The Oxenaforda Set
‘Twas the last night of October, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Until, that was, a piercing scream from outside the elegant Huguenot House of Evelyn and Marcus Ashbrooke in the trendy Londinium area of Splitafields woke them both up at exactly fifty-nine past eleven.
The couple sat in bed for a moment, their eyes as wide as they could be, hyperventilating.
“Are you alright, Eve?” Marcus said, trying his best to regulate his breathing.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Evelyn said, gazing at her husband. “Did you have a nightmare?”
“No, my dream was surprisingly pleasant for Halloween night,” Marcus said. “I thought you had one.”
“I didn’t,” Evelyn said. “But if I didn’t scream, and you didn’t scream, then who did?”
Both fell silent as they turned toward their bedroom window.
They glanced at each other, and leapt out of the bed in unison, making a run for the window.
But as soon as Evelyn whipped apart the curtains, they found no one outside at all.
“Huh?” Evelyn said, scanning the street through her window.
“It could only have come from someone outside,” Marcus said. “Unless… there’s an extra person in the house?”
Evelyn glanced at Marcus, her face pale. “Is our house haunted?”
The Ashbrookes stared at each other for a moment, before saying together, “It’s someone outside.”
With that, the couple relaxed and lumbered back over to bed.
But when they got there, something stopped them from wriggling back under the bedclothes and getting back to sleep.
“Should we go and find who was screaming?” Evelyn said. “There’s probably a frightened person out there, hiding in a corner somewhere.”
Marcus glanced towards the window. “It is quite cold out, though, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Evelyn said, stepping back from the bed and placing the duvet back over. “All the more reason for us to find out what’s going on. The poor thing must be shivering out there.”
“You’re right,” Marcus said. “Might as well show some goodwill to a stranger just under two months early.”
With that, the couple put a dressing gown over their pyjamas and ventured out into the misty street beyond their home.
The street outside was empty and shrouded in mist.
Only the street lights illuminated the Ashbrookes’ way, reflecting in the puddles pooled in the cobblestones beneath them.
“Hello?” Evelyn said, as she shuffled down the street, hugging herself for extra warmth. “Are you alright?”
“Anyone about?” Marcus said, confidently marching up the road in his dressing gown, seemingly unperturbed by the cold.
Evelyn crouched behind a bin and looked around it.
“It’s ok, you’re safe,” Evelyn said, hopping behind the bin. “We heard you scream.”
“You honestly think someone might be hiding behind that bin?” Marcus said, staring at Evelyn with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes, whatever they saw clearly frightened them,” Evelyn said, rising from the bin. “They’ve probably found somewhere to hide.”
Marcus sighed and lowered his head. “How long are we going to do this until we realise no one else is here?”
Evelyn started laughing shakily. “No person could have run away in a flash. Realistically they’re in the vicinity.”
She turned round a corner and investigated down a side street.
“Are we sure the scream wasn’t in our heads?” Marcus said, standing resolutely still at the end of the street.
“It woke both of us up,” Evelyn said, sifting through wheelie bins and venturing into people’s porches. “It would’ve been a bit weird if we both imagined it, don’t you think?”
Marcus gawped at his wife and yawned. “Right, I’m going back to bed. Enjoy yourself.”
As he lumbered back to their house, Evelyn ran over to him and grabbed him.
“You are not leaving me out here at this time of night,” Evelyn said, scowling at Marcus. “We’re not all blessed with male privilege.”
Marcus shrugged. “Fine, come back with me. We’ll have a cup of Hot Chocolate before returning to sleep.”
“And leave some poor soul out here all night, after they’ve had the shock of their life?” Evelyn said. “I think not.”
An icy chill blew right through them.
Evelyn was sure she could hear a malevolent cackle in the wind, but she chose to ignore it.
“Whoever was out here has clearly gone back home,” Marcus said, marching back to his house. “We should follow their lead.”
“I hope you’re right; that’s all I can say,” Evelyn said, jogging behind her husband. “I don’t want to abandon a scared individual on my conscience.”
She was sure she could see the silhouette of a person in her peripheral vision, but when she turned round, there was nobody there.
A light turned on in the house next to them, and a man opened his top floor window and called down.
“Could you two keep it down, please?” The man said. “It’s quite late to be trick-or-treating, don’t you think?”
Evelyn sensed someone running across the road behind her, but whoever they were disappeared the moment she turned round.
“That’s fine, we’re not trick-or-treating,” Marcus said. “Neither of us could sleep, so we thought we’d have a late night walk through the city. Dickens used to do it, I believe.”
Evelyn felt a hand run down her back, making her shudder.
Again, she turned round, and saw nothing.
“Did you hear someone scream earlier?” Evelyn said to the man, clinging tightly to Marcus.
The man gawped at them and shrugged. “Beats me. The only noise I could hear was you two.”
Evelyn’s face turned a deathly white, and she began to shiver. “So you didn’t see anyone out here besides us?”
The man frowned and shook his head. “No. You’re the only noisemakers round here.”
A voice whispered in Evelyn’s ear, making the hairs on her nape stand up.
She cowered and lightly hugged herself.
“Sorry to have woken you up,” Evelyn said, glancing around her. “We’ll be going now.”
With that, she ushered Marcus along the road until they were safely within the confines of their house.
