The new house a tale of the supernatural by Charles Roberts

 

If you watch the television programmes, they all tell you that the location of a house is the most important part of buying that house.  Carl and Julie weren’t that bothered about the house’s location.  They were more concerned about what the house had to offer.  It was a large house which had four good sized bedrooms, together with a nice sized bathroom upstairs.  Downstairs it had a large kitchen which could accommodate a table, should they wish.  A large living room and separate dining room.  There was also another good sized room which Carl thought that could be turned into an office.  However the main reason that they had been attracted to the property was the garden, it was about two acres with an orchard attached.  Another plus to this property was the view, it was uninterrupted across the open fields to the town and hills beyond.

The house needed work doing to it, but they were young and could handle the work.

 They'd been in the house for about six months and the renovation was going well.  Carl and Julie had gone to bed early this night, but their sleep was interrupted by a loud noise. They both jumped out of bed and ran into the back bedroom, looking out across the open fields they could see a large fire, either in or behind the only copse of trees between them and the town.

          “Should we call the fire brigade?” Julie asked.

“I’ll go do it.  You stay here and call me if anything changes.”  Carl said as he left the room.

               “Emergency! Which service do you require?”

                         “Fire please.”

“Could I have your address?”

“Sure!  We live on the edge of the village of Westrum.  We don’t have a number I’m afraid.”

               “One moment please I’ll put you through.”

                         “Fire station how can I help?”

          “Hello. I live on the outskirts of Westrum. I have just been woken by a loud noise and looking out over the fields I can see a large fire in a copse of trees.”

        “All right sir we’ll get someone out there as soon as possible.  Have you any idea as to what caused the fire?”

       “We, my wife and I were woken by what sounded like an explosion.”

       “Can you see what might have caused the explosion sir?”

       “I’m afraid not.  We can’t see if there are any people over there either.”

        “All right sir, you should be able to see the fire engines.  We have your number so if we need to contact you we can.”

Carl went back upstairs and joined Julie in the back bedroom.  They watched as the fire engines came along the road from town, they could see the fire, but they couldn’t get to it.  One of the engines started to go across the fields, slowly, towards the flames, but when they got about halfway to the fire, it suddenly went out, as though someone had turned the gas off.  Carl and Julie looked at one another in disbelief.

In the morning Carl decided to walk over to the copse to see what was over there and what might have caused the fire.  When he announced this at breakfast Julie told him that he wasn’t going on his own, that she would go with him.

“Are you sure love?”

“Of course I’m sure!  I’m just as puzzled as you are about it.”

Just then there was a knock on the door.  Carl answered it coarsely.  A policeman was stood on the path looking around.

 “Good morning constable, can I help you?”

“Morning Sir!  Was it you who reported a fire last evening?”

“It was!  Yes.”

“I wonder if you could give me the details of it Sir.  You see the fire brigade were half way to the fire and it just went out.”

“I know!  We were watching from the bedroom window when it happened.  Would you like to come in and have a drink while we tell you?”

“That’s very kind of you Sir.”

“Who is it?” Julie called from the kitchen.

“It’s a policeman, about last night,” Carl called back, “Could you make some more tea love?”

“How does he like it?” she asked coming out of the kitchen and into the hall.

“Milk with sweeteners if you have them, the wife’s got me on a diet.”

“Sorry but we only have sugar I’m afraid.”  Julie told him.

“Well may be just the one sugar, if you don’t mind.  So long as you don't tell the missus.”

“Not at all.  Come on through and make yourself comfortable.  I’m sorry about the mess, but we don’t usually get visitors at this time in a morning.”

“That’s quite all right,” the constable said sitting at the kitchen table, “now what can you tell me about yesterday evening?”

“Well,” Carl started, “we went to bed about half past eight.”  The constable raised his eyebrows.

“We’d had a hard day,” Julie interjected, “we’re renovating this place.”

“I see!  And you are doing a grand job of it too.”

“Thank you.  We were in bed, and asleep when we were woken by the sound of an explosion.”

“And the house shook.”  Julie added.

“We jumped up and ran into the back bedroom.”

“Why the back bedroom?”

