A Tail of Two Heads

Halloween is upon us once again. Scary movies are coming out in the theaters and, at the grocery stores, you can't help but notice the assortment of candies and chocolate in their very colorful wrappers, all signifying that Halloween is approaching. It is a time for fright and ghoulish activities, which I enjoy occasionally but never when I am alone. However, being alone is usually when spooky things happen.

In the spirit of Halloween, I would like to tell a story that happened to me when I was a massage therapist many years ago. Although there are dogs in my story, it is not about them for this blog. This is the "Everything Else" part of my blog. Please note that I will change the names of the people in my story to protect the not-so innocent.

My story is about a woman who was referred to me by one of my private massage clients. This woman had Siamese twins for daughters who were in their late teens. They were a rare type of Siamese twins because they had two heads sharing one body. The mother had informed me that her daughters were experiencing neck and back pain, which was easy enough to remedy with massage. Initially, I was hesitant to do the massage because I didn't know how they would fit on my massage table, and I only had one face cradle. But I accepted the job because I figured it would be an experience to massage Siamese twins.

The Siamese twins lived in the Melrose area of Los Angeles with their mother. It was a big two-story home in a nice, safe, but crowded neighborhood so parking was tough.

It was ten minutes to six in the evening when I finally got into the house and met the mother who had hired me. Walking into the house, I felt an eeriness that caused me to scan the room. Perhaps, it was due to the darkness of the room because the curtains were all drawn, and only one dimly lit lamp was turned on at a corner of the room. The room looked unused as if not many visitors came to the house and a mustiness that suggested that the furnishings were left unattended. I took a deep breath and tried to feel the vibe of the room but came up nothing.

"Hi, I'm Maureen. We spoke on the phone," said the mother. Maureen must have been in her late forties or early fifties. She was a thin, weary looking woman with dark, short hair. She told me that her daughters, Julia and Elizabeth, were upstairs waiting for me, and then led the way to the stairs walking ahead of me.

As I was ascending the stairs, I noticed on the top of the stairs was a pair of overweight Pugs. It was no surprise that they didn't greet me at the front door like most dogs did. Judging from their size, I was certain they had decided it would take too much effort to run down the stairs just to go back up on again. They were watching me with their bulging eyes and were panting in the process as if watching me were an exertion. I figured they belonged to the twins. Pugs already look abnormal to me but there was an unusual strangeness about them that was unsettling.

A little breathless after climbing the stairs and feeling the heaviness of my table, I continued to follow Maureen. I could hear chattering coming out of a bedroom and presumed that the twins were in there. Maureen was a couple feet ahead of me as she entered the bedroom first.

“Girls, Arlene is here, the massage therapist,” I heard Maureen say.

Upon entering the room, I immediately felt an odd sensation come over me. I knew that there was something off in the room. It may have been the way the room was decorated, but I think that just contributed to the creepiness that I felt. The room was distinctly divided in half by way of its décor. One side of the room, the half towards the windows, was decorated quite plainly with the eggshell paint and a few framed pictures of flowers. The other half of the room, which was towards the bedroom door leading to the hallway, was painted with dark red and black stripes. It was such a stark contrast that it startled me when I walked in.

The twins were sitting on their bed in their bathrobe. They must have seen the look of surprise on my face because one of them said, “Pretty cool, huh?” It was the twin with the dark eyeliner and hair that was colored jet black with one thick streak of red. It was pretty easy to deduce which side of the bedroom she had.

“Wow, it’s different,” was all I could say. But in my mind, the word “bizarre” was more appropriate.

“Arlene, this is Julia,” said Maureen, placing her hand on the right shoulder of the twin with the dark eyeliner. “And, this is Elizabeth,” placing her hand on the side of the twin without make-up.

I was amazed that two people who shared the same body could be so different. Julia, who had the "goth" look, was the gregarious one, and very animated with her black manicure. Elizabeth was like vanilla, ordinary and unmemorable. However, there was an emptiness in her eyes that caught my attention. Also, I noticed that the hand that she controlled wasn't manicured. Was she intentionally being plain to offset her sister's appearance? Maybe.

"Have you ever massaged Siamese twins before?" asked Julia. Without waiting for my response, she continued, "Our necks are really sore mainly because when we talk to each other, we look at each other and we do that hundred times a day, you know what I mean? Also, it’s hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in which is probably why our back hurts," she said with a sigh.

"Interesting...well, since I only have one face cradle, I won't be using it," I said. "So, you can either lay face down with your arm on your forehead or lay your heads to the side on a pillow. And, to answer your question, you guys are the first Siamese twins I've ever worked on."

I looked at Elizabeth who hadn't said a word. "Elizabeth, do you have any questions?" She turned her head slowly towards me, shook her head and just continued to stare at me with a blank expression. She may be shy, I thought.

"Elizabeth doesn't talk much with people she doesn't know," explained Julia. "She'll only talk to me." As if on cue, Elizabeth leaned over to her and whispered something. "She says she's fine with laying on the table with her head to the side but without a pillow."

