The Haunting of Waverly Hall

by Michael Richan

  “The totems were erected around Dark Arm’s property, and they’ve been there ever since, forming a ring that repels all people and animals. They’re indiscriminate as to who they work against, making it unbearable to enter his land. If you endure it and stay too long, you take on a curse that follows you after you leave, and makes life very unpleasant.”

  “Unpleasant?” Granger asked. “How unpleasant?”

  “Vomiting blood unpleasant,” Kai replied. “It’s like your guts get stirred up by a blender.”

  “Yikes,” Robert muttered.

  “If we can get past the totems,” Kai said, “we can explore Dark Arm’s property. I have it on good account that we’ll find the naphtha we need there, because it was one of the compounds he routinely used. Unfortunately, he also concocted all kinds of other things, so once we make it past the totems, we’ll still have to deal with other stuff we might encounter.”

  “Such as?” Robert asked.

  “Very nasty spirits,” Kai replied. “He was paranoid, so there are lots of traps as well. We’ll have to go in heavily protected.”

  “Count me in,” Granger replied. “Sounds like fun.”

  “How do we get through the totems?” Eliza asked.

  “I’ll have to decommission one of the poles,” Kai replied. “That’ll break the circle they form, and we should be able to pass through.”

  “You know how to do that?” Robert asked.

  “I’ve been given instructions,” Kai replied. “It’s not trivial. To do it without damaging the pole will take a lot of ritual work and a lot of focused energy, but I’ve done similar things. I think I can pull it off.”

  “It would be so much easier if it was just a legend shelf,” Eliza replied, thinking about the one she’d taken from Pitmon House. Over the past few months, Aceveda had shown her more about how they work, instructing her on how to set them up and keep them operating. She had turned hers on at home in Spring Green as a kind of homework assignment, but she’d had to turn it off right away when the ghost in her barn overreacted to it, making a big scene. Now, she wondered if the group of elders might be able to make use of one at Dark Arm’s property.

  “If you want,” Eliza said, “I can help you set up a legend shelf there, to replace the totems. You’d have to buy one, but I can help you configure it, once this is all over.”

  “I think my group would be very open to that,” Kai replied. “The totems have devolved over the years, and we don’t feel like we’ve got much control over the place. If you helped us move toward legend shelves, I’d be grateful. You’d have to train one of us on how to keep it going, though; none of us has used one.”

  “Then it’s a deal,” Eliza said. “You help me get free of Waverly Hall, I’ll help you reorganize things at Black Creek.”

  “Let me take the idea back to the group,” Kai said, “but I’m sure they’ll be responsive. In the meantime, we should plan to meet up in that area tonight.”

  “Can’t we do it now?” Eliza asked. “In the daylight?”

  “I would love to do it in daylight,” Kai replied, “but the naphtha is very sensitive to sunlight and moonlight. We have to do this at the right time of the night, when things are dark.”

  “Great,” Robert mumbled. “Makes it ten times harder.”

  “And creepier,” Granger replied, slapping his son on the shoulder.

  “I’m game, Kai,” Eliza said. “Tell me when and where, and I’ll be there.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Eliza stepped over fallen trees, using her flashlight to maneuver as quickly as she could through the forest. Kai, Granger, and Robert were moving rapidly, and she was struggling to keep up. Robert stopped occasionally to hold a branch for her.

  “This is dense,” she said as he gave her a hand over another fallen tree.

  “Careful,” Robert said. “The ground is very uneven here. We could twist an ankle pretty easily.”

  Their flashlight beams bounced ahead of them as they slowly progressed through the forest. To Eliza it seemed as if they’d been walking for an hour when they finally came upon a branchless tree that was completely covered over in vines. Kai stopped and used his hands to pull at the covering. Underneath, a face appeared, staring out at them, carved into the wood.

  “This is it,” Kai said. “I believe there are nine of them or so, encircling the property.” He pointed to the right and left, and Eliza began to form an imaginary line in her mind.

  “You’ll want to stay behind it,” Kai said. “If you cross the line, you’ll feel it.”

  Eliza watched as Kai sat on the ground in front of the totem and crossed his legs. He removed some items from his jacket, and in a few moments had started a small fire on the ground.

  “OK, I’m going to work here for a while,” he said. “Just hang out and wait. Once I’ve decommissioned the totem, we’ll be able to go inside. I’ll let you know. Don’t try until then.”

  Eliza dropped into the River. Just beyond the imaginary line she’d drawn in her mind, she saw the effect of the totem — a billowing purple mist, roiling over the ground, obscuring sight. It exuded a sense of poison, and would have warded her off based on its appearance alone.

  Kai began chanting. A smudge stick of sage was in his hand, and he was holding it in the fire, letting its edge connect with the flames. As the smoke rose from it, he used a hand to pull the smoke toward him.

  She decided to sit and watch as Kai worked, not knowing how long it might take. Occasionally he removed items from his jacket and tossed them into the fire. On one instance, the flame erupted and grew higher, its orange and yellow flickers extending like tendrils toward the totem, licking at the covering of vines but not igniting them.

