The cell phone buzzed on
the dashboard. Roscoe leaned forward and pressed a button. “Hi,
this is Ross.”
“
Robo,” a soft sultry voice
drifted through the speaker. “How far out are you? Mom wants to
know if we should wait for dinner.”
“
No, you guys go ahead. We
stopped and picked up a burger.” He glanced at a passing road sign.
“We should be at your place within the hour.”
“
That’s great, Robo. We
can’t wait to see you.” Excitement crept into Gloria’s voice. “Be
sure to save some room for desert. Mom made your
favorite.”
“
Really, she made a
Mississippi Mud Cake for me. Your mom’s a sweetie. We’ll be there
in an hour. Bye Gloria.” Ross’s eyes twinkled with
delight.
“
Bye, Robo. I’ll be waiting
for you on the porch.” She severed the connection.
“
You’ve got a crush on that
girl.” Gladys adjusted her glasses. “That’s why you wanted me to
come. You’re in love with her.”
“
Don’t be so melodramatic.
She’s a good friend, has been for years. We went to school
together.” He averted her eyes. “A lot of bad things have happened
at that old house. I don’t want anything to happen to her or her
mother.”
“
Don’t worry, Robo.” She
used Gloria’s pet name. “I won’t let anything happen to
them.”
Ross shook his head.
“Please don’t call me that.”
A golden disk hung in the
sky as Ross parked the van in front of the old two story house on
St. Martins Street. Stacks and boxes of building material littered
the yard. A lithe blonde haired figure jumped from a lawn chair on
the porch and ran to the driver’s side.
“
Robo.” A wide joyful smile
split the young woman’s face. Her small hands tapped on the window.
“It’s been too long.”
Ross returned her smile and
rolled the window down. Two arms circled his neck. Gloria stood on
her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I’m surprised you
asked to come here, but I’m so happy to see you.”
“
Gloria,” Ross changed the
subject quickly. “This is professor Gladys Meyers. She’s a friend
of mine. Her field of study is supernatural science.”
“
Hello, Professor.” Gloria
removed her arms from Ross’s neck and stepped back from the door.
“I’m pleased to meet you.”
“
Just call me Gladys.” She
leaned forward to see out the window. “It’s my pleasure to meet
you.”
“
Give me a minute to get out
of this tin can.” He glanced at the granite staircase. “You don’t
have a ramp.”
“
Drive to the south side of
the porch. Pull in real close, and the ramp should lower you enough
so you can just roll right inside.” Gloria ran to the side of the
house, moving debris. “We have five carpenters working on this old
place, the house stood empty for so long it needs a lot of
work.”
“
Don’t worry, I’ll make it.”
He eased the van forward.
“
She seems like a nice young
woman. I can see why you’re so smitten.” Gladys teased.
“
You don’t have to keep
rubbing it in.” Ross circled the stacks of building material and
pulled the van close to the porch.
Gloria and her mother
waited on the porch giving him directions. “Pull forward a little
bit,” she shouted. “That’s good. Your lift should let you drive
right onto the porch.”
Ross glanced at the
disguised woman. “Go on up and introduce yourself. I’ll be there in
a second.”
“
Don’t take too long.” Her
hand paused on the door handle.
He unlocked the chair from
the specially prepared mounting device. His hand closed on the
joystick moving the chair back to the platform. He reached out, and
unlocked the double doors. They swung open easily. He depressed a
side mounted blue button on the chair arm. The whine of hydraulics
filled the air as the platform lifted and eased forward smoothly.
Roscoe hit a second button. The platform slowly lowered to porch
level. He engaged the joystick and drove his wheelchair onto the
tongue and grooved board porch.
Gladys swung open the
passenger side door and circled to the porch.
“
Very nicely done, Ross.”
Gloria rushed forward. Her arms circled his neck squeezing tightly.
Her mother, Betty, followed suit.
“
I’m not used to all this
female attention.” He blushed. The two women gradually broke the
embrace. “In case everyone hasn’t introduced themselves. This is
Gladys Jean Meyers. She’s a college professor from Moffett
University.”
