Black Lady of Bradley Woods

Bradley Wood is just outside the village of Bradley, a small village that is located a few miles out from Grimsby. If you drive halfway down the Bradley road you will come across two wooded areas; one called Dixon Woods and the other is of course Bradley Woods and here lies the legend of The Black Lady of Bradley Wood.

During the times of the War of the Roses or otherwise known as the Barons' Wars lived a family out in Bradley Woods, the father who was a young woodsman, his wife and their child. The woodsman had to leave one day to go fight in the war leaving behind his wife and child, and after many months had passed there was no news on his return leading the wife to think that he had been killed. On a dark cloudy morning, soldiers from the opposing army had crossed enemy territory and a few of them had entered Bradley Woods. They came across the woman who was weeping alone in her house, they wanted money and drink from her but she refused so they beat her and did other brutally awful things to her before snatching the child and leaving.

The day this took place was said to be on New Years Day and after this incident the woman was a totally different person. Mourning the loss of her child and what had happened to her, she from that day on dressed in black from head to toe. She continued to search the nearby woods to see if she could find her child but she it was all in vain. Black reminded her of the sky that morning and she did this to make herself angry and get revenge on not just the people that had done this to her but anyone that crossed her path, especially those with a smile on their face.

Surprisingly one afternoon her husband had returned from war, opening the door with a huge smile on his face but that quickly disappeared. The girl he once loved was no more, she sat in the dark covered in dirt while muttering revenge on everyone, she barely recognised her husband who asked where their child was and when he found out everything he was totally heartbroken. She blamed him for what had happened claiming if he never left then all of this wouldn't of taken place, he sadly blamed himself also. Trying to hold his wife and say he was sorry she in a fit of rage stabbed him in the abdomen and as he lay on the ground trying to say how sorry he was she shouted how much she hates him before watching him bleed out.

Over the years this legend became more well known amongst people living in the village of Bradley and some saying that if you go into the woods and say the words "Black Lady, Black Lady I've stolen your baby!" then she appears but as with all legends no one had ever seen the lady, well that was until recently where two teenage girls wandered into the woods to see if they could call out this lady and to their surprise they had got their wish.

They had heard about the local legend from a history lesson at school and took an interest in it, so they went out to pursue what they had heard about. They reached the house that the woman had lived in, which was now completely rundown and all that lived there was the rats and spiders that came in for some shelter. They both stood at the door entrance and said the supposed words that would summon the lady but no luck, they tried again but nothing, the sky started to get dark all of a sudden and the girls were about to leave. One of them said the saying one last time as they were about to walk away when in front of them a dark shadow appeared.

The shadow figure morphed into a lady who blathered out the words "You stole my baby now I steal you young lady". The girls ran away into the woods but the shadowy figure kept hovering behind them, the sound of terrifying girls screaming and the constant breaking of twigs they ran over had alerted some passers by. They came to the aid of one girl but the other one was missing, she cried for them to find her but they searched the woods endlessly and there was no sign of her ever being there. She was never found again and is put down as a mystery disappearance.

It's true that many have tried to summon The Black Lady of Bradley Woods and have failed but the thing is not all have tried  on the day her life was destroyed, the correct location and the exact time. If you want to see this lady then go to Bradley Woods on New Years Day, stand in her entrance way of her home at around the time of 5.20 pm and when the sky gets dark say the words "Black Lady, Black Lady I've stolen your baby" but you may not ever come back!!!!!

Acceptance

Deep in the misty mountains is said to be a man known simply as "The Healer". He was said to be able to perform healing rituals to those that were suffering with terminal illnesses, although people were skeptic of this, he has healed those before who were in need of this help.

Elijah Gray lived with his daughter Willow who was eight years old. His wife left one day and never returned. leaving behind a letter of apology and a bad full of money. On the same day as she disappeared a year later Willow was diagnosed with terminal cancer called Melanoma and was given about 4/5 months at best to live.  Elijah who never drank in his life turned to drink hard in an effort to try and push his feelings down and to escape the reality he was living. In the morning he would drink before spending the afternoon and evening in the hospital with Willow while sneakily sipping away on whiskey from his hip flask before returning home to cry in pain until he eventually passed out. This was the daily cycle.

