One Drunken Night

Roger turned the key in the lock, glad that after several frustrating failed attempts he had finally managed to find the keyhole.

For a brief second he thought about the outside light that he was supposed to fix. Stella had been nagging him for months about it but it was one of those little jobs that you never quite got round to doing. Maybe if he had of fixed it he might have found the keyhole a bit quicker.

While pushing the door open he sniggered, no amount of light was going to help; he was inebriated. He’d been with the lads in the pub when the landlord had declared a ‘lock-in’ and he couldn’t get out of it. Roger giggled, Well that’s what he’d tell Stella when he woke up stinking of stale beer and had the seven-fifteen to Kings Cross running through his skull.

He fell into the utility room landing heavily against the tumble-dryer. “Shhh!” He said to his invisible drinking buddy. “Mustn’t wake Stella.” Steadying himself he sat down on the step that led into the kitchen.

After struggling for a while with the laces on his trainers, he gave up and wrenched them off, tossing them over to join the pile of dishevelled shoes and boots in the corner.

Getting up he pushed open the door to the kitchen and stumbled through the darkness towards the sitting room. The sitting room curtains had been left open, giving the room an eerie glow from the full moon outside.

He made his way into the room heading towards the sofa. Better sleep there tonight, he thought.

Looking toward the stairs he saw two pallid eyes looking up at him and a sobering shock overcomes his drunken state. “Oh my God! Stella…Stella are you all right?” Her mouth was open depicting a silent scream; her body twisted awkwardly round the bend at the bottom of the stairs.

Roger knelt down and shaking her he cried, “ Stella wake up!” He placed his fingers to the side of her neck and found no pulse. He pulled her to him, sobbing. Knowing that just as her life had ended, so too had a chapter in his.

Tina and Andy slumped onto the sofa, looking at each other and smiling. They’d finally got their dream house. It had been a hectic day but everything was finally in. Andy finished his food and looked at the stack of boxes in the lounge. He turned to Tina, “We’ll leave them until tomorrow. I think we need to have a nice hot bath and an early night.” Agreeing with him, Tina headed upstairs to the bathroom.

Later that night Tina awoke to a thumping sound from the hallway. She rolled over and began shaking Andy’s shoulder, whispering, “Andy, wake up. I think we’ve got burglars.”

Andy mumbled something and rolled over. Tina pushed him hard. “What?” He shouted.

“Shhh! There’s somebody in the house.” Listening, Tina realised that the thumping noise had stopped.

Andy got out of bed and put on his robe. Quietly opening the bedroom door he peered into the hallway. He could see light coming from the bottom of the stairs. Creeping out to the top of the stairs, he whispered back to Tina, “Stay there.”

Tiptoeing down the stairs, Andy got about halfway and found a creaky step. As soon as he stood on it the light disappeared. Now not worried about making noise, Andy shot down the rest of the stairs to try to catch the burglar. He looked all round the house, even in the garden and down the street, but found no one.

Andy and Tina found themselves so busy settling in that they forgot about their first night in the house until the night before their housewarming party. Tina was in the kitchen sorting out the food for later that evening, when she heard a lumping sound coming from the sitting room. Turning round she looked at the closed door that led to the sitting room. It couldn’t be Andy; he was outside mowing the lawn. Then she noticed a white light glowing from under the door. As she got to the door, Tina felt a cold draft on her feet. It sent a chill right through her body, making her hair stand on end and producing goose bumps on her arms and legs. She turned the handle and pushed the door open. Suddenly the light disappeared and cold turned to warm but as she looked towards the stairs a chill ran through her causing her to shiver. On the bottom stair there laid a wedding band.

Tina walked over and picked it up. She didn’t know whose it could be. Her and Andy’s were plain white gold and this was yellow gold with a pattern engraved round it. Without warning, Tina began to feel light headed, like she was falling and then the world turned black.

When Andy came in from the garden he found Tina passed out on the floor beside the stairs. Andy brought her round with a slice of lemon and Tina told him everything she could remember before passing out. “Maybe, we should postpone the housewarming?” Andy said.

“No, I’ll be all right.” Tina got up and walked through to the kitchen, “I’ve really been looking forward to showing off our new house.”

Just then the telephone leapt to life making them both jump. Tina picked it up. “Hello”

“Hi Tina, it’s Jenny, I’m ready to be picked up from the station. Well, I’ve been ready for about an hour, you can sure talk on the phone!”

“But I wasn’t on the….Never mind Andy and I will pick you up in a few minutes and I’ll tell you everything then.” Tina put the receiver back on its cradle and looked at the clock. “I must been out cold for about an hour, it was six-fifty when I began getting the tea ready for when Jenny arrived. It’s now eight-fifteen.”

Tina and Andy told Jenny over dinner about what had been happening since they’d moved in. They eventually get to bed at one-thirty in the morning.

