Halloween Haunts: Edinburgh Terror by Denise A. Agnew

While I’ve been published in the romance genre for many years, this year I’ve turned my attention more toward the horror genre. I was thrilled to hear HWA was doing this Halloween blog event and knew I had to contribute.

All my life I’ve been interested in the paranormal, and I’ve had a few strange things happen to me from the time I was a child that I might classify as strange and/or paranormal. I’m a skeptical believer. I am also an empath with some clairvoyant/clairsentient abilities, so I frequently pick up people’s feelings. I’m also a paranormal investigator. I’m not easily spooked when it comes to the paranormal, and when I go into an investigation I try to look at everything with a combination of reasonable skepticism and an open mind. I’ve gone into locations (whether on an investigation or not), and been able to feel strange vibes about a place. Yet I’ve only been in one place that truly scared me. So much so I wanted to run.

This event took place in the mid 1990’s. My husband was in the U.S. Army at the time, and we’d transferred to England for three years. One winter we headed to Edinburgh, Scotland for New Year’s Eve. The night before New Year’s Eve we took a ghost tour to the South Bridge Tunnels.

About thirty of us gathered in a central meeting place for the tour. Naturally it was pretty cold, so we were bundled up. Our guide was a middle-aged gentlemen dressed in a dark cape and top hat reminiscent of the Victorian era. Our tour included traipsing down some dark alleys before we arrived at our destination. We came to the entrance of an old building that was being refurbished. Now I wasn’t afraid of descending into vaguely lit holes in the ground like dungeons. I’d done that before with no problem. This place was not like anywhere I’d been in before.

After the guide opened the main door, he tried flipping the light switch but nothing happened. I don’t know if that was set up on purpose for the tour. The guide began lighting candles and putting them on each stair so that we could see our way down. We had to creep slowly because of poor visibility. We descended the spiral stone staircase and came into an area lit only by a few more candles. This underground chamber of horrors is part of the old city going back to medieval times. Some history says during a time of bubonic plague exits were blocked so sick people couldn’t escape.

The guide told us stories as he led us into chamber after chamber, each place only illuminated by candles. I was enjoying his over-the-top theatrical way of telling ghost stories. I was fine until we reached an area that used to be part of a wine cellar. Everything changed for me in a blink of an eye.

Soon I realized I wasn’t listening to what he was saying at all. I was too absorbed in my mental meanderings and my surroundings and the fact that I was suddenly gut-churning nervous and prickly hyperaware.  I just wanted us to be out of there. The feeling got worse. Much, much worse. Even though it was very cold, I started to feel hot and my palms began to sweat. Dread and apprehension overwhelmed me until I couldn’t wait to escape. Now I’m a very self-contained person. Despite the fact that I was petrified, there was no way I’d show it. The idea of running obsessed me. A mantra ran through my head which said, “let me out, let me out, let me out.” Now this is going to sound weird, but it was almost as if it was a voice other than my own shouting those words inside my mind, “Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!” I couldn’t believe how I felt and it disturbed me like nothing else I’d ever experienced. I’d never had a panic attack and this felt like panic on steroids.

I don’t recall now how long we stood in that room, but by the time we left, I realized I hadn’t heard a word the tour guide said about the ghosts or history. If I thought I’d escape the feeling by leaving that room, I was partially right. As soon as we left it, the heavy dread subsided, but I still couldn’t wait to get the hell out of the South Bridge Tunnels. The oppressive atmosphere lay heavily upon me. When the tour ended and we reached topside, the relief was instant. All the panic, the screaming desire to run disappeared. I told my husband about my experience and asked him if he’d felt anything. He hadn’t.

I thought maybe I’d developed claustrophobia, but I was proved wrong. When we visited the wartime tunnels at Dover Castle, which are also underground, I thought the same thing might happen. It didn’t. I visited other underground places in Britain. I never had that feeling of extreme dread again. Not long after the disturbing adventure in Edinburgh, I saw the South Bridge Tunnels profiled on a popular television show about the paranormal and discovered quite a few people had the same experience in the very same room over the years. Since that time I’ve thought about what might have happened to me down in the South Bridge Tunnels. Some have suggested I might have felt the sheer terror or panic of some long dead person. Maybe that terror is etched into the walls, and I picked it up with my empathic abilities. I’ve learned a lot since then about how to protect myself from negativity, so I think I’d be okay if I ever returned. I’ll probably never know what really happened to me down there, but someday I’d like to go back to the South Bridge Tunnels and try again.

Denise A. Agnew is the award-winning author of over 65 novels. Denise’s novels Love From The Ashes and Blackout were recently optioned for film/TV by Where’s Lucy? Productions. Denise’s record proves that with paranormal, time travel, romantic comedy, contemporary, historical, erotic romance, romantic suspense and horror writing under her belt, she enjoys writing about a diverse range of subjects. The fact she has lived in Colorado, Hawaii, and the United Kingdom has given her a lifetime of ideas.  Her experiences with archaeology and archery have crept into her work, as well as numerous travels through the UK and Ireland. Denise lives in Arizona with her husband and a Mini Schnauzer. Denise is also a paranormal investigator, Reiki Master, Certified Creativity Coach and RT Academy Mentor.  Visit Denise’s websites at www.deniseagnew.com and www.creativepencoaching.com. To hire Denise as a writing mentor visit https://www.rtbookreviews.com/rt-academy. You can find her at Twitter: @DeniseAAgnew and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denise.a.agnew

Nightmares and Echoes III: Charity Anthology

Amazon US: http://ow.ly/MGNm303MvUy
Amazon UK: http://ow.ly/UdrO303Mw2c
Amazon AU: http://ow.ly/CAda303Mw4g
Amazon CA: http://ow.ly/ieYz303Mw8u

It’s time for Volume Three of Nightmares and Echoes, the annual Gorillas With Scissors Press Charity Anthology. This year we’re giving you eleven hand-picked, brand new short stories of horror ranging from the creepy to the gory, to the unsettling. Like previous year’s offerings, this collection spans the gamut of terror contributed from a variety of Indie Writers for the sole purpose of giving something back.  Fifty percent of the proceeds from this collection will be donated to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Not only will you be sampling some awesome horror, but you’ll be helping out a great cause.

Read an excerpt by Denise Agnew from Nightmare Echoes.