Haunted House Tales

by Riley Amitrani

  “You two cannot possibly think this cat is from the legend, can you?” Trent asked with a tinge of disdain in his tone.

  “Of course not,” Sally shot back. “It’s just a curious coincidence, don’t you think?”

  “Probably…” Josh said. “If it’s the same cat, he must be on the last of his nine lives!”

  They all snickered at that and as they stood, Sally picked up the bony cat, stroking it lovingly as they walked away and went back up to the kitchen. As they closed the door behind them, Trent looked over at Sally and the cat, now purring in her arms and looking as if it might drop off to sleep, it was so content.

  “You keeping it?” Josh asked.

  Sally shrugged slightly.

  “I don’t know…maybe. He’s really cute and by the looks of him he could use some food and maybe a nicer place to live than that old damp, musty cellar.”

  “In your dorm room?” Trent asked.

  “Look at him…” Sally retorted. “He’s small and quiet. No one will ever know. Besides, I’ve always wanted a cat.”

  “And if someone does find out…then what?” Trent asked.

  “Then I guess I will find a better option for him. I’m not worried.”

  “Um…Sally?” Josh asked. “I hate to be a wet blanket here, but maybe I need to remind you of one of the details in the von Kraken legend as it pertains to a cat.”

  “You mean that bit about the possessed cat? The one that supposedly contains the soul of Herbert von Kraken’s brother, Michael? That Herbert’s ghost will seek revenge on anyone removing the cat from the premises?”

  Josh just nodded, realizing how far-fetched the whole idea sounded when Sally spoke it out loud. However, there was still something in the back of his brain that was telling him taking this cat away from the mansion was not right. Call it intuition or whatever, Josh thought to himself, but there was something nagging at him about it.

  “Wait…wait…” Trent said, “Josh, are you actually suggesting this cat is the same one that Herbert von Kraken had back in 1885? That somehow this cat…” he pointed toward Sally, “is over a hundred years old? How long do cats live? Maybe twenty years at most?”

  “I…its…I guess not.” Josh finally conceded. “Depends on how seriously you want to take the von Kraken legend and the rantings of Herbert once he was committed. According to the legend, Herbert felt as if he had succeeded in his efforts to overcome death, and by such logic had made the cat immortal.”

  “You cannot be serious…” Trent said back as he began to wonder about Josh. “It’s just a tall tale, my friend.”

  Josh saw how ludicrous his words had been and how silly he might be appearing…especially to Sally and he was glad the dim of the house hid his embarrassment as he felt his face redden. Sally, however, seemed oblivious to this back and forth between Josh and Trent as she had her attention on the purring cat in her arms.

  “Yeah…yeah…of course, you’re right, Trent,” Josh said in a conciliatory manner. “Guess I just got caught up in the legend and it being Halloween and getting spooked down there in the cellar and all.”

  “OK. Cool. Let Sally take the poor thing. Seems like he’s had a pretty rough go of it here.”

  Josh nodded despite what he was truly feeling in his heart. He had to agree with Trent that on a rational level, actually believing in an “immortal cat” or immortal anything for that matter was insane. However, there was this small voice in his head that kept saying: “what if?” He supposed that this might be the same voice that drove Dr. Victor Frankenstein as well as Herbert von Kraken to the extreme ends they both pursued. In the case of Dr. Frankenstein, though he was fictional in nature, it led to his death, while for Herbert von Kraken it led to descending into madness and being committed to an insane asylum.

