~ Julia Stone ~

ulia Stone lives in a room at the top of an ancient tower which still stands in the Asdown Forest district of Sussex, in the south of England.
A portrait of her hangs in the room; it depicts an old, withered and white-haired woman. there is an evident feebleness in her body, but a dreadful exuberance and vitality shine through the envelope of the old flesh, an exuberance which is wholly malign, and she shows a vitality which foams and froths with unimanginable evil. Evil beams from the narrow, leering eyes, and a wicked laughter comes from her demon-like mouth. The whole face has some secret and appalling mirth. The hands, clasped together on the knee, steem to shake with suppressed and nameless glee. The signature of the painting, on the bottom left-hand corner, states "Julia Stone by Julia Stone."
No one can remove the painting from the room in the tower. To begin with, it is so heavy that even three strongly built men cannot life it off its hook. The painting, furthermore, cuts the hands and limbs of all those who attempt to remove it from its place, and, even though the cut is never visible, there is considerable bleeding. Visitors to the house, who were forced by circumstances to sleep in the room at the top of the tower, were so frightened by the portrait of Julia Stone they wished it removed despite all the difficulties.
Julia Stone is said to appear at night, dressed in some close-clinging white garment, spotted and stained with mold. She attacks her victims, usually men, by pinning them down to the bed with her superhuman strength and sucking their blood from the side of the neck. Whenever she appears there is a foul smell prevading the room, and her portrait hangs back on its hood as if it had never been moved.
The local chronicles, which can be found in the local church, tell of the attempt that was made three times, many years ago, to bury the body of a certain woman who had committed suicide. On each occasion the coffin was found in the course of a few days again protruding from the ground. After the third attempt, in order that the thing should not be talked about, the body was buried elsewhere in unconsecrated ground. The chosen ground was just outside the iron gate of the garden belonging to the house where this woman had lived. She has committed suicide in the room at the top of the tower in that house. Her name was Julia Stone.













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