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We are writers mainly from Australia and New Zealand who write speculative fiction with romantic elements. Be it fantasy, paranormal, dark urban fantasy, futuristic and everything in between.

Friday 7 March 2014

Real Life Paranormal with Enisa Haines

One of our newest DarkSiders, Enisa Haines, continues her real life experiences!



Paranormal Phenomena 


Another encounter involved a friend. She was a young wife and mother, had just months before given birth to her second child. A visit to the doctor for pain while breastfeeding gave her devastating news. Breast cancer; a very aggressive form that fed on hormones and spread through the body. The disease took her life six months later. I didn’t see her during those months. I would often think of her but gradually had trouble visualising her face. Until one early evening.

I was out walking and suddenly had the urge to look up at the sky, and as clearly as if she was right before me, I could see her face smiling down at me. I knew what that meant. My friend was gone. I got the call the next morning. She’d passed away just about the time I saw her in the sky. Can my visual be explained scientifically? I think not.

A few years later, I had a scheduled mammogram. The letter I received did not say ‘all clear’ as had been the case in previous examinations. This time a shadow was found and I was to attend an ultrasound and if the news was grave a needle biopsy would follow. I thought, cancer! But I wouldn’t know for two days and so my emotions were a wreck. Then, the night before the ultrasound, I dreamed. I was at a high-society party. I was puzzled. I didn’t know anyone. Why was I there? I looked through the crowd, and there was my friend. My deceased friend. I looked around. All the people must be dead. Why was I there with them? I panicked and tried to leave but couldn’t move in the crush of people.

My friend saw me. She approached, smiled and said, ‘hello.’ I croaked ‘hello,’ back but, fearful now, I couldn’t say another word. And there was something very different about her. In life, my friend was tall and slim. In my dream she was much taller than I remembered, stood more than a foot above everyone else, and her shoulders were massive, like those of an American Gridiron player.

She looked around at the crowd and then smiled again, as if to reassure me, but I couldn’t stop looking at her shoulders. Why, I wondered, are they so big? I didn’t dare ask the question, thinking it disrespectful, but the question kept repeating in my mind. The question so consumed me I woke up shaking with it reverberating in my head, and then immediately jerked to stillness when a voice blasted through my mind, ‘To bear your burden.’

I knew then the upcoming ultrasound would be nothing to worry about. My friend had taken that upon herself. The ultrasound revealed a cyst, nothing of concern. Just a dream, some might say. I disagree.

A few years later, another friend called. Cancer, again. A feeling of dread came over me, but I pushed it back. My friend would be okay. In that mode of positivity, I bought a colourful potted plant for her to enjoy, walked back to my car and placed the pot on the car’s roof. It would be safe there, I thought. It wasn’t. A slight breeze drifted through the air as I walked out of the shopping centre but when I opened the car door, the breeze gusted and blew the plant to the ground.

Dirt spilled out. The plant bent in places. My earlier dread returned and took hold. I knew this was a sign. My friend wasn’t going to be able to fight the cancer. My feeling of dread had been right. My friend passed away eighteen months later. Dread and flowers breaking. Coincidence? For me, it was another example of paranormal.

 

 Enisa Haines is a founding member of RWA. She has previously written romantic suspense but has discovered her real love is paranormal romance. Her current ms was a finalist in the 2014 RWA Selling Synopsis contest and has progressed to the 2nd round of the 2014 RWA Emerald Award.



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