The Haunting
Do you believe in haunted houses? No? I must admit that I didn’t either, that is, until we went to live in our previous house. It was a large semi-detached house built sometime in the 1930’s. A very elegant house positioned overlooking a beautiful park full of flowers.
As you might guess, as an author, I have a very vivid imagination and it was to this I attributed the noises and strange happenings in the house. They happened when I was alone. Small things at first, what sounded like birds scuttling across the attic in the middle of the night (quite feasible). A freezing spare bedroom, even when the heating was full on. A weird odour on the landing, that only I could smell. Then the crashes and loud bangs began and they were not so easily ignored. Lights went on and off (again quite feasible) and taps turned on of their own accord. Sounds of a child running around in the bedrooms when our own child was fast asleep, and frequently footsteps on the stairs during the night. You would wonder how three people could live in such a house, all hear the noises, yet say nothing to each other for fear of seeming a fool.
It was the knocking on the bedside cabinet when I went to bed alone that finally drove me downstairs to tell my husband and he admitted to hearing and seeing similar events but saying nothing for fear of unnerving me. Even the dog would no longer go into the bedrooms.
The climax came when I way lying awake one night and I heard the footsteps on the stairs. My husband still slept but a dark figure came into the bedroom and walked around to his side of the bed. I was terrified and just peeped over my husband’s half-turned shoulder. The form stood silhouetted between the bed and the window, then disappeared.
We moved house!
Do you believe in haunted houses? No? I must admit that I didn’t either, that is, until we went to live in our previous house. It was a large semi-detached house built sometime in the 1930’s. A very elegant house positioned overlooking a beautiful park full of flowers.
As you might guess, as an author, I have a very vivid imagination and it was to this I attributed the noises and strange happenings in the house. They happened when I was alone. Small things at first, what sounded like birds scuttling across the attic in the middle of the night (quite feasible). A freezing spare bedroom, even when the heating was full on. A weird odour on the landing, that only I could smell. Then the crashes and loud bangs began and they were not so easily ignored. Lights went on and off (again quite feasible) and taps turned on of their own accord. Sounds of a child running around in the bedrooms when our own child was fast asleep, and frequently footsteps on the stairs during the night. You would wonder how three people could live in such a house, all hear the noises, yet say nothing to each other for fear of seeming a fool.
It was the knocking on the bedside cabinet when I went to bed alone that finally drove me downstairs to tell my husband and he admitted to hearing and seeing similar events but saying nothing for fear of unnerving me. Even the dog would no longer go into the bedrooms.
The climax came when I way lying awake one night and I heard the footsteps on the stairs. My husband still slept but a dark figure came into the bedroom and walked around to his side of the bed. I was terrified and just peeped over my husband’s half-turned shoulder. The form stood silhouetted between the bed and the window, then disappeared.
We moved house!
This article originally appeared at The Long and the Short of It Romance site in July 2008.
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