Origin: Cordoba, Spain
The Gold Coins is a ghost story from Spain about a haunted house and a young girl who discovers some hidden treasure in the middle of the night.
The story of the gold coins is an urban legend that can be heard all over the city of Cordoba in Spain. Over the years, it has passed from person to person by word of mouth. According to the legend, in the center of Cordoba, there is an old, dilapidated house that is said to be haunted. The house is very big and has many rooms. All of the floors are covered in black tiles.
Many years ago, it was owned by one of the most important and wealthy families in the city. The family consisted of a man, his wife, and their eight-year-old daughter. They also had a team of servants and maids who lived with them.
One night, when the little girl was lying in bed, unable to sleep, she heard some noises in the corridor outside her room. Being a very curious child, she slowly opened the door of her bedroom and looked out into the long, dark corridor.
At the end of the hallway, she could make out a small figure, crouching down. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was surprised to see a young boy, the same age as herself. He was carrying a lighted candle in his hand and he was lifting one of the small stone slabs on the tiled floor. She watched as the young boy took something from his pocket and placed it beneath the tile. After he replaced the tile, the boy suddenly vanished into thin air.
The girl couldn't believe what she was seeing. She looked back down the corridor and noticed that one of the maids had been peeking out of her own bedroom door and had witnessed the same strange scene. The maid grabbed a candle and came hurrying over to the little girl. They both knew what they had seen. The young boy was a ghost.
Together, they cautiously approached the place where the boy has been crouching. They lifted the tile and discovered that there was a large hole underneath it. Peering down into the hole, by the dim light of the candle, they noticed something glittering.
The maid held up the slab as she lowered the little girl into the hole. The child could not believe what she found. It was a pile of gold coins. Shaking with excitement, she gathered up the coins and handed them to the maid. Then, the maid grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out of the hole. They replaced the tile and it fit back perfectly, looking like it had never been moved.
The maid could hardly believe her luck and the child could barely contain her excitement. Both of them decided that they should keep the discovery of the gold coins a secret. The maid warned the little girl not to mention anything about their find to her parents or the other servants.
The next night, at the same time, the girl and the maid were peeking out of their bedroom doors, eagerly waiting for the ghostly little boy to appear. They watched as the spectral figure made its way down the corridor, lifted a tile, and placed some gold coins into the hole beneath. After he disappeared, the maid lowered the girl into the hole under the slab so that she could retrieve the gold coins.
Night after night, they repeated the same process. It seemed as if the treasure would never end. Each time, by the light of the candle, the girl got down into the small, narrow hole under the tile and gave the coins to the maid, who put them inside a big sack.
One night, the candle was almost finished and the maid lowered the girl into the hole. The light started to flicker. The maid told the little girl to hurry up. She had to get out of the hole before the candle went out because they already had enough money.
She pulled the little girl out of the hole, but at the last moment, one of the coins fell from the child's hands. Without thinking, the little girl jumped back into the hole again. The maid tried to catch her, but in doing so, she let go of the tile and it slammed down, covering the hole.
Suddenly, the candle went out.
The maid began to panic. In the darkness, she tried to make her way down the corridor to her bedroom to fetch another candle. It was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing. She had to feel her way along the wall until she reached her bedroom door. Searching desperately in the dark, she couldn't find any candles.
With a lot of difficulties, the maid felt her way down the darkened corridor until she came to the kitchen. She rummaged through the drawers and eventually came across another candle. She lit it quickly and returned to the corridor.
To her horror, the maid couldn't remember which tile the little girl was under. In the dim light, she searched, prying at each tile, but the corridor was so long and so wide and there were so many tiles that she was unable to find the right one. Finally, she gave up, and clutching her bag of gold coins, she went back to bed.
In the morning, the little girl's parents woke up to find that their daughter had disappeared. They questioned the servants, but each one said they had no idea where the little girl could be. A complete search of the house was organized but it turned up to be nothing. The distraught parents were baffled by their daughter's mysterious disappearance. The maid decided to not say anything about what happened last night.
A few days later, the mother was crying in her bedroom, when she heard a voice calling out. She recognized the voice immediately. It was the voice of her daughter. The little girl was crying out for someone to help her.
"Please, help me! Let me out of here, please!"
The mother searched the house again. Sometimes the screams seemed to be coming from one part of the house, but when she got there, the screams sounded like they were coming from somewhere else. Try as they might, the parents could not pinpoint the source of the screams.
The after dug up the floors, demolished the walls and punched holes in the ceilings, all in an effort to figure out where the girl's cries for help were coming from. After almost destroying the interior of the house, the parents were forced to admit defeat.
For months, they lived in the building, listening to the incessant cries of their beloved daughter, unable to do anything to find her. All of this took its toll on their mental health and physical health. Eventually, the mother lost her mind and ended her life. The father, devastated by grief, moved away and died of a heart attack a few years later.
The people of Cordoba say that this is a true story and the house is still standing today. According to the legend, if you go there at night, they say you can still hear the screams of the little girl, pleading for help. The house has become famous all over Spain and sometimes teenagers visit the place at night to test their courage and see if they can find any gold coins. Others go there to explore the huge building in an attempt to discover where the remains of the little girl are located. As yet, nobody has been brave enough to spend the night there.
The house is now boarded up and the neighbors often call the police because of the strange cries and screams that come from within. They say that when the police arrive to investigate, the only thing they find is an old candle, sitting on an old stone tile in the middle of the floor.