The Haunting of Pitmon House

by Michael Richan

  The Haunting of Pitmon House

  By Michael Richan

  By the author:

  The School of Revenge

  The Haunting of Pitmon House

  The River series:

  The Bank of the River

  Residual

  A Haunting in Oregon

  Ghosts of Our Fathers

  Eximere

  The Suicide Forest

  Devil’s Throat

  The Diablo Horror

  The Haunting at Grays Harbor

  It Walks At Night

  The Cycle of the Shen

  A Christmas Haunting at Point No Point

  The Downwinders series:

  Blood Oath, Blood River

  The Impossible Coin

  The Graves of Plague Canyon

  The Blackham Mansion Haunting

  The Massacre Mechanism

  The Dark River series:

  A

  The Blood Gardener

  All three series are part of The River Universe, and there is crossover of some characters and plots. For a suggested reading order, see the Author’s Website.

  Copyright 2016 by Michael Richan

  All Rights Reserved.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious.

  Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  www.michaelrichan.com

  A print version of this book is available at most online retailers.

  ASIN: B01G91QD7W

  Published by Dantull (149816178A)

  Become a Patron of Michael.

  ◊

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Complimentary First Chapters from The Bank of the River

  Chapter One

  March, 1998

  Eliza let her elbows fall to the stand, and she lowered her face into her hands, resting. Her long, straight hair fell forward over her face. It was a slow day, and no one had appeared to buy tickets or tokens for the last ten minutes.

  Off season, she thought. It’s always slow during the spring.

  Through the large windows of the complex she could see dark clouds roiling over the Wisconsin countryside. Another March storm was coming.

  A group of teenagers appeared from around the building entrance walls, walking toward her. Instantly she was pissed.

  “Shane!” she said. “What are you doing here?”

  “My friends wanted to come,” he replied, smiling at her, knowing he was in trouble.

  “It’s a school day,” Eliza said. “Shouldn’t you all be there?”

  A girl spoke up. “It’s a field trip!” This caused the other three girls in the group to giggle.

  “Field trip my ass!” Eliza said. “Shane?”

  “Seriously, be cool,” Shane replied. “I told them you could get us a discount.”

  Now she was fuming. Her younger brother was only fourteen; he had no business skipping school. Ever since their father died a couple of years ago, Eliza had taken it upon herself to try and keep the kid on the straight and narrow, but the older he got, the harder the task had become.

  “Seriously,” said another boy in the group who was wearing a Korn t-shirt. “It was a half-day today. Parent-teacher conferences. We’re not skipping.”

  Eliza eyed the boy, trying to judge if he was being honest.

  “I wouldn’t have brought them all here to play hooky,” Shane said. “Why would I do that, knowing you’d be here? They wanted to see it, and I told them you could probably get us in for free.”

  “Not for free,” Eliza replied, softening. “No one gets in for free. I can give you student discounts though.”

  Each of the kids approached the counter, handing Eliza cash. She distributed tickets and dispensed four tokens to each of them.

  “Oh, what the hell,” she said, passing them a handful of tokens. “You’re with my little brother, have some extra!” The teenagers of the group smiled as they divided up the additional tokens.

  “Thanks, sis,” Shane said.

  “Listen,” Eliza said. “No messing around in there, OK? If security kicks you out, there’s nothing I can do to get you back in. The security guys won’t care that you’re my brother. It’ll just cause problems for me.”

  “No, we won’t,” one of the girls replied, causing another round of snickering.

  “OK then,” Eliza said. “Enjoy. Oh, and make sure you hit section three by four o’clock. We close up at five this time of the year, and you won’t have time to see section three if you don’t leave yourself an hour.”

  “Thanks,” Shane said again. “Hit three by four, got it!”

  More snickering.

  The group moved down the hall and into the first section of The House on the Rock. The chatting and giggling slowly diminished as the distance grew, and Eliza found herself alone once again at the podium.

  He might be lying about school, she thought. I’ll have to check on that.

  It had been hard since their father died. Shane was only twelve at the time, and although Eliza had already graduated from college and was living in Madison, she decided to move back to their small country home outside of Spring Green and make sure Shane survived high school. Her other sister, Janie, was attending college in Boston on a scholarship, and although they had talked about her moving back as well, Eliza had been insistent that Janie not squander her opportunity; Eliza would come home and finish raising Shane. Once Shane was ready to leave, they’d consider what to do with the house.

  But that didn’t mean it was exciting. Not exciting like Madison, where most of her college friends still lived. Spring Green was quiet, and nothing much happened except the tourism; Taliesin was nearby, drawing thousands of people every year. And then there was her employer, the place where she’d worked as a teenager all through high school — The House on the Rock. Whereas Taliesin was the headquarters of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, The House on the Rock was another matter altogether. They were just ten miles from each other, but at opposite ends of the spectrum. Taliesin was highbrow, whereas House on the Rock was an indescribable collection that was so bizarre and extensive it was almost impossible to explain.

