Re: Another one of my weird little stories
Got your cuppa or glass of wine at the ready? Because this is a flippin Saga nightmare taleI i hope you won’t mind me sharing it with you. Anyhow. Here goes for anyone who wants to read it.
I’ll start by stating I don’t like to feel scared so never ever watch Horror, Slasher or Ghost Movies or even read about them. (except Ghost with Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopie Goldberg, as that was a lovely RomCom and was first assured by others it wasn’t scary.)
There has only ever been one time in my life that I have ever felt so frightened as I did. (apologies to those posters who may have read this before a few years ago).
My nightmare was so scary that I still remember it today,50 years later. It was 1970 and I was in the WRAF stationed just outside of London at RAF Stanmore Park. I had recently been promoted and was really pleased that I now had my own private little room right next to the main WRAF block entrance. I say pleased because for the past three years I had shared a room with three other girls, great fun but there comes a time in one’s life when you yearn for some privacy, with my own key and my own space, and without anyone borrowing my clothes!! So I was revelling in my new-found freedom from the others.
Anyway, This one evening, I had been into London with my then current boyfriend,
He came back on the tube train with me and walked me through Stanmore and up to the two entrances to the Camp.(One via the main entrance with guardroom and the other a small side gate). Security was a joke back then!
So, it was a choice of coming through the main entrance where I would be stopped by the duty airman or woman and have to show my pass, then walk the length of the camp down to the WRAF block, or….. Sneaking in through a small iron gate at the bottom end of the camp near the WRAF block, through a small woodland that brought me out directly at the side of the WRAF block.
As the main entrance was the other end of the Camp it was an easy choice. The side gate it was for me and almost every other girl going out and returning. Present boyfriend offered to walk me back to the block but it was 11.30pm by then and I didn’t like the thought that he. being a civvie, would be walking around the camp at that time of night without first having permission from the Guardhouse, so I politely declined, said goodnight and walked happily through the gate. It was only when I was on my own walking through what was a pitch black woodland that I began to regret not letting him walk me through there, but there we were, I had no choice but to walk on until I would see the lamppost lights and the welcoming sight of the WRAF block. It was really dark among those trees though, so I started humming a song out loud just to break the silence. It didn’t help that it was a bit breezy and the leaves on the trees were all rustling. God, for no reason, I was nervous.
All of a sudden, about two thirds through, there was the most horrific sound of a really loud scream or screech. OMG, forgive the expression, but it’s really true when people say ‘’they nearly wet themselves with fright!’’ because I was so frightened by that sound that my feet took wings. I ran so fast, didn’t once look back and was so relieved to reach the front door of the WRAF block and rush into the warmth and comforting bright neon lights of the corridor.and right outside my door. I quickly unlocked it, went in, locked it quickly again and sat on the bed to get my breath back/. I vowed there and then I wouldn’t be taking that short-cut at night ever again. I just couldn’t get the sound of that scream out of my head.
Anyway, after calming down, I went to one of the bathrooms. By this time it was gone midnight and it was deathly quiet on both floors. Although I knew I had double checked the front doors to ensure they were locked I still felt unnerved. There wasn’t a flippin soul around when I needed company as I was still thinking about that awful scream. I was even feeling a bit nervous walking back to my room and wishing for the first time that I hadn’t been so pleased to have a room to myself when I would rather have been with my friends sharing a room.
Now I have to mention that earlier that morning, I had been in the television room reading a magazine. One of the articles in there was a true but horrific account of a mass murder that had taken place in America. It was all about a maniac that had gained entrance to a student nursing residence where 8 young nurses were fast asleep in a dorm room, 4 beds to each side. The story went on to say that he went to the first bed on the left and stabbed the young sleeping nurse to death, then he went to the first bed on the right and did the same as he went, left, right, left right, I then read on that the nurse on the furthest bed on the left woke up, saw what was happening and slinked out of the furthest side of her bed, hiding underneath it. Anyway, he slay all the others and disappeared. She was the only survivor. It was a truly horrific story.
Of course, yours truly then falls asleep in her lonely little room, still remembering that awful scream and wouldn’t you know it, had the worst nightmare I have ever had.
I dreamt that that same killer was now in the WRAF block, had killed everyone on the top floor and was on his way down to the ground floor and do the same. In that nightmare was me opening my door, running down the corridor to the last empty room and hiding under the bed, listening in abject fear as he did his foul work.
That was when I woke up! 2.30am in the morning, panic-stricken with fright. It took a couple of minutes for me to realise it was just a dreadful nightmare. But by this time, I was feeling more like a helpless child than a member of Her Majesty’s armed forces!! I felt terrified of being on my own but equally frightened of having to venture out into the corridor with it’s now dimmed lights, but I knew I had to in order to get to the only place I could to feel safe, in my old room with my empty bed made up and the company of my three friends.
There was of course, always a Duty WRAF who had to remain awake, but I wasn’t going to let her know what a cowardly idiot I was at that moment.. Still, I wasn’t even thinking rationally .( I wouldn’t have minded but I had only had one glass of wine and one lemon and lime earlier in the evening! So it definitely couldn’t be blamed for my night terror.).
I was convinced that I had had a premonition of something that was going to happen. If I was going to be murdered in my sleep, I was determined I was not going to be on my own. So, I took a deep breath and forgot to exhale as I first unlocked my door then locked it again after me.. It was only as I hurried down the corridor to my old room that I remembered to breathe out before I passed out!
I cannot explain the sheer feeling of relief at reaching that room, seeing my friends waking from their sleep (and not murdered) as I entered, My pathetic excuse for waking them with ‘’Sorry girls, it’s only me, missed your company so sleeping here tonight’’ didn’t bother me at all that I had disturbed all three of them at 2.45 am in the morning. I felt happy and safe. And my old bed was right by the window and furthest from the door!
I soon fell asleep again.
Needless to say, I felt a complete idiot the following morning, I just told my friends that I had had a nightmare and was a bit spooked so needed some company. They didn’t ask questions thankfully, and just accepted it.
All I can think is that the scream in the woodland must have been some animal being caught by another, and that flippin horror article about the slain student nurses brought on my nightmare. I really don’t ever wish to experience anything like that ever again, hence I keep well away from Horror, Slasher and Ghost stories and films and true murder stories.
NO THANK YOU!,