A Ghost Story For Christmas Part 4

[midlander]

Heart pounding she approached his tall figure. Sensing someone he half turned. She almost gasped -it was without a doubt that same face. She spoke "Please...I need to ask you something" "Yes?" his derbyshire accent rang out. She asked if he had ever been in that particular Dorset town and stayed at the Hotel but not the particular events of that night.
"No, i've never visited that area- I should be using this approach on you" "You must have a double or something"she replied. "Tell me the date again" he asked. She did and he frowned "No on that date four years ago I was in Germany, staying at the town of Mainz. We have a family businness in Derby and I was over there on a part holiday part businness trip; it can be easily proved"
"I'm so sorry" she flushed "I really thought it was you"
"Whoever it was must have made an impression for you to have such a vivid memory after four years"
"Yes he did rather"
"Look" He proferred "Can I take you to tea? I know many of the best establishments around here, perhaps we can talk more, we don't even know each other names" She happily agreed and after exchanging names they retired to a particulary cozy olde worlde tea shop which was a favourite of his.
Their relationship blossomed into full romance and by years end they were married. It was only after the marriage she unfolded the full events of how she thought she had first met him. He was stunned
"Its amazing!" he uttered "That really happened?"
"Yes-and I know it sounds loopy but thats how it was"
He looked pensive "There might be one sort of link I could put foreward" "Yes! what?" she was alert.
"Well on occassion, I have a rather nasty dream"
"Yes, you woke me a couple of times"
He grinned "Sorry- well, lets see- ah! I find myself somewhere dark and make my way along it to some sort of opening"
"Go on"
"The thing is I don't want to go through as I know something terrible awaits me on the other side"
"It must be awful for you"
"Yes; all I can remember is some sort of yellow glow as I enter- but there is something else"
"Go On"
"The fear builds up and up and thats when I awake"
She brightened "Ah! I have an idea how that may link"
"What is it then?"


Continued in part 5.

[midlander]

Part 5 continues below!

[midlander]

"Well I've read quite a few books on strange phenomena- they sell quite well! It could be a projection"
"A What?" "A dream projection, rather like an astral one but caused by a subconciouse dream state"
"You never believe all that do you?"
"I never used to, but it seems the only explanation"
"Well my dream certainly doesn't seem to be in anything like a hotel of any kind; one thing is certain"
"Whats that?"
"That something horrible i'm afraid of, definatly isen't you!" "Cheeky!"
She paused "Why don't we book in there next holiday season? I could do more collecting and you could see if that place brings back any memories"
"I don't know; it seems like dredging up old memories for no real reason"
"Maybe, but its a lovely area to stay and you've never been there before. I wonder if I can book that room where I `saw` you".
"All right, give it a try; must admit i'm curious about the place"
That spring she phoned the Hotel for the advanced booking. Her first suprise was the Hotel had a new and younger owner. The old landlord and his wife had retired and sold on. The new owner was a little suprised that she wanted that particular room; his voice relayed across the phone line "To be candid some guests felt the room was a little noisy and somehow light kept coming through the window even with thicker curtains, we were about to cease using it as a guest suite this summer but if you really want to book it we can delay that for a few weeks"
"That's great, we will have the last week in June"
That June they travelled down and checked into the Hotel. He agreed the area was most picturesque as they wandered around the streets and markets.
That evening as they settled into the room she asked
"Well what do you make of it?
"Can't say I'm wildly impressed! At least the beds large enough for two!"
"Cheeky thing! I meant are any memories stirring?"
He carefully looked around "No! not really, I can't say I'm getting any Deja-vu or anything like that"
"Oh well! perhaps thats for the best"
They settled down to watch some television which the new owner had installed. After evening meal in the dining room they headed back to the room.
"Look" she stated "Will you possibly indulge me in something?"
"Oh! his eyes widened
"No! not that! well not yet!"
"What Then?"
"Oh listen! can you hear a low humming from our room? did we leave the telly on?
They unlocked the door "Nothing" he stated "The Television is off; was it very loud?"
"No just a very low deep sort of hum- Ah! I know Infra sound!"
"Infra What!?"
"Infra Sonics! Thats why some guests complained; sometimes the sound of a heavy vehicle on the road out back, or the engine noise from any large overhead Jet can carry like that. Mostly its below usual human hearing range, but some people can be sensitive; they sort of feel it more than hear it, I must be a sensitive too!"
"You're A something! you certainly know your physics Anyhow what was this indulgence you wanted of me?"
She paused for a second "Could you re-enact that vision of you I saw those five years ago now?"
"But why!?"
"I really need to see if it would be the same as that time saw that image of you"
Oh anything for a quite life!"
"I'll lay on the bed you go out into the hall, then enter slowly with that look of horror on your face"
"Of all the daft things to be asked! - all right, allright! I'll do it!"
groaning to himself he went out into the hall; she waited hesitantly.
The door slowly opened and with a strained look of ghoulish horror he slowly entered.
"Good grief! you look more like an extra in `Carry On Screaming` please give it one more try"
Sighing wearily he retired out into the hall again
She waited for a few second; slowly the handle turned and inch by inch he entered. This time there was no doubt! that look of indescribable terror etched itself across every inch of his countenance. He was looking straight past her possibly to her slight left, all the while he wore that look of sheer horror. For a second she thought she heard -or rather felt something to her left where he was staring, but she was too engrossed in him to turn. He slowly backed out closing the door behind him.
She gathered her thoughts "That was it! That was just the same! how did you do it?"
No answer came, she waited another minute-nothing.
She ran to the door dashing it open, the hallway was empty.

