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* BigBrotherInstinct: As they walk home through the dark, Jon reassures and emboldens younger sister Emily - she hereby is protective of him when he goes off with a strange man to a wrestling match.
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* BigBrotherInstinct: As they walk home through the dark, Jon reassures and emboldens younger sister Emily - she hereby is she's also protective of him when he goes off with a strange man to a wrestling match.
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* TheAtoner: Having [[spoiler: unconsciously mistakenly blamed herself for her baby brother’s cot death]], Anna is very protective of four-year-old sister Becky.
* BigSisterInstinct: [[spoiler: When smoke seeps beneath her door]], Anna follows it to Becky’s room; and with [[spoiler: a yelled sudden memory of her dead brother]], alerts everyone to the danger.
* CheerfulChild: Becky.
* BigSisterInstinct: [[spoiler: When smoke seeps beneath her door]], Anna follows it to Becky’s room; and with [[spoiler: a yelled sudden memory of her dead brother]], alerts everyone to the danger.
* CheerfulChild: Becky.
to:
* CheerfulChild:
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: When Anna was four, her baby brother Andrew died in his cot of suffocation]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After years of spectrally empathic suffocation, Anna’s prevention of [[spoiler: another fatal suffocation]] unlocks her memory of [[spoiler: her baby brother’s death]]; laying to rest her misplaced guilt, and [[spoiler: letting her brother’s spirit back into the family]].
* {{Ectoplasm}}: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. When a filmy, insubstantial shape seeps beneath her bedroom door, Anna [[spoiler: soon realises it to be smoke]].
* FantasyForbiddingFather: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but implied - Anna fears her parents’ dismissal of her annual haunting.
* FieryRedHead: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]; Aunt Jen, whose hair is a dye-job, earnestly rather than aggressively challenges her sister-in-law’s suppression of [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s death]].
* FriendlyGhost: [[spoiler: Andrew just wants his bereaved family to acknowledge his memory, and, seemingly, to save the life of his smoke-endangered sister]].
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* DeadBecauseOfMe: [[spoiler: Having suppressed the memory of baby brother Andrew’s cot death, Anna unconsciously interprets her parents’ silence as blame]].
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: When Anna was four, her baby brother Andrew died in his cot of suffocation]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After years of spectrally empathic suffocation, Anna’s prevention of [[spoiler: another fatal suffocation]] unlocks her memory of [[spoiler: her baby brother’s death]]; laying to rest her misplaced guilt, and [[spoiler: letting her brother’s spirit back into the family]].
* {{Ectoplasm}}: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. When a filmy, insubstantial shape seeps beneath her bedroom door, Anna [[spoiler: soon realises it to be smoke]].
* FantasyForbiddingFather: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but implied - Anna fears her parents’ dismissal of her annual haunting.
* FriendlyGhost: [[spoiler: Andrew just wants his bereaved family to acknowledge his memory, and, seemingly, to save the life of his smoke-endangered sister]].
* FieryRedHead: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]; Aunt Jen, whose hair is a dye-job, earnestly rather than aggressively challenges her sister-in-law’s suppression of [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s death]].
* HistoryRepeats: On the third night of the haunting, [[spoiler: smoke, from Becky’s night light, onto which has fallen her teddy bear, threatens suffocation - she narrowly evades a similar fate to baby Andrew]].
* NothingIsScarier: Chillingly so - an inscrutable tapping on Anna’s window is followed by an unaccountable bout of suffocation.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s cot death has unconsciously persuaded Anna that they blame her for it]].
* {{Protectorate}}: [[spoiler: Having lost a child to cot death]], Margaret frequently has Anna check on Becky.
* TheQuietOne: Hal tends to communicate in grunts - although briefly opens up to Anna.
* ReluctantRetiree: Back trouble has forced Hal to give up farming.
* SupernaturalSuffocation: Around each Christmas, for several nights, after a jangling of soft bells and a tapping on her window, Anna is plagued by unaccountable bouts of sweltering airlessness.
* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: With Andrew’s brief life once more acknowledged by his family, his]] blue and white cuddly elephant is passed on to Becky.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler: On their baby son’s cot death, Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss their bereavement persuaded Anna that they blamed her, seemingly forcing her to suppress all memory of the tragedy]].
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: When Anna was four, her baby brother Andrew died in his cot of suffocation]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After years of spectrally empathic suffocation, Anna’s prevention of [[spoiler: another fatal suffocation]] unlocks her memory of [[spoiler: her baby brother’s death]]; laying to rest her misplaced guilt, and [[spoiler: letting her brother’s spirit back into the family]].
* {{Ectoplasm}}: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. When a filmy, insubstantial shape seeps beneath her bedroom door, Anna [[spoiler: soon realises it to be smoke]].
* FantasyForbiddingFather: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but implied - Anna fears her parents’ dismissal of her annual haunting.
* FriendlyGhost: [[spoiler: Andrew just wants his bereaved family to acknowledge his memory, and, seemingly, to save the life of his smoke-endangered sister]].
* FieryRedHead: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]; Aunt Jen, whose hair is a dye-job, earnestly rather than aggressively challenges her sister-in-law’s suppression of [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s death]].
* HistoryRepeats: On the third night of the haunting, [[spoiler: smoke, from Becky’s night light, onto which has fallen her teddy bear, threatens suffocation - she narrowly evades a similar fate to baby Andrew]].
* NothingIsScarier: Chillingly so - an inscrutable tapping on Anna’s window is followed by an unaccountable bout of suffocation.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s cot death has unconsciously persuaded Anna that they blame her for it]].
* {{Protectorate}}: [[spoiler: Having lost a child to cot death]], Margaret frequently has Anna check on Becky.
* TheQuietOne: Hal tends to communicate in grunts - although briefly opens up to Anna.
* ReluctantRetiree: Back trouble has forced Hal to give up farming.
* SupernaturalSuffocation: Around each Christmas, for several nights, after a jangling of soft bells and a tapping on her window, Anna is plagued by unaccountable bouts of sweltering airlessness.
* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: With Andrew’s brief life once more acknowledged by his family, his]] blue and white cuddly elephant is passed on to Becky.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler: On their baby son’s cot death, Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss their bereavement persuaded Anna that they blamed her, seemingly forcing her to suppress all memory of the tragedy]].
to:
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: When Anna was four, her baby brother Andrew died in his cot of suffocation]].
* EarnYourHappyEnding: After years of spectrally empathic suffocation, Anna’s prevention of [[spoiler: another fatal suffocation]] unlocks her memory of [[spoiler: her baby brother’s death]]; laying to rest her misplaced guilt, and [[spoiler: letting her brother’s spirit back into the family]].
* {{Ectoplasm}}: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. When a filmy, insubstantial shape seeps beneath her bedroom door, Anna [[spoiler: soon realises it to be smoke]].
* FantasyForbiddingFather: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but implied - Anna fears her parents’ dismissal of her annual haunting.
* FriendlyGhost: [[spoiler: Andrew just wants his bereaved family to acknowledge his memory, and, seemingly, to save the life of his smoke-endangered sister]].
* FieryRedHead: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]; Aunt Jen, whose hair is a dye-job, earnestly rather than aggressively challenges her sister-in-law’s suppression of [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s death]].
* ILetGwenStacyDie: [[spoiler: Having suppressed the memory of baby brother Andrew’s cot death, Anna unconsciously interprets her parents’ silence as blame]].
* NothingIsScarier: Chillingly so - an inscrutable tapping on Anna’s window is followed by an unaccountable bout of
* PoorCommunicationKills: Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s cot death has unconsciously persuaded Anna that they blame her for
* {{Protectorate}}: [[spoiler: Having lost a child to cot death]], Margaret frequently has Anna check on
* TheQuietOne: Hal tends to communicate in grunts - although briefly opens up to Anna.
* ReluctantRetiree: Back trouble has forced Hal to give up
* SupernaturalSuffocation: Around each Christmas, for several nights, after a jangling of soft bells and a tapping on her window, Anna is plagued by unaccountable bouts of sweltering
* TheAtoner: Having [[spoiler: unconsciously mistakenly blamed herself for her baby brother’s cot death]], Anna is very protective of four-year-old sister Becky.
* TheQuietOne: Hal tends to communicate in grunts - although briefly opens up to Anna.
* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: With Andrew’s brief life once more acknowledged by his family, his]] blue and white cuddly elephant is passed on to
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler: On their baby son’s cot death, Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss their bereavement persuaded Anna that they blamed her, seemingly forcing her to suppress all memory of the
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* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler: Jon’s wrestling opponent aims to win Tom’s living body]].
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* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler: Jon’s wrestling opponent aims to win Tom’s Jon's living body]].
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From Southampton, Student Mark Sullivan takes residence in a Victorian Nottingham terrace, converted into flats. Mark’s repainting of the place is shortly followed by a visit from Ruth and Ian. Psychology graduates, their [=PhD=] under paranormal researcher Professor Hugh Jenkinson has brought them to Mark’s stairs, site of three separately reported hauntings.
to:
From Southampton, Student student Mark Sullivan takes residence in a Victorian Nottingham terrace, converted into flats. Mark’s repainting of the place is shortly followed by a visit from Ruth and Ian. Psychology graduates, their [=PhD=] under paranormal researcher Professor Hugh Jenkinson has brought them to Mark’s stairs, site of three separately reported hauntings.
