The basement

A Story by Mkelleher

Another true one guys!

The basement

This story is all true as I've stated in previous writing I'm not really a believer in the supernatural. But I have seen things and heard things that make me wonder. This is a story my mother told me and it always makes me feel uncomfortable. I hope it scares you as well.

When I was a child I lived in a place called barking, it's a borough of greater London. I grew up in a fairly normal slightly larger than average family. There was me and my two sisters and one brother, and my parents. To house us all we needed a good sized house, so when my parents moved to barking they purchased a large 4 bedroom end of terrace Victorian property.

Now I have no Ill feeling towards the property, in fact I love it. It was the house of my childhood, I have great memories of it. It was a really large house, on the ground floor we had 3 large reception rooms as well as a good sized kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Upstairs we had 2 good sized double bedrooms and 2 really good sized singles. But for me what made it special was the huge basement we had, it was the same size as the ground floor of the property.

The entrance to the basement was a white door under the staircase. When you opened the door you were welcomed with a slightly damp smell, which I strangely loved. It had an old fashioned wooden staircase, which creaked and moved with every step you took on it. The floor was concrete and the walls were painted white. There was only one wall down there separating the whole thing in to two large rooms. There was no doorway in between so the whole space felt huge.

We used it as a play room and freezer storage, we had a huge collection of old toys and board games down there. As well as a full size snooker table that I loved. It was slightly creepy but I guess a basement with no windows in a house that's over 100 years old always would be.

My mothers name is Monica, she was about 50 years old on the day that she stopped going in to the basement. We had a large half breed dog called rocky when I was growing up. He was a huge half Labrador half German shepherd cross. He was a fantastic guard dog and would have protected any of us with his life. He followed my mother around the house anywhere just as he did on that fateful day.

My mother was a house wife, she was extremely house proud and always had a cooked meal on the table for my father when he got in from work. She was going about her usual daily routine just as any other day. She was cooking a roast dinner for us on this day, and she needed to fetch a large chicken from the freezer down stairs. So she opened the door under the stairs as usual. She thought nothing of how cold it was in the basement today as it was always cold down there. Rocky followed her as he would any other day. To get to the freezer you had to walk through the gap between the large wall and go in to the 2nd room. As she went to the freezer to retrieve the chicken, she noticed the dog was acting strangely. He wasn't his usual playful self, I don't know how she can tell but she tells me he was acting very "seriously" on this day.

As she closed the chest freezer lid after taking the chicken from inside the lights started to flicker. She told me that she started to panic a little. Not because she was scared but because it was a long walk to get back upstairs especially if the lights went off. She decided to get back to the stairs quickly just in case the lights went out completely. As she turned around to walk the inevitable happened, the lights turned off. Let me just add here that this wasn't unusual it was a Victorian terrace and the electrics were ancient.

Now she swears to me that the temperature dropped at this point, it was already cold in there but now she was shivering. But what really scared her was the dog, he started to growl. He positioned himself directly in front of her as if he was protecting her. The lights then came back on and she made her move and got to the bottom of the stairs. But the dog didn't follow her, he stayed in the exact same position growling. As she stepped on the bottom step feeling somewhat relieved that she was about to exit, the lights went out for the 2nd time. She didn't hesitate she moved up the stairs as quickly as possible. As she reached the top she heard a horrible whimper from rocky. And she heard a loud bang almost as if he had been thrown from one side of the room to the other.
The lights came back on and she exited the basement, the dog came bounding up after her.

After spending a bit of time upstairs dealing with what had just happened, mum decided that she would go back downstairs to see if she could figure out what had happened. But the dog wouldn't let her. He placed himself in front of the basement door and wouldn't move. She never tried to go down there again after, she made dad buy her a tall fridge freezer so she wouldn't have too any more. After that we always had a lock on the door as well and only dad ever went down there.

Now I don't usually believe these stories, but what does make me think it happened is that she didn't tell me. I was about 10 at the time and she knew I'd be scared. In fact I only found out about a year ago and I'm now 28. This story always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I hear it and I hope it does for you as well.

© 2016 Mkelleher

Author's Note

Again I'm aware the grammars not great! Any feedback is appreciated guys

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Featured Review

Hearm Jan

Well, nice story, and the peace in reading is good.

I just have some suggestion for this story,

In writing numbers, use words not the decimal characters. Like, 'one-hundred' instead of '100' and second-floor not 2nd-floor.

About the dog, 'He positioned himself directly in front of her as if he was protecting her.'
'The dog positioned itself... as if it was protecting her'