by G L Davies
Lisa: A few years after Mum blessed the house little things started to happen. Nothing serious but little things, which in hindsight might be related. Things some people, that are sceptical, can easily explain away. But you have asked that I remember as much detail as possible no matter how small. That house was quite a modern build, I’m not sure maybe the fifties, but the council had been there over the years fixing the guttering or installing new heating or electrics. The house was pretty much well looked after and I always kept it clean and tidy and Tyler is as good as gold always tidying up after himself, it’s good that he has pride himself that way. Anyway, one night I’m in bed and I hear a big thud up above me, I was just dropping off and it did frighten me. I sat up and I thought that maybe one of Tyler’s old toys or a box of Christmas decorations had fallen over up there. It was around 11 p.m. and I just thought it is what it is and there’s nothing more I can do and that I will have a look in the morning before work.
I lie back down and a few minutes later another thud and I’m thinking what the shit is that? Maybe a bird is nesting up there, but then I think perhaps the old neighbours are putting things in their attic and it’s just the noise from that. So I ignore it again and a few moments later directly above me another big thud. I sat up and put on the light, put on my dressing gown, headed onto the landing and stood under the attic door. I think I half expected to see the attic door fly open and some grey skinny arms reach out towards me. Nothing happened and I went back to bed and there was nothing more that night.
Tyler: One night, I was about eleven I think, I was in bed and I saw the landing light on through the crack in my door. I could hear someone on the landing. I got up and mum was stood there just staring up at the ceiling. I asked her what time it was and she told me to hush, she just grabbed my hand and she held it so hard, she was so cold to the touch. I asked again, she just shook me and hushed me again. Then I heard it. In the attic we kept all my old toys. All my toddler stuff and one of them was a plastic piano, battery operated and you could hear it playing upstairs. It was right above us. Not the auto beat or a programmed tune, just two or three chords played slowly and deliberately. It was Dum Duh Duh, Dum Duh Duh. Like a sad slow old song. I asked mum again, she looked at me cross and the noise stopped. She sent me back to bed, when I asked her about it in the morning she said she had taken care of it and there were three or four rubbish bags in the hall. She said not to tell Nan and that it wouldn’t happen again.
Lisa: I know we live in a built up council estate but we are towards the end of this one and it’s a dead end. You can hear cars and occasionally you can hear an ambulance or a police car in the distance, but we are at the end of the street and we are attached to some old people that we never really hear. At the end of our road are some fields and woods. In the summer, if the windows are open, you can hear Barbeques and parties from people in the street, but it’s a peaceful enough place. That night with the toy piano upstairs, I woke up thinking I could hear a radio or something on, I heard this tune playing upstairs in the attic. I was terrified and after what had happened before with the bloody finger-marks I started to think maybe this house was really haunted and that Mum hadn’t helped at all. I must have stood on that landing for twenty minutes just listening to that tune with my spine tingling and all my hair stood up on end. Tyler woke up and we stood there and listened till it stopped. I put him back to bed and I went back to my room. I found it so hard to sleep, I just lay on my back starring at the ceiling and imagining all this crazy shit happening up there. I imagined ghosts creeping around, messing with Tyler’s old toys and the things we kept up there. I imagined them listening to us, laughing at us that they scared us so much, that as soon as it got dark they would come out and haunt us. I eventually fell into an uneasy sleep that night and woke up that morning and it was about seven. Tyler was still asleep and I thought I could give him longer today as he woke up in the night. I went to the loo and thought, fuck it, this is my house, if things want to piss about then I’ll make it hard for them. When you’re tired and scared you think some strange thoughts.
I got dressed and I went up in the attic and cleared most of it out. Tyler wouldn’t need his old toys anymore and I wasn’t planning on having any more kids, besides, if I did then I would just get new things. While I was up there I found the little toy piano, under a bin bag full of Christmas tinsel. I picked it up expecting it to start playing or to be freezing cold or something odd but nothing happened. I turned it over and the panel on the back where the batteries went was missing and there were no batteries in it. There was no other toy like it up there and people can say that maybe it somehow retained its charge but really? It would play for twenty minutes on a bit of charge? I binned it, binned all of the old toys. I threw them into bin bags and chucked them out for the bin men. We never heard the piano again up there.
