The Perfect House A spooky story by Charles Roberts. Don't have nightmares.

  

   Rod and Annie had bought the old house because of its location, that is what everyone said these days.  Location was the key to finding the perfect house for you.  It was a bit too big for just the two of them, having five bedrooms, but they were still young so would have the room when they decided to start a family.  No!  The main reason they bought the house was what went with it.  Not only the fantastic views across the rolling fields to the mountains beyond, but the amount of land it had.  They had decided long ago that they would go self-sufficient, growing all their own food, keeping chickens and ducks, may be even a goat or small breed of cow, for the milk.  Now they had the money they went for it.  “Once in a lifetime chance,” Rod had said as they were leaving the solicitor’s office after listening to his father’s will being red out. 

“He gave me nothing when I was growing up, and now he’s left me everything.”

“It’s as though he’s trying to make up for not being there for you.”

“For walking out on mum and me you mean.  I always wondered what sort of a man walks out on his wife a month after his only child is born.”

“He obviously thought about you Rod,” he turned and looked at her and was about to say something, “after all he did leave you everything he had.”

“I suppose you’re right Annie,” he felt the built up anger subside, the anger he’d lived with for most of his life, in fact he felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.  He was almost light-headed, as though he was walking on air and the tears started to flow, not because he was sad, but now there was no one to hate anymore.

“What do you think to us chasing our dream?” she asked as they walked down the street towards their old rust bucket of a car.

“You mean going self-sufficient?”

“Yes!  If we can find a place with enough land to keep some chickens and sheep and goats……”

“And cows and ducks and a horse for you.”

“And a tractor for you,” she said laughing.  He melted when she laughed.  If ever they argued all she had to do was laugh and he gave in, that is what had attracted him to her in the first place, her laugh.  He’d gone to a friend’s engagement party, reluctantly, someone had just put a drink into his hand when he heard, above the people chatting and the music blaring out, a laugh, a laugh the like of which he’d never heard before.  Like a fast flowing stream bubbling over the stones of the stream bed.  Like the breeze in the tree tops.  Like the light wind across a meadow, all these things and more.  He’d made his way across the room, he just had to find who was laughing like that.  He found her standing next to the empty fire place, a group of men standing round her, all mesmerised with that intoxicating laugh.  He coughed, she looked up and their eyes met, just for a second, but it was enough.  He knew, in that second that their eyes met, they both knew that they would spend the rest of their lives together.

They reached the car and he unlocked the driver’s door then opened it, got into the sagging seat, then reached across and pulled the knob on the passenger’s door, unlocking it for Annie to get in.  It was just starting to rain, and Annie jumped in to the old car, the seat clunked as she landed.

“Steady!” he said angrily, “she might be old but she’s all we have.”

Annie slammed the door shut at the same time Rod put the key in the ignition and turned it.  He switched the wipers on to clear the windscreen of rain, they managed two sweeps before the driver’s side one flew off and landed on the pavement at the side of the car.  They both burst out laughing as a passer-by picked the wiper up and knocked on the side window which slid down, and disappeared into the door, never to be seen again, they laughed even more.

“I think that we should get a new car darling,” Annie managed to say while still laughing.  Rod accepted the offered wiper and then started the car.  They drove home with the rain pouring in through the open driver’s window and Rod leaning over to Annie’s side so that he could see where they were going.  He was soaked to the skin by the time they got home.  A month later and a new van stood on the street outside their rented house and they had put a deposit down on the new house.

Well it wasn’t exactly new, in fact it was about a hundred and fifty years old, built at the start of the nineteenth century it was originally a farm house, but over the years the family had sold off the land gradually, to pay off bad debts and investments, until all that remained with the house was five acres.  There was of course more than just the house, it being an old farm, there was a barn, a stable block, which could house four horses, and another building, attached to the end of the barn.

“Do you think we could get a contractor in to do the house up darling?” Annie asked.

“We’re not made of money Annie!”

“I know!  But we are buying the house and will have enough to do what we want.  Or do you want to do all the work yourself?”

“Mmmm!  You certainly have a way of putting things.  All right!  I think that we could afford a contractor, but I would like to keep that front room just as it is.”

“The one with the fireplace you mean?”

