Haunted House Tales

by Riley Amitrani

  “Are you alright, Josh?” she asked when he paused in his reply.

  “Yeah…no…I don’t know, Sabrina. Now that we are almost here, it is feeling much more real than when we were in Indiana and just talking about it.”

  “Oh, come on, Josh…it’s going to be nothing probably. Just another old legend cooked up by locals to get tourists to come and spend their money. We’ll go down there, get some great footage, interview some local yokels, let Glory the witch do her thing—which Wendy will film—and then shoot back home. This is a new, non-local story which will bring us more and more subscribers to the webcast and hopefully catch the eye of some TV producer somewhere. And cha-ching…voila…we are all TV celebrities and then millionaires!”

  “Yeah…sure…” he replied, though Sabrina could hear the skepticism in his tone.

  To keep the conversation going and focused and to alleviate their anxiety, she switched gears to ask Wendy give them one last “big picture” overview of the Daucourt Mansion history plus the legend details from both Allen and Glory Trevil. Wendy opened her tablet to bring up the notes she had made, but before she could read more than about a few paragraphs, long before getting into the real meat of the material, a young white deer leapt from the side of the road and right into their path, coming to a standstill in the middle of the road as Sabrina slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop just inches from the lithe, blinking creature. As her heart pounded and the sounds from their startled cries of surprise faded away, Sabrina grasped the steering wheel even harder so as to control the shaking of her hands. The headlights leaked through the heavy cloud of mist to reflect on the vibrant coat of the white deer as it stood and just stared at them with seeming wonder and curiosity. Then with no warning, it just walked calmly across the road and dashed into the woods on the opposite side of the road from whence it had appeared and was swallowed up in the dark and the fog as if it had never been there at all.

  They sat unmoving for a few seconds, the only sounds the gentle idle of the van and some native sounds of the woods, namely birds and crickets and what they assumed were just frogs or toads.

  “Maybe pull over, huh, Sabrina?” Josh asked.

  Her adrenaline was washed away, but Sabrina thought this a good suggestion just to regain her composure completely before going on. If Josh and Wendy’s hearts were still beating as fast as hers, this was wise as well for everyone she figured. Despite the narrow local road, there was a wide spot of crushed gravel just ahead, and Sabrina guided the van onto it and left the engine running and turned up the heat. It was not overly cool, but she thought they all could use the extra comfort.

  “Everyone saw that, right?” Josh uttered in a near panicked whisper once they came to a complete stop. “I mean…that really just happened, right? I did not just imagine it?”

  “It was…” Wendy replied as her voice trembled slightly.

  “Anyone ever see a deer like that before? I mean totally white?” Sabrina asked.

  “Nope…” Wendy replied.

  “Me either,” Josh added. “All the years my Dad and I went hunting up in Indiana and Wisconsin, we saw tons of deer but not a white one.”

  “Any ideas on this?” Sabrina asked. “I mean, we all saw it, so it was real, but why would a deer be all white?”

  “Hang on…” Wendy said as she went on an internet search. “Here we go…”

  “It says here that a this is from albinism usually resulting from genetic inbreeding. It’s a lack of melanin making their hair white. Up close, apparently, they will look pink as blood flow shoes through the deer’s pale skin.”

  “Wow…” Sabrina replied, “pretty cool, huh?”

  “Not to me…” Josh said in an almost whisper. “Just a creepy sign that this trip might be a mistake.”

  “Creepy? Are you kidding me?” asked Sabrina. “It’s a rare incident in nature, and we just got to see it up close.”

  “Too close for me, Sabrina,” he replied, “I say it’s a sign…an omen…whatever…”

  “Easy…easy…anything there about the significance of a white deer, Wendy?”

  “Um…let’s see….oh, yeah, here it is…the white deer, from Native American lore, is a sign of prophecy. A sign from the Great Spirit that a major shift is coming. You all saw how alert and curious it was?”

  They both nodded.

