"Peggy"

**"Peggy"** is the fourth tale in the third episode of the fourth season of The Nosleep Podcast. In it, a family buys a house haunted by the ghost of a little girl. Written by Heidi Helmer, it has a runtime of 14:40 and was performed by Jessica McEvoy. It is the 356th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A student, Heidi, goes away to college for the first time. During her first semester, her parents and her younger brother, Patrick, move into a large Victorian-style house. Visiting for the first time, Patrick asks her if she's ever met Peggy. When she says no, he explains that Peggy is the ghost of a little girl that haunts their house. They see her standing at the ends of hallways and playing harmless pranks like setting back alarm clocks and moving things.

Peggy becomes a part of the family's lives in the house, more as a benign nuisance rather than a poltergeist. That thanksgiving, Heidi's Aunt Jan and Uncle Randall, along with their daughter, Audrey, visit. At breakfast the next morning, Jan and Randall say that they saw a little girl standing at the window during the night, thinking it was Audrey, only to find her sleeping next to them on the futon. Later that day, Lisa, a woman from the family's church, visits. Despite being twenty-six years old, she has a misplaced crush on Patrick. The family tolerates her but later asks her to leave.

Heidi finds herself annoyed by Peggy constantly. Whenever she bugs her, she simply asks her to stop bothering her, and she does. Lisa's obsession with Patrick increases in ferocity. She sits next to him at church, whispering in his ear. She makes offhand jokes about how they're going to be married someday. She leaves love notes on his car. During the Christmas service, she kisses him on the cheek, leading to the parents asking for a conference with the pastor.

Heidi returns to school and makes phone calls home, learning that Lisa has refused counseling and may be asked to leave the church if her obsessive behavior over Patrick doesn't stop. The family puts a restraining order against her. Shortly after, mutilated animals begin appearing on their lawn.

Spring break rolls around and Heidi returns home. Patrick seems stressed and irritable. One night ,he trips going down the stairs and sprains his ankle. While their parents take him to the emergency room, Heidi stays home to take a shower and do laundry.

While watching television in the living room, she begins hearing strange noises from the front hallway, like creaking boards and whispers. However, whenever she checks, there is no one there. Assuming it to be Peggy, she keeps watching. The sounds continue with such ferocity Heidi decides to humor Peggy and goes back into the hallway.

She finds Peggy standing in front of the wide-open front door, staring menacingly with sharp teeth and growling. Petrified with fear, Heidi takes a step back before blacking out. She wakes up to paramedics inspecting her. When asked what happened, she claims that Peggy scared her.

Heidi later finds out that Lisa snuck into the house and knocked her out. The police search the premises and find a gun with a note from Lisa lying on the hallway floor. The note says that her life is meaningless without Patrick and that she intends to kill him and anyone that stands in their way and then herself so that they can be together in heaven. However, no trace of her is ever found.

The cops speculate that she ran away and changed her name or committed suicide in a remote area. Heidi thinks that Lisa met Peggy and wonders what happened between them.