The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 5)

Chapter 5 (Underneath the Floorboards)

If it hadn’t been for the fact that I needed to keep a roof over our heads I would have grabbed our things and gotten both myself and Eve out of the house there and then, but I wasn’t in a position to do that. I’d have nowhere to go. My family visited occasionally, but we weren’t particularly close. I hadn’t seen David, my brother, for over a year now. This was our home. However dark and horrible it seemed it still had to be our home.

I had to put my faith in the Doctor.

He had cleared away the picture frame again and shut the door to the middle room as we settled into the front room. He had set up his equipment – some kind of old, 1950’s wireless and a couple of large satellite dishes – and switched them on. Both of the dishes were whirring around, but other than that nothing was happening.

“What does it do?” asked Eve, trying to peer at the device.

“It monitors the area for any signs of disruption to the atmosphere,” said the Doctor, turning around on the spot.

“So it’s like a ghost detector?” asked Eve.

“Sort of,” smiled the Doctor.

“Cool,” she said, looking closer.

“Eve, maybe you should step back from that,” I said. As friendly as they were, I didn’t want Eve interfering in things she shouldn’t.

“She’s fine, Mrs Webster,” said the Doctor, sitting down opposite me on the gold-coloured sofa. “Your daughter has an enquiring mind.”

“Yeah, she’s always sticking her nose into things she shouldn’t,” I smiled.

“I try to stay out of trouble,” she replied.

The Doctor turned back to me. “Emily, I was wondering if you’d help me with something.”

“Of course,” I said, not really knowing what I’d agreed to, “but what about your device?”

“Oh, Holly can monitor it,” he said.

Holly nodded. “We both can,” she said smiling at Eve.

“I’d like to take a look back upstairs. That’s where the first activity was with the tapping.”

“After you,” I said, getting up.

The both of us made our way up the creaking steps and towards the back bedroom. The Doctor glanced momentarily into the bathroom and then opened the back bedroom door.

I wrinkled my nose. It always smelt fusty in there.

“Black?” said the Doctor, arching his eyebrows.

“Some student painted it before we moved in.”

“You moved in years ago,” said the Doctor. “You didn’t want to redecorate?”

“We just never got around to it,” I replied. “I know how lazy that sounds, but we mainly used it as a storage room.”

“Hmm,” he said, kneeling down and examining the floorboards. “So the tapping originated from towards this room.” He felt around the boards and then peered closer at something.

“What is it?” I asked, kneeling beside him.

He held up a straggly object to my face. “Looks like straw to me,” he said.

I looked at it curiously and then spotted his blue eyes looking deep into mine. I smiled at him. “How would straw get up here?”

“Who knows?” said the Doctor. He put the straw back on the floor. “There’s more over there.”

I traced where his finger was pointed and there was indeed more straw. Very small strands of it were dotted around the room and towards the rotting skirting board.

“Do you mind if I lift one of these boards?” he asked, pulling out the same sonic device he’d used earlier from his coat pocket.

“Well, as long as you put it back. I don’t want us getting into trouble with the council.”

“By the sounds of it, Emily, I don’t think they care too much about this place.” He smiled. “But I promise to put it back.”

“Then be my guest,” I said.

He aimed the device at one of the screws and it made an odd, whirring sound. Slowly the rusty old screw came away. He did the same to the other three screws.

“What kind of a tool is that anyway?” I asked.

“A sonic screwdriver,” he smiled, patting the device.

“I could do with one of those. Since Julian’s died I’ve becoming quite the handy woman.”

“I’ll see if I can fix you up with one,” he said, winking at me. “Perks of working for UNIT.”

He put the screwdriver back into his pocket and then forced the tips of his fingers in the gap between the floorboards. With a satisfying crack he tugged the floorboard away. We both peered into the dark, rectangular hole and then looked at each other.

“Oh well,” said the Doctor, rolling up his sleeve and slowing putting his hand into the gap in the floor.

“What are you looking for?” I asked, realising what he was doing wasn’t making much sense.

“Looking for more...aha!” He said. “There’s more straw down here.”

“More straw?” I tried to see inside but he shielded my view, looking concerned, concentrating on what he was doing.

“What on Gallifrey-”

He didn’t finish his sentence. He froze, his eyes full of concern, his brow furrowed. He quickly snatched his hand away from the gap, grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the room.

I nearly tripped over my own feet. “Wait, Doctor, what is it?” I asked, trying to look back at the room as he dragged me out and shut the door with a loud bang.

“Not up here,” he said, still holding onto my hand and guiding me down the stairs.

“What’s all the slamming about?” asked Holly, emerging at the bottom of the stairs with Eve.

“Emily, do you have anywhere you can stay other than here?”

