The Man in the Wall
I remember this spirit so well; he was a tall man wearing dark clothes and a black donkey jacket.
I was only five or six years old at the time, I remember the very cottage we lived in, the bedroom had a pink flowery patterned wallpaper, I remember it so well because it was from the flowers on the wallpaper that he came. It was the wall that separated my room from my parents’ room, he came every night.
To start with I used to feel really frightened, my heart would be pounding in my chest, yet I somehow knew he was not real in the physical sense of the word.
He used to come out of the wall, walk across the bedroom, past the bottom of my bed and disappear into the wardrobe.
More often than not, I would hide under the covers until I knew he was gone. Some nights I would peep out, to look at him.
This one night, I decided I am not afraid of him, I will not hide tonight. Sure enough, as I watched the flowery wallpaper, he eventually came, as he always did. I lay in bed frightened but determined I would not hide. He must have known because when he reached the bottom of my bed, he suddenly turned his head to look at me. I was really scared; I quickly hid my head under the covers and peeped out to make sure he was gone. I felt quite relieved that he did not get me.
This went on for some time. Each night, I would wait for him to come, knowing that he would come, and then once he was gone, I would sleep. I became less afraid of him as time went on as he never did anything to harm me, and I knew that he always came from the same wall and always went into the wardrobe. A couple of times I checked the wardrobe in the morning, just to make sure he was not still in there.
This one night, I decided again that I would watch him. He came, and when he reached the bottom of my bed, he beckoned me to go with him. Being so curious, I was tempted to go, but for some reason, I decided not to.
That night, he did not go into the wardrobe as he usually did, he went out the bedroom window. Had I followed him, I may have gone out the bedroom window too.
Always Walk in Peace – Kenzo
(This is one of several stories available in my book: True Ghost Stories)
