The Neglected Brother

My story begins at my Aunt and Uncles farm which we were visiting for the day. I was about 8 at this point (the reason for me telling you this will become apparent soon). Now in their barn they had a trap door to the barn attic in the roof. I would go up there sometimes to get away from my brother and sister, basically to get a little time to myself....or so I thought.

This day I was up there and I went straight from the trap door to the little window that overlooks the house. It's about 3 or 4 metres from the trap door to the window and the whole attic floor is very dusty and there is plenty of light due to the corrugated fibreglass roof.

I was looking out this window for a few seconds when I felt breeze on my neck. I turned around and noticed footsteps in the dust coming from a low cot on the other side of the attic up to about a metre in front of me. I felt something there, not evil or unfriendly, but it exuded a calm friendly feeling. I bolted down the trap door and into human company before you could say "I have to clean my undies."

When I was 18 I got the guts to go up there again (in full daylight, I wasn't that brave) and as soon as I came in to the room it felt heavy and cold. This was accompanied by an unfriendly feeling. This time I was down even faster.

Now just a few weeks ago my Aunt and Uncle held a dinner party and it started to rain. My Aunt and Uncle don't have horses or keep any animals in that barn they just use it for storing tools, hay and bringing in the sheep to get their nails clipped. It just so happened that another Aunty was in town and she had brought her horses with her.

When it started raining she noticed that the horses just stayed outside in the corral and not going into the barn, which according to her they never do. So she went out and tried to drag them into the barn. As soon as she stepped into the door she felt the neck on her hair rise and a cold feeling come over her. So bravely she came back and told her husband to put them in the barn, not mentioning the feeling. He came back white as a sheet and revelated the same thing. Remember he had been told nothing. At the party there was a psychic lady and she heard my Aunt and Uncle throwing the idea around that the barn may be haunted. So I piped up with my story and she decided to go out to the attic (yes on a dark and stormy night) while we waited outside the barn.

She came back and said that she had "contacted" the spirit. It sort of told her his story.

Back in the early 1900's when the house was built, it was owned by a man, his wife and his wife's retarded brother. Now the man was resentful of the brother because he was like a child, he couldn't do anything for himself. So the man made his wife put her brother in the barn attic to live. They would lock him in there and feed him every day rather than have him in the house all the time.

That winter the retarded man died from hypothermia or pneumonia because there was no source of heating. It's only a barn. The psychic lady said that the spirit was wary of adults but because of his disability he was very friendly with children. He had the mind of a child.

This explains to me why I felt friendliness when I was young but a strong feeling of resentment when I was a young adult.

Sorry this story has been so long but I hope you've enjoyed it.