Cedars Avenue

From: chris (indigo_elephant@msn.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire
Source: Form Submission

Ever since I was a child I have feared walking down Cedars Avenue. In the past year, six separate families have lived at number 66. It is partially down to the windows of the house that strike fear into all the local kiddies, so that they won't go within 400 feet of it, but often stay on that wide circumference for hours, talking and watching.

Finally, the last family to move in, the Houlgraves had two children who attended the local school, which everyone in the local area went to. I was given an invitation to one child's sleepover birthday party. Of course, when I opened the invitation, and saw the address: 66 Cedars Avenue, a cold shiver ran down my spine and I immediately knew that I couldn't pass this offer up- I had to see inside. I suddenly realised my burning curiosity regarding the house.

Two weeks later, we were sitting inside 66 Cedars, enjoying ourselves tremendously. I had almost forgotten my fear of the place, although I still didn't want to be on my own. Beth's mum called for teatime, and I left the others briefly to run back upstairs and grab her birthday present. I was reaching for the present, behind my coat when I saw a shadow on the wall. I followed it with my eyes to see directly in front of my face, a pair of feet. The stench that filled my nostrils made me retch. I ran downstairs, screaming and crying; to the others. At first everyone was shocked, but all my friends had heard the stories and began to panic. Beth's mum tried unsuccessfully to calm us down, before the smell wafted down the stairs. She went up to the room, and we followed; the unholy rancour intensifying with each step. The door swung open and so did the rope on which the dead man was hanging on. All of us stared into his eyes, an endless glazed glance that seemed to cut through us like ice.

By the morning, Beth's family had left, the house was not up for sale anymore. It was pulled down a few months later so that a new housing estate could be built. I decided to research the site at the Rickmansworth library, after searching the archives I discovered that 200 years previous to the house being built, the site was used for hanging criminals from a giant Cedar tree. Every now and again I will catch a glimpse of a figure on the top storey of one of the new houses.