“Because when we went out onto the landing we could see a glow coming from the windows in that room.”

“Right!  So you ran into the back bedroom, what happened next?”

 “We went to the window and looked across the fields and saw the fire.”

“I stayed to watch the fire and Carl came downstairs and rang for the fire brigade.”

“You say that you watched the fire madam.  What did you see?  Did you see anyone running away from the fire?”

“No!  Just the fire.”

“All right!  And then what?”

“We watched and waited for the fire brigade.  They arrived after a few minutes, but I think that they had difficulty getting across the fields.  One engine stayed on the road, the other made its way slowly towards the fire.  It seemed to be rocking from one side to the other.  Then…..”

“How could you tell sir?”

“Well his blue light on top was….. “

“I get the picture.  Please carry on.”

“He was about halfway to the fire when it suddenly went out.”

“Suddenly went out?  What do you mean Sir?”

“As if someone had turned a knob and cut the gas.  It was blazing away and then darkness.”

“Strange!”

“Well the fire engine stopped and then started going backwards.”

“He continued all the way to the road.”

“Going backwards?”

“Yes!”

“Look constable we were just about to walk over there to see what could have happened when you arrived.”

“I think that I’ll accompany you, if you have no objection.”

“Not at all, but I think that you’ll need wellington boots, it could be a bit muddy with all the rain we’ve had recently.”

“Quite!  If you’ll wait until I’ve got them out of the car.”

“No problems constable.”

Carl and Julie waited the few minutes for the constable to get his boots from his car and put them on.  The three then set off across the garden, out through the small gate in the hedge and then across the fields towards the copse where the fire had been seen the previous evening.  The going wasn’t easy because of the state of the ground, not only was the ground very wet but also it had been ploughed just before the rains came.  They saw a man in the distance walking his dog, he waved to the little group and stopped his walk, waiting until they had reached talking distance.

“Where are you going?” he called when he saw the policeman’s uniform.

“To that copse over there,” the policeman called back pointing.

“If you go to your right about ten yards you’ll find the going easier.”  They followed the man’s directions and soon saw a concrete roadway.

“What’s this doing here?” Carol asked.

“That’s part of the old airfield,” the stranger said as he approached them.

“May I ask your name Sir.” The constable asked.

“Watson!  Tom Watson.  This is all my land.  My lad runs the farm now.  I suppose you could say that I’m retired, but you never retire from farming.”

“How long have you owned the land Mr Watson?” the constable asked.

“My father used to farm here and his father before him.”

“Why is this concrete road here?” Carol asked again.

“It’s part of the old airfield.  You see in nineteen forty one the Ministry of Defence requisitioned all this land, they didn’t pay for it, they just took it as part of the war effort.  Then they built an airfield on it.”

“Wow!  Didn’t they put it back to as it was before they took it?”

“You’re joking!  When they gave it back in nineteen sixty two.  We had to set too and demolish all the buildings.  The only building we didn’t pull down was the old control tower.  No one dare go near that place.”

“Why ever not Mr Watson?”

“They flew bombers from here, I believe they were American B-17’s.  In nineteen forty three they were coming back after bombing somewhere in Germany.  One of the B 17’s was so badly damaged when he tried to land his wheels wouldn’t come down, so he overflew the airfield and turned to land on the grass, but he lost control and didn’t make it, and crashed into the control tower.  The plane exploded and burned killing everyone on it and in the control tower.  Why does that interest you?”

“We were woken by an explosion and saw a fire in that copse,” Carl said.

“When was that?”

“Last night!” Carol said quickly.

“Last night!  Well I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”

“That’s why I’m here Mr Watson.  These good people called the fire brigade out.”

“Well you can go look if you want, but I won’t go nearer than a hundred feet from that place.  You can feel that there is something there.  Something that doesn’t want anyone going near it.  That’s why we left the thing standing.  I wouldn’t go near it and I won’t ask any of my workers to do something I wouldn’t do myself.”

“You mean that it is haunted?”

“That’s one word for it.  Whatever is in there can stay there for all I care because I’m not going near the place, and I suggest you keep away too.  That’s if you value your sanity.