She nodded. “Call me
Gladys. Ross has told me about your home. I must say I’m very
grateful for the invitation to come and study a potential
Paranormal Phenomenon.”
Betty nodded. “I have to
admit, I really didn’t want you here. This house has a bad
reputation in this town. I don’t want the neighbors to think we’re
bringing in a ghost hunter or an exorcist.”
“
I’ll be very discrete, Mrs.
Fletcher.” Gladys took her outstretched hand.
“
If anyone else but Ross had
suggested this, I would have turned them down flat.” She met
Gladys’ gaze. “But he’s special to us.”
“
Yes, Ross is a special
man.”
“
Enough of this chatter,
let’s show them the house.” Gloria bounced to the front door and
opened it wide for Roscoe’s wheelchair. “We’re going to remodel the
entire house, bring it into modern times.”
Gladys entered the old
mansion. Ross shivered uncontrollably, the air inside felt twenty
degrees colder than the outside temperature. “Got a little nip to
the air,” he mumbled.
“
I think there’s a draft in
one of the rooms upstairs.” Gloria fidgeted at the door. “The only
thing that can beat back the chill is the old fireplace. Just hang
on I’ll get a fire going.”
“
This is strange.” Gladys
circled the living room. “Supernatural manifestations can cause an
unusual drop in temperature.”
“
It’s just a draft from one
of the upstairs windows,” Betty repeated. “When we get the old
place sealed up and insulated, it’ll be comfortable all the
time.”
“
What are you going to do
with the old safe?” Ross cast his eyes on the winding marble
staircase.
“
Believe it or not, that’s
the sturdiest part of the house.” Gloria led them to the kitchen.
“We found the combination in some of Granddads old papers. You’ll
never guess what I found inside.”
“
You opened it.” The color
drained from Ross’s face, fear entered his eyes. “Why did you do
that?”
“
Ross, are you okay?” Gladys
kneeled by the chair. Her hands circled his. “You’re freezing.
What’s wrong with you?”
“
Robo, it’s okay. Don’t let
your anxiety get the better of you” Gloria joined Gladys at his
side. “The only thing inside worth keeping was a
painting.”
“
What kind of painting?”
Gladys asked. “I’d like to look it over.”
“
It’s a castle isn’t it?”
Ross shivered. “With a dark haired man standing before the walls,
and people clustered behind him.”
“
That’s right.” Gloria
nodded. “A couple of them look like the pictures I’ve seen of
Arthur and Lorene Charles, but how could you possibly know
that?”
“
You’ve seen that picture
before, haven’t you?” Gladys’ eyes locked on the frightened man’s
face.
“
When your family came here
with us years ago, you saw that painting didn’t you?” Betty licked
her lips nervously. “We just stopped here for a few minutes on our
way to the gulf coast.” Her jaw trembled. Tears misted her brown
eyes.
Gladys turned to stare at
her friend. “You had your accident in this house.”
“
Yeah, Gloria and I ran into
the house to look around. We heard our parents whispering about
this old place, and we wanted to check it out for ourselves.” He
pointed to the stairway. “We ran…” The words dried up in his
throat.
“
We ran up the stairs. We
had to see the old safe.” Gloria took up the story. Her hand locked
with Ross’s squeezing it hard. “Someone was in there. We heard
footsteps as we got close to the old bedroom. We stopped just
outside the door and peeked around the doorway. The safe was
open.”
“
What happened then?” Gladys
demanded.
“
I stayed upstairs. Gloria
ran to tell her father. I knew better. I shouldn’t have gone inside
that room, but I wanted to look inside. I had to see what was in
there.” He looked up at Gladys, meeting her gaze. “I’m sorry. I
should have told you the whole story before we left
Arkansas.”
“
I thought you were holding
back.” Gladys patted his hand. “Tell me the rest of the story.” She
gave him an encouraging smile.
Ross closed his eyes for a
moment, as if to compose his thoughts. “I crept inside that room,
walking on tip-toes. Real quiet, no one could hear me. I made it to
the safe and peered around that big steel door.”
