Collectibles

As the chauffer driven car pulled up to a well light porch a night-man in a black uniform was waiting for him. The chauffer opened the door and Bonita exited the vehicle she had on a lavish seven row thick band of diamonds bracelet. She was young and pretty not exactly the type of person the doorman was expecting to stay here tonight of all nights.

The man on the steps was charming as he said welcome would you like me to tell you the background before your stay here.

"That would be wonderful!" she replied. The chauffer handed the bags to the bellboy and he went ahead to the room.

The doorman told her the following story:

It isn't any Victorian home, it was the home of the Confederate soldier John T. Crossbone. John T.'s parents owned a lot of land in Virginia. As a child all his friends would come over and they would play for hours in the large apple orchard. John T. was both spy and sniper in their game of war. John T. was a stealthy little bugger. He could sneak in so close to the enemy hearing them make their plans and getting back out to inform his comrades of how to go about defeating them. When some of the other children called him a cheater, John T. told them to recant, some had to take the persuasion of John T.'s fist but in the end they recanted.

When John T. grew up he married a mediocre girl, most of the girls were taller than John. John T's wife family didn't give their daughter much choice, they were poor and it was one less mouth to feed. Roslyn was a good wife she cooked and cleaned in the enormous eighteen bedroom, five bathroom, not to mention the regular house rooms kitchen, living room, ect. They also had a ballroom. John T. treated Roslyn extremely well and it didn't take long for her to sort of love him and it was pretty easy to accept her new life.

After a she gave birth, a sickly child. John T. worked closely with the physician. John T. traveled everywhere in the United States at that time that he heard would have someone that could help. He went to doctors in the north east, healers in the south some were even said to practice voodoo. John T. took the child to red skinned medicine men in the west. John T. learned everything he could from these people and brought all kids of concoctions and symbolisms back home to his Victorian home in Virginia.

Roslyn didn't mind most of the items but there was something about the straw doll made to look like her child, and the antelope skeleton with a red blood stain through the bone that made Roslyn very uncomfortable. After a few days, Roslyn told John T. he had to remove the items from the home. John T. negotiated with his wife and it was agreed the items could stay in the basement.

John T. spent many a nights in the dingy basement with the child who cried almost constantly. Since John T.'s trips with the child it was worse. Some nights the child would open up her little mouth and let out a scream that sounded like two or three people screaming in agony at the same time.

Then the Civil War started and John T. went off to serve. A band of Union Soldiers heard the child crying one evening, Roslyn hid but trying to lore the mother out the soldiers tortured the child.

John T. was with his battalion not twenty miles away when in his sleep he heard his child scream. He felt something odd in his uniform pocket he reached in and pulled out the doll but the doll's face was twisted. John T. got up and raced for his home.

When John T. arrived the home was ablaze. The soldiers stood there laughing. John T. snuck around back into the basement. He held up the antelope head and chanted a few words. The blaze stopped and the house was perfect like it had never been set a flame.

John T. stepped out onto the porch and he said to the soldiers, "go home now for it is your houses that burn. My child was afflicted with the agony of your loved ones, but tonight you set my child free. Go bury your dead."

The Union Soldiers laughed and shot at John T. as he stepped back into the house. Later that night John T. was able to sneak out and steal all the men's guns. Early the next morning a Union rider galloped to the Union men and informed them their loved ones had passed away and they had leave to go home and bury them.

The public in the North were told the fires were the result of a test run of the Greek Fire plot in which the next day several Confederate Soldiers took little bottles of a highly flammable substance and threw them into several hotels, museums, and a theater in Manhattan. No human life was lost in the attack on Manhattan. Except for a few days later when one of the Confederate conspirators was captured and hung.

The Crossbone family then spent their lives collecting items of ... shall we say energy. It is all still here and no one knows what is good and what has... evil attached to it.

"Interesting thank you for the story." Bonita said and went to the desk and got her key and went to her room. Her room had colorful bouquet of freesia and Gerbera daisies. The room was big, with lots of delicate looking antiques. Bonita went over placed two of well manicured fingers with blood red nail polish on the little statue of a cherub. Suddenly her body convulsed her eyelids blinked like she was in REM sleep. As her future quickly passed in front of her eyes, but it wasn't in order and she saw her death her grizzly, bloody death. Then it flipped to her past, awful memories. The lost of her father, the step brother that constantly tortured her while her mother was at work. When it was over she said to the statue "your not as innocent as you look."

Then Bonita pulled out her phone, she hit a few buttons. Then told the person on the other end make an offer on the place I am going to make a difference in peoples lives. After she got off the phone she picked up the little statue and said "for some it will be good and for others" she laughed as she clutched the little statue to her chest.