The Haunting of Ironwood

by Jeff DeGordick

  It was a long dozen blocks to her stop and when the bus got near she sprang up and waited by the door, wishing she had just walked in the rain instead.

  It let her off and it was only when the bus sped off that she realized she forgot her purse on the seat. Despite her protests for it to wait, it barreled down the road then disappeared.

  Katie stood in the rain like that soaked rat that was on her mind earlier. Her apartment building was half a block away and she miserably sauntered down the sidewalk with her hands in her pockets.

  A car drove up the street behind her and didn't take any care to avoid the large puddle pooled at the edge of the road. Water and mud soared up in an enormous wave and covered Katie from head to toe, making her look like she just crawled out of a swamp. The oblivious car happily drifted down the road.

  The door to her apartment flew open so hard that it banged into the wall. She came inside, each step creating a sopping sucking sound. She walked straight to the bathroom without caring about the mess and dropped her wet cell phone on the counter before stepping into the shower and turning the water on hot, not even taking her clothes off. She stood there for as long as she could until the water began to cool and then she stripped off, dried off, and changed into pajamas in her bedroom.

  She stared at her bed, but it seemed so lonely and uninviting. She didn't want to be alone right now, so she went into the living room and turned on the TV. She stretched out on the couch and put her feet up, mindlessly flipping through channels and trying to distract herself with anything that could hold her attention. The rain splashed violently against the window of the sixth-floor apartment. Katie turned the volume up, but no matter what she did she couldn't shake the feeling of loneliness and isolation as she sat in the sad glow of the lamp next to her.

  A thousand thoughts swirled through her head and she tried to ignore them all. But the one that crept to the forefront of her mind was Ironwood and its strange and unnerving inhabitant. The way he had asked very probing and personal questions. How he crept up on her and felt her hair. She shuddered and tried to put it out of her mind, but the strange smell as soon as she had walked in the house crept back up her nostrils like she was there again. The bars over all the windows like she had walked into a crime-ridden neighborhood. She could even smell the unpleasant aftershave from the man's neck.

  Footsteps walked past her door out in the hallway and made her jump. She waited for her heart to settle and put the delirious thought out of her head that it had been the man himself stalking her. What a frightful thought that was.

  Then the power went out.

  Stumbling in the Dark

  Katie looked out her window at the rest of the neighborhood, but she saw the lights were on everywhere else. It must have been just her building, then. That's what she told herself. She hadn't been followed; she was alone. She walked past her couch to get a flashlight from her bedroom.

  Footsteps out in the hallway.

  Katie stopped.

  The footsteps were slow and uneven—starting and stopping again. They drifted back and forth out in the hallway. And then Katie saw something that made her skin crawl: a thin strip of light was visible under her apartment door and a shadow drifted back and forth along it. Which meant that her building hadn't lost power—only her apartment.

  The door made a quiet sound, the wooden frame softly groaning. Like someone was pressing their ear to it and listening.

  Katie's breath caught in her throat. She stared at the door, mesmerized. She thought about escaping, but there was nowhere to escape to. She tried to decide whether she should run to her bedroom and grab the flashlight, or pass by the front door to grab a knife from the kitchen.

  The shadow stopped in the middle of the strip of light. Then a knock on the door.

  The sound was so loud in the silence that had fallen over her apartment that Katie almost jumped out of her skin. Instinct took over and she hurried to the kitchen, never turning away from the door, then she pulled a knife out of a drawer.

  Another knock. The door softly pressed against the frame again. She thought of the man's ugly bug head, the stockiness of him, smelled that dreadful aftershave and didn't know if it too was coming through under her door or if it was only in her mind.

  Katie held the knife with both hands and pointed the tip straight at the door, keeping the end of the handle against her chest. She wanted to know who it was, but she was afraid of approaching the door, lest it burst open and the man from the house rush in and attack her.

  Another knock, this one slower.

  Katie shimmied up to the door, keeping her bare toes away from the crack at the bottom, like a knife would come through and slash at them if she got too close. She bent her torso and peered through the peephole.

  The brightly lit hallway outside her door appeared empty.

  She took a step away from the door, fear and confusion consuming her.

  "Katie?" a muffled voice said.

  Katie paused, recognizing the voice and trying to work out whom it belonged to.

  "Katie, are you in there?" Another knock.

  And then it all fell into place in her mind. She put the knife on the kitchen counter and opened the door. "Mrs. Kushner," she said.

  The old woman with fuzzy black and gray hair stood just outside her apartment, about four-foot-nothing and much too short to be seen through the peephole.

  "Katie..." Mrs. Kushner said, looking down at the muddy footprints leading from the elevator to her apartment door. "This mess! Are you all right? What happened to you?"

  "Oh nothing, Mrs. Kushner. I just got a little messy out in the rain, that's all. Sorry about the slop in the hall; I'll clean it."

  "No, no, no, I'll clean. I'll clean." The woman turned back for her apartment to get some cleaning supplies when Katie stopped her.

  "No, really. It's okay. I can do it myself."