I shook my head. The pitfalls of having family out of town. “No. Nowhere. What’s wrong?”

“Then I’ll give you some money for a hotel room,” he said, going into his blazer pocket.

“No,” I said, snatching my hands away from his and looking at him in frustration. “What’s going on? Why did you drag me out of the room?”

There was a sound from upstairs – a creaking sound. All four of us turned to look up the stairs as the door slowly creaked open.

“There’s nothing there,” said Holly. “Maybe it’s on loose hinges.”

“It’s never done that before,” said Eve, looking worried.

“Please, Mrs Webster, I need you to leave this house right now.”

“No,” I said, folding my arms, “not until you tell me why I need to leave. What happened up there? What did you find under the floorboards?”

“Floorboards?” said Eve, looking nervous now. “Why were you taking floorboards up?”

“Please...” continued the Doctor, a pained expression on his face.

“What did you find under the floorboards?” I asked again. I didn’t like repeating myself, but he was holding back now.

The door upstairs slammed shut and made us jump.

“In the front room,” said the Doctor, ushering us in ahead of him. He took another glance up the stairs and then sat down in the armchair, the rest of us settling down on the sofa. It was barely big enough to fit us all.

“What’s going on, Doctor?” asked Holly, now starting to sound as frustrated as myself.

The Doctor took a deep breath and glanced at the door almost as if he was expecting something to burst through it. “When I put my hand underneath the floorboards I felt more straw so I moved my hand around for a bit and dug deeper.”

“And?” I said, waiting for him to continue.

“Something grabbed my wrist.”

My blood ran cold and Eve moved in close to me.

“You have to be kidding,” said Holly.

The Doctor shook his head. “I wish I was. When I put my hand in the straw an old, woman’s hand grabbed my wrist as if to stop me. Her hands were cold and lifeless.”



“Oh my god,” said Holly, putting her hands to her mouth and looking at myself and Eve. “Your ghost is genuine.”

To be continued...

The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 4)

Chapter 4 (Testing the Waters)

I’d allowed what the Doctor had said to sink in for a few moments and then guided him back downstairs. My mind was racing. A haunting? No, that couldn’t be true. As miserable and cold as this house was it wasn’t haunted. We would have seen something by now.

Now first let me tell you this – I am well and truly a believer of these things. I always have been. When I was a little girl I saw a man in Victorian clothes stood in my best friend, Emma’s, shed at the bottom of the garden. Turns out the housing estate was built on an old cemetery. So, yeah, I believe it those things.

But in my house? No, it just couldn’t be.

“Are we talking about a ghost haunting here?” asked Eve, once the Doctor had filled her in on the revelation.

“What other haunting is there?” asked the Doctor.

“Wait a minute,” said Holly, frowning at him, “you don’t believe in ghosts.”

“It depends on what type of ghost it is,” said the Doctor, “and I’m always willing to open my mind. I’ve seen ghosts created by psychic aliens and ghosts that weren’t ghosts but a family trapped in a dimensional pocket of space and time. Then there are data ghost, shadow ghosts, space ghosts and mind ghosts.”

“So which one is this?” asked Holly.

“Hang on,” I said, holding my hands up yet again, “Aliens? Dimensional what’s?”

“Let’s just put that in the “WE DON’T NEED TO KNOW” box and concentrate on your particular mystery,” said the Doctor.

“So what type of ghost is it?” asked Holly.

“I don’t know,” said the Doctor. “Without it doing more I have no idea. And you definitely haven’t experienced anything else in this house?”

“No,” I replied, trying to think back. “I mean, like I said, it’s always been cold and gloomy, dark and miserable, but nothing else.”

“Looking into the history of the house though,” said the Doctor, “previous tenants haven’t stayed long. It was rented out by the council for many years until it was rented out to you and your husband, yes?”

“Yes,” I said, feeling sad at the thought of him. I wondered what he’d be thinking to all of this.

“So, I can deduce that – potentially – the council wanted this rented out because they couldn’t get people to stay.”

“Look, times were – are­ hard. We were desperate for somewhere to live. We didn’t have time to look into the history of it all.”

“And nothing has happened at all?” pondered the Doctor, tapping his chin.

“Are we safe?” I asked, suddenly feeling very afraid.

“Do you want the truth or a lie?” he asked.

“The truth, obviously.”

“No, you’re not safe,” he said.

I felt my blood run cold. “I’d have preferred a lie.”

“Don’t be silly, mum,” said Eve. She shuffled to the edge of the chair and looked closely at the Doctor. “Do you think we should move out for a while?”

There was a snap, the sound of something sliding down the wall behind us and then the clatter and shatter of glass on the floor.

