by William King
“She went on to say, ‘You killed Elizabeth, Lillie, and Bastelet, but I will stop you.’ Then she collapsed onto the floor. It had taken us two days just to get her back to her old self again. She has been in an awful state of mind since then, and the dreams that she keeps having seem to be getting worse. We tried to get her to explain herself, but she would only say, ‘He would kill us to, if she did.’
“Then one night we were going up the stairs for bed when your father appeared out of nowhere, right in front of our eyes. He stood on the stairs right in front of us and ordered both of us to leave the house. We did exactly what your father said, and came here the same night. I swear on my mother’s grave that this is the truth. It happened exactly as I have explained it to you, and that is all either of us know.”
“I surely do not understand any of this Lyle, but I will tell you one thing for sure. I am going to get to the bottom of what the hell is going on here, if it is the last thing that I do. Lyle, you and Hillary pack up whatever belongings you have, we are going home. Mason and I are going to pay a visit to my aunt Cassandra and find out what this nonsense is all about.”
Lyle and Hillary were ready to leave in less than ten minutes. The four of us walked through the mud out to the barn where the Jeep was parked, opened the doors, and got in. Elizabeth started it up, turned the heat, and defrost on, and off we went for the ride of our life, down the muddy road. I have to say that even though no one said a word, ridding in complete silence all the way back to Elizabeth’s house, everyone seemed to enjoy the experience of going down the muddy road, which you could see on all of our faces.
It did not take long for us to get back to Elizabeth’s house, even though the rain had left the road a mess to navigate. Elizabeth parked the Jeep under the carport and we got out and carefully made our way to the porch. Once Elizabeth unlocked the door, we walked inside. It was almost as cold inside as it was outside when we walked into the house, where we quickly discovered that Lyle had been right. A supernatural being had been looking for something all right, and was not trying to conceal the fact of it either. The house had been thoroughly ransacked once again. The windows that were locked before Elizabeth and I had left were all opened, and the Manor had been left in shambles, papers and objects were thrown all about the house.
I started thinking about all the things that Lyle had said to Elizabeth, and knew that we were unfortunately still no closer to understanding the truth than before. In fact, the situation had now got even more complicated than it had been before. However, there is one thing that Lyle had said about someone or something looking for something within the house that had stuck in my head. I wondered if that is what had happened back at the Blackwood Manor? Was some sort of supernatural being looking for something there as well?
The pieces of the puzzle just did not fit into place, as of yet, or it could be that I was looking so hard to find out what was happening that I might have overlooked the clues that were right in front of my face.
The next thing I heard was Hillary’s dispirited voice say, “I will start straightening up Mrs. Blackwood.”
Elizabeth replied, “Lyle, you stay and help Hillary straighten up the place, Mason and I are going to see my aunt Cassandra.”
“Mrs. Blackwood, I do not know if it is a good idea for us to stay here since your father had told Hillary and I to leave the Manor and to never come back.”
“Lyle, do not worry about what my father had said, he left the Manor to me, and I say you can stay.”
With a terrified voice Lyle replied, “Mrs. Blackwood, I sure hope you are right”
“It will be ok Lyle, do not worry. Mason and I will be back within a few hours at the most.”
Elizabeth walked over, leaned over, and whispered in my ear, “I hope I am right about leaving Lyle and Hillary here while we leave to visit my aunt Cassandra. I could not live with myself if something horrible happened to either one of them after telling them that it would be safe to stay here.”
She also whispered that her aunt Cassandra lived in the Devil’s Elbow Marshlands, which made me a bit nervous and excited at the same time. I could not help but think that all these names seem to have something evil about them. They sure are not common names for places. It seems as if this supernatural force has named them all.
We walked over to the Jeep, got into it, and closed the doors. It had only been a half hour since we had arrived, but the Jeep was already cold as ice inside, so Elizabeth turned on the heater after starting the Jeep. It starting warming up nicely just before Elizabeth drove off.
“I have to say Elizabeth, I am having a ball going out four-wheeling on these mud stricken roads with you behind the wheel. It is exhilarating, and has taken my mind off of the supernatural things that has happened to us.”
“I know what you mean. I am having fun driving down these mud stricken roads as well. I believe that I have not thought too much about the horrible supernatural things that we have encountered either. What do you know? Something we have in common. We both like four-wheeling in the mud.”
It only took us about thirty minutes to get to the location, and the area had looked more like a hidden jungle as we pulled up, got out of the Jeep, and walked up to the door.
As I knocked on the door Elizabeth called out, “Aunt Cassandra are you here?”
Silence greeted us, and not a single sound came from inside the little shack. I slowly opened the front door when Elizabeth said, “This is very strange Mason, let’s take a look inside.”
Elizabeth and I went into the living room, and then made our way into the tiny kitchen where we found no evidence, whatsoever, of anyone preparing food in a very long time. We found her aunt in her bedroom. Her eyes were fixed in a glossy stare, as she rocked back and forth in her old wooden rocking chair. I thought at first that the old woman was surely dead, but to the surprise of both of us. She was still alive, but barely. She neither heard nor spoke a word.
