The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins (short story)

The Very Real Mystery of Wester Drumlins was a short story, in the Into the Unknown series.

Summary
to be added

Plot
Rani Chandra writes about how she'd heard of the legends of Wester Drumlins, and how there are so many about this one house she thought it an over-exaggeration. She mentions the story known as "As Long as You Both Shall Live", wherein newlyweds Casey and Marie Ward, while holding their reception at the house in 1937, were stuck in a time loop to the song "The Band Played On", supposed to have been caused by them reneging on a deal with a devil. Rani wasn't inclined to believe the story, but she found a news article about it, and records of the Wards being admitted to the London County Mental Hospital five weeks after their wedding, where they both died one year later.

In 1939, the house passed to a Ms A Bashara, an aviator. During the 1940s and 1950s the house's history was sketchy, but still stories popped up as urban legends. Rani dismisses "The Battle of Wester Drumlins" and the equally famous "Wester Drumlins and the Smiling Hangman" as being equally dubious. She then recounts an interesting tale from 1957, about a planned sequel to The Ladykillers, set to be filmed on location at Wester Drumlins. But the production was highly troubled, with crewmembers disappearing and being injured, leading to the scrapping of the project. In 1974, Peter Sellers revealed in an interview that the director and Alec Guinness were visited by a soft-spoken man who urged them to film elsewhere, warning of "killer statues".

Rani is surprised that the mansion's story isn't more well-known, but explains she looked for stories backed up by witnesses. She mentions as a case in point a 1969 incident where a WPC who went to apprehend a vandal seen at the house succeeded, but was subsequently taken out for dinner and drinks in Fitzrovia. Rani also investigated the case of Katherine Nightingale, supposed to have gone missing at the house in 2007, whose records stopped after that year but who was never reported missing. She promises to cover the property more in future articles, ending on a note that the house appears to indisputably be a place of mystery.

Characters

 * Rani Chandra

Worldbuilding

 * Rani cites Casey and Marie Ward as victims of the mystery of Wester Drumlins.
 * The life of Casey and Marie was known in legend as "As Long as You Both Shall Live".
 * Their wedding reception featured the song "The Band Played On"


 * In 1969, a stranger was spotting vandalising Wester Drumlins. A WPC named Monaghan was called to the place and apprehended the vandal, who proceeded to take her out for dinner and drinks in Fitzrovia.

Continuity
to be added