The Barrens House

by S. August Thalmann

  “Corinna died, didn’t she,” Danny said. It was more of a statement than a question, as he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

  Brenna nodded. “But not right away, she just broke her neck in the fall. But her sister, she got scared and buried her. She buried her alive.”

  Danny felt like he was on a roller coaster. His stomach felt sick. “But didn’t anyone notice she was gone?”

  Brenna shrugged. “Sure, they noticed. But that was a different era. People went missing all the time. They were sad, yeah, but what could they do?” She kicked at the dirt at the edge of the porch. “It wasn’t until the sickness set in that people started leaving. Crops started dying, farm animals died.” She looked at Danny. “They say even the houses fell in on themselves.”

  “How?” Danny asked. “What happened?”

  “The legend says Corinna cursed the land when she died,” Brenna said. “After everybody else had gone, the older sister was the only one left for miles. Even her parents had abandoned her. The whole town blamed her for what had happened, since it all began with Corinna’s disappearance.”

  “And she was the last one known to be with Corinna before she disappeared,” Danny said, staring out at the graveyard.

  Brenna continued. “After everyone else was gone she made a grave marker for Corinna’s grave. Then she disappeared into the woods and no one ever heard from her again.”

  “But that’s just a legend, right?” Danny said. “I mean, I guess that would explain what I saw, but do you believe it?”

  “I wouldn’t,” Brenna said. “Except I’ve seen this girl myself.” She stared down at the old photo.

  Danny was shocked. “You’ve seen her, too? Where?”

  Brenna nodded toward the window of the guest room. “I’ve come here since I was a little girl. I’ve always liked the graveyard, though to be honest, the house has always kind of creeped me out. A few times coming back through the gate, I thought I saw a girl staring out at me through the window. She looked just like this.” She handed the photo back to Danny and stood up. “I always thought I was seeing things, you know?”

  She looked at Danny with her soft blue eyes, and any fear Danny had felt in the last hour melted away. He could feel his face turning red as she stared at him.

  “So what now?” he said. “I can’t live in a haunted house. How do I make her go away? What do you think she wants?”

  Brenna smiled. “I don’t know,” she said. She looked around. “Wait here.” She disappeared around the corner of the house and after a few moments returned with a shovel. “Let’s find out.”

  Danny looked at Brenna, then at her shovel, then back at Brenna again. “What do you mean let’s find out? Where’d you get that shovel?”

  “I mean,” Brenna said. “We’re going to dig her up.” She began walking toward the gates to the graveyard.

  “What?” Danny called out behind her. “You can’t just go into a graveyard and start digging up bodies.”

  Brenna turned around. She shrugged. “Alright, suit yourself,” she said. “It seems obvious she wants something, and you can bet she’s not going anywhere till she gets it. If you want to live in a haunted house, that’s fine with me.” She leaned the shovel on the graveyard wall and began walking toward the woods. “See you tomorrow,” she said.

  Danny didnt want her to think he was scared. He was almost a teenager, and teenagers aren’t scared of graveyards. “Wait,” he called. Brenna stopped. “What I meant to say is you can’t just go into a graveyard and start digging up bodies without a flashlight.” He ran inside the house and a second later came out with a flashlight from the kitchen, putting on his still mud-caked shoes.

  Brenna smiled and walked back, grabbing the shovel. “That’s more like it,” she said.

  As they passed under the arch of the graveyard gates, Danny looked up at the gargoyle silhouetted against the graying night sky. Soon it would be dark, he thought. A chill went up his spine.

  CHAPTER 7

  As they walked in silence to Corinna’s grave, the sunlight faded completely and the sky grew black. Moonlight filtered through wisps of gray clouds in the night, and shone on Brenna’s long blonde hair.

  Wow, Danny thought, walking slightly behind her. She really is beautiful. He wanted to say something to her, something nice, something not about ghosts or graveyards. He wanted to show her he was more than just some scared new kid who moved in down the road from her house. Then he remembered what his mom had told him that morning.

