The Bloody Footstep

In Bolton there is Smithills Hall. According to local legend, some two hundred years ago Smithills Hall belonged to a Sir Forrester. Now, Sir Forrester was a regular man and, as most men, he feared death. Unlike most men, however, he sought to outsmart the grim specter. He rummaged through medical journals and searched the latest scientific discoveries to find a way to prolong his own life and ward away death. In time he even turned to sifting through occult texts of magic and mysticism.

It was in the occult texts that Sir Forrester found the answer he sought. The charm that would extend his life, however, would require a great and grand cost. The charm, to extend Sir Forrester’s life, would require the life of another. It would require the life of someone close to Sir Forrester himself. He might sacrifice thirty others and the charm would not work, but should he sacrifice someone dear to him he might extend his life by thirty or more years.

And so Sir Forrester came to the decision to sacrifice a kinswoman who had come into his care long ago and was more daughter to him than adopted sister passed onto him by his parents. One day he took her out into the forest around Smithills Hall and conducted the charm. In the end he struck his kinswoman down with a dagger. He performed the ghastly ritual out in the middle of the forest. When he was finished with his gruesome task, he accidentally placed his right foot in the blood of his now deceased kinswoman.

He walked all the way back to Smithills Hall trailing behind a bloody footprint the entire way. When he reached the manor, he realized just what he had done and fell into a horror -stricken guilt. He fled his manor - but everywhere he went he trailed behind him the bloody footprint. After years of torment, he returned to his home, Smithills Hall. When he crossed the threshold he left a bloody footprint at one of the doors - a bloody footprint that remains to be seen today. A bloody footprint that when the moonlight strikes it right shines with fresh blood.

The legend ends there, but I have more to add. This was the first of the stories that began to turn me from skeptic to believer. While exploring this story, and Smithills Hall, I investigated the bloody footprint. It exists and, as legend says, shines with fresh blood when the moon strikes it right. What the legend does not speak of is the trail of footprints within the manor.

I requested and received special permission to stay overnight in Smithills Hall. During that night, I wandered the building, keeping my eyes peeled for something more to add to the story. Around midnight the story chose to find me.

I was lounging in the dining room of the manor when I heard footsteps as the stairs creaked nearby. I rushed from where I sat to the base of the stairwell, as no one else was supposed to be in this ancient building but I. When I reached the stairwell I found that it was empty except for what looked to be a very fresh trail of bloody footprints.

The Ghost of Sir Forrester still wanders the corridors of Smithills Hall, ever trailing the blood of his slain kinswoman.

On to 'The Procession of Ghosts'
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Author’s Note: I chose this story for its simplicity. It is a plain, but enjoyable, story to read in its original version. Here I have largely left the story intact. The biggest change was adding Nathan Proctor as the narrator. I condensed the core of the original story (from 856 words to 366 words) and added the finding of the trail of footprints as Nathan’s discovery. I cut it down by removing a portion where Sir Forrester visits the king of England. I simply didn’t think that this was necessary as simply stating that he wandered the world for a spell. I also chose to remove a portion where it tells of his servants missing the young kinswoman and lamenting over her disappearance. This, in my opinion, was a story focused on Sir Forrester and Nathan and the woes of servants weren’t needed.

This story fits into my overall frametale as where Nathan begins his turn from skeptic to believer. I know I can imagine if this were a full book (rather than just 4 stories highlighting his conversion) that this would be the first story in which he begins to experience the paranormal. The other stories will have a similar theme (or motif) to them: Nathan telling a ghost story and then adding his own pitch to it. Something he discovered on his own.

A note about Smithills Hall itself: there are several legends concerning a bloody footstep there (Google is your friend); this one just happened to be in a convenient story format for me to retell.