The Ghosts Made Us Do It

Editor's note: this story contains scenes of incest or incest content.

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INTRODUCTION & DISCLAIMER - When a family of five moves from London to Essex in 1991, their dream home turns out to be something of a nightmare, infested by ghosts and poltergeist activity. Pretty daughter Poppy, a nice-natured but naive girl is the main target of the haunting, invisible ghosts harassing and scaring her almost daily.

Left alone in the house for a long weekend, Poppy and her stepbrother Brett encounter paranormal happenings which force the step-siblings to share first the shower and then a bed together. This leads to more interesting things as the scary night progresses ...

All characters and events are fictional, with similarity to real persons living or dead coincidental and unintentional. The story contains supernatural themes, incest between step-siblings, scenes involving a female character using the bathroom and references to menstruation, which may not be to everyone's taste. The word fanny is used as slang for vagina on a number of occasions. Only characters aged 18 and over are involved in sexual activity.

Please enjoy 'The Ghosts Made Us Do It' and rate and comment.

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If somebody had predicted that I would one day encounter the supernatural and that I would also become intimate with my stepsister Poppy, I would have said that I didn't believe them on either count. Only I would have used stronger terminology than 'I don't believe you.'

I was never a kid with a great imagination, and never into science fiction or fantasy, or indeed fiction in general. I never believed in ghosts or other types of spirits such as poltergeists, and always scoffed at and was scornful of the very notion. Anything and everything had to have a logical and rational explanation firmly on Planet Earth.

I was most definitely not thinking of the supernatural in the early months of 1991 when my Dad Warren and my stepmother Leah began the process of selling the house in London where we lived, and finding a new house in the Chelmsford area of Essex.

Our semi-detached house in London was nice enough, but starting to age a bit and with only one bathroom was rather small for two adults in Dad and Leah and three teenagers in myself, my stepsister Poppy and my stepbrother Jacob. Originally there were four teenagers when my older brother Simon lived at home, but Simon had joined the army after finishing school and we now only saw him when he was on leave.

The added benefits of moving to Essex included more fresh air and that Chelmsford was an easy commute for Dad and Leah, who both worked in the finance industry respectively as a bank manager and a financial planner. It was also easy for Poppy, Jacob and I to get to the school we attended in London. Our school was a private school, so Poppy and I who were undertaking our A-levels that year would not have the stress of changing schools, and Jacob who was a star footballer could continue with the specialist football program at the school.

While selling an existing house and attempting to buy a new house at the same time can be stressful, in Dad and Leah's case things ran pretty smoothly. There was an interested buyer on our London house who put in an offer after one viewing, and on a trip to Essex to look at suitable houses Dad and Leah found a perfect house that had everything they desired and more. The offers went through without fuss, and in March 1991 it was goodbye London and hello Essex.

I really liked our new house from the first time I saw it, and it was in a nice street with nice neighbors. It also stood on its own, unlike the semi-detached house I had grown up in. Most of all, I was happy for Dad and Leah that they had found a place they loved so much. Dad had been hit pretty hard when our Mum Lucy, who had always been fairly flighty and irresponsible, suddenly left our lives one day to accompany her secret boyfriend - an Australian traveler - back to his home in Sydney. There was no warning, no note, no explanation, no apology, nothing. She simply left her husband and two young sons behind in England and went overseas to Australia with her new lover. We never heard from her again aside from divorce formalities conducted through a lawyer. In all the years since, Mum never sent either Simon or I a Christmas or birthday card.

My brother and I were really happy when Dad met and married Leah, and we both liked her too. She looked different from Mum obviously, Mum had red hair and green eyes which was a feature shared by Simon, while I had inherited Dad's brown hair and brown eyes. Leah was a petite little lady, only four feet eleven when barefoot and had blonde hair, a fair complexion and blue eyes.