“Yes!”

“I agree!  That is a beautiful fireplace.  It would be nice to have French windows out into the garden from that room though.”

“May be later.  We can live with it to see if we still feel the same way in, say a year from when we move in.”

“All right darling.”

As soon as the contracts were signed Rod ‘phoned a contractor who someone at his work had recommended.  They started work two weeks later.  The job turned out to be bigger than expected as there was extensive woodworm in both the downstairs and upstairs floors, in fact the only room which wasn’t infested by woodworm was the one with the ornate fireplace, it raise a few eyebrows when that was found out, but as everyone was busy no-one gave it much thought.

Two months later Rod and Annie finally moved in with their furniture, the only room which they hadn’t furnished was the one with the fireplace.  One evening, after diner they went into that room to discuss how they would furnish it.  They stood just inside the room, the door open behind them.

“That fireplace is the focal centre of the room.  We don’t want anything to distract from that.”  Annie said, looking round the empty room and slipping her hand into his.

“No!” Rod said, “I am starting to agree with you about replacing the window with French windows, it would be handy to come and go from this room.”

“We’d have to leave our boots outside though.”

“Of course!  That’s if we carpeted the floor, it goes without saying.”

“Are you thinking of tiling it instead?”

“Why not?”

“We would have to be careful about our choice of tile, Rod.”

“To match the fireplace surround you mean?  Of course.”

They didn’t see it at first, Rod caught a glint of something coming towards them.  He dropped her hand, then put his left hand on her shoulder and pushed her out of the way, while throwing himself to his right.  The edge of something sharpe brushing his arm as it flew between them.

“What did you do that for?” Annie cried as she landed on her left side on the floor.

Rod rolled over onto his back to see a spear sticking out of the door post above him.

“Are you all right?” he called.

“I’m fine!  What do you think you’re doing?”

He pointed to the still quivering spear above them.

“Where did that come from?” she said as soon as she saw the spear.  She looked across at Rod and noticed the tear in his left sleeve.  “Are you all right darling?” she asked concerned.

“Fine!  Why?”

“Your sleeve!”

Rod put his hand to his arm and felt the cut, not only in his sleeve, but also in his arm.

“Just a scratch love,” he said taking his hand away and looking at the smear of blood on the palm.

He felt something gently touch the palm of his right hand, then something touched the cut in his arm, it was the first time he’d felt the cut, but it wouldn’t be the last.  They watched in fascination as the letter G was written in the air between them, written in Rod’s blood.  Again Rod felt something touch the cut in his arm, this time it wasn’t so gentle.

“Hey!” he called, again a letter was written in the air between them, this time it was an E.

Although they were sat facing each other they found that they could both read what was being written without any trouble.

Something was now digging into Rod’s arm and writing letters in the air using his blood.

“Stop that!” Annie screamed as she jumped up and rushed to Rod scattering the blood letters every which way.  Something hit her in the face with such force that it knocked her backwards, she slid across the floor only stopping when her head hit the wall.  She put her hand up to her mouth only to pull it away with blood, from a split lip, on it.  The probing into Rod’s arm became more severe as whatever it was started to write the letters again.  With each letter the pain grew worse as whatever it was that was digging into his arm was digging deeper to get more and more blood, even though it was running down his arm.  GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.  By the time whatever it was had reached the last letter E Rod was screaming in agony as something dug into his wound, his shirt sleeve and arm were covered in blood, blood dripped from his fingers and from the final letter. 

Nursing an aching head, split lip and rapidly closing right eye, Annie helped Rod up and out to the car then drove to the nearest hospital where they put twenty stitches into his arm, gave him some anti-biotics to try and stop any possible infection.

“It’s my house not theirs,” Annie kept repeating as she drove to and from the hospital.  “This is our dream and no one is going to ruin it.”

“That’s my girl,” Rod said at last as they were turning into their drive.

“What?”

“I said, that’s my girl.  This is our dream and no one is going to stop us living it.”

“Right!” Annie said stopping the car and switching the engine off.  “Do you mean that Rob?  That we’re going to stay in this house and fight whatever is trying to get us out?”

“With the last drop of my blood darling.”  And they both burst out laughing.

They went inside, and as Rod passed the door to that room he closed it.