  Josh had never been anything but rational and level-headed and logical. He wondered if he had let this legend and wanting to make Sally happy by offering her this adventure into an area of great interest for her had pushed him over the edge. The legend, for sure, was a compelling and macabre tale. And for sure, he still had a real crush on Sally Joseph. Had he let his imagination and desire for a girl that he most likely would never know as more than a friend take his intellect for a ride? As Josh walked off by himself to ponder all of this, it seemed likely this was what had happened. But still…

  He looked over to see Trent and Sally fawning over the cat and it was like a dagger to his heart—again. He did like Trent and held no ill will toward him. Sally had picked Trent and not him and that was that. Maybe, Josh thought, if only I had been more assertive with her? If I had actually laid out my feelings for her? But I didn’t, and now it’s too late. He could see the real connection between the two of them. This had been a pattern for Josh as long as he could remember when it came to girls. Maybe this was a sign to change his ways. Probably too late with Sally, but he could see this was a character flaw of his that needed to be addressed. Over time he was sure he would stop carrying this torch for her. He could look back, later in life, Josh thought, and see that even though Sally Joseph had never been what had wanted her to be, that this moment in time had been a turning point for him. He would always be grateful to her for that.

  Trent walked over and put a hand on Josh’s shoulder and Josh jerked at his touch, looking up.

  “You OK, buddy? You seemed lost or like you are a million miles away.” Trent asked.

  “Oh…sorry. No…I’m good. Guess I did take a little trip there. Just lost in my thoughts I suppose. Bit embarrassed, too, I think…you know…the immortal cat and all?”

  Trent smiled and gave Josh’s shoulder a squeeze.

  “No biggie, my man. You wanted to give this gift to Sally and I can tell even though we did not really see anything…uh…ghostly here…she has had a ball. Thanks. And she got a new cat on top of it all!”

  Josh looked into Trent’s face and grinned.

  “So, you got a little too caught up this legend and all? Who cares? And Josh?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Remember what I told you after we had known each other for just a month or so? That night in the coffee shop?”

  “That sometimes I think too much? Trying to analyze everything to death versus just letting some stuff go when I cannot?”

  “Good memory. Yeah…that. Take this for what it is worth, but do you think maybe that is going on here as well?”

  “Could be…could be. Thanks, Trent.”

  “Forget it. Let’s go see Sally.”

  Josh had heard Trent’s words and admitted that he might have a point. He did over-think things a lot of the time. His emotional development, he knew, was a bit stunted. It was just not a real focus for anyone back in Indiana. He had heard him, but Josh, despite the irrationality of it all, was not so sure it applied in this case. From this point on, until they got back to campus, though, he would keep his thoughts on the matter of the von Kraken legend and how it could actually be true to himself…

  The Benign Mansion Goes Malignant

  Savannah, GA

  October 31, 2016, 11 PM

  Trent and Josh went back over to where Sally was standing still clutching the black mound of fur to her chest as she looked out a front window as the rain continued to lash at the pane while it rattled loosely in its old, cracked and split caulking from who knew how long ago. The wind was blowing the rain near sideways but the lightning seemed to have run its course and the thunder had fallen away to only a dying rumble as if a symbiotic partner to its electrified brother. She glanced up as they came by her side and all three of them just stood quietly as they listened to the mansion settle in against the onslaught outside.

  “Anyone want to take a last look around?” Sally asked.

  “Might as well,” Josh replied. “Saves us getting soaked in that.”

  Josh realized he had as well not anticipated rain for the evening and had no desire to ride back to campus in dripping wet clothes. Trent shrugged in agreement and they moved as a grou
p back through all the rooms on the main level, pausing here and there to look more closely at the paintings on the walls, though granted it was hard to really appreciate the hangings through all the grime. The more they walked and looked, the easier it became for Sally to imagine what had once been here. The mansion must have been breath-taking in its day, she mused to herself.

  As the rain was still beating down as they made their final round of the lower level, they moved upstairs as Josh and Sally had not had the opportunity to see this yet. They agreed with Trent’s assessment, though…they were typical of what could be expected for a guest house, just sadly and horribly neglected. The cat seemed relatively undisturbed as they wandered around. It just purred away as Sally held him close.

  “Just seems like an old, empty, creepy house,” Trent said as they left the top floor to begin the double set of stairs that led back to the ground floor.

