I WAS IN MY CHILDHOOD HOME at 259 Slade Green, Erith. I was an adult. Mum and dad had made some alterations to the house. They’d added a second fireplace with fake flames next to the gas fire in the living room. Mum was asking dad if he could knock through from the living room to the kitchen. I was looking for drinks in the kitchen. I found what looked like a bottle of Coca Cola but it was red wine. Then I found some cans of fizzy pop and took two.
Mum and dad had taken in lodgers. The house now had two front doors labelled 259A and 259B. The doors were painted dark blue. My mum told me they were going to allow the lodger’s children to stay there. One of the lodgers was a refugee with 59 children. Another lodger lived out in the shed. It was cold out there, but he was quite happy to have some shelter. I had to give up my bedroom for the lodgers. My sister seemed to be moving out so I was getting her small bedroom. The walls were pink and there was a purple carpet. The ceiling was very high and so I thought I would build a mezzanine to give me some more room. I told my mum I didn’t want to keep my sister’s wardrobe. I moved the bed under the window which appeared to be made of stained glass. I saw there were bookshelves that could be folded out from the wall. There was a ladder that led up to the attic. The attic was boarded out and appeared ready for habitation. I commented to my sister that it would be a great space for me, but she said she had never been allowed to use it. I realised this would probably be where the lodger’s children were going to live, and that it was going to be very noisy for me!
We moved house to a large, old stately home with many ornately decorated rooms. I chose a room that was black for my bedroom. It had black wardrobes, black walls, black curtains. It felt haunted. I was terrified. I found I couldn’t speak when I was in the room. When I left the room, the door closed by itself. I went and told my parents. They checked the room and agreed it was haunted. Then I found myself in my sister’s room. It was red and full of candles. My children also lived in the house. My oldest daughter had a room with an adjoining dressing room. My youngest daughter found a secret passage from my sister’s room to her own. Downstairs, there was a man sitting in a chair in the hallway. No one knew who he was or why he was there. I told him to leave. Then I found myself outside. A wild animal like a large cat bit into my hand and wouldn’t let go.
I was building a large model of a house out of LEGO. There was dust on my model so I used a vacuum to clean it. Some of the LEGO pieces got sucked into the vacuum. I opened the vacuum and took out the dust bag. Black dust went everywhere. My phone was covered in dust.