Episode 69 - Witchcraft, Wonder, and the Unexplained

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So admit your story to Haunted Ukfiction at hotmail dot com and follow us on Instagram at Haunted UK Fiction. So, whether it's truth or fiction, if it's haunted, we wanted now sit back and enjoy the episode. We ran as fast as our little feet could carry us, our lungs burning, making our way back through the path that we knew so well, only to be back where we started at

the clearing the first time. We thought maybe in our haste we'd taken a wrong turn, and so set out again, But yet again we ended up back at the clearing. We were stuck in a loop. I don't know if I would classify it as a time loop, but whatever was in that clearing, it had us running in circles. We were absolutely terrified at this point as the shadow people were flitting about the place and the sounds that were coming from the woods had this horrible eerie quality

to them, but it was all around us. We were surrounded. This is episode sixty nine of the Haunted UK podcast and in this episode, we step into the world of Katie, an eclectic witch as she shares her strange, supernatural and deeply personal experiences. In this episode, we're diving into the many strange, paranormal and supernatural experiences of Katie, an eclectic

witch who now lives in Dublin, Ireland. Katie practices magic in a deeply personal and intuitive way, drawing inspiration from a wide variety of traditions and practices, from herbalism and taro to astrology and energy work. She blends these elements to create a craft that is entirely her own. Katie values creativity, individuality, and exploration in her spiritual journey, and she isn't afraid to follow her intuition wherever it leads.

On this episode, She shares her unique perspective on witchcraft, the unusual experiences that have shaped her path, and the way she weaves magic and intention into her everyday life. Whether you're curious about modern witchcraft, fascinated by the paranormal, or simply love a good story, Katie's journey is sure to captivate and inspire. Now over to Katie. I'm Katie,

and I'm an eclectic which that practices ancestor veneration. My magic is a hodgepodge of different magical pathways and very very gray.

poisonous plants to help people with their ailments. I'm an intuitive tarot reader and have been doing professional readings for over twenty years. I'm an avid student of astrology and a proud Sagittarius. I'm also a scientist, holding degrees in forensic science and chemistry as well as herbal medicine. I'm a staunch advocate, friend, and confidant to the LGTBQI plus community, and I avidly stand up and protect all the underdogs and fringe kids that get pushed to the corners of

society and bullied for being a little bit different. This includes standing up and advocating for those who are oppressed by colonization. I've always been drawn to the occult from a young age and have had paranormal experiences since the age of five. So I have been a Clare sentient, clairvoyant and Claire cognizant with a splash of Claire audience from as long as I can remember, and would say that I was born a witch, although I just followed

my intuition throughout my teens. I kept my beliefs and experiences mostly to myself so as not to have to explain myself to my overly religious family. That would have made for some very interesting conversations. I grew up in deep South Bible Belt, Alabama, so I was bombarded throughout my early existence with the notion that my interest in the weird, the macabre, and the occult was devil worship.

It was hard, very hard. I joked that I must have fucked up really bad in a past life that the universe thought it would be hilarious to have me repay my karma by being born in the Bible Belt into an evangelical household. I am the black sheep. I'm not a religious person at all, due to, as having said, evangelical Christianity shoved down my throat growing up. I never thought of myself as a witch back in those early days.

Just knew that I was sensitive, could see and feel ghosts, new things I shouldn't know, etc. It wasn't until I was in college when a classmate who was a witch said to me randomly, do you know what you are? Of course I was like, pardon what, But just that question made me realize, oh, dreh, that makes so much sense.

From then on, everything fell into place. I read and studied everything I could on different practices and pathways, and intuitively incorporated what felt right My practice has changed over the years as my knowledge has grown. I believe that a lot of the things that we are told that aren't real are in fact, very very real. There is a reason why metaphysics has physics in it. Just because

it's hidden doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I have a knack for communicating with trees and some nature spirits. I'll have to tell you, guys about an experience I had with a dryad in Greece. Sometime. She saved me from a visit to A and E. I come to the tulpa to protect me when my neighborhood had a serial rapist attacking young single women living alone, which I was at the time. A tulpa is a materialized being, typically in human form, and the apartment really did never

feel empty. My friends always asked if I'd had a guy over when they'd visit. The sense of him was that strong, and it was really hard to say goodbye to him when I moved to Ireland. But he kept me safe and filled my apartment with such a masculine vibe. I even joked that he was my invisible night in shining armor, my beloved familiar Onli the cat still haunts me to visit and checks in to see how his mamma is doing. And interestingly enough, he sent me my

familiar that I have now, Tillie. She's a tortoise. By the way, I live in Dublin, Ireland.

So if you're ready, let's begin. My best friend Ell and I loved playing outside in the woods behind my dad's house growing up. It was always a place where our imagination ran riot and we would play for hours in our own made up worlds. I know that I've previously mentioned in a listener's episode that my dad's property was on a stretch of land that the Creek and Chocked Tor Native Americans had lived on, which had been

decimated by the Spanish conquistadores. We'd found a few bones in our exploits that I am more than certain were human, which my dad confiscated, probably for that very reason, very quickly afterwards, much to our disappointment, treasures in our innocent minds. Anyway, on one occasion, we set out along a well known trail that we had traversed many many times before. But what made this time different was the trail took us

deeper into the forest than we'd ever gone before. I remember us both wondering why it was taking so long to get to this particular spot that we always played at, and then suddenly the trail opened up to this expansive clearing that had dried out from the lack of rain. As the tree's roots looked like those that you might find protruding in a swamp or marsh, we were a bit awe struck to have found such a cool place to play, and proceeded to make a day of it. Now.

