Terror in the Manor

Eel Creek Manor. Supposedly the most haunted site in all of the town of Washer, Illinois. Positioned at the top of a hill, along Eel Creek, the dilapidated Gothic mansion has been the setting for many ghost stories and speculation. The most prevalent being the tale of Henry Mathers.

       Henry Mathers was an English immigrant who built the mansion in 1864 after moving here from Europe. It was said that he made his wealth off of a booming farm, but the folklore will state that his riches came from the devil himself. Henry Mathers was a rather reclusive individual, not being one to be social in town or host lavish parties for everyone to attend. Though, it is said that he was the host to a number of satanic gatherings that consisted of orgies and blood sacrifices to the gods of the underworld.

       Whether any of this was true or not, Mathers was found dead in 1889 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He took his own life before going to trial for the disappearance of a little girl named Abby McBride, her bloated corpse was found with a cut throat tied to a wooden post. Ever since, the mansion has sat vacant- save for the ghost investigators and psychics that enjoyed a visit a few times each year.

       My buddies, Daniel Francis and Phillip Wallace had had a certain interest in the house for years. Now that we were fifteen and no longer children, it was the perfect time to brave the supposed ghosts that inhabited the house and see what the hype was for ourselves. So the three of us congregated in the field down the road from the gothic manor and entered Eel Creek Manor together.

       The interior was covered in a fine layer of dust and had the musty smell of mildew and the decaying stench of dead rodents who had entered the place and never found a way out. Every now and then, we came across the remnants of a prior investigation. Old cameras, a long-dead EMF reader, and even a few crucifixes occupied shelves and corners of some of the rooms around the place. Nothing happened for the first half-hour or so of our search, but there was an odd feeling of being watched that picked at the back of my neck.

       “Oh shit,” I heard Phillip say, partly to himself. “Hey, Denny,” he addressed me, “I think I found you a girlfriend.”

       I stalked over to where my best friend of twelve years stood and studied what he was talking about. On a bookshelf containing a few volumes of old medical journals sat a framed image of a nude woman. It was hard to tell since the picture was an ancient black-and-white, but the woman (who I have to admit, did seem pretty attractive despite the wretchedness of her pose- I was fifteen, cut me slack) appeared to have blood running down her shoulders and between her breasts, flowing down to the hair between her legs. Atop her head sat what seemed to be a severed goat’s head, its tongue sticking out the left side of its mouth.

       “Shut up, Phil,” I said snidely- the kid always had a bit of a crass sense of humor.

       “Dude I’m serious,” Phil replied with a bit of a smirk crooked to the right side of his face, “She’s got that weird freak kind of vibe to her. You know it would be good.”

       “Like you would know, King of Virgins,” I shot back.

       “Both of you shut up,” Daniel snapped in our ears. I didn’t realize he was right there until he spoke. “Did either of you see that?”

       “See what, oh Danny Boy?” Phil asked, following his question with a horrible singing voice of, “The pipes, the pipes are caaaaaalling!”

       Daniel poked Phil in the ribs hard, causing the kid to make a face and try to punch back, which Danny was able to sway away with minimal effort, “Phil, cut it. I’m serious. Did either of you see that?”

       I swallowed hard, Danny wasn’t the type to joke around with this kind of stuff, “See what, Dan?” I asked.

       “I-,” he stopped and swallowed, “I thought I saw that woman in the picture wink at me.”

       Now, all three of us had had a certain interest in horror ever since we were six-years-old staying up late in Phil’s basement to watch late-night horror classics on tv during October and the occasional mid-year horror special. As we got older, we delved into Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe, getting our hands on anything and everything we could that had something to do with ghost hauntings, demonic possessions, masked killers killing campers, or weird blood-thirsty cults. Despite a childhood of horror, Dan had always been the one to hide his face under the blankets first or stay up late in fear that whatever monster we had just seen on screen was coming after him. So, with the knowledge of his history, Phil and I didn’t pay much attention to Dan’s fright- even with the knowledge that he wasn’t really one to joke us about it.

       “Probably just your imagination,” Phil said. He tried to come up with a joke but felt it better not to.

       “Yeah, Dan, this place us creepy, some trick of the light must have just happened,” I added, “Let’s keep going.”

       “I know what I saw,” Danny chimed weakly. We continued on.

       Thump!

       Something knocked the ground behind us causing everyone in the group to jump and turn around. Daniel let out a small shriek.

       “What the fuck was that?” Phil spoke harshly.

       “I don’t want to be here anymore,” Danny whimpered.

