by S A Jacobs
“So, you’re saying that this room we are talking about is a crypt?” Kat shouted.
“I really don’t know. I mean, I’m pretty sure you would have noticed if there was a body in there Jim.” He looked expectantly at me. When I didn’t respond, he continued. “Look, maybe there is a body for all I know, but I hope not. That being said, I think it is safe to assume two things. First, this is a very private place that Ida used to pay her respects to her beloved son Samuel Leopold. Secondly, I do believe there is some piece of Samuel there, be it a lock of hair or an urn of cremated remains.”
“Okay pardon my French, but this is kinda fucked up!” I said. “But as messed up as all this is, I also realize we’re not gonna to accomplish a damn thing unless we get in that room. So, let’s go already.”
I couldn’t stay in that hotel room any longer. I was desperate to get that book and figure this all out.
“Hey, David,” I asked on the way out to the truck, “do you really believe that whole reincarnation thing? Uh, I mean, do you really think I’m her son?”
“Kinda hard to say. In the end, we really don’t know anything. I will say I have seen compelling evidence that supports the theory, like your situation. There isn’t much else to explain it.” He paused. “Let me ask you, was there ever a part of this house or property, maybe even a picture of Ida or whatever, where you all of a sudden felt like you had seen it before?”
“Well, yeah I guess so, but who is to say what that means. I mean your head can do a lot of crazy stuff. You can convince yourself of anything if you want to.”
“That is precisely why this is all theory. Look at everything in the paranormal world. It all can have a justifiable explanation both within the paranormal world as well as to the contrary. It’s even worse than religion. Scientists need proof to admit it exists. Religious people hold their ground based upon faith. This is no different. I cannot say for certain whether you are Sam Jr. or not. I cannot say Ida is here or not. Being one who lives with an open mind, willing to admit I can’t explain everything, I see compelling evidence that suggests this is all very real.”
“What about the KGC? You said that was still a thing.”
“Oh, they are still a thing for sure! But they are the epitome of secrets. People talk about the Masons being secretive. They got nothing on these guys. Very little is really known except for historical info that came out. I will say this, you want to know if they are real. Go to the grave site of a known KGC member, carrying a shovel and see how long it takes for a blacked out pickup to stop by ready to take you out. Not that I know anything about that…of course.”
“I don't get it though. What are they after?”
“I’m sure it’s some hidden plan for taking over the world. I mean that is what it was founded for. They are also believed to have hidden a massive hoard of gold to fund their new empire.
“The truth is we don’t know much beyond that. It is rumors and legends. We know that people are still protecting KGC secrets, but that is all we know. From my perspective, I really don’t have a clue what their current purpose or motivation is, but you will not see me cross them. They operate with some crazy Secret Service style communication and protection.”
“Okay boys, enough of this theoretical stuff,” Kat said. “What are we doing there today?”
“We need that grimoire for starters,” David answered. “Anything else we can learn while we’re there can help too. The problem is, we only have theories about all this. We need to find what we can to support or dismiss those theories and the longer we take…. well.”
“Well, what?” Kat replied.
“Look, clearly this is all getting worse. Samuel is getting stronger, and the longer we spend pontificating about it, the more power he seems to gain. Jim has been hospitalized already. What’s next?”
“Wait, you’re the medium,” Kat pointed out. “Surely there has to be some way we can just banish the demon and buy ourselves more time to sort this all out, right?”
“It isn’t like that. This isn’t a movie where a priest walks in with some holy water and everything is over! Yes, things can be done, but it’s all like putting a band-aid on instead of stitching the wound. Unless we know what’s going on, it’s all temporary. We need to end this once and for all.”
“Okay okay,” I said, “we go in there. We get the book and have a look around. Let’s just let David do his thing here. I will be the first to admit nothing I’ve done has been any help at all.”
I pulled my truck onto the property and up the long drive to the house. The sky was grey, and the sun was absent. We stepped out into the cold of the day. The wind whipped across Lake Michigan, carrying a chill that bit to the bone.
“You gonna have this place heated before winter hits?” David asked.
“That’s the plan. The roof is almost done. Then, a crew can come in and start, but who knows at this point. We seem miles away from the house being livable.”
We stepped into the quiet house and slowly worked our way upstairs to the parlor. We all stood silently, holding our breath, afraid of what would be on the other side of the door. As the door swung open, we were all relieved to see the room was quiet and exactly what it should be.
My phone started going off moments after opening the door. The camera was texting me. ‘At least one thing is working,’ I thought.
We made our way inside, and I started to explain how I’d found the hidden door. David was enthralled with the entire premise of the door. I unlocked the door, and slowly opened it. It was cool and dark inside. As we stepped in with our lanterns, I quickly saw this room was different.
The first time I’d stepped into the room, it was as if a living thing was inviting me in. Today, however, it was just a room. Like an old attic or basement. It was dusty and undisturbed. Looking down revealed every action I took the last time I was there. My footprints and my fingerprints were all there, painting a trail in the dust.
