Haunting of Ender House

by Connie Myres

  “Who said that?” Madisyn asked, still at Mary’s side.

  “I don’t know,” Donny said. “But it’s loud and clear; a Class A EVP.”

  “It sounded like it was right next to the recorder,” Madisyn said.

  “I don’t like that it said all of us were going to die,” Eddie said.

  “It could still be here,” Donny said, pressing record. “Who else is in this room?”

  Everyone was quiet while Donny waited for a response and then played back the recording.

  “It’s not talking to us anymore,” Sharon said. “I think it moved to another part of the mansion.”

  “The secret room,” Madisyn said. She looked at Mary. “Is it okay if we check out that secret passage I found?”

  Mary wiped her red, puffy eyes. “Let’s go.”

  They followed Mary into the hall while Donny took the camera from the tripod and carried it so that he could continue to record the events.

  Moose lost his balance when the front door knocker banged three times. “What the hell? I’m going to kick the bucket before you do, Mary.”

  “No one’s dying if I have my way about it,” Mary said, looking at the door.

  “Were you expecting anyone?” Eddie asked.

  “No,” Mary said, following Eddie to the door.

  “It’s some old guy with a cane,” Donny shouted from the drawing-room window.

  Mary thought a moment, then said, “It has to be Mr. Tibbs.”

  “I’ll open the door,” Eddie said, staying ahead of Mary. He rested his hand on the doorknob. “Who is it?”

  “I’m Mr. Tibbs. I’m looking for Mary McMaster.”

  “Open it,” Mary said as a welcome smile formed on her drawn face. She motioned for Eddie to open the door. “Mr. Tibbs, so good to see you. Come in. Come in.”

  Mr. Tibbs limped inside. “Sorry to bother you so late in the night but I didn’t know your phone number, so I rented a boat from one of the docks. Are you all right? I’ve had a bad feeling about you being out here ever since you left.” He looked at the others. “Oh, I must be interrupting something. Did I come at a bad time?” He looked back at Mary and frowned. “And Mary, please call me Nick.”

  “I’m so happy to see you, Nick, but you did not come at a bad time. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “What could happen?”

  “You’d be surprised,” Moose said. “There are evil spirits in this house and they want us dead.”

  Mary studied Nick’s face, trying to decipher if he showed any sign of believing in such things. “We just had a scare during the séance.”

  “Séance?” Nick said. “Séances can bring spirits around, spirits you don’t want.”

  “It’s too late,” Moose said. “The spirits were already here.”

  Nick shifted his weight to the other leg. “That explains the bad feeling I’ve had. I can’t say that I’m an actual believer, but I’ve had a few experiences in my life that make me give credence to the paranormal. That’s why I came here. I didn’t want to not come and have something happen to you, Mary.”

  Mary could tell Nick was fond of her in a more than friend-like manner. They were good friends, even best friends. If Mary let the undertones of their relationship blossom, they would become a couple, possibly partners for life. She was warmed by his concerned look and genuine offer of help. What more could a person ask for in a mate? “I want you to stay here with me, I have plenty of room.”

  Nick nodded and smiled, a smile like the one that Eddie gives Madisyn. “I would like nothing more than to be here with you.”

  “We were just on our way to check out a secret passage that Madisyn found.” Mary looked at Nick’s cane. “Are you able to climb stairs? It’s on the second floor.”

  “If I take it slow and easy, I’ll make it.”

  While Madisyn and the paranormal team climbed the stairs ahead of them, Mary stood at Nick’s side as he took one step at a time until he reached the second-floor landing. Mary took him into her bedroom where the others were tapping on the wall in the large walk-in closet between her room and the master bedroom.

  “You can set on the chair beside my bed if you like,” Mary said, pointing toward a wingback chair. She watched him sit down and place his cane between his legs. “Comfortable?”

  “Very.”

  Then Mary heard Nick say, “Bingo. I’ve got it.”

  “Mary, come here,” Madisyn called from the closet. “We got it open.”

