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

Part 5- The Menacing Ghost

The aunties said my mother's death was very strange and haunting. Many mysterious things happened even years after she died.

My father stayed single for quite sometimes before he wanted to look for a new partner to ease his loneliness. It was to his advantage of being rather good looking, there was no problem finding new love. Many women were attracted to his good looks and was not shy to let him know either. He dated many, but sadly, no one lasts long. The reason known was that any woman who comes home with father was frightened to death and chased out of the house by the ghost of my mother appearing by their bedside in the middle of the night.

Once my father met a Mường woman from a minority ethnic group from Central Highlands of Vietnam. It was no exception, my mother's spirit still followed. Father told me that he travelled a fair bit to visit this woman whom he vaguely remembered her name as Đèo. Father stayed with Đèo for a few days. I also recalled Đèo's house was in a huge cornfields. Needless to say, we had corn every day. A childhood memory. The corn crops grew high above my head and I would run around in it like a maze until I could not find my way out. I would screamed out loud until Father or Đèo to come out for me. One evening the three of us were fast asleep. In the middle of the night, there was a "rustling" sound and Đèo was woken up when she felt her leg was being pulled from the bed.

She was petrified, she panicked when an invisible force once again pulled her leg more violently. She fell to the floor. She let out a scream and her eyes immediately met with a pair of fierce, blood-shot red eyes glaring at her from the foot of the bed. An angry demonic voice was grinding out word-by-word 

"You are not allowed to be with my husband". 

Đèo was beyond horrified crawling on all four backwards away from the bed screaming. My father and I jumped out of bed but we could not see anything other than Đèo's face as white as a ghost in the light of the moon shining through the window. Still screaming hysterically, she pointed her finger to the foot of the bed. My father followed but still did not see anything or understood what was happening. Đèo then change her finger direction and pointed to my father's face screaming in tears, 

"Leave, leave, you must leave now!".

Just like that, another love story ended fast. My father and I went home. Only years later did Đèo have the courage to tell father what had happened that night.

My grandmother was very sad and heartbroken to see the state of my father and I because she loved us very much. She had an idea of ​​marrying one of her far relative's cousin's daughter for my father. That person I called auntyTám Đông. Grandmother said that she was afraid if father remarried to someone else, the stepmother might mistreat me. She knew  aunty Tám Đông were very close to my mother like sisters and that aunty Tám Đông would look after father and I with love. I immediately track down aunty Tám Đông as soon as I got this information to find out the truth from the aunty herself.

Aunty Tám Đông told me that in the past, Mother and her used work on the boat together when I was just over a year old. aunty Tám Đông was three years younger than my mother. When mother passed away, aunty Tám Đông at the same time divorced her husband. Grandmother suggest aunty Tám Đông to stay with father and I. The story goes as simple as that, my grandmother was just merely suggesting the ideas to aunty Tám Đông and before  aunty Tám Đông could even think about it, she had suffered many months of horror encounters from the angry restless spirit of my mother.

She kept having nightmares of my mother for a long time. She recall, sometimes, mother would appeared staring down at her from her bedside or above from the ceiling. Another time she would appeared as a dark shadow on top of aunty Tám Đông for a long time causing her unable to move and all her limbs to go numb. I believe it is a phenomenon what people called sleep paralysis, but she experienced it on a regular basis and even when she was awake. On one occasion, Mother would appeared with her horrifyingly ginormous face so close to aunty Tám Đông's face and shouted,

"You must not be with him, he is not a good man." 

After my mother's death,  my father  was very popular with the women. He had a reputation and his love life was messy. Perhaps for that reason, the spirit of my mother could not rest, and she did not want others to suffer too? Aunty Tám Đông was living in fear and anxiety for several months, especially when night falls.

Aunty Tám Đông  recalled how she would recite a prayer before going to bed every night and yet my mother would still appeared at her bedside. One time mother even said to her,  "your prayer won't help... .." and then aunty Tám Đông would suddenly felt a lot of pain in her thighs as if someone was pinching her. She would wake up in the morning with bruises all over her legs.

After hearing such story, I must admit I truly feel unnerved as to how my mother could be so fierce even in death. How has she gone from being a harmless ghost to a stronger, more powerful spirit that can harm people physically? That is just impossible. I have many doubts but when I raise a question, it seems like all my aunties cannot hold back their tears of sorrow at the same time terrified reminiscing the past. Aunty Tám Đông is still traumatised as she recall the story. They are after all have lived well into their sixties, why would they tell me stories that are not true?

There was another time when Mother appeared to Aunty Tám Đông and asked if she would like to go on the plane with her, just like the time when Mother came and ask Aunty 2 Phượng to come with her to a fun place. However, Aunty Tám Đông was a little stronger in spirit as she was born on the year of the tiger. From instinct, she knew my mother was already dead and she was determined and refused to follow my mother in her dreams.  According to the twelve Chinese zodiac, Tigers are brave, fearless and powerful, a sign that are repellent to evil spirits in the spiritual world.