During this time, there was this nagging feeling that we were being watched, and every once in a while we would catch a flitter of a shadow person ducking behind a tree. The clearing was bathed in the light of the sunshine filtering through the trees. So I had the notion that as as long as we stayed in the light,

it couldn't get us. And honestly, when I think back on that memory, we were having so much fun, so lost in our imaginations that we didn't care, which makes me wonder if the spot had put a spell on us to lure us in, because when we found it, the clearing had that other worldly quality about it. The rule at home was that we had to be back at twilight. All gen X's know this rule. That was

what was so great about the eighties. Mom would leave us to our devices and let us play outside on the property unsupervised until twilight, which was when the street lights came on. If we weren't home by then, we got in trouble. Simple. At some point in our play, it was like we woke up and realized it was

almost dark. We panicked as we had very little time to get home before the street lights came on, and because we had walked, to our knowledge and farther to this location than the original location in the woods, we knew we had to hurry or else get in trouble. But then it was like the clearing started closing in on us, the shadow people hiding behind the trees, slithering out,

becoming braver with the coming dark. I remember talking about the incident when we were older, and both of us had this sinking and terrible feeling, knowing that if one of those shadows had touched us, we would be stuck there. I know that sounds odd, but Elle and I have talked about this event many times over the years, and

it is something that has never left us. We ran as fast as our little feet could carry us, our lungs burning, making our way back through the path that we knew so well, only to be back where we started at the clearing the first time. We thought maybe in our haste we'd taken a wrong turn, and so set out again, but yet again, we ended up back at the clearing. We were stuck in a loop. I don't know if I would classify it as a time loop, but whatever was in that clearing, it had us running

in circles. We were absolutely terrified at this point, as the shadow people were flitting about the place and the sounds that were coming from the woods had this horrible eerie quality to them, but it was all around us. We were surrounded. We set out again. I was determined to get us out of there, and I honestly didn't know if I willed us home or if our guardians

stepped in to help us. But it was like we came to the edge of whatever's shadow magic was in the woods and was able to break through the barrier into the normal woods. The street lights had just turned on, but we were so distressed that my mom gave us a pass, asking us what had happened. We downplayed it as we didn't want her not letting us play in the woods, and in the end we said that we

simply had got lost. Coming back home. Years later, I met a lovely woman who was a sham and here in Dublin, we were telling stories of weird things that had happened to us, and I recounted this story to her. I remember her having an odd look on her face throughout the telling of my story. When I got to the part about being led out of the woods, she got this very dreamy look on her face, as if she was far away, and told me that that was

exactly what had happened. She told me that I had two very large Native American warrior chieftains that stood tall at either side of me as guardians, and that they were the ones that had led me and my best friend out of the woods that day and they were always with me. I was gobsmacked, as I had not said anything to her about how I had always felt that my guardians had led us to safety. I just said to her that I felt like we were guided out, no more, no less. That was pretty amazing to me.

A week or so went by before we dared to venture back into the woods again, and this time we left ourselves breadcrumbs tying little ribbons along our trail to mark our way so we didn't get turned around again. We followed the exact path that we had before that led us to this clearing. We were met with just more trees where the opening of the clearing had been. It was just a wall of forest, and the path veered off to the left as it always had done.

We were definitely freaked out, as it seemed the clearing had never existed before. As I got older, I reflected back on that day periodically. I believe those woods were and still are haunted either by angry spirits of long forgotten Native Americans, Spanish conquistadors or due to Satanic rituals. There was a lot of that going on at the time in town. A story for another time or volume, and we somehow got stuck in a vortex or time loop of some sort where those spirits congregated and they

had plans not to let us leave. My Mimi. Mum's mother had inherited a few dolls from her mother memwhile that were ridiculously old, probably turn of the century. The want to note was one of those early nineteen hundred's porcelain dolls that had the blinky eyes when you tipped them back, so they would go to sleep when you laid them down. At the time, we lived in South Alabama and my mom's family lived in North Alabama, about

a four hour drive. Growing up, we didn't really go to visit that much, as my dad's mother was disabled and lived with us, so it made it hard to travel for someone had to watch her around the clock. But on this occasion we were traveling up with Mom to see her mom and siblings. I can't remember why we were going, but as young children we were as excited as it meant we could have a spend the night party at Mimi's. I was about six or seven at the time, and my sister was about four or five.

My sister loves dolls, all sorts. If it was a doll, then you could bet she would love it. She was excited to be able to play with Mimi's dolls. I remember arriving at Mimi's apartment building, which was extremely haunted by the way again another story, and I was looking forward to staying with her, as we didn't see her very often. I remembered the building giving me a feeling

of uneasiness. Though the building housed a lot of older people that eventually died in their apartments, so I immediately felt a few errand spirits wandering the halls. I pushed it aside as my excitement was greater. Mimi's apartment was tiny, but it was cozy, smelling of stale nicotine and double mint gum. The front door opened straight into the living room that was framed by a wall of windows. There was a couch that sat against that wall of windows, and off to the right of the front door was

a closet. Mimi had set out her dolls on the couch for my sister, and I froze in the middle of all these innocuous dolls was that porcelain one. That doll made my skin crawl. There was this cold intelligence that emanated from it, and it was watching us. I immediately didn't want to be around it. My sister, on the other hand, loved that fucking doll. She was drawn to it as much as I had an aversion to it. I stayed as far away from it as humanly possible,

and the evening went without a hitch. Mimi made us palettes on the floor in front of the couch that evening. The living room closet was at her feet. She told us spent time stories and that we could pick up a doll each to sleep with. I picked a stuffed animal of swords, but of course my sister picked up that damn doll. I was like, absolutely nope. I told her that there was something wrong with the doll and that I refuse to sleep next to her with it.

