"I can't afford that right now. Besides, it was just a t-shirt and jeans. I can survive without it."
"Fine, but what about Target? Can you afford a t-shirt and jeans from there?" He asked in a voice that challenged my ability to tell him no. I mean, how embarrassing would it have been to tell him I couldn't afford a shirt and pants at Target?
"Yeah, sure. Let's do that."
I didn't want to be seen in my sweats and hospital slippers, so I picked out a new t-shirt, jeans, socks, and pair of Converse in record time. I couldn't really afford the Converse sneakers, but I'd wanted them for a long time. It would have to be a get well soon present to myself.
The only problem was that Pierce had his black Amex out and swiped before I even realized that I didn't have my purse or wallet anyway.
"I forgot I didn't have my purse." I said sheepishly as we exited the store.
"I would have bought you more."
"You have to stop." I said. "I'm going to end up feeling awful."
"Why would you feel awful? Violet, I have the means to do a few nice things for you, and it's my choice to do them. So, indulge me. Okay?"
"All right. I guess."
"Do you feel up to eating at a restaurant, or would you rather get takeout?"
"I think I can do a restaurant." I said for no other reason than I wanted to avoid going home.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
When Pierce said that he had a little Korean Mexican fusion place he wanted me to try, I was thinking food truck. Nope. He took me to a five-star restaurant where the chef had won some sort of Michelin award that was supposed to be a huge deal.
The prices reflected that. "Really, I would have been cool with a burger and fries." I said as I perused the menu.
"Nothing looks good?" Pierce sounded a bit disappointed. It was like he wanted to impress me and was hurt that I didn't like the restaurant.
"I didn't say that."
"Order what you want. Stop looking at the prices." He said with a wink.
So, I did. I ended up settling on some chicken and kimchee tacos with a side of gochujang seasoned rice. I tried not to think about the price.
"Are you taking anything that you can't have with alcohol?" Pierce asked.
"I don't think so, why?"
"I thought we could each have a glass of the plum wine. It's quite good." Pierce said as he signaled for the waiter.
"It's lunch time." I said.
"That's why we'll only have one glass."
He was right. The plum wine was delicious, and it made the meal that much more decadent. I was a bit concerned about the whole Korean Mexican fusion thing, but the food was amazing.
The gentle buzz from the plum wine made me feel warm and fuzzy all over. I must have been smiling as we drove toward my new home. All of the prior horror had temporarily been wiped from my mind.
"I'm glad I could make you happy." Pierce said as we turned down my street.
The sight of my house killed my buzz. Everything I'd experienced since I'd moved in came rushing back.
"What's wrong?" He asked when my face fell.
"Would you do something else to make me happy?" I asked.
"Anything." Pierce said as he pulled into the driveway.
"Take the rest of the afternoon off and watch movies with me." I said.
"I can't." He said, but then appeared to change his mind. "You know what, I will. I've put a lot of time in at the firm over the last few years, and I rarely take time off. I accept." He said.
We went inside and I got a Diet Coke for me and a glass of tea for Pierce. The house had been unlocked for two days, but I didn't think about it. I did check the basement, and someone had come back and bolted the door shut. That's when I remembered that Jareth was supposed to be coming to visit. I shot off a quick text hoping to catch him before he got too close to the house.
Hey, I've got family over. Can we raincheck until tomorrow?
My phone buzzed a couple of minutes later while I was settling in with Pierce.
Yeah, that sounds good. I think they're going to make me work another double anyway. Glad you're not alone. The union won't let me work another double this week, so I'll see you for sure tomorrow.
"What was that?" Pierce asked casually.
"Oh, just a friend checking in." I said and put my phone away. "What's on?"
About halfway through the movie, I readjusted my position and accidently brushed the back of my hand against Pierce's thigh. He let out a soft, strangled sound. A blush colored my face, but when I looked over at him, he adorably tried to pretend like nothing had happened.
I don't know what came over me, but I suddenly wanted to see how far he would let me go. I wanted to push him until he acknowledged that something had just happened between us.
My hand turned over and I rubbed his thigh a few times before moving my hand up. I kept my eyes glued on the television screen, and Pierce didn't stop me. He did make a little growl sound and moved his hips to adjust himself.
This I took as an invitation. I ran my hand over his manhood through his pants, and that time Pierce moaned. From there it became a frenzy. I stood up and shimmied out of the jeans he'd bought me while Pierce undid his pants.
I climbed on top of him and had my way. The entire time, he had this look on his face that was a cross between stunned and grateful. I believed right then that Pierce hadn't been trying to seduce me. He was just kind and felt some sort of responsibility to me, but that made what I was doing to him that much more fun.
People I knew called women who had sex with two men in one week a slut, but that just made riding him even more delicious. I felt like I was lost in some sort of fantasy. I could do what I wanted with these men, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. They didn't even have to know about each other.
"Oh, god. Violet, I'm going to come." Pierce panted. "You've got to let me pull out." He grabbed my hips, but I resisted.
I ground down on him and smiled as he completely lost control. I had no idea what came over me, but in the moment, I felt the need to push our little tryst to the absolute limit.