  “Brenna,” he said, watching his steps on the uneven ground.

  “Yeah?” She was looking forward. She’d obviously been there enough times to be sure of her own footing.

  “Yesterday you said you lived the next house down.”

  “Yeah? So?”

  Danny stopped and looked at her. “So my mom said the next house down is ten miles away.” Brenna stopped briefly, then continued walking. Danny followed.

  “It’s not that far,” she said. “The town’s pretty far, but my house is just a few blocks down.” She stopped and looked at him. “We have a long driveway, and the house sits way back in the woods. Your mom just must not have seen it.” She looked down and nodded. “Here we are.”

  Danny stared at the wooden marker at the head of Corinna’s grave. It was light enough in the moonlight that he could just barely make out the writing. “Corinna Barrens. 1892 to 1900,” he read aloud, shaking his head. “She was so young.”

  They stood in silence for a few moments before Brenna handed him the shovel. “Start digging,” she said.

  Danny looked at the shovel. “Uh, I think I’ll just hold the flashlight,” he said. Brenna looked impatient.

  “Look,” she said. “Do you want to do this or not? Do you want to be haunted for the rest of your life?” She stared at him coldly. At some point after leaving the back porch, any cheeriness she had expressed had disappeared.

  Danny handed her the flashlight and took the shovel. “Okay, geez. You don’t have to get all cranky about it.” He raised the shovel and brought it down into the dirt. It entered the ground with a sharp scuffing sound. He stopped before bringing up the dirt.

  “You know, Brenna,” he said, hesitating. “Just digging up her body isn’t going to solve anything. Maybe we should…”

  “Just dig!” Brenna shouted. Her tone caught Danny by surprise. Her eyes, just moments ago a bright and friendly looking blue, were now dark and cold. They shone with intense anger as she stared at Danny challengingly.

  “Brenna, what…” Suddenly Brenna’s face softened. The softness came back to her eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, looking up into the sky. The moon had retreated behind a swath of dark gray clouds. “I don’t know what came over me.” She reached out a hand and placed it on Danny’s arm. He shivered slightly in the cool night air. “I guess I’m a little scared myself. I want to get this over with as quickly as possible.” She stared straight into Danny’s eyes.

  Danny tried to look away, but he felt transfixed by Brenna’s beautiful gaze. Despite her friendly tone, Danny could tell that she was anxious to get this thing done. As she broke eye contact and stared up into the sky again, Danny could tell that she was nervous, but not about the graveyard.

  There was something else she wasn’t telling him. But what? Her hand felt cold against the skin of his arm. Suddenly he felt offended.

  “You know what?” he said. “I think I can deal with a ghost for one more night. You dig.” He dropped the shovel onto the grave and turned away from her. He’d had it hard enough recently having to move to a house he hated, away from his friends, only to find it haunted by the rotten skull-headed ghost of a hundred-year-old dead girl. He didn’t need to add grave robbing to his list of stresses, and he certainly didn’t need to be treated poorly by the one person who would listen to him about what was going on.

  “Stop,” Brenna said as he turned to go. Her tone had turned menacing. “You have to dig!” Her voice seemed sud
denly strange and powerful, full of an aggressive fury. She grabbed Danny’s arm and spun him around violently, but before either of them could make another move a screeching wail pierced the darkness above them. A large black shape swooped down out of the night, sending both of them to their knees, covering their heads.

  “What is that thing?” Danny cried. Brenna was covering her ears, shaking.

  “Khrowww!” the thing wailed again, swooping down a second time. It sounded almost prehistoric, like the threatening roar of a dinosaur. “Khrowww!”

  Danny looked around in the darkness. With the moon still trapped behind the clouds, it had grown harder to see, despite his eyes adjusting to the lack of light. He saw the faint outline of the shovel lying on the grave and pulled it to his side just as the massive flying thing came circling back out of the darkness.

  “Khrowww!”

