The Little Light

We've kept a flashlight under the table in our bedroom for a long time. It's one of those monster-sized lights for emergencies and on the top of it is a smaller second light. It had been under that table a long time without incident and then one night we realized the little light was on, casting a pale wash of blue light up the wall in that corner. Slightly creepy but not a big deal and we turned it off. The next night it was on again. And the next. At this point we teased each other that our oldest cat, who had passed away that month at the age of 18, was turning it on. As she wasn't usually allowed in the bedroom we thought she would consider it good fun to spend some of her afterlife in there. The light stopped turning on and things were back to normal. 

Some time later our second oldest cat passed away (also 18 by then) and within a few days the light was on. The Rational Human Reaction kicked in at that point. Perhaps it had been on more than we realized and we just hadn't noticed it. Perhaps something had changed and we were bumping the table somehow and not realizing it. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. We discovered it turned on a few more times over the next two weeks and then, again, the light stopped turning on. We laughed nervously to ourselves and blamed it on the deceased kitties. But then things were back to normal.

Last week a third kitty passed away, one who came to us in her old age and didn't have an 18 year history with us. Last night the little light was on again.

The Mothman

Driving through West Virginia this weekend I was reminded of the Mothman, mostly because once you hit a local gift shop there is always a stack of books about the legend. We first encountered the legend in the 2002 Richard Gere/Laura Linney movie "The Mothman Prophesies." It's odd that we hadn't heard of it before since we spend a good deal of time in West Virginia, but mostly on the east side and the Mothman incidents were on the west side. If you aren't familiar with the legend, it is about a large, winged creature with red eyes that was seen by multiple witnesses around Point Pleasant, West Virginia back in the 60s for about a year before a significant bridge collapse that killed 46 people. Some theorize that the Mothman came to warn the town of the impending danger.

But I told you all that in order to tell you this: my husband invited the Mothman over to our house. Well, alright, that's not exactly how it went but that's how it worked out. A couple of years ago while driving through West Virginia to a conference we were heading through the West Virginia Parkway and saw the sign for Point Pleasant. My husband pointed it out, we laughed and chatted about the Mothman legend, and that was that. I thought.

After the conference we arrived home late on a dreary, drizzly night. We brought in our bags and tossed them on the bed. Shortly after we arrived I heard something fall in the shower. No big deal, I thought. Sometimes just a little shifting and things fall. Then things fell off the shelf in the closet, at the other end of the master bedroom. It had added up to odd at this point but hardly traumatizing so we shook it off. Then the house plunged into darkness as the power shut off. This had all happened within about ten minutes. Alright, I thought, it's raining so... maybe the power lines got wet... or something. This is when my husband turned to me and said, "Honey, I have to tell you something."

What he had to tell me was that after seeing the sign for Point Pleasant he had started thinking it would be really cool to look up on one of those mountains and see the Mothman. In his own mind he began inviting the Mothman to show himself. And then, on the return trip, had taunted the Mothman for not showing himself. Since this is a man who has encountered ghosts and fae and not particularly enjoyed it, I thought this showed a tremendous lack of wisdom on his part.


We tried resetting the power, no dice. We looked out to see that neighbors on all sides still had power. Hmm. We called the power company and the poor dude had to come out in all that rain to get it going again. Having taken care of the practical, I then focused on the spiritual and began praying and sending out divine light. If we did get the Mothman's attention we didn't have it for long. But definitely be careful who you invite over to your house.

The Dark Figure

More true ghost stories.

One night a young man awoke to the sound of mumbling. Opening his eyes he could see a dark figure at the foot of the bed, leaning over him and speaking in some strange language. Although it seemed foreboding he couldn't stop himself from asking, "What?" The figure paused and then started speaking again. The young man sensed that if he focused he might be able to understand the language but that would be A Very Bad Thing. He buried himself under the covers and prayed.

The next morning he told his friend from across the street about the event and the other young man scoffed. The figure came back for two more nights, and on the third night the young man called out, "Go bother my friend! He doesn't believe in you!" The next morning he met his friend who said, "The weirdest thing happened last night. I woke up to hear something, maybe a squirrel, running around above my room counterclockwise three times. What's weird is that it sounded like it was in the attic, not on the roof, but then it shouldn't have been able to get out onto the eaves and I definitely heard scratching out there."

The friend continued to hear strange noises until he moved out after high school.

Sue London is a writer, blogger, and doodlist who has two ghosts hanging out in her house. She thinks she picked them up at Disney's Haunted Mansion. Her "True Stories" are either personal or related to her by friends and family members over the years. Check out what she's up to by visiting her Sueniverse.