Carlton House

by B. Groves

  Records of this event have been missing for many years. I’ve tried to contact surviving family members, but they’ve kept quiet on the dark history of the house. I came upon this information from other residents of the immediate area but could not uncover concrete evidence about the tragedy.

  Lily swallowed several times as she absorbed the words written on the blog. Mr. Carlton hadn’t been lying about the history of the house.

  Lily pictured that frightened little boy and an incredible sadness washed over her. It explained his frightened features in the portrait. He lost his mother and then his father was overcome with grief. It was so severe that Phillip not only took his own life but his son’s life as well.

  Lily placed a hand over her mouth thinking about how that little boy must have suffered through no fault of his own.

  Lily thought about working inside that house where a murder-suicide had taken place so long ago. She had seen much throughout her short career of cleaning and she was no stranger to finding dead bodies inside rooms, but this… this somehow made her uncomfortable.

  She shivered, but she was determined to make her time at Carlton House successful. She decided she would help Mr. Carlton restore the house to its former glory. It was the least she could do for young Harry and his memory. It was her way of telling Harry that he would not be forgotten for the time she worked there.

  Lily clicked through the rest of the website. An idea was forming in her head.

  The blogger’s name was Francine Lare. She not only blogged about the history of southern New Jersey, but she ran a small antique shop about thirty miles south in Cape May.

  Lily found a contact link and wrote out her email. She didn’t go into too much detail, only that she was working on a project and wanted some information from a local historian.

  She emailed Francine and closed her laptop for the night, hoping the woman would see her email and respond.

  Lily put the rest of her potato chips inside the pantry. She would need to do some grocery shopping soon. She still didn’t have enough money to eat out every day, but she had the sandwich for lunch the next day.

  She drank a glass of water and prepared for bed. She was becoming nervous thinking about her first day at her new job tomorrow. She hoped that Mr. Carlton would be satisfied with her work. The dining room needed restoration like the rest of the house, but it would still look beautiful once she cleaned it up.

  She needed this job, and she would work hard to earn her money and Mr. Carlton’s trust.

  Lily walked around making sure all the windows and doors were locked.

  When she came upon the main window by the front door and the one that faced the house, she couldn’t help but take a peek outside.

  The moonlight shined down on the house and most of the windows were shrouded in darkness while the mysterious locked room lit up with a dull glow.

  That was the dangerous part of the house, Mr. Carlton had told her, so why had she heard a noise inside the room earlier today, and why was there a light shining inside the room now? And why had she’d seen someone in the window?

  Lily waited a few minutes. She wanted to know if the same silhouette would emerge in the window as it did the night before.

  She gave up after she timed it on her phone. She stood there for a good ten minutes, but nothing appeared.

  Lily wondered if she’d let her imagination run wild or since she’d been under tremendous stress, her anxiety got the better of her.

  Still… there was the history of the house and although Mr. Carlton had pointed out one of Lily’s half-truths, she wondered if he was doing the same thing.

  Chapter 10

  Late Night Stroll

  Lily sat up straight. Her eyes fluttered open to search around.

  She sat up in bed. She wiped her eyes trying to adjust to the darkened room. The only light inside the room was from the appliances and the moonlight penetrating the openings between the curtains and the window.

  Lily’s instincts kicked into high alert. Dread rose in the pit of her abdomen. Something had disturbed her sleep. She listened for a noise but only the refrigerator kicked on as her eyes drifted around the house. She reached over and turned on the lamp beside her bed.

  As her eyesight adjusted to the light, she tried to tell herself that her anxiety had caused her to wake up.

  Shaking her head, Lily glanced at the clock. 2:30 AM.

  Ugh, she thought. If she fell asleep now, she still had three and a half hours until she started her first day at Carlton House. She’d wanted to sleep through the night and ready to jump headfirst into her new job in the morning.

  Lily threw off the bedcovers in disgust and strode to the sink to grab a glass of water. She filled up her glass and turned around to search the room one last time but nothing moved.

  She set the glass in the sink, deciding to go back to bed when a scent tickled her nose.

  Lily stopped and sniffed the air. It was heavy, almost metallic. The air seemed different tonight inside the house as if someone had been watching her.

  Lily rushed over to the window and pulled back the curtain. Her eyes darted around the property although the darkness made it hard to see anything unusual. The only thing that caught her eye was the dim light shining in the second-floor window.

  She made her way to the sliding glass doors and pulled back one curtain. She saw the wall that protected the property and the dark forest behind it. Shreds of moonlight only cast shadows over the area. Nothing moved amongst those shadows. Nothing jumped out at her.