“We’ll not go in there unless we really have to,” he said.

“Do you think that it will stay in that room Rod?”

“We’ve been in the house a couple of months and that’s the first time anything unusual has happened, and it only happened in that room.  So I am just guessing that whatever it is will stay in that room.”

“We should find out some of the history of the house.”

“Why love?”

“Then we might get an idea who, or what this thing is.”

“May be you’re right, Annie.”

“We could always get a vicar or someone to exorcise it.”

“Take it for a walk you mean?”

“Clot!”

“But neither of us are religious Annie.”

“Does that matter?”

“I don’t suppose it does, but aren’t we jumping the gun a bit?”

“May be!  Let’s find out some history first.  Where do we go to find that about a house?”

“I would say either the library or the village pub.”

“Why the pub?” Annie asked.

“Where do you go to get all the gossip in a village?”

“The shop, the post office?”

“Or the pub!”

“All right!  We’ll go for a drink, but you get that shirt off and put a clean one on.”

“What’s left of it after they cut the sleeve off?  This was my favourite shirt.”

“Rod!  That shirt is worn out, the stiffening is showing round the collar.”

“Only a bit!”

“Clean shirt!  Then we’ll go for a drink.”

“Are you sure you want to?”

“Of course!  Why shouldn’t I?”

“Well it does look as though I’ve punched you in the eye.”

“Does it?”  Annie rushed to the mirror in the hall to look at herself.  What she saw shocked her.  The right side of her bottom lip was swollen and cut, her right eye almost shut and colouring up nicely and, when she passed her hand over her head she felt an egg sized lump on top.

“May be tomorrow evening, then I could say that I fell, or something.”

“But they would still look at me accusingly.”

“But you’d never hit me darling.”

“I know that.  You know that, but no one else does.”

“Are you saying that I should stay in while you go off enjoying yourself down at the local pub?”

“Yes!”

“Ha!  Where you go so shall I.  Wasn’t that one of the vows you made at our wedding?”

“I don’t remember!”

“Liar!”

The following evening they walked into the public bar of the village pub.  Everyone turned and looked at them, Rod wearing a short sleeved shirt showing a bandage on his left arm, Annie showing a scab on her lip and a multi-coloured right eye she could barely see out of.  They went up to the bar.

“Two pints please!” Rod asked the barmaid, who gave him a dirty look.  In fact everyone was looking at Rod.  Someone walked passed Rod and knocked into him.

“Bastard!” he spat quietly as he walked towards the dart board.  Annie looked at the man.

“I’ve had enough of this Rod,” she whispered, took a drink from her glass and turned to face the room.  “All right!” she started, “Rod didn’t do this to me.”

There was a murmur which ran round the room.

“You all know where we live and you might think this strange but we went into one of the front rooms yesterday.  One which we hadn’t done anything to. We were standing in the doorway when a spear came out of nowhere.” They heard a few gasps, but no-one spoke up.  Annie continued, “it caught Rod’s arm and then something started to write in mid-air, using Rod’s blood.  I tried to stop it, but whatever it was hit me and knocked me across the floor.  Rod has had to have twenty stiches in his arm.”

An old man who always sat in the corner was the first to speak up.

“What did it write?” he asked.

Annie looked at Rod, who coughed, “get out of my house,” he said.

“Aye!” the man said, “and it hit yer did it?” he continued.

“Yes!”

“’Ave yer still got this spear?” he asked.

“It’s still stuck in the door frame I think.” Rod answered.

“Is the blade long and looks a bit like a leaf?” he said as he drew something on a beer mat, “a bit like this?” he said getting up and going over to Rod and Annie showing them the drawing he’d made.

“Yes!” Rod said as soon as he saw the man’s sketch.

“That’ll be the Major!”

“The Major?” Rod said in surprise.

“Aye!  He were in Africa and brought back some spears and shields from some tribe or other.  ‘E ‘ad ‘em mounted on ‘is wall in that room on the left as yer go in the front door.  ‘Ad a nice fireplace if I remember correct.”

“That’s the one!” Annie said.

“Aye!” the old man said returning to his seat in the corner.  You could have heard a pin drop in the bar, it was so quiet.

“What happened to him?”