  After what seemed to Eliza like a half hour of work, the fire next to Kai subsided and slowly settled down into a small pile of smoldering ash. Eliza dropped into the River and looked past the line; the purple haze was gone; the land appeared open and cleansed of the poison.

  “OK,” Kai said. “That should do it.” He rose from the ground, and as he did, Eliza noticed the purple fog begin to reform, billowing over the ground and becoming dense very quickly. She dropped from the River.

  “When you stood, it came back,” she said.

  Kai dropped into the River for a moment and then returned. “Damn,” he said. He sat again, resuming his ritual. After a few moments, the smoke began to rise from the fire once again, and Eliza dropped into the River to examine the forest. The purple mist was dissipating.

  I don’t think you can stop the ritual, Eliza said. If you do, it just comes back.

  That means I’ll have to stay here, Kai said, and keep it going. You three will have to go into the property and locate the naphtha yourselves.

  Any ideas where to look? Eliza asked.

  Well, naphtha is an ancient flammable liquid, Kai said, so it’s probably in jars. He had a house which is likely dilapidated by now. Check there. He was also keen on burying things, so look for markers on the property. Here. He dropped from the River and removed a small glass jar from his jacket, extending it to Granger.

  “This is all you need?” Granger asked, holding up the cup-sized Mason jar.

  “That’s all,” Kai replied. “It doesn’t take much. Try not to get it on you if you can help it. Naphtha was a component of napalm at one point, so it’s nasty stuff to come in contact with.”

  “Right,” Granger replied, slipping the Mason jar into his pocket. “You all ready to dose up?” he asked, removing a flask from his other pocket.

  They passed the flask around, drinking liberally. Once everyone had swallowed the protection, Granger replaced the flask and they walked forward as a group, their flashlights leading the way, leaving Kai sitting on the ground in front of the smoldering fire.

  “One more thing,” Kai said.

  “Yes?” Eliza asked, turning back.

  “Assume everything is a trap,” Kai said. “Don’t engage.”

  Eliza swallowed har
d, feeling her throat contract painfully. She turned and walked deeper into the forest, Granger and Robert following.

  ●

  They continued into the forest for another five minutes until they came to a clearing, surrounding a small house. Eliza dropped into the River and was startled to see the number of ghostly forms moving back and forth across the open space in front of the building. A group of them were gathered at one end, all looking down at something on the ground. Others were drifting, gliding silently along some route known only to them.

  Look at them all, Robert said. Five, six dozen at least.

  What now? Eliza asked.

  We’ll have to pass through them if we’re going to make it to the house, Granger replied.

  I think it might be a good idea if we keep our bodies here, at the edge of the clearing, Eliza said, and explore a little in the River first.

  That would make a hasty exit easier to pull off, Robert replied. Sounds good to me.

  They drifted away from their physical selves, entering the clearing and moving between the ghostly figures that were in constant movement. Eliza stopped when she saw one woman, clawing her way up from underground, struggling to breathe.

  Grab my hand! she called to Eliza, reaching for her, half her body still stuck under the earth.

  Her first instinct was to offer help, but then she remembered Kai’s warning, and turned from the woman, ignoring her plea.

  When I get out of here, the woman called after her, I’ll find you!

  She moved away from the woman, coming instead upon two men lying on the ground, naked. As she watched, their limbs were severed and separated from their bodies by some invisible force, the body parts slowly piled next to them. Their mouths opened in silent screams as the vivisections continued, until their necks were cut, and their faces froze in a final expression as their heads were tossed onto the limb pile. Within moments the scene repeated, the bodies now suddenly whole, awaiting the first amputation.

  This Dark Arm was into weird shit, Granger muttered.

  As they approached the house, Eliza tried to avoid the partial corpses strung from ropes, dangling over the front porch like gruesome wind chimes. Those that still had heads called out to her, begging her to release them.

  Again she ignored their pleas, following Kai’s advice. They stepped onto the porch and felt it sag underneath them. The door to the house was gone. There was a thin green paint surrounding the threshold, not unlike the gateways at the red brick store and the Grignon farm. Look, she said, pointing to the paint. Entering through the doorway might be a bad idea.

  They continued over the porch, peering through broken windows into the house. Vines had grown through the cracks and extended inside, slowly taking over the place.

  I’m going to drift in, Granger said, moving forward to pass through the windows and into the interior of the home. Eliza and Robert followed.

  There were large holes in the ceiling, and plants growing up through broken wooden floorboards. Small signs of River activity punctuated the dark home, glowing marks that varied in size and intensity with each instance. Some appeared to be radiating from inside walls that were dilapidated and crumbling; others were glowing from under the floorboards.

  Any idea what these are? Robert asked, stopping to examine one of the radiating items next to the wall where he stood.

  This one’s a figurine, Granger replied, moving inside a wall and looking at an item up close. Made out of cloth.

  Eliza heard a faint sound, and she turned, trying to pinpoint its direction. As she watched, a small boy emerged from an adjacent room, coming to stop in the doorway. He looked at her with small eyes surrounded by dark bags, as though he’d been awake for days.

  Hello? Eliza asked the boy.

