• As I stepped from the train station I wondered what Glasgow had to offer.
    A person such as myself would find typical sights a bore but nevertheless I carried on up the road.

    I had been in and out of bazaars and interest shops but nothing appealed to me and then I realised I had nowhere to stay.
    I set out looking to find somewhere but all of the up to standard places were either too pricey or had been taken. But just as I was about to give up hope and find a hotel something caught my eye. A black and white painted sign in the window of a house.
    It read, “to let to any willing tenant”.

    The place seemed familiar but yet I couldn’t tell where I had seen it.
    I knocked on the door and an old man appeared before I could gather breath.
    He looked friendly. He had deep brown eyes and cheeks that looked as if they belonged to a harlequin clown, all red and rosy.

    “Yes?” Asked the old man “I’m here about the room to let?” I enquired. He didn’t answer but took my cases into the huge dining room.
    “How long will you be staying?” asked the old man “oh at least a week until I can find a place of my own” he noted it on a small note pad. ”Oh by the way my name is Mr sinking” "miss turton" i replied "charmed to meet you"

    “Well that will be a crown please? Would you like the bed and breakfast service too?” I hesitated for a moment “oh yes please.” I gave him the money and he told me to wait in the dining room while he could find the login book.

    The dining room had an open wall so you could see into the living room.
    It looked so cosy and friendly I could’ve curled up in front of the dancing flames from the fire. And the little cat asleep on the rug looked so peaceful. I turned and spotted a parrot asleep on its perch in the cage it too looked peaceful.

    “I see you have met Mao and Peru” said Mr sinking “yes they could’ve fooled me too how long have they been there?”
    “About three years. I couldn’t stand to be alone so I kept them” after that we went back into the dining room to sign the visitor book.

    The book had two names in it already and they hadn’t signed out yet. “Mr sinking why hasn’t the Mr Andrew Lowe and Mr peter nook signed out yet?”
    His expression didn’t change he looked up and said, “my dear child they are still here up in the attic rooms.” I didn’t ask any more questions he handed me the pen and I signed in.

    After I signed in he took me up the stairs to my room.
    The halls smelled faintly of the hospital back home. It seemed like we had been walking around the corridors for hours when we finally got to my room.
    Inside he showed me around and then left me to unpack.
    The room was of comfortable size. It had a double bed with crisp white sheets that reminded me yet again of the hospital back home.
    Against the wall was a huge oak wardrobe and next to that was a silver dresser with several drawers.
    Overall I liked the house but there were two feelings that I just couldn’t shake.
    One of familiarity even though I had never been in the house before
    And the other of dread that seemed to spring from nowhere.

    The room had been silent since Mr sinking had departed so I decided to change into something comfortable and read a book on the bed, as it would be improper for a lady to wear the same clothes in the evening as upon arrival.
    My black-laced dress was beginning to get creased so I took it off and also my tights and put on my midnight blue silken dress. I put a bow in my tousled ebony hair as so it would not distract me from my reading.

    A few hours had passed after I had absorbed my book. By then I was familiarised with the light chimes of the small clock on the silver dresser.
    It was six o’clock and the air outside was drawing cold and dark. I shut the window across the room and tried to settle once again on the bed but by now all of the room had drawn cold and there was no fireplace.

    I put on my shoes and hoped to find Mr sinking downstairs to discuss what there is to do around Glasgow and hopefully share the warmth from the fire.
    But as I moved from the bed there was a knock on the door.
    It was Mr sinking. “Would you like a cup of tea?” he asked holding up the brass tray.
    “Oh yes I was just coming downstairs to see if I could find you” I replied taking a cup from the tray.

    “You wish to discuss something with me then come downstairs and we shall speak next to the light of the fire” he whispered. So once again I followed him down the hallways and staircases until we reached the living room.
    I carried the cup with both hands and was careful not to drink from it until we reached the living room. It would be unladylike to drink whilst walking.

    We entered the living room and sat on the small brown couch in front of the fire.
    “I was wondering what there is to see around Glasgow” I told him “would you know of interesting things around here?” he began to speak as he did I took a sip of the tea. It was sweet and smelled faintly of almonds.

    I suddenly became very conscious of where I was and then the room started to spin.
    The last thing I remember of being in the front room was the tea it was so unusually sweet and almond fragranced. I had dropped the cup and fell from the couch.


    I woke up in an old dusty room next to two men whom I had definitely seen before.
    And at that moment I had realised what I had done. I recognised the house because it was in the Leeds gazette. And the two men I was sitting next to had disappeared around that area twenty-five years ago.

    Mr sinking was from Edinburgh he had stuffed animals in his living room and his halls smelled of hospitals he was a taxidermist and I was his latest victim. he had poisoned me with arsenic.