil mentioned if things got too heated, we would probably have to leave. It was still early, but the winter night had drawn in fast, and it was completely dark outside.

  We joined Lee at a large round wooden table, using three of the six chairs pushed into it. I leaned into the curved back of my chair and took a sip of my drink as Neil talked about Chris, who was unable to attend.

  ‘Remember last week when Chris asked Phil to show itself?’ Neil said to Lee.

  ‘You’re joking me, why did he say that?’ I interrupted.

  Neil shrugged, ‘Dunno, I guess he wanted to see it. Anyway nothing happened that night.’

  ‘I should hope not, you don’t want to be asking that Neil.’

  Neil leaned forward so nobody else could hear. ‘Yeah, well, he called me to say that he’s been having some funny things happen at home. The other night he was in bed when he saw a big black figure standing over him.

  ‘Are you sure he wasn’t dreaming?’ I asked, digging for a rational explanation.

  ‘No, he hadn’t been to sleep. He said he heard a weird noise first, and it looked like a big black jelly baby.’

  Lee laughed at the description, but it made me think. Chris was level headed, and would never have confided in his experiences if he had any doubt they were real. A flicker of movement distracted me.

  ‘Did that chair just move?’ I said to Neil and Lee, who did not appear to have noticed. ‘My eyes might have been playing tricks on me.’

  ‘We get it all the time,’ Neil replied.

  ‘Whoa! Fucking hell,’ I grasped Neil by the jacket as I realised my eyes were working perfectly well. The chair directly in front of me was moving, back from the table as if someone was pulling it out to sit on it.

  ‘There you go,’ Neil said, watching the chair being pulled back from the table.

  I held my hand to my mouth, ‘Fuc-king hell!’

  Neil and Lee calmly watched the chairs move. ‘We get this all the time,’ Neil said.

  ‘Oh my God, I don’t like it, stop it!’ my voice squeaked as I tried to contain myself.

  The first chair was still moving as the one beside it also moved back. It appeared we had two invisible guests at our table.

  ‘Shush, just calm down a bit,’ Neil said, more interested in the strange looks I was getting from other pub dwellers than the moving chair. The trouble is, they weren’t looking at the chairs, they were looking at me, the woman squeaking and grabbing at her husband like she was about to fit.

  The chairs came to rest. ‘Oh my God, my poor heart is doing ninety, I can’t believe I’ve just seen that. I wish Tracey was here to see it.’

  ‘Well you know none of us have done it,’ Neil said, amused by my reaction. ‘If we had legs that long, we would be like Mr Tickle,’ he snickered. The table was round and wide, and the movement of the heavy chairs suggested they had been pulled back from behind.

  Lee joined in, waving his arms in a Mr Tickle impression, ‘Yeah, can you imagine him moving around the chairs.’

  ‘I’m freaked out right now,’ I said, a little embarrassed by my outburst. ‘What are you laughing at?’

  ‘We’re laughing as it’s the first time you’ve ever seen it,’ Neil said.

  ‘I nearly sat on your lap there. How did Chris react when he saw it?’

  ‘Chris never gets fazed by anything.
’

  ‘He didn’t do a Scooby Doo and try to jump into your arms like me.’

  Neil shook his head, smiling. The table began to tap and creak.

  I ignored it, still reeling at seeing chairs move so far in a public place. ‘I’m not brave with something like that, but as a police officer I’m brave. I can go into a house being burgled, and it doesn’t worry me as I know how to deal with it. But with this, you don’t know how to react as there’s nothing you can do to protect yourself. This isn’t real life,’ I said, trying to justify my reaction.

  Neil smiled calmly, ‘I know, we’ve seen it all before.’

  I stood up, discreetly took some photos of the chairs and sat back down again.

  Neil took out his cigarettes and nodded towards the rear door, which led to the outdoor smoking area. ‘Shall we go for a smoke then? You coming?’ Neil said, emitting another chuckle.

  I grabbed my handbag. ‘Yeah.’

  Neil explained some of the outside occurrences, in the smoking area. I took one of his cigarettes to help calm my nerves.

