The woman not in black at all really

Arthur Kipps, a single father whose wife died four years earlier in childbirth at the start of 1910 had been asked by his london firm to visit the estate of the recently deceased Alice Drablow in Eel manor in the north of the british isles, an isolated victorian manor in the northern british isles built on an island in marshland. There he was to set the deceaseds paperwork in order to sell the manor.

He had been oddly unsettled leaving his son in the care of a nanny as he had headed north on the train to the small isolated town of Crythin Grifford. But upon arrival he had found the villagers seemed very hostile and unwelcoming, but the local landlord Samuel Daily who he had met on the train had driven him to the village inn before inviting him to dinner the next evening with his wife and him.

At the inn he had met an unfriendly barkeep who had refused him a room initially and a dishevelled worried young modestly dressed woman who had convinced the barkeep to lend him a room and they had put him in their attic despite seeming hesitant to let him stay up there as they had warned him it would be best to leave the village. The attic had been a large room that seemed to big for one person and filled with old girls toys and pictures of three young beautiful women, with their absence all too obvious as he wondered what had become of them.

The next morning though the villagers had all seemed to keep away from him, particularly a lot of young women as he had then met a Mr Jerome, an angry and worried local lawyer who had tried to convince him not to stay at the manor or go anywhere near it having promised he would complete all the relevant paper work. But he had ignored the advice and gotten the local carriage driver to take him out to the island, the road disappearing on the narrow peninsula when the tides would come in as all through the carriage ride he could see villagers staring at him with fury, particularly the girls from their windows before he was taken across the marsh to the gates of the estate as he noticed to his surprise a cross in the marshy silt before the driver let him off on the stoney beach as the driver had agreed to meet him at five in the afternoon.

Walking up through the forests of the island he had been walked past old tombstowns covered in moss and ivy before he saw the large symmetrical ivy covered three story manor emerge rounding a corner with its unhinged gates and overgrown garden meeting him.

And walking towards the door he had opened it into a large grand entrance hall with a staircase and lots of old furniture, paintings and dust as he had walked around the various unclean rooms as he had lit a candle and thought he saw a thin pale object to his left hand side in the old kitchen, but when he turned to look it seemed he had been mistaken before the old tap in the kitchen he had turned on suddenly started running to his surprise as he turned it off and kept exploring the vast empty halls as he sat in the study with mountains of paperwork and began his work then as the day ran on, finding a bunch of old letters addressed to a Young mistress Nathaniella on her 1st birthday, only to then find a letter about this young womans **** at eighteen years of age after drowning in the marshlands without her body ever having been recovered.

That was when he thought he had heard footsteps in the rooms above him and headed upstairs as down a long unlit corridor he had walked through the various musty old rooms, finding one locked that he couldn't open before footsteps again had echoed and he had followed them with nervousness to a different room where he had **** open the door only to find a small baby bird had fallen out of its nest as he had been distressed as its mother had then flown past him and he had decided to open up the window to let it out as it graciously accepted his offer.

And looking out at the marshlands he was amazed at how vast and quiet they seemed as he had then caught something in the glimmer of his eye that seemed unnatural, a colour that didn't belong amidst the green of the island. For at the graveyard he suddenly saw a woman, and not a normal one. For to his surprise and bewilderment he could see she was stitchless, standing there without a hint of modesty as her figure was relatively prim and skinny even at the distance he was from the graveyard, with dark black hair as he could see her staring back at him and he at her with confused transfixion before the crow had distracted him, and looking back she had left.

Heading outside to try and see if she was around in case she wanted something he hadnt found her before he had heard a scream and hurried to the beach where he had heard the sounds out in the marsh as he had hurried towards them before he had gotten lost in the mist, hearing voices all around him before he had turned to find the driver of the carriage waiting for him to take him back to the village where he had reported the screams to the constable who had not believed him saying there must have been an accident out in the marsh before he had told the constable he had saw a woman out there as the constable had headed into the back room.

That was when Arthur had heard the sound of a young common woman and her two brothers entering the station as he turned to look at her. "Is everything alright?" he asked as even though he wasn't a police officer she looked distressed as the brothers nodded.

"Our older sister, her legs just went and she's not feeling well at all. We can't carry her home!" they explained as Arthur agreed to help them carry her as he told them to go on ahead and prepare a cold bath for her as she might be becoming feverish as he herself helped her lean onto his shoulder as he looked at the brunette girl dressed in a dark ankle length modest black dress with puffy shoulders and gloves with a nice decorated hat as he helped her onto a cart as he walked alongside it as they headed into the marketplace which was relatively unbusy as he heard the girl murmur then and sit up as she looked around panickedly.

