

THE VIRTUAL ENTITY

## RICHARD STREET

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### TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 The Beginning 1

CHAPTER 2 The Old Star Inn 9

CHAPTER 3 The Strange Night Ahead 18

CHAPTER 4 The Next Day 27

CHAPTER 5 The Second Night 34

 CHAPTER 6 The Investigation of the VR Set 43

CHAPTER 7 What David Had Seen 52

CHAPTER 8 The Medium 59

 CHAPTER 9 The Priest Across From the House 67

CHAPTER 10 The Final Battle 71

CHAPTER 11 The Peace and Quiet 80

#  CHAPTER 1 The Beginning

Our story begins in the small town of Bakewell, United Kingdom.

In the center of the town lies a lonesome terraced house soon to be bought by a young couple. When moving into their new home in the countryside, little did the couple know of the horrors that awaited them. For David and Danielle this was to be a new start, a break from the hustle and bustle of the city life, a place where they could reconnect and start a new family together. The young couple arrived at the small town of Bakewell early one autumn morning, ready for the new start that they both had been craving for the last few months. The couple had just pulled off the M1 signed Sheffield, the time was 6am and the roads were exceptionally eerie with only a few cars either going to or returning from work on the 21st of October, approaching the town of Bakewell, they could see it was very picturesque and was rightfully so famed for its beautiful landscapes. Danielle had already pointed out the strange fact that no one seemed to be going towards the town that contained their future home. The wildlife that could be seen in the country was a shock compared to the hundreds of bikes, busses and commuters that were usually witnessed in the crowded streets of the city that the pair were used to. The narrow roads heading into the town were tricky for David to drive around, as he struggled to keep his eyes off the beautiful scenery enveloping the landscape. He drove on, adoring the quaint shops and country bars, which he made sure to point out to his girlfriend. Never did the couple think that they would be moving to such a timid and secluded place.

When they first pulled up to the house and saw the old stone-built terraced house, they could see how different life would be after they finished fully settling down. David and Danielle had always talked of moving from the smog filled cities to the fresh country air, but if only they knew what lied ahead within these walls they would've stayed happily in the smog. Parking the car just outside the terraced house, the couple took a look around and were quickly greeted by a suspicious-looking graveyard with a large church. However, this building didn't rile them. Neither partner believed in ghosts or supernatural elements, rendering them only characters in children's stories. Exiting the church view, David and Danielle headed up the stairs leading up to the new home, smiling at the mist on the windows and the cold sensation of the air on their skin. As they climbed, a big green door loomed over them. David went to turn the old-fashioned handle and almost winced at the pain from how cold it was. Unable to push the door open, he hastily rang the estate agent to ask for the keys, suddenly feeling unwell in the cold. The scared-looking estate agent who had sold the house pulled up and rushed to the door to greet the couple, she was wearing all-black, a very gothic look, looking as if she didn't really fit in anywhere. She had apologized for not mentioning that the house was facing a graveyard and the photos did not show this on the website. Because the couple were looking to purchase quickly and had to move out, they never got to visit the town or see the house in person. Instead, they had chosen out of familiarity because they had known of the person who was the previous owner of the house. He was a friend of David's father who had died of a heart attack in the summer, leaving the house as a bargain for the couple. They knew it would get snapped up if they did not take the opportunity, so the estate agent was happy that the couple were not bothered by this matter.

David did mention that after the sale of his last house he would have money left over to design the house as they wanted, so the estate agent left them the keys and went on her way. They both noticed just how fast she seemed to be walking back to her car, almost as if she hated the place. David then used the front door key to open the door to what they thought would be a dream home for them. They immediately crinkled their noses at the damp smell due to the lack of ventilation and heating. The walls were styled in an old-fashioned way as an elderly person would have been in the house for years. The green carpet on the floor had a stain, documenting a previous spillage of some kind. The couple walked in further to check out the rest of the home. The living room had an old man's worn chair looking out onto the street; they thought this must be where he watched people's comings and goings. The fireplace was very old-fashioned, looking like something from a dickens film. It was made of dark wood with a metal-stained fire guard and coal effect pieces. They were thrilled to know it was a gas fire and not an old coal fire; this would make it cheaper as they wouldn't have to run gas pipes to the living room. The walls were moldy where the damp had been getting into the room, although it wasn't an issue as this was going to be changed anyway. Going into the kitchen, there were green tiles on the wall with an old cooker as well as dirty cupboards that were meant to be white but had gone an off-white over time. Opening the cupboard one by one, they had found dust inside - which anyone would expect when it was an old man who had lived on his own for many years. The back door led out of the kitchen through an old six-panel glass door, which was ready to be replaced, to say the least. Looking out to the garden as the sun was rising, they could see that it was very tidy to their amazement, as the rest of the house needed a lot of work to be done. The couple spotted an old, eagle-shaped water feature looking towards the house. Now heading up the stairs as they continued to explore the house, both boyfriend and girlfriend avoided touching the freezing handrail which looked like it was about to fall off. The carpet was the same old-green style as the hallway, leading into two bedrooms and a bathroom. Danielle joked,

"At least we have a spare room if we fall out."

David gave a snort and continued on. When he walked into the bathroom, he was not so shocked to see its vintage style, and the old stains within the shower were ready for a good scrub. But the couple still understood that it was a project they had taken on. They headed into the spacious bedroom, where Danielle squealed in delight as she laid her eyes upon the large wardrobe in the corner; It had always been her dream to have just one place where she could hang all her clothes. As they walked around to inspect the last room, a cold shudder ran down

David's spine. Trying to ignore it, he joked,

"Oooh this room must be haunted!"

Danielle gave a nervous laugh as she held her nose to block out the mysterious foul smell coming from within the room. She swiftly moved to open the window and ventilate the room.

A short while later, the pair has started unpacking their gear, deciding to only take out the basics, as they would soon be decorating the entire house with furniture. The removal men also came inside to help them move and unpack their things as they didn't have much large furniture. As Danielle was picking up a box to take upstairs, one of the men sidled up to her,

"I didn't realize there would be three of you moving in here."

Danielle replied, clearly puzzled "What do you mean?"

He explained that as he drove up to the house, he could see an old man in the top window. She laughed and said,

"Yeah sure, quit trying to scare me because it's close to Halloween!"

He replied with a serious face "No, I'm being deadly serious. I saw an old man in the front upstairs window."

Giving a polite laugh, she ignored him and carried on unpacking. By midday, the removal van had long gone and the Mitchells were heading out for a walk to see what the town had in store for them. As they walked out of the front door, they had heard a slight shuffling upstairs, followed by a muffled cracking sound. David shrugged and mumbled something about the heating and Danielle told him about what the removal man had said just a few hours earlier. This made her boyfriend chuckle,

"It'll be the old man's knees as he's moving around."

They closed the door and headed out joking with each other as they walked down the street. The surrounding streets were getting slightly busier as people were starting to go about their daily business. The shops which lined the pavement, were slowly coming to life and customers had started to pour in, after glancing at the various window displays and posters. One of the stores had a Virtual Reality home design kit which David and Danielle thought would be ideal to help them renovate the old, outdated property they had just bought. The couple decided to go in and explore. As they looked around, they could see that the shop was of an old-fashioned build; it had wooden beams showing, ancient windows from the Victorian age and marked flooring where things had been moved around in the past. The entire place had a sort of fusty smell to it, as you would expect in a century-old building. David asked the shop assistance for the VR set. One would assume that at £200, it was a bargain that was waiting to be snapped up, but David had to make sure that they were getting the real deal, so he asked if the package contained instructions as well. The shopkeeper advised the couple that the set was second hand and was missing the instructions as well as a few accessories, which the couple wouldn't have cared for anyway.

"Though if you do get stuck, there's a model number on the back and you can just search it up on the internet to download the full instructions."

"Sure, that's how things work these days I guess," David replied as his girlfriend scoured the shop for any other bargains. Satisfied with their purchase, the pair both agreed on the fact that the town seemed to already be taking a shine to them. The quaint shops, the homemade pie shops, the butchers with fresh produce, it all seemed to be such a delight from the overpriced supermarkets that the couple were previously used to. They continued to look around the town to see what else it had for them, as they were walking, a street with a lot of pubs and restaurants came into view. Upon closer inspection the prices were so appealing to the couple and they knew it would be all home cooked. They could almost taste the Yorkshire puddings that were leaving a delightful scent in the street. Deciding to have a further look around the shops before they sat down to eat, the couple ventured into a second-hand furniture store, which was ideal due to the fact that they had to sell the age-old furniture from their home in the city. There wasn't much in their new house and as they entered the shop, a soft leather sofa caught Danielle's attention. After a lot of discussion about where they would place it, the couple finally agreed that it would be a good first purchase for their new home. They bought the furniture and placed a time slot for it to be delivered to the house along with a solid oak bed that had enticed David. Having just made 3 large purchases, the pair were quite hungry and decided that it was finally time for them to sit down and have lunch, with a few drinks to celebrate their new home.

#  CHAPTER 2 The Old Star Inn

T hey saw a pub on the corner which overlooked onto a shallow canal, it had a big bay window so they could watch the locals outside to assess how things worked around there. Walking over the bridge which led towards a pub, there was another couple who were fastening a lock to the bridge. David and Danielle asked them what they were doing out of interest and the woman said that they were engraving their family's name into a lock and tying it to the bridge. It seemed to be a tradition of the townsfolk for good luck. Danielle turned towards David,

"Wouldn't it be nice if we tried that, when we have a little family?"

"Yeah, it would leave our mark on this bridge for a long time," David agreed.

The couple continued to walk towards the pub. On the outside of the building, they could spot veils of ivy running down the sides of the wall, achieving a vintage and naturalistic effect. Just then, David and Danielle were passed by another couple – both very beautiful – who were enjoying themselves as they finished their meal as they left the pub. It was a no brainer for David and Danielle that they had to check out the place. As they walked in, there was a sign saying, "lunch time meals at unbeatable prices!"

"This just gets better and better!" David exclaimed.

They then headed further inside next to a lit fireplace which had glowing ambers sectioned within a column of the wall, with tables on either side. They were delighted to see that there was a table available for them. David made his way to the bar to get some drinks while Danielle looked at the menu and decided what she wanted to eat.

The landlord who was serving behind the bar as he greeted David with a warm smile, "Ooh I haven't seen you round here before, are you locals or visitors?"

"Yeah, we've just moved here we turned up today, we had a look around the area and I really loved the variety of restaurants and shops!"

"Ah yes, that's the best thing about this town."

After the landlord had poured their drinks, David took them back to their table where Danielle was enjoying the scenic view. A quick glance at the menu was enough for David to know exactly what he wanted to order on their first night in the town,

"Yum, meat and potato pie made from fresh local beef and home cooked potatoes served with steak cut chips, peas and a pot of gravy."