“Yer don’t want ter know,” the man said sitting down and picking his almost empty glass up.

“Another drink for….” Rod said.

“It’s on its way,” the barmaid said pulling a pint.

“Please!” Annie asked as she carried the full glass across the room to him.

“’E was in the army.” He said, almost absentmindedly.  ‘E served in Africa and, in fact ‘e left the army and lived in Africa for a long time.  ‘E became a mercenary in what was Rhodesia during the troubles, told me once that ‘e made a lot o’ money out o’ that.  ‘E bought that ‘ouse when ‘e got back.  ‘Im and ‘is missis, I aint never seen such a devoted couple, went everywhere together they did.  They couldn’t settle down, well she couldn’t.  Didn’t ‘ave any servants see, so she ‘ad ter do everything ‘erself.  All she did were moan and groan.  'E got so fed up with ‘er grumbling that ‘e took a spear and threw it at ‘er.  When the police found ‘er she were still standing, spear sticking right through ‘er.  ‘E were sat in a chair in front o’ that fire.  ‘E’d slashed ‘is own throat.  Stone cold dead ‘e were.

“How do you know all this?” Annie asked.

“He used to do the garden up there,” the barmaid said when the old man didn’t answer, “he was the one who found them and called the police.  He’s never been the same since.”

“’E was sat there with this big blood covered knife still in ‘is ‘and.  Blood splatted all over there was.  Still get nightmares I does.  ‘Orrible it were.”

“When did all this happen?” Annie asked.

“I went up there one morning,” the old man started, “nobody were about, which were unusual.  I went ter that window and looked in, saw what ‘ad ‘appened.  I went round the back, door were always open, if it weren’t key were under t’mat.  I rung police with their ‘phone then went in ter that room.  ‘E were stone cold dead, then I looked at ‘er.  ‘Er eyes were wide open, ‘’elp me,’ she whispered, ‘elp me.’  She’d pulled ‘erself about a foot and a ‘alf along that spear shaft.  I went to ‘er and I pulled the spear out o’ that door frame.  It took some doing, but she never made a sound.  When it were out she fell like a sack o’ spuds.  I ‘elped ‘er up and ‘alf carried ‘er to ‘im.  She took ‘is free ‘and in ‘ers and kissed it. ‘yer not leaving me behind,’ she said, ‘together for ever my love.’ Then she smiled.  That were t’last she ever spoke.  Police arrived about five minutes later.  They looked at me covered in ‘er blood, then I told ‘em everything what I’d done and seen.  What you want ter do is shut that room up and never go in there again.  Brick door and window up.  Whatever yer do stay out o’ there or ‘e’ll ‘ave you too.”  He picked his glass up and didn’t say another thing all night.  The rest of the customers returned to their conversations about the weather or crops.

Rod and Annie walked slowly home.

“We are going to use that room Rod,” Annie said suddenly as they turned into their drive.”

“Pardon?”

“We are going to use that room.  We’ll get the contractors back in to remove that fireplace and put in French windows where the window is.”

“Do you realise what you’re saying?”

“Yes!  We will make that room ours.”

“But you might just force him into the rest of the house.  I think that we should get someone in to exorcise that room, try to get rid of him that way first.”

“All right we can give it a try.  You can organise that darling.”

“Right!  Where do you look to find someone who performs exorcisms?”

“Darling that is now your problem.”

The following morning Annie should have been up bright and early, but when she eventually got downstairs she couldn’t find Rod anywhere.  There was a bucket full of goats’ milk on the kitchen draining board, eggs in the bowl on the table and a bunch of wild flowers in a tumbler on the table in front of the chair she always sat in.  She smiled as she put the kettle on the wood burning stove.

“Where can he have got to?” she asked herself as she poured the boiling water into the teapot.  “It’s not like him to go off without saying anything.”  She made the tea and carried it across to the table and sat.  Then she heard the van driving up the gravel drive and stop.  She went to the front door ready to play hell with Rod as soon as he entered.  The door swung open.

“This is Annie, my wife,” Rod said introducing a tall, silver haired man.  He was dressed in a dark suit with white shirt, but what caught Annie’s attention were his eyes.  They were a deep blue, like pools of the deepest water.  He had a wide nose, emphasised by a neatly trimmed moustache which covered the top lip of his small mouth.

