Stranger in the House (A Story from The Sealed Book)

Stranger in the House is a haunted house story. It begins with a young couple looking around the house in question. The house is called Whitfield Manor and Jane Barton hates it right from the start. She tells her husband, Roger, that the house has an unfriendly feel to it, but Roger seems to instinctively know his way around the place and he loves it, so Jane puts her misgivings aside and agrees to live there.

This is a bad move on Jane’s part because their marriage begins to go downhill as soon as they move in. Jane spends her first night there alone in the living room, which is very cold, despite the blazing fire in the grate. At midnight she goes looking for Roger and finds him in a trance-like state, sitting in the study, and starring at the embers of a dead fire. The room is filled with the smell of perfume, and Roger does not seem to be himself so Jane leaves him in the study and goes to bed.

When she awakes at 5 a.m., Roger’s bed is empty so Jane returns to the study. The door is locked and she can hear Roger talking to someone; so she pounds on the door. When Roger opens it the smell of perfume is stronger and Roger tells her that he was dreaming of a woman in the mist and that she had the most beautiful face he’d ever seen.

Roger is soon obsessed with his dream girl. When Jane tells him they must leave Whitfield Manor he refuses to go so Jane seeks advice from her doctor, who is well acquainted with the house and knows all about its tragic history. The doctor thinks that Roger may have known the house in a previous life and he is convinced that Roger will be led to disaster by the evil spirit that resides there. The doctor is right. It is an evil spirit, but Jane is in more danger than her husband because the spirit sees her as competition for Roger’s affection and it wants her out of the way.

The Sealed Book: Stranger in the House

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