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In 1914, fifteen-year-old Alice, to support her village family, works as a housemaid for the Bertrams. Homesickness eased by older colleague Sarah, Alice, with young fishmonger Bertie, starts a discreet courtship. Shortly after twenty-year-old Geoffrey Bertram is shipped off to [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne war]], Bertie enlists - and is later killed in action. Half-crazed with grief, Alice, from Bertie’s friend Herbert, receives a mysterious package…
to:
In 1914, fifteen-year-old Alice, to support her village family, works as a housemaid for the Bertrams. Homesickness eased by older colleague Sarah, Alice, with young fishmonger Bertie, starts a discreet courtship. Shortly after twenty-year-old Geoffrey Bertram is shipped off to [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne war]], Bertie enlists - and is later killed in action. Half-crazed with grief, Alice, from Bertie’s friend Bertie's pal Herbert, receives a mysterious package…
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* BigFancyHouse: The large house shared by her Grandma with the Jenkinsons offers Laura ample exploration opportunities.
* DueToTheDead: Bertie’s posthumously sent bomb accompanies a verse which prescribes as such its detonation.
* DueToTheDead: Bertie’s posthumously sent bomb accompanies a verse which prescribes as such its detonation.
to:
* BigFancyHouse: The large house shared by her Grandma with the Jenkinsons Jenkinsons' offers Laura ample exploration opportunities.
* DueToTheDead:Bertie’s Bertie's posthumously sent bomb accompanies a verse which prescribes as such its detonation.
* DueToTheDead:
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* PensieveFlashback: To Laura, the spectral Maid directly imparts her memories.
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* {{Ectoplasm}}: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. When a filmy, insubstantial shape seeps beneath her bedroom door, Anna [[spoiler: soon realises it to be smoke]].
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* HauntedHouse: Martin's flat bridges the sight of a boarding house bombed in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWa2 the war]]. One of the flats' walls frequently fades to accommodate the ghosts of the room and its occupants.
to:
* HauntedHouse: Martin's flat bridges the sight of a boarding house bombed in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWa2 [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo the war]]. One of the flats' walls frequently fades to accommodate the ghosts of the room and its occupants.
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* DoNotCallMePaul: Martin has a limited tolerance for being called “Mart”.
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* DoNotCallMePaul: Martin has a limited tolerance for being called “Mart”."Mart".
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* HauntedHouse: Martin's flat bridges the sight of a boarding house bombed in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWa2 the war]]. One of the flats' walls frequently fades to accommodate the ghosts of the room and its occupants.
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* CreepyDoll: Sally, at first - [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when the doll's parody of a smile seems sad rather than sinister.
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* BigBrotherInstinct: Jon reassures and emboldens younger sister Emily - she hereby is protective of him when he goes off with a strange man to a wrestling match.
to:
* BigBrotherInstinct: As they walk home through the dark, Jon reassures and emboldens younger sister Emily - she hereby is protective of him when he goes off with a strange man to a wrestling match.
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shortening some of my earlier wording
Changed line(s) 96,97 (click to see context) from:
From Southampton, Combined Humanities student Mark Sullivan takes residence in a Victorian Nottingham terrace, converted into flats. Mark’s repainting of the place is shortly followed by a visit from Ruth and Ian. Psychology graduates, their [=PhD=] under paranormal researcher Professor Hugh Jenkinson has brought them to Mark’s stairs, site of three separately reported hauntings.
to:
From Southampton, Combined Humanities student Student Mark Sullivan takes residence in a Victorian Nottingham terrace, converted into flats. Mark’s repainting of the place is shortly followed by a visit from Ruth and Ian. Psychology graduates, their [=PhD=] under paranormal researcher Professor Hugh Jenkinson has brought them to Mark’s stairs, site of three separately reported hauntings.
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* OurGhostsAreDifferent: While she seems perfectly tangible, the Weeping Maid's ascent upstairs leaves the cobwebs undisturbed, and Laura’s hand, offered in comfort, passes seamlessly through her.
to:
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: While she seems perfectly tangible, the Weeping Maid's ascent upstairs leaves the cobwebs undisturbed, and Laura’s Laura's hand, offered in comfort, passes seamlessly through her.
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* VengefulGhost: The ghost of Ezra Be-Thankful-Dexter, seemingly through unhinged sadism, continues to imprison the ghost of niece Laura.
to:
* VengefulGhost: The ghost of Ezra Be-Thankful-Dexter, seemingly through unhinged sadism, continues to imprison the ghost of niece Laura.Rachel.
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On Christmas Eve, 1924, near the West Midlands town of Oldbury, thirteen-year-old Emily arrives to arrange her older brother Jon’s purchase of tomorrow's meat. At the town marketplace, Jon, with his wages, buys a large goose, and some sweets for Emily and their younger siblings.
Along the dark, gas-lit road home, Jon, tired from a day down the mine, decides to take a short cut. In the windswept darkness of the fields, a strange man invites Jon to the Christmas Eve wrestling match - with prizes to be won. For his struggling family, Jon seizes this chance of extra food or money.
Along the dark, gas-lit road home, Jon, tired from a day down the mine, decides to take a short cut. In the windswept darkness of the fields, a strange man invites Jon to the Christmas Eve wrestling match - with prizes to be won. For his struggling family, Jon seizes this chance of extra food or money.
to:
On Christmas Eve, 1924, near the West Midlands town of Oldbury, thirteen-year-old Emily arrives to arrange her older brother Jon’s Jon's purchase of tomorrow's meat. At the town marketplace, Jon, with his wages, buys a large goose, and some sweets for Emily and their younger siblings.
Along the dark, gas-lit road home, Jon, tired from a day down the mine, decides to take a short cut. In the windswept darkness of the fields, a strange man invites Jon tothe a Christmas Eve wrestling match - with prizes to be won. For his struggling family, Jon seizes this chance of extra food or money.
Along the dark, gas-lit road home, Jon, tired from a day down the mine, decides to take a short cut. In the windswept darkness of the fields, a strange man invites Jon to
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* DeadAllAlong: Among the fireside crowd, Emily recognises a schoolmate of hers who died. In clearer firelight, Jon recognises his wrestling opponent to be old acquaintance Tom Rugeley.
to:
* DeadAllAlong: Among the fireside crowd, Emily recognises a schoolmate of hers who died. In clearer the firelight, Jon recognises his wrestling opponent to be old acquaintance Tom Rugeley.
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* TheProfessor: John’s father is an author of scientific textbooks.
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* TheProfessor: John’s John's father is an author of scientific textbooks.
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->'''Written by:''' Susan Price:
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->'''Written by:''' Susan Price:
Price
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By a distant fire are gathered numerous strangers - some of whom seem ominously familiar. And why do they want Jon to wager, as well as goose and money, his “heart and soul”...?
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By a distant fire are gathered numerous strangers - some of whom seem ominously familiar. And why do they want Jon to wager, as well as goose and money, his “heart "heart and soul”...soul"...?
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Changed line(s) 117,119 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Mark:''' Ruth and Ian were my friends. I’d like to go to their funerals, if I can. Do you know the arrangements?
-->'''Professor Jenkinson:''' ''{his gaze was chilling, but he spoke gently}'' That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. [[Ruth and Ian died five years ago]].
-->'''Professor Jenkinson:''' ''{his gaze was chilling, but he spoke gently}'' That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. [[Ruth and Ian died five years ago]].
to:
-->'''Mark:''' [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian were my friends. I’d friends]]. I'd like to go to their funerals, if I can. Do you know the arrangements?
-->'''Professor Jenkinson:''' ''{his gaze was chilling, but he spoke gently}'' That won’t be possible, I’m afraid.[[Ruth [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian died five years ago]].
-->'''Professor Jenkinson:''' ''{his gaze was chilling, but he spoke gently}'' That won’t be possible, I’m afraid.
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* MustMakeAmends: After shouting at Sharon in frustration of her unwitting banishment of the phantom room, Martin gets her, for Christmas, a blue ribbon-adorned basket of soaps.
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* MustMakeAmends: After shouting at Sharon in frustration of at her unwitting banishment of the phantom room, Martin gets her, for Christmas, a blue ribbon-adorned basket of soaps.
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In the Parsonage, a pamphlet notes the cottage, during UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, to have seen Puritan Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, for her inheritance, wall up and leave to die thirteen-year-old niece Rachel Sloane. Meanwhile, directly beneath the cottage bathroom, a crack in the stone wall has grown unaccountably wider.
to:
In the Parsonage, a pamphlet notes the cottage, during the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, to have seen Puritan Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, for her inheritance, wall up and leave to die thirteen-year-old niece Rachel Sloane. Meanwhile, directly beneath the cottage bathroom, a crack in the stone wall has grown unaccountably wider.
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* HauntedHouse: During the UsefulNotes/TheEnglishCivilWar, thirteen-year-old Rachel Sloane was walled up and left to die. A crack in the stone wall unaccountably widens. The stone leaks water - which tastes like tears.
to:
* HauntedHouse: During the UsefulNotes/TheEnglishCivilWar, UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, thirteen-year-old Rachel Sloane was walled up and left to die. A crack in the stone wall unaccountably widens. The stone leaks water - which tastes like tears.
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* PromotionToParent: Partially - the family heavily relies on Jon’s mining wage.
to:
* PromotionToParent: Partially - the family heavily relies on Jon’s Jon's mining wage.
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-->'''Emily:''' I nothing fear but morning bird-song
My heart is still, but still it longs
By day I am gone, by night I show clear
Now riddle me-ree-a
What be I? [[note]] A [[spoiler: ghost]]. [[/note]]
My heart is still, but still it longs
By day I am gone, by night I show clear
Now riddle me-ree-a
What be I? [[note]] A [[spoiler: ghost]]. [[/note]]
to:
-->'''Emily:''' I nothing fear but morning bird-song
bird-song/ My heart is still, but still it longs
longs/ By day I am gone, by night I show clear
clear/ Now riddle me-ree-a
me-ree-a/ What be I? [[note]] A [[spoiler: ghost]]. [[/note]]
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* RiddleMeThis: Instead of wrestling, Emily challenges the dead to a contest of riddles. Since they know all the old ones, Emily [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants quickly improvises]] a new one.