[midlander]

Part 6 continues later folks!

[midlander]

PART 6


She searched all along every recess of the hallway. No sign of her husband at all. Her mind raced; it was all becoming the same as five years ago, only this time he was the dearest thing to her, not some strange apparition. Calling his name she reached the lobby; the landlord was still pottering about checking all was secure for the night.
"What is it madam?; what's wrong?"
She didn't explain the exact circumstances, but mentioned he had gone into the hall to check a sound; a lie she knew, but how could she unveil what really transpired.
"Lets go back to your room" he suggested "Your husband won't know his way around as you do maybe he's wandered back to it"
They headed back down the hallway; as they approached the door a soft scurrying sound could be heard inside. "Sounds like he has indeed found his way back" the landlord optimistically ventured.
They entered. The room was still illuminated by the light of the table lamp; they searched the room with their eyes- nothing!
"Could it be a rat?" She ventured
"I certainly hope not! we pride ourselves on the high standard of hygiene here!"
"Sorry-but what was that sound then?"
The landlord could not fathom it but ventured they search the grounds in case her husband had got lost and wandered outside- though in all honesty he could not see how. "We had better turn out the lights here and lock the door, before searching further" She agreed.
Gathering a couple of the night staff they headed outside, torches in hand. With a gathering sense of disaster she thought to herself how similar this was to five years before, as they reached the back of the building where her room lay she stopped still in shock!
"Look!" She pointed; the landlord responded.
"There's a light on in the room"
"You're right!" They both moved closer to the window.
"Someone's moving about in there!" She cried. "But it can't be him whoever that is must be barely at shoulder height!!"
"Back to the room!" the landlord commanded. They all hurried back and as he produced the key she noticed there was no trace of light seeping under the door; indeed it was completely dark and with no sign of any inhabitant. She sniffed, there was a faint odour a bit similar to when a match has been struck.
Both the landlord and the two night staff noticed it too.
"How on earth could anyone get in this room?! he exclaimed angrily.
"I don't know but I can't stay another night here"
"I understand madam; look we have a spare upstairs suite, you can use that and if your husband re-appears will will contact you right away, If he is still missing by tomorrow we will contact the police"".
The staff removed their belongings up to the suite and she settled down for a fretful and mostly sleepless night.
The next morning with still no trace; the police were called in.
At first they regarded it as a domestic incident, as again she could not bear to relay the full story. The next day however an inspector called at the Hotel asking to speak to her.
"I don't think you have told us everything yet" He stated solomnly "Because according to our files five years ago you reported an intruder at this Hotel; someone who had the exact same description as your now `missing` husband; I want to know ALL of the details please"
"All right" she conceded "But the reason I havn't told all that happened is because you would never believe it"
"Please just tell me all you can and let me weigh it up"
She unravelled all details of both incidents, doing her best to recall every detail. At the conclusion the Inspector wore a look of utter astonishment.
"Either you're suffering delusions or its the most unbelievable mystery I've ever encountered"
"You can check with his and my parents on both our backgrounds and our Marriage if it helps your enquiries" She ventured. "I will have to let them know of his disappearance"
"Very well' we will carry out an extensive search" The Inspector concluded.
She phoned both sets of parents the sad news, both were optimistic he would surface. But though the police made extensive search of every room in the Hotel and the surrounding area no trace of him was uncovered.
She went back to their home in Derbyshire utterly distraught, hoping against hope he would some how return. For a year there was no news on him and she tried to settle down helping the family businness and keeping close contact with his parents. On the winter of the the following year she was contacted by the Derbyshire police. They relayed to her that something had happened at the Hotel where the disappearance had taken place.


