***
It had all started so innocently. The afternoon was bright and sunny, and I was driving to Wachapreague, VA on the Eastern Shore. I had driven through this tiny town a few months ago on my way south and stopped at the Island House Restaurant to get a piece of delicious Smith Island Cake before heading across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to Virginia Beach.
It's a typical Bay town, filled with a variety of run down houses, a fireman's carnival, and a marina. Only a tiny population of 200 year round residents live there, but the marina does brisk business, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has a branch there.
I was hoping to spend a week in one of the rentals for an impromptu working vacation. I wanted a quiet place to start my new historical romance novel since I had been having a hard time writing at home with all the distractions city life can some times bring.
I located the rental office on the outskirts of town, and very sweet young woman, named Carla, showed me a book of properties which were available. She was tan and blonde and probably not more than 20, and she had lived all her life in Wachapreague. As I flipped through the pages of homes, apartments, and guest lodges, I stopped cold upon seeing The Captain's House.
It was a large, grey clapboard house. It had a large, open front porch. Five windows which stared blankly out at the salt marsh. They all reflected the sunlight light except one window which was dark. The house must have been on a large plot of land because there were no other houses in the picture around it. It was too big for me, really meant for a large family, but the price was good, and something about it called to me.
"I like this one," I told Carla with a smile.
Carla looked a little nervous, "Are you sure? The Captain's House is pretty isolated."
"That's what I like about it. I need some quiet to get some work done."
"It's just..." Carla started, chewing on her lower lip as if trying to make a decision. "That house is --"
Whatever Carla had been about to say was cut off by the arrival of her boss. He was a balding, heavyweight man who quickly took over the rental process. He was delighted to have me rent The Captain's House. It had been vacant for a while, but it was a fine house, and would definitely fit my needs. Carla stood by silently, wringing her hands.
I shook hands with both of them before I left, and Carla looked as if she wanted to tell me something, but didn't know how. I paused, but she shook her head and shrugged, so I left.
A quick drive later, Wachapreague is SUPER tiny, I pulled up in front of The Captain's House. I pulled my suitcase out of the car, and headed up to the front door. The house was surrounded on three sides by salt marsh and water. The blue water sparkled in the sunshine, and I looked around hoping to see an egret or heron fishing, but it was unusually quiet. There were no birds singing, even the cicadas were quiet; nothing moved. It seemed a little strange, but quiet was what I was looking for, so I used my key and opened the door.
Inside it was cool and dark. I flipped on a light switch and dim yellow light illuminated the parlor. A few pieces of dark furniture filled the room. Everything looked dusty and uncomfortable. I moved into the kitchen. The fridge and oven looked like they had been installed in the 1960s and the linoleum floor was torn and dull. Dust covered every surface. I decided I needed to call the rental agency to have someone come over and clean after I had had a look around.
I reached the stairs and began to climb. Every tread squeaked and complained under my feet. The noise sounded remarkably like someone was following me up the stairs, and I even looked behind me to check once or twice as I headed up.
Chastising myself for being ridiculous, I entered the first room at the top and gently dropped my suitcase. The view out of the three windows in the room was fantastic. The marsh water sparkled in the sunlight, and the grasses waved in the breeze. I went to the nearest window and unlocked it, easing it slowly up to let in the breeze. After opening all the windows, I returned down the creaky stairs and went back out onto the porch. I got my laptop and cellphone out of the car, settled into a wooden rocker. I booted up my computer, left a message at the rental agency, and opened up a new document, and began to write.
The words flew from my brain to my fingers to the screen in a way that hadn't happened in a long time. I had fleshed out my outline for the novel weeks earlier, but it this draft was different from the funny romance I had been planning. It was darker, more mysterious, and a scary. A woman, locked in her room, tortured and abused by her father. Then later abused by her husband from an arranged marriage. She wanted, no NEEDED revenge. I didn't know where these ideas were coming from, but I rolled with them, letting them pour onto the paper.
When my laptop beeped and a window popped up warning of low battery, I looked up from the screen and noticed that the sun had recently set, and it was getting dark.
I saved and logged off. I was a little unnerved by the story I had begun writing, so I stood up and stretched and decided to walk down to the Island House for dinner. I went up the creaking staircase to my room to get my purse, and when I walked in, I noticed the windows were all closed. I stopped for a second and looked around. How did they get closed?
Suddenly, there was a scream from the hallway behind me. I whirled around and raced out into the hall, but there was no one there. I looked into the other three bedrooms on the floor, but they were also empty.
"Must have been a bird call," I said out loud to reassure myself, "Owls sound a lot like a woman screaming."
I returned to my room to look at the windows again. "They probably fell closed," I said smiling to myself. I opened one of the windows and struggled again to get it fully open. Then I rattled the window a bit, trying to get it to close, but seemed securely open.
Shrugging, I turned away to grab my purse and jumped when the window closed with a crash.
I whirled around toward the window and thought for a second that I saw the face of a woman reflected in the glass. It was a gruesome face -- pale with blackened holes where the eyes should have been and a horrible, sneering, evil smile. I blinked and it was gone. Had I actually seen anything at all?
I clutched my purse, and headed down the stairs pretty quickly because I was spooked. I reached the first floor and headed toward the open door already feeling a little embarrassed for letting my imagination get the best of me when the lights flickered and went out.
The sun was completely gone, and the house was dark as a tomb. The cold light of the rising moon dimly illuminated the yard outside and the porch. I paused for only a second, but it was too long. The door that had been standing open slammed closed.
A woman's bloodcurdling scream came from the upstairs hallway again, and I raced to the front door to escape. Turning and pulling on the knob frantically, I gasped when the door did not budge. I turned to look for another exit and froze.
The air around me had grown freezing cold, and my rapid breaths formed condensation in front of me. The house was completely in shadow.
On the stairs in front of me there was a faint glow. The light grew in intensity and the hazy form of a woman began to appear. She wore long skirts which were stained and torn and her face was like I had seen in the window before. Her eyes were black gaping holes and her mouth was open in a wide grimacing smile. I turned and ran.
I flung myself against the door in the kitchen, frantically turning the knob and banging on the door. It remained firmly closed.
I knew she was behind me even though she hadn't made a sound; she wasn't even breathing. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck were raised, and every instinct in my body screamed RUN, but I had no where left to go, no place left to hide.
Slowly I turned...step by step...inch by inch, the floor creaking under my feet ominously as dread filled the pit of my stomach. She was reaching out to me with her clawed hands, her black eyes vacant, and she screamed.
The horrible sound jolted through me, and I collapsed on the floor crying. I could hear pounding on the front door as if something else horrible was trying to get in. The sound of glass shattering filled the house, and I covered my ears and closed my eyes, certain that I was going to die. I felt cold hands on my shoulder shaking me, and I cried out.
From a distance I heard, "Miss? Miss? It's Carla from the rental agency. We need to leave now Miss." I opened my eyes, and Carla was kneeling beside me, shaking my arm.
She took my hand and pulled me up, and we climbed through the window she had broken to get into the house. Outside we ran to her car, and she started the engine and reversed out of the drive.
I looked up at The Captain's House, and saw HER shadowy figuring the the upstairs window and heard her scream in agony and frustration as we drove away.
No comments:
Post a Comment