The Barrens House

by S. August Thalmann

  “Everything alright?” his mom asked him as he jogged down the stairs to the fort. Danny hadn’t noticed till then that he was breathing hard from rushing so fast.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Everything’s fine. Why?”

  His mom shrugged. “Just making sure,” she said. She kissed him on the head. “Goodnight, Danny.” His dad shut off the light in the kitchen then followed his mom inside the fort.

  “You coming, Champ?” he said. “This was your idea.”

  Danny smiled. “I’m right behind you,” he said, crawling in and settling in between his parents. For the first time since they had been at the house, he felt truly content.

  He awoke with surprise the next morning to find he was alone in the fort, his parents already up and around. Despite having slept through most of the day before, he had slept through the entire night without waking. He hadn’t had another bad dream, either. Maybe everything else up to this point was all a bad dream, he thought. Maybe from now on things would get better.

  “Good morning, sleepyhead,” his mom said, peeking into the fort. “We’re leaving for town in a half hour. Can you be ready by then?”

  Danny nodded, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “I think I can manage,” he said. He got up and went upstairs to change. The room at the end of the hall appeared unchanged, and as he climbed the ladder to his bedroom he was surprised to find he wasn’t frightened at all. His memories of the day before seemed like little more than a scary movie. Maybe it was all a dream, he thought.

  After changing into a fresh T-shirt and a clean pair of jeans, Danny and his parents had a quick breakfast then hopped in the car and headed to town. As they drove, Danny kept a sharp eye out the back seat window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Brenna’s long driveway. But by the time they reached town, he was still looking. If it was there, he had missed it.

  Danny’s dad pulled the car up in front of a tall brick building in the center of town and put the vehicle in park. “This is it,” he said to Danny, gesturing to the building. “This is the library. We’ll only be a little while in this part of town, but if you want to look around we can pick you up in about an hour.”

  Danny nodded as he opened the door and slid out of the car. “Okay,” he said. “See you guys.” His parents waved as the car pulled away, and Danny found himself walking up the cement steps to the library’s front door.

  Once inside, Danny stood in the lobby of a large open room. Dozens of shelves reaching nearly ten feet high on both sides of the lobby ran from the front of the building to the back, filled with books from top to bottom. The lobby had no ceiling until the skylight at the roof, and looking up Danny could see there were two additional floors stocked full with more shelves and even more books. There must be a million, he thought.

  “Can I help you?” A friendly old woman stood behind the lobby desk, smiling brightly. Danny approached slowly.

  “I hope so,” Danny began. “I was wondering if you had any books on the old Barrens House outside of town. My family and I just moved there and I…”

  “Hmm,” the woman said. “Barrens House, Barrens House…” She was typing furiously at the keyboard of the computer on her desk. “Ah, here we are.” She turned the screen slightly so Danny could see.

  “Now we don’t have any books about the Barrens House itself,” she said. “But we do have a few on the history of the town, which might have some information about it. I’ll show you where they are.” She rose and Danny followed her around the corner to a small room at the back of the library’s first floor. “This is our local history room,” she said.

  The room was small, the shelves lining the walls mostly filled with large leather volumes.

  “Most of the books kept here are just old records,” she said. “Financial documents, government stuff.” She picked up an old brown leather book and blew a layer of dust off the top. “But there are a few old books here with pictures of the town when it was first getting started.”

  A sharp pinging sound rose suddenly from the direction of the lobby. “Oh that’s the bell at my desk,” she said. She handed Danny the book. “This is your best bet for information on the Barrens House. It’s probably the only book we have that goes back that far that isn’t just a ledger book.” She hustled out the door. “Excuse me. I need to go help another patron. Let me know if you need anything else.” Before Danny could say anything she had disappeared into the lobby.

  Danny sat down at one of the small tables in the center of the room and opened the old book. It crackled as he opened it, as if it hadn’t been opened for years. After a matter of minutes, he finally turned a page and happened upon what he was looking for.