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* RiddleMeThis: Instead of wrestling, Emily challenges the dead to a contest of riddles. Since they know all the old ones, Emily [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants quickly improvises]] improvises a new one.
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* RealAllAlong: Our Grace - although she doesn’t seem to want to drown anyone.
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* RealAllAlong: RealAfterAll: Our Grace - although she doesn’t seem to want to drown anyone.
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* CleptomaniacHero:
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* MissImagination: To play with a reluctant John, Becky invents such games as “Hunt the Minotaur.”
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* MissImagination: MsImagination: To play with a reluctant John, Becky invents such games as “Hunt the Minotaur.”
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Changed line(s) 191,192 (click to see context) from:
In the Parsonage, a pamphlet notes the cottage, during the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, to have seen Puritan Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, for her inheritance, wall up and leave to die thirteen-year-old niece Rachel Sloane. Meanwhile, directly beneath the cottage bathroom, a crack in the stone wall has grown unaccountably wider.
to:
In the Parsonage, a pamphlet notes the cottage, during the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, to have seen Puritan Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, for her inheritance, wall up and leave to die thirteen-year-old niece Rachel Sloane. Meanwhile, directly beneath the cottage bathroom, a crack in the stone wall has grown unaccountably wider.
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* VampricDraining: Proximity to her uncle’s demonic ghost saps Rachel’s ghost of energy.
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* VampricDraining: VampiricDraining: Proximity to her uncle’s demonic ghost saps Rachel’s ghost of energy.
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* {{Bizarrechitecture}}: The Old Parsonage, having been largely rebuilt after a fire, at one end, noticeably stoops. Meanwhile, a crack in a stone wall grows unaccountably wider.
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→’’’Mark: Ruth and Ian were my friends. I’d like to go to their funerals, if I can. Do you know the arrangements?
→’’’Professor Jenkinson:’’’ ‘’{his gaze was chilling, but he spoke gently}’’ That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. [[Ruth and Ian died five years ago]].
→’’’Professor Jenkinson:’’’ ‘’{his gaze was chilling, but he spoke gently}’’ That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. [[Ruth and Ian died five years ago]].
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[[/folder]]
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→’’’Mark:’’’ You mean like Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}?
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2022_12_12_002904.png]]
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A seasonal selection of spooky stories, published 1992, and featuring a story each by authors Tessa Krailing, Garry Kilworth, Creator/RobertSwindells, David Belbin, Anthony Masters, Jill Bennett, Ian Strachan, Joan Aiken and Susan Price.
[[folder: Jingle Bells]]
->'''Written by:''' Tessa Krailing
Three nights before Christmas, prematurely retired farmer Hal and nurse Margaret bid daughter Anna goodnight. Anna hopes their newly bought semi-detached house to be free of her seasonal bedtime haunting - however, four-year-old sister Becky has just heard, from outside her window, a succession of chimes. Outside Anna’s bedroom window, a soft jangling; tapping, and a brief, unaccountable bout of suffocation announce the ghost to have followed her.
Next night, Anna’s desperate attempt to open her bedroom window draws visiting Aunt Jen - who, next day, protests Margaret’s refusal to discuss some mysterious past occurrence. Why is Anna forbidden to enter the loft? Why has the ghost followed her? And will her next bout of phantom suffocation prove fatal?
!!This tale provides examples of:
*TheAtoner: Having [[spoiler: unconsciously mistakenly blamed herself for her baby brother’s cot death]], Anna is very protective of four-year-old sister Becky.
*BigSisterInstinct: [[spoiler: When smoke seeps beneath her door]], Anna follows it to Becky’s room; and with [[spoiler: a yelled sudden memory of her dead brother]], alerts everyone to the danger.
*CheerfulChild: Becky.
*GhostlyChill: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] - Anna’s seasonal nightly hauntings, instead of a drop in temperature, bring choking, sweltering heat.
*GuardianEntity: [[spoiler: The ghost of baby Andrew]] may be deliberately trying to [[spoiler: warn of Becky’s impending danger.]]
*DeadBecauseOfMe: [[spoiler: Having suppressed the memory of baby brother Andrew’s cot death, Anna unconsciously interprets her parents’ silence as blame]].
*DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: When Anna was four, her baby brother Andrew died in his cot of suffocation]].
*EarnYourHappyEnding: After years of spectrally empathic suffocation, Anna’s prevention of [[spoiler: another fatal suffocation]] unlocks her memory of [[spoiler: her baby brother’s death]]; laying to rest her misplaced guilt, and [[spoiler: letting her brother’s spirit back into the family]].
*FantasyForbiddingFather: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but implied - Anna fears her parents’ dismissal of her annual haunting.
*FriendlyGhost: [[spoiler: Andrew just wants his bereaved family to acknowledge his memory, and, seemingly, to save the life of his smoke-endangered sister]].
*FieryRedHead: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]; Aunt Jen, whose hair is a dye-job, earnestly rather than aggressively challenges her sister-in-law’s suppression of [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s death]].
*HistoryRepeats: On the third night of the haunting, [[spoiler: smoke, from Becky’s night light, onto which has fallen her teddy bear, threatens suffocation - she narrowly evades a similar fate to baby Andrew]].
*NothingIsScarier: Chillingly so - an inscrutable tapping on Anna’s window is followed by an unaccountable bout of suffocation.
*PoorCommunicationKills: Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s cot death has unconsciously persuaded Anna that they blame her for it]].
*{{Protectorate}}: [[spoiler: Having lost a child to cot death]], Margaret frequently has Anna check on Becky.
*TheQuietOne: Hal tends to communicate in grunts - although briefly opens up to Anna.
*ReluctantRetiree: Back trouble has forced Hal to give up farming.
*SupernaturalSuffocation: Around each Christmas, for several nights, after a jangling of soft bells and a tapping on her window, Anna is plagued by unaccountable bouts of sweltering airlessness.
*TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: With Andrew’s brief life once more acknowledged by his family, his]] blue and white cuddly elephant is passed on to Becky.
*TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler: On their baby son’s cot death, Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss their bereavement persuaded Anna that they blamed her, seemingly forcing her to suppress all memory of the tragedy]].
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Woodman’s Enigma]]
->'''Written by:''' Gary Kilworth
With their father working overseas and their mother awaiting an operation, thirteen-year-old Colin and ten-year-old Jill take a train to the village of Ashingdon, to stay with their Great Uncle Giles Foster - who isn’t at the station. Bert Wilson, a friend of their uncle, drives them to a currently unoccupied Chase Cottage.
With night having fallen; heavy snow and a power outage, the siblings, from the nearby spinney, take the branch of an ancient yew tree, and light the fire. Giles Foster soon arrives, and tells them of a ghost - towards the end of the nineteenth century, a local woodman, dangling by his neck from the branch of the spinney’s yew tree, was found dead. Burning a piece of the yew tree is known to rouse his ghost, who will then demand an explanation for his mysterious death. Colin and Jill, being computer whizz-kids with a flair for riddles, decide to have a go…
!!This tale provides examples of:
*AllLoveIsUnrequited: In his advancing years, the Woodman’s affection for the local choir mistress was met with limited enthusiasm.
*AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: With Colin and Jill [[spoiler: having solved the mystery of his death, their great great Uncle Giles is free to move on]].
*BarredFromTheAfterlife: Before reaching the next world, the Woodman requires someone to solve the mystery of his death.
*CampbellCountry: Just outside the Essex village of Ashingdon lies forest-adjacent, haunted Chase Cottage.
*CoolOldGuy: [[spoiler: The living]] Uncle Giles supplies cocoa and biscuits; knows about ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'', and, while rather old-fashioned, introduces his niece and nephew to [[spoiler: a newly bought home computer]].
*DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: The man who meets Colin and Jill at Chase Cottage is Giles Foster - spectral ancestor of his living namesake]].
*HauntedHouse: The Woodman often extends his spinney hauntings to Chase Cottage.
*MightyLumberjack: The Woodman, from a lifetime spent at it, “cut trees like some folks cut butter.”
*MysteriousMist: With Colin and Jill having [[spoiler: solved the riddle]], a mist weaves its way between the trees.
*NothingIsScarier: Giles warns that failure to solve the Woodman’s enigma will incur the Woodman’s relentless harassment, liable to drive one half mad with fear.
*RiddleMeThis: When haunting, the Woodman poses the enigma of his untimely death.
*ShoutOut:
-->'''Uncle Giles:''' I expect you’re tired after all your [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} ghost-busting]]!
*SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]].
-->'''Colin:''' There’s no such thing as ghosts really, is there?
-->'''Giles:''' You’ve spoke on that once already. Them what repeat things really don’t mean what they says. They usually mean the opposite.
*TeenGenius: Thirteen-year-old Colin and [[ChildProdigy ten-year-old]] Jill, both with a flair for riddles, have serious ambitions to design their own computer game.
*UnderTheMistletoe: [[spoiler: The Woodman’s eventually revealed motive for his fatal tree climb - with a twig of its mistletoe, he’d hoped to charm the choir mistress]].
*WhenTreesAttack: With the Woodman’s corpse found caught by the throat in a yew tree’s branch, Jill asks if the tree is thought to have attacked him.
