SkullDark-Stories.com - Unusual and scary true stories  
.
 
.
Black
Home - Unusual and scary stories . Bibliography . About Dark Stories . Webmaster's email . Join our discussion forum . Links . The partners of Dark Stories.


Unusual facts

Swindle and forgers
Strange habits
Myths and legends
World explorers
Strange inventions
Eccentric people
Evil people

Tragedies and
catastrophies

Terrorist attacks
Natural disasters
Disasters and tragedies
War and genocide
Diseases and virus's
Nuclear and chemical

Mystery and
parapsychology

Archaeology
Cryptozoology
Devil and demons
Disappearances
Ghost stories
Bad luck and coincidences
Curse and malediction
Prophecies and predictions
Dreams and premonitions
Parallel sciences
Ufology and UFO's

Other unexplained stories


- THE OLD HAG MOVES IN -


The following story is backed up by many sources, including testimony from the victim himself. For various legal reasons, the names of many people and places in the original story have been changed. Anyway, here's the story, and it's quite eerie.

 

In the early 1990s in a certain area of Louisiana, a group of property developers got permission to buy a parcel of land that was mostly a desolate eyesore. One narrow crumbling house stood at the end of the strip of land, and the landlord who owned this old dwelling, which was built way back in 1870, keenly accepted an substantial, but undisclosed sum from the developers. It was what is known as a compulsory purchase deal. There were two elderly people in the house, both of them were in very bad health, but the old house was their home, and they told the landlord they didn't want to move. The landlord warned them that a surveyor had condemned the house, and when the old people said they hadn't seen any surveyor, the landlord alerted the social services. Days later, the people were taken into care by two social workers and put into sheltered accommodation. But before this took place, something seemingly amusing took place. One of the old people saw the landlord talking to the one of the property developers, who was a 42-year-old man named David. The old white haired lady shouted: "Where's Agatha going to live now?"

"She's koo-koo." the landlord whispered to the property developer.

David asked the elderly eccentric woman who Agatha was.

A old Hag

The old woman said, "Aggie! The very old woman who's lived with us for years. We asked her to move with us but she doesn't like the area where we're going to, because there's a church right on top of us."

David didn't want to make a scene, and felt sorry for the old and apparently confused woman. He knew there was no woman named Agatha at the condemned house, but he said: "Ah, don't you worry lady. Agatha can stay with me if she wants."

The landlord turned away and his shoulders shook as he tried to stifle a chuckle.

"Are you sure?" the old woman said, and she smiled. She turned to face the old house and said, "Aggie! This man here says you can move in with him."

Then after a long pause, the old woman said: "She accepts your invitation, as long as you don't live near a church. She's a bit eccentric about churches you see."

That really cracked the landlord up. He said: "Aggie's eccentric?" and grinned at the irony of the old woman's remark.

But then something happened which wiped the grin off the landlord's face. The three people present heard laughter from the condemned house.

The property developer looked at the landlord with a puzzled expression. He said, "Did you hear that?"

The landlord nodded, then said he had to be going. He had to pick his kids up from school.

And so the nightmare began. The old woman went off to say goodbye to her old friends who lived around the corner, and the property developer David fastened his seatbelt and drove off, feeling quite uneasy all of a sudden.
He drove to his luxurious home, and as he got out of his Mercedes in the driveway, he distinctly felt something pat his bottom. He glanced around, but there was no one about.

David told his wife Emma about the weird laughter in the condemned house, but she said he was being silly. They had dinner that evening, and Emma went to visit her friend Kayleigh, who lived miles away. Kayleigh was involved in the preparations for a relative's wedding and Emma had promised to help out.

So David was alone for three hours that evening; at least he thought he was alone. He put on a few classical CDs and opened a bottle of wine. He inhaled the aroma of the perfumed candles Emma had lit, then relaxed on his chesterfield, lost in Mozart. Half an hour later he'd fallen into a light sleep.

Something was pressing down on his chest. At first he thought that Emma hads returned and was playing about. But David opened his eyes and saw something that chilled him to the bone. A hideous old woman with a long hooked nose was pinning him down. David couldn't move. He was paralysed. He tried to speak, but could only touch the roof of his mouth with his tongue, which felt dead. He couldn't cry out. The old hag smiled and revealed three decaying yellowed teeth. Saliva dripped from both ends of the woman's sickly sagging pink lips. Her face was a mass of wrinkles and her cheeks drooped down to her flabby jowls. Her watery eyes were yellow, and a mass of red veins encircled her faded bluish-grey irises. The old woman looked as if she was centuries old. Her claw-like hands undid the bun of greasy white hair and her locks fell down past her shoulder. In a horrible raspy voice she said: "You are a fine laddy." and she cackled. David's heart felt as if it was going to explode. He kept trying to wake up from the nightmare, but he slowly realised that this was no bad dream, it was something to do with the occult. The old crone licked his lips with her pink tongue which was mottled with white warts. She said, "Ooh, I'll stay with you as your wife if you desire."

