Dreamscape

by Philip R Benge

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  It was a cold Saturday afternoon, the sky was full of what could easily be snow clouds, when the ghost seekers arrived en masse at the old Victorian house, all were well wrapped up in an attempt to stay warm, although several of them were shivering in the icy breeze that blew via Siberia, along the street and towards the front of the house. Once there Mr Hillmore had everyone sign a waiver declaring that Paranormal Investigators.Com would not be responsible for any injuries that occurred at the haunted house over the weekend. Mr Masters and Ms Lang assumed that it was all part of the entertainment and promptly signed, as for Inglis and his team, this only made their weekend ghost hunting seem all the more promising. The ghost hunters found the inside of the house warmer than they had expected, for the caretaker had prepared a roaring coal file to greet them. They were then all shown to their rooms, and Rob noticed that the caretaker had been busy, for some of the dust and cobwebs have been removed from the hall and staircase. When everyone had dropped off their overnight bags in their cold rooms, they gathered around the fire in the large sitting room on the ground floor.

  Both Masters and Lang kept well clear of Rob, fearing another electricity storm or worse, so they both lingered by the door that led into the entrance hall. They both recognised the house the minute they had seen it, but Moira was controlling them, so they entered the house very much against their will.

  The five students and their professor were in a group together and were a real mixture; Donald Lewis, a first year student studying physics, Maxine Reynolds, a classics student, of course Norma Percival was there, she was studying mathematics and Colin Timpson, who was studying architecture. Alistair Marchmount, was also there, he was studying chemistry and was looking around for the beautiful Satanist amongst the other people standing in the room waiting for the show to commence. He recognised Rob of course and Masters and Lang, but he said nothing, he merely smiled to himself.

  All of the students were engaged in excited conversation, although they occasionally looked over at Father Pritchard, seeing him as a quaint being, one from a bygone age perhaps. The two employees of Paranormal Investigators.Com now officially welcomed them all and handed out plans of the house. Mr Hillmore looked a little uneasy when he looked across at Rob and Father Pritchard, but shrugging off his concerns he launched into his spiel, telling everyone the history of Themis House.

  “Welcome to Themis House everyone, a strange name for a house, Themis I believe was a Greek goddess. The house was built in 1845 and belonged to the Stewart family, and it was with their untimely deaths that the haunting began. One of the two children, Mildred, was the first to die, she was found outside the house, in the garden. It appeared that she had fallen from an open second floor window, although up until that time the window was said to be jammed shut and in need of repair; however, it was put down as a tragic accident. The second child, Mark, was found drowned in his bath tub, yet another terrible accident. The parents were found a week later, the woman had been shot by her husband with a hand gun, he then hanged himself from the bannister rail at the top of the house.” Hillmore stopped here to see if his audience were sufficiently awed by his tale, and seeing that they were he continued.

  “Since then a number of ghostly sightings have been reported, only last month the daughter, Mildred, was seen by the local vicar no less, he saw the young girl laying spread-eagled upon the ground beneath an open second storey window. When he drew nearer to the spot where she lay he could see no trace of the girl, although he did claim to see blood sinking into the ground, however when the local constabulary investigated it they could find no sign of the dead girl or of any blood, spooky isn`t it.” Hillmore again waited to see how his audience were reacting to his short talk, and they appeared to be taking it hook line and sinker. So he went into the finale of his spiel, but only when silence once again fell upon the assembled people.

  “There have been other sightings of course, through one of the first floor windows, a widow saw what looked like a body hanging from the upper storey banisters, as before no trace of it was found. The locals have always kept clear of the house, claiming to have seen lights turning on and off, and devil`s footprints have mysteriously appeared in the soil of the small flowered plots beneath the living room windows which are visible from the gates, only to disappear when investigated by the local constabulary. All in all it promises to be an exciting weekend for all of us.” Hillmore said beaming at his audience.

  “If I might add a note of caution after Mr Hillmore`s scintillating talk.” Professor Inglis said. “The four of you who are not part of our scientific group, please do watch out for our cameras and other scientific instruments, especially if you are about at night, when the only lights showing will be a few night lights which we will have placed around the house. They will be there to facilitate easy movement when we make our hourly checks on our apparatus.”

  With the introductory talk over, Masters and Lang, the only two customers who were not part of the scientific group, not counting Rob and Father Pritchard who they studiously avoided like the plague, went off together to make a tour of the house, they both had their floor plans held before them so as to guide them around the house.