  I… the boy said, halting. I…I… His gaze turned, and he saw Granger and Robert in the room. They hadn’t noticed him yet.

  Who are you? Eliza asked the child.

  I…he repeated, looking back to her. I am Jack.

  She turned to see Granger and Robert looking at her, but not at the boy. It was as though they hadn’t heard him; they didn’t seem to realize that she was talking to someone else.

  Jack turned to look at Granger and Robert once again. I…I...

  I kill them all.

  Eliza watched in horror as Granger and Robert rapidly sank into the ground and out of sight. No! she cried, and turned back to see Jack sinking also, watching her as the edges of his mouth turned upward into an evil grin. A second later, the grin was gone beneath the floorboards, and only his eyes remained, looking at her, watching for a reaction. Another second and he was gone entirely.

  She turned, looking around the room. Granger! Robert! she called.

  No one answered.

  She ran into other rooms of the house and called. The place was empty. Even the glowing River objects they’d noticed earlier were gone.

  She passed through the exterior walls of the house, out into the yard. The bodies on the porch were gone, and so were the ghosts moving across the ground. There was no sound; things seemed muffled, as though cotton had been stuffed in her ears.

  She began to panic. She called for them again, but there was no response. A sudden need to return to her body overwhelmed her, and she dropped from the River, finding herself at the edge of the clearing.

  Robert and Granger’s bodies weren’t there.

  She was alone.

  ●

  She marched toward the house, crossing the quiet clearing. She considered going back to Kai, but the house was closer, and she knew with him stuck working the totem, it would fall to her to investigate the house for Granger and Robert.

  The place seemed even eerier than before. It was dead quiet; there were no insect sounds or breeze in the trees. No ghosts moved across the yard. She looked at the front porch, remembering the bodies that had hung there.

  “Granger!” she called, her voice sounding very soft in the otherwise still space. “Robert!”

  She circled the house, calling as she went. Behind the house was a small well, demarcated by bricks. Some of the bricks had fallen in. She walked to the well and looked down, not able to see the bottom.

  The sound of a twig snapping caused her to lift her head. Deeper in the yard, there was a small fire flickering through the brush. She walked to it and found a woman hunched down next to the fire, her knees rising as high as her head. She wore a series of pelts. Over her head was a wrinkled, dried scalp, with long blond hair attached to it, hiding her darker hair.

  The woman glanced up at her. “You are noisy,” she said, and returned her gaze to the fire.

  Eliza stepped closer to the woman, intrigued, but wary.

  “It will be cold soon,” the woman said. “You may wish to use the fire to keep warm.”

  “Who are you?” Eliza asked, but she didn’t reply.

  Eliza sat on the ground opposite the woman, watching her over the small fire. The woman looked up to toss a small stick onto it, and as she did, Eliza could see dried blood covering her lower mouth and chin.

  “Who are you?” Eliza asked again. “Where are my friends?”

  “You have friends?” she asked. “Men?”

  “Yes, men.”

  The woman nodded and tossed another twig on the fire. “Huh,” she grunted.

  “Where are they?” Eliza asked again.

  The woman looked up at her. “Where are you?”

  “I’m…here,” Eliza replied.

  “Where is here?”

  “Sitting in this yard, with you,” Eliza answered, raising her arms to motion around her.

  The woman grunted again. “And where is this yard?”

  “In the forest?”

  She broke a twig in half and tossed it onto the fire. “You have no idea where you are.”

  Eliza decided to stand. “Why don’t you tell me.”

  “What happened to you?” the woman asked.

  “A small boy appeared in the house,” Eliza replied. />
  “Jack.”

  “Yes. He said he was going to kill my friends. Then he took them somewhere.”

  “No,” the woman replied. “He didn’t take them anywhere.”

  “They sunk into the ground,” Eliza replied, “along with him!”

  “Did they sink,” the woman said, tossing another stick onto the fire, “or did you rise?”

  Eliza looked around the yard, suddenly wondering if what the woman was saying could be true.

  “Jack is a mistake,” the woman said, still looking down into the fire. “My worst.”

  “You are the shaman,” Eliza said. “This is your property.”

  “Property,” the woman repeated. “I’ve never become accustomed to that idea. I live here, yes.”

  “They’ve walled off your place,” Eliza said.

  “Who?”

  “Some members of the tribe. They investigated your home after you died, and they decided that people needed to be kept away.”

  “Died?” she repeated. “They think I died?”

  “You didn’t?” Eliza asked.

  “I’m not a ghost,” the woman replied. “I’m very much alive. Just…” She paused, trying to find the right word.

  “Trapped?” Eliza offered.

  “Yes.”

  “By Jack?”

  The woman didn’t respond.

  “And they think you’re a man, by the way,” Eliza said.

  “Who?”

  “Elders from the tribe,” Eliza replied. “The ones who think you’re dead.”

  The woman looked up at her. “Well, they’re mistaken, but then, they always thought they were smarter than everyone else, so it doesn’t surprise me. Why are you here, anyway? Snooping around?”

  “Looking for naphtha. Another friend of mine thought we’d find some on your property.”

  “So you came to steal something?” she asked, her eyes thinning to become slits.