Barbara was from the Markets and Danny from Ardoyne .
They went out a couple of times and started to get serious about their relationship .’
Danny found a wee place in Ardoyne and started to do some renovations to it with the thought of making that a home for Barbara and himself .
Barbara had a job as a bank teller and her job kept her busy most of the week .
Danny never communicated anything about the wee house in Ardoyne that had deteriorated and needed work He wanted to leave that as a surprise for the moment he proposed to her .
Danny was reserved in his ways and madly in love with Barbara .
When the house was in a better state Danny moved in there and he started to work on it full time .
One night while Danny was sleeping
he heard a knock on the door .
Mumbling to himself ..
“Who is that knocking on the door at this time of the night . All right . Hold your horses . I’m coming “
He opened up the door and there was no one there . Then he went back up the stairs .
There was another knock on the door .
Danny , went back downstairs and opened the door once again there was no one there , so Danny walked outside and had a look around and then he said ,
“Who ever you are , you better stop this carrying on . Don’t be messing about knocking the door “
Then he went back inside and went to bed .
The next morning the front door was open . A black cat walked inside and sat on the floor .
Danny chased it out with a brush in his hand .
He looked around wondering who had opened the door as he remembered he had locked it before going to bed .
Then after a cup of tea and toast he went to work plastering one of the walls . He was unsettled about someone getting into the houses so he went and bought a latch for the inside of the front door .
When he returned he saw something or someone peeping through the curtains in the front parlour window of his wee house . He rushed inside as fast as he could but found nobody was there .
He shouted a couple of times ,
No use hiding , I know you’re in here so come out now before I have to drag you out by your feet into the street “
It was silent not a noise could be heard .
Danny began to think he must have just imagined it all and went to work putting the latch behind the door .
On the corner of the street he saw one of the local people looking over at Danny’s house .
Danny went outside and waved over at the woman who made her way over to him . As she approached , Danny said
“How are you doing ? I’m Danny nice to meet you “
“ Hello Danny , I’m Minnie , I’m really glad to see someone back
in this wee house . I never thought anyone would never live in it again after what happened”
Danny looked intrigued and said
“ Hello Minnie . What happened here if you don’t mind me asking
“ Oh you know Danny , if you want my advice I think you better get out before the black cat comes in ?”
Danny was getting very nervous .
“ Ok that’s enough of that . You better be on your way now “
“ I’m just saying mind that cat doesn’t get in . Best you keep that door locked at night .“
Minnie made her way back across the street , laughing with a crazy hackle in her voice .
A man came out of the wee shop opposite and walked over to Danny and said ,
“ Don’t mind mad Minnie , she went daft after the fire took her sister in the house you’re fixing up .“
Danny stood there speechless then he muttered
“ No. , don’t tell me that now .“
“ Oh no it’s true . I thought you would have been told the story about the woman who died in the fire when the house burnt down “
Danny replied
-” No . I haven’t been told a thing . Why what happened ?”
The auld lad replied .
They said she was standing too close to the fire one night and tripped over her cat that lay in front of the fire .
They think she hit her head on the mantelpiece before her nightdress caught alight . No one heard her scream and she was found after the fire had engulfed half the house .
After her body was found , Minnie just couldn’t cope .”
Danny said ,
“Let me ask you something . What was her name . “
“As far as I recall it was Barbara “
Danny felt a deep thud in his heart and was wondering what he should do and why fate had taken him to this dark place .
He went inside the house and muttered to himself ,
–“ Danny boy , think , maybe there is an essence of truth there but all that’s in the past . There is always a reason why things happen. “
Later that evening he thought he saw someone standing there in the corner of the parlour .
He went to have a close look but there was no one there . Then he went up make a cup of tea .
He decided to go over and see his wee
Barbara but he wasn’t going to say anything about the house .
That evening Danny and Barbara sat down for dinner there in the corner of a fast food joint on the Ormeau Road .
They chatted away for a while about their day . Danny proposed to her and she said yes After their dinner Danny and Barbara went home . When Danny returned to his house , there was a key in door and the fire was lit .
When he went inside he saw a hole in the wall and a black cat sitting on the floor by the fire . He ran to get the yard brush to chase the cat out but when he came back inside the fire was out and the cat was gone .
He felt very tired and went to lie down upstairs . As he was drifting off to sleep he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and a woman started screaming
“Get out of my house “
Danny jumped out of bed but saw no one was there . As he came down the stairs he saw the figure of a woman in a nightdress sitting there in a chair by the fire . He run from the house and went to his Mammy’s house .
The next day when he returned to his house he discovered it had been completely gutted by a fire during the night .
Danny was paid out by the insurance company and he boarded up the place and never returned to fix it up .
With the money he got from the insurance company he put a deposit on a new house in a new housing estate .
He never told Barbara about what had happened to the old house in Ardoyne and never returned again to visit the house .
Pray for the light. Pray that you last that long. The Long Hour Before Light is a classic collection of Horror tales, re-mastered by Champagne Book Group
