Black spider

The Black Spider is a scary ghost story about a family in Ireland who rent a house where an old man once disappeared. It is inspired by an old Irish ghost story recorded by Henry DeVere Stacpoole. Many years ago, in the town of Ennis in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland, there lived a man named Sir Michael Carey. The locals nicknamed him 'The Black Spider' on account of his personality and general makeup. He lived all alone in Carey House, an old mansion on the outskirts of the town and he seldom left his home or spoke to any of his neighbors. One dark night, there was a fierce storm that shook the windows and rattled the doors of every house in Ennis. The next morning, The Black Spider had disappeared and nobody knew what had happened to him. His house was simply abandoned and there was no trace of him to be found. Since he had no close family, the house was auctioned off to the highest bidder to pay off the old man's debts. The locals were a superstitious, God-fearing bunch and soon, wild rumors began to spread throughout the town. According to the legend, that dark and stormy night, the devil had come to Ennis and spirited the old man away, leaving neither hide nor hair of him behind. The abandoned Carey House gained a fearful reputation and many people believed it was haunted by the ghost of The Black Spider. The man who bought the house tried to rent it out, but nobody would dare to spend the night in it. The house lay empty for many years and everybody for miles around avoided it like the plague. Eventually, the old house was rented by a wealthy family from Dublin by the name of Leftwidge. They owned a grocer's shop and there was almost a dozen children, mostly boys and one girl. The oldest child was a tall, red-headed strip of a girl named Nora who helped her mother with the cooking and took care of her younger siblings. The youngest child was named Patrick and he was not even the height of your knee. The family lived in the house while the father remained in Dublin, taking care of the shop. The rent was only twenty pounds a year, but the owner had warned them not to go near the attic bedroom. He said there were rats in the attic and they couldn't be gotten rid of. So that was the reason the rent was so low. He warned them to keep the door to the attic shut and to ignore any noises the rats made at night. The family lived there for a full month without any problems. Then, one day, something very strange happened. Nora was cleaning the bedrooms on the top floor, when she happened to open the door of the attic bedroom by mistake. She let out a blood-curdling screech, slammed the door and ran downstairs crying and screaming at the top of her lungs. When her mother saw her, she tried to calm her down, but it was no use. Eventually, she managed to get a few words out and told her mother exactly what she had seen. She said that when she opened the door, there was a horrible figure sitting in the middle of the floor. Through her tears, the girl described it as an old man in a black coat and hat. The most horrible thing, she said, was that he didn't have a face. It was more like one of those masks that children make out of a bit of paper with holes cut in it. The other children didn't believe her and her mother told them all it must have been a rat she saw. Still, that night, all of the children slept in their mother's bedroom. They kept a dozen candles burning all night because they were afraid to sleep in the dark. Some time after midnight, the mother was awoken from her sleep by the youngest boy, little Patrick. 'Mammy,' he said, 'Do you hear the scratching too?' She sat up in bed to listen and she was shocked when she could hear a distant scratching sound as well. It seemed to be coming from the attic bedroom. Within minutes, all of the other children were awake and out of bed, listening to the scratching sound. Their teeth were chattering and their knees were knocking. They opened their bedroom door and peered out into the darkened corridor. As they watched in horror, the handle of the attic bedroom door beg