Haunted Holiday

Late last year, my family (mom, dad, my little sister and I) went on a trip to Ballarat in Victoria. It was our first time there, and we were very excited (as you can imagine). Before we left for Ballarat, my mum had booked us accommodation in a cute little cottage in the middle of the town. Before we arrived there, however, I had not seen any pictures of the cottage or of its interior (this is an important point to consider later on).

When we finally arrived after a 9 hour trip by car (uggh!), we were greeted by the owner of the holiday cottage, who quickly helped us settle in before leaving us to unpack. The cottage itself was inundated with modern furnishings which gave it a very comfortable feel. The cottage's hallways were high-ceilinged and they snaked through the small building as if it were a rabbit warren. When I asked my mum how old the house was, she said that it's appearance reminded her of cottages at home built during the period between the 1930's and '50's.

At first, I was very comfortable with the cottage as soon as I entered it. However, this all changed when I entered my room. As I closed the door to my room, I discovered a plain rectangular mirror hanging on its back. Nothing to be worried about, right? Well, not in my case. I took one look at that mirror and instantly, I was terrified of it. Why, you may ask? Well, a few weeks before our trip, I had dreamt about looking into a plain mirror on the back of a white door. The background reflected in the mirror was of a bed with green covers. The creepy thing, though, was that instead of me being reflected in it, looking back at me was a young boy!

But it was just a stupid dream, right? That's what I thought when had it. But as I looked into that mirror in my room, I saw the exact same scene from that dream: the bed with the green covers, the mirror on the white door; all of it minus the little boy! This encounter creeped me out so bad that I refused to sleep with the door closed for the rest of my stay! I thought this was the end of my problems there. But boy, was I wrong!

Over the time we were there, my family and I (all minus my dad, for some reason) had weird experiences. These included:

- getting the intense feeling of being watched through the bathroom windows while in the bathroom.
- doors closing by themselves on unsuspecting people
- a cold atmosphere in the cottage from time to time I also had a weird experience by myself where I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of what sounded like someone walking around outside my window in our fenced-in back garden, which was not accessible to anyone except the occupants of the cottage (this is because the only access point to it is through a large glass door in the back of the house)! None of my family admitted that they had been outside during that time. After all, who would in their right mind walk around in their backyard in the freezing cold and rain at 3:00 am?

However, nothing could have prepared us for our final night there. Because it was a long drive to get home, we decided to leave early in the morning, waking up at 2:00AM and leaving at about 3:30AM. That was when the weird things started happening. This is what happened in order:

- the alarm clock went off an hour later that it was set. However, at the time when the alarm was MEANT to go off, the air conditioner turned on by itself, only to turn itself back off when we all woke up as a result of the noise of it.
- When my dad went to check that we'd packed everything, the door to my sister's room, which had always worked perfectly, suddenly slammed shut all by itself with my dad still in the room.

These occurrences really freaked us all out, so it is no wonder that we left really quickly! As we drove away, I talked to my mum about the occurrences and about my dream. As I told her about my dream, she suddenly went pale. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she had had a dream during our stay where she was chasing A LITTLE BOY!!

When we got back home, my mum and I concluded, based on our experiences, that there were 2 spirits in the cottage: the little boy and a not-so-friendly presence outside the cottage. The little boy seemed to enjoy playing pranks on us, like playfully slamming the door on my dad. This told us that he was a friendly ghost. However, we believe that the feelings of being watched and the heavy footsteps I'd heard outside my window were caused by a not-so-nice spirit who seemed to be stuck outside the cottage (thankfully!).

We later on decided to contact the owner and ask if anyone else has had a ghostly experience in the house. We never received a reply. I'm sorry that this experience is so long, but I hoped you enjoyed it anyway.