Percy Shelley awoke from unsettling dreams. He had seen Harriet, jumping into the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, with a rock tied to her leg. He saw her fall to the bottom. He knew she drowned. After waking, the terror he had felt was still acute. He glanced next to see his current wife, Mary Godwin. When he had met her he had courted her, as he usually did with most women. She however wanted to get married, and after Harriet, his wife, committed suicide, he felt compelled to propose. They had now been married but a year, and dreams like the one he just had were becoming steadily more frequent. Sometimes he felt as if he could feel Harriet's presence when he woke up, which was just nonsense.
The next night, when he awoke from the same dream. Instead of trying to go back to sleep, he got out of bed, careful not to disturb Mary. He didn't want to tell her about his dreams. He walked outside of their bedroom and into the hall. He softly walked around the whole house. Feeling better he walked back to his bedroom. As he was about to enter, a ghostly form started to appear. Starting as a ball of light, it grew until it took the form of a woman, namely Harriet.
"Percy," she moaned. "You betrayed me...betrayed me...why?" She then faded away. Percy, very calmly, walked past where his deceased wife had just stood and reentered his bedroom and went back to sleep.
The next morning he had been sure it was a dream, but that night and many following, he would wake from the same dream, walk around the house, and before reentering his bedroom, Harriet would appear and talk to him. Sometimes she would just moan "Why did you betray me?" However other times she yelled at Percy for marrying another woman so soon after his death, for courting Mary, and once she even threw a pot at him. Percy could no longer be convinced it was only a dream when in the morning, Mary asked about the broken pot. The only answer was to move away. He moved his family to a different place in England, hoping to leave the ghost of Harriet in their old house. The first weeks following their move were dream and ghost free. However the dreams and Harriet soon returned.
After they had been in their house a month, Percy, one night, awoke from the dream. He rushed out of the room and saw Harriet standing outside his door, an evil look on her face.
"Thought you could get rid of me that easily?" Percy took every bit of self-control not to slam the door shut, he just closed the door quietly. It would take more than a move of houses to rid himself of Harriet forever. Soon he moved his family to Italy, but the first night in their house in Venice, Harriet appeared after he woke up.
"You don't get it do you? Dear Percy, I'm going to take everything you have away from you." The next week, his youngest daughter died. Mary took the blow hard , and all the romance left their relationship. To make himself feel better he flirted with other women, but that only made Harriet come harder on him. He moved to Rome, she followed and his youngest son died, no doubt because of Harriet. He moved to Pisa, hoping this would be the last move, Mary was coming down hard on him for his restlessness, she didn't understand, no one did. After a short time there, Percy came home with Mary near dieing from a miscarriage, but Percy believed Harriet was behind it. Due to quick thinking, he was able to save her. After that he didn't hear from Harriet again. Thinking she had finally left, he felt safe to sail to Livono to visit Leigh Hunt. However after visiting with him, on the way back Harriet appeared, this time not after he awoke from a dream, but in the daytime when all the men on the boat could see her as she floated in the air.
"I told you, you couldn't get rid of me. Now you shall pay for betraying me," She held out her arms, her palms out turned towards the sky, her head tilted back, and yelled out. "Powers of Nature come to me!" Big, black clouds rolled in, fast. The water grew choppy, waves crashing into their little boat, and coming over the sides. The clouds now dropped big droplets of water, and claps of thunder were heard. A flash of lightning illuminated the pale form of Harriet.
"Now you shall die as I did," she said coldly. A bolt of lightning struck the mast and it caught fire, seemingly impossible their whole boat caught fire. The men ran around in chaos, trying to douse the flames, no one noticed the big wave that loomed menacingly over their boat. When Percy looked up it crashed down on their boat, drowning them all.
Above all this, Harriet looked on with a sorrowful composure.
"Percy, dear Percy, is only you hadn't betrayed me..."
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