  She had taken up her old job at The House on the Rock when she returned from Madison. Fred, Connie, and the others were still there running the place, and they begged her to return. She knew they liked that she was punctual and dedicated, qualities that made managing things easier for them.

  She rotated every other week between the front concession desk and the gift shop, dealing with tourists, answering questions, making change. It didn’t pay a lot, but they owned their house free and clear thanks to her father’s life insurance policy, and Eliza’s only debt was a student loan. It was enough to get by.

  But it wasn’t very fulfilling.

  More tourists appeared from around the corner, and soon she was engaged with explaining the house and the exhibits, giving her prepared, canned answers in a vain attempt to convey what they were about to see, and why tickets could be purchased for one, two, or all three sections.

  The day rambled on, and she wondered how Shane and
his friends were doing inside the tour. If he damages anything, I’ll kill him! she thought, knowing her brother was often susceptible to accidents. It was a few minutes later when she heard the crackle of the radio, coming from the office behind her.

  “Code 99! Mikado Room! Code 99!”

  The voice was unusually high, and for a moment she wasn’t sure if it was Randy or not. If that’s him, she thought, he’s amped up!

  She left the podium and walked back into the office, picking up the radio. “What’s going on, Randy?” she asked.

  “Code 99! Right now! Call 911! I’ve got kids fighting. They’re holding down the perpetrator, but he’s freaking out. Get the cops here!”

  Kids fighting? she thought. It better not be Shane!

  She replaced the radio and made the call to 911. Once police were on their way, she placed a placard on her podium and walked to Alice, who was seated behind the upstairs gift shop on the other side of the lobby. “I need to go down to building four,” she said. “You’ve got ticket sales until I get back?”

  “Sure thing,” Alice replied, her jowly face rocking back and forth as she spoke, and her tone belying her lack of enthusiasm for the assignment.

  While guests followed an established path through the house and the large buildings that accommodated the exhibits, Eliza could take the employee shortcuts, and although she didn’t have much occasion to visit the outlying buildings that comprised the second and third sections of the tour, she did know how to get to them quickly. She used her employee key to unlock a security door and was inside the dimly-lit building within minutes.

  She let her eyes adjust to the darkness. She had entered at the “Music of Yesterday” section, where room after room offered gigantic machines designed to present short musical numbers by automation. As she gained her bearings, she could see the exhibits ahead, and knew she’d need to maneuver through three or four dark exhibit spaces before she reached The Mikado Room. She walked quickly, not wanting to appear panicked. There was no one there to observe her if she decided to run; the rooms were empty, except for the mannequins and automatons behind the glass displays, waiting to come to life when someone dropped a token into their respective machines.

  She could hear the creepy, galloping music from The Mikado Room well before she reached it. The sound of the slightly out-of-tune organ and the pounding of the drums were unmistakable. Someone had dropped a token just recently; it would only play for a couple of minutes.

  She rounded the corner and saw Shane on the floor. Each of his limbs were being held down by one of his friends. Randy was standing over them.

  “Don’t let him up!” Randy yelled, ensuring he could be heard over the cacophony of the animation behind him. “Don’t get off him until the cops get here!”

  “What’s going on?” Eliza said, running up to Randy, looking down at Shane. Her brother was twisting, trying to break free.

  “He attacked that one, over there!” Randy said, pointing across the room. As the loud organ screeched on, Eliza turned to see one of Shane’s friends standing beside The Mikado display. Behind him Asian automatons beat on drums while hammers hit the tiles of a large xylophone, the room temporarily bathed in red light as the wall-sized music machine pounded out its pre-programmed performance. There was blood running down the boy’s shirt, and another girl was next to him, comforting him.

  She turned back to Shane, pissed. Some stupid little fight! she thought. “What, you couldn’t take it outside?” she yelled down at him.

  Shane snarled, twisting back and forth. He wasn’t just angry, he was furious — altered by rage to a state where he seemed completely out of control. She looked at him, slowly becoming aware that something was wrong. This wasn’t just a fight. She’d seen her brother angry before; this was different. He was snapping his teeth like a rabid dog, and spittle had formed around his mouth.

  “What’s wrong with him?” she muttered to Randy.

  “That your brother?” Randy asked.

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll, he’s gone crazy!” Randy replied, raising his voice above the din of the musical performance. “He won’t calm down! We’ve got to keep him pinned. Are the cops coming?”

  “Yeah, I called them,” she replied, now worried what would happen to Shane. “I’ve never seen him like this.”

  “Kids,” Randy replied. “Drugs.”

  “He’s never done drugs,” Eliza said.

  “That you know of,” Randy replied.

  Eliza gave Randy a defensive, angry look.

  “Hormones then,” Randy replied, not wanting to get into a disagreement with his co-worker. “Who knows.”