“This is the very Reverend Marcus Whitfield, Annie,” Rod announced.

“Good morning!  I’m afraid that it is only Reverend.  Please call me Marcus, I do hope I haven’t arrived at an inopportune time.”

It was then Annie realised that she hadn’t brushed her hair, and was wearing her dirty work clothes as she was expecting to clean the goat pens out.

“No!  Would you like a mug of tea?” she asked.

“That would be most welcome, thank you.” He said looking round the hall, “Ah!” he uttered as his eyes locked onto the closed door.  “Is that where your friend is?”

“It is yes!” Rod announced trying not to look at the door.

“Shall we go through to the kitchen Marcus?” Annie asked.

They followed Annie through to the kitchen where she made them both a mug of tea.

“What do you know about this person?” Marcus asked.

“He was a Major in the army.”  Rod volunteered.

“A Major!  What regiment?”

“We don’t know. We only found out last night at the pub.” Annie said

“Do you know how he died?  Or what happened.  If you can tell me that then It will give me an idea as to how to go about asking him to leave and travel on to the other side.”

“What we were told,” Rod started, “was that he threw a spear at his wife….”

“A spear!”

“Yes!  That’s what cut Rod’s arm.  Then it, he used Rod’s blood to tell us to get out of his house.”

“When was this?” Marcus asked.

“Two nights ago.  I tried to stop it but he hit me, sending me flying across the room, I still have a rather large lump on the top of my head.” Annie said running her hand over her head and feeling rather tender lump.

“And giving you the black eye in the process?”

“Yes!”

“What else do you know about him?”

“He thought that he’d killed his wife so he cut his own throat.”

“His wife wasn’t dead?”

“It seems the gardener found them the following morning.  She had tried to get to her husband by pulling herself along the spear shaft.  The gardener called the police and then pulled the spear out of the door frame and helped her to him.”

“I take that is when she died.  She went and he stayed.  What a sad end to meet.”

“Do you think that you can do something for him, for us?”

“I will try my dear.  I will try.”  Marcus finished his tea and stood picking up a small briefcase which Annie hadn’t noticed.  “You two stay here.  This may take just a few minutes or it could be hours, depending on our friend in that room.”

“Be careful!  That spear is still stuck in the door frame.”

“Thank you for the warning.” Marcus said as he left the kitchen and walked down the hall.  They heard him open the door to the room then close it again.

Rod and Annie looked at each other, then at the door into the hallway.

“I must look a mess,” Annie said.

“You look great,” Rod answered going round the table and kissing her.

Marcus stood just inside the room, he looked with trepidation at the spear still sticking in the frame at chest height.  He moved further into the room and placed his briefcase on the floor, noticing the dried blood spatter all over the floor boards, then opened it.

“What have we here?” he heard reaching into the briefcase.  “What do you want?” the voice in his head said.

Marcus pulled a bible from the briefcase and straightened up, then began to say a prayer, muttering it to himself.

“Oh!” the voice said louder this time, “we’ve got one of those have we?  Well you can stop that mumbo-jumbo and leave.”  Marcus saw the spear quivering as though someone was trying to pull it from the door frame.

Marcus suddenly felt cold, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, and he gripped the bible tighter and started to say another prayer, he was building up to the full exorcism.

“It’s pointless you coming here and trying that,” the voice in his head said, “I don’t believe in all that rubbish.”  The last word was almost shouted and Marcus felt even colder, he felt as though his bones were freezing.  He lifted the bible up and looked at it.  His fingers were blue with the cold, he was shivering uncontrollably.

“Your time is up,” he said with as much force as his frozen body could muster, “it is time for you to pass to the next world.  May the Lord God help you find your……”

The Bible began to get hot in his hands.

“I don’t believe in that mumbo-jumbo.  I’ve told you that once.  It is time for you to go!” the voice shouted as Marcus saw the bible start to glow red, he couldn’t hold it, it was too hot.

“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!”

Marcus had to let the bible go, he watched as it fell end over end, flames bursting from its pages as it fell, a shower of sparks rose when it hit the floor.  Then Marcus, still praying, watched in amazement as words were written on the floorboards in burning and smouldering paper.

