Francis

This is kind of a continuation of The Man in my Bed. Just to recap from last time, I had a near-death experience when I was 14; since a few months before, there was about 6 good spirits who were frequently around me, as well as some bad entities from time to time. The group of spirits often "trained" me; I would do lots of crazy martial arts or soar close to the earth or use my mind to harm entities in my dreams. (It was really fun!)

A month after the near-death experience I moved from the old farmhouse to a suburb of Toronto. For 6 months the spirits weren't around me, but then they slowly started reappearing in my life. I communicated with them like before but tried to balance it with being a "normal" teenager.

One day at my new high school, I noticed a guy following me. There was something strange about him. I went into the bathroom and when I came out my friend told me that the guy asked him about me and wanted to talk to me. So I approached him and he seemed normal, but I got strange vibes from him, as if he was into the paranormal too (I'm sure you guys know what I mean, how sometimes you can "recognize" one of your own!)

The first week he just talked about computers and school, but then talk shifted to ghosts. I knew it! He could also communicate with ghosts. As a sidenote, 2 months earlier his best friend died from a brain tumour; he was buried in the graveyard around the corner from my house so sometimes me, him (Francis), and his group of friends (who were the sweetest people, and had no idea about our interest in ghosts) went there to visit his grave.

Sometimes I would wonder if I was crazy; sure, we'd all experience things: stuff moving on its own, or being misplaced in strange positions, hearing noises, doorknobs shaking... But what about "hearing" and "seeing" them? How could I tell if it was real or all in my head? It felt like playing back a memory; you see and hear it in your head, but it feels like its "broadcasted" from outside of me.

I had a walk-in closet that I called my Ouija Room. We put a ouija board, a fake human skull, and gravestone-shaped candles on an old antique treasure chest, posters of 36 Mafia or Bone Thugs (who we always listened to because we could relate to their stories about spirits) and fake spider webs around the room. We would sometimes sit in there and meditate or contact spirits. I was used to communicating with ghosts by telepathy so that even if I was in a conversation with a living person, they wouldn't know that I was also talking to a ghost.

I noticed a regular spirit, about 12 years old called "Smalls" was acting scared because of a woman spirit he didn't know. Suddenly Francis said "your friend seems scared of that woman." THAT was when I knew for sure it wasn't all in my head. He described to me exactly what I saw and heard.

Another time our friends went by the lake to relax. I wandered off alone and was thinking of mermaids; wouldn't it be nice if they were real, I thought. He walked up to me and looked at the water. He said, "They're real, you know."

In the meantime, I still kept getting dreams about Keith but he was always different from the other spirits. I could call on any of my spirits at any time and they would come, but not him. Usually in my dreams I was looking for him without any luck, but even when I did find him I could only see the back of him or see him briefly through a crowd, or there would be a glass wall between us. More than dreams of him, I have been dreaming of the same shopping mall since I was a child. I'm almost always running around looking for him. Maybe 3 times in 10 years (having at least one dream every 2 months) I talked to him. When I did he said he loved me, and wonders if we can be together when I die. Another time he gave me a teddybear and told me he wants to see me as an old grandmother with lots of kids. The first time, when I was about 15, he showed me how to cook some grapefruit.

Something was different about him. I just felt a really strong longing and connection with him. I couldn't do anything about it though, I wanted to search for his grave or relatives but didn't know where to start, I had no money for travel or a private investigator. I needed closure but there was nothing I could do, so in the meanwhile...

Francis was creeping me out. I had a dream that a white cat was at our back door, and my sister let it in. It came into my room and started talking to me, I forget what it said but it was really suspicious and creeped me out. But it felt SO real. The next day at school we were walking down the hallway and I mentioned: "Last night I had a weird dream."

And he continued "about a white cat."

"How did you know?"

"Because that was me."

Well that creeped me out. Plus he wanted to be my boyfriend, even proposed to me in the cemetery one night. But I just didn't have those feelings for him. I had a boyfriend who was living in Florida, and when I tried to call him I would get REALLY nauseous, I had to go outside in the middle of winter to get fresh air. I went to my friends mother who is a "maroon" (descendant of slaves in Jamaica who escaped into the mountains, usually know how to tell fortunes and whatnot). This friend didn't know about Francis; when I got my reading she said my best friend has a voodoo doll of me and my boyfriend. She told me how to break the spell, and it worked to an extent but sometimes I still had nightmares that Francis was chasing me. Creepy!