I jumped, my heart in my mouth, and Eve leapt up, moving over to me quickly.

Holly got to her feet and walked over to the wall. A framed picture of Julian was lying on the floor, the black and white photo of his smiling face slipping out of the broken frame, the glass broken in two.

“How the hell did that happened?” I asked.

Holly’s hand went to the small hole in the wall where the picture hook had been. “It’s been worn away. The whole hook’s come out.” She pressed her finger against the hole and a trickle of dust came away. “Damp,” she said, looking at the Doctor.

“We have to remain calm and level-headed,” said the Doctor. “Not everything that happens is going to be our potential ghost.”

He was right, I thought, nodding and taking Eve’s hand. Still it didn’t make me feel any more comfortable. I got to my feet as Holly went into the kitchen to get a plastic bag to the put the broken glass into.

I took the slightly creased picture of Julian and smiled down sadly at it. I lightly touched his lips and then put it on the dresser beside the window.



The Doctor had left Eve and I alone with Holly, and strangely that made me feel more fearful. I didn’t know who he was, but he seemed to know a little more about these things than your average person. I know what people must be thinking – he could be a crackpot. He could be a lunatic trying to make me believe that there’s a ghost, but I just didn’t get that from him. He seemed genuine. A little odd, but warm and kind hearted.

The girl was the same. While I made us another round of tea, Holly sat with Eve whilst they flicked through one of her teenager magazines.

Holly occasionally smiled and nodded saying odd things like, “I remember them,” or “wow, didn’t he look young.”

I frowned at them whilst I waited for the kettle. I couldn’t help but smile. Holly almost seemed to be not a part of this world. She reminded me of a lifeboat cast adrift in the ocean, floating around and not really going anywhere.

I brought the teas back in and sat down on the armchair as they carried on looking through the magazine.

“I used to fancy him,” said Holly, pointing towards a white-teethed, smiling blonde lad in a white shirt and tight denim jeans.

“Used to?” laughed Eve, looking embarrassed.

“Yeah,” said Holly, scratching her head, “I guess my tastes have changed a bit.”

“Do you have any family here, Holly?” I asked. I was intrigued to know a little more about these two strangers.

“Not around here, no,” she said. “They live in another part of the country. Up north. A town called Huxley.”

“Oh, yes, I’ve heard of it,” I said. Only in passing though. Just one of those names you hear on the news occasionally or when Julian used to watch the football results come in.

“I hope it was for something good,” said Holly, smiling.

I smiled. “So you where just travelling through when you...well, when you detected my ghost?”

Holly nodded. “I was heading back to my friend, actually. The Doctor was taking me to be with her.”

I raised my eyebrows. She was being cryptic. She was friendly, but people being cryptic put me on the defensive.

I think Holly must have seen this because she smiled. “I met someone. A girl, actually.”

“Oh,” said Eve, grinning, “you said your tastes had changed.”

Holly nodded and smiled again. “I’ve never met anyone quite like her.” She seemed to go distant as if talking to herself rather than us. “It’s funny because when we first met I don’t think she could stand me. She was the grumpiest, moodiest cow you’ve ever met.” She laughed at the memory. “And then something just...well, clicked between us.”

I smiled sadly. I knew exactly what she met. I felt it the day I met Julian. I used to work behind the ticket counter at the cinema before it closed on Freeman Street. He came in one night with his friends and bought some tickets and, a little confidently, asked me out on a date. I said no at first, but he insisted and, well, he eventually broke me down.

And he became my world.

“Why isn’t she with you?” asked Eve. For a moment I thought she was talking about Julian and then my focus was back on Holly.

“She had to stay behind in her...city. She needed to reconnect with her mum and dad. It broke my heart.” Holly sighed and leaned back on the sofa. “But I’m going to see her again.”

Eve smiled sweetly at Holly and then her eyes transfixed on something on the wall behind me. The place where the picture frame had been. There was a beat. Just a single moment. And then Eve screamed, her hands to her mouth.

I spun around in my chair and almost toppled off it. The picture frame was back where it had been before and the glass was perfectly intact.

But as if that wasn’t terrifying enough – the picture of Julian had had its eyes gauged out.



It was twenty minutes later when the Doctor returned carrying all sorts of bizarre scientific equipment that looked like it had come straight out of some 1950’s sci-fi movie. We had moved to the front room, away from the back room. It wasn’t necessarily safer here, but the thing with the frame had terrified us all.

Holly had called the Doctor and he had come back almost straight away.

He dumped the equipment in the hallway and we followed him into the living room. He crossed over to the picture frame and touched it, pulling his hand away quickly.

“What is it?” I asked, almost too scared to listen to the answer.

