Most people expect ghosts to haunt their homes. Or the place they died in.871Please respect copyright.PENANAcKMI3SRUre
I haunt neither.871Please respect copyright.PENANARpMHofMcG2
I had the chance to go anywhere. To choose one place that I would stay in for the rest of my undead existence. Why would I choose the place I’d already spent all of my living days in?871Please respect copyright.PENANAeLwxVgQXeK
I picked a hall. An old, old Tudor manor house that’s been here since before the Norman Conquest.871Please respect copyright.PENANAdWMj14Mq3Y
I hear you questioning why I picked this place, out of everywhere on Earth, I picked here. Why?871Please respect copyright.PENANAFdd7inPvrU
I hear it’s best to pick somewhere you have a connection to (don’t ask me how, it’s one of those things you just wake up after death knowing) and so I did. When I was a child, my parents brought myself and my siblings here. A lot. It’s free to the public and we were always short on cash. The train wasn’t too expensive, either.
The only downside now is that people expect me to be some old time ghost from the 1500’s.871Please respect copyright.PENANAWtUZ3r2dPX
I can hear them. Those that believe forget that. Those that don’t believe don’t seem to care either way. They call me Margaret. They call me the White Lady. They say I died in 1527. They say I’m waiting for my brother to return home from Ireland.871Please respect copyright.PENANA705qO33giD
But I am neither, and they’re all wrong.871Please respect copyright.PENANAGZtpOJncwR
I’m just a ghost. A young girl that died not so long ago, haunting a place that is centuries older than herself. Sometimes I get bored.871Please respect copyright.PENANAxtWCcX9EKd
Sometimes I like to mess with them. I’ll take keys and hide them, or I’ll knock the pictures on the wall askew ever so slightly. Just enough for them to know I’m here, but just enough for them to question my presence.871Please respect copyright.PENANAXQGdKILHuE
My latest venture has been the most fun. There’s a replica of an old Elizabethan dress is one of the chambers. I like to make the skirts ruffle when someones back is turned. There’s a chest full of replica chain mail, too. I like to move the chest when it’s nearly closing time. The volunteers hear the heavy scraping of the chest along the floor and come running up the stairs. But they never see me, not when I don’t want them to.871Please respect copyright.PENANAgBeb696PSA
They say the hall is haunted by many ghosts, but it’s not. Just me. It gets lonely, being the only one here in such a big hall. There are so many chambers and dining rooms, and the kitchen itself I’m sure is as big as the house I used to live in.
They visited one day. My family. My parents and the two siblings I left behind. They didn’t stay long; I think it reminded them of me too much. My younger brother trying on the heavy metal helmet and my sister tying the maids apron around her waist… I used to do that when I was as small as they are. I tried to get their attention, to let them know I’m still here. I tried all my usual tricks, but none of them worked. I ruffled the dress but my father blamed it on a hidden air vent. I tapped on the windows but my mother blamed it on a bird. They left all too quickly, and I stood at the window and watched them go. My heart longed to go with them, but it had stopped beating too long ago.871Please respect copyright.PENANAeg9XpwBoQU
It gets awfully lonely, being a ghost. You would have thought the world would be full of ghosts, given all the people that’ve died over all the thousands of years. But it’s not. It's just me. Or that’s what it feels like anyway.871Please respect copyright.PENANAZZYnkpmIRx
It's not all it's cracked up to be, this whole living-dead thing. I imagined being a ghost would be fun, playing pranks on people and having a laugh until the end of time. But it's hard to laugh when there's no one to laugh with. It's hard to have fun, really, when it's just me, myself and I.871Please respect copyright.PENANAqbcdjYWN0e
Perhaps one day I'll go to Heaven, if it exists. I'll join my family and we'll live happily ever after on a cloud way up there in the sky.871Please respect copyright.PENANAeyuR3upwrO
Yes. I'd like that.871Please respect copyright.PENANA2xONTkKdoG
871Please respect copyright.PENANAnvKbPmIcZY
871Please respect copyright.PENANAU3zEUf3L2p
871Please respect copyright.PENANAbxcuBoQQud