Danielle laughed, "I think I'll have the fillet steak as this is a celebration after all!"

As David walked over to the counter to place the order, the landlord asked

"Where is it exactly you moved into?"

David replied, "One of the terraced houses facing the Church."

Upon hearing this, the glint in the landlord's eyes disappeared, along with his smile.

"Oh, I think I know who used to live there. Strange fellow, he was never involved with anyone...very mysterious if you ask me."

David calmly mentioned that his father had known the man, but the landlord continued.

"Oohh I don't know, there have been many strange things going on in that house for a long time now."

David shrugged, "I don't really believe in superstition, there's probably some logical explanation. He quickly put his credit card and receipt into his wallet and walked back to Danielle. Without hesitation, he told her about the strange conversation that had just taken place.

"What a load of rubbish, look at him, he can barely dress decently, no wonder he seems a bit odd," Danielle said matter-of-factly.

David's eyes darted back to the counter. Well, the man was in his early 60s and scruffy so maybe she had a point. But then again, you should never judge a book by its cover.

The couple carried on chatting, discussing the wonderful scenery just outside the bay window. Slowly their conversation turned to more deeper topics such as religion.

"I know right, we should get a cross and put that on the landing after what that man said!"

David laughed and thought, well why not what harm could it possibly do? As a hoax they agreed to do this; they would find a shop that sold religious ornaments and purchase some relics to bless the house. Little did they know, this joke would end up backfiring right up in their faces.

It was not too long before the food arrived. The couple were excited to see the steam coming from their plates and the smell of homecooked pub food relished their senses. The taste and texture was to die for. They very quickly finished their meals with satisfied stomachs, and as the waiter came to take the pots away, David said how nice the meal was and how much they had enjoyed it.

"Are there any shops that sell old junk like the Christian cross?"

The waiter looked offended, "What do you mean junk? We are very religious as a community around here."

The thought suddenly hit David; oh no I've shot myself in the foot here. He shook his head slightly and made an apologetic gesture. The waiter was annoyed at first, but his expression softened and he walked away slowly. A few minutes later, he brought back a small wooden cross and handed it to David.

"You can have mine, as you're new to the area."

They thanked him but quickly left and made their way onto the street, wanting to escape the awkward situation. Danielle pointed towards a sign that said 'Trail this way.' "

"Let's go for a nice, long walk. I'm feeling a bit full so it'll help me feel better."

They proceeded to the entrance which led up a country lane, onto the dirt path and uphill onto the trail. The pair could see the whole town from the top of the hill which made navigating around the area a little easier for them, as they were able to catch a glimpse of every street from this view. They could even see the house with the graveyard onlooking.

The couple carried on walking; David's arm was aching so he switched hands with the purchase they had made earlier. As they continued, a friendly looking dog approached them; a Labrador with not a mean looking bone in its body. As it got closer, the dog steered away from the pair as though it sensed that something wasn't right. All of a sudden, it snarled and started barking at David. The owner was quick to retrieve his pet,

"I'm sorry, he never usually does that! It must be that strong aftershave you're wearing," he joked. The couple walked by as the dog and its walker left. The dog looked back appearing to be more concerned with what was in David's hand as it faded into the distance. The time now was now 3pm which the couple agreed to go back to the house as it was going to be dark soon. As they got back towards the lane which led into the town, they saw that it was empty. Green lights on the gardens of the bungalows shone brightly, opposing the darkening sky. It was funny how despite losing all their leaves during the Autumn season, the trees still looked magnificent. The center was getting more visible, and the couple were glad as they had clocked up quite a distance already, during their first outing. They headed back up the hill towards the house where the church and graveyard could be seen. Walking through the entrance to the small front garden, Danielle closed the gate behind her as David went to unlock the door. As she glanced up, she saw a creepy, old man in the top window, his eyes were pure white. He had thin, pale skin with bleached white hair. She screamed immediately, David spun around, shocked.

"What on earth are you playing at? You nearly made me jump a mile!" She described the details of what she had just witnessed.

David then laughed and said "Alright, yeah do you think I'm that stupid after everything today?" He smiled "Come on it's cold out here, let's get inside." Danielle couldn't help but look up again, trembling with fear as David, now already in the hallway, exclaimed,

"Come on then don't let all the heat out!"

Danielle could not get this image from her mind but regarded it as the effect of having a few drinks. She then walked inside and put her coat onto the hook near the front door. As she turned towards the living room, her coat fell softly. How unusual, I thought I'd put the coat tag onto the hook, she muttered to herself. As Danielle proceeded to put the coat back on, she heard footsteps coming from the upstairs front room. She called nervously,

"David is that you?"

She slowly climbed up the stairs, wondering where the noise was coming from. As Danielle got to the top of the steps, the banging started to get louder. The front room door slammed and her heart rate was throbbing so fast with the fear setting in. She proceeded to turn the light on and say "David if that's you, I do not find this funny." She walked up to the door handle and very slowly opened the door. No one was in the room; it was still empty. She shouted again,

"David if that's you messing around, I won't be happy."

As Danielle went to close the door, David said in a creepy voice,

"I am the old man that previously owned this house, GET OUT!"

Danielle was so scared she ran down the stairs screaming. David thought was hilarious; he chased after her and apologized, seeing that she was almost crying.

Suddenly the door slammed shut, they both looked up, then towards each other. It had become very windy by this time and there was a draught coming through the house so they assumed that's what caused the door to slam shut.

After a few moments of silence, David asked if Danielle wanted anything from the takeaway as they hadn't had the chance to go shopping for food yet. It was almost dinnertime and despite their fulfilling lunch, the cold weather had made them both hungry.

"Pizza sounds good, on you of course, for your antics!" Danielle replied.

The pair went to sit down in the living room, turning the TV on to see what was playing. David continued to mention how he was really looking forward to seeing the renovated house after it was done. Talking over the background noise of the TV, the couple shared ideas about the living room, turning their attention to the screen when there was a weather update. It showed there to be heavy rainfall and high-speed winds, which only meant one thing; David and Danielle were to be stuck in the house for the best part of the next week. They made plans to arrange the existing furniture over the coming week, before they started work on the following Monday. David and Danielle were incredibly excited, both full of enthusiastic ideas, talking about colors, designs and furnishing. As they continued talking, there was a knock at the door; it was the pizza boy. David walked out of the living room and up to the front door. He had only just barely cracked open the door when the boy had shoved a pizza box into his hands and run off to his car without saying anything. "Odd," David thought, "but that's how people might be out here." So, he slowly closed the door and didn't tell his girlfriend about the incident, what could the lad have seen what made him so terrified? As the night continued, they could hear the sound of the wind outside, as it was getting louder. David checked the settings of the central heating to make sure they wouldn't go cold overnight. The heating was set to summer so he changed it to make everything nice and warm for when they would wake up the next morning.

Just then, there was a scream.

Both David and Danielle turned their eyes to the TV, at the ghost program which had just come on. It was a Halloween special; they smiled as they looked toward one another and decided to watch it, just for fun. The program continued; it seemed to be getting more ridiculous by the minute. David scoffed in disbelief.

"This stuff is for little kids, let's watch something interesting."

Danielle shushed him and pointed to the screen, chuckling to herself. The presenter was doing all the usual tricks and trying to build suspense.

" _Knock once for yes and twice for no._ "

Just then, there were two clear, loud bangs. The couple froze. They both glanced outside of the window,

"Sounded like someone slamming their car door," David remarked.

The presenter continued with his show.

" _Are you a good spirit?"_

#  CHAPTER 3 The Strange Night Ahead

After around 20 more minutes of jump-scares, the ghost program

had finished and the presenter waved goodbye. As David and Danielle went upstairs, the whistling wind was blowing against the windows, sending chills down their spine. A draught was squeezing through the cracked seals, but it was already night-time so they decided to fix it at a later date, along with the other problems within the house. David went into the bathroom first to get a shower and clean his teeth. Afterwards Danielle did the same, as the pipes were shrinking, they could hear loud bangs and knocks, assuming straight away that the banging noise they had heard earlier, had come from the pipework. David said to Danielle,

"You see, I told you that there would be a logical explanation!" as they both laughed.

Danielle could not get the image of the old man at the window out of her mind. They set an alarm for 8am so that they could get started on cleaning the kitchen area early in the morning, while it was waiting to be decorated. As the night seemed to have moved quickly, they both put their heads to the pillow and began to drift off. David was listening to the wind, thinking how horrid it must be outside. As he fell away into a deep sleep, the time had moved to 2am on the bedside table clock. Danielle was tossing and turning. In her dream, she had stood up in the room and stepped down the stairs gracefully as she headed for a drink in the kitchen. She ran the cold tap for a little while until it became cold and got a glass from the cupboard. She put it down on the kitchen side and looked at the wind blowing the tree in the back garden. Thinking how spooky the night looked, Danielle turned to fill her glass and saw that the cupboard door was open, and her glass had moved.

"How strange, I'm sure I closed it earlier, and why's my glass there" she wondered.

She shut the cupboard door firmly, and filled her glass before bringing it close to her lips to drink. As Danielle took a gulp of water, she suddenly saw someone outside the window. She froze instantly; too scared to move, too scared to scream. Kind of stuck in a limbo moment, Danielle very slowly and very hesitantly looked again towards the window, this time, seeing nothing. Slightly sighing with relief, she went for a closer inspection, just to be sure. As the wind was blowing, there were a lot of shadows created from the trees blowing in front of the light; this must have been what caught her eye, as she went to go back upstairs, she heard a strange sound coming from the living room. Danielle proceeded to investigate and saw an old man sitting in the chair facing away from her looking out of the window. Again, she froze with terror. He turned around slowly, revealing a pale figure with bloodshot eyes.

"My name is Harrison and it's nice to meet you," He screeched.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" Danielle questioned, with a sudden burst of energy.

"I live here, I've been here since the war."

Danielle was so shocked that she turned the light on and went towards the man for a closer look at what she was seeing. As she got closer, she could recognize the familiar stench which that had greeted the couple when they had first walked into the house. A vile odor that, once experienced, was hard to get rid of. He was bald, with moles on the top of his head and a beard, from what she saw. Danielle started to walk nervously around to the front.

" No need to worry, I won't hurt you." The old man Harrison remarked.

As she got to the front, she sat down and tried to shout for David to come downstairs, but no sound escaped her mouth. She again was very frightened as she started to look the man up and down, as opposed to her eyes sticking to the floor. Her body went into shock as she looked him in the face; his eyes had no pupils and his skin was extremely pale.

She asked "Are you a ghost?"

He insisted, "No I live here I told you, why won't you listen to me?" in an angry manner. At this point, Danielle wondered if this was a dream. Her shoulders relaxed slightly as she said,

"Right, you either get out or I will call the police!" In confusion as to whether it was a dream.

