We were chatting in the kitchen at the time. Through the window I glanced to the right and I saw a momentary striking image, an indeterminate shadow of black and white twirling, pirouetting on the spot. My eyes couldn’t keep up with the speed of this strange sighting and within seconds it was gone.

I know what you might be thinking. Is she crazy? Did she imagine it? Had she been drinking?
An emphatic ‘No,’ to each of these!

I swear that I saw it and I wasn’t the only one to do so. I have witnesses. My two daughters were in the kitchen with me and they noticed it too and even more extraordinary my daughter’s boyfriend (at the time,) has seen it as well.

These sightings were so extraordinary that I wrote this passage in my novel.

Excerpt: The Curse of Time – Book 1 – Bloodstone

I stood at the door of the shed and blinked. Slowly my overwhelming tiredness lifted, and a delicious sense of power enveloped me. I hugged myself. I had Ryder all to myself, and only my eyes had seen him leave. Ryder continued unaware that my eyes followed him; his face grew stern, so different from a moment ago. It made a momentary shiver travel up my spine like I was looking at a different person. He hurried as if he’d calculated each step to take him further and further away from me.

Then to my complete and utter astonishment, Ryder vanished. I saw a flash of grey and a hint of black light, a twirling piece of fabric, and then nothing. One moment he stood before me and the next he vanished. I scratched my head. It made little sense. A worm of anxiety worked its way into my thoughts. Maybe he walked so fast that somehow my vision couldn’t keep up. It occurred to me that Ryder and Shadow had that in common — disappearing.

I walked back toward the table, replaying Ryder’s steps like a slow motion reel in my mind. Perhaps he’d bewitched me. That would explain it. Either that or maybe I was going mad? I didn’t welcome either of these explanations.

We’ve had several more visitations and strange encounters:

• A ghostly being sitting on our steps that appeared for my daughters who I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting – yet!
• Whispers, loud noises, doors slamming while I, or my daughters are alone in the house.
• The sense that someone is following me but when I turn around there is no one there.

That particular experience encouraged me to write the following passage:

Excerpt: The Curse of Time – Book 1 – Bloodstone

A vision formed and I could see the pathway ahead lay deserted, not a soul in sight. The dead of night beckoned, and an eerie silence magnified every rustle and quadrupled every whisper in the breeze. The gentle sound of trickling water soothed my disturbed senses, but I couldn’t find the source. I fought a strange feeling that someone followed me. Yet, when I glanced over my shoulder, no one seemed to be there. No footprints, no churned-up earth, nothing. I walked faster, but my steps lagged, like a clock pendulum moving back and forth on a predetermined journey, yet moving in slow motion.

As my dream continued, the whispering winds grew louder. I forced myself to turn around and confront my growing fear. I saw the shadow of a man, and he was following me. Disconcerted, I tried to run and stumbled as if this shadowy man’s long limbs were reaching forward to trip me up. Just when I couldn’t take another step, the winds stopped. The shadow revealed itself in a flash of light and vanished. My eyes blinked, captivated by blue-black hair, but I couldn’t see his face. I stood transfixed by a bright light followed by an immediate darkness.

With the shadow’s departure, the deep-rooted sadness trapped within my soul subsided. The dream seemed so real I felt expansive breaths of liberating air fill my lungs. I walked forward with the image before me that I’d walked this path many times before. I felt the muscles in my face relax, my jaw slackened, and my eyes softened. I lifted my outstretched arms and took slow, deliberate steps. 

• And there is so much more! The appearance of fingerprints on our patio door glass. These uncanny fingerprints even followed me to my work place one day. At the time I was working as a receptionist in Government offices. I noticed one set of tiny fingerprints high up on the glass of the window well beyond the reach of a child. How did they get there? Why didn’t the window cleaners remove them? Were the fingerprints following me?
• A birds’ wingspan that appeared on each side of our kitchen window equally spaced apart. Okay, I did add some effects on Instagram to make this more interesting but even so…

I wrote about this and a strange black shadow bird on a tree in the Sisters Of The Fey Blog.

Then on the day my daughter left to go to South Korea for a year Teaching English As A Foreign Language I saw this flying bird formation in the sky:

These events seem to have mainly occurred since I started writing my novel.

Perhaps writing has triggered the imaginative part of my brain and made me more sensitive to these encounters?

It could be. Or perhaps I have always been the type of person that would be sensitive to these sorts of elusive realities?

About the author

I am a debut author who has been blogging for three years at my lovely blog home Kyrosmagica . My interests include writing, photography, poetry, and alternative therapies. I write Fantasy YA, middle grade fiction and micro poetry – haiku and tanka. I love to read and have written over 100 reviews.

My alter ego is MJ – Mary Jane from Spiderman. I love superheroes! I was born on the 17th of November in Lion City: Singapore, (a passionate Scorpio, with the Chinese Zodiac sign a lucky rabbit,) second child and only daughter to my proud parents Paula and Ronald. I grew up in a mountainous court in the Peak District in Hong Kong with my elder brother Donald. My parents dragged me away from my exotic childhood and my much loved dog Topsy to the frozen wastelands of Scotland. In bonnie Edinburgh I mastered Scottish country dancing, and a whole new Och Aye lingo.

As a teenager I travelled to many far-flung destinations to visit my abacus wielding wayfarer dad. It’s rumoured that I now live in the Venice of Cambridge, with my six foot hunk of a Rock God husband, and my two enchanted daughters. After such an upbringing my author’s mind has taken total leave of its senses! When I’m not writing, I eat exotic delicacies while belly dancing, or surf to the far reaches of the moon. To chill out, I practise Tai Chi. If the mood takes me I snorkel with mermaids, or sign up for idyllic holidays with the Chinese Unicorn, whose magnificent voice sings like a thousand wind chimes.

Find and follow Marjorie Mallon

 Authors Website      Sisters of the Fey Collaborative Blog

Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time

Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook #ABRSC 

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The Curse of Time

M. J. Mallon

Fifteen-year-old Amelina Scott lives in Cambridge with her dysfunctional family, a mysterious black cat, and an unusual girl who’s imprisoned within the mirrors located in her house. When an unexpected message arrives inviting her to visit the Crystal Cottage, she sets off on a forbidden pathway where she encounters Ryder, a charismatic, but perplexing stranger.

With the help of a magical paint set, and some crystal wizard stones she discovers the truth about a shocking curse that has destroyed her family’s happiness.

Available via Amazon

If you have had a strange experience or encounter that you would like to share, please get in touch with me at findme@scvincent.com (or my usual email if you already have it) and we can discuss a guest post.

I am not looking for sensationalism or fictional tales… but in light of the response to some recent posts, I think it would be both useful and reassuring to others to realise that none of us are alone in these strange encounters and experiences. Perhaps we can open discussion on what they may be or may mean…and each of us sees our own reality.

If you would like to share your story but prefer to remain anonymous, we can discuss that too. If you would like to share your beliefs and opinions on the nature of these experiences, I would be happy to talk about a guest post. Through sharing with respect we may learn to understand our world and each other a little better.

You can find previously published encounters with elusive realities here