  Mrs. Kushner turned back to her and looked into her apartment. "It's so dark in there," she said. "Why are your lights off? Did I wake you?"

  "The power went out," Katie replied. "I'm not sure why."

  "You can stay with me until it comes back on," the old lady offered. "I'll make you some tea and cookies."

  "No really, Mrs. Kushner, I'm fine." The offer was tempting, and she wouldn't mind the company, but more than anything else she was still embarrassed by the mess she made and everything that happened that day that she still just wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.

  When she politely shooed Mrs. Kushner away, she shut the door and got the flashlight from her bedroom, her heart starting to settle. She went into the bathroom and turned on the tap to splash some cold water on her face and wake up from this nightmare she was having.

  A gurgle of water rolled through the pipes and a sudden spurt came out, then only a few drips. She turned the tap off.

  "What is going on around here?" she said in frustration. Then she saw a blinking blue light on the bathroom counter next to her. Her cell phone was telling her she had a new notification.

  She picked up her phone and saw a missed call and a voicemail. She tapped on it and brought the phone up to her ear.

  "Katie, this is your landlord!" an angry Korean voice said to her. "You're two months late on your rent! You not pay rent, I turn off your utilities! You still not pay rent, I kick you out!" Then an abrupt noise in her ear, like her landlord had slammed down the phone.

  Katie put her phone down and sighed. She was broke and out of options, and now she couldn't even rely on her boyfriend to help her out. She was utterly and truly alone.

  And her entire job search in the last couple weeks had been a big dud, save for one single job that had been offered to her. One that would pay pretty well, too. A job in an old, creepy house sitting atop a lonely driveway in the woods.

  Ironwood

  Katie got on her cell phone early the next morning. She had the old newspaper next to her and punched in the number from the classified ad. After a period of silence an automated v
oice informed her that the number had been disconnected.

  Katie hung up the line and tried again, thinking she must have dialed the number wrong, but she was greeted by the same robotic voice.

  She scrutinized the ad, comparing the number on the page to the number on her phone, but they matched.

  She slowly put down her phone and thought about what this meant. Why would the number she dialed just a couple days before have been disconnected? Was it the man's home line? Or cell phone? She didn't know anything else about him, and the ad provided only the phone number. But she needed this job.

  Her eyes scanned across her apartment, lit by the morning light coming through the living room windows. She decided to do the only thing left available to her. She was going back to the house right now.

  She threw her blonde hair in a ponytail and trekked across town to the lonely house between the trees. When she reached the property, her legs tired and out of breath, she stopped and looked up the winding driveway as it disappeared around a bend in the trees. The sky was clear and blue behind her, but looking toward the drive ahead it seemed to darken somehow. A wind picked up and washed the branches of the trees to and fro, casting shifting shadows on the gravel.

  Katie took a deep breath, taking a moment to decide if she really wanted to go through with it. It didn't even take half of that moment before her legs started moving, carrying her up the driveway. She needed the money, and if this was all that was available to her, she would grit her teeth and do it. After all, it was only a house-sitting job and the creepy man who owned it would be gone for her entire stay anyway.

  The overgrown trees hung over the drive above her and swooped down in the wind like they were trying to grab her.

  When the trees opened up she saw the three-story house standing tall against the dim blue of the sky and the trees of the woods all around it. Its windows stared down at her, trapped behind their iron bars, like some kind of demented prison awaiting its new inmate.

  There was no car in the driveway near the house and she wondered if he was home. As she started for the front door, she saw a small shape move to her right.

  A black cat crept out of the brush and stared at her with his pale green eyes. His pupils were razor thin slits and he moved slowly, like he was getting the measure of her.

  Katie paused. "Okay, kitty. It's just me. You can go back to sleep now."

  The cat continued toward her. He moved slowly and when he got a few paces away he came to a stop. Sitting on his haunches, he stared at her.

  Katie backed away from the cat, making a wide circle toward the house. "I don't have any food, buddy. Just keep your distance, all right?" She had always been okay with dogs, but she hated cats. She didn't like the way they were so quiet and aloof most of the time. The way they turned from hot to cold toward a person so quickly. Maybe it reminded her of her boyfriend (ex, she bitterly reminded herself).

  The cat watched her as she hopped up the crooked steps to the front door. Katie knocked on it. She heard the hollow echo inside and waited, but there was no answer. She peered through a barred window next to her, seeing the dusty kitchen, but it was too dim to make out much of anything. Katie turned around and gazed at the driveway and wondered with a sunken heart if the man had taken off early for his trip, joining a long list of people to leave her in a lurch.

  But she wasn't ready to give up yet.

  She knocked on the door again. It felt loose on the third of three knocks and she stared at it carefully. The door hadn't been completely closed. She pushed on it and it creaked open.

  Katie stood on the porch and stared into the mouth of the house, the dim hallway ahead all secrets and mystery.

  Pictures

  "Hello?" she asked. Her echo sounded hideous to her.

  That same musty smell like old rot filled her nostrils and her stomach became queasy. She pinched her nose and took in her surroundings. A staircase to the right led up to the second floor and a hallway stretched in front of her, leading past the kitchen on the left to the living room at the far end. A sitting room sat to her right past the stairs.