"Where am I?" she cried out in a panic alerting everyone to her presence as Arthur tried to reassure the girl everything was alright, but she was already panicking and falling off the horse before he could grab her.

And then something truly extraordinarily shocking happened before his eyes as he heard a tearing sensation as the woman fell down, but looking down then he was shocked to see something truly unbelievable.

For the young woman was now lying on the ground to his horror in her birthday suit as he looked at the carriage and at the barbed nails of the old shoddy wood that had peeked out not just once but two or three times, her entire dress at the back having been ripped through by the **** of her fall and the nails leaving her lying there on the remaning front of her dress as he for a moment could only look at her pale butt, the black gloves she was wearing along with the knee high boots and fancy black hat highlighting the nakedness of every other aspect of her body as she lay face down in the wet muddy british ground.

And he tried desperately then to get the girls dress tears away from the carriage, but the wheels of the carriage had caught onto the hanging cloth and with a loud rip the shreds of her dress were ripped all the more as the front section of her dress which may have been preserved had been caught under the wheels and yanked from her as she was now without cover much to Arthur and the villagers horror as the girl sat up then and looked around with confusion.

"What happened?" she asked before she suddenly seemed to feel a chill on her body as Arthur didn't respond and the girl looked down with horror at her moderately sized perky breasts out in the open as well as her brown pubic hairs before she looked around at the villagers around her and at Arthur with mortification before she brought her gloved hands to her breasts and ample bosom and then before Arthur could do anything the girls weak legs seemed to have disappeared as she suddenly was sprinting away with horrified wails out of the square as Arthur was left mortified by the whole situation as the stares he was getting were chilling from the villagers as he wanted to explain he hadn't done anything to her, but decided he was the villain to them for some reason anyways as he headed back to the bar where the barmaid had begged him again to consider leaving.

And puzzled by the days events he headed to dinner with Daily who had been aghast at the unlucky event, but strangely begged Arthur not to tell his wife about it, or mention anything about naked women at all as they had then headed into his guest room and met his wife, an unsettled and erratic old woman who could swear she talked to her dead daughter and had then seemed to go manic and start scratching the table with a knife before her husband had dragged her away to calm down.

After which he and Arthur had discussed the potential of lingering souls and seances, Daily not believing in them but Arthur at least skeptical and **** for them to work. And retiring for the night he had been shocked to see a sketch of a naked young woman as he had headed to bed then a little bit unsettled.

The next morning though he and Daily had headed to meet with Jerome but not found him. However in his locked cellar to Arthurs shock he peeking in saw a young blonde girl who stared at him with horror.

"Go away! You stripped Victoria Hardy!" the girl screamed in horror as Arthur tried to protest, but the young womans screeching and panic was so high he just fled out of the cellar as he and Daily headed back towards the island by car only to find a bunch of men standing outside blocking the road.

"What is this nonsense?" Daily demanded as Jerome approached them furiously. "You should have left, you should have gone when we told you to!" he stated furiously at them as he pointed to a fat middle aged man. "Now his daughters lost her modesty!" he shouted as the middle aged man looked at Arthur with a sad face.

"You saw her, didn't you?!" he demanded as Arthur stared at him in confusion. "You saw that woman at the house didn't you?" he asserted before Daily urged them to stop talking superstitiou nonsense as then Jerome grew angry.

"Was it superstitious nonsense that opened up your daughters dress at the ballroom and made her eventually kill herself from the lingering shame and humiliation?" he demanded as Arthur stared at Daily whose expression of fury and baffled confusion suddenly just nodded.

"Fine. I'll take him to the station" he bluffed before he suddenly revved up the car, forcing them out of the way as on the way to the house he assured Arthur there was nothing in the house and the people were hallucinating.

Arthur at the gates of the island had decided to stay the night though as Daily had given him the company of his dog as arthur made his way back to the house and lit it up for the night, failing to open the locked room from the day before even with all his keys before he had heard a bell ring and followed it to the bathroom. Finding nothing irregular in it at all he had spun a lamp with a series of small pictures inside it forming an image. That was when thruogh the spinning slits he had seen an eye but no one behind it as he had reflexively backed away as he chose to ignore it as a trick of his mind and sat down reading through pictures and notes, finding one with "She will haunt me to the grave" written on it ominously, and another with prayers for help and blessings of god and a picture of a crowd of people with a young woman circled out before the dog had started barking and he had followed it outside, finding nothing outside as he had turned back to the house and out around the graveyard again, finding the drowned girls bodyless grave before he had suddenly noticed the grave of a Jennet Humfrye, the sister of the recently deceased owner of the manor Alice Drablow before he had headed back to the house.

