Two Other Short Stories - Maitland Gaol - Pay Back

Pay Back

When I myself (Heath) was at a night tour of Maitland Gaol, the whole time I was there I felt a bad pain in my lower back. I am fairly fit and have never experienced back pain before. I also had not done any exercise that would cause my back to ache. However, the pain in my back was not severe but still rather painful as I walked throughout the gaol complex. This pain simply ceased the minute I left for home.

It doesn't take much imagination to see that that's probably what many of the inmates would have felt. Particularly when it was first used in the days of capital punnishment when the prisoners may have been flogged and forced to do hard labour. I have also noticed, to this day that whenever I read ghost stories or look at ghostly photographs my back begins to hurt in the same place as that night. Is this a spiritual experience or merely a coincidence?