text: Alice ran her hand along the wall, the plaster was bumpy and cracked, paint flecked off revealing another layer behind. How many layers were there, who could say? Over four hundred years’ worth of paint, dirty handprints and memories embedded in these walls. A photograph hung on the wall, a couple posed stiffly for the camera, the man in a suit and the woman in what appeared to be a wedding dress. The man’s eyes seemed to be looking straight at her, or through her. She continued on up the stairs, the walls curved and bowed, not a single straight edge in the entire building. Black wooden beams accented against the greying white walls, frayed carpet and dusty curtains. She’d seen the advert for Peacock Farm online and had immediately fallen in love, with both the building and it’s story. From the small amount she’d been able to find about the place, she knew it was full of history and had housed many colourful characters. The monks who resided there when the house was a vicarage, the woman who had seven children and the desperately in love couple whose relationship ended in tragedy. “It’s perfect”. Tony looked over at Alice wondering if she’d lost her mind, “There’s no central heating, no double glazing, that window is cracked, that one’s missing a piece of glass and there’s a door to a room half-way up the stairs with no landing”, Alice rolled her eyes at his melodramatic rant, sure the window was cracked but look at the view. The garden needed some work but beyond it was miles of glorious countryside, trees and rolling hills. She needed somewhere to write, and this place was full of inspiration. “no, seriously, this house will kill me. I mean really?” he gestured over towards the door hanging strangely on the stair way, “just look, how am I meant to get in or out of that room without falling to my death?” “don’t go in that room then!” Alice was already wandering off to look around. The floor sloped downwards along the corridor and carried her round to the left. She pushed the door in front of her and it creaked open to reveal a room that had nothing but a large trunk standing in the centre. It appeared wooden and heavy, with metal trim and rivets. The clasp was shut and a padlock threaded through securing it. “Hey, I wonder if this trunk comes with the house!” she called through to Tony, ‘I wonder what’s inside’ she whispered to herself. Alice got no response, she popped her head back into the corridor to see Tony fiddling with the door on the stairs, “What are you doing Tony?” “It’s locked”, “Why do you care, you don’t want to go in there anyway!” she joined him at the door and gave the handle a wiggle, “I’ll go find the estate agent, I want to ask him about that trunk anyway”. The steps creaked and groaned as Alice made her way downstairs, and Tony could hear her footsteps along the old wooden floorboards towards the kitchen. He gave the handle another try but was startled by voices coming from a room behind him. “Hello?” this place gave him the creeps, he’d seen some of the information Alice had found. The little boy who drowned in the moat, the woman who killed her husband for having an affair and god knows how many other people who had died there. Tony ventured cautiously towards the room hoping to find another couple having a viewing, and praying they bought the place before Alice could. As Tony pushed open the door, he saw a long shadow silhouetted on the floor, “Hello” he said again, not wanting to startle them. The shadow moved across the floor and by the time Tony was inside, the room was empty. He frowned, his eyes darting around the space noticing only one way in or out. There was a fireplace on the far wall and a large wardrobe to the right, a faded pink curtain hung beside it. Tony pushed the curtain aside and was relieved to find it hid a door, the movement freed years of dust that danced in the light and tickled his nose and throat sending him into a fit of coughing. “You Ok?” Tony squinted through the dust at Alice and gave her a bemused grunt. ... “This is the trunk” Alice jangled the padlock to see if it was open, but it held fast, she looked up at the estate agent who started flipping through pages in his binder “There was no mention of it in the paperwork so I assume it stays with the house, not that there’s anyone left to claim it anyway” “Oh?” “the place has been empty for years, the neighbours would see the lights come on at night and people moving about but turns out the local kids like to play round here, there are rumours about the place being haunted and you know what kids are like” Tony didn’t like how casually he delivered this news, and he really didn’t like the unnerving smile on Alice’s face, “We’ll take it” she announced, much to Tony’s dismay, “Great, shall we go down to the kitchen to talk details?” “Wait!” Alice and the estate agent both turned to look at Tony, eyebrows raised, “what about that other couple, they might want to make an offer?” he knew it was a long shot, when Alice wanted something no one stood in her way, but he had to try something to avoid being dragged into living in this decrepit old building. “Have you had any other offers?” Alice asked curiously, the estate agent shook his head and looked over at Tony questioningly, “We’ve had no other viewings or interest, the property has been on the market for nearly three years”. Tony glanced around nervously, “who else is here then?” he asked, afraid to hear the answer, “Only us. As I say we’ve had no other viewings” the estate agent was becoming agitated now. As far as he was concerned, he’d made the sale, now it was time to do the paperwork, make his commission and be done with this creepy old place. “Alice we can’t live here” Tony pulled her over to one side, “can you give us a minute?” The estate agent obliged, “I’ll be downstairs, I’ve just got to make a phone call to let my next clients know I’ll be late”. “Tony what’s going on, why are you