Free Ghosts at Christmas by Darren W. Ritson Page B

coat of arms.
    After a great deal of time exploring the premises, we ventured outside into the gardens. Winter blizzards had brought a blanket of snow, which gave the gardens something of a magical Yuletide feel. The gardens are just as impressive as the house, with a giant oak tree dominating the grounds, casting a dark and foreboding shadow over the great house.
    The afternoon at Doxford House was a worthwhile exercise; not only did it give us time to get to know the building and itslayout, but one or two strange occurrences were also reported. Having a medium with us, we expected a few readings and Ralph Keeton certainly provided us with some interesting facts. Ralph is a good friend of our team and was invited along by GHOST to assist in our investigations. He told us that he picked up on ‘lesbian parties and orgies’ along with a feeling of ‘witchcraft and occultism’. This was his first hit of the day because, if the reader recalls, it was alleged that this went on in the house in days gone by. Ralph couldn’t possibly have researched this as the source of information came from those that knew Miss Aline Doxford personally.
    Also picked up by Ralph was the spirit of a little girl, who was somehow left out on a balcony or a landing area. The Ouija board room was identified by Ralph, even though he was unaware of Ouija board sessions being held there, and he also identified twoother spirits in Doxford House. One of those was on the main stairwell, where he saw a black mass come swirling up from the ground floor, straight past him and up to the top of the building. It happened in a split second, but the most significant thing about this sighting was that Yvonne Moore saw it too.
    Fiona also experienced something anomalous during the course of the afternoon. While walking along the long corridor that leads to the bottom of the staircase, she noticed behind one of the many doors, which happened to be open an inch or so, a shadow that seemed to block out the light. Upon stopping to take a closer look, the shadow moved away from the gap in the door, thus letting back in the light from outside. It was as if someone was standing behind the door casting its shadow up the wall and blocking out the light. She burst in through the door but found no one there.
    Drew also experienced an odd happening: twice he saw what looked like a black shape move quickly across the floor. He only saw it out of the corner of his eye, and at first he thought it was a cat scurrying across the floor. However, he saw it again while standing on the first floor on the stairs. I think I was the only one that afternoon that didn’t experience anything. Still, we had yet to return for the investigation.
    Before the investigation began, I asked Ralph to make his predictions to see if he could tell us what would happen during the investigations. He said:
    I think it’s going to be very exciting, I think we are going to see something … definitely. I definitely want to talk about a door closing or opening on its own … certainly in one of the rooms I know we are going to hear a voice, we are going to hear somebody, we are going to get auditory, we are going to get visual communication without a doubt.
    Rather clear-cut prophesies and, amazingly, as you will shortly hear, accurate too. We all arrived back at Doxford House at 10p.m. The place was shrouded in darkness (there was no electricity supply) and the atmosphere felt entirely different to our afternoon investigation.
    GHOST were joined by a number of guests, mostly members of the family who own Doxford House, but it was anticipated they would only stay for an hour or so before becoming extremely bored, and cold. We were correct, as most of the guests vacated the premises just after midnight, leaving the team to plod on until sunrise. Trigger objects and motion sensors were placed around the older part of Doxford House, including a crucifix on the main stairwell, and motion sensors on the stairs,