Tyler: After the piano in the attic night, I remember waking up in the night and I could hear someone singing. I thought Mum had the T.V on. At this time she didn’t have a boyfriend and it was just us two. I thought maybe it was the old man next door. I listened for ages to this singing. I couldn’t make out the words but I definitely heard it. I got up and stood on the landing and I could hear it above me in the attic. I got frightened and I went into mum’s room, I was really scared and mum was just sat there with the light on looking at the ceiling. She looked at me and motioned for me to come to her and I just hugged her and she held me there stroking my hair. She was shaking and we both waited there on the bed and then the singing suddenly stopped. I slept in Mums room that night. It was such a creepy experience. It gives me goose bumps now telling you about it. I know worse things have happened but that was so creepy.
Lisa: The singing in the attic was a slow sad song. It was a man singing it, I’m sure of that, it was like those songs they sang in the olden days. Queen Victoria days. It was really slow and sad. I couldn’t make out the words but you could hear it upstairs in the cold and dark attic. Thinking of that night makes me feel so sad. I’m not sure if it’s just because whatever was up there was spreading sadness through the house, into Tyler and my life or because I realised things were never really going to be happy in this house, that we were not alone. Tyler was really brave that night; I have no idea what I would have done without my brave little man. I was tempted to just take him and go to Mums but part of me didn’t want to admit to mum I was scared. I knew if I talked to her about all this that she would just say that’s it ok, that we live close to the spirit world and these events, this haunting was just as natural as breathing, plus she would just do another blessing. I didn’t want her here, involved all the time as I knew she loved it, she relished all of this. It was proof enough to her that she was right. It sounds selfish but I didn’t want her to have that proof. I didn’t want her to be right. I just wanted a life without ghosts and aliens and angels and the supernatural. I wanted a Normal life with Tyler. I know there was naughty boy when Rose and I were little but we were little and who knows what we saw and felt back then, it was a long time ago. O.K? Maybe I thought the finger marks were something else, maybe somehow I had done it. I didn’t want a haunted house, I just wanted a warm and bright home for me and my son and any parent out there I hope would want the same. What I wanted and what I got were two very different things though.
Tyler: I just remembered that before anything strange would happen I would hear a ticking like a clock in the living room. We didn’t have a clock in there but you would hear it for a few minutes and then that same day or night something strange would happen. It was just a tick, tick, tick. I heard a clock like it in an old antiques shop I popped into when I needed furniture for my flat but it was far too expensive in there. In there was an old brown wooden clock, it had a round face and the numbers were in a roman style and I listened to it for ages as it reminded me of the ticking I could hear at Mums over those years. The man there said it was fifty pounds and that it was made in the nineteen twenties. I should have bought it but it
was too expensive for me, nearly a week’s rent for a clock. Maybe I should have found out more about it but then again maybe it was just a clock. You look for answers all the time after you have experienced what we have. You look for clues and connections anything that could help give us answers. You see horror movies where an item is returned and the hauntings stop or they find a body and give it a burial and it finds peace and the ghost is thankful and never returns. You look for things like that, that is why we contacted you. Maybe you or someone reading this will be able to help us understand what has been happening to us. Maybe someone out there reading this knows exactly what is happening and can tell us how to end this. One thing I think about a lot these days is, what kind of ghost sits up in an attic singing and playing Piano? Why would it do that? What a fucking weirdo.
Lisa: I have never heard a ticking in this room but Tyler said he has heard it and some other people said they have. Strange that I have been here all this time and never heard it.
Tyler: When I was about thirteen, Mum was downstairs watching T.V and I was in the bath and in the bathroom the room filled up with the smell of shit, like that really bad smell I smelt when I was a kid and the room went icy cold. It was awful, I thought the drains were blocked, I was nearly sick. I got out of the bath and put on a towel and I unlocked the bathroom door and I went to open it and it was still locked, I checked the lock, the smell was suffocating by now and the cold was so intense but the door could not open. I had to yank the handle down and as soon as I stepped foot on the landing the cold and smell were gone. I half expected Mum to be stood there holding the handle as a joke or something but she wasn’t. She’s not much of a prankster to be honest. It reminded me of the day I thought I saw that smelly dirty man on top of the stairs. By this time I was convinced without a shadow of a doubt that the house was haunted.
