Haunted Happenings

by Lucrezia Black

  And just as the darkness was obscuring his vision, he saw the ghosts gather around him on the platform, as if to welcome him to the other side. As if to greet him and assure him that this was his fate. He knew that he should be scared. He knew that he should feel the panic. But all he felt was calmness as he once again slipped into darkness.

  Elder Walford stood and watched the man burn. It was always nice to have a burning. It was so rare that they had the chance. They all too often needed blood sacrifices, or to cover the death with poison. But a burning, that was how it was supposed to be done.

  She felt the smile pull at her face as she saw his head slump to the side through the cloud of smoke. He was gone now. She could tell from the way his body hung. She was a little disappointed that he hadn’t screamed. It added to it when they screamed and thrashed. It made it seem more like a purification of the soul. But she would take what she could get.

  She turned her attention back to the crowd who had fallen silent to observe the sacrifice. “And so we will have another year of prosperity, another year of safety. And in the summer to follow, we will find another victim. And we will endure as we always have.”

  There was a pause as they all stared mesmerized by the flames and then their voices rang into the night. “Yes, Elder Walford.”

  The Haunting of Number 10 Maple Road

  Prologue

  The Blackmore House

  Leeds, England

  October 1950

  * * *

  There was no greater loss in life than losing the woman you love. Some would argue that losing a child is harder, but Peter cared so little about his son that this argument was quite moot. Since Lydia’s death, Henry had been nothing more than a burden to pass off to whatever nanny he could employ to watch the little brat.

  It seemed cruel, it seemed heartless, and perhaps it was. But his heart had died with Lydia and he was set on getting her back. There was no way around it. His life would not be complete without her. And looking at Henry just reminded him of that every day.

  It had been two years since Lydia was taken. Two long years since his love had left him and he had made no progress since then. He had poured his heart and soul into his practice for two whole years, with nothing to show for it. He hadn’t made any headway at all, but he was making quite the name for himself.

  Most people wouldn’t even make contact with him when he left the house now. He was becoming a social pariah, but he’d expected as much when he’d chosen this path to follow. When you went from a prominent businessman to a reclusive black magician people turned their heads a little.

  He’d never wanted to be a symbol of anything. He’d never wanted the attention. But he was getting it now.

  He’d started it only as a means to get Lydia back. It had taken him the entire first year just to figure out what he was doing. And there had been plenty of mistakes along the way. He had done much wrong. A great deal of mistakes had to be covered up, but that was behind him now. Now he was moving forward.

  He had people coming to him almost daily with requests. No one would interact with him in public but they were all willing to come to his back door at sundown and beg for his assistance.

  Some wanted to talk to the dead. Some were looking for closure. Some just wanted a show and nothing more. He could deliver on all counts, but all the while working for and with them, he was always only looking for Lydia.

  He wasn’t about to tell them that. He put on a good show of looking for whomever the hell they wanted. Sometimes he even found the dearly departed they were seeking out, and that was just a stroke of luck.

  He wasn’t a particularly skilled black magician. He was aware of that. He had the bodies to show for it, the scars to show for it. But that didn’t mean people didn’t trust him. They trusted him with more than any person in their right mind should. And he let them, because he had a bigger mission.

  Every time anyone came through his door, it was just another chance for him to look for his wife. Because that’s what she would always be to him. No matter how long she was gone, she would always be his wife, his Lydia.

  During the day, he poured over research texts. Very few of them were even in English and he was thankful for his private education. His ability to read and speak multiple languages was really paying off now.

  He didn’t interact with his staff. He ignored his son; he ignored the nanny, the maid and the cook. The only time he spoke to anyone was to exchange money or receive food. Everything was a business transaction.

  He rarely slept. If he was sleeping, he was wasting time that he could be spending looking for Lydia. And that was his mission. That was his only purpose now.

  It was another year before anyone came sniffing around the Blackmore House for reasons other than contacting the dead. The police had gotten word of some strange happenings at the residence and had finally plucked up the nerve to investigate.

  Everyone knew about the Blackmore House. Everyone knew what went on there. No one liked to talk about it. It was a bit of a black mark on the community, but everyone knew.

  Still, when rumours of foul odours and too many missing bodies started hitting their desks, there was no choice but to look into things.

  So now there they were, on the steps of the Blackmore House, ignoring the creeping chills that went up the back of their necks; all in the pursuit of justice. They knocked several times on the front door but no one responded.

  No housekeeper, no cook, no nanny – the house was silent other than the echoes of the knocks. The police tried to peer through the windows but the drapes were pulled shut.

  They eventually rounded the rear of the house and tried the back door. The knob turned without protest and they had their access into the home.

  There was an eerie silence within the house. It was musty and seemed as though it hadn’t been visited in several weeks. They crept through the hallways, clearing the rooms as they went.

