“Rain seems to be getting worse. Before we set off on a hike in that mess, how about Josh and I take a trial run to see how bad it will be?”
“Seems like a good idea to me, Ted,” Josh replied. “Will you be OK alone for a couple of minutes, Alice?”
Inside she was not so sure, but Alice figured she could hardly put up a fuss if they were willing to go out and do a test run. She nodded weakly, and Ted and Josh geared up and headed off. It was still the same place after they had taken off, but Alice was suddenly feeling overly vulnerable all of a sudden. Her imagination was running wild all of a sudden as well, and she sat near the brightest candle taking deep breaths to calm herself, willing them to get back quickly. It had seemed like they had been gone forever, but when Alice looked at her watch when Ted and Josh stumbled back inside, she saw it had been just about 5 minutes.
“That was quick…” Alice said as she arose to meet them at the door, her heart pounding away. “We good to go?”
“Bad news, sis…” Josh said as he shook off the water from his hat and hung the coat in the foyer.
“Yeah, Alice…” Ted added. “You know that large collection of elms just where the grassy fields of the property lead into the dirt lane back to town?”
“Sure…they reminded me of the big trees where we went to school. What about them?”
“Well, they are no longer the stately sentinels they once were.”
“Huh?”
“Guess the storm took them down. They are in a tumbled mess all over the path. Huge sections of trunks are broken off in jagged shards, and roots ripped right out of the ground as well.”
“So we just walk around…”
“No can do, Alice…” Josh interjected. “The rain washed away big clumps of the grassy areas on both sides of the downed trees. We shined lights all around, and it just looks too dangerous to try and get around or climb over, especially in this weather and in the dark.”
“So we’re stuck? Is that it?”
“For now, I guess,” Ted said. “Better safe than sorry.”
Alice got his meaning, but with all the history this cottage had for the three of them, she was feeling a bit unnerved at the thought of having to spend the night.
“What about food?” she asked, trying to divert her attention from her anxiety.
“Well…” Ted offered, “we’ve got the box lunches the inn packed for us. I know it’s not hot shepherd’s pie or roasted chicken with Yorkshire pudding, but it’s better than nothing.”
“True,” she said back as she sighed heavily. “Might as well break them out and we will make the best of it. In the meantime, I’ll poke around and see if there might be some old linens that were left behind to make up the beds with.”
“Thanks, Alice…” Ted replied as he began to empty the rucksack he had brought along with the food and some extra hats and scarves.
She smiled wanly as she went away, candle in hand, to search for sheets and maybe a blanket or two. However, as Alice turned to leave them, she had this uncomfortable feeling in her gut that this was mistake…even though there seemed to be no alternative at the moment…
The Old Cottage in 2017, Part 1
Kent, UK
October 2017
Using some kerchiefs that Ted pulled from his knapsack, Alice set up places for them at the small dining room table that still sat just off the living area where they had shared many happy meals with their Aunt Cecilia. The large candle that Ted had found in the kitchen lighted the table dimly as they ate slowly and contemplatively on the box lunches from the inn in Whitby. As time went on and they got more comfortable being back in the cottage, the stories began to flow from each of them recalling better times. Some even came from their time before the Crooked Cottage despite having an absentee father and a drug-addled mother. Her concerns and anxiety over spending a night in the place faded for Alice and soon they were laughing and joking around just as they had when they were kids.
For Alice, it was particularly gratifying to see Ted drop back into the carefree and light-mannered person she had known back then. It was a drastic contrast to what he appeared to be now in London. Josh seemed more at ease as well, though if she looked closely, she could still see how life had worked him over in his eyes and mannerisms. Once they had exhausted their reminiscing and felt fully caught up in each other’s lives, the conversation reverted to why they had come back in the first place.
“Is it just me, or does this place seem a bit devoid of the furnishings we had here years ago?” Ted asked as he leaned back and sighed.
“Not just you, Ted…” Alice replied. “Maybe whoever was overseeing Aunt Cecilia before she died sold off some stuff to pay for her stay at the institution?”
“Could be. Of course, we have not looked in the cellar yet. Maybe things just got moth-balled away in storage.”
“Well, you’re not getting me down there. The upper floors are creepy enough for me. Feel free to check it out.”
Just then, they noticed that Josh was no longer with them.
“You see Josh walk off?” Alice asked.
“Nope. Guess my mind was elsewhere. Think he might be back in his old room getting high?”
“Let’s hope not. That is the last thing we need at the moment considering we are trapped until morning.”
With that, both Alice and Ted arose quickly from the table and headed to the stairs, preparing to intervene in case Josh had indeed fallen off the wagon once again. But before they could begin up the stairs, the faint but sweet and melodic lines of trumpet music began to drift down from above them. They both relaxed and exhaled with relief. Josh had found his old trumpet apparently, and still could play quite well even after all this time away.
“How about that…” Ted said as they looked at each other with relief.
“How about we leave him to it. Could be the best therapy for him, all things considered.”