When I got off of him to go get a towel, I thought he would be mad. The smile on Pierce's face told me that he wasn't.
"You're very bad." He teased. "Most women won't let a man do that."
"I have a lot more places you can do it to." I said and walked out of the room without looking at his reaction. I knew what his reaction would be to that.
I proved it too.
Chapter Thirty
I had to go. You looked too beautiful to disturb.
That's what the note under my hand said when I woke up on the couch. Pierce had covered me with a blanket and left a glass of water on the end table. I figured that's about the sweetest way a man can sneak out on you in the middle of the night.
At first, I smiled. I felt like the cat that ate the canary, but the feeling of being alone in the house grew heavy around me. Other than the incident with the antibiotics, I'd never had the kind of experiences I'd had in Stonebridge Manor.
Something was wrong with this house. I wanted to know more. The problem was that I was petrified. There was a solution to that. The bottle of liquid courage Brian had left at my house was sitting on the kitchen counter. Two fingers of whiskey with breakfast might make exploring the house in the daylight tolerable.
I took a bag of bagels out of the freezer and the tub of smoked salmon cream cheese from the fridge. While my bagel toasted, I grabbed my laptop to check the job board. I had an assignment due in a few days, but I didn't have much lined up after that.
"Ugh." I said and shut the board.
I figured that if nothing else, the concussion and everything else I'd been through bought me a couple of days off work. Well, it would be a couple more days, but who was counting? Plus, by that time, I'd become comfortable with the idea of dipping into the tax money. I kept reasoning that I had ten years to put it all back. Not only that, but there were some antiques and art pieces I
could sell off in the house for cash if I needed money. I'd come to the conclusion that even without a massive inheritance, I could stop worrying about money for a while.
My bagel popped just about the time that I started to contemplate how much money I could get by selling Stonebridge Manor. I didn't need a house that big, and the place had to be worth millions. If I used the tax money to fix it up a little, I could probably sell it for even more.
That seemed like a lot of work. Those were thoughts for another time when I could consult a real adult about business matters. While I was technically an adult, I found most major responsibility and major financial decisions overwhelming. Again, I missed my shitty apartment and pecking away at my keyboard for twenty-five bucks an hour. Life was much simpler and cheap just a week ago.
After the last bite of my bagel, I poured myself some whiskey. The top of my fresh Diet Coke popped when I opened it, and I contemplated the liquor for a moment. Did drinking whiskey alone for breakfast make me a drunk?
"Nah." I said and sipped the amber liquid. "It's for a good cause."
The burn in my throat turned into a warm haze as it spread to my body and brain. The drink was like a magic potion, and I was ready to take on the second floor. I hoped that conquering the second level of the house would give me the courage I needed to tackle the basement. I had my sights set on the sub-basement, but I wasn't ready just yet.
Chapter Thirty-One
The majority of the second floor of the house was nothing but unused, dusty guest bedrooms. I found the room where Vivian stayed until her death. The bright floral wallpaper in that room was a stark contrast to the empty hospital bed. I didn't go into that room. It felt heavy. I also got the feeling that something in it was watching me. In my mind's eye, I could see something dark crouched behind the hospital bed staring back at me. I tried to focus on it to see if I could make it materialize, but it stayed just outside of my vision. Still, I knew it was there and didn't go in. In fact, when I reached into the room to close the door, the air felt several degrees cooler than it did in the hallway.
A shiver moved up my arm and then down my back as the cold, clammy air made my skin prick. I decided it was time to move on down the hall.
I found two more bathrooms. Neither of them were as nice as the one I'd used. In need of a shower, I'd have to work up the nerve to use that bathroom again, or I could possibly choose one of the others. I could use an upstairs guest bath that hadn't been Vivian's. It seemed that everything in the house that had been Vivian’s was marked with an invisible stain. It was as if her hands had been caked in anger and contempt and she'd walked around the house rubbing them on the walls like so much filth. Yes, I'd rather use some of the house's less luxurious accommodations if it meant staying away from the places that Vivian haunted.
At the very end of the hallway was another small hall. There was a small, narrow staircase at the end. A flashback burst into my mind. As a small child I'd tried to mount those stairs. No one was supposed to go up there, though, and I had tried to be a sneak.
My Grandfather and Aunt Vivian had demanded that I be beaten for my insolence. They'd said that the leather strap was the only way that they could guarantee that I'd turn into who I was supposed to be. I'd had no idea what any of that meant, but thankfully, my father was still alive back then.
He'd stepped in and taken the decision away from my mother. My father grabbed us both and we left the house immediately. He didn't shame her for considering their punishment, but I could tell she felt it all the way home. I knew my mother wouldn't have gone through with it, so I unbuckled my seatbelt and stuck my hand between the front seats. Mom smiled at me softly and held my hand the rest of the way home that day. We didn't go back until long after my father had died. That was the day we'd had to walk back to the main part of town in the rain. Stonebridge Manor had been a lot more isolated twenty years ago.