Elizabeth asked, “Mason, if I can find a blanket, can you carry her out to the Jeep.”
“Yes I can Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth opened the back door to the Jeep for me so I would not have to bother, as I had my hands full carrying her aunt Cassandra. I gently placed Cassandra down on the seat and buckled her up, and then got into the Jeep. Elizabeth drove like a bat out of hell and we quickly made it to the Cranston General Hospital where she pulled up to the emergency room entry doors. I got out, unbuckled Cassandra, and carried her aunt into the waiting room and set her into a wheelchair that had been setting inside. Elizabeth explained the situation to the nurse on staff and, immediately her aunt was given a room.
It had been around an hour or so after she had been admitted when Dr. Eldridge, the attending senior staff resident at the hospital came into the waiting room and said, “I am afraid that Cassandra’s condition has me somewhat baffled. I do not fully understand how it could have happened, but it seems as if your aunt is under a hypnotic spell, if that is even possible.”
“Dr. just what does that mean? I have no time to play games, or look up medical terms. I do not understand anything you are saying.”
Dr. Eldridge ignored Elizabeth’s sarcasm, but gave her a critical glance as he retorted.
“Elizabeth, I have diagnosed your aunt Cassandra as being comatose. I will try to explain it this way. You see when a person is in a coma, they do not respond to anything. When a person is in a state of comatose, they will respond to certain things, for example, when they are asked to move their arms or fingers. At this stage they have not slipped deeply enough into the coma State in which they can no longer hear.”
“I do not really understand what you are telling me. Are you saying that she can hear what we are saying to her? She surely did not seem to hear either of us when we found her. We tried to communicate with her at her house, but she did not respond to anything that we were saying. It seemed as if she did not even know that we were there.”
“I believe that might be plausible. You
see Elizabeth, she may have been trying to slip away even then, and she had heard the sound of your voice, which may have brought her back.”
“Dr. Eldridge, can you determine what has caused my aunt Cassandra’s predicament?”
“I was hoping that the two of you could shed some light on the situation. I am terribly sorry, but I do not have any answers. I am sure of one thing though, there does not seem to be any physical reason for the shape that she is in.”
“Dr., can you speculate on how long my aunt will be in this state?”
“In my honest opinion, I can say that I cannot answer that question. Only God knows why, and only time will reveal the answer. I think that it is only fair to tell you that it is entirely possible that your aunt could remain in this state, indefinitely. Elizabeth, I cannot emphasize this enough, your aunt’s condition is very grave.”
Elizabeth and I decided to leave the hospital for the night, and were almost to the exit doors when she was summoned over the intercom of the hospital to return to her aunt Cassandras room. We stopped and looked at one another with faceless expressions, and then without any hesitation, Elizabeth turned and started running through the hospital halls, as if she was a marathon runner trying to be the first to the finish line. It seemed as if her shoes had contained miniature rockets. In fact, she was moving so fast that before I even started she was already halfway down the hall.
As I got nearer to her room, I could hear her screams, although we were still a couple of hallways away. The sound of her voice echoed through the halls of the hospital, which gave me the chills, as she repeated, “Elizabeth will never come to you. She will find out about all the evil things that you have done throughout your years on that island. No! You would not dare try to harm me. I know the truth about your invocation of those evil supernatural forces, and that alone will be my salvation. I will somehow stop your evil doings.”
Then she suddenly began to laugh out hysterically. It seemed as if she had finally gone insane. I looked at Dr. Eldridge and he said, “Dear God Elizabeth, if you have any idea of what this poor tormented old woman is talking about, for God’s sake, please tell me? I cannot make you any promises, but if you can shed some light on anything about your aunt’s circumstances, anything at all, maybe that would give me a place to start.”
Elizabeth looked at her aunt pitifully, and asked the doctor if he had some place where the two of them could talk. He shook his head yes, and we followed him into a small conference room. Elizabeth informed the doctor the best she could about everything there was to tell about her parent’s death, the Blackwood Manor that she inherited in America and the reason for me being there. She also told him about the strange things that happened, which had caused her servants to leave the home of the now departed family, and the even stranger things that had happened at the Blackwood Manor.
The Dr. shook his head and said, “Young woman that is a most unusual story, but it does however tell me one thing for sure. I believe that your aunt is under a more powerful spell than mere hypnosis. She is in shock.”
Elizabeth discussed her aunt living on the Devil’s Island, and what might, or might not have happened to her on that island the sixteen years that she was there.
Knowing that Dr. Eldridge seemed to share our own opinion, he helped us out very little. There was nothing else that neither of us could do for her aunt Cassandra, so Elizabeth and I decided to go back to her house. Once we walked out into the overhang at the emergency room drop off, we could still hear her aunts tormented screams. I knew Lyle and Hillary would be worried, as it was very late by the time we had left the hospital, and was worried about what freighting things might be going on in Elizabeth’s home while we were at the Cranston General Hospital. I could only imagine what was going on, and it frightened me to think that the supernatural forces that we were dealing with were so powerful, that they could cause anything to happen.
