Old Oak Manor - A Halloween Tale

Two backpacks sat upright against the wall next to the front door.

Bursting at the seams, these bulging bags contained everything that anyone could ever want; a self-contained survival pack for the evening ahead. And of course, Teddy poking his head from underneath the top flap!

Two days earlier, Reece and Alex regretted the conversation they were having with Amber and Lauren across the dinner table. Old Oak Manor, behind the school was reportedly haunted, but the two boys scoffed at the idea of such tales.

‘Don’t be silly!’ laughed Alex, ‘Haunted House! This isn’t Disneyland!’

‘I’m telling you it is!’ retorted Lauren, ‘My Uncle was working for the last family to live there, and he heard and saw something unexplained’.

And the conversation (well, we can call it an argument now!) continued. By the end of lunch, the wager had been set. Alex and Reece were to camp out in the Manor house overnight ‘just to prove there are no such things as Ghosts’. And they were due to do this on Halloween; being boys trying to impress girls, they had unwittingly forgotten the time of year

‘Go and do it this weekend then.’ teased Amber.

‘Easy! ‘shouted Reece and Alex, ‘but then you both must go and get a milkshake with us as a reward afterwards.’

The wager set, it was soon common knowledge around the school; the brave boys were going to prove there were no such things as ghosts on the most bewitching night of the year, and they were going to get their girls as their reward. Simples!

Amber and Lauren were to sort out access to the Manor; Lauren’s Uncle still had the keys to the dark and deserted Manor house. The owners were long gone, no one came to replace Lord Guthrie after he died; he had no heir to the Manor, and it had fallen into an overgrown state.

As Halloween approached, the boys made sure they had everything to keep them going through the night. Dark blue sleeping bags to keep them warm were the most important features of their equipment; along with their Cree head torches and plenty of spare batteries.

‘Don’t forget the food!’ Alex had whatsapp’d Reece as they were discussing the requirements to help them through the night. Hungry stomachs would make strange sounds, and would be impossible to tell apart from any supernatural sounds that may be secreted from the surrounding walls. There were enough snacks to feed an entire Form group divided between the two intrepid adventurers. The final, and most important part of the equipment that was to be transported to the Manor was the rechargeable battery pack that would ensure that their iPhones never ran out of power.

‘If we want to keep going through the night, we need our phones charged. How else are we going to update Twitter and Facebook?’ spoke Alex, confidently. He knew that this would show the interested audience of Haverbridge once and for all who were the bravest of the brave (and also for them to claim and brag about their reward!).

The door creaked open as the two boys picked up their belongings, slung them over their shoulders and started to make the slow meander up to the Manor house.

The cool autumn evening was drawing in quickly; the pumpkin coloured sky above the hills was aglow with the Sun setting above the clouds, and had just enough light to announce their arrival at Old Oak Manor.

Alex knocked the door. There was no reply, and as he went to push the door open, it slowly shrank away from him with a creak. He looked at Reece, and both of them blamed it on the Autumnal breeze that was blowing about the hills.

The hallway to the house was immaculate. The wall was lined with the portraits of the previous Lords of the Manor which were lit up as each boy turned their head towards them. The Cree lights were a saviour as they allowed the boys to keep their hands free for the iPhones.

‘Just got 2 Manor house. All gd’ tweeted Reece.

The boys explored the house and decided to set up camp in the master bedroom of the house, which had a spectacular view over the Haverbridge and its’ surround villages nearby. Breath-taking was not the word. It was also the room that provided the most natural light, and was the furthest away from the entrance – if they were going to do this, they were going to do this in style.

They noted how complete the house was still – it had been 6 months since the last person resided here, but all of the furniture and belongings remained in place.
‘We might as well go for the comfiest room’ the boys agreed.

The luxurious Queen size bed was to play home to the boys operations. They both lay on the bed and discussed the plans for the next few hours.

They were going to stay in the house until 8am when the sun was due to rise, tweeting and uploading pictures throughout the night – being tech savvy was going to uphold their status as the Heroes of Haverbridge.

Unbeknown to the brave boys, Amber and Lauren were planning their own twist. They were not going to be going on a date with the boys; they simply weren’t good enough for the girls, who had their own ambitions of who to spend time over a milkshake with.

Their plan was simple enough – they were going to be outside of the house with the Halloween sound effects CD that they had spotted in Poundland. They were going to show how childish Alex and Reece were.

The boys were talking about what they would make the girls buy them when they arose triumphant from the house; milkshake, McDonalds and Cinema were the common ideas, along with hand holding and a smooch at the end of the night. Alex and Reece were determined to succeed as they had long held a torch for Amber and Lauren, becoming friends who were boys, but never flipping the words around (yet!)

The sounds of creaking filled the room. The boys looked at one another, but dismissed it as the front door creaking again.

The next sound they heard was the rattling of the windows in their frames. This time the looks on the boys faces changed from smiles to confusion; they knew they were the only people in the house, but why were there so many different noises filling the atmosphere?

The evening turned into night, and the booming chime of the Grandfather clock in the hallway filled the house at Midnight. It made the boys jump, but they remembered seeing the Antique next to the stairs before they made their final ascent.

Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw the bedroom door start to open. The boys clutched at each other as they watched a dark figure in a black suit enter the room. The glow from the spectre lit up the whole room, and as the figure made a grab towards the boys, they jumped up and dashed for the door, slamming it shut and made for the exit as quickly as their legs would carry them. They didn’t even notice Amber and Lauren laughing hard at them as the sprinted into the distance towards their homes. The Poundland CD had worked – it had spooked the boys and they wouldn’t be going for Milkshake with them.

Undeterred, the girls entered the house themselves; there was good food that the boys had left and they weren’t going to let it go to waste.

Amber crept up the stairs with Lauren following behind her. The darkness was scary, but they used the lights from their mobile phones to lead the way. They had seen the boys in the master bedroom and made their way towards the room to gain the goodies.

Amber and Lauren laughed as they munched on Oreos and Jammie Dodgers whilst looking out towards the village.

A glowing hand took on of the biscuits and lit up the room. Lauren and Amber turned to each and screamed as they vacated the house.

‘That was a hoot and a half!’ shouted Mr Hunter, covered head to foot in a black suit covered in luminescent paint. Mr Trungit opened the wardrobe door with a creak and high-fived Mr Hunter. Both men looked pleased with their nights work.

Pupils never learn to keep their business to themselves, and when the story of Alex and Reece reached the staff room of Haverbridge Academy, this was one opportunity that was not to be missed. They became the Heroes of Haverbridge Academy Staff Room, with the tale passed down to all new Year 7 pupils each September. Pupils shivered as they stared and the looming shadowy outline of the Manor house behind it’s shelter of foliage, listening to the wind blow through the leafy branches like the whistling of the groundskeeper.