During this exchange, the doll was sat on the couch watching us. I could feel its eyes on me, I wonder, and when Mimi told us to clear away the excess toys and dolls into the closet, I happily obliged. It's important to note I watched my sister put the doll into the closet. We then went to sleep. The next morning, I woke up, yawned, and stretched. I looked out the window, only to be met with the eyes of the doll staring at me. She was sat at the corner of

the couch. I just remember getting angry at first that my sister had obviously gotten the doll out of the closet at some point in the night. I jostled her awake and asked her why she had gone and got the doll out of the closet. She looked at me puzzled and said I didn't. I remember thinking she was lying, but the absolute surprise on her face made me think twice. Mimi came out shortly after and started making breakfast for us. I asked her if she'd gotten me Moore's doll out

of the closet. She looked at me blankly and said no. I was absolutely freaking out at this point, but just kept quiet as we would be leaving later in the day, so I just had to endure the doll's presence for a little while longer. Fast forward to nineteen ninety seven, Mimi had passed away and had left that doll to my sister in her will. I was obviously thrilled, as you can imagine. I remember getting in a huge argument with my mom about it, saying that I didn't want

it in the house. My mom couldn't understand why I had such an issue with it, so I explained to her that the doll was evil, that there was something very wrong with it, and recounted the story at Mimi's apartments so many years ago. She kind of brushed it off, and so I just told my sister to keep the doll in her room and keep it away from me. Now, the farmhouse where we lived throughout my middle and high school years also had some weird goings on, and that

doll just added to them even more. You'd hear whisperings and this evil giggle coming from my sister's room. I hated being alone in the house and would normally keep the doors shut to her room if I was there alone. The doll would watch you if you were in the room, and it would also physically move around. I kid you not. I remember putting the doll in my sister's wardrobe, only to come in later to put something I had borrowed back, and the doll was on her bed. Crazy shit like

that happened on a regular basis. There was always this feeling of a presence in the room throughout the time she had that doll. I normally didn't go into her room unless she was there, but she was oblivious to it all, or so I thought. Years later, she randomly told me that she had given the doll to one of our cousins, who insanely enough, also loved the doll. I was actually shocked because she always seemed to be

so attached to it. She said that she knew I was telling the truth because she had experienced similar things with the doll and had been attacked by a shadow figure in her room after putting the doll away, something she never did. I was like, why not just throw the doll in the trash. She argued that she couldn't because it was a family heirloom, but I called bullshit. We argued about it, but I stopped as I was

just wasting my breath. As far as I know, my cousin still has the doll, but I have no idea if they've experienced anything. I went to a bog Standard Elementary school until I was in the fourth grade that's nine to ten years old, before my mom thought it would be an amazing idea to homeschool me and my sister. Believe me when I say it wasn't anyway. The school had a main building where this story takes place, and was divided into three floors. The cafeteria and first grade

bild building was separate. The first grade building was also haunted, but I never had any memorable experiences in there, other than it felt weird, as if you were being followed in an empty hallway. The second grade classes were on the lower floor. My classroom was tucked off to the right of the main stairway up to the main floor. As you were going up, on the left of the stairway was the girl's bathroom, and there was a fire

exit that was used for recess right beside it. Now, the lower floor had that same creepy feeling as the first grade hall. Sometimes you'd be walking down an empty hallway and feel eyes on you or feel like someone was behind you. Whispers started to fly about the girl's bathroom on my end of the hall that it was haunted. I hadn't given it much thought as a second grader, because we normally went to the bathroom in groups of

four or five kids at a time. Seven and eight year olds are pretty chaotic, so there wasn't much time to get scared of a ghost. I needed to go to the loop, which was just two seconds across the hall. My teacher had no issue letting me go alone, so off I trotted. I walked in and immediately felt something was wrong. Something was very off. There was a girl standing in the middle of the bathroom, just kind of

staring at nothing. She was facing the wall of sinks and mirrors off to the right of the bathroom door. She had shoulder length, straight blonde hair that she wore down with the top half in a ponytail. I remember she wore a white dress that had a smock apron front and a blue ribbon that was tied off behind her back. She was also wearing white tights and black paint and buckle shoes. A bit outdated for nineteen eighty five, but very Alice in Wonderland. I was a friendly, bubbly kid,

so I said hello, as I didn't recognize her. I know she spoke to me, but I don't remember what she said as she was difficult to understand. It was as though she was whispering or mumbling. Also to note, the bathroom was very cold. At this point, I was very unnerved, and I knew the teacher would be wondering why I was taking so long, so I went to

go to a cubicle. But something about this whole interaction felt so very wrong and weird, and I really didn't want to go into a cubicle by myself while this strange girl was still out there. But it was right at this moment that something weird happened. It was as if she'd taken a cue from me, because she also walked into a cubicle, almost in a mimicking fashion. It was the very last one to be exact, and as she opened the door, she gave me an odd look.

