#147 DAY 5 - 31 NIGHTS OF FRIGHT! 🎃 The Light Beyond the Altar

So here's a great little one and it's called The Light Beyond the Altar.

I was doing maintenance work at a parish church in North Yorkshire when I started seeing the old woman.

I was 41 at the time and my job involved looking after several churches in the area.

Nothing particularly interesting.

Replacing bulbs, clearing gutters, checking heating systems, fixing locks, dealing with leaks and the sort of small problems that seem to multiply in old buildings.

The church was called St Mary's.

It stood at the edge of a village, with a graveyard behind it and fields stretching away beyond the churchyard wall.

The building itself was mostly medieval, although parts had been rebuilt over the centuries.

I'd been there dozens of times during the day.

At night, it was completely different.

The first time I saw the woman, it was just after six on a November evening.

I'd gone there because the heating system had stopped working properly.

The vicar had called me because there was a service the following morning and the church was already cold.

It was dark by the time I arrived.

I let myself in through the side door and switched on the lights.

Most of them worked, although a few of the older fittings took several seconds to come fully on.

I walked down the north aisle towards the boiler cupboard.

The church was quiet, apart from the sound of the heating system clicking as it tried to start.

I had the cupboard open and was kneeling beside the controls when I noticed a pale light moving across the opposite wall.

I assumed it was headlights from a car.

The road ran past the churchyard and occasionally headlights came through the stained glass.

But the light didn't move like headlights.

It was a soft, pale glow, almost white, hovering low above the floor.

It appeared between two pillars next to the altar.

I looked up.