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Haunted. Image Source: Flickr
When Sean was twelve years old, he lived with his ma and dad in a town called Malahide. Malahide is a small coastal town just north of the bustling city of Dublin. The town is beautiful with many scenic landscapes and picture perfect views. The town overlooks the Irish Sea and a bay. The town has a rich history of Viking settlements and Anglo-Norman settlers. There is a castle in the middle of the city with a very rich history as well. The castle has been around since 1185 and was home to the Talbot family for many generations. The castle has been a pivotal part of history and now stands as a landmark to the town. Sean would always admire the castle from afar but never approached it.
Malahide Castle also has a little bit of supernatural history. Sean's parents used to tell him that people have died within the castle walls and stories have said that their spirits wander the halls at night groaning of pain, chasing bystanders, and showing up in people's photos.
Sean was always too scared to wander into the castle because he had heard of the anecdotes of the spirits haunting the castles. However, one night, his friends peer pressured him into going to the castle grounds to observe the different spirits. At night, the castle is completely abandoned making it the perfect place for reckless teenagers to explore. Sean was a frightened kid to begin with. He was shy and was even afraid of the door slamming behind him. The castle was not the place for him to hang out. His friends knew he was constantly afraid too. They used it as a way to pick on him a lot.
This particular night was eerie. The moon was absent which made the night sky extra dark. Sean and his friends gathered just outside of the castle doors and one of his friends told a spooky story to set the mood. The story was of the "White Lady" who roamed the castle halls. For many years, there was a painting of a very beautiful anonymous lady, in a flowing white dress, hung in the Great Hall of the Castle. Nobody appeared to know her identity or the identity of the artist who portrayed her. It had been recorded that from time to time she would leave her painting and wander through the Castle in the quiet of the night. Reputed to have been seen by a number of people, over a period of many years, she has become known as the White Lady.
The boys stood outside the big front doors leading into the castle betting on who would have to knock on the doors and go into the castle first. As luck would have it, Sean's friends dared him to open the big wooden doors and go into the castle first.
The knocks echoed on the concrete slabs of the walls inside and the doors opened slightly. Sean took a step in. The boys failed to follow behind him and shut him in by himself. Sean froze for a second, too afraid to scream and not knowing where to run to. He took a step forward with his right foot and the wooden floor underneath him creaked. Sean took a deep breath and took another step. At that moment, Sean noticed the trail of a white dress floating down the Great Hall away from where he stood. He turned his head to the painting hanging up just in front of him to his left. The woman he had seen in pictures, heard from stories, and who normally resides in the painting was absent from the scene. Sean's body went numb from fear. He knew he had just seen the White Lady charge down the hall in front of him instead of the painting she belonged in. He immediately turned back to the front doors and ran out into the castle's front lawn. Sean's friends were gone and nowhere to be found. He couldn't get the picture of the White Lady out of his head. Sean never made a trip to Malahide Castle again after that night.
Author's Note: For this story, I wanted to include a little bit about Sean's background and where he grew up. The original story I pulled from is "The White Lady." The story is about a painting of an unknown lady in a white flowing dress. The painting hung in the Great Hall of the castle. At times, she is seen wandering around the castle halls out of the painting so I wanted Sean to experience that. I used the town as the backbone for my story and wanted to include some history about the town as well. I want Sean's background to be a big part of the stories later on also. Since my storybook is based largely upon the supernatural stories of Ireland and more specifically Dublin, I wanted to include that as well in this story. Malahide is a small town just north of Dublin and I wanted to include the town because I feel that my storybook needs to include rich history of not only just Dublin but the towns around that have a great influence on Dublin as well. Malahide Castle has a rich supernatural history of deaths and ghost sightings and I wanted to include that with a personal story from Sean and what he experienced in the castle.
Malahide Castle. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
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