  ‘See that?’ Neil pointed to the cream tarpaulin awning overhead. ‘One night a hand pushed through there, clear as anything.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Lee said, ‘and when we tried to get back into the pub, we were locked out. We hammered on the door for ages but nobody heard us. Eventually we legged it through the graveyard.’

  I peered out into the darkness, and faintly made out the headstones next to the gravel trail, shadowed by the tall trees overhead. The pub was situated near a church, and, unfortunately for Neil, backed out onto a graveyard.

  ‘Footsteps kept running at us through the gravel, and there were breathing sounds behind me,’ Neil said.

  I shivered involuntarily. ‘I don’t want to be making any detours tonight.’

  I finished my cigarette, telling myself it would be my last one. Dismay overcame me as I realised the back door was locked. ‘It’s not opening,’ I said to Neil. The door had been off the latch on the other side, and I was the last one to close it. I looked at Neil and Lee, knowing there was no way I would walk through the shortcut of the graveyard to get back inside. I rattled the door, and my knocks went unanswered. I felt a lump grow in my throat. The silence was broken by someone coming to our aid on the other side.

  I exhaled in relief.

  ‘You’re lucky,’ Neil said, ‘they don’t always answer.’

  The door made a noise as someone fiddled with the latch, and was mercifully opened by the landlord. ‘That’s funny,’ he said, scratching his bald head as he looked at Neil, ‘you’re the only ones to be locked out. It’s always left off the latch.’

  We pretended to look surprised. He would never believe the truth.

  ###

  A few weeks afterwards, Neil and Lee attended ‘The Red Lion’ pub with Paranormal Investigators Mike and John during another visit. Mike struck up a conversation with the Manager at the bar, casually asking him if such an old pub was haunted.

  The old landlord nodded his head. ‘Oh yes, we’ve had many strange occurrences. Why only last week all the soldiers in the cabinet moved by themselves. The cabinet’s locked but you could see the movements in the dust.’ Mike gave him a look of mock surprise. The landlord leaned across the old wooden bar, raised his bushy eyebrows and whispered mysteriously. ‘Other things happen too, very strange. One day, a red balloon floated into the pub, and went into every room, even into the kitchen as if someone was holding it. After a while it flew out the window. Ever since then, if we see anything ghostly we blow up a balloon. Maybe it’s a child haunting the place.’

  Mike returned to his seat. The night was full of activity as the air was filled with mysterious sounds, and the table creaked and shuddered where they sat. Taps and bangs became louder, and the activity rose to a crescendo with the table bucking from the floor. Neil glanced up at the landlord, his eyes wide, hastily blowing up a red balloon.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Conversations With The Dead

  Thoughts of paranormal activity filtered into my work life. I confided in my colleague Tracey, about the activity in the pub.

  ‘Really? Ohhh I’d love to see it for myself,’ she said, her face lighting up with a grin.

  I’d known Tracey for several years. Full figured and shapely, she had a calm and easy-going manner that made her easy to like. ‘You can join us if you like, we’re going out next weekend,’ I offered.

  Tracey hesitated only for a second. ‘Yes, I’d love to.’

  The week went quickly and we met with Lee and his girlfriend *Josie in our usual pub. I had not met Josie before, but heard from Neil that she was very interested in the paranormal. She had already witnessed several occurrences without batting an eyelid. Her short black spiky hair suited her elfin features perfectly, and I gave her a knowing smile.

  Tracey arranged to meet us at seven thirty, and I watched the glare of her car’s headlights shine through the pub windows. I walked out to see her exiting the car with a grin on her face.

  ‘How’s it going? Anything happen yet?’ she asked, brushing a strand of wavy auburn hair off her face.

  ‘No,’ I replied. ‘You never know when it’s going to start. Hopefully you’ll see something tonight.’ We walked inside and joined the others, introductions were made, and we settled down for a chat.

  Tracey listened, fascinated as Neil and Lee recalled previous events. Hours passed and apart from feeling a chill in the air, nothing eventful occurred.

  ‘We can try another pub if you like, I’m just going to the toilet first,’ Neil said.

  I gave him a cheeky smile. ‘On your own? Are you sure?’

