Free The Forgotten Cottage by Helen Phifer Page A

common knowledge and I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourselves…but I have a bit of a psychic streak and I’m used to seeing and hearing things. A couple of times I’ve had a cold shiver and heard the nails being scraped but not much else. Nothing has ever made itself known to me. Shit, I don’t want a house that’s haunted by something that wants to hurt people. I’m sorry and I hope you’re okay.’
    He nodded once more. ‘What are you going to do? We need to get going now. Are you going to be okay here on your own?’
    Annie looked around; she loved this house and wouldn’t let some unhappy spirit chase her from it, especially one that was scared to show itself.
    ‘Thank you, yes, I’ll be fine. I’m not scared and I have a friend who is a priest; he’ll come and bless it for me.’
    The men looked at her as if she was completely insane and shrugged. She thought about the painting and the woman who was hanging from the front porch. They turned to leave and she walked to the window to watch them get into their vans. Callum waved at her from the front seat and she waved back. A shiver ran down her spine but she crossed her arms over herself. They left and Annie was truly alone in the house for the first time since they’d bought it. She looked over at the picture on the chair and wondered if she should take it out of the house—maybe show it to Father John and see what he said—but could she drag him into something again? Although last time it had been him who had dragged her into a fight with a Shadow Man, who had terrified her. Still, she had managed to defeat the thing that collected souls for pleasure and save Father John, so technically he owed her.
    She put the lid back on the paint and picked up the painting and the paintbrush, then she ran downstairs to the sink in the utility room to wash the brush. She placed the painting on the side and washed it and her hands; she dried them on an old towel then turned to pick the painting up. She walked around the house, checking the doors were locked and the windows were shut. The last thing she wanted now the house was almost done was someone getting inside through an insecure door or window. As she reached the front door she heard the scrape of nails against glass and turned around.
    ‘I don’t know who you are or what you want, but this is my house now. It hasn’t been your home for a very long time and you shouldn’t be here; it’s time for you to leave. I want you to get out of this house and go to wherever you should be. Why are you haunting my dreams? You won’t stop me from living here and if you don’t leave of your own accord then I’m bringing in a priest to bless this house and have you removed.’
    There was nothing more so she walked out of the front door and shut it, locking it, and trying her best not to look above her head at the beams, where the woman was hanging in the painting, just in case she was hanging there now and she was about to walk straight though her. She walked across to her car and opened the door, putting the painting on the back seat; she needed to show it to Will, John, Jake or anyone really.
    She drove off and as she began to make her way along the winding road she wondered if Jake and Alex were still in the village, though it was Will she really wanted to talk to. She passed a dense wooded area and thought she saw a flash of white darting through the trees. Slowing down, she looked again. The woods looked awfully familiar and she saw the flash of white again. It was a woman and she was running, holding onto her side as if she had a stitch. Annie gasped and wondered if she was dreaming, pinching herself to make sure that she wasn’t. She remembered that she was driving and brought her attention back to the road in front of her, grateful she hadn’t wandered across the single white line into the oncoming path of a tractor.
    She rounded a steep bend and saw the same woman, who was now standing in the middle of