Like Dad, Leah was a divorcee and had had the stress of an irresponsible former spouse, in the form of her ex-husband Moses, Poppy and Jacob's father. Moses was originally from Egypt, although he was of Christian background rather than of Muslim faith. What religion Moses was probably wasn't relevant, because it probably wouldn't have made him better organized or more responsible. He was always one of those people who was perpetually running late, always short of money and always leaving everything to the last minute. He would often be hours late when he had to pick up his daughter and son, leaving Poppy and Jacob most disappointed.

Yet despite Moses's failings as a father and husband, it was impossible to dislike him, as he was easygoing, a nice guy and had a great sense of humor. Simon and I liked him as did Dad, and while Poppy and Jacob had so often been let down by their father, they clearly loved him. Although Moses was not going to be nominated for father of the year anytime soon, at least unlike our Mum there was at least an effort from him to be a part of his children's lives, to try to be a responsible parent and to have a respectful and polite relationship with his former wife.

Moses was a tall man - about six feet two - and his two kids had inherited his height, as well as his Egyptian features, both Poppy and Jacob looking more like their father than their mother. Jacob looked like a younger version of Moses, although with a slightly lighter complexion obviously due to his mother's genetics.

Another thing Jacob had inherited from his father was his sense of humor, and he was always making jokes. Although Dad, Simon and I found that a little bit of Jacob went a long way and that Jacob found himself funnier than the rest of the world perceived him to be, we could not help but like him. Leah and Poppy were not nearly so impressed with Jacob's sense of humor. With Leah it was because she had many years of trying to control her hyperactive son both at home and in public, and having conferences at school to discuss his antics. With Poppy, she often bore the brunt of her younger brother's practical jokes, such as him jumping out from around a corner and bursting a plastic bag behind her or him turning off the bathroom light while Poppy was using the loo, so she wasn't a fan of his humor either.

As for Poppy, she stood at an impressive six feet tall when barefoot. I think poor Leah must have felt like a pygmy in a land of giants at times. Dad, Simon and I all stood at six feet tall, her ex-husband and her son were over six feet tall and her teenage daughter stood a full foot taller than her. Poppy also had a much bigger bone structure than her petite mother, although Poppy was not fat in any way. Maybe she could have lost a pound or two on her bum, but nothing aside from this. Another noticeable difference between mother and daughter was their boobs. Leah had small breasts, probably an A cup, while Poppy's massive mammary glands easily filled a D cup.

However, it was in general looks that Leah and Poppy contrasted the most. Thanks to her father's Egyptian background, Poppy had classic feminine beauty often observed in Middle Eastern and North African women. Like her brother, Poppy's skin tone was not as dark as their father's due to a Caucasian mother, and her complexion was a flawless mocha color. Poppy had long, dark and slightly wavy hair and the highlight of her pretty face was her big brown eyes, again a big contrast with her blonde mother's pale blue eyes. Seeing Leah and Poppy together, it was hard to believe that they were even distantly related, much less mother and daughter.

While very beautiful, Poppy unfortunately had some shortfalls in her personality. She had always been quite awkward, nervous and highly strung, and it wasn't hard to make her cry, almost anything sad, scary or stressful brought on the waterworks. Poppy always tried so hard to do the right thing and would always want to do someone a good turn rather than a bad one, yet despite her best efforts things would go wrong and she would wind up getting into trouble.

Definitely naïve and something of a dreamer, Poppy's physical beauty wasn't enough to win her popularity at school either with students or teachers. Her height might have been an advantage at a sport such as netball, but again despite trying really hard she didn't have the talent to succeed at sports and only earned the ridicule of the other girls and the disappointment of the sports teachers, who thought that such a tall girl would be a major asset to the netball team. Poppy did have two good female friends at school, a really overweight blonde girl and a red haired girl with bad skin who was probably at the end of the line when looks were handed out. To a cynical observer seeing pretty Poppy with her friends it might have looked like Poppy was a mean girl who surrounded herself with overweight and unattractive friends to enhance her own beauty, but this was definitely not the case.

