A Visitor in the Night
Just outside of Hartford is the picturesque, upper-crust community of Glastonbury, Connecticut. The beautiful Tudor homes that line the streets were hewn from the edge of a dense, dark wood that has stood silently here for ages. When Peggy D. and her husband, Larry, settled in Glastonbury, their day-to-day life was nothing out of the ordinary--at least not until one terrifying night when Peggy witnessed something that haunts her still.
On a particularly cold October night, Peggy and her husband lay sleeping in their bedroom. It was well after midnight when, suddenly, she wrenched awake, a cold sensation descending upon her like a mist. The bedroom door stood open, and in the hallway shone a dim nightlight casting long shadows on the house’s old walls. Standing there in the doorway, silently peering in at her, was the semblance of a woman dressed in a long blue gown, her empty eyes staring back, watching from the blackness. A scream worked its way to Peggy’s throat, but she could make no sound. As she stared in horror at the apparition, Peggy could see right through the woman’s body, could make out the shadows cast by the nightlight behind her!
Too frightened to move, Peggy forced her eyes shut, afraid to look upon the frightening presence in her room any longer. She lay there in the darkness, not moving, barely breathing. When she finally mustered the courage to open her eyes, she found that the unearthly figure had vanished.
Dawn was a long time coming, but at last she realized her husband was awake and frantically told him of her ordeal during the night. Any misgivings that he might not believe her story faded as she realized that his face, too, was contorted with fear. He had seen the ghostly visitor in the night as well. And he was certain he knew who the apparition had been.
At the time Larry met Peggy, he was engaged to another woman. After falling deeply in love with Peggy, he broke off the engagement. Shortly thereafter, his heartbroken ex-fiancé contracted encephalitis and slowly withered away in a bleak hospital room. Larry recognized the mournful figure gazing in at the two of them as his ex-fiancé, taking one last look at her betrothed before stepping into the dark beyond.