The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories

He had looked on the first few thousand homes of which he had robbed all time, and which he must see with his eyes before he may go hence. The first night of the Kaiser’s punishment was accomplished.

The Haunted Chateau

Dennis Wheatley

Location:  Cheterau, Eastern France.

Time:  Spring, 1940.

Eyewitness Description:  “The Thing was in the pentacle! Inside it! There with them; at their elbows, instead of beyond the barrier which should have kept it out. Why had he felt no warning – no indication of evil. . .?”

Author:  Dennis Wheatley (1897–1997) was one of the most popular novelists in Britain for almost half of the 20th century. Born into a family of wine merchants, he served as a gunner officer during World War One before being gassed and invalided out. By the thirties, he was the sole owner of the family business, but still determined to pursue his dream of becoming an author. His early best-sellers like The Forbidden Territory (1933) revealed his fascination with espionage and spying and when the Second World War started he offered his considerable prophetic skills to the war effort. Under the rank of a Wing Commander in the Joint Planning Staff of the War Cabinet he wrote a series of Top Secret papers anticipating German strategy, notably Resistance to Invasion, Village Defence and After the Battle. The documents proposed a host of ingenious ideas from setting the Channel on fire to building “tank traps” on the East Coast. Although Wheatley subsequently claimed more credit for his part in British plans than he was entitled to, there was undoubtedly a germ of possibility in everything he proposed. His involvement also inspired him to write one of the first “supernatural stories” of the war, which also harks back to the earlier conflict in its reference to the legend of a crucified soldier.

“France!” Brace Hemmingway raised his eyebrows and looked inquiringly across the table at his curious little host. “Would I like to go on a visit to the front? I’ll say I would; but as an American and a neutral, I’d never get a pass.”

Neils Orsen smiled and scrutinized one of his long slender hands. “I’m a neutral, too, but I’ve been invited to go over there to investigate a little matter. It won’t actually be the Maginot Line, but it’s in the Zone des Armées and I have permission to take an assistant, so I’m sure a pass for you could be arranged.”

“My dear Neils, I’d love to go,” the young international lawyer declared with rising excitement. “Tell me all about it.”

“Two days ago General Hayes, who is an old friend of mine, came to see me,” Orsen began, his cool voice only slightly tinged with a Swedish accent. “He has always been interested in psychical research and is now on leave from France. It seems that an old chateau which had been taken over by the British had to be abandoned as a billet because it is so badly haunted that even the officers refuse to stay in it.”

The big American lit a cigarette. “Then it must be the grandfather of all hauntings. What form does it take?”

“As usual, it does not affect everyone, but at least one or two out of each group of men that has been stationed there have felt its influence, and the manifestations always occur at night. The wretched victim is apparently always taken by surprise, lets out a piercing yell, and throws some sort of fit. Afterwards they state that they heard nothing, saw nothing, but were stabbed through the hands or feet and paralysed, rooted to the spot, transfixed by an agonizing pain which racked their whole bodies. The curious thing is that these attacks have taken place in nearly every room in the house. However, the worst cases have occurred in the one and only bathroom and it was there, about ten days ago, that one victim died – presumably as the result of a heart attack. It was that which finally decided the authorities to evacuate the chateau.”

“How long has the haunting been going on?”

The Swede blinked his large pale-blue eyes, so curiously like those of his Siamese cat, Past. “I’m not sure. You see, the château was empty and in a very dilapidated condition when the Army took over. I gather that it was untenanted for some considerable time before war started.”

“Was your friend able to find out the history of the place from the villagers?”

“Yes, and a most unpleasant story it is. But they seemed vague as to when the haunting began.”

“What was the story?”