A to Z Challenge 2014 - Ghosts - S is For Secrets, Bram Stoker, Thomas Skelton

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Secrets, keeping them and sharing them both make for good plot development. A famous author today, Bram Stoker, of Dracula fame, but he wrote ghost stories too. And Thomas Skelton, jester, is my ghost of choice. Finally, Part 19 of The Burning Web, and keeping secrets gets Tris into trouble.

S is for Secrets | The Burning Web | Author Info | British Hauntings

S is for Secrets
Secrets can be kept, shared, whispered, betrayed. They can be dangerous, or benign embarrassments, and all of them can add to the atmosphere and plot in any genre, including ghost stories.

The restless dead may have their secrets, something in life which haunted them then and causes them to haunt in the present. In Rose Red, a TV mini series by Stephen King, Ellen Rimbauer, the wife of a powerful oil man whose house the parapsychologists go to visit, has her secrets, big secrets. Inspired, I think, by the Winchester Mystery House and Sarah Winchester, who kept adding bits to her house in the belief that if she kept building she would not die, Ellen designs more and more bizarre pieces to her house. Meanwhile, she dispatches her husband, secret #1. The house has its secrets, too, people that it disappear within its walls - including, eventually, Ellen herself. What happened to them and how does the house continue to ensnare people? There are, initially, more secrets than answers at Rose Red, which makes it an intriguing and scary watch.

The living can also keep secrets. Sam Daily in The Woman In Black (yeah, sorry, I couldn't stay away from that one for long), doesn't tell Arthur what is going on, he is in denial about the ghost himself. In fact, the whole damn community, by keeping silent and trying to dissuade Arthur from going to the house without giving him an explanation as to why, are really at fault for what happens later.

So, secrets, use them skilfully and they are a brilliant tool in the writer's arsenal.

The Burning Web
Part 19

by Sophie Duncan

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Tris sat on the chair Xander had brought up from the kitchen and pulled off his shoes. He watched Xander fiddling with pillows as he did so and the atmosphere was awful. It was mainly his fault, he knew that, and the guilt that was tightening his chest was the reason for it. He'd come close to telling his husband what he'd seen so often that day and then backed off. It had raised a wall between them and he needed to break it down. Taking a deep breath, he confessed, "I saw another ghost today."

Xander turned round so sharply that Tris shrunk back in the chair.

"What?! When?!" his husband demanded, crossing to him immediately and taking him by the shoulders.

"I think it was real," Tris carried on, avoiding the questions and defending himself before he was smothered in professional assessment.

Xander made a dismissive noise from the back of his throat and looked right into Tris's eyes. Yet, Tris knew he wasn't looking at his expression, he was examining him and he turned his face away. Xander's hold on him tightened.

"Tris, look at me," Xander demanded, superiority and urgency mixing in his tone.

"There's nothing wrong with me," Tris objected, bristling as he was ignored in favour of his 'symptoms'. "No headache, no dizziness, just real ghosts."

"Look at me," Xander ordered again as Tris avoided the command.

"Listen to me," Tris tried again, but Xander let go of one shoulder and grabbed him under the chin so hard it hurt.

Tris winced, but Xander wasn't letting go.

"How many have you seen? How often is this happening?" Xander asked, still looking through Tris to the body beneath.

"Only once," Tris replied, reluctant now as he realised it was just going to count against him. "And I didn't panic this time, so I'm okay."

"You're not okay, Tris!" Xander chastised, letting him go and gesticulating wildly as he stepped back. "Your brain is injured and I have to make sure it doesn't get hurt more."

Tris knew he'd lost to the anger and fear in his husband, so he just sat and stared up at him, injustice simmering just below the surface.

"These hallucinations could be a symptom of something much bigger," Xander looked stricken at that, which dampened Tris' ire somewhat, but did not salve it completely. "If it weren't so late I'd take us home right now, but you need to rest. I'm booking you in for an MRI tomorrow."

Tris didn't want rest, he wanted to be believed, but that wasn't going to happen, not until he found a way of showing Xander the truth. So he capitulated and nodded silently, getting up and crossing to his side of the bed. Almost immediately he had sat down on the blow up mattress, he found Xander's palm under his nose holding his collection of pills. He recognised them all now, the last week having made him far more alert about his medication. He took them from Xander and put them on the makeshift table beside the bed, reaching for the water as he did so, because he knew Xander was watching.

There were two new pills with the others, an optional sleeping pill that Xander had decided was anything but optional over the last week, and something Tris was almost sure was an anti-psychotic, the new one Mr Collins had prescribed, although Xander had never actually explained it clearly, it was just 'to help him stay calm'. It had actually made him feel pretty woolly round the edges. Disbelieved and uncomfortable, Tris didn't want either of the extras, so, as he scooped the others back up, he knocked the offending pills down between the mattress and the pile of stuff that was the sideboard. Xander was still watching him from where he had sat down on the either side of the bed, so Tris threw back the rest of his medication with a gulp of water. Then, he rolled over, pecked Xander on the cheek and lay down.

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Author Info: Bram Stoker

Now those of us who have a penchant for the toothy ones will, no doubt, be familiar with Dracula, by far Bram Stoker's most famous work. This, of course, was not his only venture into the supernatural. For those who might not have heard of him, Bram Stoker was business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London and was also personal assistant to actor, Henry Irving. He was Irish and was born near Dublin.

Bram Stoker has many books and short stories to his name other than Dracula, a great many of them to do with the supernatural, such as The Lair of the White Worm and The Jewel of The Seven Stars, which is about an attempt to raise an Egyptian Queen from the dead.

For a short, ghostly dip into his macabre world, I recommend The Judge's House, the tale of a student studying for his exams and wishing to stay somewhere out of the way in order to concentrate on his books. Thus begins a tale of both psychological and supernatural horror which left me glad I didn't have any portraits on the walls of the room I was reading it in!

British Hauntings: Thomas Skelton of Muncaster Castle

Muncaster Castle, like most of Britain's old buildings, lays claim to more than one ghost. Two of whom are linked. Thomas Skelton was the fool to the household of Sir Ferdinand Pennington at Munster Castle in the late 1500s, however, far from being the jovial creature we think of when we think of jesters, Skelton appears to have been a rather unpleasant man, willing to do his master's dirty work. Pennington asked Skelton to get rid of a fellow servant who he suspected of being too familiar with his daughter. Skelton did so, killing the young man and presenting his master with the head. Both Skelton and the headless young man are said to haunt the castle, the young man frequenting The Tapestry Room.

Muncaster also plays host to many other ghosts, a white lady, the sound of a crying child and a murdered young girl who haunts the roadway near the gate. They also offer ghost sits, the chance to spend the night in the most haunted room.


I'd love to hear your own spooky stories, add them to the blog comments. :)

A few of us discovered that we all had supernatural themes for the AtoZ so we got together and did a mini list. If you also have a supernatural theme (ghosts, monsters, witches, spells etc), please feel free to add yourself to the list.

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