“You changed your tune,” Marcus said, wiping his shoes on the doormat before taking them off.
“Something’s out there, but they’re not human,” Evelyn said. “I don’t think that scream came from a living person.”
Marcus squinted at Evelyn and laughed. “What?”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow,” Evelyn said. “Right now I just want to get under that duvet and fall asleep.”
She took a few steps back, triggering the Dracula Halloween decoration behind her to come to life.
Evelyn let out a small yelp and leapt away as Dracula let out a tinny laugh as he rose from his coffin.
“I vant to zuck your blood!” The iconic vampire said, before returning to his coffin.
“£200 well spent,” Marcus said, chortling. “I probably shouldn’t have put off storing it in the loft until tomorrow, though.”
Evelyn scowled at her husband. “Can we go to bed now, please?”
Marcus cleared his throat. “Yes, of course.”
With that, the two of them scurried upstairs and tucked themselves into bed as quickly as they could.
Well, Evelyn did, and Marcus decided to make them both a cup of hot chocolate before resuming their slumber.
The Ashbrooks slept soundly until they woke up at 10:00 on All Saints’ Day.
Evelyn’s brother Ben, home alone because his wife was speaking at the Cygninia Literary Festival, paid them a visit from Kernow.
“Well, it sounds like both of you had a rather eventful Halloween,” Ben said, sipping his tea.
The Ashbrooks glanced at each other.
“Only the last minute of it,” Evelyn said. “The rest of it was fine. The Trick or Treaters were adorable, weren’t they?”
“Yes,” Marcus said, digging his hand into the plastic bowl of confectionery in front of him. “Luckily for us, they didn’t take all the sweets!”
“Indeed,” Ben said, leaning back into his seat.
“So, are you able to enlighten us on what happened last night?” Evelyn said, popping a Meltings milk chocolate ball into her mouth. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t suddenly believe in ghosts.”
“Have no fear, Evelyn,” Ben said, a wry grin on his face. “I hypothesise that the Stone Tape Theory and infrasound explain your experience last night.”
“Ok,” Evelyn said. “How do they explain it?”
Ben glanced out of the window. “Well, as picturesque as this part of Londinium is, it is rather marred by tragedy somewhat.”
The Ashbrooks shared a glance before turning back to Ben.
“What happened?” Evelyn said, staring at her brother with big watery eyes.
“Although a lot of people gave the Huguenot people a warm welcome in Britannia, a lot of the locals were not as welcoming,” Ben said, sipping his tea.
“Xenophobia,” Marcus said, nodding. “Some things never changed.”
“Several clashes between local weavers and the French immigrants happened in the streets around here,” Ben said, gesturing towards the window.
“If only they just appreciated the nice architecture and left it at that,” Marcus said
“Indeed,” Ben said, finishing the dregs of his tea. “So you can see, it’s very possible that the street you live on bore witness to a horrific gang attack on a Huguenot immigrant which resulted in their untimely demise, and have recorded it for eternity.”
“Projecting it every so often, for those unfortunate enough to witness it,” Marcus said, sipping his drink. “Weird.”
Evelyn began to feel cold, but she decided to endure it rather than turn on the heating.
“What about the infrasound?” Marcus said after a while. “Where does that come into it?”
Ben leaned closer to his brother-in-law. “The sensation Evelyn felt, which she perceived to be a whisper, was merely her ears picking up low-frequency sound, caused by either the heavy Londinium traffic nearby or the icy October winds we’re experiencing.”
“There you go then, Eve,” Marcus said. “Nothing to worry about.”
But Evelyn wasn’t listening. Instead, she was staring out of the window, her eyes dilated.
“Infrasound is too low to be heard by the human ear,” Ben said. “But you can feel it, and the sensation can cause the hairs to stand up on someone’s neck.”
The view outside was pleasant; an ordinary scene of people wandering down the street and the occasional crawling car.
But then, for a split second, an anaemic woman wearing 17th-century clothing appeared at the window.
She gazed directly at Evelyn, emitting the very same scream that woke her up the previous night.
Evelyn’s heart raced in her ribcage.
Pallid and glistening with sweat, she stared at her brother and gulped.
“Is Kernow nice this time of year?” Evelyn said.
“Yes, I would say so,” Ben said. “It’s certainly quieter, and there’s less competition for the beaches. It’s more atmospheric too.”
Evelyn brought her tea to her mouth with shaking hands. “Are you and Alice doing anything before Christmas?”
Ben nodded. “You and Marcus can join us any time you like.”
“Good,” Evelyn said. “Then again, Hispania would be nice. It’s warmer there, and… far away.”
“Yes,” Marcus said. “I could do with a nice bit of sun before the end of the year.”
Evelyn widened her eyes and leaned forward in her chair. “Terra Australis is the furthest away you could get, other than Aotearoa. There’s enough time to fit in some time there before we visit my parents for Christmas, isn’t there?”
“Wherever you want to go, we’ll go,” Marcus said. “I’ll leave you to make the final decision.”
“My, you certainly have an exciting couple of months planned,” Ben said, a small smile on my face. “You can consider me positively envious.”
As Evelyn made a mental note to research far-away places that she and Marcus could spend a nice few weeks in, she looked up nearby church services that could serve as an immediate palate cleanser for the harrowing events of the night before.
