Knowing My Demon

My story is actually published on Wattpad but I've been failing to get some attention so I'm posting it on here.

Sometimes I find myself drowning in the memories of paranormal experiences that still linger in the back of my head from day to day. Some things just simply cannot be unseen. I think that spirits, demons or whatever they may be are beings that no living person could ever understand. In this case, "Seeing is believing" is a good way to simply word it up for you non-believers out there.

Maybe a family member, a friend or even some stranger has told you that they have seen a ghost and you've thought it was ridiculous. I think anyone could understand why that is.

My life was pretty ordinary when I was a young kid. After my encounters, every part of my life changed; the way I thought, the way I saw life. I changed for the better and suddenly the things that remained unanswered in my head made sense to me. "I was blind but now I can see".

There are things that have happened to me that I've never been able to compare with anyone else. Things that would make your spine rattle. But everyday I muster up the courage to move forward and forget. Although, some things can never be forgotten.

My family own an old house on the North shore of Scotland, in a place that not many have even heard of; Melness. I remember the house next door. It was old and abandoned, no one would buy it and no one would enter it. It was a place that everyone feared; I don't know what really happened in that house but it always creeped me out. It was made from rocks that were almost ancient, it must have been there for hundreds of years. There were no doors or windows blocking my view but for some strange reason, even on the brightest days, no one could ever see a glimpse of the inside of the house. To this day, everything about that place remains a mystery I'm too afraid to solve.

I spent a lot of my childhood in Melness. It is an isolated place that isn't shown on many maps but I can bet that anyone who visits will not have a hard time remembering the place. It was mostly highlands, fields and beaches; probably the most Scottish place anyone could go. I can still smell the salty Atlantic sea. The water was pure, like it had never been touched. I can still see the washed up shipwreck that lay on the sandy shore.

My dad had always told me terrifying stories about Melness and the weird things that happened there when he was just a boy. He told me one specific story that really grabbed my attention. It was about the cave on the Beach, that is also known to be haunted.

He was on the beach one day, playing. As there is nothing much else to do in Melness. My dad, being brave, decided to go into this cave. To the right when he was inside, there was a very dark corner, pitch black. It was a hole inside the wall of the cave. A hole so dark that no man could ever be brave enough to enter. He was scared but he brushed it off and just assumed if there was anything there, it would be an animal. So instead of going near it he just decided to throw some sand in to try and prove to himself that there was nothing there. "It's okay" he thought as nothing happened. But that was only until a few seconds later; sand had then been thrown back at him. Him being alone, did not stay in that cave. He has been back to the cave occasionally but the one thing that really spooks him to this day is that the hole was never seen again.

I experienced my first paranormal event in the house in Melness. All of my family have seen and heard some weird, unnatural things in the house. Inside it wasn't very scary looking, in fact, it's very homey looking until you spend your first night there. As you walk through the front door, the bathroom is what you first see, it was under the stairs. There was three bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs and downstairs the right was the kitchen and to the left, the living room. In the living room it was an old red curtain that separates the it from the conservatory and that was where I first encountered something that was somewhat, terrifying.

One night we were all asleep; me, my sister, my dad and my papa. I was only at a young age, around the age of six. I had woken up and dragged myself downstairs to the bathroom and when I had gotten to the bottom of the staircase, I couldn't help but notice that the curtain that led to the conservatory was blowing as if the outside door was open, and it was. It was wide open! Which was very strange as we lock all doors before bed, but me being young and oblivious to odd things that went on inside the house, just locked the door again and went went to the bathroom and back to bed. The next morning I was woken to the sound of my dad calling me from downstairs. I got up and went to see what he shouting about. When I got downstairs I said "Daddy, what is it?" And he pointed to the conservatory and asked if I was up in the night? I slipped past the curtain and realised the door and all of the windows were wide open. I was gobsmacked and just explained to him that it wasn't me and told him about how I came down and shut the door. Then that night a similar thing happened, every single kitchen cupboard was left open. I was young, but I knew this wasn't a coincidence.

The first time I had ever seen a spirit wasn't in the house, in fact. It was in a rather new house I was living in with my mum and my stepdad. But I have always believed that if a spirit was following me, it followed me from Melness. As you walk into the house, you're in the living room and there's a door separating the bedrooms and bathrooms.