Part 7; The Conclusion early next week fans!

[midlander]

PART 7


She hurried to the local police station. There a smartly dressed Inspector greeted her.
"We had a call from the Dorsetshire force" He informed; "Its well possible your husbands body has turned up" "His body!?" she gasped. "I'm afraid so; can you give us the address of his Dentist so we can check dental records?"
Her mind span for a few seconds; composing herself she gave the appropriate address then desperatly attempted to find out what had happened.
"I don't know" The inspector replied "The force in Dorset will have the facts-Oh! they want you to go down there to see if you can help in identification; we can lay on transport"
"Certainly, but please let me phone his parents they need to know"
"We have done that I believe they are heading down today"
She went back home and gathered some belongings, then returned to the station where she was driven down to Dorsetshire accompanied by the Inspector.
When they eventually arrived in that small town which she now feared, she was shown to a smaller Hotel in the area where she was greeted by his parents. They consoled each other.
The following day the local Inspector took both parties to the Police Mortuary for identification. What remained of the body was almost impossible to identify; more telling were the remains of clothing and both a pair of spectacles and Wedding ring.
She informed his parents she would stay on in the area until positive dental identification confirmed the body and would inform them.
She went back to the local station with the Dorsetshire inspector. "Please! can you tell me of how his body turned up after bieng missing for so long"
"It was at the Hotel itself" he replied "But as yet I can't say any more as investigations are taking place"
"I think I will stay on here for a couple more weeks" She asserted. "As you wish; hopefully with full identification we can tell you more"
She headed to the small Hotel and booked three weeks stay. With a firm demenour she set off for the Hotel where all her troubles had began.
Thankfully by now the Police had taken whatever evidence they needed and had allowed the front section of the premesis to re-open. She sought out the landlord and implored him to reveal what he could.
"The police told me to keep it to myself" He uttered "But there were other witnesses besides me, and you deserve to know as much as possible as your poor husbands body was discovered"
He continued "You recall that very cold snap last month?"
She nodded
"Well we had that rapid overnight thaw, and in the early hours the kitchen cold pipe ruptured and started to flood downstairs"
"Yes?" she nodded again.
"Well I was woken sharply-not just me but some of the staff and guests"
"By what?"
"The room you and your husband had stayed in five years ago; we had removed all furniture and boarded up-it was from there we heard loud crashing noises and the most unearthly screaming anyone could possibly endure"



PART 8 follows shortly.

