Her suspicions about something being off about the place were building up inside of her. The house was doing something to her. She was certain of it. But she had no clue what it was.
She hated feeling like this. She wanted it to stop. She wanted it to go away. She felt trapped in a dark space with no exit. She felt suffocated. She needed air. She needed freedom. But she had no clue how to achieve either.
She looked into her husband’s eyes and let out a soft sob. “I don’t know what’s happening to me,” she cried.
Stu bundled her up in his embrace because there was nothing else he could do. He didn’t know what was wrong. He didn’t know how to fix it. All he knew for certain was that she was sad and he needed to make it better.
“There, there,” he said uselessly. “Maybe you just need a good night’s sleep and you will be better in the morning,” he suggested. He had always believed that a good night’s sleep could cure anything. And from the exhausted expression on her face a good night’s sleep would help her.
She shook her head. “I don’t want to go upstairs.” She looked towards the stairway and shivered. “Tonight, I’m sleeping down here.”
He nodded because he didn’t understand and he knew that he wasn’t in a place to argue with her. They had a perfectly good bed upstairs, why did she want to sleep on the couch? He didn’t know. But he would let her, because if it made her happy, that was all that was important.
“You sleep wherever you want, dear.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and gave her a tight hug.
He would sleep upstairs that night alone. Maybell stayed on the couch and kept the kids with her. He hesitated for just a moment to leave the children with her and then shook his head at his train of thought.
He knew that she wouldn’t do anything to hurt them. He knew that she would die for them. He just didn’t know what was wrong with her at the moment.
Stu went to sleep with his mind heavy and his heart sad. He knew that he would have to go to work in the morning and he would have to leave her alone. He just hoped that when he got home things would be okay. He hoped that things would get better, because he didn’t want to think about what would happen should things get worse.
Chapter 6
Distractions
* * *
Maybell woke to an empty house. Well, the children were there but Stu was gone. She vaguely remembered him giving her a kiss goodbye before he left for work but the memory was hazy.
A note on the fridge said the contractors would be around at noon to start on the electrics. She filed that information away in her mind as she got ready to feed the children.
She felt better today. She couldn’t explain it. The weight still sat heavily on her. She still felt depressed. But the anger she had felt the night before was gone. She could look at the children and not feel disdain. She could look at Deirdre’s smiling face and not have evil thoughts about it.
She was happy for that. Perhaps it had been the sleep on the couch. Perhaps it had been her anger coming to a head yesterday. She didn’t know for sure. All she knew was that today was actually a better day.
She got Daniel and Deirdre situated in the kitchen to feed them breakfast. It was a standard routine. Daniel sat in his high chair and alternated between eating his cereal and playing in it. And Maybell held Deirdre and bottle-fed her.
This morning she seemed particularly distracted. She didn’t want to pay attention to her bottle. She didn’t want to eat. All she wanted to do was point in the direction of the stove and giggle.
Maybell glanced over to where the little girl was waving her arm but saw nothing to warrant specific attention. Nothing shiny. No pictures. No toys. Just an empty space.
But try as she might, she could not convince the girl to stop looking at that particular spot. Her brow creased in confusion and she turned towards Daniel to see if he was mimicking his sister’s behaviour at all.
Daniel was grinning and offering a handful of cereal in the direction that Deirdre was indicating. He kept repeating, “eat” and gesturing with his hand filled with cereal.
Maybell frowned. “Who are you telling to eat, Daniel?” She asked him and his round eyes turned towards her, filled with laughter.
“She needs to eat,” he said and gestured once more with his hand.
“Do you mean your sister?” She asked. Perhaps he was concerned because his sister wasn’t drinking from her bottle.
“No, not De-de.” He shook his head and indicated towards the stove again. “Her!”
Maybell glanced towards the stove and had a feeling of unease pass over her. She didn’t see anything there but she felt as though someone was watching them. She couldn’t describe it any other way. It was as though someone was actually standing there watching them as they enjoyed breakfast.
“Does she have a name?” Maybell asked Daniel. She wasn’t certain he would understand what she was asking but it was worth a try.
Daniel frowned, the expression scrunching up his small face as though he’d eaten something sour. “Silly.” He shook his head as if trying to find the right word. “Silly.”
“Her name is Silly?” Her brow creased in confusion as she watched Daniel try to work out the problem in his head.
His eyes fixed on the spot by the stove and he listened intently. Maybell didn’t know what he was hearing, but the level of concentration on the little boy’s face was off putting. She watched him nod a few times as though he was having a conversation with the force that wasn’t there and she felt the chill settle over her.
Had it been just the one child, she could have dismissed it as childhood fantasies, but both children seemed to see whatever was in that corner. Both children seemed to sense its presence. And she couldn’t deny that something was off about the room suddenly.
First it had been the stairwell. Now it was the kitchen. Was no room in the house safe from whatever force hid in the shadows? Could she find no escape from the feelings that threatened to overwhelm her?
