My Cousin Melanie

When I was fourteen years old, my cousin Melanie, who was my age, was killed in a horse accident. I had only met her once, we lived far away from each other.

Four years ago, I went on vacation with my family, we stayed at my Aunt and Uncles house. One night around midnight, my siblings and I went to the basement to hang out in the living room down there. All of the lights were off down the hallway. We talked and played games for a while. My sister decided to go to sleep and went upstairs. About five minutes later, I decided to do the same. As I walked past the hall, I glanced over and saw, what I thought was my sister, standing in the laundry room door with the light on. She was wearing a cream colored night dress, had long brown hair, and was shorter than me or my sister. She had one finger to her lips, looking down and into the laundry room. It looked like she was thinking about something.

I turned around and went around the corner, thinking my sister was just looking for something. I got to the room and realized there was no one there. I freaked out, left the light on, and ran upstairs. My sister saw the terrified look on my face as I asked her if she had gone into the laundry room, knowing very well she hadn't. I told her what I had seen. She told me the light was off when she passed the hallway. (I think she was more afraid than I was). I lay awake for the rest of the night too afraid to sleep. I kept going over it in my head trying to distinguish if it was something I had seen or a trick my eyes had played on me. I know what I saw, I know she was there and she was my cousin Melanie.

In the morning I told my Mom and my Aunt what had happened. My Aunt told me it was the anniversary of her death and that she was probably so exited we were all there. She told me that things would happen around the house when Melanie's anniversary came around. She thought it was wishful thinking. She was so happy!

Another interesting fact...the whole time we were on vacation, my family members who hadn't seen me in years kept telling me how much I reminded them of Melanie. None of them knew the story.