But then he had been brought to a standstill as he saw her again in one of the upstairs windows, a fourty or so year old woman staring down at him with her shoulders and breasts visible as she had then turned away from the window as he had then hurried to the room she had been in, findng it empty as he had looked out the window himself at the outside window before he had gotten back to looking around the room, finding a chest full of papers and birthday cards again addressed to Nathaniella from his mummy.

Then he had settled down and started to read the many letters in the chest as he had learned then Nathaniella had been Jennets child who the drablows had taken from her claimng she was mentally unwell, locking her in her room away from her daughter as she had been denied seeing her own child even until the day she had drowned.

But the next letter was even more unsettling as he learned the details of Nathaniella's **** at eighteen years of age. The Drablows having invited her friends over to the island and left their adopted daughter and her other wealthy friends to their own devices. However Nathaniella being young and naive had agreed to go skinny dipping with her lady friends, they all meeting in their fancy dresses with the agreement to strip down, only for when their dresses dropped Nathaniella had been the only one actually naked, a common prank non-sheltered and naive girls should have seen coming, as well as the recently invented camera that caught the young girl in all her bared glory as the damage and humiliation that had followed the girl from then on had gotten too much until she had drowned herself she had felt so utterly berefit of dignity.

Jennet upon learning the news had never forgiven the Drablows, hanging herself at the age of fourty naked in her room as he was mortified with what he had read, but even with that horror story and the equally terrifying image of the young beautiful but crying and desperately covering herself girl in the photo haunting his mind, Jennet having kept the image herself and burnt with mortified rage at her daughters humiliation for the last few miserable years of her life.

But he had still fallen asleep despite his horror, only to be awoken by the barks of the dog as to his surprise he heard a loud rocking from the locked room upstairs and decided enough was enough, fetching an axe before to his horror he found the door unlocked as he came back upstairs and approached it nervously with the axe raised for defense. But as he rounded the door he found only an empty rocking chair somehow moving on its own before all too suddenly he saw a head that was disappeared on the next rock as he headed into the doll filled room, to the chair which was finally ceasing to rock as he looked around the room and opened up a cupboard before on a wall with some chipping plaster he saw a splotch of red paint of some kind and then started to tear away the paper of the wall as the message "You could have stopped them!" was written as then the dolls in the room started to move as he headed back out into the corridor and out into another room where he stared out the window at the cross in the marshes in the pouring rain as to his horror then he watched as a young girl rose up out of it, completely bare and covering herself as then he realised a handprint was on the window and went to touch it, only to back away as to his horror suddenly a naked young blonde girl suddenly appeared outside, holding her breasts with both arms in utter horror and shrieking with complete anguish at her state as he immediately retreated in terror as he then heard the dog bark and found it at the front door of the manor as he watched the door handle shaking as he demanded to know who was there as it stopped, then began shaking all th more violently as he tore the door open and headed outside, only to be brought to a standstill as he looked in the looming lightning and rain at the dozens of naked women, all covering themselves and looking at him with terror and panic as if they had all been caught by him.

And just looking at all of their horrified panicked expressions proved too much for him as he retreated into the house in terror, only to find a trail of bare wet feet, and a sound of a toy music box playing in the room with the wall message and dolls as he took a camera and headed towards it nervously, the foot trail leading to a toy clown playing the song as he turned it off and explored around the room which had been torn asunder as if in rage.

And then he watched something scuttle past him that was a young womans height with what seemed to be a dress trailing behind her, through one arm before he heard a rocking and turned his attention to the rocking chair only to look with horror for the first time up close at the middle aged woman from earlier up close, at her body that was still quite pretty albeit a little bit saggy at her age and not as skinny as a younger girls might be as well as her ass losing just a little bit of its suppleness, but he barely so much as registered her state of attire in that split second, instead looking at her face of rage and the noose around her neck before she suddenly dropped and he backed away in horror, dropping his candle before looking back up at nothing once again.

