My venture into the unknown. PART TWO

Now where was I, Oh yes I remember...it was the final night of the Ghouls-On-Film exhibition, and it had been a great success...

All the visitors had now gone and I decided to call it a night.
I had already begun taking down some of the pictures and general tidying when..."Are you still open?"  
I was going to just reply "No", but there was something about the look in his eyes that made me curious: 

"Well yes it is, but that´s OK, you are quite welcome to come in. There is not much wine left but there are plenty of sandwiches" I replied. 

"Oh I´m not here for the exhibition, I´m here for your help" he said. He sounded serious but had a smile on his face so I was a bit confused.

"Help?" I said.

"Yes, it´s a bit awkward to explain.
You see, I read the newspaper article and well, I know all these pictures here are just fakes made by your art students, but the thing is, I have witnessed the real thing and Ive come here to tell you about it"  He said. And now he was half smiling.

Now, I will be honest with you, the first thing that went through my head was - oh shit Ive just let a nut-job into my studio and I´m all on my own here.....then the  guy continued:
"Take it easy, I´m not an escaped mental patient or anything. You see, I know all about you, I take it you are Arthur?  And well I honestly think you are the only one that can help me.
All I ask is you listen my story" He said. And now his expression was quite serious. 

Well, if the guy thought this statement was going to calm me he was dead wrong. 
For now I was even more nervous:
"Er well, er well you know it´s kind of late and it´s been a long night. As you can see Ive already started tidying up. Perhaps another time" I responded.
My eyes were now darting around looking for my mobile phone. Where the hell did I put it ?

 "Listen, I can see you are nervous Arthur, and I honestly did not mean to frighten you. What if I go and get my wife, she is waiting in the car outside."  Said the stranger. 

When I heard that I thought, yeah just agree with the guy, and when he goes out lock the door behind him, phone the police and then run out the back door :
"Er, yeah great do that, you go and get your wife, the more the merrier, she can join in he party I guess" I said. 

You know it never fails to amaze me how my own mouth can say the most ridiculous things when I am nervous. It is as though it is not connected to my brain at all.
Anyway, the very moment the guy left I began running around like a headless chicken in search of my mobile phone. I was so manic that I forgot to close the door. 

Moments later he was back, and now had a woman standing next to him.
The woman spoke: "Hello Arthur, this is so good of you. I know you must be tired and I know it must seem like this is a little strange, but we figured it was only only chance we had to get to meet you."  She said. Actually she looked and sounded really nice. Friendly... normal 

And so I decided, OK what the hell.
"I see! Well you had better come in. Come on in it´s freezing out there. Let me get some chairs. Come, have sit down." I said tying to be a friendly host.
A few minutes later we were all sat around the electric fire by the window. 

 "OK, how can I help you?" I said. 

"You tell him darling. You tell it better than me." Said the woman as she gave her man a shove with her elbow. By now I was beginning to calm down and my curiosity had been awakened.
"Well, it happened about 15 years ago, before we were married, we were just young lovers back then, actually we were engaged to be married...have you heard of the Grey Lady?"
Said the stranger interrupting himself.
I shook my head.

At this point it was clear that they were quite normal folk and any reservation I felt before had now left me. And so it was only at that point did I realize the funny side of situation.
I mean, only moments ago I had thought this couple were some kind of dangerous lunatics, and yet here I was with my face painted white, fake blood all over my shirt and a knife sticking through my head.

 "Er listen, before you carry on, perhaps I should take this knife from out of my head and go and wash my face a little." I said.
We all laughed.
 "We didn´t know whether to say anything" said the woman with a friendly smile.

I returned a few minutes later: "Before you start, I don´t know your names"  I said.

"Oh sorry, yes of course, I´m John and this is my wife Patricia." Said John 

And so he began:
"You see, back then, Tricia was working as a part-time bar maid at the Grange Park pub.
You see, that is the reason why we came here Arthur. It is the same pub as in one of your ghost pictures. The one with the lighting coming out of the window. When we saw that in the newspaper we thought it was a sign that we should come and talk to you."
He said, pointing to the very picture on the wall.
Below is a reminder of which picture of the pub he meant, and the article he was referring to.

