Paranormal After Dark

by Rebecca Hamilton

  "What are you doing? I'm not going to hit you? What do you think I am?" Milan was defensive and hurt now.

  "I'm leaving. I can't stay here if you two aren't going to be totally honest with me." Johanna rushed past him to get her things.

  Milan looked at Sarah. She said, "She deserves to know."

  Sighing, Milan raked his hand through his tousled hair and followed Johanna.

  Knocking on her partially closed door, he asked, "Can I come in?"

  "No." Her reply was short.

  "Johanna, please?" He begged.

  She opened the door, taking a step back to allow him into the room.

  "It's your house. Do whatever you want, but just so you know, none of those people out there are going to leave you alone until you come clean or make them leave somehow." She warned him as she rushed around the room, picking up the few things she'd removed from her bags.

  Milan sighed before he turned to speak to her. "Can we sit and talk?" He motioned for the twin bed in the center of the room.

  Johanna nodded, sitting at the far end of the bed near the window.

  "This house isn't haunted. Neither is that tunnel. This house was my home. I loved this place. My family loved this place. Some bad things happened and," he paused, rubbing his temple. "Things changed after my father died. My mother became very depressed and refused to leave the grounds. She stopped seeing people and socializing. It was too much for her. She felt like she was all alone in the world, but she still had me." Milan's voice broke as he recalled the events.

  "Kind of like how you are now. You stopped seeing people and stopped living your life, didn't you?" Johanna challenged him to face what he'd become. “What about what that reporter said? What did she mean that every woman that comes here winds up dead?”

  "That's not exactly true. Some things have happened, but not in the way that she made it sound. This was a long time ago. My father died about seven years ago. My mother remained here with me and Sarah and some of the other staff. She tried to function, but it didn't work. I don't know. I guess she couldn't figure out who she was without my father. She got worse. She lost weight. For a while, Sarah is the only one she'd allow anywhere near her. She didn't want anyone to know how bad things had become for her." Milan's eyes moistened with tears. “Then, I met my wife and things changed for a while. I thought she was better, but I guess she wasn't.”

  "How did she do it?" Johanna asked.

  Milan swallowed his emotions. Putting his head down, he whispered, "She swallowed a bunch of pills. I don't know. I guess, she walked outside and went to the tunnel. I don't know why. Maybe, she just wanted to be alone." He started to cry as he recounted the story. "I was at work and when I came home, she wasn't here. Sarah had been out shopping. My mother acted like she was okay. She pretended to be having a good day, but, I guess, that was to get rid of us while she did it."

  "Did you find her? Where was your wife?" Johanna felt sorry for him.

  He shook his head. "No, I called the police when I couldn't find her. The sheriff came down and acted like things were fine. He assumed she was doing better. We all did. Then, a few more hours went by. It was getting dark. Sarah and I had gone looking for her and couldn't find her. I didn't know what to do. We checked everywhere we could think of. Next thing I know, Tuck Johnson goes into the tunnel and comes out screaming that he found her."

  "I'm so sorry." Johanna didn't know what else to say. Milan's shoulders quaked as he sobbed. "I can't imagine how difficult that must be for you."

  Rubbing the tears from his face, Milan stood up. "She was just gone and all I had was memories of her in this house. Nothing had been finalized. Technically, my mother didn't really own it. My grandparent's attorneys controlled everything. They held it in trust for me. My grandfather had left it to me, but with a caveat. I had to be married. After I got married, I couldn't just take the house away from my mother, so she stayed here with us. To answer your question, my wife had gone out of town for the day. She didn't come back until it was too late.”

  "So, you stayed here, where she died and what? Did you plan on staying in the house? Did your wife want to stay here after that happened?" Johanna thought she was beginning to understand.

  "I loved this house. I stayed because I didn't have anywhere else that I wanted to be, but at the same time, I didn't want to be here. Sarah stayed on with me and some of the other employees, but it wasn't the same. This was my mother's home. She held things together. The rest of us just benefited from it." He stood up and looked out the window, shaking his head at all the commotion.

  Johanna's heart ached for him in that moment. He wore his pain for all the world to see and some to fear. Life had thrown so many rifts at him and he'd never had time to recover. As she watched him, seeing his shoulders slump and chest heave, she wished she could reach out to him and hold him, to tell him that everything would be okay, but she knew that it would have been inappropriate.

  He moved her in so many different directions just by being who he was. She'd never felt so invested and so protective of anyone the way she did for him. He made her want to scream and pull her hair out at the same time because he frustrated and angered her so, but she also wanted to hold him and comfort him.

  He glanced over at her. "You think I'm guilty too, don't you? That's why you're looking at me that way."

  Surprised, Johanna gasped. "No. I don't think you're guilty of anything. I was just... Well, I was just thinking. You know, all of this is a lot to take in."

  He nodded, knowing full well how insane his world must have looked to an outsider. He instantly regretted bringing her into his home and into his life at this time. She was too young and too innocent to have been thrown into a world of chaos and misguided loyalties.