  The rest of the property seemed empty.

  Lily wasn’t ready to climb back under the covers, she wanted to make sure nothing was roaming around the cottage, so she walked over and turned off the lamp and went back to the doors.

  Something had been here, she could feel it, she smelled it. Fear kept her from going back to sleep. An electricity in the air had startled her out of a deep sleep, and she needed to know why or who disturbed her.

  She walked back and forth between each window and waited for a sign of movement.

  Lily made her way back to the glass doors. She pushed the curtains to the side once again and watched.

  On the other side of the property, something appeared.

  Lily held her breath, her heart pounded inside her chest. Her hand shook as she held the curtain back, but she refused to let go.

  A figure materialized from the darkness.

  Lily should have moved away from the window, but she remained frozen in place as the figure walked closer to the cottage.

  She tried to make out features, but the moonlight shining down behind him made it impossible.

  He moved fast too. Almost too fast for her to observe him.

  The man had to be Mr. Carlton.

  Lily squinted her eyes, wishing she had better vision in the dark. The figure edged closer and closer, and Lily let out a faint gasp. The wavy hair gave him away. Again, Mr. Carlton strode past her window in the middle of the night.

  Mr. Carlton moved past the window of her cottage and Lily realized he carried something over his shoulder.

  He had a large bag, what looked like a duffel bag, slung over his shoulder. From Lily’s view, the bag looked empty since it laid flat against his back.

  Lily kept her eyes fixated on Mr. Carlton. He didn’t seem to notice her spying on him or he knew and didn’t care.

  He finished his trek back to the house and opened the door. Lily watched him enter the house and close the door behind him.

  She swallowed, wondering about Mr. Carlton’s second late night stroll, how he could walk so fast. It seemed… inhuman. And most importantly what had been inside the bag.

  Again, Lily rethought her arrangement with the strange owner of Carlton House.

  Her heart pounded against her chest and she tried to take a deep breath. Lily was ready to let go of the curtains when her eyes shifted to the window on the second floor.

  She gasped and stepped back from the curtain lett
ing fall back into place.

  No way. Mr. Carlton couldn’t have made it up the staircase to look out the back window. He had entered the house seconds before. Only seconds.

  Lily pulled the curtain aside again and there stood the same silhouette she’d seen the night before.

  Lily let go of the curtain. She tried to inhale shallow breaths, but her chest ached from pure fear.

  What was going on in this place?

  Lily walked over and sank down on the sofa. She wasn’t safe here. Someone else lived inside the house and deep down she knew it all along.

  She had to decide now, or she might be in danger. Who knows what lurked within the walls of the house and what Mr. Carlton was hiding from her.

  It was way too weird.

  Where would she go?

  Lily decided this house and its strange owner were too much for her. She would wait it out for a few hours and leave when daylight came. She didn’t dare leave now because she didn’t want to take that risk.

  Lily didn’t care about leaving some items behind. Most of her stuff was still with Jordan. She could bring her foster father—Dan—with her to pick up the rest of her things and store them away until she was back on her feet.

  Lily walked back to the bed and flopped back on it. Her mind raced with conflicting thoughts. She thought she’d decided about leaving and never looking back at Carlton House, but as she lay there staring at the ceiling, she couldn’t let go of the doubts.

  Nothing Mr. Carlton had done made her fear for her safety. But what if something happened?

  His paychecks were beyond generous. Was the money worth it?

  He told her to stay away from those rooms. That had to count for something.

  Was there another person inside the house? Did she make it her duty to find out?

  Lily frowned at the last two questions. Should she? Was it her civic duty to find out anything nefarious going on at Carlton House or was she stupid?

  Greedy? She scoffed thinking about the money and wondered how many other people would think staying here would be worth it.

  Lily groaned and turned onto her side. She needed the money. She didn’t want to move back in with Angela and Dan. They were overwhelmed with their own lives because of Angela’s illness and the kids they were fostering right now. They didn’t need another burden. They didn’t need an extra mouth to feed.

  Her thoughts turned to young Harry Carlton, and that’s when her curiosity took a sharp turn.

  Didn’t she promise him she would help fix the house up for him?

  The vivid blue eyes on that little boy haunted her. It had been over a hundred years since the small boy passed away, but she felt the kinship towards him because of the way he stood in the portrait.

  Lily wanted to find out more about that little boy. Morbid curiosity and a genuine interest in this mysterious house—she tried to count how many times she’d passed by this house over the years but no clear answer came—led Lily to consider her earlier doubts.