[midlander]

Apologies for delay- and now! PART 8

"You heard screaming?" she asked
"Yes! we could make out streams of light coming from between the cracks in the boarding and a smell a bit like matches"
"Sulphur?"
"Yeah, like that; anyhow we prized off the boards and I unlocked the door" He paused for a second gathering his thoughts. "The screaming was beginning to die away, but we couldn't tell where it was coming from as we had to shield our eyes from the glare; it was incadescant"
" A Glare?,Then what?"
"As it died down I could just make out a shape seeming to sink into the floor as the glow from it died down; it just melted into the water leaving a sort of slime outline"
He stopped and drank some water from a tumbler; after a few seconds he continued.
"We could see that the far wall had partially caved into the room and god help us- i'll never forget that sight! we could see skeletal remains in the wall cavity"
She shuddered at the thought. He continued "Police were called, and they ordered nothing touched; they have only just allowed this section of the Hotel to re-open. If I could get a buyer I'd be off tomorrow-I've had it with this lot!" He ended with bitterness.
"Thank you, was my husband amongst what remained?"
"I believe so; they said one of the `bodies` was not as decayed as the others. Wish I hadn't bought the place now-i'd heard it had a troubled past"
"Indeed?" She thanked him again, and with an idea forming in her head hurried off to the parish church. Searching through what records there were of the district she gleaned that on the site of where the Hotel and its predecessor the Inn lay that indeed a history of `disturbances` and local phenomena had been reported back over hundreds of years. One such was of a glowing yellow light seeming to emenate up into the heavens. It was said this would happen at black masses held at those festivals now called Haloween and Beltane.

[midlander]

PART 9


She retired back to the small Hotel and determined to question the local Police the following day.
The Inspector greeted her as she entered the station.
"I was about to call on you miss-sorry! Madam; we had the dental confirmation -it was your husband i'm afraid"
She sank to a chair tears forming in her eyes.
"I somehow hoped it wasn't him, but something inside told me that from the day he vanished that I would never see him again"
"I'm so sorry" He consoled.
She looked up. "You can help me some small way"
"How"
"I spoke to the Landlord"
He frowned
"Sorry Inspector, but my husbands death is something I want to try to understand-now will you help me please?"
He considered "All right" He sat at the desk and gathered his thought, concentrating on recalling details as best he could.
"We were called in as you know"
"Yes"
"Well; that cavity when we excavated it was about two metres high by six in length and just over one in depth, it had been made especially deep.We removed nine skeleton remains"
"Nine!"
"Yes and incredibly some of the remains are close to 1,000 years of age"
"Good God!"
"Two of them are more `recent`- if you can call them that-dating from the late Nineteenth Century"
"The two missing travellers!" She interjected.
"We believe so, though more tests are bieng done, we also found something else"
"What was that?"
"It was a large metal plate about" He paused "In `Old Money` about eighteen inches square, it contained lots of enscribings and what looked like some kind of etched print. We are having it examined by the lab boys"
"Its incredible!"
"Yes I can't get my head around it-even after my years in the force- If it wasn't for those very real remains I would have put it as some kind of elaborate hoax"
"But its all too real isen't it?" She asserted.
"Yes; we are still carrying out tests- some to assertain how your husband died if thats possible. Will you still be in the area for the next few days?"
She nodded and gave him her Hotels address.
After six days he called at the Hotel and to her room. With a very worried demenour he continued the details.


The very last(I promise final part 10 to follow)

[midlander]

