Banbury Manor
                                          Hallshire, England

 

     The heavy curtains hung limp and motionless. They were doing their job holding back any light from entering the room through the leaded glass windows as the half-moon tried in vain to pierce the material. The room was as dark as if there were no moon at all.

     A grandfather clock, with its long pendulum swinging hypnotically, stood against the wall next to the curtained windows waiting to toll the hour of midnight, when the door on the opposite side of the room opened with a slight creaking sound. A figure, hunched over and dragging one foot, entered, stumbled across the room and stood in front of the clock. The figure lighted a candle and watched it flicker for a moment as the entire scene was witnessed by the portrait of a man in full military dress uniform on the opposite wall. The picture was housed in a large ornate frame.

     Suddenly the hunched over figure reached out, opened the door to the clock and stopped the giant pendulum; just a few seconds before the massive clock would begin to toll the hour of midnight. The figure seemed to sense that the clock should never strike the ‘witching’ hour of twelve. Five minutes passed before the figure made another move toward the large clock, dragging a chair over in front of the monstrous machine and, standing on it, reaching out and moving the hands to five past the hour of midnight. The clock was then restarted, and the curtains were fluttered by a seemingly unseen force as the figure disappeared from the room with the clock never having struck the hour of midnight.

Ghost of a

Chance