  Besides, maybe there was a logical explanation for Mr. Carlton’s late night walkabouts. He might have suffered from insomnia and walking around the property helped him tire out and sleep. Lily’s own mother suffered from it too and she remembered her mother staying up half the night on one of the few occasions she stayed home and sober.

  But what had been inside the bag? It looked empty, but Lily could have been mistaken.

  Although thoughts still raced through Lily’s mind, she relaxed and drifted off to sleep.

  Lily opened her eyes to her alarm going off on her phone.

  She sleepily turned over and pressed the button to turn it off. She wanted to roll over fall back to sleep but she needed to get up and think about what she wanted to do.

  Stay or go.

  The coffee would help clear her mind and help her make her decision more rational.

  She yawned and got up from the bed doing her usual routine while her misgivings plagued her thoughts.

  She peeked through the curtains holding her coffee and watched the sun rising over the trees.

  No lights shined from the second floor this morning.

  Lily sipped her coffee and heard a beep on her phone.

  Lily walked over to it and swiped the screen. She found a message from Francine Lare. She was surprised. She didn’t expect her to answer so fast.

  Dear Ms. Evans,

  I would love to meet with you about your project. Unfortunately, I’m traveling around Europe finding goodies to bring back to the states. I will not be returning until late June. Will that be sufficient? If not, I can recommend other historians in the area you can meet with. Also, while I’m away, my sister runs my shop for me, she’s very knowledgeable as well, but not as good as me. Ha!

  Thanks,

  Francine

  Lily made a face. That meant she wouldn’t be able to meet with Francine for a few months.

  She hadn’t expected Francine to respond so fast, and she considered Francine’s other recommendations for historians, but Francine seemed the most knowledgeable about Carlton House since nothing about it turned up on other websites.

  Lily was still at a crossroads. Did she stay or go? Did she stay to find out more about Carlton House herself or did she leave it behind and wait for Francine to return from Europe?

  Lily admitted to herself that the money and the opportunity were keeping her from leaving. Also, she couldn’t help but think of Harry and his tragic end. Phillip Carlton had been a selfish and disgusting person and Lily wanted to know more.

  Lily decided she would give it one more day. She would see how things worked out. If there was any moment where she felt uncomfortable, she would pack her bags and leave immediately.

  Lily took one last look at the house from her window.

  She checked the time. It was 7:30 AM. She might as well get started.

  She had to laugh as she locked the cottage door behind her. When had she lost her sanity? Any other sane person would have left.

  Oh, no, Lily admitted, she wanted the truth about Carlton House and the paycheck wasn’t too shabby either.

  Chapter 11

  Pictures

  Lily listened for any movement inside the house once she entered through the back door.

  Only silence greeted her this early in the morning.

  Shrugging, Lily made her way to the supply closet and opened it. She flicked on the dim bulb and gathered the supplies she would need to clean up the dining room.

  She had a small wardrobe of “work” clothes she purchased from a thrift store after she started working at the motel.

  Lily reached into her pocket and pulled out her hair tie and headband. She pulled her sandy brown hair into a loose bun and put the headband in place to hold back her stray hairs.

  She would need loads of dust rags, oil, mops, and a ladder for the dining room. All that and more were right at Lily’s disposal. She used to fight with Mary about adequate cleaning supplies since customers at the hotel would sometimes complain about the lack of cleanliness in the rooms, but Lily had her hands tied. Mary never provided them and Lily hadn’t been able to afford to provide her own.

  Lily lifted the ladder and carried it out of the room. The only noise inside the house was her heavy breathing from carrying the ladder into the dining room. It was tall enough for her to reach the ceiling and get rid of the cobwebs she’d seen in the corners and on the chandelier.

  Lily secured the ladder against the wall and looked around.

  Lily felt the chill inside the room. The early morning sun was becoming stronger but not enough to heat the room and there was no fire lit inside the fireplace.

  She wondered if she could light a fire to help warm up the room while she worked.

  Lily’s eyes glanced at the dinner table. Her eyebrows rose in surprise. Another note sat by a covered plate.

  Did he provide breakfast?

  Lily walked over to the covered plate. She picked up the note off the table and read that first. />
  Dear Lily,

  My work will keep me away from the house until noon. Please expect an inspection when I return. Enjoy your breakfast.

  Sincerely,

  Michael Carlton

  No matter what strange occurrences happened inside this house, Lily couldn’t complain about the free food.

  Lily lifted the covered plate and found a simple sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich on an English muffin wrapped in saran wrap, a bowl of mixed berries and coffee in a paper cup with those small packets of creamer and sugar.