But he had seen enough by now to believe without a doubt there was something truly evil about this house as he picked up the dampening candle and tried to light it, everything in the room mocking him like the rocking chair and giggling clowns as he fumbled with the matchsticks, only to light it and immediately in the glowing light his eyes were met with the sight of an upwards view at the young blonde woman from the window again in her howling humiliated and unclothed state, standing on one slender young beautiful leg while the other was raised up across her nethers which he would have been at eye level with while her two hands desperately smothered her bosom even if a little bit of her cleavages bottom were slipping under, and her face of utter incredulous horror and embarassment letting out that trainwhistle like screech of unmatched shame and horror at her every orifice and curve being scrutinisable as he jumped away in horror and ran out of the room, only to freeze as out of the darkness at the other end of the long corridor he watched that woman emerge, completely bare and in that regard utterly terrifying, her naked state unlike her daughters utter wretched humiliated one not one of embarassment or shame, but utter fury as she came towards him and he desperately opened a door and locked it as he found himself in another bedroom.

Except he should have known this wasn't an escape as he watched the dusty bedsheets all too suddenly start to show a puddle as up out of it rose that young womans face again crying in pain as she seemed to not want to rise up out of it herself as she was wailing in mortification now, her breasts erect and soaked as her slender thin abdomen followed up and then her hips and her blonde pubic hairs, not wanting to see any of this, but taking in sights of her bared body as if she had given up and stopped trying to hide it in some kind of resignation each time he would glance at her body, her pretty thighs emerging by the time he finally unjammed the lock and burst out into the corridor, sprinting to the main entrance as he opened it and froze as Daily was standing there, ready to drive him back to the village as morning had just about arrived.

Sam didn't believe he had seen what he had seen as they drove back to the village and kept reminding Arthur that Nathaniellas body had never been recovered. But as they returned to the village to their horror they found the girl who had been stripped in the marketplace was lying dead, having thrown herself off a roof without a single piece of cloth on her, not even the gloves and boots.

But even more horrifyingly Jeromes house was on fire as he was being dragged away from it, his daughter inside arthur realised as he immediately ran in to help the girl whose name was Ludy juding by her mothers screams. And through the smoke down into the basement he ran as he busted through the locked door, only to find it already on fire as the girl was still alive to his relief, but sitting in a bathtub as he hurried towards her, only to freeze momentarily as the woman was behind her, bare as the breeze but staring at him with that smouldering unending fury even as he tried to ignore her and reached out his hand to the young blonde woman who looked a little like Jennets daughter with a slightly sandier blonde.

"Come on!" he screamed at the girl as she to his shock desperately resisted him pulling at her arm, but he managed to pull her out of the bathtub as he realised she was in a soaking wet towel that was knee length as she seemed well aware of it and super resistant to his pulls as he kept dragging her, looking back at the woman standing there in her clothless state as if mocking him even as he kept tugging the girls hand up the steps out of the basement and through the evergrowing smoke as he struggled to find the way out, hearing her scream, but ignoring it in his growing panic before they were out the door as he felt relieved and breathed heavily, only to stop as he looked at the horrified faces of the villagers staring past him as he knew all too suddenly what it was that awaited him if he turned around, but had to confirm it with his own eyes even if he didn't want to.

Her body was not as impressive as Jennets, her legs skinnier, her hips less wide and her bosom flat even if her face was admittedly prettier, not that she looked pretty at that moment with tears of fury in her eyes as she stared at him trying to hide as much of her body from the villagers staring at her with fury, not because of her state, but because of what it meant as were it not for the gravety of the situation the anger and fury on the girls face not syncing up with the **** pitiful cover her small hands were providing for her body would have been almost contradictorily amusing, but not for Arthur as she glared at him.

"You should have let me die!" she howled as she slumped down in tears. "You should have just let me die rather than this! Now I'm naked in front of everyone!" she howled as Arthur was left reeling, trying to understand what was happening before Arthur dragged him away from the baying crowd of villagers to wash the soot of himself and then took him back to his estate before telling him to talk to his wife.

Arthur found her stnading before her daughters grave as she explained to him how their daughters ballgown had been too loose and its strings sloppily tied, it having slipped off and revealed her in only her garter belt gloves and stockings to a bunch of her suitors friends and enemies alike, even though Arthur still did not understand as he couldn't understand why she had committed suicide as she smiled at him.

"None of these girls must want to do it. Sure they are humiliated and embarassed at all these unfortunate mishaps like young girls ashamed of their bodies and terrified of the judgement should it ever be seen feel, but its her, the woman in the nude, you've seen her haven't you?" she asked Arthur for confirmation as he nodded and she frowned at him.

"You mustn't blame yourself! But whenever she's been seen she causes a village girl to lose her clothing, always fully although their stockings or gloves may remain, but if she just did that as you say she would be only a minor hassle" she explained with a frown.