As the dream got more intense, she was tossing and turning. The cross which they earlier had received from the waiter was on the bedside table and it cluttered to the floor.

The old man whispered, "You will leave this house before me," Laughing spookily. There was a drink placed at his side; a very memorable cup that was dark green; something you would expect an old man to have. By this time, Danielle was terrified and said,

"This is your last chance, either get out or I will call the police."

The old man looked at her as he rose from his chair, suddenly floating towards Danielle as her spine started to paralyze with fear. He got really close to her face and spewed water droplets all over her as he exclaimed,

"I told you, THIS IS MY HOUSE!"

She was stuck to the chair in shock. All of a sudden, she woke up from her dream and sprang up on the bed. David stirred, clearly worried,

"What's wrong?"

She replied, "I just had the most horrid dream."

She thought maybe the old man had been real, she was all clammy from her dream and too scared to go down as she needed a drink. David cajoled and persuaded her that the old man had just been a part of her dream and their house was perfectly safe. She cautiously went downstairs and just like in her dream; she took each step lightly, not making any noise. Finally making it to the bottom, a great relief washed over Danielle, seeing that the living room was empty. She went to the kitchen and once again ran the tap and pulled out a glass. This time, the door wasn't open as she turned around. She began to look out of the window where the old water feature was struggling against the incredible force of the wind. Filling her glass, she went to go back upstairs.

As Danielle passed the living room she thought to go inside and relax for a little while. As she walked in, her eyes set upon the coffee table and her entire body was paralyzed in fear. On the center of the coffee table, was the green mug. Trembling at the thought of her nightmare being real, she walked towards where she had sat in her dream. Just then, the cup levitated and flew right at her, just missing her head and smashing against the wall behind. Danielle screamed at the top of her lungs and ran upstairs. Thinking someone was breaking in, David woke up with a shock and jumped out of bed. They crossed paths at the top of the stairs and he asked, "What's going on?"

"It was a dream, just a dream."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

She proceeded to explain her dream and what had just happened, but in such disbelief David was skeptical. "Oh nonsense! What was that smash?"

She explained that as she woke, she had been very clammy and went to get a drink from downstairs, and that a cup she had seen in her dream had flown across the living room toward her. David went to have a look and left his girlfriend trembling at the top of the stairs.

"Oh no look Danielle, if you were going to play a joke on me, you at least shouldn't have used my favorite glass."

She didn't understand how he could be so ignorant. She explained that it was no joke. He said "This has gone far enough now, why couldn't you just admit it and stop fooling around?"

"Why would you say such a thing? if I was joking, I would have told you by now."

Danielle then proceeded to march upstairs, stamping her feet in anger. David looked up, wondering what the neighbors must've thought about all this racket. He cleaned the glass fragments up and put them into the bin. He then went back to bed and for the next half hour, the couple laid back to back, annoyed with each other, neither of them budging on the subject. As David slowly drifted off, he couldn't help but wonder if Danielle was really telling him the truth. He also thought of the possibility of Danielle creating an elaborate story to get them to move back to the city. These thoughts danced around David's mind as he moved into a light sleep. As Danielle had put the idea in his head, David was in a dream where he woke up out of bed, hearing noises that sounded like music. It was an old song; one you would expect to hear on Oldies FM. He looked out of the window, half expecting it to be a car or something easy to explain. But instead, he saw a figure at his front door, still as a corpse. He then proceeded to go to the door to open it up and see what joke someone was playing on the new couple in town. As he opened the door; there was no one there. He walked up to the gate to look out onto the street, talking to himself, "I know someone is playing a cruel joke here, but why?" Maybe the waiter from the bar who was angry at the pair for the remarks they had made about the cross. David turned around to go back inside as it was getting very chilly in these strong winds, he walked into his doorway and turned around to lock it behind him. The same old man that had spooked Danielle, was now standing in front of David. Slightly startled, David exclaimed nervously,

"Oh yeah very funny! Game's up, I know who you are."

The old man looked up at David, his feet rose from the floor and the hair on the back of David's neck stood up. A terrifying shiver made its way down his back, his mouth open wide in horror and disbelief. The old man whispered quietly,

"My name is Harrison." And then he suddenly screamed,

"This is my house!"

As David froze in terror, the old man flew towards him and shoved him right back against the end of the hallway. As they were face to face, the man had an evil grin on his face. David had never seen a ghost before, and all of his remarks about how superstition was fake went straight out of the window.

The stench of the old man's breath as they were face to face was unbearable; something you would imagine in a slaughter house, he must have been dead for quite some time. He then opened his mouth and his eyes turned black; Vomit ejected from the back of his throat onto David's face.

David woke up with a start. He was breathing heavily, not knowing what the horrific dream was all about. Maybe Danielle had set this off in his mind and his brain had pictured its own pattern of understanding following on from what she had told him. Either way, David was now relieved to be awake. He looked at his clock, it showed 6am. He slowly went downstairs to make a cup of tea to wake himself up properly from such a horrendous dream. As the tea had brewed in his cup, he went to throw the tea bag into the bin and saw the same green old-looking mug in pieces. Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, he squinted and saw that the mug had vanished! David then went to sit in the living room where unbeknown to him, the old man had been sat in Danielle's dream. He felt such a cold chill as he uncomfortably sat down. It slowly went away, as the heating came back on and the house warmed up. Wanting to distract himself from the previous night's drama, David turned on the news. Outside the window, the wind was still howling, and David felt a mix of emotions as he laid back and tried to calm down.

#  CHAPTER 4 The Next Day

Danielle heard her alarm going off as she woke up to find David was gone. As she stood up, she stepped on something sharp,

"OUCH! How did that get on the floor?"

The cold, hard wooden cross which she had left on the bedside table had fallen off during the night. Danielle picked it up off the floor and instantly felt a cold shudder run down her back. Putting on her dressing gown, she headed downstairs to find David. In the living room, David was holding out a nice, warm brew on the table for her.

"Here you go, a piece offering from last night."

Danielle laughed and said,

"Yeah sorry about that I must have been confused as it was the middle of the night." David then went to hug Danielle and ask about how they were planning on tackling the day ahead. They had a general chat about what time he had woken up, what he had watched while she was in bed and if there was anything interesting on television. He replied,

"The same old news."

The couple laughed and put on some light entertainment before they got ready and started the daily tasks. Danielle and David went upstairs to get ready for the day ahead; they put on some old clothes to work on the kitchen, or at least spruce it up until they had the materials to renovate.

Both talked about the night before; David explained his dream to Danielle as she said it was the strangest thing she had ever heard, later admitting that it could've been because of the ideas she had put in his mind beforehand. They stopped talking about it as it may just put more fear into them, but David would never admit this. As the time got to around 10am, there was light coming into the kitchen

"Ugh" David sulked, "This house hasn't had a good clean in years."

"I agree."

David had started on the tiles as Danielle was cleaning the opposite cupboards, when she gave an almighty scream.

"What now?" David said.

"It's a huge spider, kill it."

"Don't be stupid it'll kill off all the bugs festering in this house for us."

David picked it up and threw it out of the back door, "There, it's gone," "Thank you, my hero." Danielle said in a sweet voice.

"Enough of the cheese, let's get down to work."

David looked out of the window as the daylight was appearing, wondering if it had been a cold night. As he was looking out into the garden, he noticed something.

"There seems to be a patch of fog that's a lot lighter."

Danielle joked, "Maybe it's Harrison!"

"Wow, what?"

David was confused. He had never mentioned the name of the man to Danielle.

"That is freaky and very unsettling," she said.

David thought about bringing in a clairvoyant or medium to work out what was going on in the house. "I'll see how things progress and if any strange events occur, I will make sure to get in touch with someone who's more involved with this kind of thing," he said to himself.

Still too skeptical to believe in such superstition, David continued to smash the tiles away. They were so brittle that they were shattering as he was hitting them off the wall.

"Old materials." he muttered

As he went to smash the next set, a huge piece came off and hit Danielle square on the arm. She yelped, and David saw that it had caused a cut, allowing blood to drip onto the floor. He inspected her arm closely and went to get the towel, which he held against the small but deep cut in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"I reckon you need to get to the hospital. I'll drive you."

As she got into the car, Danielle looked up sheepishly into the window to see if the old man was visible, but there was no sign of him. David pulled off from the parking space and quickly but safely rushed her to the hospital, leaving the evil within the house. With the couple gone, the house had turned very quiet. The cross that Danielle had carefully placed back onto the table, suddenly flew across the room, putting a dent in the wall. Danielle's blood quickly began to soak into the floor tiles.

On the way to the hospital, David glanced at his watch,

"I hope they won't be busy at this time, it's just our first day and this happens." Danielle started to feel faint as they drove to the hospital, her boyfriend now worried and speeding up the car to get her the help she needed. As they arrived at the hospital, they were sat in the waiting area after booking in. David had mentioned that Danielle felt faint and the nurse had explained that it was only the sight of blood, nothing too serious. Danielle leant on David's shoulder, drifting off to sleep. She dreamed that she was back in the house. Back in the living room where she had sat in her dream the previous night. She was frightened and felt alone. Danielle tried to see what time it was but the clock hands had disappeared.

There was whispers in another language that Danielle was not familiar with and she was trying really hard to wake herself up. The harder she tried to awaken, the more she was sucked into her slumber. She gave up and began to actively listen to the voice as it got louder towards the kitchen. Danielle was trembling with fear as she walked further into the kitchen. Once at the entrance, she was very alert as to what was happening, she could see a shadow on the lower cupboard in the shape of a man, thinking that it was the same man as the previous night's dream. She walked in very slowly and looked to the right; the man was on his hands and knees with his face planted into the floor. He was licking the blood which had previously fallen from her arm. She jumped back in horror, her heart racing as he lifted his head, as he said how wonderful it was to taste life again, as he gave evil laughs and snarls. Danielle ran to the bedroom for the cross they had been given from the waiter, but the old man was also at the top of the stairs right behind her. She picked up the wooden cross and aimed it at the old evil man. To her surprise, he looked very frightened and slammed her bedroom door. With a spurt of bravery, Danielle carefully opened the door and gripping the cross tightly, stepped out into the hallway. She couldn't see anyone but heard the words,

"Help, help!"

She looked up; the old man was on the celling and before she could react, he jumped on top of her, making it impossible to escape. Paralyzed with fear, Danielle remained on the floor, hoping that her dream would end. All of a sudden, the weight subsided and she was able to get up. Danielle frantically looked around but there was no sign of Harrison. She closed the bedroom door and looking out the window, saw him stood on a grave stone up near the church, pointing towards a stone. Just then, Danielle sprang up from David's shoulder, sweating profusely.

