Spooky Times in Exeter - An omnipresent Evil?
This is going back a few years, so I can't remember exact dates and times.
Between 1999 and 2003 I was studying at the University of Exeter, Devon, England. In my second year I got a new flat mate who had a part time job at a local pub (The Red Cow, now demolished) which was very old and reported to be haunted. I became good friends with my new flat mate and started drinking at the Red Cow as well. Although I've always had a keen interest in the paranormal and was aware of the pubs reputation I never felt anything 'spiritual' while in the pub myself.
One evening I chose to get on with an assignment, rather than go drinking. I remember our apartment was very empty that night and I felt quite unsettled. With the work done and no one else in the flat I had an early night. I've never been able to fall asleep quickly and always spend time just lying in bed with my own thoughts waiting for sleep to come. This night was no different, but for the first time since childhood my thoughts turned to 'what hides in the dark' and 'things that go bump in the night'. It wasn't long before I was actually scared, and a little while after that I decided to open my door and let the light in from the hallway outside my room. Feeling quite ridiculous, I went back to bed. Five minutes later my flat mate came home from his shift at the pub, saw my door was open, assumed I was still up and said, quite loudly, "There's something really strange going on tonight... You believe in ghosts, don't you?" At that moment came the strange onset of two emotions; terror that something spooky really was happening and relief that I was no longer alone. I said "It has been a strange night, what's happened to you? I didn't expect you back for a while - you usually have a lock-in".
My flat mate started to tell me his account of events he had witnessed that evening. The bar staff and regulars had all been feeling quite lethargic and it had been a quiet night at the pub - not unusual for a week-night - but was unusual was lots of new people coming to a drink at the pub, and all leaving very quickly. Towards the end of the night the pub landlord was sitting at one end of the bar when he felt, what he thought was his girlfriend, stroke his back. A moment later she appeared from the other end of the bar and the landlord, wondering who had touched him, turned to see who was behind him and was startled to find no one there. At that moment one of the customers became incredibly cold, put the hood of his sweat-shirt up and huddled up in his seat, when questioned he said he didn't feel very well and that all of a sudden had become very cold, and terrified of 'something'. Minutes later my flat mate decided to walk home, he reported a very silent, still dark night.
The walk home from the pub leads through some dark alley ways at first, and then a long a main road, with the university campus on one side and a wooded valley on the other. The whole way home he felt that there was someone/something following and watching him. He saw no one. A hundred yards further up the road he saw a woman walking on the other side of the road a fair way in front of him. A minute or so later she just started running, as if very scared and something was giving chase. When my flat mate reached the same point on the road, the terror become too much for him too and he started to run home. On nearing home my flat mate called one of his friends who he knew to be a devout Christian, the call was made to a land-line phone that did not have 'caller display', yet he knew who was calling and answered the phone "Hey, [name], what's wrong?". His friend comforted my flat mate for the remainder of the walk home.
After hearing this story we stayed up and chatted for a while to try to take our minds off the strange evening we had had. We had both sensed a huge evil presence over the town that night, and we weren't the only two.
The next day when I went to my lectures there were several groups of people all talking about what a startling evening they had had. Some had had nightmares; other's sleep paralysis but most just said they had had an 'unsettled' night.
I can't remember the exact date, but it was a winter month with the long nights - and no, it wasn't October 31st - I remember going to an All Hallow's Eve Party that night. The night I have reported here was some time after that.
I would be really interested to know of any other similar accounts, if this story sounds familiar or if anything has been reported
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