"But it's the things she whispers to the girls, the constant memories of the lecherous faces of the men, the judgemental faces of their compatriates and the flaws of their own bodies. She insidiously gets into their minds, makes even the most confident girl in this village who might skinny dip all too suddenly shake in her sleep with nightmares about the moment their skin and body shape are everyones knowledge, over and over again until eventually they can't take it anymore, an initial brief spell of embarassment that will be forgotten within a year or two or relegated to the subconscious for these women instead becomes their sole focus, the only thing they judge themselves on until like my daughter its just too much to bear remembering it over and over" she explained to Arthur who was left shaking in horror as Mrs Daily suddenly stooped over and started speaking panickedly.

"They took her dignity away, they made her feel worthless. Now she makes their clothes go away, she makes humiliation all they feel" she uttered before she suddenly looked at him.

"She saw you!" she stated as she suddenly started scratching something on the tombstone of her daughter and Mr Daily came to stop her then, but not before she finished the drawing as Arthur recognised it as a picture his son had drawn of her and his maid.

"Andrea!" he thought with horror as he realised who her next victim was as he and Mr Daily desperately headed for the local telegram office, his child supposed to arrive that day up in the village as he knew he had to save Andreas life at all costs.

But the telegram office was closed as they were too late. Until Arthur had an idea as he explained to Daily that if they brought maybe a bathing suit to the spot where the girl had died and brought her clothed corpse to her grave, Jennet, or the woman in the nude as the villagers apparently called her might be appeased as they headed out to the marsh in a hurry and Arthur attached a rope to himself before he headed down into the muddy marsh depths looking for the girls body to attach the rope to as for about five minutes he plashed around in the bottom of the marsh looking for any sense of her body, until he eventually found it even though he couldnt see for certain, tying a rope around it as Dailys car pulled the girls mummified body out of the water and they pulled on the swimsuit she had wished she had worn over thirty years earlier and then hurried to the house where Arthur hurriedly placed the girls body in Jennets bedroom as he made all the music boxes play and waited for her to come desperately.

But at the same time Daily to his horror heard his daughters voice and turned with terror to see her standing there in a doorframe wearing only a garter belt and stockings to his horror as he called her name and went after her, only to find nobody in the room she had just entered as the door closed and to his horror he looked out the window at the horrified faces of young women in their state of complete undress looking back at him with terror, as if he was the intruder upon them as he was **** to close his eyes and pray this wasnt real.

But back with Arthur he kept looking out the darkened corridor, begging her to come over and over as he kept looking at the now clothed girls carcass and the letters from her mother to her, before he heard the rocking chair move and looked out the corridor as he saw her standing there without moving in her clothesless state. But then the lights started to dampen before she suddenly appeared in the room and shot towards him as he fell over and she barrelled past him towards her daughter before he looked up and she had disappeared as Arthur assumed she was finally at peace as Arthur came back into the room and they picked up Nathaniellas body and brought it to the graveyard and opened the empty grave to drop the body in before they said their prayers and headed with the car back to the train station where the train was only arriving as Andrea and his son Joseph were stepping out onto the platform as he was relieved to see both of them were fine.

Greeting Joseph first and introducing him to Daily Arthur then turned his attention to Andrea and asked her if she had any problems on her journey as she shook her head, dressed in a woolen jacket and blue skirt as she assured him there had been no problem as he told her they wouldn't be staying in the village and sent her to buy some tickets as he turned back to Daily and bid him farewell, as he truly did believe it was true.

Only to his horror then did he suddenly look over his shoulder as he had a bad feeling and there she was, standing on the opposite platform in her naked wrath as he turned back to see the train coming then as he looked at Andrea with horror, she having removed her jacket and wearing only a blue cotton dress as he screamed at her, but it was too late as the wind off the train caused an updraft under her dress as it spread out.

Which wouldn't have been too bad, except for the outstretched branch dangling from the train carriage that wrapped itself around her dress and she realised it too as she grabbed onto a bench before she could be pulled along by the train, but her dress had bought a ticket on the journey even if she hadn't as at her shoulders it was torn and pulled down her body as she was left with minor abrasions on the ground, but the damage had been done to her dignity as she was left with only a cloche hat on her head, a pair of black thigh high stockings and a black garter belt as she realised almost instantaneously the sudden state of her attire, but even as Arthur rushed towards her with his coat to cover her well shaped derriere and the enticing garters and stockings framing it, out were stepping the passengers whose journey was finishing with a delectable site even as Arthur was realising to his horror it wasn't over, the woman in the nude had won.