David immediately found the book and cradled it like it was going to turn to dust with the slightest movement. He opened the front cover and attempted to read it. At that moment, I noticed Kat out of the corner of my eye. She was standing there silent and motionless… just staring. As I approached, I realized it was the mirror she was staring at.
“Kat?”
“Look at it, Jim! It’s amazing and precisely like the drawing.” She never broke her stare.
“Kat, are you okay?”
She didn’t respond. I walked closer to her and grabbed her hand. It was ice cold. I looked up and glanced in the mirror. It was indeed exactly like the drawing, but something was wrong. I raised my lantern higher and looked again in the mirror. Kat was still fixated on it. Yet, I could see nothing reflecting in the mirror. I could see nothing, just black empty space.
“Katherine!” I yelled. “Come back to me!”
23
The next few moments felt like an eternity. I tried to pull Kat back with all my strength but, she would not move. I put myself in between her and the mirror, and as I stepped, she slowly collapsed. I dove to break her fall and somehow missed completely.
It took a moment to recover and turn. When I did, I saw Kat sitting on the floor, her knees pulled to her chest. Her eyes were wide and unblinking. Streams of tears ran down her cheeks. David put the book down and knelt by her side.
“What the hell happened?” I yelled at David.
He put his hand up to me like a traffic guard, telling me to stop.
“Kat, we are here. It’s safe. Come back.” He gently pulled up her hand, holding it.
David snapped his fingers in front of her face. Immediately, her eyes closed, and her head fell slack only to instantly jolt up like a person waking up. For the next second, she looked around the room, then at the mirror, then at me.
“We need to leave now!” She was frantic.
“It’s okay now Kat,” I said. “We’re here.”
“No! We are all in danger. We need to leave now!” She stood
up and bolted out of the room.
Rather than question her, we followed. David grabbed the book on the way out, and we locked the door and headed out of the house. Kat was running. I was behind her while David struggled to keep up. We got outside the house in darkness. The moon had risen high above.
“What the hell?” I said as we got to the truck. “How is it dark? We were only in there for what, twenty minutes.”
“Just get in and drive!” Kat yelled.
We got in the truck. I started it and headed towards the entrance.
“Stop!” Kat shouted.
I slammed on the brakes, nearly killing David who slammed into the back of my seat.
“Look!” Kat pointed out the windshield. “Nobody else should be driving down here, right? Kill the headlights so we are not seen.”
I looked up to see a pair of headlights through the trees. I turned my lights off and slammed on the gas taking my truck off the path and out of sight from the driveway. David’s panting was deafening in the quiet truck as we all just stared out the window. We watched the headlights slowly get closer.
Soon, the driveway lit up, illuminated by the headlights. A shiny black SUV pulled up and drove past us, never slowing until it reached the front of the house. I immediately shifted my truck into drive only to have Kat grab my hand and put it back into park.
“Not now. They’ll be back. They cannot get in. The room is protected.” Her voice was monotone as she stared out the window.
“Can we get the fuck out of here please!” David was wild in the backseat. “I told you! Black trucks! They mean business, and we need to stay out of it!”
I gave into his plea and started to slowly drive the truck off the property. Once we hit the road, I turned on my lights and slammed on the gas. Soon, we reached the neighborhood with the fancy houses. I came to a cross street and slowed down enough to make the turn without flipping the truck, but its massive tires screeched on the pavement. I drove up a block and turned the truck around. I pulled halfway up to the turnoff for the manor and pulled over turning off the lights.
“I want to get a look at them,” I said. “This is the only road in and out of the house. They will have to pass by here on their way out. While we wait, you think you can tell us what the fuck is going on Kat?”
It came out far harsher than I intended, and I could see the words attack her like knives.
“I’m sorry, I’m just a little…well fuck, you know.” I took a deep breath abandoning my harsh tone.
She slowly looked up at me. I could see her eyes were tearing up.
“I’m sorry Jim.” She was shaking her head.
I grabbed her hands and held them tightly.
“It’s okay. Everything is okay. What did you see?”
“I saw Edgar. He spoke to me.”
“David, is this real, or did she fall into some trance?” I asked.
“Let her speak, Jim.”
“He told us to go! He told me someone was coming, and we needed to be gone. He was right! Do you need more proof than that?” She glared at me.
“I’m sorry Kat. My head is just spinning here.”
“Hey, remember me?” David said. “Now you guys can work through this, but I just want to jump in and say we shouldn’t really be sticking around to meet our visitors here. I got a feeling we need to get the hell out of here.”
“David is right, Jim. Please just drive. Let’s go to my mom's house. We can talk there, and I can tell you everything I saw.”
Against my better judgment, I listened to her. My truck was a massive bubble of tension as I drove off and headed to Kat’s house. We were all in a state of shock and were silent.
“Those assholes broke my watch!” David yelled breaking the silence. “My watch, it is nearly eleven o’clock, and my watch says it is just after seven.”
“Nobody touched your damn watch,” I replied. “Your battery probably died. Either way I think we have bigger things to worry about.”
“There isn’t a battery to die, and my watch is still running. It is like it just stopped for the time we were in that room.”
“Alright, fine. Add it to the list of shit going wrong with this place. Let’s just get to Kat’s and sort this all out.”