I moved toward the staircase. The curiosity I'd felt as a young girl renewed. There was no one to stop me. The house was mine.
Chapter Thirty-Two
If I'd been any more than a little overweight, my hips would have scraped the walls as I walked up the steps. It was that narrow. People were built differently back when Stonebridge Manor was erected. My guess was that only servants, who would have been very thin due to not being able to afford rich food, used the staircase to the third-floor attic space.
What I found up there startled me. On one side of the vast space was storage. That was to be expected, but on the other side there was a bedroom setup in the middle of the open attic. Between two small windows was a bed.
Grandmother.
It came rushing back to me. That's why I'd been so eager to come up here even though they'd said I'd be whipped for it. My Grandmother lived up here.
I wasn't supposed to know that, but I'd heard Grandfather and Vivian whispering about how they had to keep the child away. They'd kept my Grandmother up here like a prisoner. My heart broke for her. Trapped like an animal by her husband and one child. Her other daughter unable to help.
The feeling of being watched permeated that space too, but it was different. Whatever peered out of the darkness at me in the attic was lighter and friendlier. It was almost childlike, but not quite.
"She had a horseback riding accident. They had to put her in an institution after that. I wanted to visit her so many times, but Father said that the doctor wouldn't allow it. It would agitate her too much. He said that her fragile mind couldn't handle the fact that she had children since she thought herself a child."
I remembered my mother telling me this one time when I asked why she didn't have a mother. It was a lie. My Grandfather and Vivian hadn't sent my Grandmother to live in an institution. They'd kept her locked in the attic. Tears stung my eyes and ran down my cheeks. How awful and confusing that must have been for someone with a child's mind.
That knowledge combined with everything that had happened to me over the past couple of days became overwhelming. Everything that I'd stuffed down caught up with me, and I began to weep openly. I felt my knees go weak, but just before I sank to the dusty floor, I felt a warm hand in mine.
I wasn't startled. It didn't even scare me when I looked down and didn't see anything there. For the briefest moment, I felt her lean against me. I could smell lavender perfume. She was there for a reason. It was something I had to figure out soon. I couldn't stand the thought of such a sweet soul being locked in that attic for eternity.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Emboldened by the fact that somewhere in Stonebridge Manor I had a guardian angel, I decided to go into the basement. Even if my Grandmother couldn't reach me down there, I took comfort in her presence in the house.
I had my phone, a flashlight in one hand, and another one stuffed into the waistband of my pants. I probably should have taken a weapon of some sort too, but light won out. There were certainly plenty of heavy objects down there to use as a blunt weapon.
The basement door stayed open, but as soon as I got to the bottom, the lights began to flicker. "I know what you are." I said even though I really didn’t. What I did know is that if a good spirit made me feel the way my Grandmother's had, then whatever was in that basement was there to maim or kill.
I could barely hear the skittering sound off in the distance, but it made the scabs on my legs itch. I stopped in my tracks. I'd completely forgotten that the scratches were there. The bruising on my hips, shoulder, and face had completely slipped my mind. How had Pierce not been repulsed by my injuries? The answer that popped into my head sent a shiver down my spine. He liked it. Seeing me that way had turned him on.
"I know what you're doing." I said to the air.
The idea that I was being manipulated by unseen things was nebulous at best, but I knew that it would all make sense if I just kept pushing. Despite the fact that I'd thought I was lost the other day, my muscle memory seemed to lead me back to the sub-basement stairs.
The lights flickered again, and the thoughts
of Pierce and his predilection for torn and bruised flesh floated off as if they were made of air.
Despite the flickering, the lights did not go out. Within a couple of minutes, I was standing at the top of the sub-basement stairs. My blood had pooled and dried on a few of the steps and at the bottom before the door.
It was locked with nothing more than a rusty chain and padlock. I wasn't sure why everyone acted as if it were impossible to go in. It was stupid. The idea of what was going on around me was there, but it was a nebulous, murky thing. Without a clear picture, it was easy to ignore.
Had I seen a pair of bolt cutters on the workbench near the fuse box?
Another flicker.
It was worth a shot. I really wanted to know what was inside of that door. I felt as though I was about to be let in on the big secret.
Chapter Thirty-Four
There had been bolt cutters on the workbench, and I'd brought them back to the sub-basement door. I'd never used the tool before, but I'd seen people do it in movies. How hard could it be?
Not hard at all when the metal you are cutting is old and rusted. I broke through the chain with barely any pressure, and the bonds holding me back from my great discovery fell away.
I opened the door and could not believe my eyes. I'd literally found treasure. My Aunt Vivian hadn't been broke. She must have pulled all of her money out of the bank and bought gold.
I quickly padded down the steps and found myself standing before stacks and stacks of gold bullion. At least, I think that's what they were called. I'd seen it in a move. Either way, I'd hit the mother lode of gold bars.
I'd inherited the house and everything in it. There had to be millions of dollars in gold locked away in this little concrete cellar. I laughed so hard that I began to shed tears. Can you imagine if I'd sold the place with this still locked away like undiscovered pirate treasure?
Dark Ends: A Horror Collection Page 6