  Danny took a breath as the creature dove toward them, then swung the shovel at the thing with all his strength. “Khriiii!” The creature shrieked as the shovel made contact, shattering the wooden handle into dozens of tiny pieces.

  Danny yelled in pain as he hit the thing, sending it sprawling into a mound of weeds a few yards away. It was like hitting a wall. He looked at Brenna. She was still shaking, staring at the object as it struggled to rise among the tombstones. But she wasn’t shaking out of fear, as Danny had thought. From the pale intensity with which she stared he could tell that she was shaking out of anger.

  “Come on!” he shouted to her, rising to his feet. “Come on!” He lifted her by her arm and together they ran toward back toward the house. Looking back, Danny could see the dark shape rising from the mound of weeds, collecting itself for the chase.

  “What is that thing?” he called to Brenna, but when he turned back he realized he was alone. “Brenna?” He stopped. Where did she go?

  “Danny!” he heard a voice call from far ahead. “Danny, hurry! Run!” It was Brenna, shouting from the graveyard gates. But they had been side by side the whole time, Danny thought. How had she gotten there so fast? “Danny, look out!”

  “Khrowww!”

  Suddenly the thing was above him again, swooping down from the blackness of the sky. Danny ran, ducking and covering his head.

  “Khreee!”

  The thing swooped down again, grazing his head and knocking him to the ground. Danny knew it had just barely nicked him, but the blow felt surprisingly hard. He moaned and lifted himself to his knees, ducking as it dove at him again.

  “Khrowww!”

  It was so fast, Danny thought. How could it be so fast? With all the running and ducking and dodging, he hadn’t been able to get a good look at it in the darkness.

  “Danny, run! Quick!” Brenna was just a few yards away now, standing just outside the gate. Why wasn’t she running?

  “Brenna!” Danny cried, diving through the gate. “Run!”

  The thing ascended to prepare for another dive, and just as Danny leapt through the gate it made a final swoop, tearing up the dirt behind him. Then the thing flew into the darkness and disappeared, a final “Khrowww!” echoing in the distance.

  Danny lay on the grass outside the graveyard on his stomach, gasping for breath. “How did you … where did you…” He tried to speak to Brenna as she jogged up to him, helping him up, but he couldn’t catch his breath until they were seated safely on the porch.

  “What was that thing?” he said, eyes wide. He was still breathing hard, his heart pounding. “It was like some kind of dinosaur.”

  Brenna pointed at the arch over the graveyard gates. “Close,” she said.

  Danny followed her hand with his eyes. The gates below the arch swung slowly, still settling from the commotion Danny had caused diving through them over the threshold. He saw the torn up dirt on the other side, where the thing had almost caught him. As he raised his eyes, though, he saw what Brenna was pointing at. In the middle of the arch, at the uppermost point, there was nothing. The gargoyle was gone.

  “You’re kidding,” he said.

  Brenna shook her head. “If it hadn’t just happened, I don’t think I’d believe it myself,” she said.

  “But how did you know it would stop at the gates?” Danny asked.

  Brenna shrugged. “They say gargoyles were used as a kind of protection in the old days,” she said. “I guess I just figured it was protecting the graveyard, that maybe its jurisdiction would end at the gates.”

  A crunching sound rose up from the driveway in front of the house. Lights spilled across the graveyard walls. Brenna turned around nervously. Who’s jumpy now, Danny thought.

  “Don’t worry, it’s just my parents,” he said, standing. “They were out getting groceries. Do you want to come inside?”

  Brenna shook her head quickly and made her way toward the woods at the side of the house. “No thanks,” she said. “I really should be getting home.”

  Danny was stunned. “You’re going out there alone? With that thing still out there?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said. And before he could argue, she was gone.

  “Why are you out here in the dark? Why are you so dirty?” Danny’s mom was standing on the porch. She hadn’t seen Brenna.

  “I … uh … I went exploring,” Danny said. “In the graveyard.”