  It was a picture of his house. In fact, it likely was a reproduction of the same picture sitting in the box upstairs in Danny’s room. He continued turning pages, recognizing many of the pictures, though not all of them.

  The book contained little writing, Danny noticed, besides the small captions underlining each old photo. The one under the picture of the Barrens House read, “The J. S. Barrens House.” On the next page was the photograph of the man and woman standing in front of the graveyard gates, the gargoyle sitting solidly on the arch above them. The caption read, “Mr. and Mrs. James Sanford Barrens.”

  Danny looked at the gargoyle in the picture and laughed quietly to himself. Had what happened yesterday really happened? He could hardly believe it now, in the daytime, away from the house. He flipped to the next page. This time an involuntary chill ran up his spine. The picture on the page was an enlargement of the one still in the back pocket of his jeans, now lying in a pile of dirty laundry on the floor of his bedroom. The caption read, “Corinna Barrens. 1892 – 1900.”

  “Excuse me, young man, but there’s a man up front asking for a Danny. Are you Danny?” The librarian was standing in the doorway, looking at him.

  Danny looked at his watch. He was supposed to have been waiting on the steps outside five minutes ago. “Uh … yeah, that’s me. Tell him I’ll be right there,” he said, lifting up the book to place it back on the shelf.

  As the librarian disappeared around the corner, Danny stumbled to the floor and clumsily dropped the book. It landed with a thud. “Ouch,” he said, standing and brushing the dust from the floor off his jeans. He bent down to pick up the book, but his hand froze in place. His eyes grew wide.

  When the book had fallen to the floor it had opened to the page with the enlargement of Corinna’s picture. But Danny had failed to notice the photo on the opposite page, which showed a second portrait of the girl. The difference was that this one also showed Corinna’s sister.

  “No,” Danny whispered. “It can’t be.” He lifted the book from the floor and held it to his face to get a better look. It was her, he thought. He was sure of it.

  Closing the book slowly he shelved it back in its place and went out to meet his father.

  “There you are, Champ,” he said. “Find anything interesting?”

  Danny smiled weakly, but said nothing. As they walked out to the car all he could think of was the caption at the bottom of that last photo. It read: “Brenna Barrens. 1888 – 1900.”

  CHAPTER 9

  All the way back to the house, Danny remained silent. He was thinking about Brenna. How could that be her? He’d seen her multiple times since they’d moved in. He’d talked to her. She’d even touched his arm. How could she be a ghost? Danny shivered. He didn’t want to think about it, but what else could he do?

  His parents were in the middle of a conversation when his dad’s cell phone began to ring. “Hello?” his dad said, answering as he pulled the car into their driveway. He cut the engine. “What? You’re kidding. Can’t it wait?” Danny’s mom looked at his dad, concerned.

  “Mark, is everything alright?” she said. Danny’s dad waved her away.

  “Today?” he said. “Can’t it wait till tomorrow?” Danny and his mom exited the car and waited for his dad to finish talking. Through the car window they could hear him g
rowing more agitated, his voice rising. “Fine!” he finally shouted, hanging up the phone and throwing it into the passenger seat. He started the car.

  “Susan,” he said flatly. “We have to go.”

  Danny’s mom looked incredulous. “What? Go where? Honey, we just got home.” Danny’s dad was getting more impatient.

  “Look, I’ll explain on the way, will you just get in?” Danny’s mom crossed her arms.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you until you stop using that tone,” she said firmly. Danny’s dad sighed.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just frustrated.” He rubbed his forehead. “That was the movers. Apparently we forgot to sign some paperwork, and if we don’t sign it before five o’clock today, they won’t move any of our stuff.”

  “You’re kidding,” Danny’s mom said, uncrossing her arms. “We made sure before we left that all of that was taken care of. We absolutely have to sign it today?”

  Danny’s dad nodded. “Today by five,” he said, throwing up his hands. “And if we don’t sign it by then, for whatever ridiculous reason they wouldn’t be able to bring the stuff out for another two weeks.”

