THE ghost KARINA FILES MACHADO
Karina Machado is a journalist, host of the
Spirit Sisters podcast and the author of Spirit Sisters, Where Spirits Dwell and Love Never Dies, a non-fiction series exploring the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people. Now, on The Ghost Files podcast each week, Karina will introduce a guest who’ll share their personal encounter with the spirit world.
HORROR BY THE SEA
After a month’s break, The Ghost Files podcast is back, and what a story we have to kick the year off with! My guest Sophie Tate tells a tale that will have you breaking out in goosebumps, even on the hottest summer’s day.
Back in 2002, Sophie was 24 and working at a dental surgery. With her lease on her St Kilda flat set to expire, she needed to urgently find a new home. Wanting to move closer to her sister, who’d just had a baby, she was looking for a place on the Mornington Peninsula. To her surprise, a place popped up that was cheap, and it had a view to the bay. Bargain of the year, right? Sophie signed the lease, sight unseen.
On the day she moved in, Sophie was delighted with her new, two-bedroom home. “I just don’t understand why it’s so cheap,” she marvelled. “This house must be haunted.” It was a throwaway line, a bit of a joke, but her words proved eerily prescient.
A week later, Sophie invited a friend over – the plan was to have a bite at the house, before heading to the local drive-in to catch a double feature. Laughter and music coloured the air, as the pair chatted and prepared dinner. Then, Sophie happened to glance down.
The word “DIE” was written on her lower leg. “It was under my knee and took up my whole leg, it was big! And perfect solid black,” Sophie recalls, “but the ‘Die’ was white and written in beautiful very, very old calligraphy-style writing.”
This proved to be just the beginning of a haunting which terrorised this unassuming, rational and intelligent young woman for four months. Tune in to The Ghost Files to hear part one of Sophie’s riveting, terrifying story.