Two months into his daughters cancer and she was starting to deteriorate, Elijah tried everything he could to save her but he was in a sort of denial stage as there was nothing that could help her at this stage, the cancer was too far gone. Every night he would start to dream of his little girl being given the all clear by the doctors which was followed by a blinding yellow light before he then woke up. He had no idea what this dream meant and didn't invest much thought into it at first but the re-occurrence of it started to make him wonder.

The time now for his daughter was starting to run out and the reality of things was getting closer and closer no matter how much alcohol Elijah would drink. On his daily visit to see Willow he noticed a pamphlet on the locker next to her bed that had in large writing on the front of it reading "Follow your dreams" and under this heading was a picture of a yellow light shining down a tunnel. He asked Willow where this came from but she weakly shrugged her shoulders indicating she had no idea to which bemused Elijah, he slipped it in his back pocket and spent the day at his daughters bedside.

That night he looked up all the information about this mysterious pamphlet but all that was found was just a link to a website about following your life goals and how to achieve them. When he finally passed out on his armchair; bottle of Jack Daniels by his side, he again had that damned dream but this time it was different. He was able to see himself in the dream walking through the yellow light and past it was a steep hill leading up to a small cottage that was positioned exactly in the centre overlooking everything that lay below and everyone that walked up.

He recognised the area, it was just a few miles out of town. In the early hours of the morning he decided he wasn't gonna go and drink himself into a pain numbing state but he was gonna drive out to the place that entered his dreams, even if it was nothing it was some kinda hope and for a desperate man like Elijah it was all he needed at this time. Upon reaching the steep hill he had a look around the surrounding area before slowly and skeptically walking upwards. The steep look was more of an illusion than a reality, aesthetically it looked near impossible to walk up it without falling backwards but when attempting to walk on it, it was actually rather smooth and more even than it seemed.

It was in total close to 1km in length and at the end of it he could see the idle cottage. He gave two quiet but inquisitive knocks and on the second one the door waved open as if suggesting for Elijah to enter, to which he hesitantly did so. The open room was dark with only a few candles providing some sort of light, there was a strong smell of the smoke that comes out from a thurible and also in the corner sat a man with a long grey beard. He welcomed Elijah and said that he was expecting him, he spoke in a Western African accent but was very calm in what he said ;  "I see you got my message Elijah". Elijah questioned him "What message? Who the hell are you old man?", this provoked a laugh from the man in the corner "Your dreams Elijah, that was all me and the pamphlet in the hospital that was also my work in order to lead you here". The confused look on Elija's face grew deeper "Why? What?.... Who are you and is this even real??" , "  I can assure you my friend that this is real and I can help your daughter"

These words made Elijah angry as he grabbed the mysterious man up by the throat "How do you know about my daughter...how!!!!"  before his energy went and he broke down to his knees. "I have a gift, I can heal those who are in need of it and who deserve it and your daughter Willow she is one of them I can help, all I need is some part of her that has her DNA on it and also some blood from a family member" softly spoke the man in the cottage.  Elijah responded "Are you being serious? I have some of her hair in my wallet that I cut before she lost it all to remind her of what she looked like and if its my blood you need then just take it, I don't care where from just take it". The man who had not given his name yet approached Elijah with a needle before extracting the amount of blood from his body that he needed and squeezed it into a bronze tin pot along with the cut of Willows hair.

They held hands as the man made some kind of chant out loud which prompted a spark from the tin pot before the man let go of his hands and told Elijah " Now it's done, go home and see your daughter", Elijah thanked the man before running out the door and down the steep hill. When he arrived home standing there to great him was his daughter looking like she did before she ever got sick; long blonde hair and a smile on her face that would light up any room. He hugged her tightly telling her how much he loves her and that he will never leave anything bad happen again, she responded "Bad things happen to those that mess with faith", Elijah's phone then rang it was the hospital who told him that his daughter had passed away quietly. He looked over at the girl who grinned and giggled back at him.....