Fragments Gallery
New Home
Can you imagine coming home for the first time to find that your house is haunted?
I can. You see… I've been there.
Let me start back at the beginning, although I wonder if I can even call it that. For is it really a beginning? Sort of I guess, for that is where this story starts.
Anyways I was moving to this sleepy little town several hours from the nearest city. Why? I just needed out of the city for a while… too much had happened there which I had to come to terms with. So I moved out to Edenbridge.
What I first noticed about the town was its silence. The streets were empty as I drove in. The day was grey, and in that light the town seemed empty and foreboding. The houses I drove past were well maintained, if built following an older architectural style, with large trees and many flower beds. The branches of the trees waved to me in the cool wind. I kind of liked it there; it was my sort of atmosphere.
It did not take me long to reach my own property. I pulled into the driveway and came to a stop. I switched off my engine and stepped out, the gravel crunched beneath my shoes. I rested my arms on the top of the car door and looked out at my new home.
The yard was fair sized with a large willow taking up the front corner. The grass was a dry yellow but I wasn’t all that surprised since we were in a bit of a drought. A row of bushes stood in file along the front of the house. The house itself was again built following the same older style as the rest of the town. The upper half was painted a dusty yellow and the lower half was painted a light green. The white paint on the windows sills was just starting to peel. My observation done I shut the car door and tossed my keys from hand to hand as I started towards the house.
I set foot upon the concrete steps leading up to the door. I slid a hand along the rough wooden railing at the edge of the stairs as I climbed to the door. I’m not sure why I still remember that detail, but it sticks in my mind. Anyways I reached the door and found the right key on my ring. It slid into the lock with a click, and then I was in.
The house was only lit by the sunlight filtering in through the curtained windows. To my immediate left was a staircase leading up to the next level and to my right was a doorway leading to the living room. Directly in front of me at the end of the short hall I could see light reflecting off of the polished kitchen counter. Everything was just as I remembered from my tour of the place.
As I stood there looking around I had the impression that I was being watched. I turned to look out the door but there was still no one in sight outside. So I turned back just in time to see something step out of the living room.
That something seemed to be a young lady. She wore a white dress and her dark curled hair cascaded down her back. She had this innocent expression as she watched me.
"Sooo, you're the new owner are you?" she asked.
I could only stare, mouth agape as I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. You see she was there, and yet she wasn't. I could see right through her.
"What?" asked the figure, "it's like you've never seen a ghost before."
In response I could only shake my head. I turned around, numbly shut and locked the door and went back to sit down in my car. I stared at the house as I tried to still my pounding heart. I think I must have been in shock. I think I might still be in shock to this day. That had been one of the most unnerving things I'd ever seen.
At least now I understood why the previous owner had been so eager to sell.