I’ve done the scary thing, and submitted the selkie story to Loose-id. It should be right up their street – m/m, paranormal – and the guys over at AbsoluteWrite have been helping me bash my cover letter and synopsis into shape.

To take my mind of the scary thing, I’ve also got a fun link for you guys. H2G2’s, list of Ghosts of the London Underground. The second British Museum story scares me the most.

A double whammy here – a ghost station and a ghost. British Museum station closed on the 25 September, 1933. There was a local myth that the station was haunted by the ghost of an Ancient Egyptian. Dressed in a loincloth and headdress, the figure would emerge late at night. The rumour grew so strong that a newspaper offered a reward to anyone who would spend the night there. No one attempted to do this!

The story takes a stranger turn after the closure of the station. The comedy thriller, Bulldog Jack, was made in 1935 which included a secret (fictitious) tunnel from the station to the Egyptian room at the Museum. The station in the film was called ‘Bloomsbury’, and in all likelihood was a stage set, but it was based on the ghost story of British Museum.

On the same night that the film was released, two women disappeared from the platform at Holborn – the next station along from where British Museum was. Marks were later found on the walls of the closed station. More sightings of the ghost were reported along with strange moanings from the walls of the tunnels. Eventually the story was hushed up as London Underground has always denied the existence of the tunnel from the station to the Egyptian Room.

The underground is old enough (and gothic enough) to host all sorts of wicked horror stories. It’s unsurprising it’s got so many ghosts, and of course the tunnels run through archeological strata that could host all kinds of ancient nasties. It just sounds plain creepy down there, with the squeal of brakes in nearby tunnels and the growling of air pushed before approaching trains, like dragons in the depths. Then there’s all those closed stations and lost tunnels. Add to all that the fact that though there’s no official suicide rates, anyone who travels regularly will find themselves delayed by the euphemistic “Someone has fallen onto the track” (Victoria is, apparently, worst for it) at some point, and you’ve got a set up for a really dark story. One that has been used before, but not as often as it deserves.