                                

The story they told was somewhat detailed but I have shortened it down to its main outline because more details come later.
So here is their:- STORY IN BRIEF: 

In February of 1986, at around 11.15pm. John went to meet with his fiancé at the Grange Park Pub. Now this pub (it has completely gone now) was located directly opposite the entrance of a well known park in the town called, Taylor Park.
His fiancé, Tricia, lived on the farther side of the park and so the courting couple used it as a short-cut to get her house. She still living with her parents back then.
Now this park was not dangerous as such but late at night it gangs would occasionally hang out there, and so the idea was that John would escort his fiancé through the park so that she got home safely. This was their normal weekly routine. Patrica was 20 and John was 22 at the time. And so at around 11.30pm they started making their way through the Park. 

As they walked they would stop at certain favorite park benches for a sit down and begin a passionate talk about the bible However, on this particular night they slightly altered their routine and sat on a different bench. This bench was located a little before their regular spot. They were obviously so taken with their bible conversation that they just had to sit down and discuss it in more detail 

This is when things turned into something horribly paranormal. 

Within a couple of minutes of sitting down they heard strange eerie sounds coming from directly behind them. Thinking it was a Peeping Tom, or a gang trying to scare them, they decided to move on. As they walked down the path, moving at a quicker pace, the eerie sounds got louder and weirder. The path was surrounded by thick rhododendron bushes and so it was very dark and were now a little frightened.
However, they knew in a matter of moments they would soon come out into the open where lake comes into view. It was a full moon that night and so it would be lighter, and thus safer, being more out in the open. 

As they came out into the clearing something was waiting for them.
For there, right in front of them, was the strange woman type figure, "wearing a Victorian style dress".
And this lady stood, or floated rather, quite calmly, She, it, was surrounded by a glowing light and was quite transparent. "We could see the lake fence right though her"
The young barmaid turned to her man and griped his jaw with the intention of pulling his face in the direction of what she was seeing (she actually grabbed him so hard that her nails scratched his skin)

 "Can you see that John?"  She said staring into his eyes, frightened to death to even look back again. But the young man had already seen it and was staring right at it. 

"I, I think..its a ghost, I think it´s the Grey Lady"  He stuttered with his eyes bulging. 

The apparition then began to float forwards and backwards and then turned to look at the couple. She literally looked right at them. (Note: When I heard that part, my whole body froze and I will explain more why this is so significant later)
Eventually the apparition headed towards the bushes and "dissipated"  rather like a bubble when it hits  the ground. 

The couple were transfixed until the very moment this glowing apparition vanished.
But then when it had gone the terrified couple literally ran for their lives. 

It was not unto a year later could they bring themselves to go back into the park and that was only in the day time.

Neither of then had ever set foot in the park at night ever again. 

Using google earth, I made a map of the park and showing the route they took. See below. 

After John had finished telling the story my first reaction was to pour myself a glass of red wine. 

The room was silent as they waited for my reaction.
Now before I say further there is something I must mention.
While John had been telling the story, his wife, Patricia, or Tricia as he called her, would occasionally interrupt her man and correct him on certain details. 
Apparently this was the first time they had ever told anyone of their experience while they had been both together. And so it was revealed that their memory differed slightly on certain points.

Now you might think that this was somewhat suspicious, but you would be wrong.
For in fact it was this that made me believe they were telling the truth. If their story had been identical I would have known immediately that they were lying.
For it is impossible for two people to remember an experience identically. 

"Quite a story. But what exactly do you want me to do about it?"  I asked

 "We want to know what it was? I mean listen Arthur, we saw this thing. It was real. We cant see an hallucination of the same thing at the same time. Know one has ever been able to tell us what it was" Said John. 

This was indeed a good point. In fact I had never heard of  two people witnessing such a phenomenon before. This must be rare, I thought.
They did not want money.
They did not want fame.
They had told the newspaper when it had happened (in 1986) but did not give their names for fear of being ridiculed. They just wanted to be believed.
And then it hit me. It dawn on me that this couple just wanted answers.
They had lived with this experience for years and had no one to talk to about it. Their parents forbid them to talk on the matter ever again. Both of their parents had strong christian beliefs. They also had two children, a boy and a girl to whom they had told only once after taking them to the park and showing them the location. 

This also convinced me that the story was true. I have a daughter myself and I would never dream of inventing such a story just to....well for what reason?  You just don´t do that.
Anyone who has children will know what I mean. 

