Yesterday morning, en route back to the bedroom, I glanced into one of the spare rooms where Oreo (my sister’s cat we’re tasked to keep alive for the next week) sleeps.
That was when I was struck by an unsettling sight…
The drawers built into the bed frame were wide open on both sides.
At first, I just stood there thinking, “Huh, that’s weird.”
Then I felt my knees wobble—
I mean… my legs were weary from a fitful night’s sleep. 😬
So what did I do?
Well, what anyone else would’ve done…
Burned some sage and hoped Pinhead didn’t appear with his hell chains while I pushed the drawers back in.
But here’s where this gets weird:
(No, Pinhead didn’t leap out of the closet.)
These weren’t flimsy drawers.
You actually had to yank them open to access the clothes, bed linen, and whatever else was buried in them.
In other words:
They weren’t something a cat could do.
Naturally, Laura got a little concerned, so I messaged my sister with a picture of the scene, followed by the text: “Is this normal?”
After a few agonising hours, she texted back:
“No. That’s definitely NOT normal lol”
I shuddered.
Not because it has just been confirmed we’re sharing space with a restless spirit.
The real terror was the thought of packing up the car again, which meant loading two small kids, toys, prep machines, sterilisers, the coffee machine (yes, I’m snobby about my coffee), clothes, and a hostile cat who had already drawn blood from my hands trying to get her into a crate once before.
Just as I was about to break the news to Laura, my phone rang.
It was my sister.
Through the patchy signal, I could hear… a cackle?
“I can’t hear you,” I said.
“Dan, don’t worry…
It’s completely…
normal.
Oreo does it…
all the time.
I just…
couldn’t…
resist.”
After calling her a colourful name, I put the phone down and felt my soul re-enter my body. No longer did I imagine us frantically loading the car, only to see a ghostly figure give us the finger from the window.
Phew.
Turns out Oreo is not just a hobby prankster…
She also possesses more strength than I initially gave her credit for.
In any case, we slept well last night.
But it did get me thinking…
Sometimes our pets aren’t to blame for the things that go “bump” in the night. Sometimes, there really is a restless spirit residing in our homes that wants us out, or worse…
Wants to claim our very souls.
That was the crux of my first-ever supernatural thriller, a three-part short story series set in a remote town called Starch.
Sadly, I’ve since unpublished them as the writing was quite amateur, to say the least.
(Who knows, depending on demand, I might bring them back from the dead.)
That said, while haunted homes are the norm in this sub-genre, I believe a lot more horror can be found on the outside.
And that’s exactly what The Curse of the Abbey Ruins explores.
To learn more, go here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/COAR
DJJW