The Haunting of Waverly Hall

by Michael Richan

  “She must have been forced into it,” Eliza said, “just as I have been.”

  “I don’t know exactly how she became involved,” John replied. “If she told my father, he never told me. But he warned me to never go up there, even after he gave up helping Gloria.”

  “He gave up?” Granger asked.

  “Not at first,” John replied. “The more he learned about her situation, the more he realized it was hopeless. They tried a few things, but none of them worked. As time went on, she used my father less and less; he came to believe she was seeking help from someone else. Eventually she stopped asking for his help altogether. My father was saddened by her situation, but I believe he was relieved to no longer be involved. He warned me about the place. There are a handful of areas he made me swear I’d never set foot upon, and Waverly was one of them.”

  “Do you know what became of her?” Eliza asked.

  “She died years ago,” John replied. “I remember when I heard about her death, I wondered what the ghosts in Waverly Hall would do…no more food. They couldn’t conscript some random person; the shaman’s process required someone with special sight to receive the tokens from the gateways. An average gifted would not be adequate to the job. Gloria had that special gift. Looks like you do, too.”

  “Scray told me I’d have to bring him meat with the next new moon,” Eliza said. “What if I don’t do it?”

  “You will,” John said. “That thing you feel inside you, under the pendant. It will make you do it. You have an unusual gift. You were targeted because of it, because you could step into Gloria’s role and begin the feeding once again. The compulsion will be strong. You will not be able to resist it.”

  Eliza looked at Granger and Robert, worried.

  “There must be something we can do,” Robert said. “Do you know what steps your father tried with Gloria?”

  “I do not,” John replied. “He didn’t tell me about them.”

  “Perhaps if you came up to Waverly with us,” Granger said, “and saw the gateways and the hall, maybe something would occur to you.”

  “As much as I want to help you,” John said, “I promised my father I would not go to Waverly. I won’t break that promise. I’ll do whatever I can to help you in any other way, but I won’t set foot there.”

  Eliza heard a heavy sigh escape Granger’s lips. She felt like sighing too; the full impact of what had happened to her now laid out, it felt damning and nauseating, like finding yourself in the middle of a nightmare.

  John rose from his chair and walked to her, lifting the necklace from her neck. Eliza felt the nausea and pressure subside as the necklace was removed. “This is probably not how you wish to feel right now,” he said, replacing it around his own. “At least now you know that it is inside you, and that it is real. Just as it was real within Gloria.” He walked back to his chair and sat.

  No one talked or moved for a moment, and silence descended upon the room. Finally, Eliza spoke up.

  “Is there anything, anything at all, that you can remember from your father that might help us? Point us in some direction?”

  “Perhaps we should investigate the shaman,” Granger said.

  “He’s long dead,” John said. “There is something else I should tell you, something I remember my father muttering about her and about Waverly. It might have no bearing, but I should share it anyway.”

  “What is it?” Eliza asked.

  “I remember him thinking she was a pitiful creature,” John replied. “He said she had the solution to the problem right there with her in Waverly, but she didn’t have the strength to invoke it.”

  Chapter Ten

  It was around two in the afternoon when they pulled up to the Hocker residence in Waverly. As Eliza walked to the door, she wondered nervously if Rachel might be inside, or if the occupants might have seen her since she last talked with them.

  They knocked, and Pam opened the door. Her eyes immediately went wide, and she motioned for them to move away from the door.

  “What?” Eliza asked, trying to figure her out.

  “I’ll come out and talk to you in a minute,” she whispered, shooing them away. “Hide around the side of the house, that way.”

  The door closed.

  “Huh?” Granger asked.

  “Something’s up,” Eliza said, deciding to go along with Pam’s instructions, and leading them around the front corner of the house, where they waited.

  After several minutes Pam came around the back of the house and met them.

  “Keep your voices down, I don’t want Vicky to know we’re talking,” Pam said.

  “Why?” Eliza asked.

  “Never mind why,” Pam replied. “What do you all want?”

  “Did Rachel show up?” Eliza asked.

  Pam paused. “Yes, and before you get your panties in a bunch because I didn’t call, just know I couldn’t. Vicky wouldn’t let me.”

  “You saw her?” Eliza asked. “Here at the house?”

  “Yes,” Pam said, “and she brought Marc, so whatever you two did, we’re extremely grateful you found him. But she talked up a storm against you, and Vicky took everything she had to say to heart.”

  “Marc was here?” Eliza asked.

  “They came this morning,” Pam replied, “but they left a couple of hours ago. Said they’d be back in a few days. And before you ask, they didn’t say where they were going.”

  “Did Rachel explain what happened?” Eliza asked.

  “She told me days ago that she thought you could help find Marc,” Pam replied. “She was right!”

  “Did she mention the hall?” Eliza asked. “The cave?”

  Pam looked confused. “No.”

  She clearly doesn’t know the extent of it, Eliza thought.

  “How did Marc look?” Eliza asked.

  “A little weak and pale, but that’s to be expected, I suppose, when you’ve been kidnapped. I’m sure they didn’t feed him right. Why are you here, anyway? Marc’s been found; it’s over.”

