Halloween – now that’s a time for ghosts.
Halloween is my favourite
time of year.
I’m Old Jack. I live in the north of England. My hobby is collecting
ghost stories. I travel around and listen to people’s strange and
scary stories. Some of my best stories come from people I meet in
pubs.
But for Halloween I’d like to tell you something a bit special. This is
not a story from a famous castle or hotel. This is a story from my
own family.
I’m from Northwest England, but I have an aunt who lives in
Scotland. Her name is Edna. She lives near Holy Corner in Edinburgh
in an old stone house.
It’s a nice house. But, one October, many years ago, a strange thing
happened. It was late October, around Halloween. The gas heater in
Aunt Edna’s living room broke. The weather get’s very cold in
Scotland in November and December. So, of course, Aunt Edna
wanted to get the heater fixed.
This gas heater was in the fireplace in the living room. A long time
ago, the people who lived in the house used to burn coal and wood
in the fireplace to keep warm. When my Aunt Edna bought the
house, there was a gas heater in the fireplace. She was glad. It was
much cleaner and more convenient than coal or wood. Of course,
the chimney was still there, but no smoke had travelled up the
chimney for many years.
A repairman came to look at the heater.
“It’s no good,” said the man. “The heater’s too old. You will have to
buy a new heater.”
“OK,” said Aunt Edna. “But I need it very soon. It’s getting cold.”
“I’ll take the old heater out and bring you a nice new one
tomorrow,” said the repairman.
The man took the old heater away. It was the 31st of October. It was
the night of Halloween.
That night Aunt Edna couldn’t sleep. She woke up in the middle of
the night. She was very cold.
I’ll just go downstairs and make myself a hot drink, she thought.
When she got downstairs, she got a shock. The living room was icy
cold. It was colder than her bedroom. It was colder than any other
room in the house.
What’s that? she thought.
Aunt Edna could hear strange noises coming from the empty
fireplace. It was like something was scratching inside the chimney.
Aunt Edna ran to the kitchen and got a broom.
A cat or a bird has come down the chimney! I’ll have to get it
out, she thought.
When she went back into the living room she stopped at the door.
She could not move. It was like a large, very cold and very powerful
hand was stopping her. It wouldn’t let her go into the living room.
She stood at the door and looked around the living room. There was
no one there. She could still hear the strange noises in the chimney.
The noises were getting louder.
She put the broom back in the kitchen. Then, she hurried into the
living room. This time, nothing stopped her. She hurried back
upstairs to the bedroom. Aunt Edna didn’t believe in ghosts, but she
thought the experience in the living room was very strange.
The next morning, she woke up, got dressed and went downstairs
for breakfast. She walked into the living room.
“What’s that?!” she said.
There was a large old-fashioned doll lying in the fireplace. She
walked over to the doll and picked it up. It was a very old doll.
Maybe 100 years old. She looked up the chimney. She couldn’t see
anything.
That’s strange, she thought. She put the doll on a chair and made
breakfast.
Later that morning, the repairman came back and put the new
heater in the fireplace.
Aunt Edna is very old now. She still doesn’t believe in ghosts, but
she still has the doll. She keeps it in a dark cupboard in the living
room. She says that if you take the doll out of the living room, the
room gets very cold, even in summer…
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We hope you enjoyed Old Jack’s story!
For more information about Old Jack’s ghost stories, see here.
Happy Halloween! 🙂