I'm not sure how to describe it other than it was creepy. I was quick and exited the cubicle. I could hear her eerie humming from the last stall and could see her feet. It was then that the bathroom became deadly silent. I tentatively walked to the last cubicle and took a peek underneath, but her feet weren't there. I gently prodded the door, which was now unlocked. I know that I'd heard her lock the door of the cubicle when she went in. I opened it fully, but

she wasn't there. This whole time, my second grade A self was absolutely teeming with dread. Every fiber of my being was telling me to get the fuck out of that bathroom. The growing alarm that something really bad had happened to that girl at some point in time raced through my brain. I noticed that the door felt heavy, so curiosity got the better of me, and I took a peek. Hanging on the back of the door was what seemed to be this girl's clothes, but there were

dark stains on them, dark reddish stains. My mind immediately thought blood. The clothes were also ripped in place. I remember my scalp standing on end at this point, and I yelped and ran out. I ran back to the classroom, and the teacher asked me what was wrong, as they could visibly see I was shaken up. I'd also been gone much longer than expected. I explained to her my interaction with the girl and then her disappearance and finding her torn bloody clothes on the door. She walked me

over to the bathroom again and went in. I refused to enter and watched her from the door. She walked to the last cubicle and opened it. Checking the back of the stall door, there were no clothes hanging, no little girl. The teacher was perplexed, but recovered herself well and tried to comfort me. After that, I refused to go to that toilet. I would use the one at

the far end of the building instead. There were other whispers of more kids having seen her, and that she was the ghost of a murdered girl from years ago, but I have no clue what her story was. I could never find any further information that helped me research it. Moving on to when I was in seventh or eighth grade, on one of my school friends, who will call d was having to spend the night party at her house one weekend. There were about five or six of us there,

all girls. Her house was somewhat out in the country and away from the main road. We went over immediately after school and headed to the woods behind her house to mess about before dinner. It was October, if I remember correctly, because we just started back to school a few weeks prior. We were wandering aimlessly through the woods, cracking jokes and falling around when there was just suddenly

this old, dilapidated cottage in front of us. I'm not saying that it just appeared out of thin air, but it was just there, very abruptly, standing very ominously in the middle of nowhere in the woods. We asked d if she'd ever come across it before, but she was just as spooked as we were. She told us she traversed these woods on a regular basis and had never come across it. She was really creeped out by its presence.

I know she had said there was a lot of devil worship that occurred in those woods, something we talked about as we had meandered through the trees before coming to this dilapidated cottage. When I think back on it, the cottage reminded me of the old Witch's house that you see at the end of the Blair Witch Project movie. It had a foreboding presence. We contemplated exploring it, going back and forth between ourselves, daring each other to take

the first steps onto the porch. Most of the girls decided to go back to the house and noped right out. But me, de and Julie, the friend from my previous Ouija boards stories in episode fifty Experiences of a Witch and other listener stories, decided to stick it out and explore the house. Now. I have no idea why I agreed to go into that house, only that my curiosity was greater than my fear, and of course my intuition telling me not to go in. We all decided to

go onto the porch together. The porch itself was a death trap, with the rotting wood bending under our weight. The front door was slightly ajar with a screen door. We opened the screen door and pushed the front door wide. Directly in front of us was a long hallway that led to the rest of the cottage. There were five doors, three on the left and two on the right. The house is ceiling sagged and the walls were covered in muck and grime. No one had lived here for a

very long time. It seemed to have smoke and water damage, but no evidence of a fire. The house had a horrible, horrible energy and felt very alive, like it was watching us, beckoning us in. The first doors on the left and right were closed and jammed so we couldn't get into them to see what was behind them. As we moved down the long hallway, time seemed kind of frozen and like we were walking through quicksand I noticed the mirror on the right side of the wall, diagonally across from

what I assumed was a bedroom. As I could see into the room through the mirror, there was the edge of a bed and what looked like a dark, shadowy figure lying on it. I froze at this point. I have no idea where the other girls were, just that they were no longer with me. My gaze was riveted to the moving shadow on the bed. I remember being beckoned physically into the room, beyond the whispers to come

closer floating through my mind. I switched my gaze between the mirror and the doorway itself, as I didn't trust myself to gaze into the room for very long. There was a dark entity in the room, and the energy it emanated was terrifying. It wanted me, that I was certain of, but I had to make the choice to go into that room. I knew that in the back of my brain somewhere I remembered staring into the room at the bed, trying to make out the entity. It

was humanoid in shape, but featureless. I couldn't make out any eyes or nose or mouth, just darkness. And then it sat up and turned, looking directly at me and smiled. The smile was that of long, sharp knives, stark white against the shadowy black. Seeing the sharpness of those knifelike teeth broke the spell over me, and I screamed and ran out. The other girls were waiting outside, relief flooding over them. They asked me if I was okay that

they couldn't find me in the house. I told them I had never left the hallway, but they said when they ran out of the house from the kitchen, I wasn't there. I told them what had happened to what I had seen. They'd also seen similar things, but in differ rooms of the cottage.

