It all started when I was 10. When I was 8, my family moved to this relatively large house in North West England, surrounded by a sea of trees and the nearest bit of civilization was nearly a mile away. We were isolated, you could say. However, eventhough the house looked slightly modern it was refurbished recently. We later found the truth about the house…
So, it all started when I was 10. I finally got my own bedroom which had a clear view of the forest, with a large balcony. From my bed I could see through the window and partially onto the balcony. I managed to get this room from my sister - though it wasn’t a large room, she still left it for no apparent reason. I was more than happy to take the unused room, since it was my first stretch to independence and I was able to decorate it and layout the room myself. You see, eventhough this room was the smallest in the house, I still claimed it as mine. Meanwhile, my sister was couch surfing around the house, trying to ‘stay away from the windows’. At first my family mocked my sister, but later we found out.
Once the room was decorated and after a week of hard, strenuous work, I was finally allowed to stay in my bedroom. It was going well for the first 3 weeks - everyday I went outside to the balcony to simply admire the view and to be one with mother nature. On the 1st day of the 3rd week, it took a wrong turn. It started off with the hints, then it changed. It all started with my morning routine. Waking up and admiring mother nature - breathing in the warm Summer air and being able to see the birds chirp and the squirrels to run around. Outside I went, and I saw 2 piles of ash in the shape of a foot. At least I thought. I counted 4 toes on each foot and since my room was on the 2nd floor I quickly realised that something was wrong. But my 10 year old brain couldn’t find a reasonable explanation although I just shrugged it off as a birds nest or something. My brain wasn’t imaginative to even describe the things that I should’ve thought off.
The next day the same thing happened. But this time, it was closer to the sliding doors. Around 2 metres from the sliding glass doors. Quickly, I cleaned up the ash and I again dismissed it as a birds nest.
The third day was when it took a nosedive. When I was 10, from time to time I had the worst case of Insomnia possible. My sleep schedule was bulldozed and I usually went to sleep around 1am every night. That was when I saw something I should’ve seen before. Whilst I tried to sleep, I heard something. Something I hadn’t heard in a few months.
DING.
DING.
DING.
The calls of the church. The church bells were ringing. That was quite unusual, not because church bells aren’t supposed to ring at 12am. It was unusual because there wasn’t a church in sight for 1 mile. I NEED to emphasise this. There was a sea of trees surrounding our house. We shouldn’t have been able to hear the church bells ring from that far away.
But that was the least of my worries.
SWISH!
SWOOSH!
SWISH!
SWOOSH!
I looked to my window outside the balcony. A large 8 foot thing was stood outside the sliding glass doors. The curtains were partially see-through from the inside, but not from the outside. But I managed to see a glimpse of it through the curtains.
Hideous! Just hideous! It had wings the size of the room. Large spindly legs with a large spindly body. A large grotesque face with exaggerated facial features - its nose the size of my fist, its teeth like jagged canines which could dismember a persons limbs in just a few seconds. Its bone like fingers with needle like claws at the end.
TAP!
TAP!
TAP!
It was knocking on the door. Its needle like fingers shaking the room, if not the house. I felt the vibrations as it kept knocking on the window, its coarse breath leaving condensation on the windows, trying to peer through it see who it could terrorise. I stayed rooted in my position, barely breathing, barely crying - just traumatised.
It went on like this for half an hour. Then stopped. The bells then chimed again and it flew away. That night, I didn’t get a wink of sleep, just waiting it out until sunrise. I then built up the courage to go onto the balcony, only to find 2 lumps of ash, right outside my windows. But again, I dismissed it as a figure of my imagination - maybe because of the insomnia, or maybe because my child-like brain was making things up.
The next day it happened again. The bells chimed again, and seconds later the thing reemerged. Its steps sounding like gunshots, its laboured breathing making the air around me go cold, hell even freezing.
TAP!
TAP!
TAP!
It kept on doing it. I managed to see it partially through the curtains. Its skin a harsh dark grey colour, almost like cement. Its eyes milky white, and its ears pointy like an elf. It maintained eye contact with me the whole time, not taking its eyes off me. I swear it must have been blind. But then it turned worse.
Its coarse, raspy breath only managed to bring out a few syllables.
“I know you’re in there! I’ve been watching you Samantha (my sisters name btw)! I can smell you!”