  “Argh,” Danny’s mom put her hands on her head in frustration. “It seems like it never ends with these people.” She crossed back around to the passenger side of the car. Danny stepped forward to enter the back seat.

  “Whoa, Danny,” his dad said. “You don’t need to come with us. There’ll be nothing for you to do.” Danny was suddenly frantic. He did not want to be left alone at the house.

  “But dad,” he said. “There’s nothing to do here, either. And I want to see the old house. Maybe some of my friends…”

  “That’s just it,” his dad said. “You’re going to want to run off with your friends.” He put the car in reverse. “We’re not going to have time to keep track of you. It’s a long drive and we’re only going to be there for a second.” He looked angry. “There’s a frozen pizza in the freezer if you get hungry.”

  “Dad, wait,” Danny pleaded as the car neared the end of the driveway. His dad stopped the car as Danny ran up to his window. He didn’t know what to say, he just didn’t want to be left alone.

  “What?”

  “I guess … I guess I just don’t want to be left alone in the house,” Danny stammered.

  “Danny, I thought we went over this. You’re almost a teenager now, and…” He trailed off as he looked over Danny’s shoulder. “Well there you go, now you won’t have to be alone.”

  Danny looked behind him to see Brenna standing between the house and the woods. He turned quickly back to the car to find it gone, his parents pulling out into the street.

  “Wait!” he yelled. “Wait!”

  “Be good,” his mom yelled, waving from the passenger seat. “We’ll be as quick as we can, I promise.” And then they were gone.

  “Where are they going?”

  Danny’s heart was racing. He swallowed hard and turned to face Brenna. Her eyes looked darker than before, he thought, her skin more pale. He tried to manage a smile.

  “Oh, they just ran back to town for a little while,” he lied. “They should, uh … they should be back soon.” He was trying to hide his fear, but knew he was doing a poor job of it.

  Brenna stared at him, expressionless. They were quiet for a long time. “You know what I was thinking?” she said. She continued staring at him.

  “What’s that?” Danny said, looking away from her.

  “I was thinking we forgot your flashlight in the graveyard last night,” she said. “I was thinking we should go and get it.”

  Danny felt like his heart had stopped. “You … you want to go back to the graveyard?” As Brenna stepped toward him, he took a step casually backward. “What about the gargoyle?” he said, trying to sound as calm as possible.

  Brenna smiled. A cruel smile, Danny thought. “It’s daytime,” she said. “The gargoyle only comes to life at night.”

  How did she know so much about the gargoyle, he wondered. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He looked down the road in the direction his parents had driven. It would take them nearly four hours to get back to the old house, he thought, maybe less without the trailer hooked up. But then they had to come back as well.

  “So are you coming or not?” Brenna challenged. “That is, unless you’re scared.” He looked at her as she spoke, and suddenly she looked like the Brenna he knew. Her eyes were bright and friendly, her smile soft and kind.

  Maybe he was wrong about the picture, he thought. Maybe the move really had made him crazy. Besides, he had nowhere to go. What else could he do?

  “Last one through the gates is a rotten egg,” he said, taking off toward the graveyard.

  Danny reached the gates first and stopped, breathing hard. Brenna reached him shortly after, and they stared up at the gargoyle. There was a large gash in the rock in its side where Danny had hit it with the spade of the shovel the night before. He looked at his watch. It was just after noon.

  “Are you sure this thing won’t wake up till dark?” he asked, looking at Brenna skeptically.

  “There’s only one way to be sure,” she said, stepping beneath the arch. “And you said last one through the gates. That makes you a rotten egg again.” She winked at him and continued into the graveyard.

  Danny blushed. What was I thinking, he thought. That couldn’t have been her in the book at the library. I must have been seeing things. He jogged after her.

  They walked in silence to the back of the graveyard. Sunlight filtered through the trees over the walls, and butterflies hovered over wildflowers strewn among the weeds between headstones. It was a beautiful day, Danny thought.

