We arrived at the destination and there were thick dark clouds up in the sky.
"What's the odds that it's gonna rain?" Aaron said beside me.
"Quite high I reckon," I comment, looking up at the angry clouds.
Nick pulled the clutch up and heard him unbuckling his seat belt.
"It won't matter seeing as we'll be inside most of the time," Zak said.
I had begun unbuckling my seat belt when the door beside me opened. I looked and found Zak standing in front of me with door open, smiling.
"Out you get," He said.
He helped me down seeing as the van was quite large. I stood aside whilst Nick, Aaron and Zak sorted their equipment out. The air felt heavy and muggy. The summers in England were usually like this.
Our lockdown was in a large house that stood before me. It was brown bricked with a large red front door and had white steps leading up to the front door. It looked like quite a homely house and I couldn't believe that any ghostly activity was going on inside.
"Okay Maddy, we're ready," Nick said.
After the count of three, Zak spoke to the camera.
"On this lockdown we have a special guest with us today." Nick and Aaron both pointed their camera at me. "This is Maddy and you may recognise her from the lockdown from the last series when we visited England and she was the tour guide of the ferry centre. So Maddy, what are your thoughts on this lockdown?"
"I'm…excited," I said in a very squeaky voice. I managed to clear my throat quickly. "I'm also nervous. I don't know what to expect."
"Don't worry you're with three professionals here," Aaron said and we all laughed.
"Okay let's see whose inside," Zak said and started walking towards the front door.
I could feel the cameras following me. I wanted to smile at how happy I felt right now. It felt amazing to be taking part in this programme and to think that loads of people from perhaps all over the world will be watching this. But I knew that I couldn't smile as this was a serious programme.
After Zak had knocked, an elderly couple came to the door and were introduced to us and the cameras. We all huddled into the hallway and Zak asked them questions about the house.
"So what type of activity have you both experienced here?"
The man spoke first. "Well we didn't actually know about any of the history of the house before we moved in. No one actually told us."
Then the woman spoke. "It mainly happened in the room we slept in which use to be the father's room. We used to hear rapid shuffling along the floor, like someone was rushing around."
"We also heard," The man continued. "Whisperings in the day such as: this is my room."
"Have you caught any evidence of this?" Zak asked.
They both produced a tape recorder that they had left running for a few hours. The audio quality wasn't that good but you could hear a faint whisper that almost sounded like get out.
A few other people were also interviewed. The family with the two daughters who had lived previously in the house explained that in the small room at the front of the house could be heard faint coughing sounds. This was believed to be the daughter's room where she had died.
"Once I was sleeping in there," the woman, who was the teenage girl who had slept in that room, begun. "I could hear faint crying sounds coming from near the door. I thought perhaps it was my little sister so I walked out of the room and checked on her and she was fast asleep. So I came back in and tried to get back to sleep but this time I heard the crying and also a faint sound of scratching on the wall. I turned my light on and I clearly see this girl sitting against the wall."
"Could you see her face?" Zak asked.
"No her face wasn't facing me. So I screamed and she just disappeared."
"Why do you think she disappeared?"
"I don't know. Perhaps she wanted me to help her because I was her age when she would've died. Perhaps when I screamed it scared her."
I looked at the spot where the girl had been sitting. I walked over to it and on the wall I could see very faint scratch marks.
"Zak, look at this."
The three of them walked over to where I was and filmed the scratches on the wall.
"Wow, see that is clear evidence that that girl had been here." Zak looked at the woman. "Why do you think she was by herself?"
"Perhaps she's lost. Perhaps her dad is too and that's why they make these sounds so that they can find each other."
We went round into the other rooms. The woman who had seen the girl told us that this house was never haunted before the girl died and her father committed suicide. No deaths had happened in the house and if they had the spirits had never haunted the house.
"So these spirits must be lost if they can't find each other," Zak said to the camera.
Just at that moment I felt something touch my hand. I flinched, thinking it was Nick or Aaron. But I was standing no where near either of them.
"Are you okay, Maddy?"
"Erm…I swear I felt something touch my hand. I thought it was one of you guys but…" I trailed off. The room had fallen silent.
"Actually," The woman said. "The girl who had died in the seventies does looks like Maddy."
I felt my whole body turn cold.
"Do you have a picture of her?" Zak asked.
"I don't but I know there was a picture here once. We found it in the attic when we moved in."
"Do you think it's still there?"
"It might be."
