History Of The House

I remember being five years of age, moving into a large, beautiful ivy-covered house with my parents which dated back to the First World War. Of course, due to my age at that current time, I didn't really take in the house's history, I just heard of what the house was built on, which was a First World War camp site for some of the soldiers. I found this interesting, but being that young didn't take much of it in.

We lived happily in the house in the country for about three years, until strange events unfolded, and this was a time when I became more and more familiar with the house's history and when I began researching things about it. But that was it, I just kind of knew of it's past.

At this time I was about eight years of age, and it was a warm, fresh summer's day in mid-June. I recall spending most of that summer morning in the overgrown garden at the back, smelling flowers and sketching the pleasing surroundings. My mother was stitching upstairs and my Father was away on a fishing trip down in Kent for the week.

I decided to warm some food up in the microwave, and as its glass it was quite obviously reflective. I peered at the food moving inside the hot microwave, but then, through the glass, I also caught sight of a shadow. I can't think of a better way to describe it, but a 'shadow,' however, this so-called shadow seemed to resemble a blurred face wearing what looked like a type of hat; perhaps a helmet. I spun around curiously, squinting my eyes. The shadow disappeared. At the time, I don't recall being scared but just curious. What was this shadow? Why was there a burry face in the window?

Being a young child, I briefly told my Mother what had happened the next day. She chuckled at me, but she looked a little worried at the same time.

The following night, I was reading a thick novel based on tudors of the 1500's, in my cream-colored bedroom, and became so engrossed in the book for a good hour, and yes, even being eight years old I was very literate and adored reading. However, I suddenly flinched when I heard a sort of tapping and scratching. I couldn't tell whether it was coming from the walls, window, floor... All I could do was guess what the noise was. I imagined it was next door, but somehow this felt strange, following my previous eerie encounter.

So, I went to sleep to force myself to stop thinking unusual things, and straight away told my Mother the next day about my second encounter. She rolled her eyes and told me to stop imagining things, but I wasn't. Somehow, I knew that she was almost forcing herself to not be scared-she knew the house was old and was aware of unusual things...

I remember when I turned nine and my friend, Emily was to throw a party for her birthday; she was older than me, turning ten in fact. She held the party at a run-down village hall, but that didn't matter as the party was great fun. After the party, Emily's Mother even offered me a lift home, with Emily and her other friend, Lisa, in the car.

We came across a long, country road and it was around ten at night, but it was okay because I felt safe with my friends and an adult. Out of curiosity, I peered around the back window, and saw what looked like a shadow, very similar to the one I saw at my house. The figure was wearing the same helmet and had darker shadows for eyes, mouth and nose... The rest of its body was faded; it was only its face and head that was so striking and defined.

Emily and Lisa turned around to see what I was looking at and dread suddenly filled the car-somehow, we were scared witless. We decided to turn away for just one second, but we quickly turned back to be faced with-nothing. The figure had disappeared. Where had the figure walking near the marsh gone to? There were no houses, no paths, and no roads in sight... And we only looked away for a split second. By this time, Emily's Mother had seen everything we had seen, so pushed her foot down so far we sped from the marshy area.

Back at home, I greeted my Mother, but she looked uneasy. She sat me down and explained we had to move out. I asked why... And apparently she was badly hurt by being almost flung down the stairs by an unseen spirit. I was horrified, and at my age, Mother didn't put it like that, but now I completely know.

The spirit that hurt my Mother, that I saw on the marshes and that I saw in the window were the same person, a soldier.

We moved the following week and never turned back.