WITH Hallowe'en upon us, we are sharing some spooky St Helens-based stories to get you in the mood.

Here is a short story by author Sue Gerrard, called Last Man Standing.

This story was inspired by the true story of Isabel Robey, who was sentenced to be hanged more than 400 years ago during the Lancashire Witch Trials.

The book ‘Isabel Robey: the Windle Witch’ by Sue Gerrard, is available from suegerrard.com priced at £3.

Last Man Standing

So here I am the last one standing and waiting for the inevitable to happen on a snowy December night. The house was as cold as a tomb, but I was chilled with fear and waiting….

It was a sharp contrast to that summer’s day just six months ago when I moved into this beautiful house in the shadow of Lancaster Castle.

It was a dream come true I’d moved to ‘the big city’ and was thrilled with it all from The Duke’s Playhouse to St. Nicholas Arcade, but it was the house that I loved more than anything. It was gleaming new and just three streets away from the castle which I imagined was guarding us from invisible evils. How wrong could you be?

“No chance of any ghosts here.” Melissa, one of my house mates, said as she explored the rooms. Again, how wrong could you be?

There had been four of us Melissa, Sian, Debbie and, of course me, Isobel. We liked to think we had been brought together by fate when in fact it was the four of us responding to an advertisement looking for tenants.

We had been the first to reply and here we were four twenty something girls determined to live life to the full. Little did we know.

Although strangers and from different backgrounds it was as if we had known each other all our lives. Melissa was the “posh’ one university educated, now working as a lawyer; while Sian was the scatty one yet carving out a successful career as a nurse; Debbie was the mother of the group, down to earth and working as a teaching assistant; I was the average one, working in a library, with a wild imagination. I was always hearing odd sounds in the house and seeing imaginary shadows.

“I’ve told you there can’t be any ghosts here.” Melissa repeated, “It’s new property. You’ve been reading too many ghost stories in that library of yours.”

“The ghosts could have got lost.” Sian laughed.

“You’re so scatty that’s the kind of thing you would do if you came back.” Debbie said: “It’s just the house settling, all new houses do it.” That was Debbie practical to the end.

Then things began to take a turn towards the uncomfortable after we had visited Lancaster Castle. Behind the imposing façade was an equally impressive interior with ornate, working law courts and fascinating history. However, the story I was interested in was the Lancashire witches especially Isobel Roby who came from my hometown St. Helens.

“It was a set up; she shouldn’t have been hanged.” I said angrily.

“Just think.” Debbie said, “It’s all those years ago today, Wednesday August 19th since she was tried and hanged here with the rest of the Lancashire Witches.”

“Yes, and you Isobel could have been named after her, spooky or what?” Melissa added.

It was at this point that I felt I was being followed. It wasn’t as if I saw anybody it was more of a feeling, like a shadow was falling over me and blocking out the sunshine yet when I turned round there was nobody there. Then I started to sense a presence in the house as if there were five of us now. I was just about to talk it over with the girls when the unthinkable happened.

It had been an ordinary day and Sian tripped on the stairs and came tumbling down. Although bruised and shaken she laughed it off until two later she collapsed in a coma and was rushed to hospital. Three days later she died.

We were all devastated and trying to rebuild our lives when Melissa got a splinter from the banister in her finger. We didn’t think anything about it until she got septicaemia and died a week later.

I knew that this was more than a coincidence and was frightened for Debbie and myself. The police said that there were no suspicious circumstances and bereavement councillors told us that it was a sad coincidence, but I knew differently.

The presence now seemed to have taken over the house and everywhere I could sense something waiting to emerge from the shadows.

Debbie and I decided to leave as quickly as possible. It was while putting the final belongings in her case that Debbie slipped on the lounge floor and banged her head. Two weeks later and just two days ago she died in hospital.

My only thought was to get out of the house but when the doors locked on me, I knew that I was next. It was then that Isobel Roby made her appearance and there was only one question on my lips.

“Why?”

“Because you mock me and those innocents who died with me.”

“How? I felt sorry for you.”

“Yes, and it was that sympathy that opened the door and let me into your life, but you still mocked us.”

“But I don’t understand how.”

“Because the wood of the stairs and living room is the wood from the gallows upon which we were hanged. You laugh, joke and live the lives we were not allowed to have in the presence of that which took part in our deaths and was witness to our cries for mercy.”

“But we didn’t know.” I could feel the shadow coming closer and panic was the only thing keeping me going.

“After you visited the castle you knew of the injustice was done to us, yet you never sort to clear our names instead you continued to mock us. You see no matter how long it takes justice will be done and someone will pay. And it is you four.”

She turned to leave the room, I rose and followed her to beg for my life. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, she turned, and I heard a crack. I raised my eyes just in time to see the wooden beam come crashing towards me.