Halloween Haunts: Hounded by the Dead
By Heddy Johannesen
The supernatural is the last unexplored frontier, as mysterious as the Marianas Trench. The realm of the dead is challenging to explore. One would have to die and then come back to life to be able to report on it. I had a unique experience in my life. The supernatural haunted me, whether I liked it or not.
When I was a child in grade school, some mean kids convinced me that Bloody Mary haunted the third stall in the girls’ bathroom. Something was off about that whole red brick school building. I dreaded being there. Was it haunted? Was I tapping into my clairvoyant skills at that young age, but not aware that I was? What was with that huge black spot on the floor that looked like it could swallow me whole – and maybe feed me to Bloody Mary. For many years, I avoided the third stall like the Covid plague. Then I got over it.
When I was a bit older in middle grade school, my friends peer-pressured me into watching Poltergeist. Innocent Carol Anne was being whisked into a hellish dimension, and that horrific tree bled into my psyche deeply. A dark, disturbing magic spell was cast on me when I watched that movie. I have never felt the same way about clowns, bare trees in winter and closets since that movie. There is something odd about trees in the wintertime.
When I was an adult in my twenties, the supernatural continued its pursuit of me. I always like to say that spirit found me; I was not searching for spirit. I washed dishes in the kitchen one night. I was at home with my family when I was overcome by powerful emotions. I had the intense feeling of something strongly kicking me in the stomach. I felt intense pain and had a vision of Thompson, my brother’s friend, bent over in pain and surrounded by a red and orange glow or light. I then had a powerful sense that he was in deep trouble. I knew with complete certainty that Thompson was sick, but I couldn’t explain how I knew. 15 minutes later, Thompson arrived ill and in pain, as I had envisioned him to be. His kidneys had failed him. His father would not take him to the hospital, but his mother came, and the four of them (Mom, Jesse, Thompson, and his mother all went to the hospital together.) I now know it was intuition and spirit that told me what I had to know. I was feeling the pain that Thompson was experiencing as he approached the house where I lived.
When my aunt passed, I sensed a presence behind me that night. When my grandfather passed, I sensed he was at peace. I have sensed presences at the haunted Five Fishermen Restaurant and at the Citadel Hill Ghost Tour.
During the time I lived there on Williams Street in the Victorian home, I was the only one of four siblings who REFUSED to live in the attic. Yup. No way. I sensed a presence that didn’t want me there. What was unfair about the whole ordeal was that the presence was okay with my siblings being up there. Nothing could get me to go up to the attic. Sometimes I saw orbs floating around the fireplace and the mantle. They resembled green or black orbs of light.
One night, I experienced something truly terrifying. I am a believer in spirits and ghosts because I have witnessed them with my own eyes. I watched a movie about the Marquis de Sade alone in the dark one night. My family was in bed. It was late, so I turned off the movie. I was tired and sat in the dark. I envisioned a presence hovering behind the couch in my psychic’s mind’s eye, watching me. I knew what was waiting for me as an army of ants raced up my spine. I turned, though I didn’t have to, and looked. Sure enough, a black shadow watched me. Its gaze bore into my soul. I left the couch and was heading for the hall and the stairs to go to my bedroom. The earthbound spirit did the same. I felt dread, as if my breath had left me. It continued to watch me creepily. That was enough for me. I ran up the staircase. As I made my way up the steps, I felt an army of ants crawling up my neck. It felt like something was trying to stop me from getting up the steps. My limbs felt like lead. I reached the next floor, and though I was an adult by then, I remained in my Mom’s room for the night.
One night, I was also in the living room watching television. I glanced for a second at the fireplace. A green misty orb floated over it. The orb was so creepy.
I attended a séance once where we channelled spirits. I did not know I channelled a male earthbound ghost. The others told me that after my face went completely black, a man bearing a scar on his face came through me. I do not know who that spirit was and still don’t to this day. Not all entities/ ghosts/ spirits are evil. Some of them need help from the world of the living.
When my pet guinea pig named Twotone died, I sobbed, seated on my bed. To my utter amazement, she appeared to me, looking angelic. I swear I thought I heard harps for the briefest second. I listened to her squeak. She was looking up at me, all colourful and still furry. Then she vanished. I sat on my bed for a long time, waiting for her to reappear. She never did. She may have been saying goodbye.
I have experienced sleep paralysis, portentous dreams, and even frightening nightmares. I’ve sensed that someone would email me before they did. I have sensed who is going to call or when a particular letter will arrive in my mailbox.