It all seemed too real; she was crying with fear. David knew something wasn't right in the house but he couldn't put his full belief in something so uncertain. He managed to calm Danielle with a warm drink and tell her that it was all okay and they would get through it. He knew that if he made her feel safe, it would surely buy him some time to get someone in the house to find out what the problem was. So, as he continued to calm his girlfriend down, they were called into the nurse's room to glue the cut.

The nurse was a stocky woman, in her mid-forties. She first put sterilizer onto the cut, which stung and made Danielle numb. The nurse then glued the cut, taping it together and applying substances to reduce the risk of infection and inflammation. The entire procedure only lasted 20 minutes and after filling out a few documents, David and Danielle were free to leave the hospital.

They went back into The Old Star Inn where the landlord asked about her arm. Recounting the odd things that had happened since their last meeting, David mentioned that he was looking for someone to come to his house and diagnose the problem. The landlord laughed and said, "It's probably just the stress taking its toll on you. It may look old and haunted around here but I assure you, this town is perfectly safe. Some people would pay a large amount of money to have your house." He then asked the couple to calm down and take a seat. "I shall bring you some wine." he said.

They agreed to relax trying to forget their experiences. David talked about how on the TV, the concept of ghosts and spirits all looked so fake. But maybe there was more to it.

"Either way, whatever it is it won't drive us out. We are a strong team."

The waiter, who was lurking in the corner, couldn't believe that the pair were back so soon after their awkward encounter, he went over to apologize for being so harsh on them the night before. As he talked to the couple, he could see that they looked scared and asked,

"What's wrong with you two? You look like you've seen a ghost."

The landlord said "That's enough," and dismissed the waiter to the back, apologizing to the couple.

"He can be eccentric at times."

Danielle replied "Maybe he has a point."

#  CHAPTER 5 The Second Night

After spending the best part of an hour at the pub, the couple put

their coats on and began to get ready to leave. The landlord

asked if they had visited any of the other pubs in the town.

"Only walked past them," David said.

"Good, and by the way, ignore that nonsense the waiter was telling you."

They smiled as they left and had a glimmer of hope as they moved out of the doorway and into the night. It was dark outside as there weren't many street lights; just a few scattered here and there as David and Danielle headed through the center of the town. They could see very few people walking up and down the high street making their way home. The couple went on towards the hill that lead up to the house, both dreading about the night to come. As they got to the bottom of the hill, David and Danielle were both talking about how eerie it seemed to live opposite a church. They thought to walk through it the next day. As David and Danielle reached the entrance of their small front garden, their anxiety started to increase. They entered the house wondering if anything odd was going to greet them or if it had all just been a one-off crazy day.

Danielle closed the door behind her and quickly followed David into the house; they headed to the kitchen where they put down their bags and both agreed no matter what, the kitchen would need to be finished the next day. They went into the living room and the hunger was kicking in from not eating most of the day due to fear, or the fact that they didn't want to order from the pub in case they had to talk to the creepy waiter again, which was something both were not willing to do that night. The couple ordered a takeaway from the local Indian cuisine. While they ate, both Danielle and David watched the TV; some light entertainment would do as they were a bit taken back by the night before. After the food arrived, the pair tucked into the meal which was piping hot, plentiful and very tasty. David joked,

"We need to order from this place every day."

They were starting to perk up and laugh about times in the old house where the food would have taken such a long time to turn up, if at all. The couple were getting tired ready to go for a good sleep with such an eventful day. They threw the cartons away and David asked,

"Shall we do some shopping tomorrow so we can start cooking at home?"

"You mean so I can start cooking?"

David laughed and replied,

"Typical woman, always complaining."

"Well I don't want to eat your food; I might end up in the same place as Harrison." "Don't start getting that in your head before we go to bed."

They went upstairs to get ready.

"Have you locked the door?" Asked Danielle.

"Of course, even though you were the last in," David replied.

"I'm glad the banter has returned, at least you're getting back the old humor that I fell in love with in all those years ago."

"What so the looks were just a bonus?" David said, while raising his eyebrows.

Danielle was hysterical with laughter as they both went to the bedroom and felt the warmth from the heating that had been on in the bedroom all day. They climbed into bed as David remarked,

"I hope the local shop isn't too far away."

Danielle smirked. "If it is at least we can see if the town has any odder people to interrogate us city slickers."

Her boyfriend laughed and kissed her good night. They both fell into a sleep very quickly due to the fact they were extremely tired, even though the banter was going well, they couldn't seem to keep their eyes open. The clock had struck 1am; there wasn't a sound apart from the trees blowing and branches tapping on the window. The sound was very faint, not enough to disturb the couple though. The tap was dripping in the bathroom. Drip drop, every two minutes, a very annoying sound which again didn't seem to wake either of them due to the previous night's lack of sleep. Danielle rolled over as she slept, the house still deadly quiet, which was pretty disturbing after the night before. I guess you could say this was the calm before the storm. The clock struck 3am. The wind began to pick up again outside, hammering the branches against the top of the glass window. Danielle started to stir while murmuring in her sleep, as the sounds got gradually louder. She was hearing a high-pitched ringing, and struggle to get rid of it as she shook her head left and right. She heard an old woman saying, "Harrison are you coming yet?" In a very soft voice.

But she did not hear a reply. So, she listened closer and the woman spoke again,

"Harrison can you hear me?" A little louder this time.

Danielle's eyes opened slightly as she thought the sound was coming from outside the house.

She got up with slit eyes to look through the window, again hoping the screeching noise would stop. With the hairs on her body slightly raised, she peeled the curtain back to have a quick look. There was an old woman walking towards the end of the hill. She was dressed in brown slip-on shoes, tights, a grey dress and a green coat. She had grey curly hair and was shuffling slowly. Danielle rushed down the stairs and opened the door, dressed in only her t-shirt and pajama bottoms. She ventured a few meters out to see if she could spot the old woman, but to no avail. Turning around, thinking that her eyes were playing tricks, Danielle then walked back up to the house, looking up at where she had opened the curtain slightly just a few minutes before. Harrison was smiling through the drapes with an evil glint in his eyes. Danielle's heart skipped a beat, and she sped up the stairs, shouting for David,

"David! Wake up, wake up!"

David was puzzled,

"What on earth is the matter?"

"I saw him again, he was looking at me from the inside of this room, out to where I chased the old woman."

"What old woman?"

"It's probably just your imagination, I haven't seen anything."

Danielle reluctantly went downstairs to lock the door. As she got to the bottom of the stairs, she heard a very faint knock. Hesitantly, Danielle opened it a crack. The old woman was standing right in front of her. Danielle froze.

"What do you want with us?"

"Nothing with you dear, I'm looking for my husband. I cannot find him; I have looked everywhere in this town and he just isn't here." The woman looked incredibly sad.

The woman seemed so sweet; Danielle invited her in to find out more about this Harrison. The old woman agreed to come in, as she walked in, she went straight to the kitchen like she knew where she was going. Danielle thought, "well I can't leave her out in the cold, she's an old lady she may be confused and not understand that this Harrison is no longer here". She sat at the table as Danielle boiled the kettle. David was still sound asleep with not a care in the world; he was snoring so loud it was almost bringing him out of his peaceful sleep. Danielle asked the lady if she would like tea or coffee, the lady replied,

"I will have tea please, I cannot remember the last time I slept you know," laughing as she said it. Danielle thought she seemed harmless enough,

"Have you any family in the area?"

The old lady replied,

"No just Harrison, he's my husband."

She continued to explain that they met in the school and were in a relationship all those years,

"But lately I just don't know where he has gone."

Danielle implored, "Please continue."

The old lady said, "My name is Elsie and I lived here once,"

"Oh, so you moved out?"

"Yes," she said, "Many years ago."

Danielle asked where she now lived to see if she could contact anyone; the old lady said,

"Oh, my memory's gone, you will have to bear with me dear I cannot remember things as well as I used to."

"Take your time, there's no rush."

The old lady seemed so sweet and innocent; Danielle couldn't believe how different it was to the previous night.

"Can you remember your second name?"

Elsie replied, "Yes, of course I can its err bear with me my love, ah its

Banks."

"I presume Harrison was a Banks too?"

"Yes, he is that's right."

Danielle looked at her phone as the old lady rested on the seat. she went onto Google to search the name, but too many Harrison Banks popped up so she narrowed it down to the town and found 1 matching result.

"Was your husband in the war?"

Elsie replied "Yes he was that's it."

"I am so sorry to have to tell you this but Harrison is dead, he passed away in the naval transport home from Denmark during the second world war."

"NO!" The old lady proclaimed, "you will see he is not dead; he is very much alive, I see him around these parts sometimes."

The time was now 6am and David was waking from his slumber. He then yawned, looking over his shoulder. Danielle wasn't there, so he made his way to the bathroom to see if Danielle had gotten up early to start the rest of the house chores. There was no sign of her, so David started to get ready himself thinking she must have fallen asleep on the couch after getting up in the middle of the night. He could hear voices downstairs so he figured that she was probably chatting on the phone to her friends. "Quite weird at this time of morning," He wondered. David walked down the stairs with his dressing gown on and continued towards the kitchen, where Danielle was stood facing the cupboard.

"Who on earth was you talking to?" He asked, puzzled.

"Oh, this is... where did she go?"

David looked and said, "Where did who go?"

"Elsie, she was just here, she was just sat there talking to me."

He looked at Danielle odd as he picked the teacup off the table. As he took a sip, he spat it out,

"Ugh, I hate that prank... I thought it was a hot drink."

"No, it was Elsie's drink, I promise she was just there we were talking about Harrison." "What on earth?"

"Don't. Just don't say anything. First hear me out, she was explaining that he was in the war and that they used to live here such a long time ago." Just then, there was a knock on the door.

It was the shopkeeper who sold the couple the VR set and explained that he shouldn't have done so. David said,

"well, too late pal, I already have plans on using it."

"No but you don't understand."

David abruptly closed the door, not allowing him to explain further. Danielle shouted "Why wouldn't you let someone explain what they mean before dismissing them away?"

"It's stupid folk just being strange just leave it."

Danielle rushed to the door as David tutted,

"Wait," she said, "What do you mean you wasn't supposed to sell it?"

"I was holding this in the store for someone but I forgot about it as I've been so busy lately."

Danielle raised her eyebrows.

The man stuttered, "Look I'm really sorry, the real reason is that there is something wrong with that set, it causes nothing but grief. I must have sold it several times to different people in this town, all of which returned it."

"Why?"

"Strange happenings have occurred in the places where it has been sold."

Danielle asked "Well, what if I return it?"

"I'm sorry it must be the person who accepted the set over the till that has to return it, maybe you could persuade your partner?"

Danielle nodded, "I will bend his ear and see if I can get him to budge, thank you for the information. Do you know anything about a Harrison and Elsie banks?"

The man looked startled, "yes, what information do you need?"

