Some places are built to frighten us.

Dark corridors. Distorted rooms. Occult props. Sudden screams. Actors waiting in the shadows. But what happens when something inside a scare attraction isn’t part of the performance?

In this Short Haunts listener story, Tony recalls his time working inside one of the UK’s top scare attractions, a place filled with themed horror rooms, strange objects, unsettling stories, and rumours of items moving on their own. As a sceptic and lifelong horror fan, Tony was used to the mechanics of fear — the timing, the costumes, the atmosphere, and the carefully staged moments designed to make people jump.

But one night, while working alone in a church-themed room on a section known as The Run, Tony saw what he believed was one last customer: a sharply dressed man in a pinstripe suit, bowler hat and cane. The figure watched his performance, applauded, spoke to him, and then left.

Moments later, Tony was told the attraction had been stood down twenty minutes earlier. No customers were inside.

What follows is a strange and memorable account of a full-bodied apparition known as Cyril, a resident spirit apparently familiar to staff, and a haunting that feels less like terror and more like an introduction.

Atmospheric, unusual and quietly unnerving, this is a story about performance, perception, and the moment when a professional scare becomes something far harder to explain.

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