  “It’s not quite over,” Eliza replied, unsure how much of the truth she cared to explain to the woman. “I came to talk to you today because we’re still researching a few things. I was hoping you could tell me who in town has lived here the longest.”

  Pam’s head pulled back on her neck. “Why?”

  “I need to talk to someone who might have lived here in the 70’s. Or earlier.”

  “Hmm,” Pam replied. “The Erdmanns lived here then, but they moved back east years ago. They rent their place out to that couple with the kid.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “Let me think,” she replied. “The VanLanens moved out long ago. Same with the Alsteens.”

  “What about the house down the road?” Eliza asked. “The one with the white dormers?”

  “Hasn’t been anyone in that house the whole time we’ve lived here, so I couldn’t say,” Pam replied. “There was Gloria, up at the Grignon farm. She lived here a long time, I think. We never really talked, so I don’t know for sure. She’s dead, of course.”

  “Anyone else you can think of?” Eliza pressed. “We really need to talk to someone.”

  Pam tilted her head. “Well, you and Rachel have the gift, don’t you? That’s what she said.”

  Eliza nodded.

  “Then you should be able to talk to Gloria yourself, right?”

  Eliza stared back at her.

  “She’s buried on her property,” Pam said, matter-of-factly. “Shouldn’t you be able to just go up there and contact her?”

  “She’s buried on the farm?” Eliza asked.

  “Family plot somewhere on her land,” Pam said. “I didn’t go to the funeral; I was just a kid at the time. If you’re after someone from the 70’s, she’s your best bet. No one living to talk to.”

  “What do you think you’re doing?” came a screech from the front yard. Vicky was approaching, her face red with anger. Pam raised her hands to her mouth, as though she was shovin
g words back into it.

  Vicky walked up to Granger and shoved him in the chest. He took several steps back. “You get!” she yelled. “Go on, get! We don’t have nothin’ to say to you!”

  Vicky grabbed Pam by the hand and pulled her. Pam followed her sister’s lead.

  “What do you think you’re doin’?” Vicky chided her sister as she pulled her along. “She warned us not to talk to no one. You’re gonna screw this all up.”

  Eliza, Granger, and Robert followed them as they went back into the front of the house and disappeared inside.

  “Well?” Granger asked.

  “I wished we had known about Gloria being buried there earlier,” Eliza replied. “Seems like the next step to me.”

  “Just because she’s buried there doesn’t mean she’ll talk,” Robert replied.

  The front door of the house opened, and Vicky stepped out. In her hands was a large shotgun. She pointed it at them. “Move on along. Don’t come back.”

  Eliza considered arguing with the woman for a moment, wanting to ease the situation in case they needed to return, but the determined look on Vicky’s face told her their best move was to simply get in the car.

  As Robert backed the car out of the driveway and onto the road, Vicky stood firmly planted to her porch the entire time, watching them like a sentry turret.

  “On to the Grignon farm,” Robert said, putting the car into drive and leaving the Hocker property.

  ●

  They looked down at the small headstone on the ground. It had taken a while to find, but they eventually located the small section of graves in a field behind the barn, grown over by brush and tall weeds.

  “‘Gloria Grignon’,” Eliza read from the stone. “No dates. Nothing else.”

  “All of these markers are simple,” Granger said, looking at the others nearby. “The family wasn’t into spending money on the dead.”

  “How do we do this, exactly?” Eliza asked. “I’ve never really contacted a dead person like this, standing above their grave.”

  “Not any different than the way we did in Pitmon House,” Robert replied. “If they don’t appear in the River, we can try a trance and go deeper.”

  “Something tells me a trance will be required,” Granger said. “I think Gloria was ready to leave this world and move on.”

  Eliza sat slightly to the side of the grave. “I’ve never done a trance before, either.”

  “I can do it,” Granger replied. “Once I’ve got it established, I can open it to you two.”

  “I’ll stay out,” Robert replied. “Someone should keep an eye on your bodies. I don’t need to talk to her.”

  “Alright,” Granger replied. He sat next to Eliza and closed his eyes.

  The heat of the afternoon sun went away as Eliza entered the River, feeling the rush of movement around her. She could sense Granger next to her, going deep within himself, and she knew it would likely be several minutes before he was able to open his trance to her. She glanced around while she waited.

  Lying on the surface of the ground ten feet away was a pale, ghostly figure, stretched out as though he was a corpse, lying very still with his hands neatly folded over his chest.

  Pacing a few feet away from him was a woman with an angry scowl. She wore a long dress and a cap upon her head. When she saw Eliza, she stopped and stared.

  Eliza felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck.

  She turned to see Granger, still trancing, not yet ready to admit her. She heard gasping, and looked up to see the man on the ground, his mouth open, struggling for air.

  The woman in the long dress moved toward her, passing through the man lying on the ground as he wheezed and coughed. She stopped feet from Eliza and leered down at her.

  Make yourself useful, she said, and dig her up!

  Dig her up? Eliza replied. Are you referring to Gloria?

  Who? the woman asked.

  Gloria, Eliza replied. We’re trying to reach Gloria Grignon.

