The Empty House By Algernon Blackwood

“The Empty Room” by Algernon Blackwood follows a man who agrees to spend a night alone in a house rumored to be haunted, specifically in a room that no one has been able to endure after dusk. Drawn by curiosity more than bravery, he enters the room expecting ghostly manifestations, only to confront something far more unsettling: an atmosphere charged with intense, unexplainable fear. Throughout the night he senses a malignant presence pressing in on him, not as an apparition but as a force of pure terror that seems to emanate from the very walls. As the psychological pressure mounts, he realizes the haunting is not tied to a spirit but to an emotional residue—an echo of some past anguish that has permeated the space. The story culminates in his struggle to withstand this invisible oppression long enough to escape at dawn, leaving him shaken but alive, and forever changed by the knowledge that places can retain the imprint of human suffering.