Len's Ghost Story

I heard this story when I was about 11 years old, it happened to my Grandad's cousin, Len, when he was about 25 (about 30-40 years ago). My Grandad told me the story because he knew I was interested in this sort of thing and I thought I would share it with you all.

Len was a salesmen when he was younger, I'm not quite sure what he sold but that's not important to the story. He had driven up to Glasgow from Milton Keynes (where he lives) with a colleague for a meeting and they had planned to return home that evening but didn't leave the meeting till about 9pm. They decided it would be better if they drove some of the way and then checked into a hotel (in seperate rooms!!) and got a good nights sleep and set off early the following morning.

They found a small Inn just about 30 miles south of Glasgow. It was called the Holly Tree. It was a small Inn, with about 9 bedrooms. The building was about 100 years old, not in great condition but it was pretty in a rustic sort of way. It was located just off the motorway, down a winding road. There were no other houses or buildings for as far as they could see apart from a village about 6 miles south.

The receptionist was a tall, skinny man with glasses, a beard and short, shiny black hair. He smiled as they entered the front doors. They asked for 2 seperate rooms, the man gave them their keys and asked them if they would like to order any food. As they hadn't eaten anything since lunch time, they both ordered fish and chips.

Once they had eaten, they headed up to their seperate rooms. Len's room number was 5. There was a double bed, two bedside tables both with lamps on and a large 4-doored wardrobe in the corner near the window. It was a very basic room but that didn't bother Len because it had a nice comfy bed and that was all he cared about at that point in time.

He washed his face and called his wife to say he would be home tomorrow afternoon. As soon as he laid his head on the pillow, he was sound asleep.

He dreamt about a woman. She was a tall, beautiful woman with long blonde hair. She was wearing a wedding dress and veil and was holding a bouquet of flowers. She was crying and her make- up was running down her cheeks and dripping onto her beautiful white dress. They were both standing in the lobby of the Holly Tree, it didn't look the same though, the decor was different. The woman looked at Len and then turned and ran off up the stairs which were directly behind her and facing Len. Len ran up the stairs behind her. He wasn't sure why but dreams aren't usually logical anyway. It was only when he got to the top of the stairs that he realised he was holding a hand gun. He looked down and he saw that he was wearing a suit and bow tie. As he got to the top of the stairs, he was just in time to see her go into the open door of room number 5. He followed her in, and saw her disappear into a small door near the window. The door was only about 3 and a half foot high and Len being six foot three, had to bend down quite a considerable amount to look inside. She was huddled in a corner on the floor. He could hear the woman crying and pleading. She was in hysterics so he was finding it difficult to hear what she was saying. He thinks he heard something like "I'm sorry I didn't mean to dishonor your family, we didn't mean to do it".

He stepped into the room, which seemed to be some sort of dressing room and held the gun to the woman's face and fired. Len wasn't a violent man at all and wouldn't even harm a fly, let alone shoot a woman in the face (even though it was only a dream). With that Len woke up in a cold sweat. Len looked at the clock beside him, it was 7.30am, he decided to get up and get some breakfast. He looked over to where the door was and saw the wardrobe still there. He didn't think anything of it, after all it was only a dream.

He went downstairs for breakfast, expecting to see his colleague. She wasn't there. The receptionist told him she had already come down for breakfast and was taking a shower and would be ready to leave in about half an hour. The dining room was empty. He chose a seat near the window and ordered a full English breakfast.

The receptionist/waiter brought his breakfast over and asked him if he would like some company. Len, being the friendly man that he is, agreed and gestured to the chair opposite him. The man, who introduced himself as George, asked Len how he had slept. Len said he had slept well but had had a wierd dream. George asked Len what the dream was about and Len told him. The men went quiet and changed the subject rather quickly. They continued to chit-chat, about Len's wife and son and George told Len he had three daughters. Once Len had finished his breakfast, George took his plate into the kitchen and said that he had something he wanted to show Len. He led Len upstairs to room 5, the room that Len had slept in last night and the room that was in Len's dream. He gestured to the wardrobe in the corner and they both struggled to move it. Once they had lifted it, Len noticed the door. It was exactly the same as it had been in the dream. 3 and a half foot high. Len felt confused, there was no way that he could have known the door was there, there is no way he could have possibly moved that massive wardrobe by himself.

George told him that his Grandfather used to own the inn before his Father, and now himself. He said that in the 1940's a woman had rented room 5 so she could get ready for her wedding. Once at the church she had changed her mind and had ran the 6 miles from town back to the hotel. Her fiance, a rich powerful man, had followed her back there. The bride admitted to her fiance that she had been having an affair with the mans half brother. After a huge fight, he shot her in the head and then shot himself in room number 5.

George had been really shocked that Len had practically dreamt the whole thing as there is no way that he could have possibly known this story.

Len and his colleague then drove back to Milton Keynes and Len didn't tell anyone the story untill at least ten years later as he was so freaked out by it.

Anyway thanks for taking the time to read Len's story.