Danielle explained the previous night's events and the man said,

"If I were you, I would get him to return the VR set sooner rather than later." The man explained that the couple used to live in that house many years ago. They were the nicest couple, wouldn't hurt anyone, but I believe what you're seeing may not be anything to do with the couple at all."

#  CHAPTER 6 The Investigation of the VR Set

Danielle went back into the house as she shouted at David for being so dismissive after what they had experienced already.

But David being stubborn, said,

"I told you, we just scared ourselves far too much because we were messing about on the first day." Danielle said in such disbelief,

"Do you know me at all?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well I would never be so easily scared but something doesn't feel right, even one of the men moving our belongings into the new house said that something was not right."

David explained that it was probably just in her mind, so Danielle said,

"Well let's go and investigate what the man was saying. Let's find the previous buyers to this stupid VR set and find out what is going on." David shook his head,

"I haven't got time for this I have to get the kitchen sorted, do as you please, because I need to sort this out."

So, Danielle stormed upstairs and slammed the door. She looked into her draws for some clothes to put on for the day. As she got dressed, she was seething at the fact that she had not been listened to. "Typical man", she thought, "never listens until it's too late". Danielle put her coat and shoes on as she walked out of the front door to go and see the man at the shop. She slammed the door behind her. As, she was walking she started to calm down. The time was getting closer to the celebrations of Halloween. It was nice to see how people had already begun to decorate the outside of the houses. As Danielle got to the bottom of the hill, she wondered if she was just being foolish, or if there was actually some truth in all of the stories she was being told.

To be on the safe side, she continued to walk towards the shop she got to the front door as she saw a sign saying back in 30 minutes. He must have been out on a delivery, so Danielle decided to go into a few other shops as therapy to calm her down before he reopened. She had walked into a home furnishings store selling little touches that would make anybody's house a home. As she began to look around, Danielle was already forgetting why she came down to the town in the first place. She could see all kinds of crystal glasses that would look wonderful in her new home, and could be shown off to any visitors that came to her house on special occasions. As she browsed the shop pricing things, an old woman, the owner of the shop, approached Danielle. She greeted her with a big smile and asked,

"Can I help you?"

"No, it's ok I'm just searching around the shop for things because another shop is closed right now. Eventually, I want to come back here and buy a few things for my house." The old woman replied, "If you don't mind me asking, are you new to the area?

I haven't seen you around here before and I know a lot of people because I've been here for most of my life." Danielle proceeded to explain where they had moved into and the old woman replied "Oh yes that's Elsie's old place."

Danielle looked at her in delight as she could find out some more information,

"What can you tell me about her?"

"Oh, she was a lovely woman, she wouldn't hurt anyone."

The shopkeeper continued to explain how she had known Elsie for many years. She told Danielle that her husband Harrison became very distant to the town after her passing.

"In what way?"

The old woman began to explain how he had become very recluse into the house, he never wanted to socialize after the passing of his wife. "We all used to meet up for afternoon tea in the local tea rooms, at least once a week."

Danielle liked the idea of how close all of the town seemed to be. As she continued talking to the old lady, the high street was becoming busier with all kinds of people walking around, the old woman explained,

"You have come to the right place my dear, this is such a peaceful town, people come from everywhere to visit us, especially to try our Bakewell pudding. You cannot get a pudding as good from anywhere else in England."

Danielle smiled and thought maybe she should take one back as a peace offering after her and David's argument this morning. She looked at her watch and thought, "Oh, time's flown." and realized that the VR shopkeeper must've returned so she left the old woman politely and went to see him. The door was now open and the chime went off as she walked in. The man greeted her and asked,

"How are you?"

She spoke honestly,

"A bit disturbed by this morning and wondering what you meant by the issues with the headset you had sold to us."

He continued to explain,

"As I had not seen you before, I automatically thought you were not from this town and I wanted to get it away from here. It had been disturbing people who had previously bought it within this town prior to your purchase. I've seen many couples fall out over strange happenings once this had been bought."

Danielle started to recount her experiences with Elsie and Harrison, but was abruptly stopped by the shopkeeper.

"No. They were very good people, some of the nicest in this town.

They wouldn't harm anyone. I believe from what your describing, that Harrison is still waiting in the house for Elsie as he had been waiting for the last ten years to pass on and be reunited with his wife. We even had to stop him from several attempts of suicide to be with her."

Danielle said, "Oh how awful."

The man explained that he imagined that the VR set was portraying an image of the old couple in a manner of deception. It had happened to a few people prior to the couple buying the set. Danielle asked,

"Can you please tell me the last person who had bought the set from you?"

The man said "I really shouldn't as it isn't professional, but in this case, I cannot stress enough how you and your partner are in grave danger." Danielle was taken back and asked, "Do you really believe that, is it that bad?"

He replied, "Well from the stories I have heard from previous people, yes I do, I don't see how anyone could have made it up." He passed the address to Danielle and said.

"I must stress that you cannot say where you got this from as it is a dear friend of mine, I felt terrible upon realising I had sold something so vile to him."

She took the slip from his hand and said, "Rest assured I will never do that."

As Danielle left the shop he said,

"Good luck by the way on persuading your partner to return it. The only way your house will be normal again, is if he decides to let go of it."

Danielle left the shop and as she put the address into her phone, it pointed to the lane which led up where the trail began, which was a great way to get from one town to the next. Danielle knocked on the door of the property where the slip had directed her to. She couldn't see any sign of people inside. She knocked loudly on the door, as she looked in through the window, she could see that the couple had a dog bed so she wondered if they had taken the dog out for a walk. Danielle waited outside patiently. As she looked at the house, she liked how nice it looked with a scenic garden that you would pay just to sit in. The circular block paves were filled with white stone, there LED lights which were equally distant and also a perfect flower bed with an edging border that looked like stone. On top of it was a water feature that was in the shape of a little cottage with a wheel on the side, where water passed through it, creating a relaxing soundscape. She smiled and thought to herself, "this is ideal; we need to have a garden like this". As Danielle continued to admire the surroundings, all of a sudden, someone in the distance asked, "Can I help you?"

Danielle replied, "Sorry I was just appreciating your garden, its stunning."

She looked and saw it was a woman with the same dog they had bumped into previously on the trail. The woman walked closer and exclaimed,

"Oh, I saw you the other day on the trail, how are you? Sorry about my dog, he's normally over-friendly if anything."

The dog ran up to Danielle and jumped up at her, nearly pushing her into the stone wall that separated the lane from the garden. The woman proceeded to put the dog in the garden saying to Danielle,

"I'm so sorry, oh look at your jeans, he's left mud prints on them."

Danielle replied "Oh its fine, I was going to wear these old things for decorating anyway."

The woman asked, "Are you new around here then?"

Danielle replied, "Yes I am and I was just looking for ideas and taking a walk around." She wanted to find a way to slip the VR set into the conversation without alerting the woman to where she had received her address from. She said to the woman that her partner David was at home taking the kitchen apart as they spoke.

The woman asked "Ah, have you any ideas for the kitchen?"

Danielle thought," perfect, this is where I can bring the VR set into the conversation". "Well me and my partner David bought this VR set the other day from a shop in the town. The same day we passed you on the trail as it happens."

The woman quickly stopped talking and said,

"I have to go, sorry I forgot I have somewhere to be."

Danielle asked, "Have I said something wrong?"

The woman abruptly said, "I don't want to talk about that thing."

Danielle was confused. "What do you mean?"

The woman replied, "You will see."

She shouted for the dog and banged the door shut behind her. Danielle was angry that the woman wouldn't talk so she went to the window and begged,

"Please I need help,"

The woman said, "If you know what's good for you, then you will get rid of it."

From the window, Danielle could see crosses and bibles stacked, she pleaded with the woman for her help and really needed to know more.

The woman opened the door and said

"There is nothing I can say that will help you. It will only make you frightened. You need to get rid of the thing."

Danielle persisted, "What kind of experiences did you have? Please I need to know." The woman reluctantly explained that her trauma started as dreams of her dead father before gradually getting more dangerous and violent. The woman said she had the set for 4 weeks before returning it, explaining that it would've been sooner if her husband hadn't been so stubborn. She went on to recall that her husband had had some kind of attachment to the set and that it was hard to sway him away from it. Upon hearing this, Danielle started to feel anxious, her own partner – David – was already starting to get attached to the VR set. As Danielle walked away, the dog started whimpering. The woman reassured him by petting his soft fur. Danielle rushed up the high street and back up the hill to her house, as she was at the gate, she saw a crow land on a tombstone. She walked over to the graveyard as she was curious about the spot where she had seen the old man the other night. Once she got to the top of the graveyard to see if any stones contained the name Harrison, a chill went down her spine. She stopped and looked down. It was an old grave stone with engraved letters: "Here lies Harrison. A loving friend, husband and son." It was on that day, when Danielle realized that ghosts were, in fact, real.

#  CHAPTER 7 What David Had Seen

Danielle quickly walked away from the grave as she wanted to alert David of the information she had gathered on her travels. As she walked towards the house there was a cold wind blowing right past her ears and down the front of her chest. The gate was blowing and could be heard banging making Danielle's nerves on edge. She picked the pace up as she got to her gate, looking behind her in great fear that maybe more events had happened while she was out. She opened the door and went inside, David asked her where she had been and she explained to tell David of everything she had heard and seen. He said "I want to stop you there." She said "Why, what do you mean?" He said "I have experienced terrible things today and I now know in my heart that there is something very wrong within this house." As they sat down on the sofa David explained the things he had seen while wearing the VR set, he began to explain the strange and bad events that happened while he was alone. He said "Do you want a drink before we get into any details of what happened?" as he thought she may need it to calm her down. she said "No to be honest I just want to get out of this house." David replied "We cannot run from something. We need figure out what it wants and why it's bothering us." Danielle said "Can we at least get out of here for now?" David agreed. They left to go and get a pub meal as she could not listen to the story he had to tell while still in the house.

They walked out of the front gate, it was now raining and the couple had no umbrella so David suggested the pair drive out of the town to another eatery. They got in the car, as David turned his head to drive Danielle was still looking at the top window. She saw the old man with the cross in his hands it was upside down as he put his face against the glass. She was scared but bravely managed to look up at him as to say we will not be driven out of our home. The old man's eyes started to bleed; she couldn't wait to get away from these scary visions even for a short time. David drove off and left the house, "Right where do you suggest we go?" he said, Danielle said "I don't care as long as we can chat and you can finally tell me about all that has happened today." He was unsure if he should tell her the whole truth, as he knew she would be too terrified to return. They drove back towards Sheffield to see if they could see a quiet place where they could talk about the events. David said he needed to just go for fuel before the two could go too far as he hadn't filled it since they moved to the town. Deep down they both wanted to run as far as they could, while also wanting to beat this entity and be rid of it so they could enjoy their new home and fresh start. David pulled into the petrol station and quickly filled up as they set off again. As they got to the top of the hill outward of the town, they saw a big place which looked to be quiet. They decided to pull in and talk. They quickly got to a seat and David ordered two diet coca colas and they finally sat down. "So, before we look into this menu are you going to tell me what you have seen today?" Danielle said. "Ok so here goes," David replied. "When you stormed out of the house, I was very aggressive, I felt as if I was so angry, I could have ripped the house down stone by stone, so I decided to continue to chisel the tiles away.