David closed his eyes firmly for a few seconds then opened them.

The old hag was still there, still trying to molest him. From somewhere deep down, David managed to summon up the strength to move. He screamed out and the old woman screamed back in protest. David managed to lift his arm and he took a swipe at the gruesome figure, but it felt as if he was hitting a sack full of bones. Suddenly she was gone.

David got up and saw to his horror that the shadowy figure of the old woman was now at the other end of the lounge. She wet her fingers and began pinching the wicks of the perfumed candles, extinguishing them, one by one.

David turned up the light dimmer and saw the weird-looking old woman in the full light. She was crooked and bent over, and she grinned at him then disappeared.

David got into his Mercedes and drove non-stop to his friend Alec, who lived three miles away. Throughout the journey, the property developer continually felt something stroking his hair.

When David told Alec about being terrorised by the old hag, his friend assumed the wine had gone to his head. But David said he was sober and deadly serious. Alec asked him why the ghost of an old woman would choose to pester him, and David remembered something. Earlier that day, one of the old people who were being forced to move from the condemned house on the purchased land had told him and the landlord about her concern for a certain "Agatha." Now it all made sense. With his tongue in his cheek, David had jokingly suggested that Agatha could move in with him.

Alec said, "I see, and you unwittingly invited the ghost into your place. It is a bit of a coincidence I suppose."

David said: "Please believe me Alec; that thing is demonic. How do I get rid of her?"

Alec said: "I don't know. Tell her to pack her bags."

"Huh? How do you mean?" David asked his friend.

"Just tell her to beat it." Alec said.

David sighed and shook his head. He said, "I don't think it will work. Hey, wait; that woman today; she said something about Aggie not liking churches."

"Are you for real? Come on level,." Alec said and laughed nervously.

But David didn't laugh. He said, "Alec, have you got a Bible?"

"Oh don't start David." Alec said. He was getting a bit spooked by his friend's behaviour.

"Please, have you got a Bible?" David said, and he looked at the large mahogany bookcase behind his friend.

"Yeah, not that I ever read it. Here." Alec pulled a large leatherbound copy of the Holy Bible from the shelf and David snatched it off him.

"I hope to God this works. I'll ring you later." David said, and left.

That night, David sat in his lounge, watching TV. Then suddenly he saw something move out the corner of his eye. He turned and saw the old hag, cowering in the corner of the room. Emma was due back any minute, so he had to act now.

"Why don't you come here?"
David asked the spinechilling apparition.

"Throw that blasted book away and I will!" the old woman said.

"Are you Agatha?" David said, and he picked up the book.

"Yes. Please be rid of that book ma dear. Go on, throw it on the fire." Agatha suggested, staring at the Bible with a transfixed gaze of dread.

"You're not wanted in here any more. Get out of this house." David said, plucking up enough courage to take the book over to Agatha.

"You don't mean it! I know you enjoyed my caresses." said the withered old crone.

"In the name of God, I order you to leave my home." David said, and noticed that the apparition seemed transparent.

"I thought you loved me." Agatha said, her voice becoming fainter.

David hurled the leather-bound Bible at the grotesque vision and it vanished before the book passed through it.

David never told Emma about his supernatural ordeal, but the girl was perplexed when David came home the next day with five copies of the Bible. The property developer placed the holy books in different rooms of the house and later visited the two old people he had forced into dilapidated accommodation. He asked them who Agatha was, but the old people refused to comment. The old woman just smiled and said, "So you met her then?".

David hasn't set eyes on the old hag since, but had graphic nightmares about her for over a year.

According to psychologists and psychical researchers, David's case is by no means an isolated one. For centuries, many people (mostly males) have reported being terrorised and assaulted by sinister entities like the witch that molested David. In fact, many psychologists have named the bizarre phenomenon 'Old Hag Syndrome', and have noted that the traumatic experience of being assaulted seems quite real to the victim and usually occurs shortly before sleep or just after the sleeper has awoken in the middle of the night. Involuntary catatonia (a sudden onset of paralysis) has been blamed, but this explanation does not explain why the victim sees and feels the presence of a hideous crone during the episodes. Furthermore, the Old Hag Syndrome is apparently on the increase...sweet dreams.

 

 

This story reproduced with permission from Tom Slemen

Source: http://www.slemen.com
© Copyright 2004 by Tom Slemen. All Rights Reserved.

Last modification: November 24, 2007



 
 

HomeAbout Dark Stories Bibliography Contact Discussion forum Links Partners

Dark-Stories.com - Copyright © 2006-2008 - All rights reserved
Total or partial reproduction prohibited without the authors permission