OTHERPLANE

     I personally have never heard of a ghost who can manipulate storms. That’s why it was a shocking experience. My friend and I were on our way home after getting a few horror movies from the video store, when we saw lightning in some clouds not far off. It looked exciting, so we stopped at a playground to watch them until the rain came. After looking at options of movies such as the ‘Poltergeist’ back at the store, I mentioned how it would be creepy if we saw a ghost that night, what with the storm and all.

     Pointing out that there was no amount of noticeable wind at the time, as soon as we left the school ground, it started up, slow at first. My friend stopped, and mentioned that she felt like we left something, or someone, back at the park, and that we should go back. At the same time, I felt like the trees and storm ahead of us was pushing us back. Of course, we refused to go back.

     It was weird, and undoubtedly unbelievable, that the wind picked up then. It seemed to be pushing only us, because there was an old man (who I hadn’t seen, but my friend did) and a young girl who didn’t seem to be in much wind. The man was lighting a cigarette, and the flame held. And the little girl’s long hair was barley flapping in the wind. We could barely stand up in the gale force winds, but this man had successfully light a cigarette not ten feet away from us.

     Well, we got to my back alley, which was only a street away, and as soon as we got into it, dust picked up in one whoosh of wind, and we had to close our eyes. Afterwards, we got in the house. We weren’t that panicked. Part of that was because my family doesn’t believe in ghosts, and they would have laughed at this story.

     Anyways; after we had safely arrived at my father’s house, we realized that her sleepover supplies was at my mother’s house, which is located roughly two blocks away from my father’s house. We decided that we had to go before the storm got any worse. It was raining by then. After two blocks we were across the street from my mother’s house, and then, as soon as we stepped out of the shelter of the trees the wind came hard, and the rain felt like sharp rocks (we had on shorts because that day because the weather had been just fine when we’d started walking to the movie store). We had started out across the street, when the wind picked up so viciously, that the umbrella we were carrying was almost ripped out of our hands. Not knowing what else to do, we ran back to the tree. We decided that we would have to go with the umbrella closed, and then we started out across the street again. After the first few steps, the wind became so strong; we had trouble keeping our balance. My legs felt like I was having needles jabbed into them the rain was hitting us so hard. My friend couldn’t keep her eyes open because of the dust being blown around by the wind. We ran as hard as we could, but were still blown off course by the wind. We made it to the door remarkably soaked for only a few seconds without the umbrella.

     After getting my friends bag, we put it in a garbage bag to keep it dry, and then we ran back. It was going better until we got into my dads back alley. We had to run hard to manage the wind. My friend called for me to give her my hand, and I had to jump towards her, and managed to grab her bicep. We eventually did make it to my back yard. As soon as we passed the tree in my yard, I felt something was heading towards us. I thought it might be my imagination, but just before the door I felt really scared, and I yelled ‘Go go!” to my friend as she yelled, “Get in! Get in!” Later, we both mentioned that it felt like something was slowly walking towards us, as if it knew it had us.

     We jumped inside and pretended to my dad that it was just the storm that frightened us. We went upstairs, and into the kitchen. I, stupidly, went over to the balcony door to see if anything was still out there. I had opened it, and was just placing my foot out when I froze. At the same time my friend said “Something’s down there.” I have no idea what I would have done if she hadn’t been there, because I don’t think I would’ve been able to move if she hadn’t said anything. Anyways, I closed the door and we scrambled back to the counters. We worked on getting our snacks, and kept glancing to the balcony door until it felt less strong. After about a minute, I froze, and my friend noticed it. There was almost certainly something outside of the window in front of me. I mentioned, unnecessarily, that I didn’t think it was at the balcony anymore.

     Sleeping downstairs in the basement seemed a little creepy, so we decided to sleep on the pullout couch in the upstairs living room. Unfortunately, this was right in-between the balcony door, and the window that I had felt the presence at. We tried to sleep, but every time I closed my eyes I got scared (yes, I’m a wuss). Eventually, my friend started nervous laughter at something that really wasn’t very funny. She seemed a little hysterical.

     I know this all sounds ridiculous, but it was a very frightening experience for us. We spent all night watching ‘Indiana Jones’ until it was light out.