“It’s cold. It’s ice cold,” he said. He rubbed at his wrist and then looked at Eve. “Eve, would you mind taking my equipment into the front room, please?”

“No of course not,” said Eve, glancing nervously at the picture and then moving away.

The Doctor pulled myself and Holly into a huddle and looked at each of us, his voice a hushed whisper. “Listen, I didn’t want Eve to hear this, but something strange happened when I touched the picture frame.”

“You said it was cold,” said Holly.

“It wasn’t just that,” said the Doctor. He exhaled and looked at me. I couldn’t work his eyes out. I felt almost lost in their bright blueness. Then I felt stupid for thinking about anything else other than the picture.

“Well don’t keep us in suspense, Doctor,” hissed Holly.

The Doctor nodded. “When I touched the picture frame, I felt something brush against my wrist. It was only very, very lightly, but it felt like ice-cold finger tips.”

And then my blood ran ice-cold. And the picture fell from the wall again.

To be continued...

The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3 (The Man from UNIT)

I made sure I stayed firmly in the doorway. The pair of them didn’t look threatening, but you can never be too careful. They could have been scammers or sneak thieves or anything.

“I’ve had no problems with my house,” I lied. I wasn’t about to tell them about the weird sounds last night.

“Really?” said the man, scratching his chin.

“Who are you?” I looked to both of them in turn. “Have you been spying on my house?”

“So you did hear tapping,” said the man, clicking his fingers and smiling at the young woman. It was a statement, not a question.

“I didn’t say that,” I replied, “I simply asked who you were and if you’ve been spying on us.”

“By us you mean you and your daughter, yes?” said the man.

My hand was already on the door ready to close it. “I suggest you get off my property now.”

“This house is rented, isn’t it? Meaning it’s the councils property.”

“Doctor,” said the young woman, “why do we always have to skirt around the issue. Why can’t we just come clean from the get go?”

“Because being direct doesn’t always get us believed, Holly,” he said.

“Be direct with me,” I replied.

“Interesting,” said the man she had called the Doctor.

“What’s interesting?” I asked, still getting ready to shut the door.

“I believe that something strange did happen in your house last night.”

“And what leads you to believe that?”

“Because if it hadn’t you’d have not asked us to be direct about things. You want clear and concise answers so you have to be a little bit curious as to what is going on upstairs.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. I’d only known him for two minutes but he had a way about him that seemed to suggest he could get into anyone’s thoughts and feelings.

“Please, Mrs Webster, can we come in?”

“For goodness sake, mum,” came Eve’s voice from back towards the kitchen, “just let them in. You’re letting in a draft.”

“First tell me who you.”

The man called the Doctor sighed. He went into his pocket and pulled out an I.D. card. It looked genuine enough. There was a picture of him on it and “UNIT – Scientific Advisor” written on it.

“My name is Doctor John Smith, but you can call me the Doctor. This young female is my friend, Holly Dangerfield. I’m a scientific advisor to a government organisation called UNIT – sometimes called UNIT:X – and Holly is a former librarian now travelling around with me.”

“And you, what, pay visits to creaking houses?”

The Doctor smiled. “We sort of investigate the unexplained. The strange. The wonderful and the weird.” He looked impatient. “Look, if you don’t believe me I can get a few friends to verify my credentials.”

“No, no,” I said. He seemed genuine enough. Odd, but genuine. “Look, you better come in.”



“So,” said Eve as she put her empty cornflake bowl in the sink, “are they government agents?”

“Not exactly, Eve,” I said, switching the kettle back on the re-boil the water. “But they are here to investigate the strange sound.”

“I knew there was something weird about it,” said Eve, her eyes lightning up.

“Just let me deal with this, okay?” I said. I didn’t want Eve getting involved. She was much too young.

“Okay, okay. I’ll just sit back and listen.”

“I’d prefer you to go to your room.”

“Urggh, no way,” said Eve, “we haven’t found Steven yet.”

I sighed. My daughter certainly took after me – headstrong and determined. “Okay, but you just keep quiet. I don’t quite trust the two of them yet.”

“Yeah, I wonder how they knew about the tapping.”

I poured three cups of tea – the Doctor had requested six sugars in his – whilst Eve opened a packet of chocolate biscuits and popped them on a plate.

After a few moments and sitting, quietly and politely supping on our tea, I put my mug down. “Okay, so what is going on here, and please, as your friend said, can you just be as direct as possible?”

“Okay,” said the Doctor, putting his mug down on the floor. He looked around him. I had put them in the living room rather than our best room. “It’s a very dark room, isn’t it?”

“It always has been. It’s a dark house.”

“Gloomy,” said the Doctor.

“And cold,” said Eve, rubbing her arms. “Mum, is the heating on?”