  “Yeah…” Sally replied, sighing, sounding a little disappointed.

  Josh was a bit stung that Sally had not gotten what she had expected here, but at the same time, he was quite relieved that it had been a quiet and uneventful tour. Legend or not aside, he supposed it could have been much worse if what had been touted in the von Kraken tale had somehow materialized itself for them. After a few moments, they found themselves back in the foyer and looking outside saw that the bulk of the storm had blown away. The wind was still gusting on and off, but the rain had fallen away to a bare drizzle and a three-quarter moon was peeking through the smattering of clouds that the wind had yet to disperse.

  “Anyone want to check anything else out?” Josh asked as he looked to his friends.

  “Not me,” Trent replied.

  “I guess not,” Sally added. “It was worth a shot, but it seems there is nothing significant in the paranormal going on here after all. Looks like Savannah is just spinning a yarn to bring in tourists…at least in for this joint. At least I got a cool new cat out of the deal!”

  Both Trent and Josh nodded their agreement and the trio spun around to head back out through the back of the house, using the door that Josh had forced open earlier. As they exited the mansion and moved around the side of the house, the tall grass that was lining the low brick wall of the cellar left a slight dampness on their legs, but the rain itself seemed to have run out of steam. The persistent wind was a bit chilling, but otherwise, it was a typical October evening in Georgia. They got back into Trent’s car and he maneuvered the small sedan out of the weeds where they had parked as the bumps and ruts of the field jostled them until they reached the relative smoothness of Wild Heron Road again.

  Sally had snuggled up against Trent as the cat curled into a ball on her lap, fast asleep. Josh sat back and looked across the blowing grass of the surrounding fields, lost in his thoughts of the whole night. He listened half-heartedly as Trent, for some reason, felt the need to continue to reassure Sally that there was no possibility of such a thing as an immortal cat. And that the legend of Herbert von Kraken was just that—a legend. It puzzled Josh as to why he was still feeling the need to do this, but soon he just let the conversation flow over him like background noise.

  However, the longer he sat and watched the landscape go by, the more Josh was unable to just let it go. Maybe some part of Trent was still wondering about the legend? Even if nothing paranormal had occurred. For Josh, though, he just could not shake the nagging feeling that the legend was not just a tall tale to bring in the curious. It felt too real to him…too tangible…too possible. No matter how hard Josh tried, he just could not shake the sensation that some sort of black cloud might be hanging over them since Sally had removed that cat from the mansion. Maybe, Josh suddenly thought, if the actual wording of the legend was true, that trespassing in and around the mansion would not cause any untoward action from any entities that might still be attached to the property itself.

  What the legend did say, Josh realized, was that revenge would be exacted if the cat, the cat that supposedly was the vessel for the soul of Michael von Kraken, was removed from the premises. Josh felt an icy, cold shiver run down his spine at the dawning of this fact and he looked with dread and a touch of fright at the sleeping cat on Sally’s lap. And just then, Josh was sure he was hearing whispers in his ears that were not coming from the front seat. He felt his pulse accelerate as he tried to figure out if the whispers were actually happening or if maybe his imagination and subconscious were making him hallucinate them. Had he let himself become so invested in the legend and had a such a strong desire to make it all come alive for Sally that he was just imagining them? Or was it something more…

  Josh’s intuition, though not something he normally relied on for direction or decisions, was on full red alert at the moment. He sat erect and closed his eyes, but the feeling that they were in real danger and that those whispers were real was washing over him in waves. Just as he was about to speak up and share what he was experiencing, regardless of the ridicule and scorn he was likely to endure from Trent, the car began to buck and shudder and then coasted to a silent stop at the intersection of Wild Heron Road and Grove Point Road, the last dirt roads before Grove Point changed to pavement and onto the greater civilization of route 204.

  “What’s going on?” Sally asked as Trent tried several times to restart the car without success.

  “No idea,” he replied. “The gas gauge says we are out of gas, but that is impossible. Josh and I filled up right before we picked you up.”