  “In the graveyard?” His mom seemed impressed. “Well,” she said. “You certainly wouldn’t catch me out there alone in the dark. This place must be growing on you already.” She messed up his hair as they walked into the house. “Now go wash up and we’ll make some frozen pizzas. And leave those muddy shoes outside.”

  As Danny sat in the doorway and removed his shoes, he thought he heard a noise come from the direction of the graveyard. It was a quiet swooshing sound, like a strong gust of wind. Shoot, he thought. We left the flashlight out there.

  He rose to go inside and took a final look at the graveyard. The gates were still now, and all seemed quiet. There was no sign of the commotion just minutes ago save the gash in the dirt on the other side of the gates. He looked up at the arch, and seeing the gargoyle hunched back in its place, still and silent as a statue should be, he quickly turned and went inside, locking the door behind him.

  CHAPTER 8

  That night, Danny talked his parents into sleeping with him in the main room at the foot of the stairs in a fort. He hadn’t wanted to appear scared, but if there was anything he didn’t want more than that it was to spend another night alone on the third floor. Corinna’s ghost could invade his dreams if it wanted to. He had no control over that. But he wasn’t going to give her the chance to invade his room while he was in it alone.

  “Please?” Danny pleaded with his dad. “Remember when we did that in the old house? We’d set up all the kitchen chairs in a square and make a fort.”

  Danny’s dad shook his head. “Danny, that was when you were five years old,” he said. “I think you’re a little bit old to be sleeping in forts.”

  Danny’s mom actually seemed interested in the idea. “I don’t know, Mark,” she said, seeing how much Danny was looking forward to it. “It might be fun to drape some blankets over a few of these boxes. Lord knows there are enough of them.”

  “See?” Danny said. “Mom wants to do it, too. Come on!”

  Finally, and to Danny’s surprise, his dad relented. “Alright, alright,” he said. “I guess it couldn’t hurt anything.” He looked at Danny and pointed a finger. “But you’re cleaning it up tomorrow.”

  “Yes!” Danny said, and he began forming a large square out of stacks of as yet unpacked boxes. His mom went up to his parents’ room and came down with blankets and sheets to drape over the top to make a ceiling and for bedding. After half an hour the family had a cozy cave set up to sleep in.

  Danny’s mom yawned. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready for bed.” As she retreated up the stairs to put on her pajamas, Danny’s dad called him back into the kitchen.

  “I know you’ve been wanting to see the town,” he said. “
But your mom didn’t want to wake you when we left for groceries.”

  “It’s okay,” Danny said. He thought of the events of the night so far. “Nothing much happened while you gone, anyway.” Except I was chased by the rotten skull-headed ghost of a dead little girl, then almost killed by a living gargoyle for trying to dig up her body, he thought.

  Danny’s dad nodded. “Well,” he said. “Your mom and I are going back into town tomorrow morning to run some errands, and if you want to you can come with us.”

  “Sure,” Danny said. Anything to get out the house, he thought. He needed some civilization.

  “Great,” his dad said. “I’m going to go get ready for bed with your mom.” He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned to Danny. “You know, there’s quite a library in town. I bet they have some more information on the history of this place, if you’re still interested.”

  “Yeah,” Danny said. “I’m still interested.” He could feel the picture of Corinna still stuck into his back pocket.

  His dad started up the stairs. “We’ll be pretty busy,” he said. “But I’m sure we can drop you off for a bit while we get stuff done around town.” He continued up the stairs and disappeared down the hallway.

  Danny didn’t want to go back up to his bedroom for pajamas, but he knew his parents wouldn’t let him sleep in his jeans and T-shirt, which were still dirty from the graveyard. He cautiously made his way up to the second floor and peered down the hallway to the left. The light was off in the guest room and the door was closed. Danny breathed a sigh of relief.

  He opened the hatch to his bedroom and pulled down the ladder. Taking a deep breath, he quickly climbed upstairs. Rummaging through his dresser drawers he found a pair of shorts and a clean T-shirt, changed and made his way back downstairs without incident.