The poor things, I could not blame them if they had left the house again after all that had happened prior to us returning the first time. I knew things would never be the same for them in the house that they were so accustomed to living in, but what could I do. We got into the Jeep, closed the doors, and Elizabeth took off like a bat out of hell. The paved roads were dry now, but the dirt roads were still a muddy mess, and would be for some time. Elizabeth was unusually quiet on the drive back to her home, as if she was concentrating on driving as fast as she could, as safe as she could. I had tried talking to her a couple of times, but after little to no response, I quit trying to get through to her. As we got closer to her house, I noticed a glow surrounding the place due to the illuminating lights surrounding the Manor.
Right before we had pulled up to the house Elizabeth finally broke the eerie silence and said, “Poor Lyle and Hillary, I suppose they have plenty of reasons to be afraid to stay in this old house. Hell, for all we know, they might be gone again!”
When we pulled up to the house, Elizabeth stopped the vehicle at the side entrance, instead of parking the Jeep under the carport. We got out, closed the doors, and walked inside. The mud on our shoes did not concern Elizabeth, as the house was, once again, a complete disaster.
Elizabeth shouted out in a loud voice, “What in the hell happened here.” Directing her question at Lyle?
“Elizabeth, are we glad to see you, we did not know what to do. It was horrifying. We retired for the night around ten o’clock, and shortly afterwards we began to hear someone or something walking around downstairs. I swear it sounded like someone or something had been tearing the house apart, piece by piece. A little while later, we heard footsteps coming up the stairs. As we listened to the footsteps make their way up the stairs and down the hall, they made their way to our door and then mysteriously stopped. As we listened in silence we heard a voice say, ‘Leave, leave now before it is too late, and take Mason Williams, the supernatural investigator with you.’ The voice had said no one was to stay except you Miss Blackwood.”
“Lyle, do you remember who the voice that you heard sounded like?”
“Miss Blackwood, I do not think that you want me to answer that question.”
Lyle seemed as if he was close to tearing up when he spoke, “Elizabeth, your dad employed Hillary and I over thirty years ago, and we both had become more than just employer and employee. We feel the same about you, as we did your parents, and there is nothing in this world that would make us want to hurt you.”
Right then Elizabeth reached out her arms and gently placed them onto Lyle’s shoulders, showing him a tremendous amount of love and respect. Lyle’s eyes started to swell up with tears and said, “I am terribly sorry to tell you this Elizabeth, but it was your father again, and there is no mistaken it. I saw him with my own to eyes.”
“I just do not know what to say, nor do I understand. My father had always seemed so very fond of you and Hillary. Lyle, you say that you are positive that it had been my father’s voice, and not someone else trying to sound like him?”
“I am sorry Elizabeth, but it was indeed your father. I wish that I could say that it had been someone else, but then I would be lying to you and myself.”
The hurt and despair that showed within Elizabeth’s eyes were unmistakable and heartbreaking. Once a sound and strong woman was now becoming dispirited. Elizabeth was like a drowning woman trying to reach the lifeline that had been tossed to her, but just kept coming up a little short every time it had been thrown to her. I could not stop thinking about Elizabeth’s aunt Cassandra’s warnings, and I knew that Elizabeth must send Lyle and Hillary back to the MacDougal’s place before it was too late. I knew for a fact that they would only stay out of loyalty and respect for Elizabeth, even if it might kill them both. If something unfortunate should ever happen to Lyle or Hillary, it would be impossible for Elizabeth to go on living. I watched as Lyle walked away in Hillary’s direction, leaving us to ponder upon the strange message that he had just conveyed to us.
Looking directly into her eyes I said, “Elizabeth
, you know the time has come, you must send them back to the MacDougal’s house before it is too late. Elizabeth it is for their own safety.”
She replied, “I know Mason,” as she began to pace the floor. “I wonder if they will be safe even there, or am I only involving two more innocent people who I care for so dearly into this horrific nightmare that I cannot seem to escape from? I am not sure about anything anymore Mason. It is as if time is running out for everyone and everything that I have ever known, or loved so dearly here. Mason I know one thing for sure, when they go back you are going with them, and you are going to stay there until...”
“Until what Elizabeth, until you are either killed or you find out what you have wanted so badly to know? Well thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I am going to tell you something, and I need you to listen carefully. It has taken me twenty-two years to find someone I love and respect as much as you, and I will be damned if I am going to throw in the towel right now. So you might as well get used to having me around. Elizabeth, did you hear what I just said?”
She stood there staring at me, as though she seen a ghost, when a smile suddenly appeared across her face, as she nodded her head in agreement.
It was well past eleven o’clock when we had dropped off Lyle and Hillary at the MacDougal’s house. On our way back to the Manor, I asked Elizabeth to turn onto the narrow dirt road that led to her aunt Cassandra’s house. That is if one would call it that. Darkness had already fallen upon the sky, and the small shack had looked very eerie and loathsome. Upon our arrival, Elizabeth unlocked the door and we both walked inside what seemed to be nothingness. We could see nothing, not even the moon light was shining through the holes in the walls into the little shack, and it was pitch black inside.