"Okay. Are you fine with that too?" I asked, to which Julia nodded her head. "Great. Let me set up so we can get started."

As I proceeded to set up my massage table, Maureen said, "I'll leave you guys alone," and then shut the door behind her leaving the two Pugs in the room with us. They were breathing heavily even though they were just lying on their dog beds.

It was a huge bedroom with it's own bathroom allowing me to set the massage table at the foot of the bed, and still had plenty of room to move around. While I was putting the sheets on the table, I let the twins know that if they needed the bathroom to go before the massage got started. Again, Elizabeth whispered to Julia, who said, "I guess we need to go."

By the time they got out of the bathroom, I was ready for them. "So, make sure you guys go under the first sheet, on your stomach. I'm going to wash my hands while you guys do that, okay?" I said. I got a nod from Julia. No response from Elizabeth. Weird, I thought, as I entered the bathroom.

When I got out of the bathroom, the twins were under the sheet. I noticed that the lights were turned down low and two candles were lit, one on each nightstand. "Are you guys warm enough?" I asked. Julia had said yes, and nothing from Elizabeth, of course.

I looked at the red clock that was on Julia's nightstand and saw that it was already quarter after six. I wanted to make sure I was done in an hour, which was the allotted time Maureen had hired me to do.

I undraped the top sheet to expose the twins’ back to the level of the coccyx or tailbone and was surprised to see that the twins had an elongated coccyx. They had a human tail just like a dog, but it was only about two inches long. It made me wonder if they had the ability to wag their coccyx. In the years I had been a massage therapist, there had only been one other person with a tail similar to theirs. A human tail was a rare sight.

After I gave the twins my regular spiel about the massage, I found out that the dogs were named Cleo and Tony. “After Cleopatra and Marc Anthony from that story, you know the one, right?” said Julia.

"Yes, I do," I said, then remained quiet. Normally, I didn't talk while giving a massage because it was the client's time not mine, but I was curious to know the dogs’ names. Cleo and Tony had moved from their dog beds, settled near the massage table, and were already snoring noisily away.

Fifteen minutes into the massage, I sensed something strange that made me look up. Because the lighting was low in the room, it was easy to notice that to my left the flame of each candle was flickering rapidly and had grown to about six inches tall. Both Cleo and Tony had woken up, their heads lifted and their ears erect. They sensed something as well. I didn't see anything but I felt that there was a presence in the room and it was moving towards the massage table.

Suddenly, I noticed that Elizabeth had raised her head and was looking directly at me. The emptiness in her eyes was gone and was replaced by something that resembled hatred.

Jeepers, what's going on, I wondered. "Is everything okay Elizabeth?" I asked calmly. She nodded and then slowly smiled. I knew immediately that she was aware that something sinister was approaching us because I felt it too, and so did the dogs. Julia was the only one oblivious to it.

Elizabeth put her head down and continued to smile. My skin tingled from the coolness that seemed to crawl pass me. Then, it was as if something touched my arm and squeezed it, which made me take a sharp inhalation. Julia must have heard me because she looked up at me and asked, "What happened?" When I told her that it was nothing, she simply said, "Can you grab that blanket on the bed and put it on me? I suddenly got the chill."

"Sure," I said, reaching over to the bed to grab the blanket. Moving back towards the massage table, at the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something. I turned my head to get a better look but there was nothing. I told myself to stop and just focus on massaging Julia's neck, with which I was almost done.

I covered the twins’ lower body with the blanket and proceeded to massage Julia's neck. I closed my eyes to discern where this presence might be. It's odd but closing my eyes helps me see things that I can't with my eyes open. Sure enough, as soon as I closed my eyes, I could see that behind me, at the corner of the room on Elizabeth's side, was a being. I could only see a shadow that seemed a little shorter than I, who was standing perfectly still just observing me. The feeling I sensed from it was anger. Perhaps, it was the same anger that I saw in Elizabeth's eyes. Was this entity feeding off of Elizabeth or vice versa? Who knows. At that point, I knew I just wanted to finish the massage and get out of there.

After working on Julia's neck I moved over to Elizabeth. I felt Elizabeth instantly stiffen as I touched both sides of her neck. "Can you take a deep breath in and let it out slowly?" I asked her gently. I waited for a response and got nothing.

I asked again in the same manner, when Elizabeth finally spoke. "No! I don't want to take a deep breath. Take your hands off me,” she sharply demanded. “I didn't even agree to this massage.”

“Elizabeth, stop it,” said Julia immediately.

Startled by Elizabeth’s reaction, my hands jerked away from her like a reflex response. I needed to take several deep breaths before calmly saying, “Well, I don’t want to do anything that would make you feel uncomfortable. I can certainly just work on Julia if that’s what you want.”

“I want you to NOT touch me again. And, I want you out of MY room,” Elizabeth harshly said.