It then went on like this until the bells jingled and it flew away.
It was at this time that I asked my sister. She seemed terrified when I told her. I told her everything! She understood me, and I asked her questions about it. How long its been? How does it know your name? Where does it come from? Why does it come to me? She couldn’t answer…
From there we decided to do some research on the house and after countless hours of research, and my sister providing me comfort whilst the creature came outside my balcony, we found what we were looking for. The house was built in the 1800s and before that it was a church. Because of the black death in the 1700s, it had to close because of the influx of the dead. Apparently the grave yard was closed off, because they didn’t manage to make enough coffins for the sea of people that were dying. Hell, most the priests in the church died because of the plague and it was because of this that the church was forced to close off and it was soon abandoned.
Years later after the plague was brought to a halt, the council decided to bulldoze the church and build a mansion in its place. When they went in to recover anything expensive from the church, the workers were met with a vile stench. The bodies of the dead had been left to rot and were made a meal of by the rats. The bodies were left on the pews of the church.
But that wasn’t the worse they came across. One of the vicars who got the plague was the last one that was forced to stay in quarantine to stop the spread of the disease. Various stories say that whilst the vicar was left there, he had nothing to eat except for the human bodies that had been ravaged by the plague. They found the vicar dead in a room, with a 7 year old girl whilst she was dead. She had a human bite mark on her arms and legs. The worst part is that both of their bodies were conserved, even after the 50 years in which they were ravaged by rats and disease. The vicars blood was apparently warm, eventhough he had been dead for years.
The workers then decided to burn the church, and build a house on top of the remains. The house that I lived in when I was 10.
So, for the next few weeks me and my sister stayed together and tried to confide with each other. We also told our parents about what had happened - even though they didn’t believe us, they felt as though they should move house.
It was from there that it worsened…
It was from then that the creature learned my name.
“I can smell you Tom! I know you’re in there, cowering from me! Don’t worry! I don’t bite!”
We then decided this was enough. We then reached out to the previous owners of the house and they then gave us a lot of information. The creature that was knocking on the windows was the vicar, and apparently he had been looking for children in order to satisfy his hunger. You must not open the windows or the door, or else he will come inside and god knows what he will do to you. But what she told us next was the dealbreaker. The final straw. So around every 3 months, all of the bodies that weren’t buried would come back to life. The vicar would lead the prayer, and like in the holy crusade, they would try to take back the church, which was my home and try to kill all of us. She advised us to lock the doors and windows for around 12 hours, and stock up on food. To not make any noise and to stay in our separate rooms. However my old room would be the room that would be the forefront of the ruthless onslaught that would come. Apparently nothing could stop them. Barrels full of holy water would only make them stronger, and a crucifix would bring them towards you instead of away from you. They were extraterrestrial monsters.
Soon we managed to sell the house an relocate to somewhere… a lot less haunted and special before the onslaught of creatures managed to find its way into our house.
Well that was 30 years ago and until recently nothing has happened.
You see the family has seperated since then.
My parents died from old age 10 years ago. My sister committed suicide 1 year ago to this day on a warm summers night. I am the only family member left surviving today and I have a family of my own with 2 children. 1 boy and 1 girl.
Yesterday, it was a warm Summers night and I was alone in my room. For context, this new room has a balcony as well and the nearest neighbour is a street away. Eventhough it was a warm Summers night, the air was cold. Hell even freezing.
SWISH!
SWOOSH!
SWISH!
SWOOSH!
The coarse voice croaked again, its bloodthirsty throat producing guttural sounds.
“I know you’re in there Tom! Did you miss me? Do you want a family reunion? I’ve been watching you for a while now!”
I know what’s going to happen next. I walk to the door, and open the curtains. Its distorted face staring at me, the milky white eyes penetrating my eyes. Yet I keep calm. I accept my fate. The church was always at my windows. Watching me. Waiting for the perfect time to strike.
CONTEXT:
So this is actually happening kinda. I am in a terraced house in London and my house was built on top of a demolished church. I live above the graveyard and recently I’ve barely gotten any sleep. Every night at a random time (around 12am) I always hear church bells chiming. The weird thing is, the closest church to me is 2 miles away and I live on top of a demolished church where the graveyard is. So good luck to me I guess!