At home, the opinions upon Poppy between Dad, Simon and I were mixed at best. Dad tolerated her and was polite, but it was a curt politeness like he was dealing with a customer or colleague at the bank that he wasn't overly fond of. I think Dad would have always liked to have a daughter, but unfortunately stepdaughter Poppy did not quite measure up. Things most definitely did not improve when Poppy was getting her driver's license, and Dad attempted to give her some lessons before her upcoming test. It didn't go very well, to put it mildly. In something of a paradox nervous Poppy passed her test first time, while I had performed better while learning to drive but failed my first test, getting my license on the second attempt.

Simon could not stand Poppy, and would do his best to avoid her, answering her in terse monosyllables when it was impossible for him to avoid conversing with her. The dislike was not mutual, the nice-natured and naïve Poppy was always trying to be friends with Simon in her awkward way, but she never got very far.

"Brett, I don't know how you can put up with her, much less like her," Simon said to me one day.

"Oh she's okay, Simon," I said. "I've always gotten along well with Poppy. Perhaps you should give her more of a chance?"

"Um, no thanks, I'm good," said Simon. "Maybe I can emigrate to South Africa or Canada? Poppy is nowhere near South Africa or Canada."

Feeling somewhat like the middle child who resolves family issues, I had a great idea when we were in our mid-teens. There was a fair along the banks of the Thames for a bank holiday weekend, how about Simon, Poppy, Jacob and I all go together? Then Simon could see Poppy wasn't so bad after all, they would have fun together and he would like her too? Unfortunately it was to no avail. Simon didn't have any fun, and returned despising Poppy just as much as ever, probably even more. It was lucky that unlike Dad and Leah Simon never attempted to teach Poppy how to drive!

Simon was right about one thing, Poppy and I did get along well. We were close in age, born just a month apart in the spring of 1974. Poppy was slightly older than me, born on March 17 - St. Patrick's Day, an easy date to remember. I was born on April 25, another easy date to remember as it was Anzac Day in Australia and in New Zealand.

While Poppy and I did not meet until we were both aged 11, we seemed to click straight away and became like brother and sister as well as good friends. Being the same age, we were in the same year at school and took a lot of the same subjects, and also had similar tastes in movies, television and music. While Poppy had a tendency to rub people up the wrong way and irritate them, it never seemed to bother me and I always seemed to see the good side of her.

I also felt very sorry for Poppy, my stepsister trying so hard to be nice and always wanting to do the right thing but it not working out and her ending up in trouble or being rejected. This and with Poppy being so unworldly and innocent, I was very protective of her like a brother would be with his sister. I always would try to defend her and stand up for her when people weren't so nice to her, be this other kids who tried to bully her or adults. I got a week's worth of detention at high school when I stood up for Poppy against a mean jerk of an English teacher who reduced Poppy to tears by nastily ridiculing her naïve interpretation of a book we were studying, but given my time again I wouldn't have changed anything, and in fact would have called our English teacher a 'fucking idiot' rather than simply an idiot.

Moving into our new house in Essex, we couldn't have been happier with the four bedroom, two bathroom dwelling with a double car garage and nice garden. For the first week, our new home was perfect, just an ordinary suburban house in a street in Essex that Dad, Leah, Poppy, Jacob and I all loved. Unfortunately, when something appears too good to be true it usually is, and the new house proved a very good example of this adage.

The first sign that something was amiss with our new house came in the middle of the night a week after we moved in. We were all roused from our beds by somebody pounding on the front door at two in the morning, and the doorbell ringing repeatedly. Dad went to answer it, thinking there might be some sort of emergency, only to find nobody there, and nobody in the vicinity.

Dad went back to bed grumbling about 'stupid kids with nothing better to do than cause trouble', which seemed a fair assessment of the situation. Everything was quiet and we all went back to bed and fell back to sleep, only for the same banging on the door and ringing of the doorbell to rouse us again just after four. Again, nobody was there and once more we assumed it was stupid kids playing practical jokes. None of us thought any more about it, only hoping that these kids would not make a habit of it.

There were no issues the next few nights, but on the Friday afternoon Dad and I arrived home at the same time and found our front door wide open. Worrying we had been broken into, Dad and I cautiously went inside but no intruders were around and the front door was unlocked, it hadn't been forced open.

