First this.
Paul Saunders is a born and bred Mancunian, lives in the south, and, like everyone who has grown up in that part of Manchester, has a thick Mancunian accent.
And like a good part of people from the North-west, family to him is everything.
That and getting sloshed on a Friday night and the rain is spitting fine, and tea is your main meal, not something you drink. That's a brew.
When asked about that house on Richmond Street — he doesn't mince his words.
True fucking right, I believed it was haunted!
And again, you're asking me, do I believe what I'm saying? I can see it in your eyes, the self-doubt. Well, how many houses do you know that can make you afraid when you walk past them? Not many, eh? And take a look at me; I'm not exactly a skinny fuck; I got muscles on muscles. Been inside a few times; for stuff when I was younger.
But I sorted my life out when my daughter was born.
Yet, it's that house you want to hear about. Well, hear this.
I moved to Richmond Street in 2006, after I began working as a painter and decorator, I learned the trade in prison. In there, you need something to occupy your time; otherwise, you get bored, and that's never good.
It was perhaps — a few months after moving to that street — I began to notice really weird shit happening at that one house.
I live across the road, and one night, it must have been three in the morning; I woke up to hear somebody banging on the front door.
At first, I thought it was the guy living there; he had been out for the night and forgot his house keys, but then I started to hear this man; yelling and shouting.
I'm not startled by people shouting, but fucking hell, I'd never heard anyone so angry.
I got out of bed, thinking; what the hell, and looked across the road. It was just an old guy.
Not what I expected, and the old guy.
Well, this is where it gets crazy. He couldn't see me looking out of my bedroom window because his back was turned and my bedroom light was off. But he made this slow turn and looked right at me.
Just stood there, looking at me, and before I knew it, he came marching over.
That really caught me off guard because the old man didn't look like much. A gust of wind could blow him over. Yet, he came storming over, and the next thing; I knew he was pounding on my front door.
And I mean really knocking the shit out of it; I thought the ceiling was going to cave in!
Me: 'Did you go downstairs and answer the front door?'
Fuck no, I was scared.
Me: Scared?'
Look, I don't know what it was, but that old man, for some reason, he really scared me.
I don't think; he was even real.
Now, this.
Throughout the weeks that followed, Fiona and Steven heard nothing from the newspapers.
And those weeks brought in more terrors.
Sometimes mild, a chair sliding across the kitchen floor, footsteps in the bedroom when it was empty.
Other times they were more terrifying, faces appearing in the bathroom mirror, a woman screaming.
But the worse had to be the fainting spells — they were getting out of hand. Three times a week, Fiona would have them.
Imagine being in the back garden, putting the laundry on the washing line, and then waking up hours later in the kitchen. Or being upstairs in the bathroom, and then you're downstairs with no memory of how you got there.
You only know; you're sore in parts where you shouldn't be. And your stomach is on fire.
'The worse had to be the nightmares afterwards. Steven told me. Fiona would start screaming in her sleep.'
'Get him away from me! Get him off me!'
'The next minute, I would watch in terror as Fiona's legs would snap open, and the awful sound of hipbones cracking would rush into my eardrums.'
The notion of recording the fainting spells came up on the cards. Perhaps Steven might catch something. What was in the bad dreams?
The problem with that idea, nobody knew when the blackouts would occur.
Fiona. 'The problem with the fainting spells; I could never tell Steven when they would come on. They weren't like epileptic seizures where you might see flashing lights or smell something. They just happened.'
Nevertheless, Steven did manage to record his wife during one of her fainting spells, thanks to the webcams they had set up around the house.
The footage recorded; showed Fiona walking in a zombie-like state, unaware of Steven or the girls asking if she was okay?
Yet, the most important part of the recording is what happened next.
Steven. In the recording, it had me laying Fiona on the sofa. She never moved away from the spot, and nobody left the room. But when we watched the playback. She had disappeared for a minute and then reappeared again.
Me. So your wife, although she stayed in the room, vanished from the recording and then came back?
Steven. 'That's correct.'
Readers; should take into account that before Fiona disappeared, a blue light had suddenly flashed and disappeared.
What might have caused this flashing light is still in debate.
Some suggest it may have been a light bulb exploding or even the taillights of a vehicle going past the window. However, Steven says none of that happened.
So, how do we explain? The blue light flashing?
Furthermore, is Fiona disappearing?
We can't, and that footage was posted on YouTube.
Where it received more than a thousand views three days after being posted. Yet, there was still no help.
And most people who had watched the video didn't hold back on their opinions.
Most believed it was a fraud, and during a video uploaded on Good Friday that showed Fiona levitating and screaming words which sounded like an ancient language. The viewer's opinions were straight coming.
'Why do people waste their time posting these fakes?'
'Best horror movie this year.'
'You can well tell this shit's fake.'
When asked to comment on these remarks — Fiona said they were just trolls. Simple as that.
And in the meantime, she and her family tried everything, but getting help was still a problem.
Months went by, the fear never-ending, nights filled with terror.
In fact, it wasn't until October that help finally came. Their story was eventually published.
And that was only because their YouTube clips had gone viral.
How the devil loves to play.
Self-Interview.
Q. Who told you about The Berman case?
A. 'The family got in contact with the newspapers; I worked for in January.'
Q. What came of that?
A. 'My editor didn't believe there was a good enough story. Most editors are looking for front-page headlines. The same as publishers look for a profit from a first-time novelist. And a story about a family experiencing paranormal activity in their home wouldn't make headlines, especially after Christmas.'
Q. But eventually, you did publish the article?
A. 'Yes.'
Q. What was the reason for that?
A. 'The fame; the family were getting on YouTube. My editor wanted to jump on the bandwagon, so I emailed the family, asking if I could come round one evening and asked a few questions.'
Q. They put their Email address online?'
'A. 'They did.'
Q. Before you went to the house, did you believe the family story?
A. 'Not until I went to their house. When I got there, I could see the family was terrified. You could see it in their eyes, especially Fiona. But something else told me; they weren't lying. Something I saw.'
Q. Which was?
(Here, the last part of the interview is suddenly erased, there is no explanation for it.)
News article from The Evening Standard (Me).
FAMILY TERRORISED IN THEIR OWN HOME
Strange noises, levitation, objects, disappearing, demonic faces at the bedroom window.
These are all the things you would find in a Hollywood ghost story, yet for Fiona and her family. It is more than a ghost story. For them, it's a living nightmare.
Their eldest child has witnessed on several occasions an old man who sometimes floats in the air. And the family dog was allegedly scourged by an invisible force.
'We don't know what it is, but we know it's dangerous.' Steven says.
The family has even posted on YOUTUBE; footage to back up their allegations of what they claim to be paranormal activity.
One video that shows Fiona floating in the kitchen has received a million views.
'We just want our lives back.' Fiona says.
G. Jarvis
A week after the Berman article was published, Gary went back to the house.
'I like to write about your experience.' He told the family.
'I thought you already did that with the article you wrote about us.' Steven said.
'I did, but I would like to write a book about everything you have gone through.'
'You think people will want to read a story like ours?' Fiona asked.
'I don't know, but when I left here. Something peculiar happened. Something I think you should know.'
'What?' Fiona and Steven asked together.
'I saw a child floating in the bedroom window!'