  “Leak maybe?” Sally asked as the cat began to stretch and yawn, coming awake for the first time since she had picked him up in the cellar.

  “I guess it’s possible, but unlikely a whole tank would leak out. Unless there is a gaping hole in the tank.”

  Trent got out and shined a light under the car. The gas tank looked fine for as much if it as Trent could see. He opened the hood and checked all the connections and any place he could think of that could explain such a thing, but there was no indication of any problems anywhere. Besides, it was really the issue of how a full tank of gas had just vanished in a few hours. Trent could not swear to it, but he was sure if the gas had leaked out while they were parked, it would have been quite obvious, even with the rainstorm. He left the hood upright and returned to the driver’s seat, annoyed and frustrated. He tried again, but it was no use. The car would not start and the gas gauge was stuck on E.

  Trent tried to use his cell phone to call for a tow, but much like the gas tank, the battery on his phone was requesting a charge, even though he knew he had charged it right before he picked up Josh.

  “Can either one of you try and call for a tow. My phone is dead.”

  Josh pulled his out and found the same situation as Trent, though he knew as well as Trent did that he had had a full charge on it when they had left campus. Sally had a charge, but when she tried to call all she got was a voice message that the network as temporarily out of service.

  “Now what?” Sally asked as the cat was sitting up awake and alert in her lap, its’ shimmering yellow eyes wide with curiosity.

  She tried to conceal it, but Sally was definitely feeling concerned. They were in the middle of nowhere, a good distance from the city limits of Savannah if they had to walk. Josh had remained silent all through this ordeal, but his feelings of impending danger were still strong. Then, as if from out of nowhere, the cloud cover became incredibly thick again, obliterating the yellow glow of the moon, their only real light out here in the sticks. The wind arose again and sheets of rain began to fall suddenly from the sky. Thunder clapped loudly making Sally gasp and multiple strikes of jagged electricity shot high across the black night.

  Josh was praying he was wrong, but deep inside he was feeling as if they were about to pay the price for removing the cat from the mansion. As the rain pounded down relentlessly on the top of the car and the thunder went off like bombs all around them, the cat began to meow. It was low and quiet at first, in a manner that cats often use to just get attention, but it soon became non-stop
and grew into a near yowling as if the cat was in distress, despite Sally’s efforts to calm him. The rain came in torrents, soon converting Wild Heron Road into a muddy quagmire, and the thunder and lightning raged on as if they had never had the chance to express themselves before and needed to show off.

  The wind gusted in gales that shook the frame of the car, making Sally fear it might actually tip over at one point. She was not prone to panic, but Sally could not stem the tide of fear and dread that was beginning to consume her. She was, after all, a city girl, and the thought of what might happen to them if this situation went on much longer petrified her. Josh wanted to comfort her, but there was no way to reach through the headrests on the front seat to offer a touch of reassurance. And besides, he was not so sure he was feeling all that reassured anyway…but for other reasons. The cat’s yowling rose to a fever pitch, sounding as if it was being tortured or otherwise mistreated. It was like the touch of Sally’s hand was either no longer of any comfort to the formerly placid creature or that it simply, for some inexplicable reason, could no longer feel her touch.

  Josh’s Fears Realized

  Savannah, GA

  October 31, 2016, 12 midnight

  Trent was feeling his temper rise with each passing second. The storm, the broken-down car, being stuck in a place he had not really wanted to come to in the first place…and now this damn cat who would just not shut up.

  “Sally, would you make that fucking cat shut the hell up, please!”

  Sally was doing all she could to placate the poor thing, but nothing was working. On top of that, this was the first time she had seen Trent’s temper. She realized he was angry and frustrated with the situation, but his outburst scared her to her core. She eased away from him and wedged herself up against the passenger’s side door, wondering who this guy was after all. Josh seeing a really bad situation beginning to spiral downward finally spoke up.