Tasha's Thinkings: Y is for the Bell Inn, hYthe - Yikes by Natasha Duncan-Drake

Monday, 29 April 2019

Y is for the Bell Inn, hYthe - Yikes by Natasha Duncan-Drake - Day 25 #AtoZChallenge

Y is for the Bell Inn, hYthe

Greetings and welcome to the penultimate day of the AtoZChallenge. Where has April gone?

For today's ghost story I have taken the Bell Inn at Hythe as my inspiration. They have haunted cellars and a Grey Lady is said to walk the darkened alcoves. Legend says she it the ghost of a former proprietor who dies during childbirth - which seems very specific.

Think of this one like a tame horror movie with a jump scare.

Yikes

by Natasha Duncan-Drake

The cellars gave Karl the creeps. It was ridiculous for a six foot four rugby player to be afraid of the dark, but Karl couldn't help it, not here. Every time he had to go down to change a barrel, he fumbled for the light switch like a six year old sent to retrieve a lost ball.

Not that the light helped that much, it was just better than the dark.

He'd just connected up the new keg when there was a tink and the single bulb in his area went out, then the other two went off as well. Karl swore very colourfully as he found himself shrouded in darkness. If he was honest it was a yelp of fear, almost a scream.

The wiring in the cellar was old, and when one bulb went, it had the unfortunate habit of throwing out the nice new trips they had upstairs. Karl had heard more than one member of staff complain about it, but he had, up until then, never experienced it.

He knew it was his imagination, but it felt a couple of degrees colder as soon as the illumination failed. Goosebumps rose on every patch of his skin and he wanted nothing more than to be out of the brick lined room as fast as possible. The only problem being, his eyes were taking time to adjust, and if he moved without being able to see, he'd end up going arse over tit.

Blinking a couple of times, he willed his eyes to cooperate. Gradually he began to make out shapes in the darkness. However, it wasn't enough. He closed his eyes and counted to three before opening them again.

The face was pale grey and only centimetres from his own.

This time he did scream.

How he made it from the cellars back into the bar he had no idea. It was as if his forebrain disconnected and his hindbrain did all the work. Surprisingly Jackie, the land lady of the establishment, didn't immediately make fun of him.

"So you met the Grey Lady, then," she said, sitting him on a stool and handing him a whiskey.

Karl took a swig of his drink and let his silence reply.

Dramatic Reading on Patreon

For this month I am also recording dramatic readings of all the ghost stories. These are available on my Patreon. Some are public, some are patrons only.

Yikes- read by Natasha Duncan-Drake - coming soon