Your True Tales
April 2006 – Page 8

Mad Priest's Ghost
by Jack Boltwood

This unexplained event occured almost three years ago now. Me and my family had recently moved to a large house on the outskirts of Chicago. The previous owner had suffered a heart attack and passed away, so a lot of her stuff had yet to be moved out when moved in. I remember my room had a large armchair and an array of aging books covered in dust. I opened one and discovered it was about the paranormal, a subject that fascinates me.

There was a photocopy of an old newspaper cutting from the 1900s. I read it through and discovered that this house had belonged to a priest who had apparently descended into madness due to the intense solitude of living alone. The book seemed to think a local demon called Hispanya, who the natives had believed in. I put the book back and thought nothing more of it until that night.

For some reason, as I was trying to sleep, all I could picture was an old man cowering in my room as a strange creature whose limbs appeared disconnected as if it were a puppet danced in front of him. The image creeped out, so I went downstairs to inform my parents. As I walked down the staircase, I noticed an odd picture of the women who had lived here hanging on the wall. I examined it closer and discovered that there was definitely something odd about the background. It almost seemed to be upside-down, then I spotted the odd dark shape clasped around the woman's waist. It looked like a hand!

I was seriously freaked, so I ran downstairs into the living room and told my parents. When I showed them the picture and the newspaper cutting, they too spotted something odd, but dismissed it saying there was probably a good explanation.

I was lying in my parents' bed later that night when I heard an awful screeching from the depths of the house, as if someone was speaking into a megaphone. My parents were next to me and I am an only child, so I hurriedly woke my mother and father. When we went downstairs, we found the contents of the boxes scattered on the floor. We gathered our things and hurried to the neighbor's house where we spent the night. This demon has not shown his face ever since.

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