“You promised to be good Elizabeth,” said Julia timidly. “This is my room too and I want her to stay and finish my massage.” Her statement seemed to intensify Elizabeth’s anger.

“Shut up Julia,” hissed Elizabeth.

Yikes! I was so tempted to walk out of the room and go home, but I knew I couldn’t. I felt my body starting to tremble and my breathing slightly quickening. For all I knew, Elizabeth could have been preparing to do a 360 with her head. And, how the heck was I supposed to finish massaging Julia when she shared her body with Elizabeth? There was so much anger in the air that I could feel it enveloping the room. As I stepped away from the massage table to create some distance between Elizabeth and me, I was terrified to see with my peripheral vision that something was standing near Elizabeth’s nightstand. I dared NOT to get a better look at it for fear of becoming immobilized by the sight of it. I just knew that it looked transparent from what I saw and it felt hostile. Suddenly, Cleo and Tony started to bark, which startled me and caused my heart to race.

“Elizabeth, make them stop,” pleaded Julia. I didn’t know whether she was referring to the dogs or whatever it was near the nightstand.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and ignored Julia, while the dogs continued to bark. Before I knew it, I felt something coming close to my back that gave me goose bumps down my arms and legs. Crap! I could hear my heart pounding as I tried to calm myself with my breathing.

“Elizabeth, please stop it!” cried Julia.

Hearing Julia’s plea for the second time made me realize that Julia knew all along what was happening. It made me feel sorry for her, which, thank goodness, distracted me from the fear that was starting to escalate within me. I focused my thoughts on Julia and ignored everything else. In doing so, I felt calmer, which then enabled me to control my fear. I envisioned white light around me and took several deep breaths. After praying for god to help me a few times, I felt more collected and knew that nothing would happen to me.

“Elizabeth, clearly, I’m not welcomed here and it’s not worth it for me to stay. I’m done,” I said in an even, composed voice. I waited for her reaction. When none came, I continued, “I’m going to the bathroom to wash my hands. While I’m in there, you guys can get off the table. I’m sorry Julia.”

Even though I still felt that presence behind me, it wasn’t as prominent. I just prayed that it wouldn’t follow me to the bathroom.

After I gathered my things from the bedroom, Julia apologized to me, which made me feel sorry for her again. She was literally stuck with her disturbed twin. Elizabeth averted her eyes from me, which I preferred. Maureen was neither surprised to see me done early nor upset when I explained that Elizabeth wasn’t interested in a massage. I sensed that she knew what had happened, which made me feel that I wasn’t the first massage therapist to attempt at massaging her daughters. Regardless, I was paid in full for my time.

As I drove away from the house, I thought of Cleo and Tony. I felt bad for them. Not only were they deprived of their walks, which explained their overweight condition, they also had to put up with Elizabeth’s craziness. It was no wonder they had that strange look in their eyes when I initially saw them. I would have that same stress and anxiety reflecting in my eyes if I had to deal with entities born from Elizabeth’s hostility. I concluded that whatever entity was in the bedroom was either an extension of Elizabeth or something she had attracted because of her anger. But what could she be so angry about, and why didn’t Julia have the same issue? I was clueless. Julia must be terrified of her sister. I would be. How was it possible for one to be so different from the other when you shared the same body? Perhaps, it was because they had two separate brains.

So many questions that ran through my mind as I drove home that evening, and no answers to satisfy them. I was just happy I didn’t live in that house and relieved to be out of it.

I had read years ago after that incident that angry teenagers could actually create a poltergeist energy at home. Loud noises or objects being thrown are considered to be poltergeist behavior. While none of those things happened when I was in the twins’ room, who knows what would have happened if I had ignored Elizabeth’s wishes and continued to massage Julia. Besides, what else could explain what I felt and saw in the twins’ bedroom? The fact that I saw a shapeless form near Elizabeth’s nightstand, which I never can do with my eyes open, indicated to me the degree of hostility she had within her that enabled her to project a visible image. At first glance, Elizabeth seemed innocuous judging from her plain appearance alone, while Julia’s dark proclivities in appearance and décor offered the opposite impression. I was certainly fooled, but I was sure that I wasn’t the only one who made the same mistake. Of course, I never heard from Maureen again. But I would hope that she eventually sought help for Elizabeth for the sake of everybody’s sanity in that household.

Thank goodness dogs can never project anything so ominous. They are of pure spirit, and therefore, it is impossible, in my opinion. Dogs who are mean or angry became that way because a human being was responsible for getting them to that state.

Love, love your dogs. If you don’t have one, adopt or save one. Then, on Halloween night, make sure your dogs, especially the black colored ones, of which I have three, are safely in the house. Even though it’s a night of sweets, costumes and merriment, there is always someone demented enough lurking around with evil intentions ready to prey on the unexpected. I hope you enjoyed my tale…my trick and treat to you. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Thank you for visiting and reading my blog. Any comment is welcomed.