Lisa: As Tyler got older I started working more shifts to get money in. Tyler was eating me out of house and home and he always needed new trainers or a new video game or something or other but as I said I didn’t mind working at all, I really enjoyed it there. I met some new friends and I get to deal with the public a lot. One guy would come in and be friendly and chat with me. He was very handsome and one night, on a staff girls’ night out, I met him. He bought me a drink and was very complimentary towards me. His name was Leon, he was a bit older than me, a short Mediterranean looking guy with loads of amazing tattoos and we just hit it off. He was working down here on the refineries and was from up north, he had no family down here and he asked me on a date. I hadn’t been on a date in years! Not since Ian all those years back. People can judge me all they want, but I put Tyler first all those years. I saw Leon a few times and one night we went for dinner, we had some wine and I asked him back to mine. Tyler was staying over at Mums, I would not dare bring anyone home while Tyler was there. Not that I was ashamed of him or anything as I was very open that I had a son and that I had been on my own for years, but it was not fair on Tyler to see men coming home, sharing my bed, leaving in the morning. I always thought if it worked out proper then I would introduce Tyler and maybe have a day out together so we could all get along.
Anyway, I took Leon home and we were sat on the sofa, he said to me, can I kiss you? I just melted and we kissed. It was an amazing feeling to be desired again even if he just wanted me for one thing, I could live with that. I took him upstairs and I thought it’s been so long that it’s probably scabbed up! Only messing, I’d be O.K as I had been using my vibrator that week in anticipation! It was amazing, it was worth the wait and he was so passionate and so experienced. He did things to me that I had never had done to me before. The last time that I had intimacy like that I was just a teenager, it was clumsy and rough, now I was a woman and he treated me like one. After we came, I lay there and he got up to use the loo, he came back and asked if there was anyone else in the house. I said no, that I wouldn’t have made the noises I did if there were and I asked ‘why?’ He said he thought he’d saw a man popping into the other bedroom. I said that was strange and we both went and checked. There was no one there, I checked the front and back door and both were locked. Mum and Tyler have a spare key but no one else. I was tempted to give one to the neighbours but I chose not to. Guess I didn’t like the thought that an old man could snoop around my house while I was in work and Tyler was in school.
Leon and I got on well. It was easy. I would pop over to his in the week on his day off and about once a fortnight he would come over to mine when Mum had Tyler. He was a good man, easy going; quiet, liked his beer and his video games but he always had time for me. One night he came over and we had dinner, watched a movie and went to bed. In the morning I was sat naked having a wee on the loo when this icy coldness overwhelmed me like before, the night with the finger marks and an overpowering stench, like someone had emptied their innards on the floor. It was disgusting. I’m sat there, covered in goose bumps and holding my nose trying to pee quicker, when Leon walks in, makes an awful face, holds his nose and says that I should lock the door if I’m having a dump! He thought it was me. I was mortified. I finished up and as soon as I got on the landing the smell and the cold just vanished. I said nothing to Leon but I started thinking no, not know, the thing from before was back. I finally decided to approach mum about the events in the house and spoke to Mum quickly when I went to pick up Tyler. She said not to worry it was probably just coincidence and she would pop over and put a plaster on the house. She meant she would do another blessing.
Tyler: When I was about fifteen I was sat in the living room watching T.V, it was a Friday night as Mum was out with her fella Leon. He was a nice guy; he was into video gaming so we had something in common. I was sat on the settee with my legs stretched out across it and it was summer so I was just in my shorts and there was this weird ringing noise in my ear, like if you listen to music too loud, like a high pitched noise. I put my finger in my ear as I thought I could just jiggle it out but then I realised that the noise was in the room and not in my head. I thought it was something outside in the street, like a truck or engineers working on something like the phone line and then this weird static feeling covers me and all the hairs stood up on my legs and on my arms. I couldn’t move for a few seconds and then it just passed. I get a chill thinking about that sensation now as it felt like a weird electrical static just passed through me. I was a little freaked out but I thought I can’t do anything and just carried on watching T.V. About an hour later I got up to get some lemonade from the kitchen and as I was going back into the room I saw a little ball of blue light just pass across the room. It was definitely there as it passed the mirror, it reflected, it made a few spiralling motions and then just vanished into the ceiling. A mate of mine is an electrician and he reckons that the whole thing might have been an electrical charge building up in the room and creating a little energy orb. He says it can happen. I saw a program on discovery about ball lightening and it could have been that but after that night I noticed a few odd little things start to happen.