I got finished doing that and started to scrape the old wallpaper off, when I decided to try the new VR set." He then explained that he wanted to reassure himself of the house by designing each room with it, but as he put the headset on and set the dimensions to the room, he said "It was incredible, it was like actually being in our room without anything else in, there was nothing but an empty canvas, obviously digital intelligence." He proceeded and went to a menu within the set as he picked a sofa and flash TV. He then put a mirror up above it but when he looked up into the mirror, he was shocked by what he saw and quickly threw the VR set onto the floor. It was the old man Harrison that had been seen in his dream, the hairs on his arms were stood up as his senses were heightened. He then put the set back on and the old man was still stood looking into the mirror. He had hair around the edges of his head, a big nose and eyes which had no pupils. He smiled into the mirror and said "My name is Harrison and you're in my house." David replied while taking a big gulp of air "No, this is now our house I know that you died." Harrison replied "Dead?" while laughing "I have never felt so alive! David, you have brought me life through the blood of Danielle and I will now be here forever!" David explained that he told Harrison he would not and the couple would somehow force him out speaking with great confidence. He had never experienced anything like it, but from what he had seen in movies this was how you spoke to them, "Oh how wrong I was." David said. The old man flew across the room with his hands entering around David's neck. "Do you really believe that?" Harrison said. "His hands were like ice; the stench of his breath was unbearable." David said.

Once he had struggled in the fight to get free, he took the set back off and checked his neck, red marks had appeared where the choking had been applied. He ran upstairs to get the cross they had received from the strange waiter in the pub but could not find it anywhere. Oh no he thought, where could that have gone? Then he could hear banging up the stairs, as it got more intense towards the top, he could then hear scratching from the walls outside which was really making his heart race now. David broke down and shouted "Leave me alone!" Everything then went quiet. David began to put the VR set back on, as he did the cross was visible on the wall which he knew as soon as he could he needed to leave the house and try to find Danielle to explain all of this. The cross was upside down as David took his helmet off hoping that it was only a digital image. But there it was in real life, no VR set right in front of him. It was stood on the wall upside down as he heard the words of an old man but couldn't quite make out what they were. David backed away very slowly, as he turned around there was the old man, as true to the image he had seen, big white eyes that frightened the life out of David. He went to run out of the room the old man threw him up against the wall once again with brute force, and said "I will soon have life but first, I must have to take one."

David repeated a simple prayer that he could remember from his friends telling him from his childhood, as he did the old man appeared to weaken. David made a run for it, he got down to the kitchen and looked for his keys, it didn't take long for him to find them. Danielle's face was white from the story which she had just heard, but David knew he must tell her every detail as he didn't want to forget anything or leave any part out. The couple needed to be stronger now than ever before if they were going to get through this. Danielle didn't want to go back to the house but David explained "Whatever it is it isn't that strong, I managed to get out." he said. There I was stood outside of the front door onto the road side, as I looked up at the window where the terrible event had taken place. The old man was pointing, so David looked in the direction of where his finger led too and it was the church. David went over to the church to see if it was open, but to no avail, the church doors were closed. He then said he had no choice but to go back into the house where he would wait for Danielle and tell her what experience he had. They both sat in silence as they thought we best had get something to eat and return to the house, or David gave an alternative to stay in a bed and breakfast for the night, but Danielle was the same she did not want to be chased out of her home by anything. She replied "No, we will stay home and we will win." So, they both ordered the same a light bite which was a steak sandwich with salad and chips. They continued to talk while the meal arrived and asked about how to move forward with this entity in the house. David suggested going to the church the next day and seeing the local vicar, which seemed like a good idea because he may have known the previous occupants. So, they agreed that would be the plan of action to rid of anything that may be in the house or at least find a connection. Danielle also said she would find a medium who would come to the house and tell the couple of what had been going on as they both knew that they could not fight this alone. The bond between the two became much stronger as they were to fight something that they had never imagined from a week ago. The fight was to be on though and it was going to be us or this entity Danielle said, "I will not let anything drive me nor scare me out of my house." "Good." David replied.

The pair felt a lot stronger that they were now fighting on the same page, they talked about how they could not believe how such a nice place could have such an occurrence. The food arrived at the table as they tucked in and began to enjoy a well-earned treat after the first plan of action. Just as the pair finished the meal, they had a quick rest before paying and leaving. Danielle pulled her phone out and looked for local mediums in the area that could assist the pair with what they were dealing with and advise them on how to tackle it. She had found a man in the ad section of google and it said 'unwanted spirits ring here.' She thought well I will ring it to see how fast he can come, the man answered the phone as Danielle began to explain the full story of what had been going on, but could not believe what she was experiencing after all the town had said about the old man. The medium replied "I would think it is something appearing as the old man and not the old man his self," She began to explain how she came about the VR set and said I wish we had never have bought this, the man began to explain it was fate that they would buy it, because he had tackled such an entity before which had become lost, as he believed this is where it was hiding. He was thrilled the couple had rung and said the first visit would be free of charge as this is a personal battle between good vs evil. So, they agreed that he would meet the couple at 10am the next day, he said that he would prepare all of his strength against this evil spirit and cast it out of their home.

#  CHAPTER 8 The Medium

T he couple headed to the local shop to gather their weekly items.

They both agreed that this would show that they were not willing to give in so easily. As they walked around the shop, they wanted to take their minds off what had happened, and have a comfortable night in their home. So, as they went around the isles they laughed and joked as usual. It seemed that the stronger the couple were, the less power the entity had over them. They went to the checkout, paid for the shopping and began the journey home. As they pulled up outside of the house, David said,

"Now don't forget, we have to be a team here because if we're battling each other, we cannot fight this entity that's haunting us." They both got out of the vehicle and gathered the shopping. Neither of them looked up to the front window where they had previously seen the old man. As they walked through the front door, the house was cool, even though the heating had been on. Both keeping their coats on, as they went inside and put away the weekly shop. Danielle went to increase the heating because the house had almost dropped to freezing temperatures. They both wanted to have an early night, in preparation for the day to come. They took sleeping pills so that they could wake up in the morning without any problems. As Danielle walked towards the bedroom, she could hear footsteps right behind her. She could feel every step that she took, being pushed forward by an invisible force.

She thought this was David that had followed behind her trying to stay close as they were both filled with dread about the night to come. Danielle looked around the corner and saw that David was already laid in bed.

He asked, "What took you so long?"

He knew something had happened as he could see the fear in Danielle's eyes.

"Try to ignore it and come to bed." David said, smiling at her.

Danielle walked up to the bed slowly and pulled the covers back, purposely not looking into the doorway. The old man was angry that he was being ignored. He started to make loud bangs and screeches as he enjoyed seeing how scared the couple were.

"Leave us alone!" Danielle said firmly.

The house went silent as David comforted her and they spoke about old times prior to moving. Danielle's mind started to be drawn away from the old man as they remembered the happy times. As the couple drifted off to sleep, they forgot that even in their dreams this entity seemed to have a greater power than when they were awake. But strangely, it seemed to be calm and peaceful in the house. Still, the trees outside were tapping against the glass, and the gate from the cemetery still creaking in the wind. Downstairs, a cupboard was opening and closing, creating a slight banging sound; still not enough to wake the couple. Outside, it was dark. The moonlight was casting a shadow from the church onto the house. The shadow from the cross was facing onto the house. Still, the house seemed to appear deadly quiet. As the night went on, the clouds began to gather within the night sky. Soon, the moon disappeared behind, and the house was left in total darkness.

David stirred, and rolled onto his back; he was having a disturbing nightmare. Sweat began to run from his forehead as the room was rather warm. His eyes opened and he woke to the total darkness of the room. "Wow, it's hot in here," he thought. He got out of bed and went to check if the heating was still on. Danielle had put the heating into override instead of a time limit. David wasn't angry, as the fear in both of them had probably caused her to not pay attention to what she was doing. He went downstairs and filled up a glass of water, when he heard the old man's voice,

"You will never kick me out of this house."

David ignored the old man and continued to drink his water; he was trying to be firm, showing Harrison who was in charge. As he walked into the hallway, Harrison growled at him and threw a glass at David's head. In anger, David put the VR set on; he could see the old man standing in the kitchen. He was goading David to attack, but David had other ideas. He said to the old man,

"How can I be scared of you when I can see exactly what you are up to?"

The old man replied, "What is it that you think I want?"

"You want us out of this house! Which is not happening, so we can either live in peace or you are out."

The old man laughed and gargled as green fluid ran down his chin.

"No not this house." he replied, "I will have life, and it will be through one of you."

The old man rose from the ground and got close to David. Again, David could see that he only had the whites of his eyes with no pupils, cracked skin with a stubble that was scruffy, big ears that had hairs coming out of them, and a crooked nose.

"You will see soon enough." The old man snarled. He rotated 180 degrees and he was looking David right in the face. David was terrified by the reply, but didn't want to let on to this entity that he was scared by it.

David took the VR set off but could see the old man still upside down as he tried to make it clear that he could not be seen once the VR set was off. He went back to bed but could hear laughing and creepy music coming from the living room. David pulled the covers right to his eyes and closed them tight. Danielle had not woken once throughout the ordeal; which David was happy about. He eventually fell asleep at around 4am. Morning soon came and the alarm on David's phone went off. He was glad that nothing else had happened that night. The couple began to get ready for the medium coming to the house. David's mind was continuously running away in thought, thinking about what the old man had said. He didn't tell anything to Danielle; he didn't want to scare her any more than she already was. The couple went downstairs and began to have breakfast. The glass still on the side with the VR set that David had taken off during the night. Danielle saw this and turned to David, demanding answers. Her boyfriend was hesitant, but in the end, he told her about the events that had occurred, deliberately leaving out what the old man had said about taking a life.

Then, as 9:55 AM, there was a knock at the door. The couple were thrilled that the man had turned up. Danielle went to the door and invited him inside. She asked him if he would like a drink.

"Yes please, black coffee, no sugar thanks."

Straight away, the man felt that something wasn't right.

He sat down at the kitchen table with David and Danielle and explained that he had known the previous couple who lived in the house.

The man told them how nice Harrison and Elsie were.

"It's very unlikely that they are the real problem here."

