The Haunting Spirit Of Tran Thi Yen And Other True Horror Stories

Part 4- The Moth Spirit

The altar was placed on an elevated shelf in the middle of the living room overlooking the front door. As a child, I used to play alone right under my mother's altar. My mother's passing has left my father in much grieves and despair, so much that he would drown himself in alcohol almost every day. Not sure how long after Mother died, strange things begins to happen. I remembered one late afternoon, I was sitting under the altar of Mother playing like usual, making little cups and pots out of clay. I heard heavy fluttering sounds. I raised my head to look out the door. A very big brown and orange moth with strange patterns on the wings. (I did my research online and found it to be an Atlantis moth)

To a three year olds perspective, it was a very big butterfly. Its wings fluttered heavily and loud because it was about the size of two adult hands clasping their thumbs in together. It hovered slowly in front of me and then slowly flew over my head and straight onto the altar. There it clung onto Mother's picture frame covering almost all of her face except for one of her eye. I looked up at the altar. To my shock, I kid you not, the eye of my mother that the moth left out suddenly blinked and the pupil rolled down to look at me. My eyes and mouth were wide open in disbelief but because I was just a child I had no fear. I yelled out, "Daddy, Daddy, it's mommy".

It was getting dark outside. My father stumbled in with a bottle of alcohol half-finished. He said nothing, just looked down at me and then up at the altar. Unexpectedly, he raised his arm and threw the bottle at the moth. The picture of Mother fell down and shattered into pieces. The moth must have got hit, flew to the ceiling circling around for a long time before flying out to the front door. My father stood there in a trance for a minute or two. He turned to me and said, "It's late now, go to bed". When I was young, I was very scared of father as he often gets angry easily so I just obey everything he said without daring to ask any questions.

Later that night I was woken up by the snoring and heavy breathing sound of my father lying beside me. Perhaps he was dreaming too and knocking me with his arms. I stayed awake for a while then slowly trying to fall back to sleep. My eyes closed as I drift off to sleep but then I heard some noise in the back of the house. In the dark and silent night, I listened and then I heard it more clearly. It was the sound of someone's sobbing behind the house. Dense bushes and trees surrounded our house making it even more eerie at night. For a child who does not yet understand fear, I just lie there and listen, not knowing what else to do. I turned around, I saw father still sleeping soundly, and I did not dare to make a sound. The sobbing continued and then becoming louder cries. In the dark solitary night, the sound of sobbing, crying, along with a ghostly voice echoing, as if it was right next to my ears and then fading far away. The echoing voice of a woman sobbing.

"Oh my darling, how could you chase me away?" 

I was just a little girl then and I did not understand but now when I think of it, it still gives me the shivers remembering that ghostly voice.

I was fully awake lying there, scared to move for fear of waking up father. As soon as the ghostly voice stopped, everything went back to silence. After about a minute, I saw a greyish shadow figure standing at the bedroom entrance. Our house was very simple and because we were so poor, there was no door but only a curtain across one wall to the other for some privacy. The shadow figure with shoulder-length hair, but no face. It was a still night not a breeze but strangely, the curtain moved slightly. I thought the shadow walked over but now that I recalled, it was more like gliding to where I was lying in bed. My eyes were wide open but my body was stiff, I could not move or open my mouth to make a sound. The shadow slowly knelt down and spread its shadowy arms around me. So close but I could not see the face of the shadow.

I do not recall whether I felt a physical body holding me or just an invisible force on me at the time. My arms and legs were numb, but I could hear soft sobering, whispering and cold breezes in my ears. I do not remember how long I was like that before my father moved and all of a sudden, I could move my arms and legs. In the blink of an eye, the shadow was at the door. The curtain once again moved slightly and the shadow disappeared.

This is a story that I have kept to myself and never told anyone even my father until today. Simply because I am a quiet person and because I too have doubts about the whole experience and afraid that no one would believe me. A few days later the giant moth came back into the house again, but this time my father left it alone and it did the same thing by staying on my Mother's altar for a few days. I am now convinced that it was the spirit of my mother coming back to father and I. 

What freaks  me out  is that during my last trip to Vietnam, my Aunty 2 Phượng told me a story when she too had encounter the strange giant moth not long after my mother's death and I had never told anyone about my own experience. Her story was when she was sitting and washing clothes in the back of her house. She felt an unsettling chill running down her spine even though the weather was very hot and humid. She then heard a heavy fluttering of wings coming behind her. She turned around to see a giant brown orange moth flying up to her. For some reason she sense it was something eerie and she believes that it was the spirit of her sister appearing in the form of a moth. She stayed still. The moth landed on her shoulder and stayed there for a long time. After a while, seeing the moth still on her shoulder, Aunty spoke, "My dear sister, you can leave at peace now, everything will be ok, you don't need to worry anymore". Incredibly, the moment Aunty finished her sentence, the moth fluttered its wings and flew away slowly.

There was another time when Aunty 2 Phượng dreamt that Mother came to her appearing very joyful. She held Aunty's hand and said joyfully, "Come with me sister, I'll take you to this fun place". Aunty 2 Phượng was surprised and unsuspectingly about to follow when suddenly an elderly woman with white hair appeared out of nowhere. The old woman said to Aunty 2 Phượng .

"Stop! You cannot follow it, if you do, you won't be able to come back anymore!" Aunty 2 Phượng was startled as she realized something was not right. She turned back to my mother and said, 

"My dear sister, If I go with you who will care for our mother (my grandmother), or if you let me ask for permission from mother, if mother agrees I'll come with you?" Right after she finished her sentence, my mother disappeared and Aunty 2 Phượng woke up in heavy sweating. Many people believed that it could have been Aunty 2 Phượng's guardian angel that came to help her otherwise she would have gone forever with her sister in her sleep.