Tina woke up to the sound of someone crying downstairs. It must be Jenny, she thought, getting out of bed quietly so as not to disturb Andy. The crying became louder as she walked down then stairs.

“Tina, are you ok?”

Tina turned round to find Jenny standing at the top of the stairs. “I thought it was you downstairs!” Tina whispered, alarmed.

Peering round the corner of the wall at the bottom of the stairs Tina couldn’t believe her eyes; someone was standing over by the window. The figure seemed almost translucent in the moonlight. Tina felt her heart pounding, as if trying to break through the wall of her chest.

“Oh, my God!” Jenny said quietly from behind Tina. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know?” Tina crept slowly into the living room and approached the figure. As she reached out to touch it, the crying stopped and it seemed to melt away.

Andy entered the kitchen the next morning for breakfast. “You two are up early. Did you sleep all right, Jenny?”

“Jenny wants to ask you something, but first we both have something to tell you.” Tina said. Tina told Andy what happened and Jenny added her version to validate last night’s events.

“Andy, I’d like to find out what’s going on in your house. It seems that you have an unhappy spirit wandering around.” Jenny explained. “Usually they have a message or something that needs to be brought out into the open before they can leave this world. I’d like to find out what. I’ve spoken with Tina and she’s in agreement but I must have your permission also. I’d like to use my dowsing crystal to speak to the spirit. What do you think?”

“I’m not sure that I like the idea of you doing your hocus-pocus in my house. I know that you really believe in it but IF it does work it could stir up all sorts of trouble. I’ve seen the Exorcist!”

“Come on Andy, it’ll be all right.” Tina piped up. “Please, I’m scared what will happen next. If Jenny can help the spirit, then our life can go back to normal.”

“Ok then, but if anything bad starts to happen I want you to stop.” Andy looked directly at Jenny.

“Ok, but it’ll be all right.” Jenny reassured him and ran upstairs to fetch her crystal.

“We’ll start over here by the window as this is where Tina and I saw the spirit last night. I can only get ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers with the crystal so we need to ask direct questions.” Jenny held up the crystal, which was a milky-pink colour and fixed onto a silver chain.

“How do you know what the answer to the question is?” Andy asked confused.

“The crystal will swing side to side for ‘yes’ and round in a circle for ‘no’. I’ll start by asking the first question so that you get the idea and then if you want to ask anything, tell me what it is and I’ll ask. Ok?”

“Ok,” Tina and Andy said in unison.

“Spirit, are you here with us?”

“Oh my god, look at the crystal!” Andy said, trying to hold back his excitement. The crystal was rapidly moving from side to side like a speeded up pendulum in a clock.

“Are you male?” The crystal changed direction immediately and began spinning round.

“It’s a girl then.” Tina said and the crystal changed direction again, going back to the pendulum motion.

“What’s your name?” Andy blurted out.

“You can’t ask it that, it’s not a direct question.” Tina said.

“Look!” Jenny said, pointing at the window.

The window had started to fog up, like someone blowing onto it on a cold day. They stared, gob-smacked, as letters started to form. First an S, then a T, followed by an E, two L’s and lastly an A.

“Stella,” Jenny asked, “Are you trapped here because something bad happened to you?” The crystal resumed its pendulum motion.

“Is this your wedding ring?” Tina asked. The pendulum motion went on. “Did you fall down the stairs?” The crystal began spinning, then changed back to the pendulum motion. It began swapping frequently.

“You fell down the stairs but you didn’t?” Jenny said confused. “Were you pushed?” The crystal resumed the pendulum motion. “Oh my god, you were murdered?” It was going from side to side so hard that Jenny nearly dropped it.

The room abruptly turned very cold and they all started shivering. Suddenly, Tina fainted and, luckily, fell back onto the sofa.

“You’ve got to stop it!” Andy shouted at Jenny as he tried to wake up Tina. He noticed that he could see his breath in the air.

Tina suddenly sat bolt upright. She looked straight at Andy all that showed were the whites of her eyes. Staring at him she spoke, but not in her own voice, “He murdered me….we had a fight and Roger pushed me down the stairs. I thought he loved me.” Tina flopped, lifeless back onto the sofa. Out of her open mouth came a vaporous mist, which formed into the vague silhouette of a woman.

Jenny stood there gaping at the figure that was forming and wondering what to do. “Stella, look for the light.” She said, “Follow it and you will be at peace once more.”

All of a sudden, the silhouette turned back to mist and disappeared up through the ceiling leaving a scorch mark behind. Tina came round, “What happened?”

Jenny explained what had happened. “Now Stella’s at peace she won’t be visiting you anymore.”

“Should we inform the police?” Tina asked, perplexed.

“Yeah right, you think they’ll believe us!” Andy replied, sarcastically.

End