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“I don’t know why Gravesy picked on us to work late.” It was yet another late Friday that Kaz had to work, when she rather be in the pub with her friends. Only Melinda worked more late Fridays, but she wanted the job of supervisor.
“Who the hell is Gravesy”, asked Simon, who also hated working late. At five o’clock, he was usually the first out the door.
“The Boss”
“Uh? Douglas Clark?”
She sniggered. “His real name is Douglas Graves.”
“That’s the last of the servers backed up”, Melinda said preparing to lock up. ”Home time.”
Priorgate Grange, an old large Victorian house, accommodated the company’s head office. It was a delightful place to work in the summer, set amongst picturesque gardens, isolated away from other buildings. In the winter it was always different picture; especially when it snowed. It had been snowing all day.
They opened the door to be confronted by a wall of snow two foot high. Their cars were half covered, as was the rest of the landscape. The main road, could just be seen through the January snow shower, it was motionless, silent and thickly carpeted; and the snow was still falling in big flakes.
“We’re snowed in”, exclaimed Melinda. “I’m not walking seven miles home in this.” Unlike her co-workers, she was not so excited to go home, to her husband, who bored her silly. A boring person with a boring job; expecting her to listen to him drone on and on about his job in accounts. A different weekend certainly appealed to her.
“I’m not staying here!”
Melinda looked at Kaz with a queried look on her face, “Your options are?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Simon, your always hungry.” Melinda had envy for Simon. He could eat what every he wanted, and put no weight on. In contrast by just looking at a cake she could feel the weight gaining, convinced calories are air born. To gain the body that she had involved diet, after diet with plenty of exercise. “I have the weekly shopping in the car, I’ll battle my way through and get it. We’re here for the weekend.”
* * * * *
Later, the three colleagues sat in the staff lounge, on sofas looking at a blank TV screen.
“Is the TV still on the blink?”
“Yep.”
“I’m missing ‘Top Gear’”, said Simon.
“The three-man mission to pollute the planet”, mocked Kaz, in a deep serious voice.
“I’m missing Coronation Street”, said Melinda.
“Oh. So, it’s not all bad news.”
The two women looked at Simon with disapproval, which secretly gave him a slight buzz.
Melinda changed the subject by saying, “Simon, you’re trapped for the weekend with two gorgeous women. Aren’t you lucky?” Melinda was looking good for a woman at 45. She was attractive, with long shoulder length cascading brown hair, with green eyes, and dressed nicely; with a white blouse and black skirt. Kaz, at 40 had slightly longer blonde hair, deep blue eyes; dressed more casually in shapely jeans and black ‘T’ Shirt.
Simon, became a little fidgety. At 38, he had short black hair, clean shaven, and always dressed smart casual.
Kaz noticed his nervousness. “Simes. You never married. Why?”
“Maybe he has not met the right woman”, said Melinda.
“Or man. Maybe he’s scared of women.”
“Do you not have a girlfriend? Or Boyfriend?” Enquired Melinda, inviting Simon into the conversation.
“I did have.” Simon declared.
The two women looked at him, as if to say ‘AND’.
“We split up”, gauging their interest he continued with, “the usual story. Things were going great until … her ex from years ago turns up. He promised her that he’d changed, things would better this time. You know. The standard lies. She split with me, and went back to him.”
The two women gave him sympathetic looks.
“Anyway, when she was back with him, nothing changed. It wasn’t long before the domestic violence restarted. She came crawling back. I told her to get lost.”
“You did right”, commented Melinda, “the trust had gone.”
“I’ve never found the right person since.”
“WHAT! So, I’m not good enough!” Retorted Kaz. She had always had a fancy for Simon, but could never work him out.
“You’re attached”, said Simon, thinking that would get him off the hook.
“We split”, she blurted, “similar story. Lies, lies, lies. He was also seeing other women. He had a baby with one.”
“Oh.”
“Why, aren’t up to date with office gossip?”
