Day 1

NARROW ESCAPE

One night some years ago a young girl named Shirley cuddled down in her bed to sleep as usual. Her pet budgie was in his cage beside the bed and had also settled. Suddenly a sense of evil swept over her and she was dreadfully afraid. To her horror she saw standing over her an ugly figure with a contorted face and a knife poised to kill. She was too terrified even to scream but she will always remember her desperate prayer, "Jesus if you love me save me." When she woke in the morning her little pet was dead.

Fanciful dreaming? Much later she learnt that her room had previously been used by a spiritist medium. Over the next few years Shirley's life was marked by strange and inexplicable experiences as she saw a medium friend of the family perform remarkable healings, and refuse to do so when he was out of temper.

When she was eleven her grandfather died and that same night she saw him standing by her bed, smiling and kind. She knew little of God and nothing about what really happens to the dead but instinctively she felt fear and horror. As he opened his mouth to speak she repeated her earlier prayer. There was a sensation of violent movement and then he was gone.