-->'''Giles:''' Nothing so theatre-like as that, I’m sorry to report.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Weeping Maid]]
->'''Written by:''' Creator/RobertSwindells
Staying with her widowed grandmother in London, nine-year-old Laura, in search of the fabled ghost of the Weeping Maid, explores the attics above her Grandma’s part of the house. On a flight of stairs, Laura sees the sobbing figure of a teenage girl in a black and white housemaid’s outfit. At Laura’s approach, the Maid seems relieved. On Laura’s sympathetic enquiry, the Maid leads her to a small attic room, and telepathically imparts her tragic story…
In 1914, fifteen-year-old Alice, to support her village family, works as a housemaid for the Bertrams. Homesickness eased by older colleague Sarah, Alice, with young fishmonger Bertie, starts a discreet courtship. Shortly after twenty-year-old Geoffrey Bertram is shipped off to [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne war]], Bertie enlists - and is later killed in action. Half-crazed with grief, Alice, from Bertie’s friend Herbert, receives a mysterious package…
!!This tale provides examples of:
*BigFancyHouse: The large house shared by her Grandma with the Jenkinsons offers Laura ample exploration opportunities.
*DueToTheDead: Bertie’s posthumously sent bomb accompanies a verse which prescribes as such its detonation.
*{{Forgiveness}}: Eventual absence of the Weeping Maid persuades Laura of her Grandma’s forgiveness of [[spoiler: the hiding of a bomb in her war-surving father’s fireplace by a bereaved housemaid]].
*GallowsHumour: On Bertie’s request, Herbert Biggs, near Christmas, delivers to the bereaved Alice a mysterious package.
-->'''Herbert:''' It’s a Christmas box, Miss. An early Christmas box, and I’m Santa Claus.
*IfIDoNotReturn: In the event of his death, Bertie asked his friend Herbert to deliver to Alice a package containing a [[spoiler: bomb]].
*MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Alice, disorientated with grief over Bertie, [[spoiler: lays in Geoffrey’s fireplace Bertie’s posted bomb]]; is overwhelmed by guilt, and gets out of bed to confess - but is interrupted by the explosion. Later, dying of influenza, she writes a confession note - which her distraught friend Sarah leaves in a cigarette tin, concealed behind a loose brick.
*NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Obliged to help prepare the Betram’s farewell party for Geoffrey, Alice is denied the chance to bid her own farewell to Bertie.
*OurGhostsAreDifferent: While she seems perfectly tangible, the Weeping Maid's ascent upstairs leaves the cobwebs undisturbed, and Laura’s hand, offered in comfort, passes seamlessly through her.
*OutlivingOnesOffspring: While young Geoffrey survives the war, [[spoiler: Bertie’s bomb, planted in his fireplace by Alice, kills him]].
*TheVoiceless: The Weeping Maid, seemingly unable to speak out loud, communicates with telepathically imparted speech and memories.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Investigators]]
->'''Written by:''' David Belbin
From Southampton, Combined Humanities student Mark Sullivan takes residence in a Victorian Nottingham terrace, converted into flats. Mark’s repainting of the place is shortly followed by a visit from Ruth and Ian. Psychology graduates, their [=PhD=] under paranormal researcher Professor Hugh Jenkinson has brought them to Mark’s stairs, site of three separately reported hauntings.
Mark happily accommodates their nightly investigation. Despite his scepticism, he can’t help wishing them some kind of success. One night, a jubilant Ruth and Ian greet Mark with a claim to have filmed a deathly white old man, with no visible feet, climb the stairs, only to unaccountably vanish. However, the camera doesn’t seem to have filmed any such sighting. Were the investigators just fooling themselves? Or has the camera failure a darker explanation…?
!!This tale provides examples of:
*DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian]].
*DeathByFallingOver: In the 1920s, an elderly resident of the terrace, which was then a boarding house, fell through a bannister rail and broke his neck.
*HappyDance: Having filmed the ghost, Ruth and Ian hug; jump up and down and make whoop sounds.
*HauntedHouse: In the 1920s, a Victorian Nottingham terrace served as a boarder house, in which, from a rotted railing, a resident fatally fell. The stairs have since seen an incongruous, deathly pale visitor, followed by a discarnate scream.
*JacobMarleyApparel: The stairway ghost is said to be an old man in an old-fashioned dressing gown.
*JadedProfessional: After [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian’s deaths]], Professor Jenkins [[spoiler: closed the paranormal investigations department, and returned to psychology]].
*MonochromeApparition: The ghost of Mark’s stairs is said to be completely white.
*OccultDetective: Paranormal investigators Ruth and Ian.
*OddFriendship: Solitary Combined Humanities student Mark is visited by two paranormal investigators. Despite his scepticism, he wishes them luck.
*OurGhostsAreDifferent: The terrace stairs are occasionally seen to host a completely white, dressing gown-clad man - whose feet are seamlessly obscured by the floor. Conversely, [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian seem not to realise themselves to have died, and directly interact with the physical world]].
*ShoutOut: On a visit from two psychology graduates on a paranormal investigation…
→’’’Mark:’’’ You mean like Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}?
*StarvingStudent: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Instead of halls of residence, Mark lodges in a converted Victorian terrace, and can’t afford a telephone.
*SourOutsideSadInside: Professor Hugh Jenkins irritability stems from [[spoiler: grief over the deaths of Ruth and Ian]].
*WhamLine: Two - a visiting Professor Jenkins reports [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian to have died in a car crash]]. And then…
→’’’Mark: Ruth and Ian were my friends. I’d like to go to their funerals, if I can. Do you know the arrangements?
→’’’Professor Jenkinson:’’’ ‘’{his gaze was chilling, but he spoke gently}’’ That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. [[Ruth and Ian died five years ago]].
---
[[folder: The Cracked Smile]]
->'''Written by:''' Anthony Masters
One wet Sunday afternoon, with maternal aunt Jenny out, young orphan Ian decides to visit the forbidden attic. Amidst the clutter, the face of one of several broken dolls is smashed to a macabre parody of a smile. Suddenly overcome by dizziness, Ian, in the suddenly darkened attic, hears a screech of brakes.
Next day, having served detention for accidentally breaking a school window, Ian, waiting at the bus stop, hears, from an empty old house, a sound of distress. Inside, a woman and a doll-carrying girl slightly younger than Ian both walk seamlessly through him.
On the unexpectedly single decker bus, near empty but for the insubstantial strangers, only the young girl seems aware of Ian’s presence. Back home, on Ian’s desperate curiosity, Jenny reluctantly recounts the deaths of Ian’s mother and sister…
!!This tale provides examples of:
*CreepyBasement: Or rather attic.
*EerilyOutOfPlaceObject: Aboard the single decker bus, Ian sees local buildings to host different shops and establishments.
*GhostTrain: Ian boards what seems to be a phantom bus.
*GroundhogDayLoop: Having died in a bus crash, Anna and Sophie, aware of the phantom repetition, perish each day.
*HauntedFetter: Attic-stored broken doll Sally, to which young Sophie was deeply attached, seems to trigger Ian’s spectral merge with the bus crash in which his mother and sister died. Having [[spoiler: vowed to repair Sally, Ian instinctively knows the bus journey to be over]].
*HauntedHouse: From an ancient, weather-boarded cottage, a cry of distress draws Ian inside, where a woman in slightly dated clothes and doll-carrying young girl walk seamlessly through him.
*ParentalSubstitute: Jenny, older sister to his late mother Anna, looks after Ian.
*LovableRogue: Ian’s lifelong friend Freddy aims to sell abandoned lead. Believing the voice from the old house to be a dosser, he suggests pranking him.
*NightmareFace: Jenny’s attic holds a doll with one empty eyehole, a hole in one cheek, and whose pouting lips cracked into macabre parody of a smile. Later [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], when, on Ian’s pledge to have the doll repaired, its face seems sad rather than sinister.
*OurGhostsAreDifferent: On seeing, in their old house, his late mother and sister’s substantial yet unresponsive ghosts, Ian, following a disorientating dizziness, boards an unfamiliar bus. Driving past strangely altered streets, only his sister Sophie senses him.
*TragicKeepsake: Having assured Sophie that he’ll have her doll Sally repairs, Ian kisses the doll’s broken lips - which seem strangely soft.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Other Room]]
->'''Written by:''' Jill Bennett
Sharon Butts and son Martin move into a third floor flat. One evening, with Sharon working at the supermarket, the living room’s windowless far wall, within shadow grows hazy, whereupon its shadows coalesce into a room - in the glow whose lamp, a mother, son and daughter who seem unaware of Martin. On Sharon’s return, the phantom room fades.
In frequent appearances of the “other room,” solitary Martin becomes engrossed - in the mother’s knitting of khaki scarves; the kids’ board games, and their attendance of wireless broadcasts, he feels included.
Curious about the mother’s hole-riddled letters, Martin, from elderly neighbour Mrs Collins, learns of wartime letter censorship - he realises the phantom mother’s husband to have been a prisoner of war. During that time, Mrs Collins recalls the bombing of a large boarding house near to the site of Martin’s current residence.
Suddenly obsessed by UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, lonely Martin longs for his phantom neighbours’ closer company. But will they ever see and hear him?
!!This tale provides example of:
*AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Not absurdly, but Sharon is quite young, and adorns the flat with a pop group poster.
*BigFun: Elderly, overweight Mrs Collins, while a little gruff, has moments of joviality.
*DoNotCallMePaul: Martin has a limited tolerance for being called “Mart”.
*FoodPorn: Some simple yet tantalising descriptions of pizza and fish and chips.
*GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler: Overjoyed to be noticed and invited by his phantom neighbours, Martin steps onto their phantom floor, and falls three storeys to his death]].