  Lee chuckled, ‘Yeah, he’ll come running out of the toilet in a minute with his trousers around his ankles shouting, “It was Phil, it was Phil!” ’

  We giggled as Neil rolled his eyes and walked to the toilet alone. We ventured to another pub across the road. I brought some crisps back to the table as Neil switched the recorder on. ‘It’s going to be great fun listening to these sounds with all of us munching crisps in the background!’ I laughed, knowing I would have hours of recordings to check. But Neil was not listening. He was staring blankly into the distance. ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked, touching his arm. The sleeve of his leather jacket felt cold to the touch.

  ‘He’s here. I can feel it,’ he said distractedly. We finished our crisps and sat in silence. The glasses clinked as the table began tremoring. ‘Can you knock on the table?’ Neil asked in a low voice. A faint knock replied. ‘There you go,’ he said to Tracey. ‘Are you going to move this table tonight, knock once for yes, twice for no,’ he said, his voice growing confident. The response was one tap, which meant yes.

  ‘Why don’t you ask it the question it doesn’t like?’ Lee asked.

  ‘What doesn’t it like?’ Tracey whispered, leaning forward for the answer.

  ‘The last time we asked if it wanted help, it went mental…’ Neil was interrupted by thump thump, which signalled a NO, and two soft growls ensued.

  Tracey gave a sharp gasp at the reaction.

  ‘Can you ask if it’s happy?’ Please be happy I thought.

  ‘Are you happy?’ Neil asked. The table jolted. I frowned, hoping for a better response.

  ‘Are you sad?’ I asked. A cool breeze touched my fingers, an ice cold hand hovering over mine. I slowly turned my hand palm up, and the coldness disappeared.

  ‘Ask it…’ Tracey’s voice was interrupted by the table shifting abruptly to the left. The movement was powerful and strong as if pushed hard by an invisible force. ‘Oh!’ she exclaimed loudly, pushing her seat back from the table.

  Lee jumped up, ‘If it’s going to start going crazy,’ he said, eyeing the door.

  ‘Calm down,’ Neil said, putting his hand on Lee’s arm to steady him, ‘People are looking.’

  My attention was drawn to the landlord, who was staring at a small monitor over the bar, then looking back at us. Another member of staff joined him as he po
inted at the screen. I leaned forward and whispered, ‘Is he looking at us?’

  Tracey nodded as she replied, ‘Yes, we’re on CCTV.’ We lowered our heads and giggled like naughty school children.

  Neil seized the opportunity to request further activity. ‘Move that table without touching it.’ The table jerked suddenly, we grabbed our drinks to rescue them. ‘What did I tell you,’ he said, smugly. It was a statement, not a question. ‘Try to push it back,’ Neil said, holding his hands up so Tracey could see it was clear of human interference.

  Tracey checked underneath first, then pushed hard, her face reddening with the effort. ‘It’s so strong,’ she gasped.

  I rubbed my arms, which were coming up in goose bumps. ‘I can feel breezes,’ I said as I was bathed in an icy gust. Tracey and I squealed in unison as the heavy wooden table thumped against the floor and jumped towards us again. We waited a few seconds and pushed it back.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Tracey asked Lee. He looked uncomfortable and was glancing around the room.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, shifting in his chair. ‘I’m not scared, just worried about the noise.’

  ‘It’s weird that creaking noise is exactly the same at every table we’ve sat,’ Josie said. The table jumped again.

  ‘Bloody hell Neil,’ I exclaimed, not quite sure what Neil was supposed to do about it.

  Neil hid one hand behind his back while laying the other one flat on the table. ‘Tap out how many fingers I’m holding behind my back.’ The table tapped three times and Neil brought his hand around to the front, still holding up three fingers.

  ‘Three, well done,’ Tracey exclaimed, praising the entity for getting the answer right.

  ‘He’s really good at it,’ Josie said quietly, stirring a straw around her drink.

  ‘That’s amazing. Ask where it lives,’ Tracey said, her face alight with anticipation.

  ‘Do you live at my house?’ Neil asked. The table immediately thumped once, the sign for YES. ‘Have you ever been to Lee’s house?’ Neil asked.

  Lee held his breath. Two taps, answer was NO. ‘Yessssss!’ Lee said, punching the air, his relief evident.