Your True Tales
June 2008 - Page 1
Victorian Ghost
by Alexandra
This experience took place in June, 1981 in suburban Toronto (the most haunted city in Canada, I've since read), and to this day remains as vivid and profound as the night it happened. At the time I was living in a basement apartment in a 1950s bungalow. It was my first place after leaving home and I was 19 years old. My sister was 18 years old and staying over for the night.
At some point in the early hours of the morning, I was awakened (unusual for me as I sleep pretty soundly). There was enough light from the streetlights to illuminate the room that I could see. Because the windows opened to a side yard, I usually never drew the curtains for privacy. I also liked a bit of light in the bedroom, as I never liked pitch blackness. My eyes were drawn to the darkened doorway, beyond which was a hallway.
Although dark, I could make out a darker human shape in the murky greyness of the hall. It moved back and forth slightly. I had a roommate who was working late that particular night downtown, and it would have taken him until about 1 a.m. to get home. I thought it was him returning from work. I actually sat up in bed and called out his name, Andrew, baffled as to what he was doing in the darkened hall. There was no reply. Then I saw what appeared to be a cigarette being twirled in a circular motion, making an orange circle in the air. The entity then stepped out of the doorway and "walked" across the room about eight feet in front of the bed. As the bedroom was more brightly lit from the streetlights, I could very clearly see a very tall (well over six feet) Victorian man in a black cape and top hat. I could make out a brocade vest and high-necked white shirt.
At this point, I was aware of my sister sitting up and taking notice of it next to me in the bed. We watched in stunned silence as he took a drag from his cigarette. His face had been in shadow, but when he inhaled, it lit up slightly in an orange glow, revealing a gaunt profile. The eye sockets were eerie black hollows.The whole appearance reminded me of Abe Lincoln -- high cheekbones, thin face. He never said a word, just glided silently into the opposite wall. He didn't disappear suddenly, more like dissolving in parts into the wall itself.
The whole episode had lasted 60-90 seconds. I had the presence of mind to turn to my sister and say, "Did you just see that?" Her voice was very small and frightened as she replied, "Yes." I asked her to tell me exactly what she had seen. Her recollection was exactly like mine, only that she had awakened about 30 seconds before me to see the circular orange O in the doorway. She had lain there quietly watching it until she saw me sit up and call out our roommate's name.
The entity was quite solid, and I've never figured out why it appeared to us those many years ago. What was the point? Incredibly, we eventually just went back to sleep. The fact that the apparition seemed so other worldly and so not interested in us probably accounted for us being so at ease. I have never seen it since (I moved out of that place a few months later). The purpose just seemed to be that he wanted to be seen. Here I am, almost 27 years later, writing about it, and it still is one of the most bizarre and unexplainable things I ever witnessed. The weird thing is that I never associated modern white cigarettes with that era (1880s, judging from his clothing). I thought men smoked cigars or pipes; it struck me as odd.
My sister to this day does not like to speak of it and freaks out if someone starts making the O shape with a cigarette (usually after hearing the story and wanting to tease her). I later found out the land where this subdivision had been built was on the outskirts of a small village that had been swallowed up in the name of progress after WWII. This house was built over the site of an 1850s farm long since razed to the ground. I have experienced other paranormal things in my life and this happened at a very stressful time, and I wonder if this tension created the right conditions for its appearance.
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