Ghost in the attic

Friday. January 20, 2023 - 2 mins

Ghost in the attic. Finally. The ghost in the attic is gone.

I’d had enough of it setting off the smoke detector.

Our house is old by modern housing standards, and is made from the remnants of an even older collection of cottages which burned down sometime at the fringe of living memory.

This meant the house came with a ghost.

Well. A few actually. But this one in particular is a resident of the attic.

On a regular basis and at all hours of the day, the smoke alarm goes off in the attic. The connected nature of the house means the exceedingly polite alarm from the device moves like a Mexican wave down through the house. All the while, notifications on various devices start to chime to announce the ghost.

We’ve had multiple smoke alarms in the room over the years. Cheep ones and expensive one. Both dumb and smart varieties have been tried but with the same results.

Once, we even had two. Just to see if they went off at the same time. They didn’t. Although they did both go off.

The alarm goes off at random intervals. Sometimes multiple times a day whilst other times only once every few months. We’ve spotted no discernible pattern over the years other than it’s more frequent at night.

Ghosts. Must be. The tortured souls of lives lost in long ago blaze are living in the attic. If they can’t sleep, nor will the living. Over the years, a story had been built up around the activity which I tell every now and then. . .however, I’ll save that for a dinner conversation on a cold and dark night sometime.

But yesterday was the first time ever seeing the ghastly guests with my own eyes.

Over the day, it went off a few times.

I say a few times. It was actually the worst day ever for alarms. By mid afternoon I was fed up of traversing the stairs and decided to take it down. It was interrupting work.

That’s when they appeared.

From the air inlets on the Nest Protect, a steady stream of flies emerged and started to fly about the room, bumping along one pitched ceiling to the other. . They were either sleepy or starved as these weren’t the nippy insects one would normally expect.

Grabbing the raid and giving it a spray got rid of the ghoulish visitors. No more being woken up in the early mornings. No more pointing out how frustrating it is by my partner. No more spirits possessing living amongst the eves.

Hopefully.

It’s my home work space!

Time will tell.