Haunted: Scariest stories from the UK's no. 1 psychic. Derek Acorah

closed my eyes to absorb the love of my mother.

      After a few moments, I felt her fading away. I opened my eyes once more, to see no more than a mere wisp of her ethereal body before she disappeared completely.

      A great disappointment filled my being. Then I heard Sam’s voice telling me that I could not be selfish. My mother was now in the heavenly state. She had many things to do. ‘She will visit you when she can, as does your father Fred, your grandmother and all the other people who have passed from your family,’ he told me.

      I had already learned that this is exactly what happens. When people pass over to the higher side of life, once they have recovered from their passing they are allowed to experience many things. I could not delay my mother’s progress by drawing her to me constantly with my prayers. She had my brothers and sisters and other family members to visit and there were people on the higher side of life that she would want to spend time with. Knowing my mother, there would also be a wealth of places she would wish to visit and experiences she would want to undergo before she incarnated into her next physical life.

      I lay back in my bed. Once again I felt the peace and happiness that I had experienced almost 24 hours previously. I had never doubted that my mother was safe, well and with her loved ones in the spirit world, but I had craved to see her. My wish had been fulfilled, but I still could not wait until the next time my dearest mum came to call.

       CHAPTER THREE

       One Night in Blackpool

      I had appeared at the Grand Opera House in Blackpool. After a theatre demonstration it is my practice to stay behind to sign autographs and have chats with the audience members who care to stay. On these occasions people will often approach me with fascinating tales of their experiences with the paranormal.

      On this particular evening a lady who introduced herself as Margaret came up to me and told me that her whole family was being terrorized by something that was in their home. She explained that whatever it was had been there ever since she and her family had moved into the property, close on eight years previously. She told me that she was afraid and actually broke down and sobbed as she asked me whether I could help her. She pleaded with me to visit her home and attempt to remove what she described as an ‘evil monster’.

      I could tell immediately that Margaret was not the type of person who would exaggerate a situation, so I arranged to go to her home the following day.

      I arrived shortly after breakfast time. I walked up the pathway slowly, appraising the house as I went. Arriving at the front door, I rang the bell. The door was opened by a man who said, ‘Hello, Derek. I’m Andy, Margaret’s husband. Please come in.’

      I followed Andy through the hallway of the house and into a small but comfortable lounge, where Margaret was waiting. She invited me to sit down and offered me a hot drink.

      As we sat there I noticed that Andy seemed to be very anxious and nervous. It didn’t take long before he started talking about his and Margaret’s experiences in the house. They had been hearing noises and small items such as car keys had been moved around their home, causing minor irritations. They had also been aware of unpleasant odours and had thought that they had a drains problem.

      As Andy was speaking, I became aware of Sam standing next to me. I noticed that his presence was very strong, far more so than it would be on just a normal visit to the house of a person with a question of a spiritual nature. Intrigued by this, I opened myself up to the energies surrounding us in the room.

      As I did so, I began to feel quite uncomfortable. I noticed a terrible smell, a vile stench, was beginning to permeate the air around us.

      Margaret seemed aware of it too. She wrinkled her nose and asked nervously, ‘Can you smell that, Derek? It happens all the time. This isn’t my imagination, is it?’

      I quickly reassured her that it wasn’t her imagination at all. I asked her how often this happened and how long the smell remained before it subsided.

      Andy answered nervously, ‘About ten minutes.’

      As the noxious stink spread throughout the room I noticed that the temperature had dropped rapidly. It was almost as though the front door had been left open on a very cold winter’s day.

      Suddenly we heard a noise. Bang! Bang! Bang! It appeared to be coming from the ceiling above us.

      Margaret jumped up and grasped Andy’s hand. ‘Listen to that, Derek … and it gets worse too,’ she whispered.

      Bang, bang, bang came the noise again. It sounded almost as though someone was coming down the staircase but stamping their feet on each stair.

      The noise stopped abruptly, but a moment or two later the lounge door flew open. For a few moments all was quiet, but then I became aware of a whooshing, swirling sound. Immediately afterwards I detected a male voice, barely audible to begin with but gravelly in tone. The disembodied voice gathered strength until I could hear that filthy words were being hurled into the air around us from the area around the open doorway.

      Then, without any warning whatsoever, the door suddenly slammed shut. Everything went quiet and the atmosphere settled.

      Margaret and Andy looked petrified and exhausted. I told them that the spirit energy in their home was a very troubled soul and that in order to discover why it was there, I would try to communicate with it.

      I asked Margaret whether I could have a short walk around the house. She agreed, but told me that she did not want to accompany me upstairs.

      ‘I haven’t slept upstairs, nor has Andy, for the last eight months, especially after “that night”,’ she told me.

      I asked her what she meant by ‘that night’.

      ‘You tell him, Andy,’ she said, ‘because I just can’t bring myself to talk about it.’

      Andy began the story. He said that Margaret had gone to bed very early one evening because she had been suffering from tonsillitis. He had been watching television in the lounge when he had suddenly heard her screaming and shouting out. He had jumped up and run up the stairs, wondering what was going on. When he reached the bedroom and opened the door, he said that it felt as though something had flown past him and out of the room. He described it as being ‘like a dark mist’.

      By this time Margaret had jumped out of bed and was cowering by the window, which was wide open. She was crying, the tears streaming down her face. When Andy had put his arms around her, thinking that because of her high temperature she had experienced some sort of nightmare, he had noticed that she was very, very cold indeed. She could not talk and looked petrified.

      Andy explained that he had helped Margaret down to the lounge and made her a cup of tea. She had calmed down then and told him what had happened. He had been amazed.

      ‘I still can’t grasp, even today,’ he told me, ‘how anything like Margaret described could have gone on.’

      Margaret had told Andy that she had been asleep in bed and been woken by the bed shaking and being shifted to a different angle across the room. She had then begun to feel very cold and the air around the bed had appeared to be freezing. She had heard an awful screeching sound and then she had felt as though something was attempting to smother her. The duvet had been dragged off her and she had felt as though something was touching her legs and pulling at her underwear. She said it actually felt as though somebody or something was attempting to rape her.

      As Andy related this story to me, Margaret began to sob quietly to herself. ‘It was real, Derek,’ she told me. ‘I didn’t imagine it.’

      Apparently she had also heard an awful grating voice telling her, ‘I want you! I will get you!’

      I