*OurGhostsAreDifferent: Across a windowless wall, evening shadows, with a blur, coalesce into a room occupied by a mother, son and daughter. They eventually notice and invite Martin in - [[spoiler: whereupon he falls through the phantom floor to his death]].
*IJustWantToBeLoved: While mother Sharon is clearly loving, Martin, having spent his young life in various allocated residences, feels alienated, and pines for the domestic fellowship seen in the other room.
*LonelyTogether: Martin and the phantom family, whose husband and father is a prisoner of war.
*MsExposition: From her memories of the war, Mrs Collins recalls the bombing of a house near the site of Martin’s flat.
*MustMakeAmends: After shouting at Sharon in frustration of her unwitting banishment of the phantom room, Martin gets her, for Christmas, a blue ribbon-adorned basket of soaps.
*ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Martin steps into the phantom room, and falls three storeys to his death]].
*TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: Martin’s preoccupied introversion worries Sharon.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Chime Child]]
->'''Written by:''' Ian Strachan
With parents; seven-year-old sister Emily and dog Sam, near-thirteen-year-old Christy, near a Suffolk village, arrives to spend Christmas at the Old Parsonage. Having been born at midnight on Christmas morning, Christy learns from a local ironmonger of the mystical lineage local lore accredits such people.
In the Parsonage, a pamphlet notes the cottage, during the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, to have seen Puritan Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, for her inheritance, wall up and leave to die thirteen-year-old niece Rachel Sloane. Meanwhile, directly beneath the cottage bathroom, a crack in the stone wall has grown unaccountably wider.
At the Christmas Eve church service, cottage caretaker Mrs Pargeter gives Christy a somewhat cryptic word of encouragement. Outside, a man in a white hooded robe, claiming to be a druid, hands Christy a golden knife for cutting mistletoe…
!!This tale provides examples of:
*AbsurdlySharpBlade: The golden knife given Christy by the Druid cuts through a branch “like an oar through water.”
*TheAllegedHouse: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. The crumbling Old Parsonage is bitterly cold - but this is due to a wind-induced power cut. Getting the Aga stove to work improves things.
*BigFun: Overweight, good-humoured Mrs Pargeter.
*{{Bizarrechitecture}}: The Old Parsonage, having been largely rebuilt after a fire, at one end, noticeably stoops. Meanwhile, a crack in a stone wall grows unaccountably wider.
*BuriedAlive: In the Old Parsonage, Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, for her inheritance, walled up niece Rachel Sloame.
*CampbellCountry: This part of Suffolk, apparently, recognises the mystical affinities of those born at certain hours.
*CheerfulChild: Emily.
*TheChosenOne: Those born at the “magical hours of three, six, nine or twelve” are said to have mystical affinity with animals and herbs - those born at twelve with ghosts. Those who know of the Old Parsonage’s history anticipate Christy’s potential to free Rachel’s entombed ghost.
*DealWithTheDevil: Ezra Be-Thankful-Dexter is said to be infused with the Devil’s power.
*{{Druid}}: A modern one briefly approaches Christy with the gift of a golden knife; and to advise the protective properties of mistletoe.
*EvilDetectingDog: An uneasy Sam briefly runs away.
*EvilSmellsBad: Entry to the cottage briefly rouses a foetid smell. It later heralds the arrival of Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter.
*HauntedHouse: During the UsefulNotes/TheEnglishCivilWar, thirteen-year-old Rachel Sloane was walled up and left to die. A crack in the stone wall unaccountably widens. The stone leaks water - which tastes like tears.
*HolyBurnsEvil: Mistletoe is said to repel evil; [[spoiler: getting poked with a branch of the stuff causes one of Ezra’s spectral arms to wither.]]
*MeaningfulName: Christy, having been born at Midnight on the start of Christmas Day.
*{{Poltergeist}}: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] - on Christmas Day, after [[spoiler: Christy’s struggle with the corporeal ghost, the disturbed furniture and ornaments have been restored]].
*PowerGlows: Cut by the Druid’s golden knife, a mistletoe branch glows gold.
*SelfDisposingVillain: In a struggle with Christy, [[spoiler: Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter impales himself on the Druid’s golden knife, whereupon he disintegrates]].
*ShockAndAwe: Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, from his fingers, zaps Christy with a blue-green bolt of light. With an impact like a blow from a hammer, it briefly paralyses her.
*TogetherInDeath: Rachel longs to rejoin Will, the catholic boy with whom her Puritan uncle forbade romance.
*UndeathlyPallor: While substantial, Rachel’s ghost is deathly pale.
*VampricDraining: Proximity to her uncle’s demonic ghost saps Rachel’s ghost of energy.
*VengefulGhost: The ghost of Ezra Be-Thankful-Dexter, seemingly through unhinged sadism, continues to imprison the ghost of niece Laura.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Crespian and Clairan]]
->'''Written by:''' Joan Aiken
Each Christmas, usually while they adjourn to their villa in the South of France, John’s parents send him to stay with Aunt Nesta, Uncle Simon, and sickly cousin Becky.
Resentful of his banishment, John dislikes his year-older cousin, who constantly tries to engage him in such fanciful games as “Hunt the Minotaur” - and no longer seems terrified of John’s unusual ability to rapidly shake his eyes.
Aunt Nesta and Uncle Simon, while somewhat austere in some ways, are extravagantly generous with Christmas presents - as is Uncle Joe, Becky’s America-based godfather. One year, he sends her a pair of knee-high, lavishly dressed dolls, which, with installed batteries, glide across the floor in an astounding mechanical waltz. Becky terms them Crespian and Clairan.
Overcome with envy, John plans a way to steal the dolls - but at what cost...?
!!This tale provides examples of:
*TheAtoner: Having accidentally [[spoiler: caused his cousin’s death from pneumonia]], John, as an adult, runs a school for delinquents.
*CatchYourDeathOfCold: [[spoiler: Convinced by John that Crespian and Clairan have fallen through the frozen garden pond, Becky]] fatally contracts pneumonia.
*CleptomaniacHero:
*CreepyDoll: Following [[spoiler: John’s indirect cause of Becky’s death from pneumonia]], Crespian and Clairan uncannily mimic John’s rapid shaking of his eyes.
*CheerfulChild: Becky, and her younger brothers Robbie and Will.
*DelicateAndSickly: Becky, prone to asthma and bronchitis, needs to carefully wrap up warm.
*DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Convinced by John that Crespian and Clairan have fallen through a hole in the pond, Becky fatally contracts pneumonia]].
*FreudianExcuse: Narrating the story as an adult, John admits his tendency to selfishness and spite - which he traces to his parents having had little time for him.
*HauntedTechnology: Shipped back home after Becky catches pneumonia, John, [[spoiler: on hearing of her death]], sees the battery-powered dolls to mimic his eye-shaking.
*MissImagination: To play with a reluctant John, Becky invents such games as “Hunt the Minotaur.”
*NightmareFace: By letting his eyes fall out of focus, John has the rare ability to make them rapidly vibrate. While this used to terrify Becky, it no longer seems to work.
*ObliviousToHatred: While he dislikes her, Becky, seemingly lonely, delights in John’s annual visits.
*ParentalNeglect: Unexpectedly, and quite late in life, John’s parents birthed him. Instead of taking him on their annual Christmas holiday, they leave him with relatives.
*TheProfessor: John’s father is an author of scientific textbooks.
*StickyFingers: Jealous of Becky’s consistently slightly larger Christmas present supplies, John discreetly nicks some of the smaller of such items.
---
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Across the Fields]]
->'''Written by:''' Susan Price:
On Christmas Eve, 1924, near the West Midlands town of Oldbury, thirteen-year-old Emily arrives to arrange her older brother Jon’s purchase of tomorrow's meat. At the town marketplace, Jon, with his wages, buys a large goose, and some sweets for Emily and their younger siblings.
Along the dark, gas-lit road home, Jon, tired from a day down the mine, decides to take a short cut. In the windswept darkness of the fields, a strange man invites Jon to the Christmas Eve wrestling match - with prizes to be won. For his struggling family, Jon seizes this chance of extra food or money.
By a distant fire are gathered numerous strangers - some of whom seem ominously familiar. And why do they want Jon to wager, as well as goose and money, his “heart and soul”...?
!!This tale provides examples of:
*BigBrotherInstinct: Jon reassures and emboldens younger sister Emily - she hereby is protective of him when he goes off with a strange man to a wrestling match.
*CameBackWrong: Waiting outside the mining office, Emily fearfully imagines Grace’s drowned, swollen face. [[DownplayedTrope To an extent]], some of [[spoiler: the field’s fireside crowd]] are seen to retain aspects of their deaths. The hair of Grace herself constantly drips water; and Tom Rugeley’s sunken face shows the outline of his teeth.
*CampbellCountry: Local lore of Our Grace, a drowning victim who seeks to drown others; Padfoot, a spectral canine death portent, and, in a remote field, a Christmas Eve bonfire gathering of [[spoiler: ghosts who wrestle the living for their bodies.]]
*CueTheSun: When the sun finally rises, and [[spoiler: the dead still haven’t solved Emily’s riddle, they return to their graves]].
*DeadAllAlong: Among the fireside crowd, Emily recognises a schoolmate of hers who died. In clearer firelight, Jon recognises his wrestling opponent to be old acquaintance Tom Rugeley.
*TheGadfly: Round the brazier, Jon’s fellow miners, with playful impudence, greet Emily.
-->'''Miner:''' Jon! Tha little sister here, come to walk home with thee, so thee don’t get scared!
*GhostStory: Round the hut’s brazier, coal-blackened miners pass a jug of beer. To the merriment, some add mention of “Our Grace,” a drowned girl whose spirit is said to walk the fields in search of others to drown; and Padfoot, a spectral, death-portentous dog.
*GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler: Jon’s wrestling opponent aims to win Tom’s living body]].
*ItWasADarkAndStormyNight: A clear, dark, windy night - even darker out on the fields…
*NothingIsScarier: By the brief light of the mining office; the gas lamps of the road, and the near-total darkness of the open fields, Emily persistently fears what might lurk unseen.
*OhCrap: When Jon seems to be losing the wrestling match, Emily is near-panicked.
*PrimalFear: Surrounded by distant, impenetrable darkness, Emily struggles to quell her fear of malign spirits.
*PromotionToParent: Partially - the family heavily relies on Jon’s mining wage.
*RiddleMeThis: Instead of wrestling, Emily challenges the dead to a contest of riddles. Since they know all the old ones, Emily [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants quickly improvises]] a new one.
-->'''Emily:''' I nothing fear but morning bird-song
My heart is still, but still it longs
By day I am gone, by night I show clear
Now riddle me-ree-a
What be I? [[note]] A [[spoiler: ghost]]. [[/note]]
*SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: A strong lad Jon may be, but he’s been working down the pit all day, and his spectral opponent has boundless strength - of course he loses the match.
*RealAllAlong: Our Grace - although she doesn’t seem to want to drown anyone.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Jingle Bells]]
->'''Written by:''' Tessa Krailing
Three nights before Christmas, prematurely retired farmer Hal and nurse Margaret bid daughter Anna goodnight. Anna hopes their newly bought semi-detached house to be free of her seasonal bedtime haunting - however, four-year-old sister Becky has just heard, from outside her window, a succession of chimes. Outside Anna’s bedroom window, a soft jangling; tapping, and a brief, unaccountable bout of suffocation announce the ghost to have followed her.
Next night, Anna’s desperate attempt to open her bedroom window draws visiting Aunt Jen - who, next day, protests Margaret’s refusal to discuss some mysterious past occurrence. Why is Anna forbidden to enter the loft? Why has the ghost followed her? And will her next bout of phantom suffocation prove fatal?
!!This tale provides examples of:
*TheAtoner: Having [[spoiler: unconsciously mistakenly blamed herself for her baby brother’s cot death]], Anna is very protective of four-year-old sister Becky.
*BigSisterInstinct: [[spoiler: When smoke seeps beneath her door]], Anna follows it to Becky’s room; and with [[spoiler: a yelled sudden memory of her dead brother]], alerts everyone to the danger.
*CheerfulChild: Becky.
*GhostlyChill: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] - Anna’s seasonal nightly hauntings, instead of a drop in temperature, bring choking, sweltering heat.
*GuardianEntity: [[spoiler: The ghost of baby Andrew]] may be deliberately trying to [[spoiler: warn of Becky’s impending danger.]]
*DeadBecauseOfMe: [[spoiler: Having suppressed the memory of baby brother Andrew’s cot death, Anna unconsciously interprets her parents’ silence as blame]].
*DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: When Anna was four, her baby brother Andrew died in his cot of suffocation]].
*EarnYourHappyEnding: After years of spectrally empathic suffocation, Anna’s prevention of [[spoiler: another fatal suffocation]] unlocks her memory of [[spoiler: her baby brother’s death]]; laying to rest her misplaced guilt, and [[spoiler: letting her brother’s spirit back into the family]].
*FantasyForbiddingFather: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], but implied - Anna fears her parents’ dismissal of her annual haunting.
*FriendlyGhost: [[spoiler: Andrew just wants his bereaved family to acknowledge his memory, and, seemingly, to save the life of his smoke-endangered sister]].
*FieryRedHead: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]; Aunt Jen, whose hair is a dye-job, earnestly rather than aggressively challenges her sister-in-law’s suppression of [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s death]].
*HistoryRepeats: On the third night of the haunting, [[spoiler: smoke, from Becky’s night light, onto which has fallen her teddy bear, threatens suffocation - she narrowly evades a similar fate to baby Andrew]].
*NothingIsScarier: Chillingly so - an inscrutable tapping on Anna’s window is followed by an unaccountable bout of suffocation.
*PoorCommunicationKills: Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss [[spoiler: baby Andrew’s cot death has unconsciously persuaded Anna that they blame her for it]].
*{{Protectorate}}: [[spoiler: Having lost a child to cot death]], Margaret frequently has Anna check on Becky.
*TheQuietOne: Hal tends to communicate in grunts - although briefly opens up to Anna.
*ReluctantRetiree: Back trouble has forced Hal to give up farming.
*SupernaturalSuffocation: Around each Christmas, for several nights, after a jangling of soft bells and a tapping on her window, Anna is plagued by unaccountable bouts of sweltering airlessness.
*TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: With Andrew’s brief life once more acknowledged by his family, his]] blue and white cuddly elephant is passed on to Becky.
*TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler: On their baby son’s cot death, Hal and Margaret’s refusal to discuss their bereavement persuaded Anna that they blamed her, seemingly forcing her to suppress all memory of the tragedy]].
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Woodman’s Enigma]]
->'''Written by:''' Gary Kilworth
With their father working overseas and their mother awaiting an operation, thirteen-year-old Colin and ten-year-old Jill take a train to the village of Ashingdon, to stay with their Great Uncle Giles Foster - who isn’t at the station. Bert Wilson, a friend of their uncle, drives them to a currently unoccupied Chase Cottage.
With night having fallen; heavy snow and a power outage, the siblings, from the nearby spinney, take the branch of an ancient yew tree, and light the fire. Giles Foster soon arrives, and tells them of a ghost - towards the end of the nineteenth century, a local woodman, dangling by his neck from the branch of the spinney’s yew tree, was found dead. Burning a piece of the yew tree is known to rouse his ghost, who will then demand an explanation for his mysterious death. Colin and Jill, being computer whizz-kids with a flair for riddles, decide to have a go…
!!This tale provides examples of:
*AllLoveIsUnrequited: In his advancing years, the Woodman’s affection for the local choir mistress was met with limited enthusiasm.
*AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: With Colin and Jill [[spoiler: having solved the mystery of his death, their great great Uncle Giles is free to move on]].
*BarredFromTheAfterlife: Before reaching the next world, the Woodman requires someone to solve the mystery of his death.
*CampbellCountry: Just outside the Essex village of Ashingdon lies forest-adjacent, haunted Chase Cottage.
*CoolOldGuy: [[spoiler: The living]] Uncle Giles supplies cocoa and biscuits; knows about ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'', and, while rather old-fashioned, introduces his niece and nephew to [[spoiler: a newly bought home computer]].
*DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: The man who meets Colin and Jill at Chase Cottage is Giles Foster - spectral ancestor of his living namesake]].
*HauntedHouse: The Woodman often extends his spinney hauntings to Chase Cottage.
*MightyLumberjack: The Woodman, from a lifetime spent at it, “cut trees like some folks cut butter.”
*MysteriousMist: With Colin and Jill having [[spoiler: solved the riddle]], a mist weaves its way between the trees.
*NothingIsScarier: Giles warns that failure to solve the Woodman’s enigma will incur the Woodman’s relentless harassment, liable to drive one half mad with fear.
*RiddleMeThis: When haunting, the Woodman poses the enigma of his untimely death.
*ShoutOut:
-->'''Uncle Giles:''' I expect you’re tired after all your [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} ghost-busting]]!
*SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]].
-->'''Colin:''' There’s no such thing as ghosts really, is there?
-->'''Giles:''' You’ve spoke on that once already. Them what repeat things really don’t mean what they says. They usually mean the opposite.
*TeenGenius: Thirteen-year-old Colin and [[ChildProdigy ten-year-old]] Jill, both with a flair for riddles, have serious ambitions to design their own computer game.
*UnderTheMistletoe: [[spoiler: The Woodman’s eventually revealed motive for his fatal tree climb - with a twig of its mistletoe, he’d hoped to charm the choir mistress]].
*WhenTreesAttack: With the Woodman’s corpse found caught by the throat in a yew tree’s branch, Jill asks if the tree is thought to have attacked him.
-->'''Giles:''' Nothing so theatre-like as that, I’m sorry to report.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Weeping Maid]]
->'''Written by:''' Creator/RobertSwindells
Staying with her widowed grandmother in London, nine-year-old Laura, in search of the fabled ghost of the Weeping Maid, explores the attics above her Grandma’s part of the house. On a flight of stairs, Laura sees the sobbing figure of a teenage girl in a black and white housemaid’s outfit. At Laura’s approach, the Maid seems relieved. On Laura’s sympathetic enquiry, the Maid leads her to a small attic room, and telepathically imparts her tragic story…
In 1914, fifteen-year-old Alice, to support her village family, works as a housemaid for the Bertrams. Homesickness eased by older colleague Sarah, Alice, with young fishmonger Bertie, starts a discreet courtship. Shortly after twenty-year-old Geoffrey Bertram is shipped off to [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne war]], Bertie enlists - and is later killed in action. Half-crazed with grief, Alice, from Bertie’s friend Herbert, receives a mysterious package…
!!This tale provides examples of:
*BigFancyHouse: The large house shared by her Grandma with the Jenkinsons offers Laura ample exploration opportunities.
*DueToTheDead: Bertie’s posthumously sent bomb accompanies a verse which prescribes as such its detonation.
*{{Forgiveness}}: Eventual absence of the Weeping Maid persuades Laura of her Grandma’s forgiveness of [[spoiler: the hiding of a bomb in her war-surving father’s fireplace by a bereaved housemaid]].
*GallowsHumour: On Bertie’s request, Herbert Biggs, near Christmas, delivers to the bereaved Alice a mysterious package.