“Cilla!” Daniel announced and waved his arms happily spilling cereal all over the floor. “Cilla is her name.”
Maybell barely processed what he was saying as her eyes went to the spilt cereal. She frowned and looked back up at the boy. “Cilla?”
He nodded happily. “Cilla!” And continued to point towards the corner.
Maybell couldn’t say why, but the name resonated with her. It was as though she remembered it from some far-off dream. She pondered the name for a moment but couldn’t figure out why it held a meaning for her. She only knew that knowing it brought a reminder which made her feel twice as uneasy.
She gathered up the kids and took them back into the living room. It was the one place in the house where she actually felt safe. It was the one place where she felt comfortable. And when they were settled down with her, she let out a sigh.
She’d be happy when Stu got home and she was no longer alone in the house. Until then, she’d just have to settle for the company of the contractors. At least once they showed up, she wouldn’t be alone.
The first week of work went well for Stu. He liked his co-workers. He got along well with his boss. The work was exactly as he had expected. There was a comfort in that. It was nice to know that, regardless of the company, the work was always the same.
He couldn’t say that about home. It seemed that every day he returned to Tailsbend, his wife’s state had deteriorated.
It didn’t matter that they now had water. She still wouldn’t leave the living room. She wouldn’t get off the couch. She would barely talk to him.
He was becoming concerned about the children. He didn’t know how well she was caring for them in his absence. He didn’t know if she was feeding them or changing them. All he knew for sure was that they were happy to see him when he came home.
By Friday after work, he’d had enough. He needed to find answers. On top of his wife’s strange behaviour, items were now going missing around the house. His work items kept disappearing and th
en reappearing in places he would have never put them. It was the strangest thing and it was what pushed him over the edge.
Stu made sure the kids were fed and changed. He left a plate of food on the table for Maybell, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t eat it. He wasn’t sure if she’d eaten at all in the last few days.
She just sat there and stared at the wall. He didn’t know what she was staring at but she was completely transfixed. She wouldn’t speak to him. She wouldn’t look at him. She just sat there.
He didn’t want to leave her alone again, but he needed to find answers. He needed to know what was happening, so he put a movie on his laptop for Daniel and made sure that Deirdre was in her playpen.
And with one last glance at his wife and children, he left the house. He knew exactly where he had to go to find the answers that he needed. He had to return to where they’d fist heard about the house, which was off putting. He needed to go back to the pub.
Chapter 7
Answers
* * *
The pub was as busy as anyone would expect it to be on a Friday night. The music played at a low volume. The tables were all filled and the bar was crowded. Stu found an empty stool at the bar and settled into it. He ordered a pint and looked around to see if he recognized any faces from that first night.
Sure enough, he found farmer Bob among the crowd. When there was a lull in conversation, he flagged down the aged farmer and turned on his stool when the man approached.
He leaned heavily on his cane and offered a gap-toothed smile to the younger man. “It’s nice to see that you’re still around. Where’s the family?”
“Well that’s kind of why I’m here…” he began and Bob chuckled.
“Need to run away from them already? You just moved in.” The old man winked. “A man is entitled to some privacy and a strong drink without his woman bothering him.”
Stu nodded good naturedly, but continued on his original train of thought. “It isn’t that I want to be away from them, Bob. It’s that I need answers.”
Bob nodded, his eyes filled with understanding. “Well you’ve come to the right place if you are looking for answers. We got plenty of people who know plenty of things here. What type of answers are you looking for?”
Stu drew in a deep breath. He still couldn’t really believe he was about to ask about these things. He didn’t believe in the paranormal. He didn’t believe that a house could be full of anything. He didn’t believe in such nonsense.
And yet, here he was, in a bar filled with people he didn’t know, hoping that they would have the answers to his problems. It seemed preposterous and yet he knew that it was what had to be done.
“There is something strange about the Tailsbend house…” he began and again Bob nodded.
“We tried to tell you that the first time you came in here.”
“I know, I know. But there is something strange about the house. Not just the property that surrounds it,” Stu continued. He tried to find the words to explain what was going on behind the closed doors of his new home.
“Well there have been plenty of stories that have come out of that house before it was left empty in the 50s. What are you looking to find out?” Bob glanced around the room. “There are plenty of people here that can tell you a thing or two.”
“I’d like to talk to as many people as I can. I really need to figure out what’s going on.” Stu pleaded.
“Well why don’t you tell Bob what’s happening and I’ll get you talking to the right people.” Bob’s eyes were filled with understanding and Stu got the sense that this wasn’t the first time someone had come to him for help.
“Well it all started our second night there and it’s been a persistent issue since,” Stu explained. “My wife has just not been the same since we moved in. It started with her being tired. And then she wouldn’t leave the house. And now she just sits in the living room and stares at the wall. She won’t engage with the kids anymore. She won’t eat. I don’t even know if she does anything while I’m at work other than sit and stare at the same spot on the wall.”