       I scanned the room, looking for a hit of what had made the sound when a light scratching noise started moving toward us. I braced my arm as Danny dove to the ground with his hands over his head and Phil let out a high-pitched scream. Just as the sound was right in front of me, I saw the culprit. It was just a rat that had fallen through one of the holes in the ceiling and was scurrying to safety. I couldn’t help but laugh.

       “Shut up, you assface,” Phil growled at me when the rat had passed through a crack in the wall behind us, “You were scared too- I saw!”

       “Yeah, but I didn’t scream like a schoolgirl,” I retorted through laughter, wiping tears away.

       “I didn’t scream,” Phil tried to argue, “I stubbed my toe.”

       “On what?” I asked snidely, “Air?”

       “Guys, can we go?” Danny asked with a shaking voice.

       I looked at my watch. It wasn’t working, the battery must have died, I thought to myself, trying to remember when the last time I changed the batteries out on it was. “Yeah, we have been here long enough to brag that we explored the house, lets head back to my place for a movie and pizza,” I said. It was late October, so every channel would have a good selection of 1980’s horror to choose from.

       “We haven’t even seen the basement where all the occult stuff supposedly happened, though,” Phil said. “Danny Boy, don’t be a chicken shit. Let’s check it out for at least a bit before leaving.”

       I wanted to further antagonize Phil for calling us “chicken shits” after screaming like a little girl, but instead, Danny and I reluctantly agreed to follow our friend down to the basement.

       The basement smelled like old incense and tobacco with mold, stale alcohol, and something unidentifiable. It was a room of about four hundred square feet with brick walls that were covered in spray-painted 666’s, pentagrams, and cryptic messages- no doubt done by other high schoolers that had braved the basement before us. At the front of the room sat an old podium with an old candle, halfway melted down and contained lewd images of sexual deviance carved into the wood. A wooden post with rusted metal shackles hanging off of it sat in the middle.

       “Man,” Phil said, “Imagine getting some with like twelve chicks at once down here.”

       Paying no attention to Phil’s perversions, I inspected the post, it was green with mildew in some spots, but others contained dark brown splotches. I assumed it was ancient dried blood.

       “So, this is there Abby McBride was supposedly found. I wonder how many people were sacrificed here in total,” Danny said with a tremor. I could tell his skin was itching him to get out of the house. In all honesty, I was ready to let this place become a memory myself.

       Slam! We heard, causing all three of us to turn again.

       “That was no rodent this time!” Danny screamed.

       The temperature dropped, I could see my breath coming out as if I was exhaling smoke. The feeling of being watch went from a nag to push.

       My fingers instinctively went to the little wooden cross I wore around my neck. It had been a gift from my aunt when I got my first communion years ago. Ever since she had passed in a car accident three years ago, I couldn’t bring myself to allow the trinket to sit in my drawer anymore. It was like a safety blanket I took everywhere with me.

       “Who’s there?” I asked loudly, but uncool.

       Our flashlights went out as we heard a burst of wicked laughter happen behind us.

       “No please!” A woman screamed to the right of us, “Don’t make me! I don’t want to!”

       The laughter continued.

       “No! No!’ a man screamed from the darkness to our right as we heard a ripping sound over the laughter.

       “I want my mommy,” a young girl with an Irish accent howled in my ear, causing me to stumble back, bumping into Phil, who steadied me.

       A glowing green figure manifested before us, in front of the podium. “Like what you see?” the figure asked in an English accent.

       All around, in the same green glow, we witnessed an orgy happening. Maidens and men in Victorian-era clothing ripping the threads to rags. Pouring blood out of goblets onto their naked bodies, engaging in horrible acts to add to the sexual prowess. There was something revolting, yet oddly intriguing about it. I wanted to join but didn’t know why.

       “Ah,” The figure at the front spoke. He had dark eyes with bags around them and neatly combed black hair. A small goatee encircled his tight mouth. His dining attire looked to be in the height of fashion for the time. He wore a weird gold medallion around his neck with a blood-red crystal in the middle. “One of you wants to join the lovely ladies in this act of heathenism.” The figure looked right at me.

       “I’m surprised it was Mr. Dennis and not Mr. Phillip- who talks so much about having lost his virginity two years ago- but of course- you are too afraid to even kiss a girl in fears of her thinking you’re not enough down there, huh?” the apparition of Mathers spoke. He turned to Danny.