-->'''Herbert:''' It’s a Christmas box, Miss. An early Christmas box, and I’m Santa Claus.
*IfIDoNotReturn: In the event of his death, Bertie asked his friend Herbert to deliver to Alice a package containing a [[spoiler: bomb]].
*MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Alice, disorientated with grief over Bertie, [[spoiler: lays in Geoffrey’s fireplace Bertie’s posted bomb]]; is overwhelmed by guilt, and gets out of bed to confess - but is interrupted by the explosion. Later, dying of influenza, she writes a confession note - which her distraught friend Sarah leaves in a cigarette tin, concealed behind a loose brick.
*NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Obliged to help prepare the Betram’s farewell party for Geoffrey, Alice is denied the chance to bid her own farewell to Bertie.
*OurGhostsAreDifferent: While she seems perfectly tangible, the Weeping Maid's ascent upstairs leaves the cobwebs undisturbed, and Laura’s hand, offered in comfort, passes seamlessly through her.
*OutlivingOnesOffspring: While young Geoffrey survives the war, [[spoiler: Bertie’s bomb, planted in his fireplace by Alice, kills him]].
*TheVoiceless: The Weeping Maid, seemingly unable to speak out loud, communicates with telepathically imparted speech and memories.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Investigators]]
->'''Written by:''' David Belbin
From Southampton, Combined Humanities student Mark Sullivan takes residence in a Victorian Nottingham terrace, converted into flats. Mark’s repainting of the place is shortly followed by a visit from Ruth and Ian. Psychology graduates, their [=PhD=] under paranormal researcher Professor Hugh Jenkinson has brought them to Mark’s stairs, site of three separately reported hauntings.
Mark happily accommodates their nightly investigation. Despite his scepticism, he can’t help wishing them some kind of success. One night, a jubilant Ruth and Ian greet Mark with a claim to have filmed a deathly white old man, with no visible feet, climb the stairs, only to unaccountably vanish. However, the camera doesn’t seem to have filmed any such sighting. Were the investigators just fooling themselves? Or has the camera failure a darker explanation…?
!!This tale provides examples of:
*DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian]].
*DeathByFallingOver: In the 1920s, an elderly resident of the terrace, which was then a boarding house, fell through a bannister rail and broke his neck.
*HappyDance: Having filmed the ghost, Ruth and Ian hug; jump up and down and make whoop sounds.
*HauntedHouse: In the 1920s, a Victorian Nottingham terrace served as a boarder house, in which, from a rotted railing, a resident fatally fell. The stairs have since seen an incongruous, deathly pale visitor, followed by a discarnate scream.
*JacobMarleyApparel: The stairway ghost is said to be an old man in an old-fashioned dressing gown.
*JadedProfessional: After [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian’s deaths]], Professor Jenkins [[spoiler: closed the paranormal investigations department, and returned to psychology]].
*MonochromeApparition: The ghost of Mark’s stairs is said to be completely white.
*OccultDetective: Paranormal investigators Ruth and Ian.
*OddFriendship: Solitary Combined Humanities student Mark is visited by two paranormal investigators. Despite his scepticism, he wishes them luck.
*OurGhostsAreDifferent: The terrace stairs are occasionally seen to host a completely white, dressing gown-clad man - whose feet are seamlessly obscured by the floor. Conversely, [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian seem not to realise themselves to have died, and directly interact with the physical world]].
*ShoutOut: On a visit from two psychology graduates on a paranormal investigation…
→’’’Mark:’’’ You mean like Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}?
*StarvingStudent: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Instead of halls of residence, Mark lodges in a converted Victorian terrace, and can’t afford a telephone.
*SourOutsideSadInside: Professor Hugh Jenkins irritability stems from [[spoiler: grief over the deaths of Ruth and Ian]].
*WhamLine: Two - a visiting Professor Jenkins reports [[spoiler: Ruth and Ian to have died in a car crash]]. And then…
→’’’Mark: Ruth and Ian were my friends. I’d like to go to their funerals, if I can. Do you know the arrangements?
→’’’Professor Jenkinson:’’’ ‘’{his gaze was chilling, but he spoke gently}’’ That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. [[Ruth and Ian died five years ago]].
---
[[folder: The Cracked Smile]]
->'''Written by:''' Anthony Masters
One wet Sunday afternoon, with maternal aunt Jenny out, young orphan Ian decides to visit the forbidden attic. Amidst the clutter, the face of one of several broken dolls is smashed to a macabre parody of a smile. Suddenly overcome by dizziness, Ian, in the suddenly darkened attic, hears a screech of brakes.
Next day, having served detention for accidentally breaking a school window, Ian, waiting at the bus stop, hears, from an empty old house, a sound of distress. Inside, a woman and a doll-carrying girl slightly younger than Ian both walk seamlessly through him.
On the unexpectedly single decker bus, near empty but for the insubstantial strangers, only the young girl seems aware of Ian’s presence. Back home, on Ian’s desperate curiosity, Jenny reluctantly recounts the deaths of Ian’s mother and sister…
!!This tale provides examples of:
*CreepyBasement: Or rather attic.
*EerilyOutOfPlaceObject: Aboard the single decker bus, Ian sees local buildings to host different shops and establishments.
*GhostTrain: Ian boards what seems to be a phantom bus.
*GroundhogDayLoop: Having died in a bus crash, Anna and Sophie, aware of the phantom repetition, perish each day.
*HauntedFetter: Attic-stored broken doll Sally, to which young Sophie was deeply attached, seems to trigger Ian’s spectral merge with the bus crash in which his mother and sister died. Having [[spoiler: vowed to repair Sally, Ian instinctively knows the bus journey to be over]].
*HauntedHouse: From an ancient, weather-boarded cottage, a cry of distress draws Ian inside, where a woman in slightly dated clothes and doll-carrying young girl walk seamlessly through him.
*ParentalSubstitute: Jenny, older sister to his late mother Anna, looks after Ian.
*LovableRogue: Ian’s lifelong friend Freddy aims to sell abandoned lead. Believing the voice from the old house to be a dosser, he suggests pranking him.
*NightmareFace: Jenny’s attic holds a doll with one empty eyehole, a hole in one cheek, and whose pouting lips cracked into macabre parody of a smile. Later [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], when, on Ian’s pledge to have the doll repaired, its face seems sad rather than sinister.
*OurGhostsAreDifferent: On seeing, in their old house, his late mother and sister’s substantial yet unresponsive ghosts, Ian, following a disorientating dizziness, boards an unfamiliar bus. Driving past strangely altered streets, only his sister Sophie senses him.
*TragicKeepsake: Having assured Sophie that he’ll have her doll Sally repairs, Ian kisses the doll’s broken lips - which seem strangely soft.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Other Room]]
->'''Written by:''' Jill Bennett
Sharon Butts and son Martin move into a third floor flat. One evening, with Sharon working at the supermarket, the living room’s windowless far wall, within shadow grows hazy, whereupon its shadows coalesce into a room - in the glow whose lamp, a mother, son and daughter who seem unaware of Martin. On Sharon’s return, the phantom room fades.
In frequent appearances of the “other room,” solitary Martin becomes engrossed - in the mother’s knitting of khaki scarves; the kids’ board games, and their attendance of wireless broadcasts, he feels included.
Curious about the mother’s hole-riddled letters, Martin, from elderly neighbour Mrs Collins, learns of wartime letter censorship - he realises the phantom mother’s husband to have been a prisoner of war. During that time, Mrs Collins recalls the bombing of a large boarding house near to the site of Martin’s current residence.
Suddenly obsessed by UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, lonely Martin longs for his phantom neighbours’ closer company. But will they ever see and hear him?
!!This tale provides example of:
*AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Not absurdly, but Sharon is quite young, and adorns the flat with a pop group poster.
*BigFun: Elderly, overweight Mrs Collins, while a little gruff, has moments of joviality.
*DoNotCallMePaul: Martin has a limited tolerance for being called “Mart”.
*FoodPorn: Some simple yet tantalising descriptions of pizza and fish and chips.
*GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler: Overjoyed to be noticed and invited by his phantom neighbours, Martin steps onto their phantom floor, and falls three storeys to his death]].
*OurGhostsAreDifferent: Across a windowless wall, evening shadows, with a blur, coalesce into a room occupied by a mother, son and daughter. They eventually notice and invite Martin in - [[spoiler: whereupon he falls through the phantom floor to his death]].
*IJustWantToBeLoved: While mother Sharon is clearly loving, Martin, having spent his young life in various allocated residences, feels alienated, and pines for the domestic fellowship seen in the other room.
*LonelyTogether: Martin and the phantom family, whose husband and father is a prisoner of war.
*MsExposition: From her memories of the war, Mrs Collins recalls the bombing of a house near the site of Martin’s flat.
*MustMakeAmends: After shouting at Sharon in frustration of her unwitting banishment of the phantom room, Martin gets her, for Christmas, a blue ribbon-adorned basket of soaps.
*ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Martin steps into the phantom room, and falls three storeys to his death]].
*TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: Martin’s preoccupied introversion worries Sharon.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: The Chime Child]]
->'''Written by:''' Ian Strachan
With parents; seven-year-old sister Emily and dog Sam, near-thirteen-year-old Christy, near a Suffolk village, arrives to spend Christmas at the Old Parsonage. Having been born at midnight on Christmas morning, Christy learns from a local ironmonger of the mystical lineage local lore accredits such people.
In the Parsonage, a pamphlet notes the cottage, during the UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, to have seen Puritan Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, for her inheritance, wall up and leave to die thirteen-year-old niece Rachel Sloane. Meanwhile, directly beneath the cottage bathroom, a crack in the stone wall has grown unaccountably wider.