We followed the exact path that led us there the day before and was met with a small clearing with pine trees, no creepy house. We wondered if we'd hallucinated the whole thing, but we each clearly remembered our interactions in the house. Over the years, D would go back into the woods to see if the house had reappeared, but it never did. It was definitely one for the weird bank. One thing I will never forget that those

raise a sharp teeth and that evil smile. The other thing that bothered me over the years was that we all went out of the house the same way we came in, but D and A never saw me in the hallway, and they would have passed me on the way out of getting the fuck out of there. It was like the house that sucked us into our own little nightmares. As I've stated before, my dad's house had a lot of weird stuff happening throughout my childhood. I believe the land is haunted, not the house itself. The

house is a conduit of sorts my opinion anyway. In this particular instance, I was down at my dad's for the weekend with my sister. It was a pretty normal weekend. Saturday night, we went to bed without any incident. The bedroom that we shared was on the second floor of the house. I remember being woken suddenly between around three and four AM. I looked around the room, but nothing caught my eye, but it felt like I wasn't alone. My childhood bed is right next to a long set

of windows on the far wall of the bedroom. I remember the moon was very bright that night, It was almost, if not completely full. Just as I was settling back down to go to sleep, I noticed a figure in the windows. At first, I thought it was just a play of shadow from the moonlight, but the more I woke up, the more I realized that it was a person. The figure was male. He was gaunt, with a very prominent nose and bulging eyes that just stared into the

room and threw me. The energy coming off him was very menacing. I was frozen for what seemed like an eternity with fear, but he just kept staring. I finally snapped out of it and woke my sister up. She was pissed off, but then she saw him too and freaked out. We ran downstairs and woke my dad, something we never did, as he was a grump when woken prematurely. We woke him up and we got the grumpy response as we expected, But when he saw how scared we were, he went into dad mode and told us to stay

put and he would go and check it out. He was worried that there was a peeping tom outside that had dragged his large ladder out of the basement, and decided to purve on his kids. He was gone for an eternity, but when he came back into the house, he was visibly unsettled. He asked us to explain what we'd seen. I think he would have told me I was dreaming if my sister hadn't seen it too. He stayed up with us for a while to calm us down, and then we went back to bed. The next day,

I asked him about it. He said he had no idea what we'd seen, but he did believe us. He went on to explain that there was no sign of a peeping tom or anything being disturbed under our second floor window to suggest the possible intruder. I got the impression he realized we'd seen a ghost, but he didn't want to say ghost out loud. Thing more was said about it, and we got on with our weekend. After that, I wasn't at my dad's much, as i'd started college

and had a part time job. A few years later, my sister randomly told me that she continued to see the ghost floating at the window, staring at her periodically. My dad's mother died in nineteen ninety three. She was an invalid and had been living with us for as long as I could remember. She had a bell she rang when she needed something or for help getting up

for the loo. I remember being a bit nervous when she died, as I thought I would start seeing her she passed away in my dad's house, but much to my surprise, she didn't, and my dad's house was quiet except for the other weird ship that carried on. Years went by and I was at my dad's visiting one weekend during college. My dad my sister had gone out, and I was at the house by myself for a little bit while they got groceries. I was watching a movie when out of the blue, I heard a bell.

It was faint, so I thought maybe my dad was ringing the doorbell. I got up and checked, but there wasn't anyone there. I went back to my movie and was watching for a few more minutes when the bell sounded again, quite incessantly. I paused the movie, my skin prickling. I knew that bell. She had a way of ringing her bell in a certain way that just made me know it was her. I was perplexed as it had been roughly eight years since her passing without a peep, so I thought it was odd that she would be

communicating now. The bell sounded again, and I literally jumped out of my skin. I went to her old room and asked her what she wanted to tell me, but I was just met with silence. I asked a few more times for information from her, but nothing happened. I have no idea why she reached out, but it still creeps me out walking by her old room. I worked in an Italian restaurant and coffee bar until it closed

in late two thousand and five. I was there for about four years, and during that time I had numerous interactions with a couple of ghosts that haunted the building. The restaurant was in the old historic part of Aniston, Alabama. I have no idea what the building was before, but it was spooky at night closing up and early in the morning when opening. The first spirit that interacted with me was harmless and a prankster. Its favorite thing to do was to keep you from locking up the back

door at night. The key wouldn't budge to turn the lock over. I almost broke the key ones trying to lock up. You'd have to say to him, Hi, I really want to go home now. Please let me lock the door. Thank you, and puff The door would lock as normal. There were private booths that lined the back wall by the back door. If you were walking out the back door, sometimes you would catch a fleeting glance of an old man with a gray beard sitting there. It was always a bit startling because very rarely did

that booth get used. You'd do a double take and blink, and then he'd begone. One day, a friend of mine came into the restaurant through the back door, and she sat at the bar and said, you know, you have a customer in the back I looked at her confused and replied that there wasn't anyone back there, as the restaurant was closed until four pm and only the bar was serving. She was adamant that there was an old bearded gentleman sitting in the back booth. I told her

that was our resident ghost. She scoffed at me, so I took her to the booth, and sure enough, it was empty. She was thoroughly creeped out after that. This ghost never gave off any bad vibes. He was just a messer. He would bang about the back at the restaurant while you were closing up. You'd hear footsteps at the back, and he would set off the back door bell, making us think that someone had come in the backway. The back of house toilets would randomly flush, even though