  She headed down the hallway into the living room. The numerous pictures of a young blonde woman lined the walls on both sides, staring at her as she went. In the living room, she found nothing but dusty furniture and the peculiar way the whole house was constructed out of the same wood, and she was already second-guessing her choice.

  "Hello?" she called again.

  No one was home, or so it seemed. And the house was too quiet. Not wanting to pry too much—or maybe it was because she was too afraid—she returned to the entrance.

  Katie's curiosity over the pictures caused her to slow. They were strange. Some of them were simple portraits with the girl's hair and makeup done up, a wide smile on her face. Others seemed to be taken more candidly, with some photos strangely cropped, like other people had been taken out of the picture. In most houses with family photos there was a variety of the entire family in various configurations, but this house seemed almost like a monument to this mysterious woman. Was she the man's wife? She seemed far too young. But then again, the quality of the photos was poor—dated—suggesting an old camera and much time gone by. Perhaps she had died, Katie thought. And maybe that explained why the man seemed so strange living on his own without her all these years.

  Katie glanced at one photo and saw the young woman standing in a field with her hand on a tall picket fence next to her. Her blonde hair flowed past her shoulders, not unlike Katie. Even some of the woman's facial features seemed reminiscent of herself, she noted.

  All the eyes on the wall seemed like they were staring at her and she began to feel uneasy, so she headed up the stairs to the second floor, deciding to try once more to see if anyone was home.

  Another hallway stretched along next to the staircase, leading to bedrooms and bathrooms and closets. A second staircase stretched above the lower one up to the third floor, but Katie didn't want to venture too far.

  "Hello?"

  The floor creaked under a tarnished and dusty carpet runner beneath her feet. A few cobwebs clung to the molding. More pictures on the walls of the same woman, yet none of the man or anyone else.

  Katie started down the hall, peering into rooms as she passed. One up ahead had its door mostly closed, but she thought it might be a bedroom. She pressed it open and stuck her head in, half expecting to find the man sleeping.

  But the room was empty... aside from the dozens of picture frames covering all the walls and sitting atop every dresser and table, all filled with that same woman.

  The temperature of the air around her seemed to plunge and Katie quickly stepped backward, shivering. She bumped into something and spun around to see the man standing in the doorway.

  Katie screamed.

  New Hire

  "Oh, I'm so sorry!" Katie said. "I didn't think anyone was here. I mean, the front door was open. I just thought I'd see who was inside."

  "What are you doing here?" he asked.

  Katie stumbled over her words. "Earl, right? I'm sorry, I just, uh... I changed my mind. I want the job. If it's still available, I mean."

  He only stared at her.

  "I tried phoning you, but it said the number was disconnected," she went on to fill the silence. "Is the job still available?"

  His eyes pierced her. He looked down at his watch.

  "You can start now," Earl said.

  "What?"

  "I'm heading out early; change of plans." He turned and walked down the hallway.

  She followed him. "Wait... like right now?"

  Earl entered another bedroom and pulled a suitcase out of the closet. He laid it on the bed and started haphazardly packing clothes into it. He didn't seem to give any regard to what he was packing, stuffing in six pairs of pants, but only two shirts and five socks. He closed it and zipped it up.

  "There's food in the fridge and cupboards downstairs," he told her, holding the suitcase's handle. "It should be enough for you
for the week. Make that a week and a couple of days. You'll see an increase in pay to make up for it when I get back. Oh, and there are brand-new toiletries in the bathroom just down the hall there, as well as fresh towels, with more in the linen closet. You should find everything to your liking. Make sure you stay at the house for the entire duration I'm gone, and stay inside as much as possible. Keep the doors locked." Earl paused, wondering if he had missed anything, and then he left the room.

  Katie was shocked by the suddenness of it all as she listened to his footsteps disappear down the stairs out in the hall. The front door opened and closed followed by a car's engine rumbling to life and fading away.

  "What just happened?" she asked aloud as she stared through the iron bars of the bedroom window.

  With Earl gone, she found herself—most assuredly this time—completely alone. She had only expected to ask him for the job today, not actually start today. But being newly single and otherwise jobless, she had nothing else to do anyway.

  She turned and took a few steps around the room, getting a feel for the space and the strange new digs. Katie headed into the bathroom opposite the stairs on the second floor and saw an old vanity that's base resembled a white marble pillar and a mirror above it, polished spotless. A toilet sat next to it, and a large bathtub was fitted into the wall at the end of the room. Warm and furry bath mats lay under her feet.

  And just like Earl said, sitting around the edges of the vanity's surface were a few toothbrushes, a box of dental floss, tissues, Q-tips, soaps and deodorants. All of them were brand-new and unopened in boxes. Fresh towels hung from a bar in the wall and there were soaps and shampoos in the shower caddy.

  "Wow," Katie muttered. She hadn't brought anything at all with her other than her cell phone, but she realized she might not even need to head back to her apartment for any necessities, other than maybe a few sets of clothes to last her until Earl returned.