Casa Loma (1)

There is a place in Toronto, Canada called Casa Loma. It was built before the depression. I have never before heard stories about the place, but I'm sure there are. I can tell you my story is true though.

I am, what some of my friends call a "sensitive". So I tend to keep up barriers almost constantly. I had been there before with my father and sisters. It's a rather impressive place, and one that I love, still. It bothered me the first time I was there, but I didn't say much. I didn't want to scare my sisters, and my father would have thought I was talking baloney. We weren't attacked, but my sisters later told me that they were over come by these feelings that had them terrified most of the time they were there. I remember distinctly that they were on edge, which was the reason I hadn't told them, and one of them started crying and refused to go any further when we got to the carriage house. It isn't the whole place that's haunted either, and for such a recent building it's rather haunted. I have never inquired further into the history of the place, but I believe it to be haunted by the man who commissioned it as well as several others, one or two of which being rather violent spirits. Particularly, the Solarium, one or two of the bedrooms, the library, and the towers have strong feelings about them. But where the violent one is, is in the carriage house.

When I was there most recently 3 or so years ago, I was with some classmates touring Toronto. I didn't tell them much about the place, only that I got odd feelings from it.They laughed and we went in. Almost firstly, we insisted on going to the underground tunnel to the carriage house, curiosity overwhelming. One can see the purposes of such a tunnel, but in the 20s when this was built many of those excuses are kinda strange --- easy escape, escape from foul weather when returning to the house, among others. There is a strange feeling one gets while traversing the tunnel. But then is there ever a normal feeling when you stop to realize that you are traveling under dirt, traffic, or water, in some cases?

Once in the carriage house, there are several exhibits set up. One exhibit is in the main area, where all the cars and horses were to be kept. It tells about vehicles through the ages in Toronto. In another part, there seems to have been living quarters. this place is split between an upstairs and a downstairs. The upstairs contains an exhibit on pottery (and this area is also known as the pottery barn) and the downstairs contains a kind of greenhouse exhibition.

The stairs between the upstairs and the downstairs is where we encountered it. One of my friends was a partial believer, the other was a downright skeptic. The skeptic was in the front, the partial believer in the middle and I was going last. Whatever it was seemed to know what would bother each of us the most. It passed right through the girl in front, causing her to scream. The second girl's throat was attacked -- not in a choking manor, but as a fingering and a clasping -- she always hated having her neck touched, and she told me afterward what it felt like, even though the whole time she was screaming about her neck.

As a reflex, when they started screaming I extended my barriers, pushing it back, bringing my friends into them. My friends practically ran over me over trying to get away. It banged against my barriers. I have never before or after felt something like that. It was like a physical push bouncing and rebounding off my barriers. We ran, but I don't remember actually paying attention to where we ran to. I guess we ran to the Greenhouse because it was the closest place. It stopped once we were inside. When we left, my friends placed me in the front, telling me to keep the ghosts away. They followed me like this throughout the building after that. I kept my shields up and nothing else attacked us.

I do think I remember though, that my friends had actually challenged the house and it's possible occupants before we entered.... Perhaps this was a way of the spirits saying "We're here...."