The man explained that as he sometimes passed by the house while out on a casual walk around the town, he used to see Harrison sometimes in the top window. The couple were shocked as they had not yet told him of the events that had occurred. The man began to explain that he had previously found an entity in the town which he had been battling for years. The thing haunting this couple was that very entity, but taking the form of Harrison.

The couple said, "Can we not just rid of this VR set because that's where the problems began?"

The man replied, "It's not quite that simple. If you get rid of the VR set, it will trap Harrisons ghost within the object and go off to torment another family."

This is where the entity stores souls and gets stronger and stronger with every single soul it gathers the man explained. He said that he had been searching for years as to how this entity was hiding after each victim it had claimed.

"My name is Steve by the way," He finally said, as he wasn't sure if he had even introduced himself due to the excitement of finally catching the entity. "Do you mind if I take a look around the house?"

David replied, "Sure, be my guest,"

Steve headed to investigate around the house, looking for hot spots. He was drawn to the living room as the couple explained what had gone off in here. He told the couple that generally an entity will use visual disturbing sights to draw fear into you.

Danielle asked "Like pure white eyes and green fluid coming from his mouth?" "Exactly." Steve replied, "Don't be frightened, we will get things sorted."

He smiled and went on to investigate the rest of the house. He walked into the hallway, noticing the stain on the carpet.

"What's that?"

David replied, "It was on the carpet as we moved in."

Steve walked up the stairs and when he got to the front room, he felt a cold shiver down his spine and knew this was a key part of the problem.

Inside the room, a figure stood still. It appeared to be Harrison, but Steve knew better.

He asked the entity, "Who are you and what do you want?"

The entity had no reply. Steve was seeing if it knew Harrison's name. As it stood looking out of the window, Steve asked,

"Why won't you answer me? Are you scared of me?" He could see that the entity was getting angry. The old man turned around, looked into Steve's eyes, and laughed.

He said, "I'm not scared of anything."

He walked toward Steve; the light flickered as he moved closer. Steve saw the cross on the side and went to reach for it. As he did, it flew and hit him in the face as the old man started to laugh again. Steve faced him with confidence and asked firmly,

"What are you?"

"I am the fear that has been haunting this town for the past 10 years and you can never stop me!"

Steve quickly picked up the cross and the old man's eyes changed colour to reveal a yellow glow where the pupils should be. The medium began to use words from the bible and cast the entity out of the town for good. He knew it was a strong force as when he first entered the room, it wasn't bothered by the church across from the house. He began to walk out of the room, and as he did, the old man returned to the window and looked over the graveyard. As Steve got to the entrance, the door slammed and the bedside table flew behind it, but Steve was determined.

"You won't rid of me that easily." He said.

#  CHAPTER 9 The Priest Across From the House

T he old man laughed. Steve ran downstairs and told the couple about the encounter with the entity. He said,

"The good news is that I think it's the same entity I have dealt with before. The bad news is that I cannot do this on my own."

So, Steve went to see the priest from across the road. The couple had been left in the house in despair as they now knew that it was something much more sinister than they had imagined. They decided to leave and go into town because they didn't want to stay in that property without the expertise of Steve or the priest they had not yet met.

Danielle said, "Come on, let's go and have a look at those Bakewell puddings that are so famous. That will be a nice treat for us." She was to distract herself and her boyfriend from the horrors of their house.

The couple walked off into the distance, not looking back. They were too terrified as the time was quickly approaching Halloween and they believed that if anything deadly was going to happen, it would be around the scariest time of the year. The pumpkins around the town were all shaped, ready to be lit for the night of festivities. Danielle spoke of a day where this would be all over and they could take a young child around the area. David seemed to like the idea of a kid filled with the joy and wonders of Halloween, but wanted to get rid of this entity before they would even entertain the idea of a child and planning the future.

Steve walked up to the cemetery gate as he finished his cigarette to calm his nerves. He knew the priest didn't like smoking, so he wanted to get one in before he went in to see him. As he was stood by the cigarette bin, Steve watched the couple walk down the road. He thought, "I must help this couple and rid the evil from their house, so they can live in peace." He could see the anguish that they must've felt as they went on into the town. He then threw his cig away as the old man watched. Terrified that Steve was seeking advice, the evil spirit came out of the house and into the cemetery. Steve could see him in the corner of his eye, breathing deeply with such anger. A huge gust of wind came as Steve looked up at the church and prayed. The old man was angered and floated to the top of the church where Steve could not see him. Wanting to see the priest as quickly as possible, Steve rushed into the church. As soon as he crossed the door frame, a statue of a gargoyle fell, landing inches from Steve's head. His heart was pounding and he looked up to see the spirit laughing. Steve quickly ran into the church to see the local priest. He knew if something so evil could land on the church, it was way out of his depth. As he closed the door behind him, the inside of the church fell into complete darkness. Candles were lit at the far end where a statue of the holy men looked on. Steve cowardly walked up to the front with his eyes scanning left to right looking for any signs of the spirit. He now knew that the spirit was hiding behind Harrison.

The priest came from out of the back and greeted Steve asking about his work, to see if he had had any more progress in his career. Steve replied,

"Yes Father, but I've come up against a roadblock."

Steve went on to explain how he had fought this spirit before and he thought he had cast it out, only to find out that it had moved into a conduit. Father Thomas started to look worried,

"Don't be afraid Steven my son," he smiled at Steve, "God will guide us through this journey."

Father Thomas did not need to be asked twice to help him as he knew already that Steve was a good man and a cracking good medium. He knew that it must be something extremely sinister for Steve to be struggling to shift it from the house alone.

Steve smiled and said, "We can defeat any entity with the help of our lord." As Steve looked past Father Thomas, he could see the entity sat right behind the priest. "If this entity can enter the house of the lord, how do we beat it?"

Father Thomas was confused and asked, "What do you mean my son?"

Steve explained that the entity was sat right behind him and the priest suddenly froze and fearing for his life, he started to recite verses from the bible.

In a swift motion, the entity stood up and clasped his hands around the priest's hair. The monster dragged him through the aisle of the church.

"FATHER THOMAS!" Steve shouted.

The priest was dragged to the front of the church and lifted into the air. He was unconscious, so Steve grabbed the bible and read out a verse, attempting to anger the spirit to make it drop the priest. Unfortunately, this didn't work and it lifted the priest higher. Father Thomas was now upside down on the cross, he woke and lifted his cross to face the beast. Almost instantly, the entity retreated and dropped the priest to the floor. Both terrified and shook by what had just happened, the priest was breathing heavily and struggled to get up.

He croaked, "We need to perform a ritual to get rid of this evil. We must do it fast before someone else gets hurt." Steve carried Father Thomas to the front of the church "Poor Harrison." Steve said.

"What do you mean?" the priest replied.

Steve recounted the sightings of Harrison prior to the VR set entering the house. As the pair reached the open air, the candles relit and all seemed calm. They looked out to the house where the spirit had been haunting the couple.

The priest said, "Never underestimate the power of evil, but never be afraid of it either." as he looked Steve in the eye.

They both went over to the grave where Harrison had been buried. They blessed it and went back inside to make a plan to get rid of it and finally destroy the entity.

Danielle and David were blissfully unaware of what had occurred while they were out, they continued to remain in the town until they had a call. They went back into the shop of the old woman where the crystal glasses were. Danielle was happy to see the same woman there and explained what had happened. The woman was stunned but happy that at least they knew what was wrong and had someone who could help. The couple thanked the woman for the information she had given about Elsie.

It was getting dark and the woman was preparing to shut the shop, but she gave the couple a photo of Elsie and told them that it would help cast out any evil within the house.

#  CHAPTER 10 The Final Battle

David and Danielle left the store and they received another tele- phone call. Steve mentioned how he was going to extract the evil from the house, but was afraid it may have affected the other grave stones in the area, possibly dragging more power, meaning the battle would be tough. The pair were full of fear, but said they would be back up to the house as soon as possible. Danielle put the phone down and explained to David what Steve had just said. The couple did not yet know about the events in the church, Steve thought best not to tell them just yet as they'd probably never come back. The fact that the couple were inexperienced in these matters would give the entity an advantage, having more fear to feed from.

Back in the town, David and Danielle filled themselves full of courage to tackle the spirit once and for all. They headed off into the distance, making their way back to the house. They saw the waiter on the way back and said,

"We are so sorry we never believed you before."

They explained everything that had happened leading up to the priest getting involved and the waiter replied with regret that he knew Harrison as a very kind man.

"Would you like any help?" He offered.

The couple replied, "No thanks, I think we have all the things we need."

He saw that Danielle was holding a photo of Elsie and said,

"Oh, keep that safe, it may help you when need it most."

Danielle's hands gripped tighter around the picture, "Don't worry it's not going anywhere," They apologized because they had to leave but would let him know the outcome once they had defeated the evil.

The waiter nodded, "Ok I will say a prayer for you both." He went off into the distance. The couple carried on, full of nerves as they got up towards the house. Their hearts beating harder and faster as they came to the bottom of the hill. David turned to Danielle and asked,

"Are you ready for this?"

She replied with confidence, "Yes."

As they headed up the hill where they could see Steve, he seemed relieved,

"Thank God you've returned, you must come into the church at once and listen to the information we have to tell you. You need remember it all and never break the rules of what we're about to do." The couple went into the church yard with Steve while taking one last look back before the fight; they could see that the spirit was in the window and it was staring very angrily at them. They huddled into each other as

David said,

"Come on, let's go inside."

Venturing inside, they heard a scream from the house, a very angry scream. But they did not hesitate to continue into the church where

Father Thomas was stood at the end, waiting to meet them. He said,

"Quickly, up here." As they walked with haste towards the priest. The priest said,

"I'm Father Thomas but please call me Tom,"

The couple shook his hand and introduced themselves.

"You must listen to everything I have to say." The priest said as he explained the rules to the couple. The rules were that they must not fight each other as they tried to cast it out. He mentioned how strong the entity was, as it had thrown him up against the cross of the main hall. David and Danielle were startled, but he continued and said,

"You must not be afraid. It feeds on fear; this is one of the main rules.

We must all be confident and strong in this battle."

The priest said that it had not been authorized by the church but he expressed how serious the matter was. The couple agreed that it was the best thing to do. They just wanted a normal life without all of this fear and dread. Steve said,

"Not to worry, we will get it out of the house and hopefully get rid of it once and for all."

Under the church was an archive where hidden holy secrets had been kept, relating to previous incidents in the town.

The priest said, "I have just the tool."

Tom expressed how they could not tell anyone in the town about what they had seen down there, as many of the residents were extremely religious and would love to get inside the archive if they knew. The couple agreed. Tom was searching through his special weapons and found it; the tool to destroy this evil once and for all. It was holy water from the very first blessing that had taken place in history, he said,

"This is one of the most powerful weapons against evil." He also grabbed an old brass cross with Jesus on it. "Believe me if this won't do it, nothing will."