“It’s September,” I replied, “we can’t put it on yet.”

“But it’s always cold.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, clicking his fingers and pointing at Eve. “It’s always cold. The first sign that something isn’t right.”

“Remember what we said about being direct, Doctor?” said Holly, looking at him.

“Yes,” said the Doctor, sitting back in the chair and nibbling on a chocolate biscuit. “I wish I had more answers to your problems, Mrs Webster, but the truth is I’m experiencing this at the same time as you.”

“But I haven’t got any problems other than the tapping.”

“Which I believe is the start of something,” he said, looking up at the ceiling. “You see, Holly and I were on our way to visit some friends when we noticed something – a signal emanating from your house. It was only a faint blip, but it was enough to register on my equipment.”

“What sort of signal?”

“We don’t know,” said Holly. “It was gone before we even got a chance to analyse it.”

I took another sip of my drink. “So how do you know it’s a problem?”

“We arrived last night actually,” said Holly. “We could hear the tapping from outside.”

“You were creeping about outside?” said Eve.

“Not creeping. We were going to come and see you then but we realise what time it was so thought we’d come back this morning.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, holding my hand up, “back up a bit. How did you hear the taps from outside?”

The Doctor went into his jacket pocket and pulled out a metal, tubular device with a glowing end. “This amplifies sound waves. I simply aimed it at the house and listened.”

“So you did spy on us?” said Eve.

“Eve I asked you to be quiet.”

Eve sat back in the chair with a huff and folded her arms.

“All for your protection, we promise,” said Holly. “Believe it or not I don’t really want to be here. It’s stopping me from getting where I need to be.”

“Do you mind if I take a look upstairs?” asked the Doctor, getting to his feet.

“Well, no, but there’s nothing to see. Really it was just some odd tapping.”

“Rhythmic and continuous and very precise. Yes, I heard. May I?”

I had nothing to lose so led him upstairs whilst Holly stayed downstairs with Eve, who was becoming increasingly grumpy at being left out of the situation. When we reached the top of the stairs the Doctor immediately went to the back bedroom, but he didn’t go inside. Instead he just placed his hand on the wall and smiled.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Look,” said the Doctor, moving his hand away. “You wouldn’t have seen this in the dark last night. You wouldn’t have seen it this morning because you weren’t looking, but if you look hard you can see it now.”

“See what?” I asked, peering at the wall. And then I saw it. It was only very slight, but to my astonishment there was an indentation in the wall. A small, dint as if something had hit it with a force that was enough to cause the dint, but not enough for it to be a bigger one. “What is that?”

“Look,” said the Doctor, pointing down the landing wall, past Eve’s door and towards my bedroom door.

I followed his pointing and gasped. I moved in for a closer look. All along the wall, in a straight line, was a row of indentations.

“But...I don’t understand.”

Right next to my bedroom door was a bigger indentation. The one caused by the WHACK before it all ended.

“Still think it was just random house noises?” he said, raising his eyebrows.

“But...is it electrics going off or something within the wall maybe?”

“No, Emily,” said the Doctor, shaking his head at me. “Something has caused these dints from the outside. Something that was striking the wall over and over again. Last night, in the darkness, whilst you and your daughter tried to sleep, something walked up this landing hitting the wall over and over again until it reached your bedroom.”

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “It’s impossible.”

“Is it, Mrs Webster?” he said, taking me by surprise by using my surname. “You say this house is always cold. It’s always dark. It feels gloomy. It is gloomy.” He looked right into my eyes, his nose just centimetres away from mine. I could smell the peppermint toothpaste on his breath. “Mrs Webster, I very much think that you have the beginnings of a haunting here.”

To be continued...

The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2 (Tap Tap Tap)

So, the day that Natasha left, a day after Eve’s thirteenth birthday, was the first night of weirdness. And I say weirdness because that’s all we made of it early on.

I was fast asleep in bed when I heard a yelp from Eve’s room. My eyes flicked open and I frowned. Then I heard her shuffling around in her room.

“Eve?” I called out.

She yelped again and I heard a very light sob.

“Hold on, sweetheart,” I said, getting into my dressing gown. Although it was still September it was always cold in the house.

I switched the light on and made my way down the landing and into her room. I switched the light on where I found her standing in the corner on a small wooden stool with her hands held up to her mouth, her eyes scanning the floor.

“What’s up, sweetheart?” I asked.

She looked at me. “I think a spider just ran across my arm,” she said.

Eve was terrified of spiders (aren’t we all?) and I didn’t fancy the prospect of having to go searching for one at this hour.

“Are you sure it was a spider and not just a dream?”

“I felt it, mum. It ran across my arm.”

