Ok, you wanted me to continue, so I will :) More scary music and sleepless nights but it's worth it. Dedicated to Ashley because you bug me to update these :p love you though.

A/N: Btw, seriously messed up timing in this one (mainly because of Elsie's age) this is set in January 1921, the Bates thing didn't happen, Thomas still works there, William is still alive :') Just makes things easier :L This chapter is what Elsie was thinking when she was hiding in the corridor listening to O'Brien.

She wasn't usually one for listening to gossip, she'd been there long enough to know that her staff would gossip about her normally, but it was the nature of which she was mentioned that made her stop and listen.
She wouldn't even stop if they were discussing the absurdity that she was in love with Charles, it was irritating but she chose to ignore it, she wouldn't stop if they were discussing how unfairly she treated them, how harsh she'd been, or how funny the arguments between herself and Beryl were.
But O'Brien wasn't talking about Charles, or her work, or Beryl, she was talking about that housekeeper, someone she'd rather forget.

"She's killed all the housekeepers, you ask any of the older staff, no housekeeper at Downton has left or retired in over a hundred years, they've all, been, killed."

Her heart stopped, she froze against the wall, trying to regain the breaths she'd lost. 'Surely O'Brien wouldn't be telling them about… her?'She was the evil spirit that walked these halls, the danger she had to protect these children, her children, from. She could never tell them why she was protective, why they could not stay out after dark, why they must always do as they're told – she could never tell them the reason.

She was scared.

She hadn't wanted to become housekeeper, as soon as it happened she locked herself in her room and refused to come out. Silly childish behaviour but in her mind, the only safe thing she could do. She had come to Downton out of the hope that she could find comfort and care, hoping to find people to share her life with, to become her family, something she'd never had as a child. She had not expected to be letting herself into a trap, one she could not escape.

It may not be mature, not appropriate to feel such fear, she was a housekeeper, she had to be responsible and these childish fears had to be pushed away, but as she sat on her bed at night, no longer sharing a room, all alone, every creak, every thump she would jump at, clutching the blankets tighter to her chest, longing for the morning to arrive and the tears to cease.
This was not how the housekeeper should behave, this was how she wanted her to behave, she wanted her to be scared, wanted her to act irrationally – all to prove that she was a better housekeeper than all.

Each housekeeper had tried to rise up to the challenge, face the fear head on, preached on how it was'silly nonsense' and that there was nothing to fear, but strong women are only strong until they're alone, that's when they were all vulnerable, that's when they were all killed.

Each time the servants had to come up with excuses for the deaths; they fell, they were already ill, they were depressed, they knocked something that fell onto them… all nonsense, but the girls were young, you could hardly tell suchimpressionable children there was a ghost that was getting rid of the housekeepers. She had to believe it to, had to tell herself that all those women died of their own accord. Somehow that worked, until that night.

That night she had been woken by the storm, lightening lighting up her room like fire, she needed tea to calm her nerves, when she thought about it, she was scared of so many things, she just didn't show it to others. The lights were off, the house plunged into darkness, the only like came from the lightening, filling the rooms, corridors, halls with an eerie bright blue light. No sounds except the downpour outside and the thunder, like an earthquake in the sky. Everything about it frightened her.
She'd gone down the stairs, with each step a new lightening bolt shooting from the sky, through the windows and into her heart causing it to jump an her to gasp. She'd hurried into the kitchen as if the sounds and light were chasing her, hoisted herself onto the counter with her back against the wall, she was childlike, she knew, she might be 39 but inside she felt like a helpless child, exposed to so much and unable to defend herself.
She'd finished her tea and began her return journey up the endless stairs,she didn't know where she would feel safer, in her room there was no where to hide, but downstairs was so vast, anything could be lurking in the shadows, especially on a night like this.
She'd reached the top of the stairs, the point where she crossed the corridor to get to the maids staircase, only one more flight till she would be back in her bed, wrapped in her blankets of security, her childhood comfort now her adult comfort.

She watched her steps, herbare feet padding along the stone floor, until a crash of thunder and a bolt of lightening jolted her and she fell against the wall breathing heavily – that's when she looked up.

Her scream caught in her throat, her mind span, she felt the wall searching desperately for something to grip onto, tears spilled down her cheeks, her heart beating faster than it ever had.

Mrs Winters was hanging from the hook on the ceiling.

Her body limp, swinging slowly, her skin a ethereal white glowing blue with each new lightening flash, her face devoid of expression, her eyes lifeless yet still piercing, staring directly at Elsie as if trying to tell her;

What had happened,
Who'd done this to her,
Those 'silly stories' were true,
And Elsie was next.

She jumped out of her memories when she heard Charles whisper her name, his eyessaddened upon seeing her distress, her arms pulled around her as she would always do when scared, tears gently falling down her cheeks, some of many tears shed over this memory. She stared into his eyes, looking for some comfort, comfort he'd always given her as each birthday rolled on and she felt herself getting closer and closer to this inevitable curse. But these eyes only held sorrow and fear, the fear all the senior staff shared for her. She opened her mouth but couldn't speak, many words in her mind but none escaping her lips, except two, two she'd repeated for years but now said with more terror than she'd ever experienced.

"Help me."

Well I hope you liked this, especially those of you that asked for it to be updated. Just to say, I now cannot sleep :p please review!