“Good idea. Sure you don’t want to come with me to the cellar?”
“Positive. I want to give the stuff in the foyer and side rooms another look. Call me if you find anything interesting.”
Ted nodded and took the fat candle from the dining room table with him as he headed through the kitchen and the door that led down into the cellar from there. Alice picked up one of the thinner candles and began a much closer look at the rooms on the main level, seeing if there might be anything to lay claim to. However, the more she looked, the less she felt drawn to, much less attached to any of Cecilia’s décor. It was not in bad shape, nor was it horrid, but more that it was just not her taste nor would it fit in well with what she had in her flat in Kent. When she was a kid living here, she had never given any of the stuff much of a look. It had just been furniture and things. Never in a million years did she imagine she might be inheriting any of it, much less an entire house.
However, as she wandered about and listened to the improvised sounds of Josh’s playing from upstairs, she was feeling more and more comfortable in the cottage, her former feelings of it being a creepy old house drifting away with each moment. She was trying to work up the nerve to go into the kitchen when Ted reappeared in the doorway between the living area and the kitchen with a look of concern on his face, which was, by the way, looking quite paler than it had when he had left to go to the cellar.
“You OK, Ted?” Alice asked as she moved closer to let her candle make him more visible. “Anything of value down there?”
He just stood still and looked at her as he shook his head no.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Funny you should say that, sis.”
“Really? You think you did?”
“Not in the flesh…or whatever it is a ghost might manifest as, but I think if you are up to it, there is something down there you need to see.”
“Will it freak me out?”
“No worse than the night Aunt Cecilia had her episode I guess. And it is not dangerous. I promise, just very, very weird.”
“Unless you’d like to go through that downpour outside and come in through the entrance on the side of the cottage.”
Alice closed her eyes and sighed heavily. Deep down she had been hoping to possibly avoid the kitchen altogether, but she also knew if she did not put that to rest—her own personal ghost—that it would likely haunt her for years to come. She had read somewhere that the best way to rid yourself of a lingering trauma was to return to the scene of the trauma and face it again. This sounded far-fetched to her now, just as it had been when she had first read it, but then again, maybe it was worth trying.
“OK, Ted. Give me a second here.”
Alice closed her eyes once more and thought back to what her therapist had told her about getting past a seemingly insurmountable threat or fright. The advice actually had nothing to do with the cottage or Aunt Cecilia, but was for another part of her life that had required some professional therapy. She took in and blew out several deep breaths and pictured the kitchen just as she remembered it from the hundreds of times she had been in there as a kid…well before Cecilia had tried to kill herself. She visualized it and soon, the memory of that night was gone.
“Ready?” Ted asked as he waited on her patiently as she opened her eyes and smiled thinly.
“As much as I’ll ever be, I guess. Let’s just not linger in the kitchen, though. OK?”
Ted nodded and led her quickly across the still faintly-stained flooring, and together they went down the creaky and dusty wooden steps that led to the slightly damp earthen floor of the cellar. Alice’s respirations had been much more rapid when they had hit the kitchen, but now that they were down in the cellar, her heart slowed and her pulse fell back to normal. Wow, thought Alice to herself…who in their right mind feels more at ease in a musty old cellar than a kitchen? She panned her arm around to let the light of the flame of the candle illuminate the old walls and rafters and timbers over her head. The smell, though perhaps off-putting to some, made her feel nostalgic. It was a richly organic, musky odor that any space of comparable age and makeup might have.
Other than a few old garden implements that hung from a few nails in the wooden uprights that supported the ceiling above and some boxes and crates, the cellar seemed empty. Whatever it was that had spooked Ted was not immediately apparent.
“You look in the boxes and crates yet?” she asked, the flame of the candle jumping slightly at her words.
“Yeah. Nothing but old clothes and some broken up pieces of furniture and chipped and cracked dishes. Whatever we are remembering from years ago that appears to be gone must have been sold off to pay Aunt Cecilia’s medical bills.”
“So what was it that made you go all wiggy?”
“Follow me…”
Ted turned to the left, and Alice fell in step with him, their candles lighting the way. Around the corner of a wall that looked like a half-stall divider, Ted pointed inside the alcove that the wooden stall framed. She walked into the space with Ted on her heels as he let her take in what he had found, not wanting to prejudice or influence her opinion at all. She moved to the back and side walls of the space to see rows and rows of old drawings tacked to the wood. She shone her light over the array, wincing slightly as she perused the collection of sketches.
“Thoughts?” Ted asked in a whisper.
“A bit macabre and creepy for my taste, but they are really well-drawn.”
Alice looked closer to see the details and intricacies of the drawings of children on the old and curling parchment paper. If it had been just children, that would not have made her wince, but these kids were all crying. And if she was not mistaken, they appeared to be dead.”
“Well…this is where I used to go to draw and sketch when you were playing with Pixie and Josh was doing his Wynton Marsalis impression.”