Bob nodded, his eyes narrowing as he considered who might have the best answers for the young man in front of him. He clearly needed help, but it was important that he talked to the right person.
His eyes widened and lit with excitement as his mind finally settled on the name he needed. He glanced around the pub and found exactly who he was looking for at the end of the bar.
“Come this way, mate. I’ll get you to talk to Stan. He knows more about Tailsbend than any other person in this place.” Bob grabbed Stu by the elbow and tugged him towards an aged gentleman at the end of the bar.
“Stan, this is Stu. He just bought Tailsbend,” Bob introduced, and Stu watched the other man’s eyes widen.
“Is that so?” Stan looked the young man over and could tell that the old farmhouse was already taking a toll on him. “I had wondered who was brave enough to purchase that place.”
“Why do you say brave?” Stu asked sliding onto a recently abandoned bar stool. He considered giving the stool to Bob, but the old farmer had already wandered off to find company elsewhere.
“Well it’s brave or stupid, really. Did you not read up on the history of the place?” Stan inquired but he could tell by the man’s face that he hadn’t dug deep enough.
“All I ever found was the previous owners. There isn’t much written about them.” Stu shrugged. “There was nothing that jumped off the page for me that shouted, ‘don’t buy it’.”
“Well you were looking in the wrong places then.” Stan took a pull from his pint and settled in for his story.
“And where should I have been looking?” Stu asked.
“Well you’ve made a good start by coming here. How about you settle in and we’ll talk about the history of Tailsbend, and by association the history of the Suffridges. Because, you can’t tell one without the other.”
Stu made himself comfortable, ordered another pint, and waited for the man to begin.
“Well you see, Aaron Suffridge originally bought the land with his wife Cilla. He dropped everything he owned on that lot of land and took a big risk. And everyone was surprised that a high society girl like Cilla was willing to stand beside him while he made what was potentially a life changing decision.
“Luckily for the young couple, Aaron had a head for business. Within a year he was turning a decent profit from cultivating the land and renting out plots to other farmers. He was always more of a businessman than a farmer, but he wore the hat when he had to. And he was a decent farmer, even when he wasn’t he understood the needs of his farmers and he did everything he could to provide for them.
“So, within a few years the couple went from a one room farmhouse to the estate you now live in. It was quite the upgrade. It was quite the accomplishment. Aaron was a self-made man in a time when most people only got money through title. He was a trailblazer and the people of the town respected him for it. And they all wanted to learn from him.
“Cilla was over the moon about the new house. It was finally something that reflected her high society upbringing. It was finally a home that she was proud of and could entertain in. It was all she had ever wanted. And on top of that, they found out that Cilla was pregnant.
“It was a very happy time for the Suffridges. They were on top of the world in their own minds. They had a home. They had an income. And they were building a family.”
“I’m waiting for the part of this that is bad. So far it seems like they had quite a fairy tale life,” Stu observed as he took a sip of his beer.
“Oh, things were rather good and shiny for them. Cilla gave birth to a daughter named Penelope, and they were doing well. Things all went south when Penelope was around a year old. You see the nanny was away that day, off sick or some such thing, so the maid was watching young Penelope while Cilla was busy. Walking down the stairs, the maid slipped and poor young Penelope fell to her death.”
Stan paused fo
r effect and to watch Stu’s face as he took in the information. “Cilla was heartbroken. Her first-born had just died. She fell into a deep depression after that and she never quite came out of it. Sure, she went on to have more children. She gave Aaron a boy to carry on the Suffridge name. But she was never quite the same after Penelope died.
“And things got worse when Aaron left. He was 70 when he died of heart failure. A ripe old age at that time. But Cilla never left the house after he died. And for fifteen years she stayed trapped in doors until she died at 81. Her son took over the house for a few years. He had no real head for farming, but the families who had rented the land had done so for long enough that he really needed to do little.
“And when the first Great War came, Tailsbend was a refuge for many people. Women and children were sent there. And the same happened when the second war came about. It was a haven and in the turmoil, many didn’t notice anything off about the place. But there would be whispers.”
“What kind of whispers?” Stu inquired.
“Oh, there were always stories of women who became overcome with a sudden sadness. They wouldn’t eat. They wouldn’t sleep. They became almost catatonic. And it was only when they left the house that they returned to their usual selves. And they could never explain why they had acted that way.
“Many just wrote it off as stress from the war. Many didn’t question it. But those who did couldn’t help but see the similarities between these women and how Cilla had been towards the end. It was as though they were emulating her or perhaps becoming her.”
“That is exactly what is happening to my wife right now.” Stu’s voice was eager. “She won’t eat. She won’t move. She won’t engage with the children. She simply sits and stares at the wall. I don’t even know if she sleeps anymore. She refuses to go up the stairs.”
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