In With the Wind

*This is a true story. I am including it as part of my ‘Talk Scary to Me’ October series. Feel free to share your own true story in the comments for everyone to enjoy.*

This story happened to me in 2008. 12 years later, I’m still processing what I saw that night. It’s strange how the mind works when presented with an image that it’s wholly unprepared to see. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start again.

Like I said, it was late summer of 2008. I’d recently moved back to Jamaica after living in New York for a couple years. One day I got an email from my friend Mike. He and I went to college together and we both moved to New York after graduation, so we stayed in touch. He had some vacation time coming up and wanted to come visit me in Jamaica. “Of course,” I said. “How soon can you come?”

These were the days before my bar opened–the days of preparation. The physical bar was still under construction so my nights were still my own. Mike came for 2 consecutive weekends. We made the most of his trip. We did more than one country-run, exploring the very best parts of Jamaica. We bar hopped and clubbed the nights away. It was one of those spontaneous fun trips where someone is always laughing and adventure awaits around every corner.

Mike was scheduled to leave on the early flight on Sunday. For our last adventure, we set our sights on zip lining with an adventure tourism company called Chukka, just outside Ocho Rios. We both wanted to try it and we figured, why not try it together? It would be an epic end to an epic trip.

My grandparents had (and still have) an old 2-bedroom apartment at Turtle Towers in the heart of Ochie. Mike and I threw a few things in a bag and drove down to that apartment at 9PM on Friday night with my friend, Melissa. We wanted to have the whole day to play before his Sunday AM flight.

When we got to Turtle Towers, it was late and windy. The apartment door seemed sealed shut. It took us quite a while to figure out the lock, but once we did, we found a clean, if not a little dusty, apartment. Even back then, nobody in my family used that apartment much. My uncle will go down there once in a while, but for the most part, it is locked up.

Since Mike, Melissa and I only needed a place to sleep, we weren’t too picky. We didn’t plan on spending much time in the apartment after all.

I remember we had problems ‘starting the apartment up’. We couldn’t figure out how to get the ACs turned on. We bathed in ice cold water because we also couldn’t figure out how to turn on the heater. We were young then, and didn’t mind much. Discomfort goes hand in hand with spur-of-the-moment adventures.

It was around midnight when we decided to go to bed.

Mike slept in the master bedroom, while Mel and I slept on the twin beds in the second bedroom. As I mentioned, we couldn’t figure out how to turn on the AC, so I left our bedroom window open, hoping to catch some of the sea breeze.

It didn’t take long for us all to fall asleep.

This is the part where things get fuzzy. I remember waking up in the night. I was in the twin bed nearest to the window. I saw fabric blowing. In the full moon’s light, the fabric seemed to be a dark color, possibly navy blue. It might have been a long dress, but more likely….it was some kind of cloak. Like something a vampire would wear in a Victorian novel.

To be fair, it also could’ve been a combination of the curtains blowing and my groggy brain still stuck in sleep. I wasn’t sure.

I saw the fabric blow in with the wind….as if air suddenly became matter. It was kicked through the window by a leg that swung itself into the room. It was a person. He/she/it moved quickly, walking past our beds. It didn’t look at me. It seemed in a hurry. It opened the door and slipped out in silence.

All the while I lay there in the dark staring back and forth from the door to the window, trying to process what I thought I saw. Time confused me. It happened much faster than it should’ve. We were on the second story. It didn’t seem possible that a person could climb up the building and race through the bedroom at that speed without making a noise.

That was the other thing. The room was completely silent. No footsteps, no sound of the door opening or closing. Fine….the room was carpeted, but if you swing your body through a window at that speed, logic dictates that there should be a thump, right?

I looked beside me at Mel, who was fast asleep. Was I dreaming? Was I hallucinating? I lay in bed awake for a while. The rational part of me was trying to calm the hysterical part of me, down. At some point I fell back asleep.

When I woke up I decided it was a dream. I didn’t mention it to Mel as we got ready to leave the apartment for our day of adventure. Mike was still asleep and I decided not to wake him yet.

Mel and I were sitting in the living room chatting, when Mike got up about 20 minutes later. He came out into the living room looking very annoyed.

As I said, I’ve known Mike a long time. We met during orientation week, freshman year. I don’t believe that Mike is prone to delusions. He has never talked about believing in ghosts or any sort of supernatural thing. He’s a banker. He finds his comfort in facts, not fantasy.

That morning, Mike had a bee in his bonnet. Mel and I stopped talking as soon as we saw his face.

“Which one of you came into my room last night?” he demanded angrily. I’ve heard people say this, but it was the first time I actually experienced it. The blood in my veins turned to ice water.

“Not me,” Mel said quickly. Both their eyes landed accusatorially on me. The events of the previous night went racing through my mind again…..the cloak in the wind, the ‘thing’ rushing past, the door opening and closing without a sound. Was it a dream?

Mike turned his fury on me. “Amanda, that was not cool,” he began.

“Tell me what you saw,” I replied, still trying to process the events of the previous night.

“I was sleeping when I felt someone staring at me,” Mike said. His words send shivers down my spine. “When I opened my eyes I saw a white face…..leaning over me in the dark. You seriously freaked me out. And then….where did you go? It’s like I blinked and you disappeared. I have never felt more terrified in my life.”

Again….time slowed down. After what felt like a long beat, I swallowed and found the words that I wanted to say.

“I didn’t come into your room last night….but I think I know who did.” I related what I saw to my two friends. “She left our room and then she must’ve come into your room.”

“She was inches from my face. She was so close that I couldn’t make out her features,” Mike explained. “Tell me right now if you’re f*ing with me. I am so serious.”

“I promise it wasn’t me,” I said.

After that, we all decided to get the hell out of there. We locked up the apartment and drove straight to Chukka. Zip Lining was the stress release we needed after that night of horror. We decided to drive back to town after the tour finished, not wanting to spend another minute in the country.

“Mike,” I asked as we were driving back. “Do you remember what the woman was wearing?”

Mike thought a moment and then replied. “It was dark….I feel like it was maybe a long navy blue nightgown…or a dress. Something old-timey. It’s like she was there and then gone. It happened so fast.”

Needless to say, I don’t stay in that apartment anymore.

Amanda Hanna is a 4x Best-Selling Amazon Novelist and Professional Ghostwriter. She’s been blogging since the early aughts and now she’s back in the saddle. Watch out world! She’s blogging for you. www.creative-copy.com

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