“You did these?” Alice asked, suddenly horrified and appalled that her brother could be capable of such atrocities.
“That is not what I said, Alice. This is where I used to come to draw. Sort of my private studio away from everyone. But these...things…they are not mine by any means. I tried to draw those statues in the courtyard from memory, but I never made them look like this.”
“Are you sure, Ted? For sure they look aged enough to have been yours. How else would they get here?”
“I am sure, Alice. My sketches were a realistic reproduction…at least as best as I could produce at the time. But this? This is some sort of desecration…”
“So what are you saying, Ted?”
“I don’t know for sure, sis. All I know is it is like someone, or something took my old work and turned it inside out.”
“This your ‘ghost’ reference?”
“I know it sounds crazy, Alice. But it really freaked me out when I saw them for the first time. Still gives me the chills.”
Alice was not sure what to make of it all. It was obvious that Ted was disturbed over the drawings, but at the same time, she could not wrap her head around some supernatural artist having arrived to update his sketches into some sort of sick abomination. She thought of pushing some more, but she could see that would get her nowhere but into an argument with her brother. And seeing as how things had been going so well with him up until now, she just bit her tongue. The only rational explanation was that maybe some prankster or even a squatter with too much time on their hands had redone the drawings as a joke…though a quite sick one.
They stood in silence and just stared at the sickening art display as the light danced around the curls of the paper. Just then they heard a door slam upstairs, and Josh’s playing which had been filtering down to the cellar stopped abruptly.
The Old Cottage in 2017, Part 2
Kent, UK
October 2017
Both Ted and Alice looked up at the ceiling sharply at the slamming of the door. It had startled them both as they had been utterly absorbed in the old drawings on the wall. Even though it was the same sound, it had strikingly different effects on the two of them. Ted was still in “ghost mode” and was sure this was linked to the pictures. Alice, on the other hand, was not so invested in that theory and was concerned that something might have happened to Josh, especially if he was using again. The sudden uproar made Alice head for the steps back upstairs to find Josh and Ted, still reeling over his discovery in the cellar was not far behind, not wanting to stay alone in the cellar another minute.
They rushed back through the kitchen to meet Josh coming down the stairs with the case for his trumpet in one hand, and the tarnished instrument in the other.
“You guys hear that?” Josh asked with a wild look in his eyes.
“We did. You OK?” Alice replied.
“Fine. Why did you slam the front door?”
“We didn’t,” Ted added. “We were in the cellar when it happened. We thought it was you.”
Josh just shook his head, but his eyes and pallor of his skin gave Alice pause. She had no experience with addicts, but Josh looked off. He looked as pale as Ted had when he had first come up from the cellar, but it was his eyes that really caught her attention. Just then, the door flew open and closed again, and they all turned to the foyer to see the front door banging against the jamb as the wind and rain poured inside. Alice sighed with relief, realizing the storm outside must have forced it open, and now it was just flapping back and forth from that…not some supernatural interloper as she feared Ted was focusing on.
She closed it tightly and engaged the lock to avoid another episode as Josh set the case on the dining room table and then paced the trumpet on top of that as he sat down shakily. She hated to have to ask, but Alice was worried that he might have snuck in some drugs. She swallowed her apprehension and confronted Josh.
“Josh,” she said as she sat down as well, “please forgive me if I am off base here, but are you using again?”
“What?” Josh exploded. “How can you even ask me such a thing?”
“W
ell…you seem pretty edgy just now, and your eyes look glassy and wild.”
“That’s your reasoning? My eyes?”
“I’m just concerned, Josh. You can trust me.”
“No, sis. Absolutely not! I have been sober for almost two years now and believe me…I will never fall to those depths again.”
Alice was only about three-quarters convinced, but she just nodded. Ted stood back and watched not knowing how to or even if he should intervene.
“Not buying it, huh?” he added.
“Look, Josh. If you say you are clean than I believe you. It’s just…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know…you’ve seen me fall backward so often it seems like my pattern?”
“I’m sorry, Josh, but I was always the one to come running when you fell to pieces.”
“I know. Alice. And there is nothing I can ever do to repay you. But trust me this one time. I am not using.”
“So why so wild-looking then?” Ted finally interjected.
“Oh, that…” Josh replied. “I can explain. I guess with all the excitement and then this little family intervention, I forgot why I brought down the trumpet case in the first place.”
He moved the trumpet to the side and snapped open the latches from the case. The inside was a worn but still overall thick velvet interior that showed only the imprint of the trumpet as well as a couple holes that contained a pair of replacement mouthpieces.
“And?” Ted asked.
Josh indicated for him to calm down and then flipped back a flap that was at the far end of the case. It was a tight fit, but a leather finger hold helped Josh ease it open to reveal a small compartment that neither Alice nor Ted might have otherwise noticed.
“Back when I used to store some valve oil and a polishing rag there. They are gone, but look what I found instead.”
Josh move one of the candles closer so they could see what was now in the compartment.
Haunted House Tales Page 120
