A serious story
I've been debating posting this all week, and finally decided to, what with this being about the closest I can imagine to a QOTW topic that'll draw this story out of me.
This is long by the way, and not funny, just to warn you.

The Tale of Kaol and the Haunted House

My parents have lived in the same house for my whole life, and so did I until I was 18.
This house is in a tiny hamlet, in the middle of the countryside, next door to a church. The other side of the garden hedge is a grave yard, and there was an abbey in the field behind the house, until it was "Dissolused" by Henry VIII, forcibly, with several of the monks being killed in the struggle.
There are several local legends about headless monks haunting the ruins, along with more recent stories of a big black cat (ie. escaped puma) that had been seen taking chickens, attacking dogs and so on.

The house itself was built in 1640, and is pretty creaky, but I was used to it.
I'd never seen a ghost, never seen the cat, never had anything strange happen to me.
Part of the deal with living in that house is that you have a key to the church, and lock it up at night, and unlock it in the morning.
Wandering through a pitch black graveyard at night, into a dark church? Not a problem.

Then around my seventeenth birthday things started to get odd.

I would hear indistinct voices whispering in my house when I was there on my own. This worried me, so I told my parents, who said "It's just the house creaking, or the wind in the trees."
It wasn't, and I knew damn fucking well it wasn't.
Then I started seeing dark, flickery shadows. They would move quickly, close to the walls, in the corners of my vision.
It was at this point that I had to stop going to lock the church up at night. What had once been a peaceful place to me had become a terrifying ordeal that I had no wish to go through with.

Things in the house then got worse, and the shadows became indistinct figures, who seemed, disturbingly, to be very aware of my existance.
I remember sitting down for a family meal when a dark, person-shaped shadow walked across the room, through the table and stopped in front of me, pointing at me accusingly.

It was around this time that I started drinking heavily to make these kind of horrible things easier to deal with. It helped quite a lot, as it turned out.

The scary apparitions and voices didn't stop though, and I became quieter and more withdrawn. I'm not going into to much detail here, as I'm still not comfortable with it myself, but suffice to say I was a very unhappy young man.

To cut this story to the conclusion, the drinking got worse, to the point that I ended up in hospital, where I was psychiatrically evaluated, and diagnosed with a wonderful combination of mental health issues.

After a few years of crappy medication and some half-arsed counciling I decided that the only person who could sort me out was me, and I got my fuckin' act together, giving you the lovely young man that you have, writing this, today.

I still get odd things happen to me, but being able to rationalise is one of the most powerful aspects of the human mind.

So, in my opinion, ghosts don't exist, but the human mind isn't perfect and can make a lot of convincing mistakes.
( Cawl, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 16:34, 12 replies)

*click*
Well said m'boy. And don't forget that shit happening makes you the wonderful and complex person that you are.
( Madam Marlboro wonders if you've found her yet, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 16:41, closed)

hello mate
You are indeed a lovely man - and will be all the lovelier for this addition to your already bountiful knowledge:

"Dissolved" by Henry VIII

You have not been charged for this call. The above is not meant in any way to belittle what must have, in very real terms, done your fucking head in. Good on ya for making it through.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 17:12, closed)

Thanks MM, Monty, ancrenne
That was a deliberate typo, thus the "indication", but I guess it didn't come across too well... *smiles*
( Cawl, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 17:15, closed)

*clicks*

and *hugs*. Lots of *hugs*
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Tue 8 Jul 2008, 17:21, closed)

Succinct
I haven't been around much for this question, just not had much time. But I'm glad I spotted this...
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 8 Jul 2008, 17:27, closed)

Hoisted by my own frothing 'tard.
Hijack.

Next week I'm having a baby girl (not me personally, ho ho). Any suggestions for names?

******Thank you*******
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 17:34, closed)

Monty...
www.b3ta.com/questions/offtopic/post194731
( Cawl, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 17:37, closed)

Clicks
and lots of hugs as well
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 20:14, closed)

Wow...
I'm going to click this, because I liked it. But the click is meant to signify the fact that I shan't be sleeping now! :)

*wonders what Hamlet it is*
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Tue 8 Jul 2008, 20:24, closed)

Thanks for sharing this with us
"I decided that the only person who could sort me out was me, and I got my fuckin' act together"

Good on ya, and well said! The best person to see into someone's mind is themselves.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Wed 9 Jul 2008, 0:00, closed)

.
"I remember sitting down for a family meal when a dark, person"
lol racist :)

anyway clicky
(Freddles, Wed 9 Jul 2008, 7:02, closed)