“Maybe the covers slipped across your arm-”

“It was a spider,” said Eve.

“Okay, well I can’t see anything,” I said, looking all over her cream carpet for any sign of the eight-legged fiend. “It might have even run out the door when I came in.” I shuddered at the thought of the spider running to my room.

“Or it could be in the bed?” said Eve. “Jenny Craven says that they can live in your mattress.”

“Well Jenny Craven also says that aliens abducted her grandma one Christmas Eve.”

“But what if it’s true?” said Eve.

I could see she was clearly terrified. She took after me with regards to the arachnophobia.

“Look, I tell you what – why don’t you come in my bed tonight then in the morning I’ll get the hoover out and we’ll have a good luck for Steve.”

“Steve?” Eve frowned.

“Steve the Spider. It’s a stuffed toy you used to have when you were six.”

“Urggh, I remember!” said Eve. “I hated that thing then as well.”

“So what do you reckon? Is it a deal?”

Eve glanced around her room again, jumped down from the wooden stool and ran over to me. Teenager or not, she was still my little girl and I was the only one to protect her from the big, bad spider.

“Deal,” said Eve, looking up at me hopefully.

So we shut her room, put a large draft excluder along the bottom of the door (just in case Steve decided to escape) and we made our way to my room.

It was strange. I’d gotten so used to sleeping on my own for the last six years that having someone else beside me again made me uncomfortable. Eve drifted off after about ten minutes of telling me what else Jenny Carven had frightened her with whilst I lay there, staring up at the darkness. All I could make out was very, very faint outlines of things.

It must have been getting on for around 3am when I started to finally drift off. Or at least I would have done if I hadn’t heard the sound. I didn’t make anything of it at first and just assumed it was the house cooling down, but this wasn’t the normal creaks and groans that a house usually makes. This was more rhythmic and continuous.

It started off as a light and gentle tapping from somewhere towards the back of the house. Towards the back bedroom. I frowned as I tried to concentrate on the sound. It was definitely a tapping – like someone tapping a stick on the wall.

My first thought went back to Steve the Spider but I dismissed that straight away. Steve wouldn’t make a sound like that.

No, this was definitely something like a stick. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap somewhere on the wall near the upstairs bathroom. I continued to listen as the sound repeated over and over again. I was about to get out of bed and go and look when something made me stop.

The sound was getting closer.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap came the sound. It had moved from near the bathroom and was now on the wall running down the side of Eve’s bedroom.

I glanced at Eve, remembering it was dark and I couldn’t see her anyway, but she was still fast asleep. I could hear her gentle breathing.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. It was starting to worry me now. Was it a mouse in the wall or something? I quickly went to my bedside lamp and flicked the switch. The bedroom was bathed in a warm, golden glow and I blinked rapidly in the light.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

“Eve, wake up, sweetheart,” I said, gently shaking her.

“What...?” said Eve, opening her eyes slowly and then screwing them shut again. “Mum?”

“Wake up, Eve,” I said.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. The sound was getting nearer to my room. Now you have to understand how my room is laid out. It wasn’t my idea, it was Julian’s, but when he passed away I couldn’t bear to change it. The head of the bed is against the inner wall so that the bed faces the two windows that look out over the grass front and railway. So, in other words, my head is always right next to the wall leading into Eve’s room. So right at this point the sound was getting closer and closer to my head.

“What is it?” asked Eve, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. “Did you find the spider?”

“No, not Steve,” I said. “Can you hear that?”

Eve listened out.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

“What is that?” asked Eve, trying to concentrate on the sound.

“I don’t know but it’s getting closer.” I got out from under the covers and slipped my fluffy pink slippers on.

“Well it can’t be anything too serious,” said Eve, looking worriedly at me.

“No, but it doesn’t sound right.”

Tap, tap, tap, tap. The Sound was now right behind my bed. I frowned and put my hand to the wall. I jumped back as it tapped again. I could feel the gentle vibration through the wall.

“Mum?” said Eve, looking worriedly at me.

I backed away from the wall and towards the bedroom door. I put my hand on the cold, brass doorknob and was about to turn it when...

WHACK! came the cracking of the stick on the wall.

Eve jumped and let out a yelp. I went as white as a ghost and yanked the door open that fast I thought I was going to pull it off its hinges.

And there was nothing there. Nothing at all.

“What was it?” asked Eve, making sure the bed covers were up to her chin.

“There’s nothing,” I said, feeling around the wall for any clue as to what could have caused the sound.

“Maybe...maybe it was just the house. Maybe the house is creaking.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, realising Eve was looking a little close to being terrified. “Maybe, sweetheart,” I said.