OK, so I believed them.
At least, I believed that they believed they saw something that night.
But still, why ask me for help?
"Why, because everyone says that you see the world differently. That you are open minded"
Explained John.
"What!  What are you talking about? What do you mean, everyone" I said, somewhat confused.
John laughed

 "Don´t you know how well known you are in our town?  People say that you see the world a little differently. You are open to things. And that once you get into a project you don´t stop until you find a conclusion." Said John explaining further.

I actually had no idea what he was talking about or where he could have got such an notion. I had done some art projects in the past that had upset certain politicians and upset the cart sometimes but I really did not what he meant. I was completely flabbergasted.
But considering this high opinion he had of me, I figured I better act cool. 

"Er well, er OK, then just let me get this clear. Are you asking me to help you find out what this thing was?"  I asked

 "Yes. We just want Answers Arthur. And we believe that you are the only one who can help us get them." Said Tricia. She sounded so sincere that I almost gulped. I felt utterly flattered I have to say. I mean, not even my own brother had ever trusted me like this.
My brother is a rather closed minded person and we often argue over how we view the world 

Anyway, I asked if they could give me some time to think it over, but that, in the mean time, I would make a reconstruction of their sighting using Photoshop. "Photo what?" Responded John. Who was a builder by profession.
"It is a computer digital editing program that...actually you don´t need to know."
I said stopping myself.
Patricia was a nurse by the way. Hmm yes, nurses lie all the time don´t they? 

Whatever they had seen, I was pretty much convinced that they had seen something very unusual and very rare, and that they were not inventing the whole thing.

The very next day I drove to the Park and had a walk around. I had my little digital camera with me and took some photos in order to use for the Photoshop reconstruction illustration. See below, eere you have a better idea of what it looked like from the ground.

See the Photoshop reconstruction illustration of the sighting below 

I have to say, when I was stood there, in what I thought was the approximate location they had been standing, I was pretty blown away by the matter. 

My imagination was working overtime and I began to wonder what on earth this could be?
Could it possibly be real?
I mean, ghosts are not real are they?
Ghosts are just for kids. We all know it´s just nonsense!
They are merely hallucinations, tricks of the light, tricks of the mind. Right? 

Don´t get me wrong, I did believe them.
Today I am a somewhat spiritual person, but in those days I was a ardent skeptic atheist.
I believed in science.
Although I chose to specialize in art, I actually got high grades in science at both school and college particularly in chemistry and physics.
In those days I was far more interested in the physical than the metaphysical.
But so if this was true, then it would mean there was more to the materialistic view of the world than is yet known or discovered.

I had to find out more.
I simply had to investigate.

And so a day or so later I telephoned John and asked if I could come to their home.
My plan was to record an interview with both of them separately and then later I could go through the recording in detail on my own.
But before that, I needed to educate myself a little on the world of the paranormal. And so I went to the local bookshop and bought the only one they had. I still have it today. See below.  

               
And so began the journey into the unknown.
At that point I was not in the least scared at this point. 

In fact I was damn right excited.
What if I could actually solve this mystery?
How great would that be? Arthur the paranormal investigator.
Like a ghost hunting Sherlock Holmes!
You see, this is why it can be dangerous to have a somewhat overactive imagination like mine Sometimes it can be an advantage, other times you just make yourself look silly. See below! 

However, things did not turn out the way I expected, nor the way I had hoped. For little did I know then...that I was heading straight into the world of the unknown and it would shake my very core beliefs and bother my conscience for years to come

I dare you to join me for the next and final instalment of the story. For I disclose all the findings of my investigation.
I will reveal facts that to this day I have never spoken of before.

NOTE. I did not intend this to have 3 parts to this story. I am literally writing this as I go and I did not count on it being so long. Forgive me, there is so much to tell. All I can say is that this was a rather big event in my life and the outcome was....well perhaps historical. And as such, I do not think it deserves to be treated likely.

However, just before I leave it there. I would just like to mention a thank you to a @eric-boucher for pointing out a strange irregularity in one of the pictures in the first post.
I honestly only spotted the anomaly myself when I uploaded it off my old camera.
It had been just stored there for years and I had not really looked at it in any real detail. I swear I have not altered or tampered with it in any way or form.
Here is a close up. Weird !

Thanks for visiting, reading and taking the time to come back for the second half of the adventure.
Welcome back for the final chapter!