       “And you, you despicable excuse for a man,” Mathers spat the words out, “Don’t think I don’t see that wet spot in your jeans. You pissed yourself like an infant. Your father won’t be too pleased when he sees that, will he? Do you think he’ll use the belt or his cane to lash your back when he sees?” The spirit turned his attention back to us, “Didn’t you ever wonder why the fool was afraid of his own shadow? Why he never allowed you two to see him without a shirt on- the kid’s father has ensured that his son will never live another day without his stamp of disproval.” He laughed wickedly again.

       “Shut up!” I screamed. “You have no power over us!”

       “Oh but I do,” the specter said, the ghastly orgy continued around us, “I know your darkest secrets. I know that you have a proclivity.. hmm… more an obsession for sex- you hide it as best you can, but late at night in your room, you want it- it’s okay, I was the same way. A young Catholic boy raised to be told that my impulses were a sin- well that all changed when I met Sister Cromwell when I was fourteen.

       “And you, Phillip,” Phil jumped when he was addressed again, “As I said, I know your… little… self-consciousness. Should we tell them about how you had the opportunity to kiss Sarah Pulsifer three months ago, but you shit your pants?

       “And you, the pussy with the network of scars covering your back. You’re just too easy. However, I can make it go away, boys. All you have to do is join them,” the ghost snapped his fingers and three beautiful women, glowing, stood up from the orgy and invited us in. “They could be all yours. Any woman of our little congregation is all yours. They will accept you with no hesitation.”

       With shaking legs, Phillip took a step, he marched slowly toward one of the standing women like a man to his execution.

       “NO!” I screamed and pulled the kid by the collar of his shirt so hard that he slammed onto the ground.

       “Get the fuck off of me, Dennis!” Phil screamed. Mathers stood silently, watching us with an evil grin on his face. Danny stood quietly on the opposite side, crying and rubbing his back with his hands. “Let me join them, I can’t stand being a little bitch when it comes to girls anymore.”

       “He’s just telling you things you want to hear, it’s a trap, you fucking idiot!” I shouted back at him.

       “Um,” Cromwell interjected calmly, “I will give you three all that you want, you could spend eternity here with us, fucking all of these women- even the men if you want- don’t listen to your friend, Phillip.”

       Phil tried to wrestle himself off of me to join the woman who was now begging him to enter her. Mathers began another fit of horrible laughter. It seemed to echo through my head as if he was screaming the laughter into a megaphone right beside my ear. I drove my elbow down hard into Phil’s stomach, causing him to curl into a ball and gasp for breath. He swore at me sharply. I reached for the cross around my neck and held it up to Mathers.

       “You leave us alone right now, by the power of God!” I howled.

       Mathers laughed even harder as if I had told him some joke, “Silly fool, that relic has no power here. You are-“ he cut off.

       The little wooden cross began to glow and vibrate. I almost dropped it in fear when a pure white figure stood over me. It was my aunt.

       Not the middle-aged woman I remembered from my childhood, but a young woman with toned muscle. A warrior of a woman.

       “You will not take my nephew or his friends tonight, Mathers,” my aunt spoke with a commanding voice, making even me cower as I remained on my knees over my friend. “Dennis, take your friends and leave. I will handle this swine, but I can’t stay long.”

       I attempted to protest before she yelled at me to go. I stood up and picked up Phil by the arm and latched onto the shirt of Danny before speed-walking to the stairs that lead to the exit of the basement. As we ascended the staircase, I watched as my aunt stormed toward Mathers at lightning speed, it caused a crescendo of sound as an explosion of light happened. A great fire started.

       “Go!” I heard my aunt yell once more from all around. The three of us gained some semblance of composure as the house caught fire and began to fall apart.

       Together, the three of us stormed through the vast hallways as burning chunks of wood fell from the upper floors and ceilings. We ran past ghostly figures taunting us and doors slamming on their own. I could feel a presence hot on our trail, chasing after us. My aunt told me inside my mind that we would be safe once we reached the outside.

       I took the lead and threw my shoulder into the door when Danny found that the handle wouldn’t budge. I heard a loud crack as the great mahogany entrance gave way and shattered at the frame. We were outside into the cool October air under a silent moon. The only sounds were the cracks of the burning gothic manor and crickets in the distance. We departed the property.

       I took one last glimpse at Eel Creel Manor, now completely engulfed in flames. I wasn’t sure, but I could have sworn I saw Henry Mathers at the open doorway, smiling wickedly at me.

       Turn around and keep going, my aunt’s voice rang in my head, I have to go back up, but you are safe now. Remember I am always with you.

       The three of us trudged back to my place and silently cried until the sun came up. Though we would always love horror, the three of us would never read or watch anything about hauntings again.