**“**Statement of Ivo Lensik, regarding his experiences during construction of a house on Hill Top Road, Oxford. Original statement given March 13th, 2007. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London. Statement begins”
Ivo Lensik described his twenty years in construction, taking over his father’s contracting business in Oxford after his father’s death in 1996. He specialized in wiring and plumbing and was often called to work sites mid-build.
In November, he was hired to complete wiring for a partially built house on Hill Top Road. The project required evening shifts, as he was working another job during the day. The site was isolated, unfinished, and bordered by South Park. Its garden was dominated by a dead, looming tree that cast unsettling shadows.
The unease began on his third night. At 8 or 9 PM, a knock sounded at the door. Expecting another builder, Ivo approached cautiously, hammer in hand. Instead, he found a young man in a tan coat. The man identified himself as Raymond Fielding, the property owner, and produced documentation that appeared legitimate.
Ivo allowed him entry. Raymond said little, moving to the empty window frame and staring into the garden. Ivo returned to work but was soon overwhelmed by the smell of burning hair. Looking back, he found Raymond gone and a scorched patch of wood smoldering where he had stood. When Ivo retrieved a fire extinguisher, the smoke and heat had vanished, leaving only soot.
Fear began to mount as Ivo considered his family’s history of schizophrenia. His father’s decline into obsession with fractals and eventual suicide loomed in his mind. Shaken, Ivo slipped and hit his head, sustaining a concussion. Admitted to John Radcliffe Hospital, he recounted his experience to the attending doctor.
A nurse, Anna Kasuma, later approached him, asking if he was sure about the name Raymond Fielding. She revealed that the original house on the site had belonged to a man by that name in the 1960s. Fielding had operated it as a halfway house for troubled youth. The community had grown uneasy as the residents became reclusive and pets vanished.
Raymond disappeared, leaving behind Agnes, a quiet girl who inherited the house. In 1974, after a local child went missing, the house burned down. When the fire was extinguished, Raymond’s charred body was found inside, missing its right hand.
Ivo returned to finish the job, determined to conquer his fear. Yet the smell of burning hair and glimpses of brown pigtails haunted him. One evening, he worked late, and the heat overwhelmed him, leaving him paralyzed until a knock at the door freed him.
A priest, Father Edwin Burroughs, introduced himself, claiming to have been sent by Anna. He performed blessings and prayers while Ivo waited outside. Overcome with rage at the unsettling tree in the garden, Ivo attacked it with a crowbar, only to see it bleed. Chains and his car brought it down, revealing a wooden box buried beneath it.
Inside was a pristine green apple, but as Ivo held it, it rotted, splitting open to release swarms of spiders. Terrified, he destroyed the box and disposed of it. Father Burroughs emerged, claiming the blessings were complete.
Ivo finished the job without further incident.
“Statement ends.” Jon leaned back in his chair, exhaling slowly as he shut the file. "Ah, head trauma and latent schizophrenia—ghosts' best friends," he murmured to the empty archive room. "Aside from excessive indulgence in psychoactive drugs, it seems to me that there is simply no better way to make contact with the spirit world."