A True Story for All Hallows Eve

Pam was a woman I met through my then wife as we struggled to support four kids in our new small custom home in an affluent Texas neighborhood. She had come from Arkansas to seek a new life in a rapidly growing Texas economy where employers trended toward the positive aspects of the “Sun Belt” and were relocating many of their corporate offices to it. The booming economy attracted many young adults to Texas from other states suffering the ravages of sagging industry and inner cities decay.

Where it started

On many occasions my small business required me to work day and night and so my wife who stayed at home with the kids occasionally needed a babysitter whenever I was at one of my job sites. Pam had one child, a little girl named Courtney. She and my kids often played together since Pam lived right down the street so it was all very convenient. I was to learn of Pam’s chilling experience once we had gotten to be good friends so I will tell this tale from her point of view from here.

Her terrifying story!

It was not long after my divorce from a husband who had spent much time away only to find that he’d been unfaithful to me luckily my position at a Savings and Loan helped me find a new house located on a hillside on a beautiful wooded lot in Arkansas not far from town. My daughter was a toddler at the time and I was very protective of her. The home at first seemed a comforting setting whenever I was not at work so that my daughter, Courtney, and I could enjoy the incredible very from the panoramic windows of trees from all around the house. Yet, something seemed amiss. You know whenever things on the surface seem okay, but there’s just a feeling that all is not right. So it was with that seemingly nice home.

The setting

I had dated a couple of jerks over the weeks and had become disenchanted. Not to mention the occasional call and arguments with my ex, but aside from that a strange occurrence left me stunned one night. After a long day at work and making dinner for my daughter and it was her bed time. After putting my little one down I went back to the kitchen to clean up the mess. It had gotten late by then and dark outside, very dark! The lush green trees that enveloped the house during the day became a foreboding depth of deep shadows that could make a person feel especially lonely and isolated out there, outside of town and the suburbs, and neighbors that were next door.

First encounter

As I washed the dishes strange lights seem to hover overhead from the vaulted ceiling. At first, I thought it was the full moon and its dim eerie light coming through the drapes, but to my surprise it was from inside the house. Blobs of translucent iridescent illumination, hauntingly probed the air above me. I was so stunned I almost forgot to breath, but then I heard myself gasp! When I did the lights suddenly blinked out! I stood there with goosebumps on my arms and a shiver up my spine and I thought about Courtney and ran to her bedroom to check her, but she was quietly sleeping. I was relieved and I simply shrugged off the incident trying not to wonder too much over it. Maybe it had been my imagination.

Approaching gloom

The following days and nights seemed to become more stressful as if something beneath the surface were trying to paw its way through, something ominous and deadly! Why was I feeling this way? Was I just succumbing to the aftermath of a divorce and being a single parent? I could not put my finger on it, but there was something I couldn’t deny that was affecting me! I had few friends in town and only fellow employees that I did not want to confide in lest they think I was crazy which could lead to me losing a job that I really needed.

Deepening tension

To make matters worse I had been having female problems with excessive bleeding and feared that I might need to visit a doctor if the symptoms did not subside. I chalked it all up to nerves and uneasiness so I endured for the time being. At night I was beginning to have vaguely troubling dreams of which I had little recollection of upon waking. I always considered myself independent, strong, able to take on any challenge, I was a real macho woman even though I was short with a lean figure, but now I was starting to wonder whether or not I should have a doctor’s visit and maybe a prescription tranquilizer or something. That was until everything came to a head one night.

The terror

I was really exhausted one evening and after feeding Courtney and reading her a bedtime story I did not even bother to clean the kitchen. I simply fell into my bed and seemed to just surrender to a drugged slumber, deep, as though I were in a tomb. My body was too heavy to move, my thoughts too overwhelmed to fight the sensation of being in a dark unfamiliar place that I could not escape from. Suddenly 4 cloaked figures came to stand alongside my bed! They were like ancient monks, but I could not see their faces. They then raised their hands holding gleaming daggers and they were ready to enact a sacrifice with me as the one to be rendered as an offering! I immediately gasped and screamed! I fought to pull myself out of that horrible trance-like unconsciousness!

My child!

I jolted upright from my bed in a cold sweat! Then I heard it! It was Courtney in her room screaming at the top of her lungs! I ran to her and grabbed her. She had been standing on top of her bed in hysterics! It took some time for me to calm her down and get her to drink some water before I could find out what had happened. As it turned out she had dreamed the same thing as me! Those evil entities had come to her as well and were going to do to her what they would have done to me! Would we just have experienced the same horrible nightmare, or would we have been murdered while in the dream state? I just don’t know, but the next day I made some inquiries.

Finding out!

I had a local professor from the university do some archeological investigation on my property and some probing into old records of the county archives and newspaper stories. Days later the University students assisting the professor turned up the ancient remains of what appeared to be Indians. Old land records pointed to Spanish occupation of the area. Conquistadors! It seemed there was recorded history of a massacre by the Spanish of Native Americans in the area and my home site could very well have been the location of a massive unmarked grave!

Unforeseen outcome

That was all I needed! I packed my belongings loaded up my possessions, gave my notice at work, withdrew all I had in savings and moved to Plano, Texas. It was there that I found a nice new home that a local custom builder couldn’t sell and agreed to finance me! I found a job as manager of a jewelry store at the new shopping mall, and eventually I met a banker whom I’d met in church and we later married. In a strange way I would have to say that this was a haunting that made me leave, but led me to a new happier life!