“GET OUT OF MY FUCKING HOUSE.”

It was then when Marcus noticed that the cold was lessening, but he saw that the spear was being pulled from the door frame.  He dived for the handle, turned it, raced through the now open door and slammed it shut just as the spear point came thudding through the now closed door.

As soon as they heard the noise Rod and Annie raced from the kitchen into the hall where they saw Marcus stood looking at the spear protruding through the wooden door.

“Are you all right Marcus?” Annie asked, you’ve gone quite pale as though you’ve seen a ghost.”

He looked at her.

“Sorry!”

“The best you could do is to brick that room up and forget it exists.”

“That does it!” Annie almost shouted as she rushed for the ‘phone.

“What are you doing love?” Rod asked.

“I am going to ring those contractors and get them back.”

“Why?”

“To remove that fireplace and put French windows in.”

“But the cost Annie!”

“I don’t give a damn about the cost.  I am not having that thing in my house one moment longer.”

“What do you think Marcus?  Do you think that doing that will make it go away?”

“I don’t know Rod!  I have never come across such a being as this is.  Its total disregard of the bible or the Holy Scriptures.  All that thing is interested in is destruction and death to anything and everything.  I wish you all the luck in the world.  You are going to need it.”  He said as he walked towards the front door.

“What about your fee?” Rod asked.

“Keep it!  You are going to need that money more than I do.” He said as he opened the front door, “if I were you I’d sell up and move out of here before that thing decides to come out of that room.  Set fire to the place and claim the insurance money.  Do anything, but get away from here.” Marcus said slamming the door behind him.

“Has he gone?” Annie asked.

“Yes!  He wouldn’t take any money either.”

“The contractors are coming tomorrow morning.  I’ve told them what I want doing.  He said that there would be a skip delivered this afternoon sometime.”

“Are you going to tell me what you’ve asked them to do?”

“Sorry darling!  They are going to take that fireplace out, knock through the wall for the French windows and replace the floor.  I for one don’t want to see those blood marks on the floor.  I’ve also told them to destroy the fireplace, not simply throw it in a skip or sell it to someone else.”

“So you think that the fireplace has something to do with the Major?”

“It’s just a feeling Rod.”

Late that afternoon a skip was delivered and left on the lawn, much to the disgust of Annie, but by the time she noticed it the lorry had gone.

The following morning a van with two workmen arrived, Annie met them at the front door and showed them into the room, Rod had already removed the spear, after drinking some much needed Dutch courage.

“I want that fireplace removing and smashing into as many bits as you possibly can.  Don’t just drop it in the skip to try to sell later.  Smash it to smithereens.  I want the floor replacing and French windows fitting where that window is.”

“All the floor lady?” the smallest of the men asked looking at the blood splatters, “is that blood?”

“Yes!” she said, “that’s why I want it replacing.”

“All right lad, let’s get down to it.  Fireplace out first I think.  Go get the crow-bar and sledgehammer,” he ordered the taller, and younger one.

“Would you like a drink before you start?”  Annie enquired.

“That would be lovely, thank you lady.  I take mine with milk and sugar, the lad has it black with three sugars.  If you don’t mind me asking, but that is a beautiful fireplace, why do you want it out?”

“It doesn’t go with what we have planned for this room.”

“You could sell that and make quite a bit on it.”

“That’s as may be, but I would like it smashed thank you, I’ll see to your tea.”

Annie left the men to their work, by the time she arrived back in the room with their drinks they had begun to prise the fireplace away from the wall. 
It took them about an hour to remove the fireplace from the wall and carry it out to the waiting skip.

“I’m going to have this,” the younger one said, “I reckon I could get a couple of hundred for it.”

“We’ll have to put it on the side away from the house so they can’t see it.  It won’t fit into the van,” the older man said, “you heard what she said, smash it to smithereens she said.”

“They must be off their rockers, that’s all I can say, throwing something as valuable as this out and smashing it up.”

“They’re paying our wages lad, they call the tunes.  Put here at the side of the skip away from the house then it won’t get covered in rubble when we put the hole through the wall for those French windows, then we’ll put the floorboards on top.”