  It hadn't gone unnoticed that the other former employees and close friends he'd acquired over the years hadn't returned to offer support or encouragement or to inquire as to whether or not he needed their assistance. He was sure that they'd heard that he was back in town by now. He couldn't blame them for not wanting to be involved, considering the rather unusual circumstances he found himself in yet again, but their noticeable absence did sting nonetheless.

  "I didn't hurt Paulina. The thought never even crossed my mind. I loved her very much. She was everything. She breathed air into me when I thought there was none left for me. I know that probably sounds silly or overly dramatic, but that's the truth. Losing my parents in such a short time frame, nearly broke me. They were everything up until I met her, then, she became a part of my everything, if that makes sense." Milan rubbed his eyes, still standing at the window, listening to the sounds of everyone down below.

  Johanna cast her eyes down, taking in this new information, still not understanding how things could have gone as far as they had. She asked, "Why did the whole town, turn on you? That didn't just happen overnight."

  He shrugged, "They were scared or angry or who knows. All it took was one person to have doubts and soon people started talking. Before I knew it, they were pointing fingers at me and there was nothing I could do or say to make it stop. When I was young, there were rumors of another death here. It was a long time ago. These stories about the tunnel aren't entirely new. They've been spun over and over again."

  "Who blamed you initially?" Johanna stood up to look out the window at the crowd. "Was it Sheriff Acker?"

  Milan nodded. "Yes. This may sound like I've lost my mind, but I don't really blame him either. Small town sheriffs don't usually deal with a whole lot of horrible incidences. I think a lot of it was that Paulina was young and so well liked and she did so much for and with everyone. It was like no one wanted to believe that she died. I know that I didn't, but it was true. The rumors about the house and that damn tunnel sparked a whole slew of new rumors and crazy stories. People wanted to believe that there was a connection and that three women couldn't possibly die at the same place by coincidence."

  "Paulina died in the tunnel too?" Johanna was shocked by that infor
mation.

  "I don't know. No one knows exactly where she died. What we know is that we found her body in the tunnel." Milan sighed.

  "Wait. Wait. Wait. What you're saying is that both your mother and your wife were found dead in the tunnel on your property and the other one from a long time ago? Was that a woman too?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

  Milan swallowed hard. "Yes, all three were relatives of some sort. I don't know why. I can't let myself make a connection between all three deaths because that would make me crazy."

  Sitting on the bed, Johanna shook her head in surprise. "How could that happen? Did the other woman go missing too? How did she end up in the tunnel? How did she die?" Johanna was asking all of the same questions that all of the people standing outside the manor had asked hundreds of times over the years.

  "I don't know much about my great aunt's death. That was before my time. She'd come here from Spain with my grandfather. My understanding is that it was a tragic accident, but I really don't know how or why. As for Paulina, I came home and she was gone. I assumed she was running an errand. I called the police after a couple of hours and we searched. The next morning, someone out walking their dog found her in the tunnel." Milan closed his eyes as he recalled the events.

  "No one searched the tunnel before?" Johanna asked.

  "Yes, we searched it. The sheriff and his deputies checked it. She wasn't there the night before." Milan explained.

  "Then, how did she get in there and when? Wasn't anybody watching the property?"

  Milan shrugged. "She must have come back from wherever she was. Johanna, I really don't know. I've asked myself this over and over again and haven't found the right answer. She died. No one knows how or why and I don't have an explanation as to how she ended up there. This is a small town. We don't have the resources that other towns have. A deputy was patrolling the area, but he didn't notice anything."

  Johanna looked up to the ceiling. "That's why they blame you."

  "Yes, that's... " Milan started, before he was interrupted by loud screaming coming from outside.

  "You killed her! How do you sleep at night, knowing you murdered your wife and child?" The shrill voice screamed, hushing the crowd with its chilling accusation.

  Chapter 10

  “JOHANNA, MILAN ASKED me to tell you to please take the boxes from the hallway to the cellar and the boxes from the master bedroom are to be dropped off at the second hand store on Main Street.” Sarah explained the orders just as Milan had requested.

  "So, he's really going to do it, then?" Johanna looked around at all of the items Milan had gathered up and thrown into boxes overnight.

  Sarah sighed, looking down at all of the family heirlooms and trinkets that were going to be discarded, answering, "Yes. It looks that way. Now, let's get these loaded into the car as quickly as possible. Those monsters outside don't need to see what's going on here."

  Johanna peeked outside at the reporters who had set up camp on the street in front of the property. The crowd that had gathered dispersed in the wee hours of the night, allowing Milan and the women a few hours of quiet after a long day of accusations and questions being thrown at them.

  "Do you think they'll come back today?" Johanna asked, meaning the local residents who had waited over five years to finally be able to say what they'd believed about Milan and his wife's mysterious death.

  Sarah could barely keep her eyes open, the stress showing on her face. She shrugged, saying, "In this town, it's hard to know what people will or won't do. Let's just be prepared in case they do. Behave normally. We haven't done anything wrong and we can't let them think we are afraid of them."

  "But, are you?" Johanna didn't know if she was more fearful or angry that a town could turn on someone without any evidence that they'd done anything wrong. She thought of how often she'd accused someone in her life of having done something without any concrete evidence to prove it. At the time, it felt like the right thing to do, but now, watching what this behavior was doing to Milan, she wished she could have taken every unkind thought and every ounce of mistrust she ever felt away.