  She knelt down next to her brother. A girl from his group of friends was holding down his right arm by sitting on it. The girl smiled weakly at her as she approached. Eliza could see fear in her eyes.

  “What happened?” she asked the girl, then turned to look down at Shane’s face.

  “He just freaked out,” the girl replied. “Started swinging at John. Knocked him down and just kept hitting him!”

  “The two of them were fighting about something?” Eliza asked.

  “Must be,” the girl answered.

  “Do you know over what?” Eliza asked, watching as Shane twisted his head back and forth, trying to resist.

  “No idea,” she replied. “It was like, one minute everything was fine, the next, he’s jumping him!”

  “Shane!” Eliza said, trying to get her brother’s attention. “Calm down! Stop! You’re just making it worse!”

  Shane continued to twist and turn, trying to dislodge his holders. He didn’t seem to hear or register what she was saying.

  Behind her, she could hear Randy turning to deal with the arriving authorities. Within seconds she found herself being asked to step aside, and two uniformed police officers descended on Shane, wrestling a pair of handcuffs onto him. Shane continued to resist, fighting the cops, raising his feet to kick at them.

  Eliza stepped back, horrified. Shane was no angel, but she’d never seen him react like this. It was as though he was a completely different person, possessed. The cops were ordering others to step aside as they began to haul Shane from the room, turning to Randy for directions. Shane began spitting, which brought quick rebukes from the officers, who held his head down as they exited.

  The automated music screeched to a halt as Eliza found herself standing in The Mikado Room with the other kids, wondering what had just happened.

  Chapter Two

  She drove Highway 14 eastbound, headed to a suburb of Madison that contained the state’s most infamous mental hospital. She set out as soon as she discovered that the police in Spring Green were unwilling to keep Shane at their jail. The woman on the phone told her he was “too combative, even after restraint,” and that he was one of the most violent 1096s they’d ever seen.

  She didn’t have the heart to ask what “1096” meant.

  Now she was pushing the speed limit, thinking about what she would say to her sister. Let me see what kind of state he’s in first, she thought. No sense in calling if I can’t tell her what’s wrong. She’ll just get all worked up and worried.

  She knew Janie would book a flight home the moment she suggested it was necessary — but Eliza didn’t want to pull her sister from her studies if she didn’t have to. Janie had only recently begun to enjoy college. It had been a challenge to get her to go in the first place.

  As she passed another car, she felt the weight of being a “mom”. She wasn’t really a mom, of course. When their father died and she came back home to finish raising Shane, it seemed like the right thing to do, and for the most part, it had been enjoyable. Boring sometimes. She knew there would be occasions when it wasn’t either enjoyable or boring — this appeared to be one of them. She was worried for her brother, but also worried about him from the perspective of being his guardian. She felt nervous and unsure, treading ground she’d never experienced before.

  The doctors will be abl
e to help me, she thought. I’ll talk with them. They’ll tell me what’s wrong with him, and recommend something.

  I’m not in this alone.

  But, speeding down the highway toward Madison, she felt very alone.

  ●

  It was her day to work in the lower gift shop, in a separate building closer to where tourists exited the exhibit. It was stocked with a much larger supply of shirts, mugs, and snow globes than the smaller gift shop in the main lobby, where Alice worked. She disliked her gift shop shifts, primarily because of the other women who worked there. Today it was herself, Rachel, Bernice, and Lois. She didn’t mind Rachel so much, but Bernice and Lois made the job tedious. Even though Eliza had worked there for a decade, all three of the other women had greater seniority; Rachel by at least ten years, and Bernice and Lois were so old they might have worked there since The House on the Rock was built.

  “Such an unfortunate thing,” Bernice was saying as she sampled some of the fudge that was for sale behind a large glass counter. “Fighting in the exhibit. Kids these days.”

  Eliza knew it was intended as a sideways slight, aimed at her.

  “Is he alright?” Rachel asked Eliza.

  Eliza unpacked more placemats from a cardboard box, preparing to sticker them with price tags. “No, he’s not,” she replied. The memory of looking at Shane in the hospital bed resurfaced; he’d been motionless, an IV stuck in his arm. She stood next to the bed for a long time, hoping he’d come to, before a nurse explained to her that he wouldn’t be waking anytime soon. She said they’d heavily sedated him, claiming it was for safety. That’s when she noticed that she couldn’t see Shane’s hands. She pulled down the sheet that was covering his body and saw leather restraints wrapped around his wrists. She closed her eyes, wanting the image to leave her mind.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Rachel asked.

  “They don’t know,” she replied. “They’re running tests.” She lowered her voice, not wanting Bernice or Lois to hear what she was about to say next. “They screened him for drugs; he wasn’t on anything. He was sedated when I saw him in the hospital, so I couldn’t talk to him. The nurses said you couldn’t talk to him anyway. One told me he seemed crazy, like a rabid dog.”