N I G H T B R I N G E R . S E
|
THE SPECTER THAT STALKS CREECH HILL
Creech Hill, near Bruton in Somerset, England, was once the site of an ancient Romano-Celtic temple where, in the late eighteenth century, amateur archaelogists uncovered two crossed skeletons, though to be those of a Norman and a Saxon. Apparently the scene of brutal confrontations long ago, the area is also said to have a long history of hauntings. A number of people traveling at night over the hill or near it have reported the sounds of heavy footsteps and strange laughter, and some have told seeing a black ghostly shape.
One night, it is said, a farmer returning from a nearby market stumbled upon a figure lying by the road at the foot of Creech Hill. Suddenly the figure rose to a commanding height and let out a bone-chilling shriek. The terrified farmer fled for home, with the dark specter close on his heels. When he burst through his front door and collapsed across the threshold, his stunned wife caught a glimpse of a long black figure bounding away in the direction of Creech Hill, laughing crazily.
In yet another account of the Creech Hill phantom, a man, armed with a lantern and a stout hazel stick, ventured across the hill one night to keep an urgent appointment. Halfway through the his journey, he encountered a deadly coldness, and then something tall and black rose up from the ground before him. Startled, the man struck out at the hideous shape, but the stick passed right through it; he tried to flee but found himself rooted to the spot. Peals of maniacal laughter deafened the traveler as he swung wildly at his tormentor again and again. Not until the first light of dawn appeared did the apparition vanish, leaving its victim free to move once more.
|