The couple felt surprisingly calm as they had no idea that help would be so close. Tom said,

"I must warn you that you have invited something into your house and that you live across from the church filled with graves. As a result, the entity may have gathered more souls."

David looked in horror, thinking he had trapped poor souls into the VR set where the entity had festered itself. They knew the night was going to be long.

The party headed to the house with the brass cross clenched into Steve's hand and the bottle of holy water strung around Father Toms neck. He was dressed in his most holy apparel in an attempt to frighten the entity. They all began to breathe heavily, but not the priest; he knew that to defeat the entity, he needed to be strong and confident. He needed a clear mind so he asked the other three to not disturb him when he would do the ritual. They all reached the front door and the priest was the first to enter. Before he stepped inside the house, he made the cross gesture with his hands on his chest and kissed his holy scarf. Steve followed with the holy cross, and the couple were the last to enter. Before they stepped foot inside the house, they took one last look in the window. They saw the old man and a lot more people in the room, this must've been the power that the priest talked about. That it was manipulating the other spirits to do its bidding.

"Don't be scared." Danielle said, "We have the best help with us."

She held her boyfriend's hand and they walked inside. The front door slammed behind them. David turned the lights on as they entered the living room where the entity had been seen in previous nights. After many attempts, they could not get a rise out of the entity by walking into the living room, so the priest headed up the stairs. The couple were still holding hands as Steve was the next to walk up; he told them not to go up the stairs unless they said it was safe. The priest and the medium both decided to investigate the bedroom where the strongest presence was felt.

"Where is he right now Steve?" Father Thomas said. Steve was trembling with fear as Father Thomas reassured him, "Steve remember the rules." Again, he asked, "Where is the entity?"

"Father Tom, the room is full of people, they are all around us in a circle,"

The priest started to say a prayer in the room as Steve looked around at every single spirit.

He had never seen such a thing; the spirits were all in the image of corpses which had been deceased for years with faces that were falling apart. They had skin hanging from their cheek bones, grey on the outside and black on the inside as if it had all rotted. They had no eyes and cracked lips. Their clothes were all ragged from when they had worn away. They all began to speak in Latin, but Steve had to remember the rules and reassure himself that it was the end for this entity. Tonight, would be the last night. The door slammed behind them as the priest continued to pray and read from his book. There was a strong wind within the house and they could feel the energy that had been antagonized upstairs. David and Danielle looked up the stairs as they could hear the priest and the medium. The lights were flickering and the house was shaking, the couple looked at one another as they held hands with a very firm grip. They shouted up,

"Is everything ok?"

"Whatever you do, don't come up here!" Steve said.

They waited in anguish but remembered that they could not allow fear to enter their bodies. The priest knew that he was breaking past the spirits trapped within the VR set and was forcing the final frontier with the demon. The spirits in the room had vanished, leaving the demon exposed.

"Now, we have you," the priest said, "What are you and where do you come from?"

The demon screamed at the pair as it threw the furniture around the room. David downstairs made a nervous joke, "Good job we're getting new furniture."

Danielle smiled and appreciated his attempts at keeping her calm. The events continued upstairs; Steve could see a dark cast in the corner with horns. As it moved around the room, the shadow got closer to the pair.

Father Tom went for his holy water as he was thrown back into the corner of the room. Steve held the cross up to the shadow and said firmly,

"Be gone from this Earth!"

The shadow came forward, its figure starting to morph.

It had dark blue silky skin, yellow pupils in its eyes, horns on the top of its head, and very sharp teeth. It laughed as it swiftly glided towards Steve, getting as close to his face as it could. But Steve did not flinch.

Danielle, unable to be patient any longer, ran up the stairs and David shouted,

"No, come back!"

She entered the room as the dark creature spun its head slowly. It made its way towards her as she knew that it was the right moment. She held the photo of Elsie up to the spirit and said,

"Harrison help us, cast this evil entity out. Remember your wife."

The entity was instantly thrown backwards into the back wall with a massive boom. Danielle thought the photo was the reason for this, but as she turned to her left, she saw Elsie. Elsie smiled at Danielle and said,

"Leave this to me now."

All of a sudden, the house went quiet and the lights began to steady.

"Had the evil vanished?" Danielle wondered.

Harrison was against the wall, crying.

He said, "He had been waiting so long for Elsie, but when you brought that thing home, I could not leave."

Elsie went over to him and rubbed his shoulder. More tears followed.

Danielle and David quickly scoured the rest of the house for any signs of the entity. It was gone. The power of the entity had been broken and it had been cast out.

Harrison and Elsie walked downstairs hand in hand and decided that it was time for them to leave. They had had enough of the entity and wanted to get as far away as they could. Steve ran over to Father Tom and said,

"Are you ok? I'm so sorry for this ordeal." But the priest never replied.

"Let's get him onto the bed." Steve said, as David ran up to help.

Father Tom eventually came around and asked "Is it over?" Steve was relieved.

"Yes, we did it Father, we finally cast the evil out of this town and destroyed the power of the entity. I think we need to get rid of the VR set, if that's okay with you two?" He said, glancing towards David and Danielle.

They both nodded vigorously. David said,

"Gladly! Get rid of it, I'm sure we can use our imagination to decorate the house anyway."

#  CHAPTER 11 The Peace and Quiet

S teve and Father Thomas went to leave, but David asked politely,

"What do I owe you for getting rid of such a thing?"

Steve turned around and replied, "You owe us nothing. It was our duty to rid of that thing."

"Can I help you back to the church?"

"No, it's ok we will go and seal this equipment in the church to make sure it is fully gone."

David and Danielle watched Father Thomas walk up the drive with Steve, limping as he had been thrown against the wall. David felt terrible about what had happened but it was something that needed to be done. The wind was calming outside and it was finally quiet. Danielle smiled at David and tucked under his arm as they had finally got rid of the terror what had haunted them within the house. David turned to Danielle and said "I think another celebration is on the cards tonight."

They closed the door and made their dinner; the house was peaceful. No more flickering lights, crosses flying around the bedroom, and sightings of the old man. They both went to get ready for an early night, exhausted after all the events that had taken place that evening.

That night, the house was at peace, no more banging in the night or disturbed dreams. Even the wind had calmed down outside. As they laid in bed, they both looked calm and relieved.

Morning soon came and David had woken before Danielle with a smile on his face, thinking to himself that he had never slept so well. He was so happy that the first night after the entity had disappeared, was so peaceful. But for some reason, there was this nagging doubt in the back of his mind, that the entire process had been too easy. He put his thoughts aside and went downstairs to find that the sunlight was breaking through their glass windows. He was glad that he had not left the house as the views of the garden were so scenic. He put the kettle on to make himself a drink as he sat in the kitchen, looking out into the back garden as the sun rose. The morning dew was glistening on the flowers in the back. He could see cobwebs very clearly, laughing to himself as he realized that all they had to be scared of now, were a couple of spiders. A while later, Danielle came down the stairs to check if David was alright and that he had a good night's sleep. They both agreed it felt so much more relaxing in the house and that they were looking forward to a long happy life together in the quaint town of Bakewell.

They contemplated the possibility of having a day off and going on a long walk to find a nice place to eat. David said,

"Maybe we can finish that trail all the way to the end and check out our neighboring towns, to see if they also have amazing scenery." So off they went, out of the front door and down the hill.

David mentioned that it was Halloween.

Danielle replied, "I know, thank God everything's sorted before today." They both agreed that they would decorate for the evening, inviting the local kids to their door.

As they approached the bottom of the hill, they saw a shop full of spooky items which looked interesting.

"We will get something on the way back," said David as they carried on towards the trail to explore the next town.

They walked past the house where the lady had previously spoke of her problems with the VR set. Danielle admired the woman's garden once again, asking David if he wanted to do a similar job at home. They headed off down the trail as they walked and talked for the next 2 hours until they reached a new town. The sights in this place were not to the taste of the pair; it didn't have the special touch that Bakewell had. So, they decided to return home. Danielle spotted Elsie and Harrison, who were stood at the end of the trail. The elderly couple both smiled and waved, after continuing their walk.

Danielle said, "Come on, let's go get that house ready for tonight so we can stop off in The Old Star Inn to tell the waiter our story of what happened that night."

So off they went, right back down the trail and back into Bakewell. As they reached the beginning, they saw the woman and the dog with whom Danielle had previously spoken. As they got closer, the dog ran up to the couple and greeted them in a totally different manner; happy and playful this time. They made a fuss of the dog as the woman approached them and asked how things were. Danielle explained the full story and the woman was glad to hear it. They continued on as they were hungry, deciding to eat in the same pub because they wanted to tell the landlord the story of the previous day. He was pleased to see the couple and asked if they'd had a good day. The couple ordered lunch and had a few drinks alongside.

"Deja vu." David said as they celebrated.

Danielle laughed as the couple continued to joke around.

Both satisfied, they left the pub, bumping into the waiter on his way to work. He was happy to hear that the couple's house had been cleared, but warned that they should be cautious. The couple agreed that if any more trouble occurred, they would seek help straight away. They went off into the distance and came across the shop for the best Bakewell pudding. Danielle decided to buy one to have for desert later that night.

Later, David and Danielle also visited the spooky shop to buy some creepy things for decorating the front of the house. As they walked in, a familiar smell greeted them. Danielle realized that it was the same smell as when they had first walked into the house.

It was dark inside, full of skulls, candles and outfits for parties. The door slammed behind the couple and they both jumped. As Danielle squealed, the shop keeper then appeared and said, "Don't worry, it's only a prank." The couple's hearts were racing and they were slightly relieved. Looking around the shop to see what it had to offer, the best item they saw was a string that had lantern pumpkins attached to it. The couple decided to get it as they could light candles inside. Danielle and David continued on to the sweet shop to fill bowls for the kids doing trick or treating.

That night the lanterns were up and the kids were dressed up, knocking on the doors down the hill. Danielle said she would really like a child soon as they smiled, watching the last one leave before they locked up for the night. As the couple locked the door and made their dinner for the night, they watched TV when the local news came on. Father Thomas had died in the night.

The couple paused and looked at each other in dread. An air of silence passed and the pair, disheartened, they quickly ate their dinner and went upstairs to bed. As David went to close the curtains, he glanced outside.

On top of the church, the priest was lying upside down with venomous eyes.

Ignoring the chills rattling down his spine, David quickly shut the curtains, so that the priest didn't see him. The couple fell asleep and as the night before, no strange events took place. But there was a certain feeling about the church that morning as he woke. At least whatever it was haunting them and the VR set had been cast out of the house. David never mentioned anything to his girlfriend, as the couple continued to live peacefully in the house across from the cemetery.

Was the entity really gone, or just hiding wounded?

### THE END

