Page 10 of The Ghost of Ellwood

Susan was running through the woods, searching for her husband. When she found him, he was strapped to a wooden post in a small clearing, his clothes tattered and bloodied. He raised his head and cried out for her to run. To save herself.

As a triumphant shout rang out, Susan turned to see five men charging at her. They were disfigured, the products of generations of incest, and they laughed as she screamed in horror.

Creak.

I snapped my attention to the open door, my fingers hovering over the keys.

“Hello?” I asked, my voice higher than normal. “Someone there?”

No answer.

What was wrong with me? Ever since that journal went missing days ago, I had let myself be startled by every small noise in the damn house. My mind had conjured countless images of rotten corpses and demonic ghosts lurking around the corner to explain the simplest of sounds. Which was silly.

I didn’t even believe in the supernatural.

All the exhaustion and stress over the move was probably finally hitting me. As for the journal, I was sure I’d accidentally knocked it into an empty box, or maybe it had fallen elsewhere.

Absolutelynothingwas due to paranormal activity. It was impossible. Fantasy nonsense belonged in books; not reality.

***

The greenhouse could be accessed by two doors; one from inside the house a ways off from the kitchen and the other from the outside. With the keys in hand, I first tried the inside door. Sliding the key into the lock, I tried to turn it but it wouldn’t budge. I then used the shed key, getting the same result.

I pulled out the skeleton key. Hollowed out, it was made to fit any troublesome lock. I placed it into the slot and an exultant smile stretched my lips as the handle clicked and turned. I pushed on the door…and it didn’t open.

The handle turned with ease, but it was as though the door was jammed. Perhaps something was stuck on the other side?

“Hmm.” I peered into the glass oval in the door, but it was too clouded to see anything through it.

As Alice said,curious and curiouser.

Stepping away, I maneuvered through the tight hallway and returned to the kitchen. I had been writing for hours with not much to show for it, and I’d stopped to refuel on coffee and stretch my legs for a minute. That’s when I had remembered the greenhouse and thought I’d try to open it.

Now, it was my mission. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything until the damn mystery was solved.

As I walked to the front door, a light gust of air touched the back of my neck. I whirled around in the foyer, searching the room. The house had been modernized with air conditioning, but the AC was off. There were no fans near me, either. Couldn’t really explain it.

And I tried not to think about how it’d felt like someone breathed on me.

I exited the house and followed the wraparound porch to the right side where the greenhouse stood. Three steps off the porch and a short stride later, I was at the outside entrance. Since the skeleton key had worked on the inner door, I tried it first.

The handle turned easily.

But the door wouldn’t open.

“What the actual fuck?” I muttered to myself, wiping at the glass before peering through it.

I caught faint glimpses of empty plant racks and long tables against the edges, but it was too clouded to make out many other details. I could see the inside door from where I was, and there didn’t look to be anything in front of it.

So why hadn’t it moved when I pushed against it?

Wait…there looked to be live plants inside. Flower pots with greenery. That was impossible, right? No one had been in there for years, according to Caroline. Anything growing in there would be dead by now.

Cupping my hands on both sides of my eyes, I pressed my face to the glass. If it wasn’t for the beautiful stained glass designs, I would’ve probably broken into the building to see what was inside. I looked for several seconds, trying to make out more details from inside the greenhouse.

A shadow moved in front of me, appearing on the other side of the glass.

With a yelp, I lurched backward. My ass slammed against the ground so hard that a sharp pain radiated through my tailbone. The dark shape flitted out of sight.