Dad was puzzled. "Brett, I swear I closed and locked the door when I left the house," he said. Again, neither of us thought too much more about it. Perhaps Dad had simply forgotten to lock and close the front door? It was out of character for him, but maybe just one of those things.

The next day I was alone in the house working on an English essay for school. Poppy, Jacob and I had part time retail jobs while attending school like many teenagers, but this Saturday I was not rostered on so was doing some catch up homework. Dad and Leah were out, and Poppy and Jacob were both at work, so it was quiet. Very quiet. A little too quiet.

Such was the silence of the house that it was almost loud, it was eerie. I had never felt this sensation before, it was quite unnerving. I kept thinking that I might be getting sick, especially as the house was cold. Really, really cold. Outside it was a cool, grey and drizzly day, not uncommon for the south of England in spring, but the house felt like it had been left for weeks in the middle of winter. I turned up the heating, but to no avail.

While puzzled by the cold temperatures and eerie silence, I again had no reason to think anything funny was going on. Then on Wednesday afternoon there was another strange incident. I heard Leah talking in the kitchen, and knew Poppy, Jacob and Dad were all out. So who was Leah talking to? I entered the kitchen, to which Leah jumped and turned around, immediately looking alarmed.

"Are you okay, Leah?" I asked my stepmother.

"Brett, how did you get there?" Leah asked.

"I was in the living room, I heard you talking to somebody," I said.

"I was talking to you Brett, asking you how your day was. I thought you were standing right beside me."

Neither Leah nor I could make any sense of this save for an overly active imagination on the part of my stepmother. Nothing else odd happened for a week or so, but soon other things happened over the next few weeks that in isolation might be able to be explained as a one-off, but together became more than a little un-nerving.

Objects would disappear and turn up in unexpected places. These included Dad's briefcase, which somehow ended up in the garden shed, Jacob's football boots which we found on top of a linen cupboard and a pair of Poppy's stirrup pant leggings that turned up in the kitchen pantry of all places. My maths assignment vanished completely the night before it was due to be handed in only we never saw it again, and I had to race to complete the whole bloody thing again.

The house was so cold, always so cold even though spring was now giving way to summer. Windows would be open when they shouldn't have been, interior doors would be closed and locked again when they shouldn't be, but when we went to get the keys the door would be open and unlocked when we returned.

Then there were the noises, the strange and eerie noises. There would be knocking sounds on the exterior windows and doors in the night or during the day if you were home alone. But being home alone was not a pleasant experience. When in the house by myself I always felt like I was being watched, even though I knew it was ridiculous and impossible. I told myself it was just my imagination, yet still the feelings persisted.

And when I passed by Poppy's room one night, Poppy was in tears and complaining to her mother about how she felt that she was always being watched in the house, Leah handing her daughter tissues and trying to console her, I knew it was not just me. I began to feel quite foolish about my previous complete and absolute conviction that there were no ghosts.

None of us said the word 'ghost' to each other as our dream house began to turn to something more of a nightmare in the summer of 1991. I think we were in denial, not wanting to believe anything was wrong. Yet it was impossible to deny something was seriously wrong with our new house. There came odd noises with the plumbing, humming noises from the water pipes and strange bubbling sounds audible from the drains. Another night Poppy was taking a shower when we heard her scream in the bathroom, the problem being that the water had turned from warm to icy in a second and with no explanation.

It was around this time that the footsteps arrived. Morning, afternoon, evening and most unnervingly in the middle of the night, we would hear footsteps on the ground floor, upstairs, on the staircase and in the attic. From the attic we could also hear rustling and scuffling noises or thumps as though something had fallen over, but whenever we pulled down the stairs to investigate, everything was quiet and in order.

We didn't have any pets, however Leah's sister and her husband dropped their cat off with us to stay for ten days while they went on holiday to Portugal. But the cat was so un-nerved and traumatized in the house, running around hissing and growling with her fur puffed up, arching her back and spitting at places in a room or hallway where nobody was there, that after three days Leah took the cat to her mother to stay for the rest of the time her owners were on holiday.