We drove the rest of the way to Kat’s house in silence. Despite being annoyed hearing about David’s watch, I still couldn’t imagine how it had gotten so late. I had made a mental note to take a look at the video files when I had a chance. Somehow, we were all in a time warp, and I welcomed anything I could use to help figure it out.
I was an emotional wreck. Yes, there was plenty of tension in the truck, but I was adding to it, and I didn’t know why. I felt like I was on the blade of a knife, and the slightest nudge was going to send me over the edge of it. The drive gave me a little time to hit the internal reset button. Right now, I was consumed with the voice telling me not to speak without thinking. I needed to be calm.
We walked into the house, and Kat led us over to the family room. She asked us to sit down. She excused herself for a minute, and I was left sitting there with David.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“What isn’t? We have kinda hit just about everything today. Right now, I am more curious to hear what she has to say.”
I didn’t respond. I just sat there absently staring off into the distance.
“Listen, I get it,” he said. “This is some pretty heavy shit, but we gotta let Kat tell her story. Hold down whatever you are feeling to let that happen.”
“I hope she has some beer,” I said. “I need a drink for sure.”
“Now that I can agree with completely!”
A few moments later, Kat appeared in the room after having changed clothes. As if she was listening in on us, she handed us both an ice-cold beer.
“I figured we all needed a drink after that.” She sat down, a beer of her own in her hand.
“What did you see?” David asked.
“Like I said, it was my great-great-grandfather. But before I get into that, do any of you know about a necklace?”
“Not really sure what a necklace has to do with anything,” David said.
“I’m pretty sure that is what is in that safe, and I’m also pretty sure that is exactly what those men want. See, when I saw Edgar, he talked to me like I was the only person in the room. He called me by name, explained he was Edgar and then even held up this to prove it.” She held up her steel penny.
“This is incredible!” David was unable to contain himself anymore.
“He talked about Sam and how he’d tried to stop him. He said that he killed Samuel, but even in death he wouldn’t be stopped. Samuel needed the necklace, but he also needed me. He wanted me as the last remaining person in his bloodline to take over where he left off. Then, he went on to say that we are all in danger. A group of men is coming to the house to get Ida’s necklace.”
She paused and her eyes drifted off as if she were trying to recall the images she’d seen.
“He said the necklace is the only thing they are after. Then, he stopped and looked around. He told me we had to leave, that it wasn’t safe, and they were on their way… to get out immediately.”
We all sat there in silence not knowing how to respond.
“The next thing I remember was lying on the ground,” she said.
“Does this make any sense to you, David?” I asked.
“The contact, yes, absolutely. The story of him slaying Sam coincides perfectly with what Ida revealed to Jim. But the part about the necklace, I’m afraid not. Let me look into it and see what I can find.” He pulled out his phone.
“What kind of necklace could be so valuable that a team is coming after it?” I asked. “And for chrissakes, the house was empty for fifty years. They could have blown the door off the safe with explosives, and no one would have known or cared.”
“Not necessarily Jim. Remember, Ida said that the room was under a spell of protection, preventing anyone trying to get i
n. Except you of course.”
“I guess. I mean logic tells me that is BS, but then again we are sitting here talking about a message from Kat's great-great-grandfather that came through some magic mirror. So, I’ll just go along with that for now.” I took a drink of my beer.
“Oh my god!” David exclaimed. “This has to be it!”
“What? What has to be it?” I asked.
“The necklace. Listen to this.” He began reading off of his phone. “In attendance was Ida Mansfeld, heiress to the Mansfeld newspaper fortune and socialite. All eyes were on her as she flaunted the newest addition to her ever-growing jewelry collection. This spectacular necklace was a gift from her husband Samuel Freidrich Muller and marks their place on the throne of Chicago’s elite. The necklace was commissioned by Samuel and was reported to take over a year to create. White gold is off-set by hundreds of diamonds. Two large Sapphires add contrast and color while drawing attention to the massive one-hundred-and-ten karat emerald pendant. The necklace is reported to have cost a staggering five-hundred thousand dollars to create and can only be compared to the jewels of Marie Antoinette.” David handed me the phone to read for myself.
There was a photo of Ida dressed in a fur coat, a fur hat, and of course the necklace. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. It immediately struck me as something I would expect to see in a glass case surrounded by lasers in a museum.
“Okay, that is impressive,” I said. “But can I just throw this out there? Say it did cost five-hundred thousand dollars. The increased value of both the gems and the rarity of its craftsmanship could bring that up to a value of what, five million today? First off, that isn’t exactly something you melt down and sell off at a pawn shop. Anyone who sees it is going to question where it came from. Right?”
“Yes,” David agreed. “Its value is in the complete piece, not the parts. But how many times have we heard stories of some rich guy having an original Picasso in his second bedroom despite half the world looking for it? Stuff like that does happen.”
“I suppose. It still seems like a stretch to me. I mean sure, someone could want it privately. Someone could pay a ransom to have it stolen. I’ve seen movies too. I just find it a bit of a reach to assume that these thieves for hire are staking out an old decrepit house, waiting for the moment they can grab it.”
