The Spirit of the Place

The building was a ghost. A lost artifact of a time of weath, surrounded and almost swallowed up by trees. The facade was filthy, with places where the plaster had come away completely, exposing the brick beneath. There were only two windows intact. And there was bound to be structural damage hidden behind the surface. No one had paid attention to this place in well over fifty years.

The woman opened the door and stepped inside.

It felt like a return.

Throughout the house, the spirits woke, moved. They gathered around the woman, tracking as she moved from room to room, following the footprints she left on the dirty floors. They watched her turn in slow circles, looking at the decorated ceilings or the remains of the wall panelling. They floated after her, silent and invisible, gazing at her with wary eyes.

The woman returned to the hallway and stood, frowning at herself. This house was a white elephant. It was unlivable-in, even if the asking price was within her means. And the money it would take to fix would be ... this wasn't a fixer-upper she could do herself. She would need builders, electricians, people with machinery who knew what they were doing. This was an absolutely impossible idea.

And yet. And yet.

It felt like home. A home unlike any she had ever experienced, or dreamed of. But home.

She moved towards the staircase and began to climb, testing each step carefully before she put her weight on it. The estate agent was just taking a call outside, but she still didn't want to have to be hauled out of a hole half-way up the stairs.

The spirits drifted after her.

The woman stepped into the central bedroom. Behind her, the spirits halted at the threshold.

The woman stopped, not quite in the centre of the room. The energy here was different, uncomfortable, no longer the uncanny pull of belonging that had been downstairs. Something else was ruling here.

She was suddenly certain. Something terrible had happened here.

Clustered in the doorway, the spirits watched as She emerged. This was Her territory. She was malevolent, vengeful, filled with rage and pain. They watched her smile at the woman and shrank back.

The woman looked back at the thing she could not see.

'It's all right,' she said, 'I'm here now.'

'Sorry, what was that?' The estate agent appeared in the doorway, his phone call ended.

The woman turned to him and smiled. 'I'd like to make an offer,' she said.