The Lady on the Landing

From: Hannah Dixon (lilmonkey17@hotmail.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Boscastle, Cornwall, U.K.
Source: Form Submission

This happened to a friend of my mother's way back in the early 1980s.

Coral and Roger Calcott moved to a small cottage in the Cornish village of Boscastle. They were quite hard up when it came to money and Roger went out and finally managed to acquire a job. However, Coral was left alone during the day while her husband was at work and she became increasingly uneasy whenever she went upstairs. Every time she went up to the bathroom, she felt as though she was being watched through the keyhole, despite no-one else being there. She began to get scared and started stuffing toilet paper into the keyhole so that the 'watcher' could not see her.

Meanwhile, Roger needed a new pair of shoes and had made a bit of money. However, when Coral told him of her uneasy feelings he bought her two dogs instead of buying his shoes so that Coral would not be alone. Coral thought it was the answer having two dogs with her but when she went to go upstairs, the dogs, who followed her everywhere, refused to go up there, despite her trying everything to tempt them!

Then one day, Coral was going up to the landing and saw a little old lady dressed in black sitting on the landing looking at her. Coral was petrified and realized that it was this lady who had been watching her. She saw the same woman several times in the same place and became sick with fear. Although Roger didn't believe his wife, he became worried about her after she became ill and so decided to invite some friends round for tea one evening.

The friends arrived on Sunday and after tea, one of them went up to use the toilet. Once he was up there, he had the same feeling of being watched and when he opened the door, he saw the same little old lady looking at him. Terror- struck, he fled downstairs and told every one about what had happened. Coral told him that she had experienced the same thing. The man vowed never to go back there and left immediately. The next day, finally convinced that the house was haunted, Coral and Roger put the house on the market. Two ladies came to check it out and took photos. When the pictures were developed, none of them came out. On Coral and Roger's last night in the house, everything went wrong- pipes burst, lights fused and nothing went right. To this day, Coral is convinced that the lady did not want them to leave...