being weird?” “Me weird? This place is weird! There were people up here, I heard them talking in that room” Alice frowned unconvinced, “Shh, listen” the pair listened as the low mumble of a man’s voice travelled down the hall, “What? That’s just the estate agent” Alice followed the voice, it lead her to the room next door, Tony stayed a couple of steps behind, scared to go back in the room, but equally scared to be left alone. She pushed open the door to find the room was empty, but the voice continued, clear as day. Tony jumped as Alice started laughing, “What’s so funny?” “Come here” she beckoned him over to the fireplace and crouched down with her head close to the opening, Tony joined her and could hear the estate agent’s voice coming up through the chimney, “Oh” “Yeah”, Alice rolled her eyes, “Come on, he’s clearly desperate to get out of here”. Tony felt a little daft and yet his fear was not gone. The dust from the curtains had settled and clogged up the cobwebs in the corner of the room. Tony’s shadow lay still across the floorboards, “he’s not the only one”. ... “Hey Alice, did we get a key for this room?” Tony asked as he carried another empty box down the creaky stairs, “Huh? Oh, check the tin on the kitchen table, the estate agent dropped it off, it has all the spare keys in”. Tony rooted around in the box, the keys had been labelled with little white paper tags, ‘garden shed’, ‘back door’, ‘Trunk’. Alice had been so excited to discover the mysterious trunk’s contents and had been a little disappointed to find nothing but a weird collection of women’s clothes, make-up and costume jewellery. Unfortunately, there was no tag labelled ‘stupid door halfway up the stairs’ and all the keys were accounted for. Tony grabbed a key labelled ‘workshop’ and went out to find some tools that he had deluded himself into thinking he would be capable of using to open the door. He wasn’t entirely sure which of the outbuildings was considered the ‘workshop’, but he wandered over to a rickety old structure and hoped for the best. He tried the key in the lock, jamming it into the mechanism. It wouldn’t turn, he tugged at the key, but it was firmly stuck. Tony cut his losses and turned back to the house, but there was a rustling from behind the shed that drew his attention. A shape darted out and across the lawn, a second shape followed only this one wasn’t quite so lucky. Tony grabbed the kid by the arm and held him firmly in place, “What do you think you are doing?”, “Sorry, we didn’t think anyone lived here”, the kid was young, probably about nine or ten, “Well we live here now, so no more snooping and make sure you tell all your little school friends no more playing around in the house” the kid nodded his head and Tony let him go, “We would never dare go in there anyway” the kid was wide eyed as he walked away, “the old man gives us the creeps”, “wait, what old man?” “The old man in the house” the kid was getting further away, desperate to leave before he got into any more trouble, “I thought you said no one lived here” the kid stopped, “they don’t” he disappeared through the hedge out of sight. ... There was a lot to do before the place was going to be the home Alice had imagined, but she couldn’t wait to get started with her writing. Ideas had been sparking in her mind ever since they’d seen the place advertised, and she was desperate to get words down on paper. She made herself a nest, wiping off a dusty old table and pulling it over to a window, she took out her note pad and pen. She thought of a news article she had read about the couple that once lived in the house, they had been childhood sweethearts and no one believed anything could split them up. But one day the woman had killed her husband in an impassioned rage when she found another woman’s underwear under the bed. She had been so heart-broken she immediately killed herself. Immersed in the story Alice began to put pen to paper. As she searched her imagination, a loud thundering noise interrupted her thoughts. She rolled her eyes, of course Tony had decided that now was the time to start dragging around furniture. The noise stopped and she carried on, but within moments it started again. She stood up abruptly and stormed over to the bottom of the stairs. She saw Tony’s shadow flit across the hall, his footsteps moving along the upstairs corridor, “Tony!” she barked. Tony heard her shout and came running in from the garden, already on edge after his encounter with the kid. As Tony appeared in the kitchen doorway beside her, Alice jumped, her stomach lurched, her face paled and there was a loud thump upstairs. ... It took a little while for the pair to pull themselves together, there had to be a logical explanation for everything. After a brief argument over who would go first, Anna tread slowly up the stairs wielding a hammer and nervously looked in each room for any sign of a rational answer. “Tony?” her voice quivered, “Yeah?” “The trunk is gone” the pair looked over at the door on the stairs, a little white tag hung from a key that now sat in the lock. Anna slowly turned the handle, the mechanism clunked and with a gentle push the door creaked open ominously, leaving the pair bewildered. The half open door revealed a full-length mirror propped up against the far wall and a pile of clothes heaped beneath it. A necklace lay broken on the carpet, beads scattered and rolled across the floor. There was a gentle tapping as several escaped the room and cascaded down the stairs. Tony shuddered, “We’ve got to get out of here”, he started down the stairs but Alice was petrified in place, her eyes glued to the mirror, staring at her own reflection, or just beyond it. There was nothing more than a shadow, and yet she could see him so clearly, his decorated face smiling as he admired his new dress in the mirror. Alice turned to Tony, shaking “he didn’t do it” she said quietly, “he just wanted her to know”.