they were not auto flush toilets. The other spirit was not so nice. When this spirit was in the back of the restaurant, I hated having to go back there to close up. Things were darker and more foreboding when it was around. I saw it a few times as a shadow person in my peripherals. It liked to climb the walls and watch you from a corner At the back of the restaurant. The menace that bled from the walls made my skin crawl as I just wanted to close up and get the fuck out. But this spirit

loved making you afraid. It fed off your fear, and I hated closing the bar down when that spirit decided to show up. There were a few times that I was touched by this evil spirit. Normally it was touches to my shoulders or my hair. I was pushed one night while taking the trash ad and almost tripped down the stairs, which could have ended quite badly. Even though I was well seasoned in the ghost department, this particular entity or spirit was one that I didn't want to

mess around with. If this spirit was in the building, it wasn't a resident. Thankfully I got out, closing as fast as I could. Many of us saw a figure staring out at us from the upstairs office over the years as it overlooked the bar and cafe area. Sometimes you could hear footsteps up there as well. Even though there was never anyone up there. I always assumed it was the friendlier ghost just hanging out with us after work for a natter and a drink, enjoying our camaraderie.

I'm going to skip forward now to two thousand and nine and talk about the Marshall House. It was opened in eighteen fifty two and was one of the first hotels in Savannah, Georgia. It was used as a hospital and morgue during the Civil War. It is so haunted that they have a guest book just for haunted instances at the hotel. One of the most notable stories is that of a lady, her daughter, and the l lady's sister who all stayed in the Marshall House for a weekend.

They got into the lift and hit the button for the floor they were staying in. Instead of taking them up, the elevator went down. They were perplexed, but figured maybe someone had mistakenly pressed a descending button before them. When the elevator doors opened, they were in the basement. They were met with the grizzly scene of a makeshift hospital. Men laying in cots, moaning, bleeding out, maimed. Doctors and nurses hurried around tending to the wounded and the dying.

They were a bit startled at first, but figured that it was part of the hotel's spooky offerings. Everyone before them was oblivious to them. The ladies got back into the elevator and made their way back to reception. They explained that the Civil war reenactment in the basement was great and so real. The concierge looked perplexed and explained that they did not do civil war reenactments in the hotel.

The ladies were adamant, so the concierge took them to the basement to show them that was where the offices were and no hospital. The ladies were visibly shaken, which brings me to my story. Jay and I went to the Marshall House for our honeymoon. We were booked in to stay on the third floor, which is the most haunted floor of the hotel. We had a lovely room and the staff had left us a bottle of champagne,

a goodie basket, and balloons. It is important to note that the balloons were tied very securely to the goody basket, like in several knots. There was a huge antique armoire that gave me the hebees, which I must add could only be opened with a key. The bathroom also made me feel very uncomfortable, but that was what we were there. For ghosts. We settled in and began to enjoy our evening. That night, I was dead asleep when I heard what sounded like a cannon fire or a loud gunshot go off,

and then screaming. It sounded like it was right in our room. I woke up and realized that it was Jay that was screaming. He had his eyes shut tight, and he was clasping his hands over his ears, rocking back and forth. The room was cold and had that e ReVibe when you knew you weren't alone. Once Jay had calmed down, I noticed that the balloons, which had been previously very securely tied to the goody basket, had

now tangled up in the ceiling fan. There is no way that these balloons could have gotten loose from the basket unless they were cut. They weren't. I checked the spooky armoir was standing wide open as well. My skin was crawling, but my main focus was to make sure Ja was okay. Once he was calm and settled, we got the balloons off the fan and locked the armoire again. I made a point to put the key on the

bedside table. We also noticed there were a bricked up doorway directly behind where Jay was sleeping in the bed, which had added to the overall creep factor. The room felt very hostile, so we watched Marriage with Children until we fell asleep again. The next day, I was in the bathroom taking a shower when I began to feel very uneasy, like someone was watching me through the curtain who didn't particularly like that I was there. I then got the flash in my mind's eye of blood dripping

off the walls and limbs being hacked off. I called for Jay to keep me company until I could finish because the energy in the bathroom was so threatening. We enjoyed our trip out and got ourselves ready for our last night, and we settled in a side note to say every time we came back into the room, the andour doors would be wide open, but the key was still sitting on the bedside table. That last night, I

slept horribly the whole night. There was a Confederate soldier standing by my side of the bed with spring into my ear. I couldn't understand what he was saying or wanted, so I ignored him as I was so exhausted. But what was really annoying was the two or three kids running up and down the hall, playing and making a huge racket until around four am. It really pissed me off. The next day, when we were checking out, the concierge

asked us how our stay was. We told them we loved it and that we definitely had some paranormal experiences, which the concierge asked us to record in their book. I then said that whoever the parents were of the unruly kids running around until four am should probably be reminded to keep them in check so as not to disturb further guests. The concierge went pale and stated very quietly, that's impossible. We don't have any families with children currently

checked into the hotel. It's now twenty eleven and Jay and I went to Edinburgh for a weekend. We were looking forward to going on all the ghosts tour that Edinburgh had to offer. We always loved checking out all the ghost tours whenever we traveled, and Edinburgh certainly delivered. We went to the City of the Dead's Ghost tour in Greyfriars Kirkyard as well as some of the vault tours. Greyfriars is particularly haunted besides the Mackenzie Poltergeist. It is

