This first started a few days after settling into the house. The kids would complain of hearing rapid footsteps darting up and down the hallway at night, but every time they mustered up the courage to look, they would always fine the hallway empty and devoid of any human activity. The footsteps would only continue the moment they walk back into their rooms and would immediately stop the minute they poke their heads out again. Feeling a little spooked they eventually told us over breakfast.

One night, while the kids were lodged in the guest room downstairs with my wife “Grace” serving as backup, I spent the entire night searching the upstairs rooms, bathrooms, closets, corridor, underneath beds, and behind curtains but I was unable to find anything out of the ordinary. It was not until I went back into one of the rooms and glanced out the window that I finally saw something strange in the distance.

Outside the house, several yards away, was an old stone well dug long before even the house itself was built. It has a grayish blocky exterior with two wooden pillars standing on either side of it, and a third pillar holding a small metal bucket, was placed horizontally on top the other two. Streaks of dried-up vines roped around its bricked like casing, and the top part of the well was capped off with a metal plate and a single heavy duty padlock hung from its side. I remember jokingly asking the agent who sold us the house whether the enormous padlock meant that a monster was hiding underneath, but smiling, she said nothing.

Looking back, I probably should have followed up with more serious questions regarding its origins and why it was locked up in the first place because seemingly hovering just above the well, was a pale shape almost humanoid in nature. The arms of the thing were slumped by its sides but the eyes and head were staring directly at me. It had a very scrawny figure made even more visible by the long white dress flowing freely on its body, and the hair on its head remained steely straight despite the presence of the cool night breeze wafting through the trees. I only briefly caught a glimpse of its suspended frame hanging in the moonlight, and when I rubbed my eyes to confirm whether or not I was hallucinating, it was gone.

A bit shaken up, I was just about to shut the blinds when my eyes caught something that caused my stomach to drop. The well was now open and the lock was nowhere in sight. Bits and pieces of concrete littered the area, and the topmost part of the well was completely torn off its hinges. It was in that moment of trying to make sense of what I was seeing when the floorboards beneath me creaked and footsteps came rushing at me from behind. I spun, and saw the pale white figure charging towards me.