A Personal Experience By Norman

I am quite a sensible man that believes in neither ghosts nor of any demons or shadowy phantoms; but when I moved with wife in a charming house in a quiet suburb of a city along the Atlantic coast my belief of the supernatural was radically changed.. The house was quite inexpensive, a real bargain, but it was rumored to be haunted; the story gossiped about a disappearance of the young wife of a prominent official of the city. Forensic evidence pointed to him as a murderer and he was charged with crime of murder, but the wife's body was never recovered. It was said that her ghost wanders through the house at the dark of the night causing strange sounds and movements.

We were young and in love, just married, and looking forward to a happy life and in raising a family. Ghost or no ghost we put our signatures on the bill of sale.

No sooner had we moved in and settled in to supposedly quiet life, I heard on one evening as the last glimmering of daylight the sound of a key being fitted in the lock of the front door, and by footsteps running up the stairs to the upper floor; yet when I went to look, I saw no one, which puzzled me.

On another occasion, however, when I was not expecting see anyone behind the oaken door, I fancied I could detect a young woman dressed in white of a bygone era, as if she was in the act of watching and listening. Crazy at it might seem, I spoke to her, but never got any response, and the moment I tried to touch her, she invariably vanished.

Off course I was very frightened, but I didn't let my feelings disturb my wife when she queried to the person at the front door - 'Only as person seeking directions' was my answer. At the same time it relished the thought of my dear wife being left at home at the dark hours of the night. Fortunately the night after and for a long period I heard no sounds behind the door, except for friends calling.

Then one evening when my wife retired to her nightly rest and I was busy at the computer under the soft light of a desk lamp I heard distinctly something like soft footsteps stealthily coming down the stairs. I pulled myself together to overcome my fears, rose from my chair, and was determined to confront this ghoul or phantom, but to my infinite relief, saw no one or any apparition.

The intense silence that followed throughout the house was suddenly broken by the clear and unmistakable sound of a key being fitted in the front door. The oaken portal flew open, and a cool gust of wind chilled my body. Then out of the gloom of night came a whispering sigh – the sigh of somebody in acute distress – then it turned into a whine.

Suddenly, I perceived a faint light at the entrance, until it took the shape of a young woman, all in white, watching and listening to something beyond what I could not apprehend. I stared at her ghostly face, frightfully colorless, the white of hear oval face creased in terror; her eyes were deep set and luminous, and as they met my gaze, I could discern in their depths the most unspeakable suffering and tragedy.

Here I was, confronted with one of most unusual phantasm creature that I ever encountered, even though I never met a ghost face to face on any strange physical phenomena. Yet, within a few feet in front of me was a ghostly specter with a strange clue to the riddle of a missing woman connected to a murder ages ago. It was a bona fide specter of the nether world, a specter that held within its knowledge the answer to the mystery – that of life and death.

If I could prevail upon her to utter a few words – just to answer one question, then I should have the information that the authorities have been seeking for years – the whereabouts of the remains of a missing woman that was alleged to be murdered by her husband.

I tried to speak – how I tried but my words were tied to my tongue, but at last my attempt at speech succeeded. Some words passed my lips, but there was no response from the ghostly figure. The specter still stood there somewhat in a tone of expectancy, as the cool winds that rushed past me fanning her long tresses; she just stood there and gave no sign of hearing my voice.

I spoke again with all my heart imploring the ghostly figure to speak, even to uttering one word of two, but to no avail. Then, thinking that, perhaps, it was unable to speak with her ethereal lips, I attempted to make her understand that she should make the use of signs, to indicate that she was able to indicate that she was hearing my voice.

Then our eyes met each other's gaze as I spoke. Somehow I detected that she wanted to convey something to me as the specter raised her arm slowly and beckoned me to followed, which I did, mostly out of curiosity. I followed the ghostly creature along the large garden to two tall bushes in one corner in the back of the house. The specter's hand pointed to the ground around the plants and I understood she wanted me to touch the soil. I bent down and scooped a handful of earth and I discovered friable bits between the soil particles – ASH.

I stood up and tried to put my hand on hers but fingers encountered nothing. The ghostly figure had simply vanished, nor did it ever appear again.