  No, not Gloria! the woman shrieked. The whore buried over there! She extended her arm, a bony finger pointing to a grave at the extreme edge of the plot.

  I don’t know who that is, Eliza said.

  Nor should you! the woman screamed back. Nor should any decent Christian! Why should I put up with it? Why should I tolerate it? I put up with his shit my whole life! Must I put up with it in death, too? Please, you’re alive, you can use your arms and hands, you can grasp a shovel. Dig her up! Move her somewhere else!

  Eliza looked again at Granger, hoping he could hurry things along. She turned back to the woman. I’m trying to reach Gloria. That’s why I’m here, not to dig up a body.

  Have you no sense of morality? the woman cried. Of moral justice? How can you leave a whore in the same earth as me, his wife? Am I to bear the insult of his infidelity for eternity, her disease-riddled prostitute’s shell twenty feet from us both?

  I don’t know anything about that, Eliza said.

  Well, let me tell you then, she threw her disgusting body at him, and he had carnal relations with that whore! For twenty years we were here at peace, until they placed her in the ground over there and I was ripped from my rest in the most vile and disgusting manner, sharing earth with the woman who fucked him outside of the bonds of marriage!

  Twenty years? Eliza said. I’d be tempted to just stay at rest.

  Would you? the woman shrieked, becoming enraged at Eliza’s cavalier response. You’d tolerate your own sister fucking your husband? Do you have any self-respect? Are you a whore yourself?

  That’s enough, Eliza said, pissed off and standing up. Go on back to your grave. If you think calling someone a whore is a good way to get someone to help you, I can see why your husband cheated on you.

  The woman’s eyes widened in anger, but she turned in protest, stomping back toward the man lying on the ground. While Eliza watched, she lifted a bare foot and placed it over the man’s nose and mouth, pressing down, causing the man to struggle for air even more desperately than before.

  Eliza looked up from the man, and saw the woman staring at her while she kept her foot over the man’s face, suffocating him. Eventually the man ceased his struggle and succumbed, and she lifted her foot. She glanced down at her husband, and they both faded from view.

  Eliza turned to look at Granger again, wondering how long it had been. She heard the wheezing resume, and when she looked up, the woman was pacing over her grave as before.

  No, not again, she thought. Come on, Granger, hurry up.

  It didn’t take long for the woman to come at her again. Eliza tried a different approach this time, trying to be sympathetic. It didn’t change anything; the woman worked herself up into a rage and marched over to her husband, again smothering him with her foot and fading from view.

  Just as the wheezing resumed and she was afraid she’d have to endure a third loop, she heard Granger calling, and she turned to him. A kind of bubble had formed around him, and he was inviting her inside. As she opened herself to the invitation, she felt the bubble expand from Granger and envelop her, causing the sounds of the ghostly couple to recede.

  Thank god, she muttered.

  What? Granger asked.

  Just a little domestic drama playing out while I waited.

  Oh, Granger replied. Should I turn my attention to it?

  God no, Eliza replied. Let’s stick with Gloria.

  I got the faintest of replies, Granger said. I’m hoping she’ll respond to you.

  What do I do? Eliza asked.

  Just call out to her, Granger replied, and focus all of your thoughts and energy on the corpse resting six feet under us.

  Eliza closed her eyes and concentrated, bringing up an image in her mind of how she pictured Gloria. Then she called her name.

  Nothing.

  Try again, Granger said. Keep trying.

  Gloria? Eliza called. Gloria, I want to speak to you. I need to speak to you. They’re doing the same thing to me that they did to you. />
  Still no response.

  She’s there, Granger said. I don’t know why she’s not replying. Keep trying.

  Gloria! Eliza called. Gloria Grignon!

  In the back of her mind, she could hear the woman yelling at her, insisting that she dig up the whore. She tried to block the sound from her consciousness, but it was hard.

  Gloria! she called again.

  Nothing.

  Hold on, Eliza said. I can’t concentrate. Give me a moment, will you?

  Of course, Granger said.

  Eliza pulled herself from Granger’s trance. The sound of the woman shrieking at her suddenly became very loud. She was inches from her face, yelling, her face red.

  Eliza stepped toward her, eliminating any remaining space, and stared her down, nose to nose. If you go back to your grave and remain silent, I will consider digging her up when I’m done. If you do not, I will personally return here and pour a cement slab over her grave, ensuring she remains there for a long time to come.

  The woman stopped sputtering, her face still red, seeming to consider Eliza’s offer. She turned and stomped back to her husband, raising her foot to smother him once again. When she was done, they both faded.

  Eliza watched as they returned for a repeat. The woman instantly resumed her pacing, and Eliza was worried that she might have mentally reset, forgetting the last loop. The woman looked up and saw Eliza, and just as she started to march toward her, Eliza raised her finger to point at her. Not a sound! Eliza shouted.

  The woman stopped and turned back, resuming her pacing in the original spot. Eliza took it as a good sign.

  She reentered Granger’s trance.

  What was that all about? Granger asked.

  Noisy ghosts, Eliza replied. They’re distracting me.

  You got them to shut up?

  Made a few threats, Eliza replied. Now, back to Gloria.

  Try again, Granger encouraged. Concentrate.