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Spooky Tales 2

Enjoy!!

By Lee FisherPublished 6 years ago 7 min read
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I love you.

Walter Davis didn’t believe in ghosts. So, it didn’t bother him when his estate agent told him that the house he was buying was supposedly haunted. The story of the house is one of unrequited love and tragedy. Years ago, the young woman of the house fell in love with the lord’s son, they lay together but the son refused to make an honest woman of her. So, in despair and dishonor she hung herself from the attic rafters. Of course, this just flew over Walter’s head, so he quickly wrote out the check and began moving in. Maybe he should have listened, for not long since he began to unpack that some strange occurrences started to happen. He left some boxes of plates and cups in the kitchen and left the room for a moment to grab the box of cutlery, but when he returned he found that the contents of the boxes had been removed and put away in the proper places. Walter had no idea how this happened, but hey at least it was one job he didn’t have to do.

What happened next was more disturbing. It was a few days after he had settled in and that evening he was taking a shower. Being a bit of a clean freak Walter found showers to be one of his creature comforts. He was in there for longer than usual so the sides of the shower had begun to steam up. As he turned off the water and went to open the door, he got a shock. There were two handprints left on the shower glass as if someone was watching him shower. Walter could not just brush this off, he dashed out of the bathroom, towel around the waist and called out who was in his house. He got no reply.

The following day, while eating lunch, he thought about the tale his estate agent had told him. Could there be something in the attic? He turned it over in his head but in the end, his curiosity won the argument. He found the attic hatch in the upstairs landing, he pulled down the ladder and slowly climbed up. He brought up a torch with him as it was dark up there, he switched it on and looked around. There wasn’t much up there aside from a big old looking chest, so naturally, Walter went to investigate. When he opened it up he let out a yell, inside the chest was the skeleton of a woman with a noose wrapped around her neck. He turned to leave but the attic hatch slammed shut and his torch went out, plunging the room into darkness. A few seconds later, a blue light started to glow behind him, he turned to look at it and it started to take a form. The light transformed into a vision of a beautiful woman, with long flowing black hair, fine porcelain features and she was wearing a dark blue medieval dress. She looked straight at him, her eyes burning into his. Then she slowly stretched out her arms towards him as if wanting to embrace him. Words started forming on the wall behind her in blood, they read…I LOVE YOU.

No one knows what happened to Walter Davis after that. Some say he sold the house and fled, some say he was driven mad by what he saw and was taken away to be sectioned. But most believe that the mysterious woman stole him away to be hers in the land of the dead, and he is still there to this day.

Sealskin

Jerimiah Mead was taking a brisk walk along the beach one night when he caught sight of mermaids dancing in the moonlight. They had left their sealskins on the sand, these sealskins allowed them the magic of hiding from human sight during daylight and let them breathe underwater. So, without them, they could not return to the ocean lest they turn to seafoam. This old wives’ tale is one Jeremiah knew well. He also knew that if he could get his hands on one of the skins he could bargain for whatever he wanted. He snuck down to the place where the seal skins had been left, snatched one of them and then snuck back home. He returned the next morning and found a lone woman crying on the beach. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, so much so he fell instantly in love with her. Jerimiah made his way over to her, she shrank away as soon as she saw him, but Jerimiah held out a comforting hand. He told her that he could take her somewhere safe and he could look after her. The maiden, not having much choice in the matter, went with him and very soon after they were both married and she bore him two sons. While Jerimiah was happy with this life, his new wife was not. Over the years she pined for her family beneath the waves, she spent every free moment sitting by the sea hoping they would return or perhaps if she could find her lost skin.

Then, one day, one of her sons found the sealskin which Jerimiah had hidden away and brought it to her to ask what it was. She was overjoyed when she saw it, she gathered the two children up in her arms and hurried outside with them. When Jerimiah returned later that day and found no one home, he immediately knew what had happened. He made a mad dash for the beach hoping to stop his wife from leaving him forever, but he was too late. When he arrived, he found the bodies of his two sons, drowned in the ocean. Over the wind, he could faintly hear a maiden’s laughter.

Pretty Pearls

There once was a highwayman who lived a double life. He and his wife owned a coaching inn in the middle of the countryside. When customers came in they both would look them over secretly to see if any were rich enough to rob later. Once they had found a potential “victim," they would wait for them to leave and then the husband would don his highwayman disguise, follow the coach a while then rob them all blind. He would often give certain pretty objects to his wife. One night, after another successful heist, the man gave his wife the most beautiful pearl necklace she had ever seen. “It’s absolutely exquisite,” she said putting it on, “I’ll wear it always, where was this hidden?” “The woman in the coach had it hidden under her petticoats, I managed to…persuade her to give it to me,” he replied with a slightly distant tone to his voice as if something was bothering him.

Later that night, the man awoke to his wife screaming. “What is it?” he asked angrily. “Look,” his wife replied, pointing a trembling finger to the foot of the bed. Right there before their eyes was the figure of a ghostly pale woman, all in white, except for this one blood red mark over where her heart should be. The man was greatly overcome with fear, he leaped out of bed “oh no!” he cried, “please God no!” A soft voice came from the figure “Why? Why did you do it?” she said, the red mark growing as she spoke. “Just go away foul apparition! Leave us be!” he ordered. The ghost began to move around the room, “I will not leave until you confess your sins," with that she floated through the wall and was gone.

For the next week, every night, she returned. Sometimes she let out a banshee-like scream keeping the couple awake, or she would throw things around the room, or sometimes she would stand and stare at the pair. This started to take its toll on the wife, “I can’t take this anymore,” she told him one day, “we have to confess." Her husband lashed out at the idea, “if we confess then we will be hanged,” he exclaimed. “If this keeps up I will hang myself,” his wife retorted.

The following night, the husband stood ready with his pistol, with some vain hope that he could stop the ghost that way. The ghost came yet again but this time he was ready. He leaped out of the bed, ran to the foot and brandished his pistol in front of the ghost. “You will leave now or I will fire,” he bellowed. “I will not leave until you confess your sins,” she repeated to him. The husband cocked his pistol “I will not warn you again!” The ghost repeated again, “I will not leave until you confess your sins," the gun fired… the shot passed through the ghost….and hit his wife in the heart.

Much later it was discovered that the man had robbed the coach of a wealthy man traveling with his wife, he managed to get the riches of the gentleman easy enough but his wife was made of sterner stuff. She threw out numerous insults about his manhood and his lowlife ways, to the point where, without warning, possibly in anger, the man had shot his pistol and killed her, with a bullet to the heart.

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