PART 10


The Inspector took out his note book and refreshed his memory.
"Well at the moment we cannot yet find out the cause of death in your husband"
"No idea at all!?" She queried.
"No! as yet we just don't know- but there is something more which I just can't believe"
"What!?"
He paused "Can I just tell you of the other anomylies first?"
"Okay"
He paused to scrutinise his notes. "Well the other skeletons were-apart from the great age- `routine` if you can call them that!"
"Please go on"
"The material we could gather from the floor"
"That slime that the landlord mentioned?"
"Yes-well Forensics after some time, concluded it was organic!"
"It was alive!!?"
"It had been; but that it was not" He paused and looked at his notes again. "Not Carbon based, but was Silicon, sulpher and Phospherous in composition"
"How could that be life?" She shook her head in disbelief
"They say it had cells, biological cells" He looked in puzzlement hardly believing his own words. "The amazing thing is; that when they dried it out the stuff sponatiously combusted! The remaining material is in whats called a vacuum chamber"
She looked at him incredously.
"That `metal` plate" He continued.
"Yes?"
"Forensics passed it to a metallurgist, incredibly its not quite a metal"
"Not metal!?"
"Not quite- according to the expert its" He looked at his notes "Its molecular structure was basically Polymer chains very similar to most plastics, but with a tensile strength exceeding that of Tungsten!"
"This is amazing"
"Yes, and frankly if it wasn't so way out i'd not tell you; but even the Sunday Tabloids wouldn't swallow this"
"But its true?"
"Its what we've found! Ah! that plate- the inscribings"
"Yes?"
"Well the top half were in some language-according to the linguistic- a little similar to Hebrew-but with some Hyraglyphics added. So far what language experts we have contacted can't yet decipher it- except for one word which was actually written in English."
"What was that?"
He turned his notes to her, she recognised the word.
"TETRAGRAMMATON"
"You know of it?"
"Yes! In my antiques work, some of the Necromantic works have come my way; this word crops up" She thought.
"It is a form of Blasphemy in some circles. It has been used in Alchemy also in spells for the transmogrification of matter through matter. It has more recently of all things been a Record label name in America in the late Sixties!"
He stared in suprise "Thats basically what our `expert` said; I thought he was half making it up!"
She smiled grimly."I'm as bad as him then! what else on the plate?"
"The lower section had another language which our people later realised was a mathematical code"
"Maths next to that other stuff?"
"Yes! So far we think it is some form of directional chart, but as yet nothing is certain. The drawing; if you can call it that; is very small; minute' really"
"What was it?"
"A Sun surrounded by Five Planets; and on the Second planet the microscope picked up the figure of a Pentangle"
He paused again "The worst part of this whole businness I'm afraid comes back to the Forensic tests on your late husband i'm sad to say"
"How? In what way"
"Well" He paused yet again. "We checked and re-checked his and your movements"
"Why"
"To prove beyond doubt you and he were at the village and the Hotel on June of almost two years ago"
"Of course we were!"
"Yes there's no end of witnesses and irrefutable proof that he in particular, was there!"
"But why your need to prove that!?"
"Because; and I don't know how to tell you this; I really don't"
"Tell me what!?"
"The Forensics checked and re-checked and checked again"
"Checked what!?"
"That the date- as near as we can be certain- of his death, was NOT those twenty months ago"
"Not then!!" She cried in amazement.
"No! according to every modern test the body had been dead for a good Five years longer; in fact corresponding virtually to time you made that forst report when you reported him as an intruder. In all my time in the force I just can't take it in"
Neither could she. She sat and stared, and remembered back all those years ago to that night.



Thats It! Hope you enjoyed it. Apologies for typo's and grammatical errors. I don't claim originality; in fact the bulk of the story I adapted from an E.F Benson story which appearred in a 1920's anthology. The end section was more in line with ideas gleaned from the stories of Montague Rhodes James. Cheers!

[demigod]

10 upon 10 midlander.

some of the science babble was a bit too much for my pea brain though. lol..

very good though, I think you managed the creepy aspect too.

[midlander]

Thanks DG! I wasn't too sure whether to put so much `Information` at the end; but I wanted to provide a couple of alternative scenarios for readers to choose in figuring out what might have happened.

[alexcase]

definately creepy but I thought the science side gave it a real effect. A work to be proud of Midlander and I hope to see some more in the not so distant future

[midlander]

Thanks Alex. Well can't say I can figure out how to put any other fiction that won't include Emmerdale on the board. This time of year is an exception as people (I Hope!) like a Ghost Story! Maybe I can make it an annual event.