Tom Slemen tells how 18-year-old Renée was on her way to work when the strange encounter happened Our latest spooky tale by Tom Slemen for Christmas, focuses on a young girl from Huyton's strange encounter with an 'old man'...

On the frosty morning of Tuesday, December 22, 2009, Renée, an 18-year-old girl from Huyton left her home and yawning, she begrudgingly made her way to the bus stop on her way to work. Upon crossing Lordens Road, Renée saw everything around her change. The road and houses darkened at first and then everything took on a strange rustic quality – Renée noticed a windmill down the road and thatched cottages, and there were patches of grass in the roadway and fields where there had been modern houses before, and this alarmed the young lady, and then she found her path obstructed by a man, who looked about 65-70 years of age perhaps.

He wore a black wide-brimmed hat of the type you might associate with the famous Quaker on the box of porridge oats (and such hats are also known as “wideawake” hats). The stranger also had on a long dark brown coat which went down to his knees – or a justacourps to give it its proper name – a white shirt with a frilly front, peculiar breeches, white “socks” and black shiny shoes with buckles. Out of sheer nerves, Renée said, ‘Hiya’ to the man and he smiled and in an accent that did not sound local, but perhaps an old Lancashire brogue, the man reached out with his right hand to Renée and said, ‘Fa.