I closed the door, took off my slippers and got back into bed. I kissed Eve goodnight again and pulled the covers up as high as I could. That night we slept with the light on. I couldn’t explain the sound and my fear was completely irrational, but something about it wasn’t right.

Something about it was frightening. And that sound was just the start of it.



The following morning we were sat at the kitchen table. It was a Saturday so the both of us had the day off. Eve was busy tucking into her cornflakes with too much milk poured on them and I was spreading butter on a slice of burnt toast.

Neither of us had spoken about the sound the previous night, but it was clearly still playing on both of our minds.

I was just pouring myself a cup of coffee when there was a knock at the door. I looked at Eve, whose head was buried in a teen girl magazine and put the kettle down. I went to the door, unlocked it and opened it to two strangers.

Standing there was a man in a suit and tie wearing a long, grey coat. He had the remnants of a beard, short, dark hair and piercing blue eyes. He was quite handsome and smiled when I looked at him. By his side was a girl in her early to mid twenties. She was wearing a red and white polka dot dress, leather jacket and had her long, dark hair tied into a ponytail. She had dark eyes and a beautiful smile.

“Hi,” I said, folding my arms. “Can I help you?”

“I think we can help you actually, Mrs Webster. Or may I call you Emily?” asked the man. He had a Scottish accent.

“I don’t understand. Help me how?”

“Tell me, Emily,” continued the man, “have you had a problem with tapping in your house?” He raised his eyebrows.



And that’s when everything changed.

To be continued...

The Haunting of Mrs. Webster (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1 (The Dark House)

I remember the day I first realised something wasn’t quite right with this house. It was one August Bank Holiday Monday about eight years ago. Julian and I had just moved in from our old house and Eve was only six years old. When we’d sign the tenants agreement I was cross with Julian because he’d not even let me see it before hand. I’d trusted his judgement though. But the first time I stepped into it I knew something was a bit off.

It was too dark. Too cold.

We’d sold our old house. It was in a rough area of the town and I didn’t want Eve growing up around there. There were street fights and gangs and burnt out cars. It was horrible. The area we’d moved to was much nicer, and the rent was pretty cheap. I should have realised something was up then. It’d had people living in it over the years, but nobody stayed for very long. In hindsight we should have gone out and actually bought a new house instead of renting, but we needed to save up for the one we really wanted on Maple Avenue, so this was really just a stop-gap until then.

The house we rented was on a leafy avenue with a small footpath in front of it, a public grass lawn and then an old wooden fence, beyond which lay the train line. Perhaps the train noise was why it was so cheap. I don’t know. I’d soon find out though.

I first set foot in the house the day after signing the tenancy agreement. I went on my own as Julian was working and Eve was at school. The moment I opened the door I could feel the cold coming from the inside. The hallway led to the stairs and to the left was a first door leading to a front room and a second door leading to the middle living room. The staircase led up to a back bedroom, bathroom, middle bedroom and front bedroom. Again, it was very dark. It got worse the further you walked into the house. The middle living room was the darkest with a single window looking out down the side of the house. The kitchen was basic with only a few cupboards fixed to the walls, cracked kitchen tiles, and at the back was the toilet and downstairs bathroom.

That was the only luxury – two bathrooms in one house.

But, it was home. Or at least it was a house that we had to turn into a home. Regardless we had no choice. We had a house, it was away from the bad area and we had to carry on. It’d only be for a year or so anyway.

I didn’t see Julian too much in the last few months. He was busy working away. He worked for a construction company dealing with architects and he was forever out of town, staying in hotels through the week and coming home at the weekend. It was a strain on us as a family, but we got by. I just worked short shifts as a dinner lady at Eve’s school. It didn’t pay well, but it helped with the day to day living and the ongoing saving.

In those first few weeks I’d set out to decorate the house, stripping it’s dark, burgundy wallpaper and putting it something more brighter – creams and light blues. Pastel colours. Anything to brighten the place up a bit. It didn’t seem to work though. The darkness still seemed to hang over the house.

I made the front room our best room seeing as though that let in the light more than the others. The middle room was used to spend our family time together. Upstairs the front bedroom was mine and Julian’s and the middle bedroom was Eve’s. We were going to put her in the back bedroom, but something didn’t sit right with me. Someone at some point had painted it in black. Even the floorboards were black. We reckon druggies had stayed here at one point as there were all sorts of graffiti over the walls. I had made a note to paint it pure white as soon as possible.

But, again, there was something not right about that room. I remember standing in there one day looking out over the kitchen roof below and into the garden. Eve came to the doorway but wouldn’t come in any further. When I touched her to take her hand to show her a cat playing in the tree at the bottom of the garden she felt cold and pulled away.

