THE BURNING SMELL I have always had experiences with ghosts, nothing big, just things moving, disappearing etc. I'm clairaudiant, I can "hear" ghosts. I live in a haunted house. Though I have never actually seen my ghost (My brother has, he's is a medium)I have felt him and heard him. He's called Colin and died in 1965, he's quite friendly. But this story is about an experience myself and a friend of mine, who up until this incident scoffed at my beliefs and abilities, had about two years ago. My friend, Andy is a computer programmer who, while on holiday from uni, was helping out in the technical department of the local theatre. He had been there for about two or three weeks and one night at about 12.30 am, he rang me. He was scared to death and asked me to come and collect him. I did and on the way home he told me what had happened. He said that everything had gone off for about five minutes, but, being an old building he had just lit a cigarette and waited for the power to return. When it did he found all of the lighting direction papers had been thrown on the floor, but, he had been sitting right next to them and hadn't heard a thing. Very much a scaredy cat he grabbed his coat and ran outside to call me on his mobile, but, just as he got to the foyer, he was overwhelmed with an incredibly strong smell of burning meat, only like nothing he had ever smelled before. It made him feel sick and he thought he could hear someone mumbling, but was so worked up he thought it was his imagination. After he had told me this, I got the impression that someone was trying to tell me something, but the sensation was similar to anyone who has ever tried to hear someone shout through a window pane. It was very muffled. I agreed to go back with him the next day and asked James, my brother to come as well. We went at about 6.00 pm and started to help out moving props and helping the cleaners. Nothing happened until again around 12.00 am, when all of a sudden James got very, very hot. In fact he nearly passed out. Again I could hear muffled noise and crackling like wood being burnt. Then came the smell again and Andy was right it was sickening, but this time we stayed and waited it out after a while, James saw someone and we ran after them. We chased them into the foyer and Jay said he could see a man in a shabby coat and hat stood near the door. I heard the noise again, but this time I could hear a few words. They were "fire" and "hot ". I asked the spirit to be at peace and told him he was scaring people. I asked him to look for the light and told him he had to cross over and join his loved ones. Then everything just went still, Jay told us the figure has gone and so had the smell. A few days later Andy came to my house and told me he'd seen the proprietor of the theatre and told him everything, the man looked puzzled then told him years before, when he first became the manager, someone had told him about 50 years ago the theatre had been derelict and a fire had broken out in the because some kids had been mucking around with candles trying to hold a seance, they has panicked and ran. A tramp had also found his way in there that night and was sleeping in the sound room. By the time he realised what was happening, the fire was out of control and he managed to fight his way to the foyer, when the roof fell in and crushed him. He died from heat and smoke inhalation. He told Andy that many people had heard or caught glimpses of him, or that sometimes the smell would be so overpowering that they would have to go outside. I went back not so long ago, to see my sister-in-law in a play, and the place is totally at peace. Thank you for reading my submission. Contact me here: danielle.o'connor@consignia.com Submitted From: Dannie, Derbyshire, UK