  It wasn’t until they got to the basement that they found any hint of what had happened in the home.

  In the basement were the bodies of the cook, the housekeeper, and Peter Blackmore’s young son, Henry. There was no clear indication of what had happened to them. There was no sign of foul play. They were just all dead in the basement.

  The police continued to search the home but they found no trace of Peter Blackmore anywhere within its walls.

  And so it remained a mystery. No one knew what had transpired within the walls of the Blackmore House and no one knew what might have become of Peter Blackmore. But everyone knew to give the property a wide berth, at least until the memory of the Blackmore’s dwindled to nothing more than a local legend.

  Chapter 1

  Changes

  * * *

  Change was good sometimes. Change was needed sometimes. And Celine Burke believed that this change would be great for them, at least for the time being. It would make things easier for them. It would make them a family again.

  Marc had been sceptical at first, but he had believed that she was making a good choice for all of them. Luckily for him, his accounting firm had a branch in Leeds and they were willing to transfer him, considering the circumstances. She was always happy when people considered the circumstances.

  Celine, on the other hand, just gave up work. Her nursing skills were better suited focused on their son.

  Evan was their sole reason for moving to Leeds. When they’d received the news of his Leukaemia, it had been devastating. He was only six years old. How could a six-year-old get cancer?

  But after several doctors’ visits, tests and consultations, it became clear that the form he had, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, was actually more common than any of them would have originally believed.

  So now they were on their way to Leeds, because this was where his specialist was. It just made more sense to move closer to the doctor rather than commute back and forth. The stress of the travel had been doing them both in after the first few months. Which was why Celine
had quit her job in the first place.

  Now they’d decided that the move was really the best thing for them. She hoped that she was right with that decision. She hoped that this would really be the best thing for them. Because she had no other ideas, no alternatives or choices in her head. It was this or nothing at the moment.

  It had taken no time at all to find a rental house in Leeds. With plenty to choose from, it had come down to just picking the one closest to the hospital and closest to Marc’s work. It had been a matter of finding one that worked best for them.

  They didn’t even preview the house in person. The pictures online had been enough for her. There was neither the need nor the time to visit it. They’d agreed to the rental terms and agreed to move in as soon as possible. Luckily for them the owner had been able to have the house ready within a week.

  Now they were in a car on their way from Harrogate, Northern Yorkshire to Leeds. Evan was packed in the back seat of the car fast asleep. He always slept during car rides. He’d done so since he was an infant and she didn’t expect that habit to be broken.

  It made the drives to and from specialists easier. It made travelling to see family easier. And ultimately it was making the move easier.

  Marc was driving and Celine was in the passenger seat. She had spent half the drive pouring over medical journals about Evan’s condition. She would read anything she could get her hands on on the subject. It didn’t matter that they had specialists. It didn’t matter that they had people to talk to. She couldn’t stand being uninformed.

  She didn’t believe that she was smarter than the doctors. That wasn’t why she did it. She just wanted to know what was going on. She wanted to understand what the doctors were saying when they spoke to her. She wanted to know what her options were when it came to treatment.

  It helped that she had a medical background. She couldn’t imagine how hard it would be for families coming into a situation like theirs with no background in medicine or science. The learning curve was significant.

  Celine had a leg up, but it would be hard for most people. She was able to recognise that and appreciate how lucky she was despite their terrible circumstances. After all, she appreciated taking the circumstances into consideration, the good and the bad.

  “Are you going to keep your head buried in those for the whole drive?” Marc joked sending her a sideways glance.

  They were past the halfway point now. The moving truck was following them and they were making good time. They would get to Leeds just after noon and have plenty of time to get unpacked and settled in.

  He knew that Celine would fuss around the house. She would want to make sure that everything was in the right place and that it felt like home. She would want to make sure that it was comfortable for them.

  He knew that it broke her heart to have to leave their house in Harrogate. She’d put so much work into that house. Years of decorating and arranging, and now it was just gone. They’d sold it in favour of renting in Leeds. Neither of them knew how long they were going to be there.

  So she would work on making the house in Leeds a home for them as much as possible. They had brought as many items as they could in the moving van, and he knew that Celine would make a lovely home with what they had.

  “I just wanted to catch up on a few articles I hadn’t read yet. I haven’t had time with the move and packing and Evan.” She glanced over her shoulder into the back seat of the car where he slept soundly. “Seemed like the best time to do some reading.”

  “You put too much on yourself, darling. You really just need to take a breath and let what will happen, happen sometimes.” He could feel her pointed expression. “You exhausting yourself is not going to help Evan get better.”

