Theres a lot of good stuff on
B3TA's halloween thread. My choice cut is this:
My nephew heard drums above his bedroom when he was around 8 years old; a low and bassy drum with a tribal rhythm...
There was some trouble in that part of the family at that time. My sister was constantly stressed, her husband was here, there, and everywhere, and not at home. The two children (my neice and nephew) were just growing up.
My brother-in-law (sister's husband) has a deep African background; when I say deep, I mean as in going far back, not so much as in deep into the middle of Africa, although Ghana is a fairway inside the country.
My B-I-L's father came to visit him during this period of trouble, not to sort out any trouble or help with any difficulties, no his was just a visit as they hadn't seen each other for about 25 years. So, he came over from Ghana to visit, bringing gifts galour.
One of the gifts he brought was a set of tribal drums, authentic and used in tribal get togethers previously, and now handed down as a bridge to cover the gap of 25 lost years.
My B-I-L's father stayed around for a fortnight, said his goodbyes and went. Not much happened while he was here, though it's now thought that he brought more than the usual kind of gifts with him. After all, the announcement of a visit was unexpected, and not the sort of thing you'd probably do after 25 year - phone up and say you're coming to visit, and then go.
Not soon after the visit, my nephew started telling his mum and dad about something he could see in the trees across the road, and that he was getting scared of it. This went on for about 1 month, and then the desription progressed to a 'monkey with long arms'.
Also, at this time one of my other sisters began having nightmares about a 'monkey with a hideous face, and long arms, beating down on her chest as it sat on her stomach, and bearing it's long sharp teeth'.
And, it got into one of my brother's nightmares too... he woke up one night, in the dark, swearing blindly that there was a big dip in the bed as though something really heavy was sat on it. He said he couldn't see a shape or outline, but could feel that something or someone was there, and said 'it must've been fucking huge, if it was a something'.
Items would go missing for days on end. But for that the children were accused of stealing, even though it was never prooved that they were. Nor was anything that was stolen found in their possession / rooms. Stuff would just turn up in stupid and unusual places, like knives in the freezer, wallet in the bath (actually in a bath full of water)...
One day my mothers' cross and chain was found outside the house on the footpath at the front door. This chain wasn't broken in any way; it was difficult to take it off even when someone else tried to unclasp it. It was found on the floor as though someone had actually taken it off, rather than pull at it, or it being pulled by a coat collar, or jumper or something.
Whilst all this eebie geebie stuff was happening, so too was the tension growing in the family. Arguments and fights and all sorts of stuff happening all the time (which is probably normal from brothers and sisters), but it was constant. Never did the trouble subside even a little tiny bit. And, the trouble only started around the time of this visit from Ghana.
There was no link made at the time between the Tribal Drums and trouble, or monkey, and was only thought of almost a year later.
Well, with two kids and a bit of trouble going on all the time, you'd want to put any valuables away, so the tribal drums were relegated to the attic: hiding place then only known to my B-I-L and my sister.
My nephew then began telling us of how he couldn't sleep very well because he could hear drums at night. His work at school wasn't doing very well, and his teachers had complained at how he'd sleep at his desk. 'Are there any troubles at home?' The teachers would ask.
The monkey had also began 'pointing' at my nephew, 'making horrible angry faces' at him, and shaking its fists and showing it's pointy teeth
My nephew would, for most of the time, sleep in his sisters room, due to being shite scarred. And, whilst the monkey was in the tree, he wouldn't go out and play, nor would he stand near the windows because, he said, it could see him.
So as things went on more thought went into where these drum noises could be coming from, and therefore, the next-door neighbours felt the brunt of it. But, sometime after accusing the neighbours they went away, leaving the house empty. And so, no-one could be accused of making drum noises, or playing music.
Then (it must have been about 2 1/2 to 3 months after the visit) that the shit really hit the fan in the family. My B-I-L and sister split up; B-I-L moved out, taking his stuff with him but leaving the drums in the attic - he'd forgotten them, and so had everyone else for the time.
My nephew's noise problem hadn't settled down, and so it only came obvious then that no-one had gone into the attic above his bedroom to see if there was a loose banging pipe, or loose roof tile, or something that could be attributed to some sort of low bassy rythmic beating.
There were no pipes in the attic. No, loose tiles on the roof. There was a set of 2 African Tribal Drums in that attic directly above my nephew's bed, though.
The drums were given back to my B-I-L , and all bother stopped. My other sister didn't have nightmares of monkeys beating on her chest, nor did my nephew see it ever again, and the drum noises stopped.
Now, if the monkey was a monkey or not, we don't know - orangutan, monkey, gibbon... we're not experts, but my sister said she'd never seen anything like it before, and that she could only think of a monkey type creature when she saw it in her nightmares. My nephew nowadays says that all he can remember of this monkey type thing is that it looked like a monkey, 'but,' he said. 'I'm not an expert.'
When the trouble did stop, the family were all happy and fine again. We still are happy and fine. But, my sister and children left that house and moved elsewhere. We haven't the heart to tell the new homeowners about what happened.
