Chapter 8

The Strange Lights

I had lived in this house for about ten years before I began to believe the local stories about it being haunted. At first, I only noticed small odd things that made me wonder. As time passed, I often felt someone was in the empty rooms and hallways, although I couldn’t see anything. 

It took a long time before I saw something truly not normal. This didn’t happen on Halloween, when ghost stories are common. If I were making up a story to scare people, I might have picked that date. But I’m writing about something that really happened to me, not creating a story for fun.

The strange event happened just after midnight on January 21st. I was in my study reading a book, as I often do late at night. My dog Pepper was sleeping quietly near my chair. Without warning, the flames of the two candles in my room got smaller, then turned a bright green color. I looked up quickly from my book. Then the flames changed to a deep red color, filling the whole room with a strange, dark red light. This unusual light made the shadows behind the furniture look very dark and made it seem like red paint was covering the walls and furniture. 

I heard a soft crying sound from the floor. Something was pushing against my legs—it was Pepper, trying to hide under my long coat. This worried me because Pepper is normally a very brave dog! I think it was my dog’s fear that first made me truly afraid. 

The changing candle lights had surprised me, and at first I thought there might be some bad gas in the room. But the candles were still burning well, so that couldn’t be the reason. I sat very still, too scared to move. 

Not knowing what to do, I simply waited and watched. For about a minute, I looked around the room carefully. Then I noticed the red light was getting weaker. The light got smaller into tiny red dots, like small red stars floating in the darkness. As I kept watching, my fear slowly changed to a strange calm feeling, almost as if I were in a dream.