Near Death Experience

Have you ever been involved in a near death experience?

Well, it's kind of true that your entire life flashes before your eyes. You don't see everything, but you get the feeling of a heaviness, as if your life is being shoved down your throat, catch your breath.

Okay I'm probably overreacting by saying that it was a near death experience, but if you fell down three storeys of spiral staircase in a ruined palace, you would probably die. And that's what nearly happened to me. It wasn't just classic clumsy Holly just tripping over her own feet or twisting her ankle, it was the pigeon. Yes, the pigeon. I was nearly killed by a pigeon at Spynie Palace.

So what happened? How did a pigeon almost kill me?

Well, we went to Spynie Palace during the summer holidays and I decided to climb up the tower (I think it's four storeys tall; it used to be 6). When I got to the top, I rather stupidly gave myself a slight case of vertigo after looking down to the ground before climbing even further up to the viewing platform to take some photos. I took photos and then began the long treacherous descent to my imminent doom.

After going down only one storey, I saw a small room or corridor branching out from the main staircase. I reached for my camera but changed my mind and instead stepped tentatively away from the stairs. I then leant forward to have a little look into the corridor (or room, or whatever it was) when I heard it. The sound that marked the terror to come. There was a dull flapping sound coming from behind the doorway. Seeing as people were quite short back then, the door was only about 6 feet tall. I knew that the flapping was the sound of a pigeon coming towards me, thanks to the multitude that visit our garden, but that didn't mean that I knew what to do. Hundreds of thoughts flashed through my head as it was coming towards me; "Are pigeons like bears?", "Do I make myself look big?", "Do I try to scare it?", "Do I crouch down so it flies past me?", "Do I run away?". I had no idea what to do. My mind was a mess with all of the thoughts swimming about in it; "What are we doing tomorrow?", "I wish I'd climbed the tower at Elgin Cathedral." I have to say that all of this happened within a few seconds, so that's a lot of thoughts to be up there at once. I gave up, took a minuscule step backwards, towards the swirling darkness of the stairs and began to raise my hands to my face as a sound, rather like a wounded animal, escaped my mouth. My legs became weak, and I started to shake. My breath caught in my throat as my heart stopped beating, and I saw straight into it's eyes as everything went dark...

I did fail to mention however, terrifying though it was, there was a gap in the wall, the bottom covered with a fence, where a window was probably situated when the Palace was built.

I stood looking at it as it flew towards me, wings flapping loudly and rather unceremoniously. It started to swerve, so did I, and it flew though the hole in the wall; out into the light, and probably back to it's perch.

I turned and ran; I don't think that there has ever been a quicker exit down a spiral staircase. My breathing was incredibly shallow the whole way down the tower, and when I reached the bottom, I ran towards a ruined wall at the front of the palace, onto which I collapsed while trying to regain some kind of normal breathing pattern and a normal pulse.

I don't think I have ever been more scared in my life and I must admit, I have now become slightly more wary of pigeons (and heights...).