31 Days of Halloween with The Kelly Society Day 10 - Roger Lauden
31 Days of Halloween with
The Kelly Society
Day 10
I know everyone has been sharing some fun stories here, but I have to type in a very spooky thing which happened to me and my wife Donna. By the way, this is Roger Lauden (aka Ichabod Crane) come Halloween night. We are friends of Vivien and Neal’s, and Vivien always likes to refer to me as the engineer turned metaphysical book owner. However, when one owns a refurbished Victorian house, the engineering skills come in handy.
About six weeks ago I decided to clean up the basement. I’d done it before when we moved in, but I figured it was about time for another sweep. Also, Halloween and the Holiday seasons are coming up (the busiest times for our store Luna Books) and I wanted to get a jump on organizing our space. As I moved boxes and chairs out of the way I found a large framed picture leaning against the wall. It was about two feet by three feet and held a black and white photograph of a woman lying down with her eyes closed dead center. The woman looked like she was asleep. Red candles halfway dripped down surrounding the photograph, all under glass. Whoever created this did not do so with good intent. My wife is much more intuitive than I, but even my sensitivities connected to darkness and evil wishes.
Immediately I wanted it out of our house, so I grabbed the frame and hauled it up the stairs. Something pushed me from behind and I almost fell six feet to the concrete floor. Luckily, I hung onto the railing with one hand. Once I reached our office, I showed it to Donna and she almost screamed. In the next second she had Vivien on the phone.
Donna and Vivien took the picture out to a nearby meadow and within a circle of salt, they did one of Vivien’s banishment Celtic Triad chants and dismantled the picture. It only took about twenty minutes. When they came back, I got the backstory. In 1900, one of the owners of our home practiced the dark arts and fancied herself a witch. A step-sister named Wendy came to visit, whom she hated, and the woman (who called herself Raven) put a curse on her. After taking a photograph, Raven placed Wendy’s picture into the frame, installed red candles, and once Wendy passed away years later, her spirit became trapped inside the picture.
The ghost of Raven tried to push me off the stairs. That’s what Vivien told me. Raven had been fairly dormant until we found the painting. I asked Vivien why we hadn’t discovered the portrait before, and she said because Raven kept moving it out of our eyesight.
Vivien banished Raven’s ghost back into the shadow world, and released Wendy’s spirit to the light. So, there is a happy ending, even if it is over a century later!
Have a safe and creative Halloween all!
Roger
for TKS