  “Goes on to say here that the white deer was recognized for its extraordinary sensitivity—alert and always aware—and Native Americans interpreted this as being spiritually aware, and why they adopted the deer as a primary spiritual symbol. The author here says to see this very powerful sign is a message that you are on a path of growth and expansion. One that will lead you far beyond your wildest dreams and aspirations. He boils that message down to the simple version of ‘get ready’…”

  “Get ready?” Josh asked with fear in his voice now. “Get ready for what? I say it was a message alright. And that message is to turn this damn van around and go home.”

  Wendy remained silent but just continued to read over the web page she had brought up. Despite the positive spin that the writer of the article was trying to impart, she felt that Josh might be right.

  “Go home? Are you kidding me?” Sabrina asked as she spun in her seat to face Josh. “When we have come this far and are so close?”

  “Wasn’t that what the captain of the Titanic said?” Josh shot back sarcastically.

  “Very funny,” Sabrina replied. “Didn’t you hear what Wendy just read? Seeing this deer was a sign of being on the way to growth and expansion. Leading us to experiences beyond our dreams, etc.”

  “I heard it…so what?”

  “So what? Come on! This is a great sign…or omen…to use your words, Josh. It’s telling us we are on the right track! Sure it was frightening and startling to almost hit an innocent animal, but we didn’t, and the end result was to let us know we are approaching success. It is probably why we did not hit it! The success and dreams and aspirations we have all been envisioning since we launched this business.”

  The van went silent again as Sabrina’s words faded away, and her speech sunk in. Josh knew she was good at this—taking a potential problem and making it sound all rainbows and sugar plums. It was one of the things that had drawn him to her both professionally and personally. It was not one of his stronger traits. If you took the article Wendy had found literally and had a strong spiritual belief system—which unfortunately Josh did not—then what she said made perfect sense. And on the practical level, it sure did not make much sense to have come all this way and then give up because a deer got spooked and had decided to run across the road just when they were coming along.

  “How about you, Wendy?” Josh asked.

  “How about…huh….what?” she replied as she looked up from the screen. “Oh, sorry…I was a bit engrossed in this article.”

  “What Sabrina just said…do you think we should go on?”

  “I don’t know, Josh…she’s probably right. We’re this close. Why not go on and check it out. Maybe this witch is just playing us as well. Take a look for ourselves and then decide.”

  “Final vote is yours, Josh,” Sabrina said as she turned down the heat.

  He exhaled deeply knowing he would go along with whatever Sabrina wanted. Her instincts were rarely off-base in the business and quite frankly in their personal lives together, he had learned to respect and admire her intuition as a woman.

  “OK…I give up. Let’s go…”

  Sabrina released the parking brake, engaged the transmission, and they drove on toward St. Francisville and Daucourt Mansion moving slowly through the still lingering fog not saying another word out loud as they proceeded.

  St. Francisville, Louisiana…Finally

  St. Francisville, Louisiana

  December 6 - 7, 2015

  The team arrived very late in town and between the weather on the last part of the drive, the incident with the deer, and how fractured their relationship was heading in t
erms of moving ahead with the Daucourt Mansion project, Sabrina suggested they check into their motel for the night and make an initial assessment of the site the following day. She knew that both Josh and Wendy were just barely hanging on to this idea, partly from her impassioned speech and partly due to Wendy making Josh see the practicality of their situation. If nothing else, her boyfriend was always keeping an eye on the bottom line and hated to see them waste money or time unnecessarily.

  Sabrina paid for the two rooms and she and Josh headed to one while Wendy wandered down the corridor to her own room. They were all a tad strung out from the drive, and the near collision with the deer and Sabrina knew they would accomplish little if anything by pressing on that night. After checking her mail and stowing some especially critical gear in the closet that she did not want to leave out in the van overnight, Sabrina undressed and joined Josh who was already in bed. She snuggled in close to him, hoping some additional intimacy might ease what she knew was a lingering doubt in his mind as to his reluctant agreement to continue on with the trip.