“
What did you see?” Gloria’s
voice squealed.
“
You saw the painting,”
Betty said.
“
Yeah, I saw the picture,
with the faces of all those people in torment, but there was a man
standing inside the safe. A big man with dark hair, his mouth
circled with blood. A woman lay on the floor, blood draining from
two holes in her throat.” Ross squeezed the joystick.
A loud crash shook the
house to the foundations. Gloria and her mother jumped, wrapping
their arms around each other.
“
Sounds like someone is up
there now.” Gladys straightened, her face set in a grim determined
look. “I’m going up there to check things out.”
Ross caught her hand. “No,
not yet, you need to hear the rest of the story.” The temperature
dropped further. Vapor plumed from his open mouth.
“
That’s when you fell, isn’t
it?” Gloria glanced apprehensively at the staircase.
“
I ran from that room and
slipped on the stairs. When I woke up I was in the hospital.” He
looked up at Gladys. “Now you know. For years, I thought it was
just my over active imagination, but it was real.”
Betty’s jaw quivered. “You
broke your back in the fall. We took you to a hospital in Jackson.
My husband laid you out in the back seat. So you'd be more
comfortable. It took us over two hours to get there.”
“
I remember,” Gloria shifted
her attention to her mother. “You went upstairs to see if any
prowlers were up there. I remember hearing that solid metal clang
when the safe closed.”
“
I did that, but the only
thing inside was the painting, no man or woman, only the picture.”
Betty wiped tears from her eyes. “I put it down to childish fears
and a horrible accident.”
“
Ross, take these ladies to
town, find a good motel and stay there for the night.” Gladys
pulled a .32 revolver from her large handbag.
“
Grab your coats and
purses,” Ross ordered. “You heard her. We need to get out of
here.”
“I won’t go.” Gloria stamped her foot. “We’ve been here for over
two weeks and we haven’t been harmed. I’m staying.”
A window banged open on the
second floor, followed by the throaty howl of a wolf. The biting
cold gradually lessened.
“
Whatever was up there seems
to be gone.” Gladys removed her glasses and laid them on a nearby
coffee table. “Find a safe room down here and stay put. I’ve got
business to take care of.”
“
We can go to my room. It’s
right over here.” Betty walked toward the side room. She nervously
peered over her shoulder at the second floor landing.
“
Get in there and lock the
door. Don’t come out unless I say so.” Gladys’ cocked the pistol
and advanced to the bottom of the stairs.
“
Come on, let’s go.” Ross
tugged on Gloria’s arm. “I don’t want anything to happen to
you.”
Gloria nodded and hurried
after her mom, Ross bringing up the rear with the motorized
wheelchair. The door slammed shut behind them.
Gladys eyed the second
floor. One slow step at a time, she ascended the polished marble. A
tingle crawled up her spine. The hair along her neck prickled. She
reached the landing, stopped to listen for a moment then advanced
toward the open door of the bedroom.
Through the space between
the door and the frame, Gladys saw the open safe door. Despite the
frigid air from the open window, she grew clammy with sweat. She
tightened her grip on the pistol, and jumped inside the old
bedroom, only to find it empty. Eyes locked on the painting leaning
against the back wall, she advanced toward the safe. A stench of
corruption hung like a thick fog in the air. Something about the
portrait looked strange. The dark haired man was missing from the
canvas! Only the faces of his suffering victims stared back at
her.
The window curtains next to
the safe whipped and fluttered in the breeze. “He’s out there,
looking for a new victim.” Gladys mumbled. “I wish I had time to
change into my business outfit.” She shrugged. “Just gotta go as
is.”
She leaned from the broken
window, eyeing the twenty foot drop to the ground, then turned and
ran down the landing. Her soft soled shoes covered three stairs at
every step. Once outside leaves rustled and rolled in the strong
wind, masking any sounds her quarry might make. Debating on
retrieving her .410 shotgun from the van she pushed the idea from
her mind and raced down the outside steps.