  Mary walked into the crowded closet. Nick and Donny were shining flashlights inside the revealed narrow passage. Wispy cobwebs hung from the ceiling and clung to the dirty brick wall.

  “There are steps going up and down,” Carl said. He looked at Mary. “Is it alright if I go inside and check it out?”

  “Be my guest, just be careful because those steps don’t look the sturdiest.”

  Carl stepped inside, testing the strength of the floorboards. “It feels strong enough, but I don’t think our man Moose should venture inside.”

  “Don’t worry,” Moose said, placing his hands on his belly. “I don’t think I’d even fit into that narrow passage. Looks like it’s made for skinny people, not those of us who are a little...”

  “Portly,” Madisyn said with a giggle. “You’re portly, dear Uncle.”

  “Ah, yes,” Moose said, smiling at his niece. “A more dignified way of saying fat.”

  “Should I go up or down?” Nick asked from inside the passage.

  “Go up first,” Donny said. “There’s only one floor above us but two below, counting the basement.”

  The stairs creaked with each step up as Carl climbed to the third floor.

  “Phew, lots of cobwebs,” Carl shouted down to them. “But I’m at the top. I just need to find a way to open the wall.”

  “You’ll get it,” Donny called up.

  Moments later they heard a loud clunk and the squeak of something being swung open. They all looked up to the ceiling.

  “It opened into another big closet,” Carl said. A minute later they heard him going back into the passage. When he got back down to them, he said, “It’s nothing but a passage like this one. If it goes to a secret room, it must be below us.”

  “Horace’s letter said that there are many hidden rooms and corridors and there was one room that should never be entered,” Mary said.

  “Why?” Donny asked.

  “I don’t know, the letter stopped just when he was about to write the why. But if you find it, I want to be there when the door is opened and be the one who goes inside.”

  “Not a problem,” Carl said. He nodded toward the descending steps. “May I continue to explore?”

  “I’ll come along with you,” Mary said. “I don’t weigh much and shouldn’t put much pressure on the boards.”

  Sharon held out her flashlight. “Take my light and don’t follow too closely to Carl.”

  “Thank you, my dear.”

  “What’s directly below us?” Carl asked, beginning his way down the steps.

  “The library and the drawing room. But by the way the steps are angling, I’d say the library is going to be the next stop.”

  The gang, including Nick, went downstairs and into the library, trying to determine where the secret passage might be. Pickles sniffed around, doing his own search for whatever a dog sniffs around for.

  “It has to be behind this bookcase,” Donny said, feeling around for a lever to open the wall.

  Everyone pressed and pulled on anything that looked like an old movie method of opening a secret passage. They moved books, looked behind knickknacks, and pulled on candle sconces.

  “I can’t figure it out,” Madisyn said.

  Nick walked to the fireplace. “This room would have the most strangers running around in it so I’m going to figure the way to open it is a little more complicated.” He studied one of the long thin pokers—used as an accent to the gas logs—then looked at the bookcase. Then he
walked back to the bookcase, noting a gap between the case and the wall between the library and the drawing room. “Give me a light.”

  Donny handed Nick his flashlight. Nick shined it in the space. “Aha!” He took his cane, poked it into the space, and pressed. The bookcase swung open, just as Carl and Mary reached it.

  “How’d you do that?” Donny asked as Nick handed him back the flashlight.

  “I presumed a tool would need to be used to access the lever,” Nick said, leaning on his cane like Sherlock Holmes. “I saw the fireplace poker and guessed that it would be the device used to press the brass button in the crack over here, where there is a button that cannot be seen in the dark shadows of the crevice. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original owner of this place actually carried a cane with him for just that reason.”

  “You’re brilliant!” Mary exclaimed as she stepped into the library, pulling spiderwebs from her hair. “I’ll keep you around.”

  Nick pretended to tip a hat. “My pleasure, Madame Mary.”

  At that moment, Mary’s troubles slipped away. She saw Nick in a new light, a light she hadn’t encountered before. Was she falling in love? She felt like it. Madisyn and Eddie weren’t the only ones who could feel the excitement of a newfound romance.