I once saw something brown and small appear in my bedroom and crawl under my bed. The spirit I saw was the size of a rat. I can’t explain it. I wish spirits would stick around long enough for me to find out what they want. It is frustrating to see them all the time without ever getting to interact with them.
I like to visit graveyards. I was seated, trying to write, when an oak leaf kept flying over to me. After I bought a coffee from the nearby Tim Hortons and returned, the leaf still came up to me. I figured the leaf was a gift. I kept the leaf gift and placed it in my journal. I leave them offerings, too.
I can’t enter antique shops without suffering headaches. I have to be psychically prepared before I enter an antique shop.
Objects move on their own when I go shopping at the grocery stores. This may be due to kinetic energy. After all these experiences, I have learned to just go with it. It is much easier, like floating with the current of water rather than against it.
I gathered acorns in the local cemetery- where the Titanic victims are buried! I was unaware that I gathered acorns at a grave. I used the acorns to dye muslin. Then I moved. I found the acorns in the moving boxes and decided to return the acorns. I accidentally disturbed that spirit’s rest- and he chased me out of the graveyard. I have returned all the acorns, and I hope that has appeased the spirit. I like to think it did. I did not feel chased out of the cemetery when I left after emptying the jars of acorns near the grave.
The supernatural has made my life more magickal. Yes, there are times I bear the sting of the stigma and cannot discuss it with those who would not understand. I have found the people who do, and that’s what matters. Scott Bower, my late friend, was as interested in the paranormal as I am. He often explored haunted locations and recorded his encounters there. I was sad when he passed. I hope he is haunting me or the places he visited.
I visited Camp Hill Cemetery last April. I strolled through the cemetery, taking photos for the Horror Writers Association newsletter. As I left and passed through the wrought iron gates, I shivered, but not from the cold chill. I shivered because something let go of me, sadly. As I turned to look behind me, I realized no one was there. More chills sluiced through me.
I never force these encounters or experience and I maintain a deep reverence for the dead. I embrace it. I would not change my life for
anything. The supernatural aid me when I used my intuition to help an overstressed female employee at Walmart with a tarot reading, or the cab driver who asked if I sensed anything about his home. I know that not all spirits or ghosts are demons. I know our loved ones and our pets go to a heavenly place when they cross over. If you ask your ancestors for help, they will answer. They are always watching over you.
This Halloween, Samhain, Dia de los Muertos, or whatever or however you choose to celebrate, think of those who have gone on before you. Light a candle at the window, but don’t light the curtains on fire! Carve protective sigils on your pumpkins. Leave an offering to the spirits or your ancestors, such as a plate of food or a glass of wine for your ancestors and late loved ones. Celebrate now. Love now. Phone that person now. Take a new route to work. Once you’re dead, they ain’t gonna call on you. Or if you want to reach out to your long dead relative, text me for a séance.
Heddy Johannesen is a writer of gothic horror and paranormal nonfiction and is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her credits include her novella The Cult of the Spider People: Bone Chillers #1, The Horror Zine, Halloweenthology: Yule Cat Codex, Halloweenthology: Trick or Treat, Polar Borealis, Wax and Wane: A Gathering of Witchy Tales, Ghosts, Spirits and Spectres Volume 2, Handbook of the Dead, Samhain Secrets, One Night in Salem, Feminine Macabre, Paranormal Chronicles and Untimely Frost: Poetry Unthawed. She’s a member of the Horror Writers Association and co-chair of the Horror Writers Association chapter for Atlantic Canada. She has attended the virtual Horror Writers Association annual Convention StokerCon, in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025. She participated in the online From Idea to Finished First Draft Masterclass with Jonathan Maberry in June 2023, the Three Prime Rules of Writing Horror Webinar with Mort Castle in October 2020 and a mentorship with Tim Waggoner. She graduated from a Copy Editing Certification Training at Writer’s Digest University in July 2020 and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary’s University.
Website and Blog: http://theparanormalquill.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://x.com/magicka66
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spiderwitch/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heddy.johannesen
heddyjohannesen@gmail.com
Seventeen-year-old Piper and her boyfriend Cory are held captive by horrifying spider cryptids in the savage dimension of Arachnall.
The Spider King tries to seduce her into ruling with him as his queen and makes Cory a soulless slave.
Piper must make an impossible choice: help the beleaguered Spider Queen dethrone the Spider King and escape or become one of the bloodthirsty monsters.