Lisa: One night Leon and I were in bed. I woke up and the bedroom door opened and someone went onto the landing and I heard the bathroom light go on. It’s on a string and it makes a clunk noise when pulled. I lay there dozing thinking that Leon was up using the loo when next to me I heard a small cough and Leon was In bed next to me. I even put my arm on him and it was him. I put on the bedside lamp and looked at him sleeping and I stood out of bed and I heard the bathroom light go off and I went onto the landing and there was nothing there. I thought maybe it was Tyler but there was no one there. I turned on the landing light and opened the bathroom door and the light string was just slowly spinning. I checked that no one was in there. It might have been a draught and maybe I dreamt it all but when I turned to go back into my bedroom I felt that coldness again and I felt sick. Thankfully Tyler was older probably about fifteen and Leon was there so I felt safer. I went to bed and prayed that it was just nothing, just a dream. I was angry as Mums quick fixes were having no
affect.
Tyler: I don’t know why but it always seems that these hauntings happen at night. It was a Friday night again about 10pm I was sat in my room playing video games when I hear this low mumbling. It was real low, like two men chatting. Mum and Leon are out and I turn down the T.V. I can honestly say I have never heard the neighbours. I have never as they are so old and quiet and keep themselves to themselves. I don’t know if they can hear us, I hope not after some of the girls I have had over. The T.V is right down and I stand up and it sounds like two men are having a conversation on the landing. I shit myself, I panicked and grabbed a dumbbell from the side of the bed and headed towards the door. I was really into my weights back then. I thought someone had broken in, it has happened in our street before and it definitely wasn’t Mum and Leon. As I got closer to the door I could hear two men having a row, but quietly, all hushed and whispered. It was barely audible but you could hear it. I did not want to open that door and I put my hand the door handle and it was so cold, like when you freeze burn yourself with a can of deodorant, when it’s too close to your skin. I was bricking it, whoever was behind that door was going to get the dumbbell to the head and I would deal the consequences later. I grabbed a sock off my dresser to put on the door handle and as I went to open the door again I head a man shout “LEAVE IT!” I jumped and I swung open the door and there was no one there. No one but I could have sworn that the men were on the landing. I ran downstairs. The front door and back door locked, I checked the whole house. There was no one in mums room or the box room or anywhere in the house. Then I thought, they are in the fucking attic! Maybe someone had broken in next door and was now trying to get into ours. There is a ladder leading to the attic and I pulled it down and I must have built myself up for a minute or two before I went up there as I was shitting it and it’s hard to climb a ladder with a dumbbell. I got up and I just hurled the attic door upwards and darted my arm in there to find the light, I turned it on and peeped in and there was nothing but the beams and old Christmas decorations and the yellow lagging. There was a red brick wall separating our side of the house from the other and I even checked it to see no bricks had been removed. I got a few fibre splinters in my bare feet but up there, there was nothing. As I headed back to the ladder, I hear it again, below me; two men talking in hushed voices. I looked down onto the landing and I can’t see anyone there but I can hear them, just a few feet below me. I hear one thing, one thing so clearly that freaked me out. One of the voices said, “He’s listening.” And they stopped and I never heard them again. I got down from the attic and there was no one there. People can say it was people in the street or maybe it was the neighbours but these voices, whispering but angry and hissing were just a few feet from me and they were aware I was there and I think that was the part that frightens me most of all, the fact that they were aware of me. I thought ghosts were oblivious to us, just walking through walls and moving shit about. I wish I had heard more of what they were saying, what did one of them mean by leave it?