At the Christmas Eve church service, cottage caretaker Mrs Pargeter gives Christy a somewhat cryptic word of encouragement. Outside, a man in a white hooded robe, claiming to be a druid, hands Christy a golden knife for cutting mistletoe…
!!This tale provides examples of:
*AbsurdlySharpBlade: The golden knife given Christy by the Druid cuts through a branch “like an oar through water.”
*TheAllegedHouse: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. The crumbling Old Parsonage is bitterly cold - but this is due to a wind-induced power cut. Getting the Aga stove to work improves things.
*BigFun: Overweight, good-humoured Mrs Pargeter.
*{{Bizarrechitecture}}: The Old Parsonage, having been largely rebuilt after a fire, at one end, noticeably stoops. Meanwhile, a crack in a stone wall grows unaccountably wider.
*BuriedAlive: In the Old Parsonage, Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, for her inheritance, walled up niece Rachel Sloame.
*CampbellCountry: This part of Suffolk, apparently, recognises the mystical affinities of those born at certain hours.
*CheerfulChild: Emily.
*TheChosenOne: Those born at the “magical hours of three, six, nine or twelve” are said to have mystical affinity with animals and herbs - those born at twelve with ghosts. Those who know of the Old Parsonage’s history anticipate Christy’s potential to free Rachel’s entombed ghost.
*DealWithTheDevil: Ezra Be-Thankful-Dexter is said to be infused with the Devil’s power.
*{{Druid}}: A modern one briefly approaches Christy with the gift of a golden knife; and to advise the protective properties of mistletoe.
*EvilDetectingDog: An uneasy Sam briefly runs away.
*EvilSmellsBad: Entry to the cottage briefly rouses a foetid smell. It later heralds the arrival of Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter.
*HauntedHouse: During the UsefulNotes/TheEnglishCivilWar, thirteen-year-old Rachel Sloane was walled up and left to die. A crack in the stone wall unaccountably widens. The stone leaks water - which tastes like tears.
*HolyBurnsEvil: Mistletoe is said to repel evil; [[spoiler: getting poked with a branch of the stuff causes one of Ezra’s spectral arms to wither.]]
*MeaningfulName: Christy, having been born at Midnight on the start of Christmas Day.
*{{Poltergeist}}: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] - on Christmas Day, after [[spoiler: Christy’s struggle with the corporeal ghost, the disturbed furniture and ornaments have been restored]].
*PowerGlows: Cut by the Druid’s golden knife, a mistletoe branch glows gold.
*SelfDisposingVillain: In a struggle with Christy, [[spoiler: Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter impales himself on the Druid’s golden knife, whereupon he disintegrates]].
*ShockAndAwe: Ezra Be-Thankful Dexter, from his fingers, zaps Christy with a blue-green bolt of light. With an impact like a blow from a hammer, it briefly paralyses her.
*TogetherInDeath: Rachel longs to rejoin Will, the catholic boy with whom her Puritan uncle forbade romance.
*UndeathlyPallor: While substantial, Rachel’s ghost is deathly pale.
*VampricDraining: Proximity to her uncle’s demonic ghost saps Rachel’s ghost of energy.
*VengefulGhost: The ghost of Ezra Be-Thankful-Dexter, seemingly through unhinged sadism, continues to imprison the ghost of niece Laura.
----
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Crespian and Clairan]]
->'''Written by:''' Joan Aiken
Each Christmas, usually while they adjourn to their villa in the South of France, John’s parents send him to stay with Aunt Nesta, Uncle Simon, and sickly cousin Becky.
Resentful of his banishment, John dislikes his year-older cousin, who constantly tries to engage him in such fanciful games as “Hunt the Minotaur” - and no longer seems terrified of John’s unusual ability to rapidly shake his eyes.
Aunt Nesta and Uncle Simon, while somewhat austere in some ways, are extravagantly generous with Christmas presents - as is Uncle Joe, Becky’s America-based godfather. One year, he sends her a pair of knee-high, lavishly dressed dolls, which, with installed batteries, glide across the floor in an astounding mechanical waltz. Becky terms them Crespian and Clairan.
Overcome with envy, John plans a way to steal the dolls - but at what cost...?
!!This tale provides examples of:
*TheAtoner: Having accidentally [[spoiler: caused his cousin’s death from pneumonia]], John, as an adult, runs a school for delinquents.
*CatchYourDeathOfCold: [[spoiler: Convinced by John that Crespian and Clairan have fallen through the frozen garden pond, Becky]] fatally contracts pneumonia.
*CleptomaniacHero:
*CreepyDoll: Following [[spoiler: John’s indirect cause of Becky’s death from pneumonia]], Crespian and Clairan uncannily mimic John’s rapid shaking of his eyes.
*CheerfulChild: Becky, and her younger brothers Robbie and Will.
*DelicateAndSickly: Becky, prone to asthma and bronchitis, needs to carefully wrap up warm.
*DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Convinced by John that Crespian and Clairan have fallen through a hole in the pond, Becky fatally contracts pneumonia]].
*FreudianExcuse: Narrating the story as an adult, John admits his tendency to selfishness and spite - which he traces to his parents having had little time for him.
*HauntedTechnology: Shipped back home after Becky catches pneumonia, John, [[spoiler: on hearing of her death]], sees the battery-powered dolls to mimic his eye-shaking.
*MissImagination: To play with a reluctant John, Becky invents such games as “Hunt the Minotaur.”
*NightmareFace: By letting his eyes fall out of focus, John has the rare ability to make them rapidly vibrate. While this used to terrify Becky, it no longer seems to work.
*ObliviousToHatred: While he dislikes her, Becky, seemingly lonely, delights in John’s annual visits.
*ParentalNeglect: Unexpectedly, and quite late in life, John’s parents birthed him. Instead of taking him on their annual Christmas holiday, they leave him with relatives.
*TheProfessor: John’s father is an author of scientific textbooks.
*StickyFingers: Jealous of Becky’s consistently slightly larger Christmas present supplies, John discreetly nicks some of the smaller of such items.
---
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Across the Fields]]
->'''Written by:''' Susan Price:
On Christmas Eve, 1924, near the West Midlands town of Oldbury, thirteen-year-old Emily arrives to arrange her older brother Jon’s purchase of tomorrow's meat. At the town marketplace, Jon, with his wages, buys a large goose, and some sweets for Emily and their younger siblings.
Along the dark, gas-lit road home, Jon, tired from a day down the mine, decides to take a short cut. In the windswept darkness of the fields, a strange man invites Jon to the Christmas Eve wrestling match - with prizes to be won. For his struggling family, Jon seizes this chance of extra food or money.
By a distant fire are gathered numerous strangers - some of whom seem ominously familiar. And why do they want Jon to wager, as well as goose and money, his “heart and soul”...?
!!This tale provides examples of:
*BigBrotherInstinct: Jon reassures and emboldens younger sister Emily - she hereby is protective of him when he goes off with a strange man to a wrestling match.
*CameBackWrong: Waiting outside the mining office, Emily fearfully imagines Grace’s drowned, swollen face. [[DownplayedTrope To an extent]], some of [[spoiler: the field’s fireside crowd]] are seen to retain aspects of their deaths. The hair of Grace herself constantly drips water; and Tom Rugeley’s sunken face shows the outline of his teeth.
*CampbellCountry: Local lore of Our Grace, a drowning victim who seeks to drown others; Padfoot, a spectral canine death portent, and, in a remote field, a Christmas Eve bonfire gathering of [[spoiler: ghosts who wrestle the living for their bodies.]]
*CueTheSun: When the sun finally rises, and [[spoiler: the dead still haven’t solved Emily’s riddle, they return to their graves]].
*DeadAllAlong: Among the fireside crowd, Emily recognises a schoolmate of hers who died. In clearer firelight, Jon recognises his wrestling opponent to be old acquaintance Tom Rugeley.
*TheGadfly: Round the brazier, Jon’s fellow miners, with playful impudence, greet Emily.
-->'''Miner:''' Jon! Tha little sister here, come to walk home with thee, so thee don’t get scared!
*GhostStory: Round the hut’s brazier, coal-blackened miners pass a jug of beer. To the merriment, some add mention of “Our Grace,” a drowned girl whose spirit is said to walk the fields in search of others to drown; and Padfoot, a spectral, death-portentous dog.
*GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler: Jon’s wrestling opponent aims to win Tom’s living body]].
*ItWasADarkAndStormyNight: A clear, dark, windy night - even darker out on the fields…
*NothingIsScarier: By the brief light of the mining office; the gas lamps of the road, and the near-total darkness of the open fields, Emily persistently fears what might lurk unseen.
*OhCrap: When Jon seems to be losing the wrestling match, Emily is near-panicked.
*PrimalFear: Surrounded by distant, impenetrable darkness, Emily struggles to quell her fear of malign spirits.
*PromotionToParent: Partially - the family heavily relies on Jon’s mining wage.
*RiddleMeThis: Instead of wrestling, Emily challenges the dead to a contest of riddles. Since they know all the old ones, Emily [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants quickly improvises]] a new one.
-->'''Emily:''' I nothing fear but morning bird-song
My heart is still, but still it longs
By day I am gone, by night I show clear
Now riddle me-ree-a
What be I? [[note]] A [[spoiler: ghost]]. [[/note]]
*SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: A strong lad Jon may be, but he’s been working down the pit all day, and his spectral opponent has boundless strength - of course he loses the match.
*RealAllAlong: Our Grace - although she doesn’t seem to want to drown anyone.
[[/folder]]
