A Haunt By The Sea

I had a strange experience while living in a small flat on the North Down coast.  The flat was designed in a linear layout that went from the front door, to the sitting room, to the bedroom, to the kitchen and finally the bathroom in the back.  As the flat was in an old terrace house, we figured that the bedroom had originally been a sitting room as well, as it did have a very large fireplace that took up most of the party wall we shared with our neighbours. 

The bed just fit, leaving a narrow path to the kitchen and an even narrower path between the bed and the fireplace, (guess who had the pleasure of taking that side of the bed?)  At the foot of the bed there was another pathway, no more then 2 feet wide between the bed and the wardrobe.  All in all, a bedroom and no more.  Nothing at all special.

It was in the middle of summer and it was unusually hot for Northern Ireland.  The window was open and it took me a while to get to sleep because of the heat.  Eventually, the sound of the water crashing against the rocks, helped me drift off.
 
Suddenly, I awoke with a start.  I felt like there was a ton of weight sitting on my chest and I had trouble breathing.  I tried with all the force that I could muster, to sit up but I couldn’t.  There was nothing on my chest, but I had trouble breathing and could not move.  I tried to scream out for help but I could even do that.  I could feel that my mouth was open, but nothing came out.  If this wasn’t frightening enough, the next thing I know is that a young girl in period dress walked through the closed bedroom door.  The young girl was wearing a dark coat and cape.  On her head she wore a dirty white bonnet and was carrying at least half a dozen logs.  She made her way to the fireplace and the room became very cold.  I could see my breath as it rose to the light coming in through the window from the back of the house.  What struck me the most was that she seemed to take care to walk around the bed with the logs as she brought them to the fireplace.  She placed them down and proceeded to place them on the fire.  After completing her chore, she got to her feet and made her way to the kitchen.  Strangely enough though, she made her way directly through the bed, as if we were not even there.

Through out the whole ordeal, I was not able to speak, but I was able to relax as I realized that the girl wasn’t there to hurt me and probably didn’t even know I was there.  She only went about her normal business, as if nothing had changed. 
I don’t know how but I managed to fall back to sleep and in the morning, the whole experience was all but a memory.  I asked my partner if she had heard or seen anything and she stated that she hadn’t but listened in awe as I related the episode.