I can remember the evening as clearly as if it were yesterday. At the time I was working as a telephone canvasser and didn't finish until 8pm. It was a night in August 1987, the tail end of summer, and the night was warm as I made my way home. My parents were away on holiday and I had the house to myself. I was loving the independence and looked forward to getting home and watching 'Footloose' on video.
I arrived home at around 9pm and immediately noticed that it felt extremely cold in the house. I didn't pay too much attention to this at first, but with it being fairly warm outside the drop on temperature was noticeable. I went into the kitchen and popped a microwave meal in to cook then went back to the lounge and switched on the TV, getting the video ready to watch.
The microwave pinged and I collected my meal, but just before I settled down I again noticed how cold it was in the room. I decided to put the gas fire on for a few minutes to take the chill away.
I sat down and started to eat, but very quickly began to feel uneasy. The feeling grew and grew to an overwhelming feeling of what I can only describe as malevolence. Although I could not see anybody, or anything else in the room, I knew I was not alone. Without a shadow of exaggeration I felt 'hatred', as though - whatever it was - absolutely wanted to do me harm. The room had become colder than before and I remember sitting in the chair utterly terrified.
I could not move - whether it was fear that made me unable to get up out of the chair, or something else preventing me, I cannot say, but I sat there as though I were glued to the chair, like I was pinned down. I couldn't move a muscle. I remember crying, I was so scared.
The fire was on full, but the room remained freezing cold. And so this went on until the video ended and rewound. Finding I still had the remote in my hand I realised that - despite still being unable to get out of the chair - I could still move my fingers. Whether it was defiance, or simply relief I could move something - I did a bizarre thing and pressed play. Footloose ran again. I wasn't watching the film, I was far too preoccupied with terror to take any of it in. This happened another two times so as you can imagine several hours had gone by by now.
At some point during this last playing the feeling lifted. Whatever had pinned me down suddenly set me free. I leapt to my feet and was almost bowled back over by the heat from the fire which I could suddenly feel. It was as though the heat had been held back by something then suddenly released. The room was like a furnace. As fast as I could I left the house, fire and video as they were and got straight into my car. I drove at speed to a friend's house and spent the night there. There I stayed until my parents returned.
We had lived at the property on Hollybush Avenue since it had been built in 1983. Up until that terrifying night there hadn't been any unexplained happenings, and there were never any others afterwards. Perhaps it was a malevolent spirit passing through. Who can tell? Why it chose my house is anyone's guess, but even today I steer clear of Hollybush Avenue and I have never watched the film Footloose since.