teeming with spirits of the long since departed. It's a very active cemetery and you can feel the dead watching you, mostly curious. They're whispers intermingling amongst the punter's chatter. It houses some of the largest numbers of bubonic plague victims, to the point that if you unick yourself on a bone shard walking about, the likelihood of getting the plague is quite high, as it lies dormant until it comes

into contact with living tissue. There's a crypt at the back of the cemetery, a black mausoleum that they have everyone crowd into. I made my way to the back wall and stayed away from everyone as I wanted to see if I would have any experiences here. As I could feel something inside. I was grabbed multiple times from behind. The only thing behind me was the wall. At one point I felt someone standing behind me, and as I looked over my shoulder there was a huge, dark, cloaked

shadow standing there. I felt someone breathing down my neck. I felt unwelcome, like I was a pest. When walking by the Mackenzie Poltergeist's crypt, I stayed back to allow everyone else to walk by, and I looked in. Jay had moved on down to the exit, which is in view of the crypt, waiting for me to finish. I walked up to the gates and stood there feeling out the energy. There was a malicious anger and I felt a presence walk up to the bars and scream in

my face. This was followed by a maladerous smell of human remains rotting. Obviously, I very quickly got away from the gated doorway. Jane noticed that I was off killed and asked me what happened, so I told him. He was wide eyed and encouraged me to tell the tour owner. Once the punters had left, I approached the owner and explained what had happened. He told me he was wondering

if I had anything unusual happened during the tour. I was a bit shocked, so he continued to explain that he could tell I was extremely psychic and knew the ghosts would want to talk to me. He also went on to say that my psychicness came from my maternal line, most notably my Mimi, maternal grandmother. This was all news to me as my mom was extremely religious. As stated previously and wouldn't touch anything paranormal or esoteric with a

ten foot poll. My Mimi, who was not as religiously inclined in her older age, did suffer from mental health difficulties throughout her life, so she could have very well been psychic and just not know how to deal with it, a theory that I support. Chatted with the owner for a while and he asked if I could tell my story as part of his tours, which I readily agreed. We all believed the Mackenzie poltergeist had made his presence known.

The Edinburgh Volts are also teeming with ghosts and dark entities. The Banshee Labyrinth is a great spot to get a drink and watch a movie in their cinema basement and pick up ghosts. The pub is connected to the vaults and a lot of the tours end there. There are lots of cold spots throughout the place, as well as unseen eyes watching you. We'd gone through one of the vault tours where a child ghosts attached itself to me.

The tour guide had said there was a little boy ghost that'd like to attach himself to Punter's particularly females. Sure enough. As we walked through that section of the vault, I felt my hand freeze. The cold crept up my arm, and I distinctly felt a small hand in mine. I was surprised the child ghost had picked me, as I don't have a maternal bone in my body, but I just whispered hello and went about the tour. Towards the end of the tour, we were led into a small

room that had a stone circle. The tour guide explained that this circle was known to be cursed, and anyone that had dared to set foot inside it had something bad happened to them. Any time I got too close to the circle, I would feel this jolt of cold electricity snake up my arm, as if the boy was warning me away. I assured him I was not going to step inside the circle. Once we got to the entrance of the Banshee Labyrinth, my arm started to warm

up and I felt the little ghost boy leave. In twenty fourteen, I worked in Starbucks Temple Bar for a few years as a supervisor. At the time, there were no buses into the city center that could get me in for an early morning start, so I would have to stay in a hostel on my own dime, just to keep my job. It never fails. When I've stayed in a hostel here in Dublin, I always get put in a haunted room, seriously every time. Anyway, I checked in, and sure enough there was a presence in the room

watching me from the shadows. But I just quickly acknowledged them and went about my business and went to bed. The next morning, I woke up early, got ready for work, and checked out. The hostel I stayed at is located on Lord Edward Street, so I had about a ten minute walk up Dame Street to Temple Bar. I must add this occurred right before Halloween, just a couple of days before, if memory serves so. I'm walking along, minding my own business, listening to music when I realized that

it feels like I'm being followed. Now, anyone that has been to Dublin in October knows that it gets dark at six am. The city was a tomb I stopped and pulled my headphones out and turned around to see if I was being followed. There was no one there. It was quiet. It just so happened that when I felt like this, I stopped right in front of the alleyway next to the Olympia Theater. This alleyway is also haunted, but I will share that story with you another time.

But the ghosts that are there, I could feel them watching me too. I acknowledged them and kept on my way. The feeling of being followed stayed with me though. I got to the shop and my barista and I started to get the store ready to open. As I was going to restock the pastries, I rounded the corner to come through the doorway that led from the back of the house to the bar and I looked up and had a straight clear view of the front door. There

was a slightly translucent man standing at the door. He was dressed in a brown three piece suit with a cravat and a fancy time piece draped in his waistcoat pocket. He held a bowler hat and looked to be about thirty, with brown hair and a quiff mustache. He had the vibe of the Victorian era. He just stood there staring at me, curious. I didn't get any bad way feelings of him. He was just curious about me, and he knew I could see him sends him. I believe he

was the one that followed me from the hostel. I have no idea how long he'd been there watching me from the door. When I saw him, I shouted, oh shit. My barristas startled asked me what was wrong. Nonchalantly, I said, there was a ghost at the door. He disappeared as soon as I'd blinked, so our interaction lasted all of thirty seconds. My barrista freaked out, but they all knew I was a witch, so as soon as I told

