FEATURED TALES 1
Elemental
(NOTE: This tale was
posted on an MSN message board group I belong to. I was so struck by
this story, I asked the Author for their permission to post it on this site.
It's a chilling account, and on a type of 'haunting' I don't hear too much
about - Elementals. See if you can resist looking over your shoulder
after reading this creepy tale...)
Hi
Folks! I've been reading the stories here for a long time now, but this is the first
time I've gotten up the nerve to actually post anything. You all seem very
open and enlightened and helpful. I'm hoping one of you can perhaps help me!
And if not, maybe you'd find my story interesting.
My friends and I had been rehearsing for months. There were 4 of us
in the show, plus our director. Total of 5 in the theater. Well, we'd been
stressing over our full time jobs (we were working together as actors at a local
amusement park -- an 8 hour a day, 5 day a week exhausting but very fun job) and then
rehearsals at night would go till 1am, so you can imagine how exhaustion can breed
contempt in such situations. Several people in the show were starting to be at odds
with one another. Well, this night was different. We were all in indescribably
good moods. We all attributed it to being in an actual theater for our rehearsals,
instead of our friend's cramped garage. It means a lot more for an actor to perform
to a bunch of empty seats than to spare bike parts and old lawn furniture, if you can
believe it. :)
Anyway, just before rehearsals, we'd ordered pizzas, and the 5 of us
gathered on the stage to eat. We grabbed chairs, and were sitting around a
table. Despite the distractions of junk food and conversation, I kept
getting fascinated, for some reason, with a chair in the back of the theater. I got
the distinct impression that that chair, or something in it, was watching us. I
thought it was just my imagination, so I didn't say anything. Then, my friend
"Sam" noticed my glance. "There's something about that
2nd chair from the aisle, last row, isn't there?" he said to me. There
was something in his voice that told me that he was dead serious, and that he was seeing
"it" too. It was there all throughout dinner, and when we got up to
start rehearsals, it seemed to go away. Now, it wasn't exactly visible.
It was like, if you can imagine, the way heat looks rising off a desert floor. Like
a clear distortion. Or, maybe that's the way my mind chose to interpret the
uninterpretable.
Anyway, as the night went on, things got really weird. At first, all
good things. The good moods (paranormal or not, they were really rare at this
time). Second, another actress and I were standing at the top of the stairs in
the theater lobby, just talking. Then, all of a sudden, we felt this wave of cold
air blow through us. We both started tearing and LAUGHING. It was a
feeling of sheer bliss. We hugged and cried, and just felt so good. We
thought it was a good omen for the show. We started talking to it playfully, saying
how it was our good luck charm and our first audience member. Maybe we made it
mad, cause things got ugly.
To make a long, miserable night's story short, here's a laundry list of
what happened. It AGED one of the actor's in the show -- I was looking at his
reflection in the mirror while we were talking, and he seemed to grow ashen grey, new
lines appeared on his otherwise young face (only 24 at the time) and his hair seemed to
fade on top of his head! He kept rubbing his face, as though covered by something
painful. I screamed and ran from the room. It threw this same person against
the wall. It followed me around! I could see it always about 10 feet behind
me, wherever I went in the theater. When I couldn't see it, I was even more scared,
cause it seemed to be INSIDE me, making me act in ways I would never act -- sing songs,
discount other people's fear. Like it was trying to use me to make everyone else
calm down. Which only made them more terrified. I was scared like
them, and I remember everything, but I can't explain my actions. It's like I
was playing a part, but not by choice. In a windowless, stale-aired room, a wind was
swirling the curtains around! Our director broke down crying in terror. We
started praying, and that REALLY seemed to make it mad! Finally, after about 1/2
hour of terror, I led the way running from the theater. AND IT WAS CHASING ME
OUT! The boy who was thrown against the wall felt it go through him as I passed and
shouted at it to leave me alone!
When we got back to the cars, we thought it was over. But, when we
got home, we realized that it had followed us there! Again, the distortion
appeared. It was child size, but seemed to have two sides -- old and young, good and
evil -- I don't know, that's just the impression I had. All 5 of us slept in the
same queen sized bed, too terrified to be alone. It would "possess"
people who came into the house. They would become dark and brooding -- not the
happy, bouncy people as they came in -- and would look at people they cared about with
such hatred and contempt that you knew there was something not right about them.
Well, this lasted for weeks. Finally, we decided to ignore it, to
leave it alone. Didn't always work -- we still had "possessions" -- but a
couple of people went to the Berkeley Psychic Institute and got some advice on how to
"ground" ourselves to protect ourselves. That helped a lot. At
least, it made us less scared. We got through it all, and then let it go.
Later that year, when I was back at school some 500 miles away from this
whole episode, I had a visit from "it" in my apartment. I was terrified,
and I tried not to tell my room-mates what was going on, cause I didn't want them to think
I was nuts. Well, one of them refused to go to sleep that night. She laid in
bed, terrified, forcing herself to stay awake. I asked her why, but she wouldn't
tell me. The next morning, I asked her if she had had any strong desire to hurt me
the night before. (Mind you, these are 2 of my best friends) She teared up, and just
said yes. I asked her if she had wanted to stab me. And she screamed, told me
to shut up, and started crying. A rather dramatic yes. It didn't come back
after that, and she refused to discuss it further. She doesn't believe in ghosts, and
doesn't want to, and we never spoke of it again.
I've had one or two other encounters with this, but none of them like
this. Usually, I would just turn up the TV real loud, ground myself, and say a
prayer or two until it went away.
Sorry, this is like a novel! But, I wanted to try to get all the
details out. It doesn't seem to be like anyone else's situations. It seemed
personally mad at me, or interested in me. This isn't something I thought of either
-- all the people in the theater the first night had said it was after me. It wasn't
geographically tied to any one place. Others have suggested it was a psychic
attack. But why? I've seen posts here about "elementals" -- could
this be that? I'm concerned because I recently moved back to the area where it all
started, and I'm afraid something will start again. Any thoughts any of you have on
this would be appreciated. Sorry this is so long. I hope you believe me.
I don't tell people about it much, cause I'm afraid they'll think I'm nuts.
-Unsigned-