  “You really OK, Josh?” Sabrina asked as she kissed his neck and placed her hand over his heart.

  “Honestly? I am not sure, Sabrina. I do get that practically speaking it makes no sense to pull the plug on this, but emotionally? Not so sure. Something keeps telling me this is a mistake.”

  “Because of that deer?”

  “Not just that. Even before we left Evansville, I kept getting this vibe that something was not right down here. Hard to explain. Kind of like your strong intuition I guess.”

  “Because you think this mansion might be…what was it you said…a bit over our heads?”

  “Yeah…that. From what your ex, Allen, sent us and what this Glory Trevil has said, I do not think the mansion is just a trumped-up legend to make money off tourists.”

  “But isn’t that a good thing for us? I mean…a real haunting as opposed to the hauntings we have…how should I put this…manufactured?”

  “I suppose…”

  “If this place is the real deal, then all we have to do is document and record it. Between our writing and Wendy’s technical skills, it should sell itself, right?”

  “Seems reasonable…”

  “However, you have a but to add?”

  “I don’t know, Sabrina…I just hope you are right. You usually are, but there is this nagging ball in my gut. Hope it is nothing and not something I should have paid more attention to.”

  “It’ll be fine, Josh. You’ll see…”

  With that, he leaned over and kissed her deeply, not sure if he was truly convinced or not. But once Sabrina moved on top of him and guided him inside her, and they made love, all his fears and worries vanished into thin air.

  ……….

  They all slept in later than normal the next day, as the trip had taken a lot out of them all both physically and emotionally. As Sabrina and Josh wandered across the courtyard to the small coffee shop that was onsite, they saw that Wendy had already snagged a table and they joined her. The waitress brought their order for some classic New Orleans-style fare: Chicory coffee, grits and beignets and they waited until she was out of earshot to talk.

  “Did you sleep alright, Wendy?” Sabrina asked.

  “All things considered, I guess. More dreams than normal for me plus some other oddities.”

  “Oddities?” Josh asked as he stopped in mid-sip.

  “Yeah…I woke up early and could not get back to sleep. New gigs always make me a little nervous anyway, and this one…well…we all know about this one. Anyway, I just gave up and took a shower and thought I would check over the cameras and other stuff just to make sure it was all ready to go.”

  “Uh-oh…” Josh replied.

  “Yeah,” Wendy said. “All the electronics were fine. No bad connections or other issues, but all the power sources to our devices were dead.”

  “How is that possible?” Sabrina asked. “Didn’t you check everything out back in Indiana before we left?”

  “Yep. Just like always. I even put in new battery packs and double-checked all the wiring and computer modules and optics, etc. It was all either fine as it was or got new components before we left home.”

  “I don’t get it…” Sabrina replied as she tried out the powdered sugar-coated beignet on her plate.

  “Me either,” Wendy said.

  “I do…” Josh interjected.

  “Really, Josh?”

  He shrugged and took a deeper sip of his coffee.

  “Then you tell me, Sabrina. How do brand new power packs and perfectly working devices just go bad on a trip in the van?”

  Sabrina exhaled with frustration.

  “What…another omen to abandon ship?”

  “Not saying that at all. We are here now, so I say we go ahead and proceed with the project. All I am saying is it seems to be a weird coincidence. That is all. I cannot explain it logically either.”

  Sabrina ignored his comment and turned to Wendy knowing any further discussion with Josh over this was going to be of no benefit.

  “Let’s get down to practicalities, Wendy. What do we need?”

  “New battery packs for starters, but based on the inexplicable nature of what I found, I would suggest maybe having someone with electrical expertise in town check everything out to make sure I am not missing anything.”

  “Think there’s a place like that in town?”

  “I did some poking around online. Not here, but down in Baton Rouge there is a guy who specializes in the types of gear we have and offers a troubleshooting review.”

  “How far is that?”