They then removed the old window and made the hole larger to accommodate the new French window.  By the time they had finished that it was time for lunch.  They sat leaning against the side of the house watching Rod cultivating a patch of land.  Annie brought them some tea.

“What you doing with this place?  If you don’t mind my asking?”

“We are trying to be self-sufficient,” Annie replied.

“What grow all your own food and that?”

“That’s correct.”

“Looks like hard work to me,” the young man quipped.

“But rewarding!” Annie replied going back inside.

That afternoon they started to remove the floorboards and found that they did in fact have woodworm in them.  They’d removed about a quarter of the floor by the time four o’clock came around. 

“Time to knock off lad.  I’ll go find them, you put the tools away.  They should be safe enough if you leave them where the fire used to be."  He returned some ten minutes later followed by Rod and Annie.

“What do you want us to do with the floor boards?” the man asked.

“We’ll see to those.  We have a lot of rubbish to get rid of.  With those underneath it will burn nicely.”

“We’ll see you about nine in the morning,” the older man said.

The men got into their van and drove off

 “The fools!” Annie called coming in the still open front door.

“What’s wrong?” Rod called after her.

“The idiots haven’t smashed the fireplace,” she said looking round for something to do that job.  Annie strode round the side of the house and looked through the hole where the French window would be fitted and saw the workman’s sledgehammer standing on the stone plinth where the fireplace had been.  She carefully crossed the room until she reached the hammer.  It was heavy, but she managed to pick it up and carry it back to the hole in the wall and out to the side of the skip.  She struggled to lift the sledgehammer but she lifted it as far as she could, then brought it down with all her might onto the fireplace.  It hit the heavy metal surround with a clang, but nothing happened except the jarring of Annie’s arms.

She lifted the hammer again and brought it down as hard as she could onto the metal surround, this time a crack appeared in the metal.  Once more she lifted the heavy hammer and brought it down..  Again and again Annie raised that heavy hammer until the fireplace was broken beyond repair, bits of metal and tile were scattered all over the lawn and drive.  As she brought the sledgehammer down on the last large piece of metal a scream rent the air throwing Annie backwards and causing Rod to come running out of the house.

Meanwhile Rod had continued pulling the floorboards up, but he’d started near the fire plinth as he’d seen a loose board over there.  He’d pulled about seven or eight boards up when something stopped him.  Looking down between the beams he could see three African shields made from animal skins, along with about six long spears and a bow and arrows.  When Rod heard the scream from outside he ran to find out if Annie was all right.  He couldn’t see her at first.

“Annie!” he called, “Annie!  Are you all right?”

She got to her feet using the skip to help her, looking across the top of the skip she waved at Rod to show that she wasn’t hurt.  He stood in the doorway and shook his head.

“I’ve found something you should see,” he called.

Annie dropped the sledgehammer and ran across the lawn to the front door.

“What is it?  What have you found?” she asked.

“Come on in here,” he said leading her into the room and showing her the shields and spears.  “Any ideas what we do with them?” he asked.

“Burn them!  Burn them now!” she said wide eyed.

“Why?”

“They are part of him.  Get rid of them Rod.  Start that fire in the orchard and throw them on.  Tonight, now!”

“All right Annie.  I’ll get down there and pass them up.  We’ll take them round.  We can get rid of some of these floorboards at the same time.”

Rod clambered down between the beams, it was a drop of about four feet to the earth below.  He passed the items up one by one until everything was lying on the floor above.  Annie helped Rod up from the deep, as he jokingly called it, they then carried everything round to the orchard, returning for armfuls of floorboards.  Rod rammed screwed up newspaper under the floorboards and then lit the paper.  They stood back and watched as the floorboards caught fire.

When the fire reached the shields it seemed to go round them at first, not touching them, like a hole in the flames.  All of a sudden a blood curdling scream rent the air, so loud that both Rod and Annie couldn’t hear a thing for the rest of the night, then the flames took the shape of a man, there was a loud crack which was heard in the village and a spear flew out of the fire landing point first between Annie and Rod, its blade bright red with the heat and the shaft burning.  The two stepped back to watch the fire return to a normal type of bonfire.

They turned and walked back to the house in silence, all they could hear was the blood rushing round their ears.