The Revenge

By Benjamin Parsons

In a run-down seaside hotel out of season, a ghost is seen haunting the third floor - a tempting treat for any idle supernatural enthusiast. But what drives the spirit to stalk through the night? What sort of tragedy has brought it back from the dead, hell-bent on revenge? Part of the collection The Green Lady and Other Stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Benjamin Parsons
• Release date: Mar 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215884904

Benjamin Parsons

I am a writer and artist from the Westcountry of England now living in London. I write and illustrate stories about love, hate, ambition, revenge, beauty, and the supernatural.

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The Revenge

by Benjamin Parsons

Copyright 2023 Benjamin Parsons. First published in 2012.

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It happened that I was staying in Brighton during October, which is a bleak month for any seaside town— the amusements that blare so brashly under the sunshine, and seem so full of gaiety when thronged with tourists, are exposed, out of season, as forlorn, tired, and even a little hostile: the bulbs are blown, the paintwork flaking, and the staff absent. But this suited me well enough; I like the rain and overcast weather (perhaps I’m rather alone in that) and there’s an atmosphere about a grey, glitterless sea and solitude that I can’t resist. So I booked myself into a small hotel, hidden down a narrow street at right-angles to the shore, opposite the battered and collapsing west pier, and settled in for a gloomy long weekend; but I found there was to be more bustle and interest than I anticipated.

The manager informed me on my arrival that they were expecting a celebrity to come the next day— a spirit medium, who was going to investigate a series of spectral phenomena with which the establishment had been plagued during recent months. It might not seem, at first, to be the best policy for the hotel to advertise themselves as haunted in this way, but I daresay it was a calculated move, designed to stimulate some interest in the place for the winter, and generate revenue out of superstition and curiosity. Well, I for one was suitably intrigued, and asked all about it. The manager informed me that I should feel free to accompany the medium and his team as they made their tour, and that I might purchase a ticket for this freedom there and then. Of course I couldn’t resist, and was further pleased to find that I had been allocated a room on the third floor, where the majority of the disturbances had occurred— this manager