  “A half hour, maybe forty minutes…something like that…”

  “OK. Just a fly in the ointment, I guess. Let’s finish eating and then head down to Baton Rouge. The last thing we need is to get on site and find out we cannot use our gear.”

  ……….

  Sabrina and Josh wandered the few blocks around the Baton Rouge Electrical Doctor shop taking in the sights and sounds while Wendy had their electronics checked out. Despite the large size of the city, the area surrounding the repair shop resembled a throwback to older times, something they both assumed was done on purpose to try and recapture what the older version of Baton Rouge must have been. It was lined with bookstores, coffee shops, curio stores and the like. While not on their itinerary for the trip to Louisiana, Sabrina found the stroll with Josh relaxing and was hoping it might alleviate his renewed anxieties. She linked her arm through his, and they walked along leisurely, appearing as just two more tourists on an unhurried tour of the neighborhood.

  “Time to head back?” Josh asked as Sabrina had stopped to look at some kids playing soccer in a nearby park.

  She glanced at her watch.

  “Probably. I’m sure Wendy would have called if everything was done, but I guess it is better to know now rather than later if we have a more serious problem.”

  With that, they reversed their course and found Wendy in the shop chatting with the owner of the repair shop, her cell phone in hand. She looked up abruptly as they came through the door.

  “Was just calling you,” Wendy said as she shut off her phone. “We’re all set to go. Pete Ringlet”…she indicated the young man across the counter with a nod of her head…“is an electronics genius.”

  “Aw, go on, ma’am…it was nothing,” Pete replied, waving off her compliment with his hand, his bayou accent heavy.

  “The verdict?” Sabrina asked.

  “Dead battery packs in the cameras and a short in two of your other gizmos here. Hard to detect without some specialized meters.”

  He smiled broadly at Wendy to make sure they knew it was not her fault. Wendy blushed.

  “We all set to go then?” Sabrina asked.

  “Yep,” Pete replied. “To quote one of our most famous residents, Paul Prudhomme… “ I guarantee it!”

  They all laughed at Pete’s over-the-top impression of the renowned Cajun Chef.

  “Th
anks again, Mr. Ringlet,” Wendy said as she reloaded their gear into the protective carrying cases.

  “’Twas my pleasure, Miss Wendy. And please…call me, Pete.”

  “Pete it is then,” She replied as her blush held fast.

  Sabrina suppressed a sly smile as they left the shop and finally gave Wendy a hard look as they loaded the van.

  “What?” Wendy asked.

  “Oh, nothing, Miss Wendy…” she replied, mimicking Pete’s heavy accent. “When we are all done, did y’all want to stop off for a mint julep with your new beau, Pete?”

  “Hardee-har…” Wendy replied, though her face and ears burned with embarrassment.

  They drove back to St. Francisville without further incident, but by the time they had stopped to load the items Sabrina had stowed in her room and then driven across town to the old mansion, it was again late in the afternoon, and the sun was heading for bed.

  “Getting dark, Sabrina…” Josh commented as they neared the old dirt road that branched off the pavement which led to the mansion.

  “What better time to check out a haunted house, my dear?”

  Josh chuckled, but deep down felt uneasy.

  Sabrina eased the tall van along the bumpy and rutted dirt path until they emerged from an overhead array of tree limbs that formed a natural archway over the path and into a clearing and the mansion came into view. Sabrina shut off the engine, leaving them in silence except for the subtle pinging of the cooling motor and some soft and gentle movement of thin tree branches in the low wind that had risen up as they had come to a stop. No one moved. They just looked out at the old manor in amazement and wonder.

  “Anyone ever read any Edgar Allen Poe growing up?” Wendy asked as she peered around both Sabrina and Josh’s heads.

  “So I’m not the only one who thought of the ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’?” Josh added quietly.

  Sabrina gave them both a look of annoyance and rolled her eyes.

  “Enough, you two. Let’s take a quick look around and see how to best set up for some shots outside before going in.”