  “I went to town with my parents this morning,” Danny said. Brenna was quiet. “I looked for your driveway on the road, but I didn’t see it. It must be pretty well hidden.”

  Brenna continued walking, staring straight ahead. “It is,” she said. “You can’t really see it unless you know where it is already.”

  Danny looked at the ground as he walked. Mounds of dirt and weeds poked up at intervals, and he still wasn’t used to the uneven terrain. They were almost to Corinna’s grave, and he could see his flashlight resting in the grass nearby.

  “I found an old book at the library,” he said. “It had some old pictures of the house.”

  “Oh?” Brenna said, not really paying attention. It was like she was concentrating on something else.

  “Yeah,” Danny went on. “It also had an enlargement of that same picture of Corinna that I have.” Brenna stopped suddenly, staring at Corinna’s grave marker.

  “What else did it have?” she said, coldly, turning to face him. The brightness had left her eyes again, and she stared at Danny grimly. It seemed to him that the entire sky had turned gray. Leaves rustled in the corner of the graveyard walls.

  “It’s actually kind of funny,” Danny faltered, trying to act casual. He laughed weakly. “There was a picture of another girl.” He stepped over to Corinna’s grave and bent down to pick up the flashlight. Pieces of the shovel were scattered all around. “Her name was Brenna, too,” he continued, grasping the light with both hands. “She … she even looked like you.”

  Danny straightened. I can’t believe I’m telling her this, he thought. “The only thing is,” he went on, “she died a long time ago.” He turned just in time to see Brenna standing right behind him, holding a large block of concrete over her head.

  “I know,” she said. And before Danny could react, she brought the concrete block down on his head. He fell into a heap. “And soon you will be, too,” he heard her say. Then everything went dark.

  CHAPTER 10

  Danny groaned as he opened his eyes. Everything was blurry. His head was pounding. It took him a moment to remember what happened, but then he remembered Brenna. I have to get out of here, he thought, trying to stand. But something was holding him flat in the dirt, and as he looked around for traces of Brenna he realized she had someh
ow bound him to the ground, the ground over Corinna’s grave.

  Danny struggled, trying to free himself, but it was no use. His wrists were tied to stakes above his head, his feet tied to others below at his ankles. His body lay splayed on the ground, open to the sky, vulnerable.

  “You may as well relax,” he heard a voice say from a distance. “You’re not going anywhere.” It was Brenna. She crested the top of the slope and walked casually toward him.

  “Not yet.”

  “What are you doing?” Danny cried, still struggling to break free. “You have to let me go!”

  Brenna laughed. “Have to?” she said. “I don’t have to do anything, Danny. I do what I want now.”

  Her eyes were dark as coals, her skin a pale, bluish green. She looked nothing like the Brenna he had come to like. She looked cold and sickly.

  “Brenna,” he pleaded. “Why are you doing this?”

  She laughed again, a cruel, cackling laugh. “Why? Because it’s the only way,” she said.

  Danny didn’t understand. She was crazy, he thought. “The only way for what?”

  Brenna walked up beside him and bent down to within an inch of his face. Her breath was stale, and at this proximity he could see her sallow skin hanging loosely from the bones in her face. She smells like death, Danny thought.

  “It’s the only way,” Brenna hissed, “to bring her back. To make her let me rest.” She looked at Corinna’s grave marker, just above Danny’s head, and laughed again, rising and walking away. Danny again began struggling frantically.

  “How?” he screamed. “How are you still alive?”

  Brenna turned and stared at him coldly, a dark, blank stare. It was like she was looking right through him, into the past.

  “You call this alive?” she said bitterly. “Corinna was always the favorite. Our parents would give her anything she wanted.” Her face grew hard, her eyes burning with anger, a jealous rage. “But me? Ha! It was like I didn’t even exist. That’s why I had to … to…” Brenna trailed off.