  "No." Sarah answered after taking a moment to decide. "I'm disappointed. I'm angry. I want this to end. Milan should be allowed to move on with his life. All of this chaos and nonsense here, has robbed him of the time he needed to grieve properly and that's not fair. I'll tell you - he is not the same because of all of this."

  Johanna lifted a box to take it outside. "But, I don't see how getting rid of his family's things is going to help any of this. I mean, why get rid of the house? It's rightfully his. I could see not wanting to live in it, but why sell it? Why throw away all these memories?"

  Sarah loved the manor. Some of her fondest memories took place in the manor. She too felt like walking away from it wasn't the right thing to do, but not knowing exactly what Milan was going through, she felt she couldn't speak for him or make any decisions for him. This was his battle to fight. Her job was to support him, no matter what, even if that meant having to watch him throw away something his family fought so hard to obtain.

  "I mean, look at it. This place is gorgeous. All it needs is some minor repairs and it could be just as beautiful as it was before, like in the pictures that I saw. Couldn't he just get rid of the tunnel somehow. Cement it shut and let you live in the house or something? Wouldn't you want to live here again?" Johanna had never lived in a home that her family owned. She'd waited her whole life to have something to call her own. The idea of selling the one thing that still connected him to the life he lived, felt like such a loss to Johanna. She couldn't fathom simply walking away from it and pretending that it didn't matter anymore.

  "It isn't our decision. We work for him. We don't get a say in the matter and, yes, I loved this home, but it wasn't mine. Remember, I was an employee. A young woman was found dead, just a few feet from the back door. What do you expect him to do?" Sarah tried to sound firm despite her own feelings of loss regarding the people and the home she'd come to love over the years.

  Johanna fought the urge to continue trying to persuade Sarah. She understood that it must have been painful for her too.

  As soon as she stepped out the front door, hoisting the first of many boxes that she would have to remove from the home, reporters outside sprung into action, jumping out of their vehicles to fire off questions at her. Johanna casually glanced up at the bedroom window, where Milan was sleeping, hoping that they wouldn't wake him.

  "Miss, is it true that you were hired to help clear out the property? Miss, what is your relationship with Mr. Merced?"

  Johanna gulped, trying to hold her tongue and not engage with the reporters, but the questions continued. After loading the box into the car, she rushed back into the house, her nerves on edge.

  "What is wrong with these people? Why is it so unusual that a man wants to sell his house?" Johanna asked, believing that Sarah was in earshot.

  Milan spoke. "To them, I'm a murderer. Those questions were mild compared to what they could ask. I've been down this road before. Believe me, it is going to get worse."

  Johanna gasped, surprised to find him awake and downstairs. Despite all of what he was going through, he remained strikingly handsome. His beautiful brown eyes showed signs of sleep deprivation and worry, but they also showed a strength that caught Johanna off guard. His beautifully chiseled face donned a scowl that she hoped would one day disappear. Given what she'd witnessed the night before, behind the tough facade was a man who loved and loved hard. He had a softer side that made her heart ache for him. The brooding side was the one he allowed people to see, but she couldn't help to be intoxicated by that either.

  Milan was a complicated man with a gentle heart and far too unpredictable for Johanna to feel comfortable with, but she was drawn to him and she had the feeling that he was drawn to her as well. She knew that this wasn't the time or the place for any feelings to develop, but she couldn't deny that she was at least intrigued and beguiled by him. He, ver
y much like the manor, was bewitching.

  Johanna didn't see Sarah in the room. "I should probably go find Sarah."

  Milan stopped her, saying, "No, not yet. There are some things I'd like you to do."

  "Okay." Butterflies began fluttering wildly in Johanna's stomach. "If it's about those boxes, I just started loading some into my car. I hope that's okay."

  "It's not that. I'd like you to go into the attic and start removing some of those items first. There's no point in holding on to them anymore either. Everything up there should be in boxes already." Milan said.

  "Sure. No problem." Johanna started up the stairs, sensing that Milan was watching her. She turned back to look and he immediately turned his head. "Was there something else," she asked.

  "No. Just make sure everything is removed today." Milan turned and walked away.

  Yes, sir, Johanna thought.

  She hadn't been in the attic before and wasn't a fan of small, dank places, but she was curious as to what was up there and why it was so important that the items be given priority over those downstairs.

  Johanna shivered as she searched for a light. The musty smell assaulted her senses. Grasping in the darkness, she couldn't find a light switch. In one far corner, she could see a hint of sunlight coming from outside. Slowly, she made her way across the attic, running into items with every step and knocking some to the floor. If she hadn't have been asked to come into the attic, she never would have.

  "Okay. Where's the light?" She whispered, running into what felt like a desk. "Why didn't I bring a flashlight with me?"

  With her hands extended out in front of her, she reached for the window, only to be met with a piece of furniture blocking it. As she struggled to figure out what the item was something behind her went crashing to the floor.

  Down below, Sarah called up, "Johanna, are you okay?"