The Ghost-Girl in the Grey Cape

* Sent in by Lucy Coles

My parents separated when I was very young, and I’d often fall asleep in my mother’s bed with the lights on because I hated the dark.  Once I was sound asleep, Mum would carry me to my own bed where I’d generally sleep peacefully till morning.

One night though, I woke up to find myself in my own room, in my own bed, in the dark.  The lights were turned off, but somehow I could see a blonde girl, a little older than myself, standing at the foot of my bed.  It was like she was standing under a spotlight or something because I could see her clearly.  But the rest of the room was dark.  She was wearing a cape or something with a grey hood.  As I sat up on bed, rooted to the spot, I watched as the girl simply vanished.  She just faded away to nothing and the light dimmed as she left.  For some reason, although I was shocked, I wasn’t really all that scared.

I thought straight away that she was a ghost, and at 8 years old, I was young enough to assume that seeing ghosts was normal because it wasn’t the first time for me.  I thought that my bedroom was probably once hers.

I came to accept her visits to my room just about every night, and she became a part of my life.  I felt comforted by her nightly visits and found that I slept more soundly on the nights that she came.

We moved out of that house three years later and I was never visited by the girl in the grey cape again.  I’d never told anyone about her, until last year when my family gathered for my mother’s 50th birthday.  Talk drifted to our history and the places we’d lived in.  I piped up and told my story of my visiting ghost-girl.  My Mum just about choked on her tea, and my older sister Kylie turned white, frozen in shock with her mouth open. Once she regained her voice, Kylie went on to tell us that she would encounter the caped girl-ghost in the bathroom every night while brushing her teeth prior to bedtime.

Then Mum chipped in with her own stories of seeing the ghostly-girl in the kitchen every time she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and grab a drink.

We never discovered who the ghost-girl in the grey cape actually was, and the house has since been demolished and units built in its place.  I sometimes wonder if the girl in the grey cape visits the people who live there now, all these years later.

*
Sent in by Lucy Coles

Ghost Girl

* As told by Melinda

This story happened two decades ago when I was young, single and travelling around Regional Victoria and staying in Youth Hostels.

I took the coastal bus to Port Fairy.  It was a foggy, damp and dismal mid-winter weekend.

I was the only guest that unforgettable Saturday night at the two storey Youth Hostel.  The evening became even more depressing, with freezing cold temperatures and little company after the Warden went home for the night.

There was nothing on the TV so I packed myself up in the very empty 20 bed dorm with a hot water bottle and juicy book.  At about 10.00pm I turned the lights out and the room was completely shrouded in darkness.

I awoke with a start at around Midnight and lay completely still listening in concerned puzzlement to the weird noises which surrounded me.

Initially, it sounded like birds or mice rustling and squeaking, then growing rapidly more agitated akin to a kitten requiring it's mother or the like.

I was a little scared but said my prayers and managed to fall back to sleep again.

The next morning at breakfast The Warden asked whether I had slept well. 
“Yes” I said, “until I was woken up around midnight to strange noises.”

The Warden stopped what she was doing and asked me exactly what I meant.  I explained how the noises reminded me firstly of some small animals scratching and scuttling then of a piteous kitten.
 
The Warden stood stock still and said, "So you heard Her?"

"I beg your pardon" I asked,

The Warden proceeded to tell me this story …

Over a 100 years ago, a little girl was mistakenly imprisoned in her upstairs Nursery.  Somehow there was a miscommunication between her parents and governess.  They both forgot about her and went on separate extended trips. Sadly, she was discovered weeks later, when her parents arrived home again.

“You're especially lucky,” The Warden said, “you're the first one she has made contact with in many a long night.”

I gulped, swallowed and said, "Thankyou, I think?"

Needless to say, I caught the next bus home. I wasn't feeling that special!


* As told by Melinda