her he was gone, she calmed down. I never saw him again, but it was the first full body apparition that I'd seen in a very long time. The Hill of Tara is the seat of the High Kings of Ireland. It's a sacred place and a place that exists outside of time. I say this because I've experienced time slips here. It's also a place of the hi or Fay, which adds to its other worldliness. The Hawthorne Sentinels keep watch

over the land and hold its secrets. I would always advise if you're going to visit here to bring trinkets or sweets. Don't ever come and leave without an offering for the she It was twenty sixteen and I was at the Hill of Tara for the summer Saltice festivities. It was a beautiful day and there was a drumming circle setting the mood. I was walking around in the area that historically is known as the banquet Hall. This is where the banquet hall was believed to have stood

for celebrations in ancient times. As I meandered around, enjoying the vibes, the music and the revelry, the air shifted suddenly and became very shimmery. I could see another layer of time transposed over us in the present. Before me was an ancient Salstice festival celebration transposed over the present day festivities. I was gobsmacked. I stood transfer fixed on the spot, watching the ancient feast and merriment play out before me. Then I caught a glimpse of white as

an old woman broke through the crowd. She was regal looking, with sharp features and flowing white hair. She stood in front of me, just out of arm's reach, and stared at me.

us up with some doppelgangers. I'm forever fascinated with the subject of doppelgangers, and I'm not quite sure what they are. One of my best friends, E was staying with us for a while between house moves in twenty twenty three. She'd gone out and I knew she'd be home late. I'd gone to bed earlier, but woke up briefly as I heard the front door open and shut, and then footsteps on the stairs. In my mind, I thought, oh,

he is back home. I then heard my bedroom door open and could hear someone speaking and polish quite loudly from her phone. I peeped my eyes open a crack to see what she was watching. At one am, she stood at the foot of my bed watching some video on her phone. I could see her face lit up by the light of the phone screen, but it was like there was something not quite right about the angles. I thought maybe it was just my sleepiness not seeing

things properly. The loud, polish video continued and I said, sleepily, E, please turn that off and go to sleep. It's one am. She slowly turned and looked at me. She had this weird, uncanny smile on her face, and like I mentioned before, the angles of her face seemed wrong. Somehow it was E but wasn't. It was many sing. She looked at me for what felt like ages with that weird smile,

and then slowly turned back to her phone. I watched her for another minute or two to see if she did anything else, and also trying to calm myself down. Whilst debating on whether I was going to properly wake up and confront this chilling version of my friend. My body decided for me exhaustion, lulling me back to sleep. Finally, as the short burst of adrenaline left my system. Later, I heard my bedroom door open again and felt her

get into bed beside me. The next morning, we were lying in bed chatting and I asked her when she got back home from her night out. She said she got in at around four a m. I recounted what had happened with her doppelganger. She was intrigued and adamant

that it definitely was not her. I have no explanation. Interestingly, throughout my teendom and into my adulthood, I was told by friends and family that they had run into me in town or at an event and had said hi or tried to talk to me, and that I just looked at them blankly and didn't engage with them at all. Since I'm a very chatty person. They all thought this

was very out of character for me. Plus, if it were a case of mistaken identity, the person they had mistaken for me would surely have said something along the lines of sorry, I'm not her. But the other me never said a word, only stared at them and then walked away. They had said there was something very off or odd about the other me. I can only assume this was a doppelganger. Another instant occurred when I broke up with an abusive X from college. This would have

been about two thousand and five. I believe a doppelganger assisted did me to finally get out of this shitty relationship. He called me at work to ask where I was. I stated I'd been at university all day and had just clocked in for my shift at the bar I worked at. He asked sardonically, are you sure about that? I got exasperated with him and said, yes, I am sure.

What's this all about? He smugly told me that a trusted source of his had seen me canoodling with a guy at the local Starbucks that morning, and we were there for a few hours. He thought he'd caught me cheating. I laughed and stated that I'd been at university since eight am and that I'd started my shift at the bar at two pm directly after university. He started getting unruly on the phone, yelling that he knew it was

me and that I was lying. In that moment, I got so angry that I just broke up with him on the spot over the phone. I told him I was sick of his shit and that I wished I had the time between work and college to have a secret boyfriend. And he started backtracking, but I just told him I was sick of hearing his excuses, that we were done, and put the phone down. It's the best thing I ever did. Apparently I also have a doppelganger

roaming around Dublin as well. I've had friends tell me similarly that they have seen me out interacted with me, but the doppelganger does not engage, and there is always something off or odd about the other me that and nerves them. I've had to give out a few apologies for this doppelganger because some people were offended. This concludes another spookfest from me. As always, it's a pleasure, Steve.

I hope you and the listeners enjoy. And there you have it, the end of this episode, but also the end of season seven, almost yet again, as we begin to draw another season to a close, we have to thank each and every one of you for tuning in and listening to the show. It really means the world to us. We'd also like to thank Katie for sending in these amazing stories and for letting us share them

with you. As you've already found out, Katie seems to have a number of gifts, and whilst she is now used to them and their impact upon her life and those close to her, it would be very interesting to see how someone else would cope who didn't have these gifts. Still to come before we finally wave goodbye to season seven A listener stories and we have four jam packed episodes of strange encounters, ghostly sightings, haunted locations, and much

much more. So, stay tuned for that little bit longer, because you never know. One of the submissions in our upcoming Listener Stories episodes.