A True Ghost Story, Yes Really

This story hasn't got a ghost of a chance that you will believe it, but I know it to be true and that's all the matters.

Had anybody asked me, prior to the following events, if I believed in ghosts I would have replied I believed in the possibility of ghosts.However, I was more than a little cynical. Had I ever truly seen a real ghost? No, absolutely not. All that changed in the Autumn of 2018.

It took place at an old brown stonewall building up in the north of England. I was up there recording my last album, 'Lost and Found', in a local studio and after a long, long day in the recording I wearily made my way to The Old School House BNB all done in for the day.

The Old School House had, as its name suggested, once been the village school house. Now it is a family run bed and breakfast. The atmosphere was cosy and open, and warm and welcoming, with a big walk in fireplace, complete with a log burning live fire. Ideal for a rest after a long day working or walking in this popular trekkers area.

I walked in through the open front door and more or less went straight to bed and fell asleep immediately. It had been yet another long day and in just a few seconds I was fast asleep.

As is the case in older men, at about three thirty in the early hours I woke up to go to the bathroom. As I sleepily padded my way back into the bedroom I felt a slight pang of hunger. I suddenly remembered having a bar of chocolate in my back pack, part of what I liked to call my emergency rations.

I took the Mars bar from my bag and climbed into bed. I sat forward a little and held the bar of chocolate in my left hand. I tore open the top of the wrapper and suddenly……

Out of nowhere, shrouded in an ominous mist, appeared a woman dressed in old style clothing. Behind her mingled one or two males. The woman leaned in towards me to chastise me.

"You know, chocolate is forbidden in school" she reprimanded.

I could hear a small, soft chorus from her companions hovering behind her, looking over her shoulder.

"That's right, it's not allowed in here, put it away."

I took fright and slipped under the covers to hide. Hands touched the top of the linen sheet trying to get at me, or the chocolate. I held the untouched chocolate in my hand until I must have fallen asleep and the bar of chocolate fell beside me.

The next morning when I woke up I could not find the chocolate for the life of me. I went down the creaking, rickety old stairs to breakfast. As I waited for my coffee and hot buttered toast, I chatted with Jane the owner and told her of what had happened. Jane seemed quite unperplexed by my story and in fact corroborated what I had seen with a story of her own.

She told me about how one day her young daughter had told her about seeing a young girl in a white dress skipping down the hallway singing to herself. This made me feel a little calmer as I realised it wasn't just me losing my mind.

Do I believe in ghosts now? Absolutely yes. Did this experience make me afraid. A little, yes. But to be honest I am more afraid of the living than the dead. No ghost has ever done a single bad thing to me, which is more than I can say for the living.