* * * * *
The following morning, the snowing had finally stopped. The house was surrounded by an unfamiliar, smooth white surface, almost plastic looking. The three colleagues were sat in the small staff kitchen.
“Simes. Where did you sleep last night”, asked Kaz
“The bosses office. He’s got a reclining chair.”
“He’ll go spare if he finds out.”
“I think we should explore”, suggested Melinda.
“We’ve explored everywhere. We’ve worked here for years.”
“Not everywhere”, corrected Kaz. “What about the room with the Brown door?”
“Locked.”
“The keys are in the boss’s drawer.” Melinda looked at him with more disapproval. He looked through the boss’s drawers.
* * * * *
“Well here goes”, said Simon as he opened the brown door. The trio walked into a very drab, dim lit, room; that looked like it hadn’t been decorated since the war. Down both sides were book shelves, opposite was a blacked-out window. In the middle was a small desk with a kitchen chair. They looked at the dusty old books which appeared to be over a hundred years old; mainly about witchcraft, the occult and the paranormal. Melinda studied the titles with dismay, Kaz with excitement. Simon just saw hundreds of old dreary books.
“’The Curse of Priorgate Grange’. I’ve found my weekend reading”, rejoiced Kaz.
“This building isn’t cursed”, responded Simon, who then turned to Melinda to say, “Look, there’s travel books.”
“The forests of Transylvania. Fabulous.”
Melinda, concluded there were no interesting books, and the room should be locked forever.
* * * * *
That evening there was silence in the staff room. Kaz was wholly engrossed in what she believed to be gruesome book. Melinda had resorted to reading a book on her kindle; whilst Simon was browsing the internet on his phone, which he did much of the time anyway. The silence was finally broken by Kaz. “Simes, did you know this building used to be owned by the Rydale family.”
“Oh.” Total disinterest.
“And all five died here on the same night. At 3am on the 13th!”
“You’re only saying that as tonight will be the 13th.”
“Aren’t you scared?”
He was used to her playful teasing. It was surely another of her wind-ups. Another silence followed, only the turning pages could be heard.
“Then”, continued Kaz, “it was owned by the Tylers’; and both of them died here, on the 13th, again at 3am.”
He decided to ignore that comment, as he wasn’t going to rise for the bait. Undeterred, she turned to Melinda asking her to check the book out. Melinda wasn’t pleased being interrupted, but decided to humour her. She read the relevant chapters, with an expression of doubt, then pondered a moment.
“I doubt it’s true; but I think we should all sleep in the staff room tonight”
“Which means you two get the sofa’s, and I sleep on the floor.”
“Correct-a-mondo”, cheered Kaz.
“Nothing will happen.”
“I bet you”
“You’re on.”
* * * * *
“Simon”, whispered Kaz as she gently nudged him.
“What time is it?”
“3am”
“Go back to sleep.”
“I can hear something outside.”
They listened and heard the scrunch, scrunch of footsteps. They carefully looked out at the white landscape illuminated by the full moon. Close to the house they could make out fresh footprints. Large footprints.
Bang, Bang, Bang; the loud pounding came from the front door. They woke Melinda and cowered in the corner. She distinctly remembered locking the door, nevertheless, the front door opened. The trio remained very quiet, barely daring to breath.
They heard heavy footsteps walk across the hallway. Briefly they stopped, a low pitch ‘Grrr’ could be heard. Their hearts momentarily stopped. The footsteps continued up the stairs, and across the landing. There was a loud high-pitched long drawn out scream. Then silence. Just as they thought they breathe a sigh of relief; they heard the loud thumping footsteps come down the stairs; which stopped in the middle of the hallway. They remained quiet, terrified with fear. Then there wasn’t any sound. The stillness was deafening. Total silence. That’s how it remained for the rest of the night, apart from the gentle sound of the breeze outside.
The following day, they searched the house, but couldn’t find anybody else. Thankfully the snow was then melting.
“I’m never working late again”, declared Simon.
“It’s time we got some CCTV cameras.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something!”, exclaimed Kaz. “I won the bet!”
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