Blogging From Beyond The Grave.

Greetings, Dear readers.

Seeing as so many millions of you are now reading my stories, I thought it would be fun to let you know a bit more about me. Not too much, though, because a little mystery keeps you all on your toes.

Over the years the question I get asked the most is, “Are you dead or alive?” That is for you to find out, one day. Me? I’m too busy hovering over graveyards collecting stories from ghosts who seem to want to speak through me, to tell me their tales so that I can pass them on to you. Sometimes I will tell you the full story. Sometimes I’ll tell you just enough to scare you! You do like being scared, don’t you? Just as well. Because the Creepers stories are frightening, as many of you already know.

Sometimes I will suddenly feel a sense of something beside me. And feel breath on my face as I hear whispered words, whispered by a ghost, or a demon, or a saintly presence. They don’t want their stories to be forgotten. Sometimes, when I have a pen in my hand as I write, it feels like someone - or something else - is moving the pen across the page and writing for me, like they have possessed my hand, my body, and even my mind as the words spill across the paper in front of me. Sometimes, when I read back what I have written, I have no memory of writing the words I see. Sometimes I feel like I am in a dream, a dream that I am writing and, when I wake up, the words on the page are the same words I dreamed. Below is an example.

As Far As The Eye Can See

I remember one dark, misty night walking on a treacherous mountain path in Scotland when an old lady and an old man caught up with me. They were dressed like they were from the 1500s and their faces looked spooky in the moonlight. In fact, the man seemed to shimmer in the moonlight, like he was appearing, disappearing and then appearing again. The night atmosphere can play tricks on you in the mountains. They said “hello” and asked if they could walk with me a while. I said “OK”. As we followed the path, which was getting higher and higher, we saw the ruins of an old castle way below beside a loch.

“Do you know the story of what happened down there, young man,” the lady asked me. 

“No, I don’t,” I replied.

“For centuries, there was a witch seen at the window of the tower of the castle. She had married the owner of the castle, the local Clan Chief.”

“Why did he marry a witch?” I asked.

“Because she promised him that all the land as far as the eye could see would belong to the owner of the castle.”

“Wasn’t The Clan Chief happy with all the land he already had?”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But he was greedy. He’d been wishing out loud for years to own all the land as far as the eye could see.  Some people just want more of everything, more land, more power, more money. Now, the witch had heard his greedy wishes as he shouted them into the night air. And that’s when she decided on her plan.”

“What was that?” I asked. 

“She knocked on his castle door, told him she’d heard his wishes and, she could make them come true. All he had to do was marry her. The Chief replied that, if she promised him all the land as far as the eye could see, then he would indeed marry her. So, that’s why she promised him exactly that.”

“I’m guessing they didn’t live happily ever after?”

“Correct.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“They courted or, as you’d say in America, they dated. They actually fell in love. Then, they got married. On their wedding night, the witch, to keep her side of the deal, asked the Chief to take her to the very top of the tower because that was the best place to show him all the land as far as the eye could see.”

“Because the tower was the highest point in the castle?” I asked.

“That’s right. But, the Chief, being greedy, told the witch that they should climb out the tower window and climb on top of upper window ledge to get even higher, so that they could see even more land to claim.”

“Did he get the land, then?”

“Yes, but only for a few seconds,” the lady said.

“What do you mean?”

“He lost his footing on the window ledge and fell from that great height into the loch. He was never seen or heard of again.”

“Wow,” I said, adding, “so, he never really got to own all the land.”

“No, but she did.”

“How come?”

“Because she was now the owner of the castle. So, she now owned all the land as far as the eye could see.”

“Was that her plan all along.”

“Yes. But she didn’t plan to fall in love with the Chief.”

“And now he was dead,” I said.

“That’s right. She’d really hoped for both of them to live on the land together. So, some say that’s why she was seen for so many centuries looking out of the tower window.”

“Looking for all the land as far as the eye could see?”

“Or her husband, the Clan Chief. Perhaps she hoped he might somehow come back. Both of them, it seems, were punished for their greed. Both lost everything they cared about.”

I thought about how tragic that was. I looked around for the man who’d been with us on the tiny mountain path but, I couldn’t see him. 

“Where did the man go?” I asked.

“He fell,” she replied, wiping a tear from her eye. 

She smiled sadly at me and closed her eyes. Then, she started shimmering in the moonlight, just as the man had done, until she disappeared completely! 

I looked back down towards the castle. There, looking out the tower window, I saw the lady I’d just been walking with.