So we carried on and we made our way and just got on with life. The house never felt right, but it wasn’t anything like what we would come to experience later on. It just felt lonely.

And then I lost Julian.

Strangely the day I got the phone call from his manager was the brightest it had ever looked in the house. It was a glorious summer’s day and Eve had just turned seven. She was out playing on the grass on the front with the neighbour’s kid and I was doing the ironing in the front room, keeping an eye on her, when the phone rang.

“Mrs Webster?” came the voice.

It was a voice I recognised, but couldn’t quite place it.

“Yes, who’s this?” I asked, checking I had switched the iron off.

“It’s Jonathan Danby – your husband’s boss.”

I smiled. That’s where I’d remember the voice from. We’d met each other at the works Christmas party the other year. “Yes, Mr Danby, it’s nice to speak to you again. Is there anything wrong?”

“Yes, I’m not sure how to break this to you, but...well, I’m afraid there’s been the most terrible accident.”

There are those moments in your life when you feel like the entire world is closing in around you. You feel like your heart is being crushed inside your chest and you’re being compressed to a tiny dot of nothingness.

There had been an accident somewhere between Sheffield and Manchester. Julian had been on the way to work that morning. I’d kissed him goodbye. He’d kissed Eve goodbye and that was it. It was a normal, Monday morning like any other. I knew I wouldn’t be seeing him again until Friday evening, but it had become the norm for me now. I’d gotten used to it.

But now I knew I’d never see him again. There had been a twenty-car pileup on the M62. Julian had been caught in the middle of it all. His car had been hit from behind. His airbag hadn’t deployed and he’d flown through his front window and hit the back of the car in front of him. The head wound had been that traumatic that it had killed him instantly.

Strangely, after I’d received the phone call from Mr Danby, I’d returned to my ironing, staring out at Eve as she played with her friend. How was I going to tell her this? How was I supposed to tell her that her Daddy was never coming home again?

But I told her. Eventually. After a few days. When Friday night came around and she realised he wasn’t home.

She didn’t quite understand what I was telling her. She was only seven. She frowned and played with the hair on her Barbie doll, but she didn’t process it. She was bright, but how does a child process the news that they are never going to see their Daddy again?

But time passed. We continued on. We forged ahead as we always had done. My parents visited and then went back home to Dorset. My brother came for a few days and then he too went back home to Doncaster. I got a second job in a supermarket to help pay for the mortgage and I had to get a nanny in as well to look after Eve when I wasn’t there.

It was a difficult life. A difficult six years with different nannies and different jobs, but we gathered the pieces together and held on as long as we could.

But the house seemed to get darker and darker. With each passing day the light seemed to diminish more and more.

Despite how dark those horrible days, months and years were they didn’t prepare me for what happened after.

I remember the day it first started. It was Eve’s 13th birthday. The latest nanny, Natasha, had told me she had been offered a job at a playschool and did she mind if she handed her notice in. We were sad to see her go, but I couldn’t deny the woman an opportunity like that. She had been good for Eve, but Eve was getting older now. My little girl was about to become a teenager.

“Mum, I don’t need a babysitter anymore,” said Eve as stood at the door waving Natasha goodbye.

“I thought you liked Tash.”

“I did, but she was more like a friend to me.”

I looked at her and smiled. She looked just like me – strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes and a collection of freckles around her nose, but somewhere deep in those blue eyes I could see her father. I could see Julian. And his persuasiveness had come out in her as well.

“So who is meant to look after you when I’m at work?”

“I can look after myself.”

“The law states-”

“Oh, come on mum,” smiled Eve, “we all know what the law says, but we all know that parents never follow it. When you’re at work I’m at school and then by the time I come back from school you’re only away for another couple of hours.”

“But in those two hours-”

“It’s two hours, mum.” She took my hand and smiled. “Besides, think about how much money you could save.”

It was true. I couldn’t deny that. Paying the nanny every week had drained my bank account. What little money we had didn’t go very far after bills and food and necessities.

Eve looked up at me hopefully. “I promise I will lock myself in the house until you come home. I promise.”

I shook my head. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to do. I don’t know. But I couldn’t deny it. There was no chance of buying Maple Avenue now Julian was gone. We needed to make a saving somewhere, and two hours was nothing. Eve would be fine. The neighbours could check up her as well.

“Okay,” I said, as she jumped up and down in delight, “but no wild parties.”

“Wild parties?” she laughed, closing the door, “in two hours?!”

“You never know,” I laughed back.

I reckon that was the last time the two of us laughed together. In hindsight I should have gone with the law. Gone with my instinct, but hindsight is a very wonderful thing, and nobody could have predicted what would have happened next.



And still the house seemed darker.

To be continued...