‘There was a clearing, which was odd because pine forest and all, that we kids all knew as ‘haunted’ in the way kids often know these things. One day, we decided to brave the clearing. It was oddly desolate, all yellowing, dying grass and decaying trees, except for a solitary sunflower-type plant. It was almost as tall as us kids, and the only bright spot in the clearing. So, we touched it. And then ran screaming. I’m still not entirely sure what happened other than noises and an impression. But it stuck. I would walk through the clearing alone sometimes and never saw the lonely sunflower again, though I’d hear something and see something just out of the corner of my eye. Since then, I usually have some sort of house elemental that disappears things from their spots or keeps the dust down when I haven’t had time. And I know when they leave because there’s this sense of loneliness that descends, like when you haven’t heard from good friends in a while.’ ‘Fairies, no; only that it had a reputation for being ‘off.’’ Fairies are ‘the elder beings here before us’. ‘I’ve heard a banshee once, at night. It was very unsettling. I thought it might have been wind or snatches of someone’s music, but a neighbor passed away shortly after.’
§734
Georgia, US
1980s
Female: Age 0-10
occasional supernatural experiences
in woodland
6 pm-9 pm
less than a minute
on my own
you were very sad
mischievous
loss of sense of time, profound silence before the experience, hair prickling or tingling before or during the experience, unusually clouded memories of the experience, a sense that the experience marked a turning point in your life