It happened in the middle of the night, just as I was going to the toilet again. The bathroom door faced the living room one and as I passed by I looked through the living room door. You couldn't really see through it properly as it was textured glass but you could still see shapes, like the couches and the table. But the one thing that caught my eye in that living room still gives me shivers down my spine, I had never seen anything more terrifying in my life. It was a tall black figure, almost like someone wearing a robe or dress. And as I looked in I could tell that the figure had turned to me. I screamed at the top of my voice, I thought I was dead. I ran to my mums room straight away and lost my toenail under the door in the process. I jumped in-between my mum and my stepdad, still screaming. I was TERRIFIED. My stepdad went through to the living room and the black cloaked figure that I had seen with my very own eyes had gone, like it was never there but as I walked into the room behind him I felt a disturbing chill that filled the air. I had just wished that someone else had seen it so people hadn't thought I was crazy. Though I never doubted myself for a second.

I never had thought that the second time I would see a ghost, it would be the same dark figure but it was. I knew right away. The tall black silhouette that I had already seen in my living room had come back to me again. Only this time, I was back in Melness. Must have been around 2005, I was nine years old. I had asked my stepbrother to come downstairs with me so I could go to the bathroom and he waited outside the bathroom door and I felt a lot more safe. But I was still scared, I couldn't even look in mirrors at night or even take a glance out the window as I was scared of what I might see glancing back.

As I was just washing my hands in the sink I suddenly heard banging and screaming at the door. It was my stepbrother and he had obviously seen something that had scared him. I opened the door in a flash and the first thing that caught my attention was the figure that I'd seen before, standing outside the front door. We both hid in the bathroom, sitting in the bath blocking the bathroom door with a set of drawers and anything else we could find. For about three hours we hid, not knowing what may be lurking at the other side of just a bit of wood. The only thing that was separating me from the thing I feared most, was a bit of mahogany. I thought that maybe it was a good thing I was seeing it again, to reassure myself that it wasn't my immature imagination. I was just glad I had someone there to see it too, it was just what I needed.

From that day on I was sure it was following me. But what was 'it'? What is a who? But why? A while after that I went to the library with my friend to do some spiritual research but I found no information that was important to me. It was only recently I have read some things that explained what my strange black shadow may be. I read about 'shadow people' and demons but I find that all really strange, I've never been one to believe in demons. There was still not enough information to explain to me what's going on.

There was one last time that I've seen my ghostly follower. At the start of May last year. It had been nine years since I had last saw it, sometimes I had almost forgotten and I had finally felt at peace, until that day. I was staying at my friend's house and I was sitting on the back corner of his bed. It was against the wall to the right, in front of me was the television and to the left was a large mirror on the wall. He had went out of the room to go for a shower and I was watching something when I got a strange itch in my back, I suddenly turned my head towards the mirror and I SAW it, right behind me! In the mirror I had saw the spirit I thought had left me and it was right behind my back, I had never had a more terrifying moment in my life until then and it was worse. I could tell it had touched me. In the end my friend thought I was nuts and we lost contact. But now it seems that whatever is happening to me, whoever or whatever is following me might never stop.

It was only a couple of months ago I moved into my flat with my boyfriend. It was maybe two or three weeks ago I decided I've had enough and decided to write this short story about my hauntings. I've been running in circles as I attempt to address questions for which I had no answers. It was the other week I felt that maybe it's going too far.

My boyfriend was working in Glasgow which is a half hour train ride away. It was about nine o'clock at night and it was dark. It was just me and my cat in the house and I was doing my makeup, getting ready to go out. I was holding my small mirror in my hand in front of me when I heard my cat make a really weird noise. I went though to bedroom and she looked terrified, hiding behind the blinds. "Weird cat," I thought to myself.

I looked around to see what may have disturbed her. I opened the walk in cupboard for her which needs to be pulled and pushed really hard as it gets jammed. Then I went back to the living room and sat back down on the couch leaving the bedroom door open for me to see through. I then carried on doing my makeup, looking in my small mirror while putting on foundation. Suddenly, there was a huge, very loud bang as if a door had actually been slammed shut. I looked through and it was the cupboard door and I could see my cat sitting on the bed staring at it. This is when I got really scared and I looked back down at my makeup mirror to close it and put everything down and there was a huge crack going through it. I didn't know what else to do except shout my cat through and take her outside, which I did. I told my boyfriend everything and it was only a few days later windows started unlocking by themselves.

It's been really scary to experience this so often and I'd really appreciate some help!