The Grange

They said that The Grange was a haunted house,

I said, ‘you’re having me on!’

But no, they said, ‘he’s back from the dead,’

I thought it a giant con.

‘Just spend one night in that house alone

With the power cut off, you’ll see,’

I said, ‘I’ll go, if Carolyn goes,

If Carolyn stays with me.’

Now she was more of a nervous type

But she said, ‘I’ll go with you,

Just promise you won’t make whooshing sounds,

There’s nothing a ghost can do.’

‘There isn’t a ghost,’ I told her then,

They’re all just having us on,

We’ll spend the night, if you feel uptight

I’ll prove that it’s just a con.’

We ventured in through the cobwebbed porch

As the hour was getting late,

The only light we had was a torch

And the fire we lit in the grate,

The Moon came presently shining in

Its ghostly beam through the gloom,

And Carolyn came and cuddled up

As we sat on the floor of the room.

‘Where did they say the ghost would be,’

She asked, as I patted her hair,

I couldn’t say, I was miles away,

Then we heard a creak on the stair.

I thought, ‘Oh no, it will spoil the show,’

I was hoping for just one kiss,

For this was the first time, she and I

Had ever been close, like this.

Then from above there were creaks and groans,

It came stumbling down the stair,

It looked like a bundle of rags and moans

And a skull, with eyes that glare,

Carolyn screamed as it reached for her

This thing from another world,

It bubbled and rasped in its throat, and said

One word that I think was ‘Girl’.

It must have remembered from days before

It had held a girl like this,

Death had never erased the thought, 

Or the feeling that was bliss,

But now, the rags of the grave were foul

It gave off a graveyard stench,

And Carolyn, all she could do was howl,

This alive and lovely wench.

What seemed to me an apparition

A ghost in empty air,

Was rotting flesh and bones to Carolyn

Tangled in her hair,

It held her in a grip of steel

As it probed beneath her dress,

I couldn’t even fight it off

For to me, it was stagnant breath.

They came to us in the dawning light

With a key to let us out,

I lay as in a palsied dream

But I heard them scream and shout,

‘What have you done to Carolyn,’

But they were to late to save,

For she had gone where the ghost had gone,

To join him in the grave.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[A Soap Mess Stories]

A very haunting story to read. Excellent read.

[Coyote Poetry]

A haunting story in the poem my friend. I stay away from those haunted houses myself. Thank you David for sharing the amazing tale.
Coyote

[KT-B]

Oh no and you never even got a kiss before she went :( - another fantastic yarn loved it - :)

[Avinash]

Poor Carolyn might not have expected the date to finish like this. Very entertaining write David.