Haunting at Remington House. Laura V. Keegan

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СКАЧАТЬ I’ll be here around eleven. Goodnight.”

      Tom walked them to the door. “Goodnight.”

      Chapter 4

      For the years following Elise’s death, while Tom mourned and struggled to find peace with her death, Elise remained hidden in the Jamestown house. She was weak and uncertain. Nothing more than a thinly-veiled aura. Then Tom began making plans to leave. The reason for her existence became clear. Tom would not leave her behind. That was not even a possibility.

      Elise arrived at Remington House in an old, worn-leather steamer trunk filled with bedding. Nate Adams, Tom’s friend and business assistant, hired a driver to transport some of Tom’s personal belongings to the new house. Thankfully, the trip had been tolerable for Elise—and fast. She arrived several hours before Tom. The driver unloaded the truck, placed everything in the attic. Mary had signed for the delivery. All was done quickly and expediently. Within an hour, the driver was gone.

      Wouldn’t Tom be surprised! Elise laughed wickedly, actually producing a slight guttural sound, truly delighting her. Leaving the cold attic, she went down the back stairs, intent on exploring the main floor.

      In a small room at the bottom of the back stairs, behind the door to the kitchen, Elise’s elation quickly dissipated. A black mist gathered, hovering in the air over her head. Horrified, she tried to hide as the dark form materialized. It emitted an ominous groan that shook her to her very soul. Elise’s scream was silent; her strength vanquished by her fear.

      Dark and oily, the misty thing covered her, petted her as though she were a cat. It caressed her head and back with hands that she could feel but could not see. Bony fingers raked her skin. Recoiling into a corner of the tiny room, she tried to summon her strength. To no avail. She cowered; she didn’t have enough strength to make herself transparent. The dark entity continued to twine its icy mist around her. It’s smothering me. This vile thing is trying to make me surrender to it. It’s trying to steal my soul!

      Then incredibly, tears welled up and trickled down her cheeks. Elise gathered courage. Her anger intensified. She had waited too long for revenge, would not give up now. She summoned all her strength. Her will to survive was strong—stronger than the will of the entity. The roiling mist continued caressing her with greasy, sinewy fingers.

      Elise screamed—the sound barely audible at first—but building. Louder and louder, piercing the dark night. The repulsive thing retreated and vanished.

      I did it. I sent it away! Elise shuddered, then started giggling, nearly hysterical. This was her first encounter with the malevolent beings that dwelled in the dark realm.

      Needing to escape the confines of the airless room, Elise slid under the door into the kitchen. She collapsed on the floor, catching her breath. Then Elise laughed. This time her laughter was clearly audible to the other side. The young girl stopped and looked around, visibly startled. Then the lights went out, sending the room into darkness. The girl screamed.

      Elise was exhausted. Without looking back at the young woman she had frightened, she retreated to her trunk in the attic. She needed rest. Curled up in a tiny ball in a soft, chenille blanket, Elise smiled. As she drifted off to sleep, her last thoughts were how easily she had overcome the vile thing.

      Of course Elise didn’t know—how could she know—that her next encounters with the dark spirits would not prove to be such easy battles. She’d not yet learned the real strength of pure evil.

      Chapter 5

      Except for the crackling of the fire, the house was silent. Tom lay on the couch watching the flames die down. Here he was. In Remington House. He’d actually done it, he’d left Jamestown! Chilled, he got up and put another log on the fire; the hungry flames engulfed the dry tinder, shooting brilliant orange spikes high into the firebox. Tom was worn-out. Not wanting to make the effort to go upstairs, he pulled a heavy, blue afghan from the back of the couch. He lay down and covered himself; within minutes he was asleep.

      Tom slept soundly and, mercifully, did not dream. He woke the next morning when a sliver of light coming through a slit in the curtain shone brightly across his eyes. Disoriented, he looked around the room, not knowing where he was at first.

      It was freezing in the house! The fire had died to a few glowing coals. Shivering he got up, and threw some small kindling and a crumpled up piece of newspaper on the coals, managing to get the fire burning. He lay back down, pulled the blanket up under his chin. Quite contented, he drifted back to sleep. A few hours later the sound of a car coming down the gravel drive woke him. He went out onto the front porch to greet Joe. “Joe, I didn’t expect to see you so early. Come on in, I’ll make some coffee.”

      “Don’t go to any trouble, Mr. Gardner.”

      “Call me Tom.”

      “Have a good night?” Joe asked.

      “Slept like a baby!”

      “Ocean air’ll do the trick. I dropped a few fares off in the area, so thought I’d stop by—see if you needed anything. Won’t be another train until late this afternoon—no passengers to pick up, so my day’s pretty much free now.” Joe followed Tom through the living room, into the dining room, through the swinging door into the kitchen.

      Tom soon had a pot of coffee brewing, the rich, pungent aroma filled the air. He found mugs and spoons, creamer and sugar while he and Joe waited patiently for the coffee to finish. “So, Joe, tell me what kind of work you’d be willing to do around here? I haven’t had a chance to look around yet, but after we have our coffee we can check the place out. I think you said last night that you’d done some work here?

      “Yeah, I did. For the Lindemans. Some painting, removed a few trees, cleaned up dead vegetation. A few years ago, the last summer they were here, I rebuilt the dock and did some repairs on their boathouse. I did a little plumbing work in one of the upstairs bathrooms, and a few odd jobs around the house. Every few months they’d have something for me to fix. Nothing very extensive. Typical handyman stuff.”

      “Sounds like you know your stuff.” Tom nodded his approval.

      “Yeah. Not much to it. There was a lot more I’d like to have done, but the Lindemans didn’t really like anyone around. I always thought it was a great house,” Joe said. “It definitely needs some upgrades. A lot of the wiring is probably outdated, even dangerous. The furnace is almost obsolete; it’s getting almost impossible to find parts for it unless you special order them. We don’t have a major hardware store in town, so it can take a week or more to get parts here.”

      “We better look around then. See what you think needs to be dealt with right away. I need to find out what the delay is with the telephone. I’d like to get that taken care of before I do much, then we can look around. I haven’t even been upstairs yet. Odd, huh? I was too tired last night. Slept on the couch. After you left, I found out the power was out in part of the house. Once it came back on, and Mary Stevens left, the girl who is helping out here, all I wanted was to get some sleep.” Tom poured them both another cup of coffee, added cream to his.

      “Oh, yeah. I heard Mary was going to be helping out here, getting the place ready for you. Nice kid. Her great-granddad helped build this house.” Joe stirred three spoons of sugar into his coffee, then topped his mug off with cream. “So you lost the power, but only in part of the house?”

      “Yeah, but the fuses were all okay. The power went on and off a few times. Mary said it СКАЧАТЬ