  “From here,” Carl said, shining his light down the passage, “it goes not only down to the basement but lateral along the walls of the first floor.”

  “Go down,” Donny said. “That’s the most likely place to find a secret room.”

  “Are you coming with me?” Carl said, watching Mary and Nick smile at each other with adoration. “Mary?”

  “Oh, Carl, of course,” Mary said, forcing her eyes away from Nick. She walked back into the passage and followed Carl down the steps while everyone rushed down to the basement, trying to figure out where the passage would open, but the walls looked rock solid.

  “I don’t think they’re coming out here,” Eddie said, holding Madisyn’s hand.

  Madisyn watched Pickles follow Moose as he inspected the traps he set. “There could be anything underground. And if it’s separated from the rest of the house, that could include—”

  “The room Mary is never to enter,” Eddie said, finishing Madisyn’s thought.

  Chapter 16

  “It’s getting darker,” Mary said. “More than pitch black.”

  “Not only that,” Carl said, continuing the descent, “but it feels like we’re moving away from the house. I don’t think we’re going to come out in the basement.”

  “It’s getting colder and damper, too,” Mary said, bringing an arm close to her body. “If the house weren’t built on a hill, I’d fear we’d run into flooded tunnels.”

  “We still might unless they designed a good drainage system when they built this place.”

  Mary sneezed. “I should’ve brought my sweater.”

  “You know,” Carl said, running a hand along the wall. “The construction is becoming a better quality as we go deeper into the passage.”

  “Why would that be?”

  “I don’t know,” Carl said. “It’s like we’re coming close to something valuable.”

  “I don’t know what would be of value all the way down here, hidden away in the dark earth.”

  “Well, we’ll find out soon.”

  The passage turned and veered away from the house, widening into a corridor.

  “Is that a big door?” Mary said, shining her light on what looked like a castle door with large metal hinges and doorplate.

  “It is,” Carl said, stopping in front of it. He put his hand on the large antique knob, but the door would not open. “It’s locked. We probably need a skeleton key to get inside.”

  Mary moved next to Carl and tried the door herself. She knelt and shined her light through the keyhole, trying to see what was inside. “My eyes aren’t worth a darn. Can you see anything through there?”

  Carl put his eye close to the keyhole next to his light and peered inside. “Ah, it’s hard to see. Maybe a table, a box, I don’t know, it’s hard to tell.”

  “I suppose we need to find the key,” Mary said, watching Carl place an ear to the door.

  “I don’t hear anything.”

  “What’d you expect to hear? A mouse?”

  “I don’t know.” Carl took an EVP recorder from his pocket. “I’m getting a heavy feeling here. How about you?”

  “Yes, but I was trying to ignore it,” Mary said.

  Carl laughed. “Of course.”

  “Do you think Zachariah De Moen is here?”

  Carl shrugged. “I wish Sharon was with us because she senses things better than I can. But to me, it feels...”

  “Evil,” Mary said, close to a whisper. “This must be the room that no one is to enter and here we are wanting to go inside.”

  “I’ll talk to the others, but I think if we can get inside and clear any negative vibes from the room, it might solve a lot of the problems concerning your family. And keep you from harm tomorrow night.”

  “And you,” Mary said. “The voice on the recorder in the drawing room said we were all going to die. Even though my great uncle said not to enter the room, I fear we must.”

  “I agree,” Carl said. “Let’s go back and hunt for the key. When we come back, we’ll have Sharon and Donny come with us so that we can work on getting rid of whatever is inside that room.”

  “Were you going to use that recorder before we go back?”

  Carl raised his eyebrows. “Yes, but I’m afraid of what we’ll hear.”

  “Ask your questions and we’ll listen to it when we get back with the others.”

  Carl pressed record. “Who is here?” He waited. “What do you want?” He waited some more. “Okay, let’s get back upstairs.”

