Hello! My name is Ashley Lister and I’ve been invited here today by my good friend Sam. I’m aware that the readership for Sam’s books are a little bit younger than the readers for my books, and I’m aware the content of my books is usually inappropriate for young readers.
However, I’ve got a new novella,Cursed, coming out on March 1st and Sam kindly invited me here today to talk about it. But, rather than talk about that book (which is really aimed at an older audience) I thought it might be fun to talk about my current passion, which is collecting true ghost stories.
I’m not 100% convinced that ghosts do exist. Common sense tells me that they’re an impossibility. But the idea of ghosts excites me as a writer and a reader and, as an academic, I’ve even examined true ghost stories scientifically, so I better understand the way we talk about these things. If anything, examining the stories in details has allowed me to believe that they’re more imagination than fact, but I still find them entertaining.
The story below was told to me as though it was true.
Two young brothers were at home alone while their mum visited neighbours in the flat next door.
“Be good boys,” Mum said.
They were good boys and, because there was nothing on the TV, the boys decided to play a game of hide and seek. The older boy faced the wall, hands over his eyes, and began to count. He could hear his brother’s feet scampering about, looking for a place to hide.
“Coming, ready or not,” cried the older brother, and went looking for his brother. He looked in all the usual places, behind the settee, in the bathroom behind the shower curtain, behind the curtains in every room, and under all the beds, but he couldn’t find him.
The flat was eerily silent.
Then he heard a scraping sound coming from the wardrobe in his mum’s bedroom. The boy was sure he’d already looked there, but he went anyway and called, “Come out I’ve found you!”
But there was only silence.
Again he called for his brother to come out. And again there was no response. Opening the door, the boy tried to peer behind the wall of blouses, dresses and coats hanging there. He bent down, but he did not see any feet standing there. He began to rise up and put his hand into the mass of clothing to feel for his little brother.
That was when a small ice-cold hand came out, grabbed his wrist, and tried to pull him inside.
As he tried to pull himself free, he heard a noise behind him. Looking over his shoulder he saw his brother standing behind him.
“Couldn’t you find me?” asked the younger brother.
The older brother screamed in fright and desperately tried to free himself from the grip of the hand. All the time he was being pulled further into the wardrobe. The younger brother grabbed him and together they managed to pull free. They both ran screaming from the flat to tell mum what had happened.
Nobody knows what would have happened if the hand had managed to pull him in. Do you?
If you have an idea what might have happened to that brother, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments box below. And if you have any personal scary stories, I’d love to hear those as well.
Ashley Lister’s latest novella,Cursed, will be released on March 1st 2021. It’s not suitable for children but it should entertain those adults who enjoy a spooky story that makes them want to sleep with a light on. More can be found out by looking at www.ashleylister.com.
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