  She opened her mouth to comment and then closed it firmly. She never had a comeback to that. He’d pulled that statement on her several times since the diagnosis. The logic was flawless and yet she still couldn’t help herself. She felt that she needed to do more. She had to do more.

  This was their son. How could she not run herself to the bone trying to do everything within her power to help him, to make him better? It didn’t matter to her that she went without sleep. It didn’t matter to her that she was exhausted. She just needed him to get through this. She just needed him to live.

  “I know, I know. But what else am I supposed to do?” Her eyes pleaded and looked exhausted at the same time. “You have your job as a distraction, at least. I have these.” She held up the articles. All I can do is read and learn and hope that somewhere, buried in the research of great minds, lies an element of hope that we haven’t explored yet.”

  “You have a great mind, darling.” He reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. “I don’t understand a word that is written on those pages.”

  “And I don’t understand all your numbers and symbols.” She sent him a smile. “We both play to our strengths.”

  She glanced down at the articles. Much to her disappointment, nothing new had been discovered hidden within the pages that she had read. She’d been hoping for some new therapy, some new treatment method. But it had all been much of the same. Sure, everyone tweaked it a little bit, mixed medications a little differently, but the numbers all came out the same no matter the formula. And the numbers were not nearly high enough to be promising.

  She knew that in medicine there were no absolutes. There was nothing that people survived one-hundred-percent of the time. The common cold could kill you if it was mixed with the right combination of other factors. And when it came to cancer, the survival rates were always questionable.

  But that didn’t mean she was without hope. She couldn’t be, for Evan’s sake. She had to be optimistic. She had to believe that he would get through this, that they all would get through this as a family. Because if she let that belief slip for even a minute she knew that she was doomed.

  “Well, I think you are amazing.” He gave her hand one last squeeze before bringing both his hands back to the wheel.

  “Thank you, Marc. It always means the world to have your support.” She tossed the articles back in her bag and settled down into the seat.

  “You will always have it,” he confirmed and there was no lack of genuineness in his voice.

  “I think this change will be good for us,” she said, less to him than to the car in general. “I think it will be a good, fresh start for this journey we are on as a family.”

  “Change can be good.” He agreed, and despite the knot of doubt in his gut he smiled. He wasn’t going to take anything away from her right now. She needed him to support her. She needed him to be the shoulder that she could lean on even if she thought that she could stand on her own. And he had full intention of doing just that.

  “Yeah, change can be good.”

  Celine smiled and watched the scenery as they continued to drive. She couldn’t wait until they got to their new home in Leeds. She couldn’t wait until she could unpack and fuss and make sure that everything was in the right place. She was ready to make this change. She was ready to make this journey. Because she knew there was no turning back now. This was something they had to do, as a family. This was the change they had to make.

  Chapter 2

  The Blackmore House

  * * *

  The Blackmore House

  Leeds, England

  April 30, 2017

  * * *

  The house was perfect. It was everything that Celine could have ever asked for, and then some. The simple four-bedroom house was built in a Georgian style. It had a dining room, living room, and kitchen on the main floor, with a recent new addition of a downstairs bathroom.

  The backyard was small but lovely, with a patio that she knew that she would enjoy sitting on, and a small vegetable garden that had already been planted for the season. She would have to remember to thank the landlord for that. Having a garden to tend to would be a very nice distraction.

  The house was lovely, even in its empty state, it was lovely. Up
stairs had enough rooms for her and Marc to each have their own bedroom, Evan to have a bedroom and a playroom, and Marc to have a home office. She had known when she’d been looking for a place for them that having a home office was important to him.

  He often stayed at the firm late, but she knew that if he had a place to come home to where he could work, he would. She had therefore insisted on the four-bedroom house. It was more space than they were used to, but she would take convenience and comfort at the moment. They needed some of that in their lives.

  And most of all, she needed them to be a family. She needed them to be together as much as possible. If Marc was at work all the time, that wouldn’t happen. She would be left with Evan, with the burden of his illness, and she knew that she couldn’t carry that alone.

  So she was doing everything that she could to make sure that he was able to be there with her for it, and be there for her as much as work would allow.

  Evan was completely captivated by the new house. It was a great deal older than the townhouse they had lived in while in Harrogate, the house he’d grown up in. You could feel the history in this house.

  It was built in the 1930s. That’s what the landlord had told her when she’d spoken to the woman on the phone. It had gone through a few owners over the past eighty plus years, but it was a sturdy house. It was a good place to be with a family. She had been assured of that.

  Celine was optimistic that was the truth as they explored their new home. Evan ran around, having one of his good days.

  Sometimes it was hard to tell that he was sick. There were days that he would be so full of life and energy, like an average six-year-old boy, that no one would ever suspect. On other days, it was like he might fade away in front of her. It broke her heart. But she cherished the good days when she had them.