  It seemed to take a long time to get back to the library. Pickles was waiting at the entrance, knowing his master was about to emerge.

  “Oh, Pickles, my ever-faithful pooch.” Mary reached down and picked him up. “What would I do without you?”

  “They’re in the library,” Nick shouted to the others who were still trying to find the passage opening in the basement. He limped into the library. “Well, what’d you see?”

  “We found the room, but we can’t get inside without a key,” Mary said, setting Pickles back on the floor.

  “Do you know where the key is?” Nick asked.

  Mary walked to the library desk. She sat down and began opening drawers and shuffling through papers. “No, but I wish I did.”

  Carl began looking through jars on shelves as everyone came into the library. “We found the room, but we need a key.”

  Everyone pitched in and looked through the house for a skeleton key. Mary found a ring with several skeleton keys, but none looked big enough to work in the forbidden room’s keyhole.

  “Let’s take the keys that Mary has and try them,” Donny said, lowering the video camera. He turned toward Mary who was sitting next to Nick on the libraries loveseat. “If one works, we’ll come back and get you. That way, if none work, you wouldn’t have made the trip through that dingy passage for no reason.”

  “Sounds good, just don’t open the door unless I’m there.”

  “We won’t.”

  Donny, Carl, and Sharon walked into the passage, to the ominous door. They tried every key a few times before returning to the library.

  “They didn’t work,” Carl said, setting them on the desktop.

  “What about that recording?” Mary asked. “Have you listened to it, yet?”

  “No, I haven’t.” Carl took the EVP recorder from his pocket. “I did an EVP session while Mary and I were down there. Let’s listen to it.”

  Mary scooted closer to Nick. She smelled his cologne and felt the warmth of his skin as her arm brushed against his. “I’m not looking forward to this.”

  They heard Carl ask the question, ‘who is here?’ Silence. But after Carl asked, ‘what do you want?’. A large bang radiated through the house as
if a heavy dresser was lifted and dropped several feet onto an upstairs bedroom floor. Then, with that same guttural voice that they heard in the drawing room, it said, “I want you all to burn in Hell. There is no escape.”

  A frigid gust of wind came through the opened bookcase passage, touching each person as if they’d been slapped.

  “Was that Zachariah?” Carl asked.

  Sharon shook her head. “No, who or whatever it is, also wanted Zachariah’s spirit gone.”

  “Is it in the locked room?” Madisyn asked.

  “I believe it is.”

  “Can we get rid of it? Can we clear the room it’s in?” Carl asked.

  “I don’t think I’m strong enough to do it.” Sharon shuddered. “I’m afraid.”

  “But it is possible. Right?” Carl put the EVP recorder back in his pocket.

  “I guess.”

  Thunder grew louder outside, and flashes of lightning briefly brightened the room from an approaching storm.

  “Looks like we have a bad thunderstorm moving in,” Moose said. “We’re stuck here in the house from Hell until it passes because it’s not safe to travel back to the mainland.”

  Three loud knocks at the front door startled everyone.

  “I have no doubt I’m going to die tonight,” Moose joked. “Are you expecting anyone else?”

  “No, no one.” Mary said.

  Donny rushed back into the drawing room, Moose was behind him. “It’s an old man and an old woman.”

  “I’ll be damned. It’s the Simmons,” Moose said, tramping to the front door. “Why the hell is everyone coming here in the middle of the night?”

  “Good question,” Donny said, raising the video camera to his eye.

  Moose opened the door. “Mr. and Mrs. Simmons, come on in.”

  “I’m surprised to see you here, Moose,” Mrs. Simmons said, walking inside.

  Mary stood next to Moose. The Simmons looked older than she had imagined, all hunched over and skin that sagged. She wondered how they managed to care for her great uncle when they appeared to be in such a decrepit state. Mary extended a hand. “Welcome. I am Mary McMaster, the new owner of the estate.”

  Mrs. Simmons held out a hand with bent arthritic fingers. “Nice to meet you but we are not here to welcome you to your new home. We are here to help you.”