I pushed the old brown wooden door, it gave a long low pitched creek as I pushed it all the way open to allow me to pull my suit case through. One night, that’s all I have to do, just one night alone before the rest of my family arrive. I have to keep reminding myself this as I pushed the door closed. Standing on the old wooden floor of the entrance hall I am yet again reminded of the beauty of the place. It was something that had struck me a few months ago when we first pushed our way through that front door, the beauty and the sheer vastness of the entrance hall. You could fit our old house in the place two times over if not three. Sliding my suitcase over to my right I prob it up against the old off white coloured wallpaper with a faded pink floral design, the whole place needs gutting, but that was something me and Mick were willing to take on when we decided to move our family here.

The property had been a complete surprise, George was apparently my great uncle who my family somehow forgot to mention to me his existence, now with my immediate family all passed on apparently he didn’t have anyone else to leave his estate to. As soon as I had been to the will reading and collected the keys it was the next day that my husband and I drove our two kids down to see the place. We knew as soon as we drove the car through the overgrown narrow entrance of the drive way this house was going to need some serious work, but part of us also knew that this house was meant for our family. The size of it alone would help our fast approaching teenage daughters get the space they needed from us and each other. There was also the place that it was situated in. Me being a city girl and marrying a man who also worked in the city, the country setting this house provided would be perfect to bring our girls up the way we had always wanted, away from the hassle of city life and all that came with it.

Taking a deep breath and immediately regretting it as the mould that I could smell entered my lungs, I made my way through the hall towards the kitchen that was located at the end. The light was fading fast outside and with the natural darkness that filled the rooms of the house led me to instinctively flick on the light switches as I passed, first the one just outside the kitchen door then the one just on the inside. The lights made a low hum as they tried their best to light a path for me, electrics were something that we would be getting sorted first, especially with winter setting in quickly, I supposed it would hit harder being in the country. The lights do a poor job of cutting through the dim and I look up at the yellow bulb that is hanging on a wire that is thick with cobwebs. A shiver runs through me as I remind myself again that it’s just one night and then the rest of my family will be here.

We had decided that I would come up the night before and Mick would travel down with the girls in the morning, their last dance practice stopped them from coming up with me as the girls form the group were all making a bit of a party out of them leaving, I couldn’t deny them one last night with friends so I thought it would be a chance for me to clean up their new rooms to the best of my ability and make sure they would be as welcoming as possible for their arrival. I wouldn’t have said they were over the moon especially after the kids at school had made comments about old houses and the fact that most of them are haunted but they were coming around to the idea. Of course when the girls had mention that the house would have ghosts we had shaken it off as nonsense, but there was something that the solicitors mentioned when we came to view that first time that had me and Mick raising an eyebrow at each other. Neither me or Mick were believers in such things but apparently my great uncle George had been, and had been to such an extreme that he had even mentioned the “spirits of the house” in his will. That should of put me off from stepping foot into the house in the first place but it hadn’t, and in truth I had wanted to move here.

Walking over to the old stone sink I turned the rusty tap. The banging that the pipe made had me jumping slightly before the water made its appearance. Least the water pipe had been fixed, that was what we had wanted at least before we got the girls here, me and Mick could slum it it we had to but for the girls going without being able to wash their hair was a no go. I span around quickly when I heard the low creaking of the front door, stepping back away from the sink I looked down the hall. The dark wood door was opening slowly. “Hello?” I called out even though my instincts told me that no one was there. I hesitated for the smallest of moments before making my way down the hall towards the front door. As soon as I pushed the front door closed the kitchen door banged shut causing me to jump and spin to see if it had been that that had caused the noise. “Be careful of the spirits in the house.” The words from my great uncles note ran through my mind before I quickly shuck it off. I had not been a believer before this day and this house was certainly not going to play tricks on me enough to change my opinion.

Turning left this time a short way along the hall I wondered into the living room flicking the light on as I entered. The same low electrical hum sounded as four yellowing bulbs lit up the corners of the room. This place would look much better with a clean I new that but the bags that had sounded around the downstairs of the house had put my nerves on edge and I wasn’t in the mood now to do much. If truth be told I wanted to dig the book out that I had brought with me, curl up on the sofa and pass the time until my family joined me.

My breathing stopped immediately as loud footsteps sounded out from the floor boards above. Someone had to be in the house. Various thoughts ran through my mind all at once. Local kids playing a prank, maybe they could have been using the place as some kind of hang out knowing that it had been empty for so long. Could be one of the neighbours popping around to check up on the place and who was moving in. But then surly they would have knocked, it could have been them walking in when the door opened. “Hello?” I shouted out again as I moved out of the living room and towards the bottom of the stairs. “Who’s there?” I shout, my voice travelling through the silence of the house. I will have to go up there l, I know that I will but every fibre of my being is telling me not to. If there is someone here and they know that I am alone I could be in serious trouble. “I will call the police.” I say now my voice not so much a shout this time, I feel stupid, perhaps it wasn’t footsteps I heard after all.

Another bang from inside the kitchen this time has me jumping and holding tight onto the banister of the staircase. I am all of a sudden frozen in fear as the footsteps from upstairs return so much louder this time, it’s like someone is running the full length of the upstairs. The hum of the electricity seems to be getting louder and it’s not long before my hands fly to my ears as all the bulbs in the house smash plunging the house into darkness. With the light of the world outside gone I am left with the noise of the footsteps and now the banging from the kitchen door and the living room one as they open and close. My legs almost give way from underneath me as I try to move backwards. My legs immediately hit my suitcase that I had, now looking back stupidly left at the bottom of the stairs. I am instantly falling backwards over it, the noise from the house filling my head louder and louder. My head makes connection with the wall and two things happen to me all at once.

First I see everything that my great uncle George left in his letter, I see all the spirts that reside in the house. The second thing is that I become one of these spirits, just another ghost that is soaked up by the house. I will forever be in this place.