The home town horror

By Ralph ward

continued...

the young woman, in her early twenties, was a teacher from another town about 85 miles away. she was starting her first year of teaching at the city's grade school. the couple rented her the small sleeping room that used to be the back porch. poor thing. little did she know that she had rented from a killer or killers. dad never said how much the man's wife was involved in the killings. she, too, may have feared for her life. as soon as school was out for the summer, the teacher ran off with a man that she had been seeing. at least that is what the couple told the young woman's family members when they came looking for her. the couple stuck to that story even when the police started investigating the teacher's disappearance. due to their standing in the community, the couple's story was believed. the family of the girl was not as easily convinced and returned several times asking about her over the next few years. Even they eventually gave up.

the teacher caught the man watching her through small holes he had put in the walls. then, he raped her, telling her if she left or told anyone, he would not only kill her, but her entire family. he continued doing things to her until the school year was over. He knew that she was expected home then and may tell of what he had been doing to her the past several months. he killed and buried her under the very room she had been living in, not far from his niece's body.

The third spirit was that of a local sixteen year old girl that had disappeared before the niece had come to live with her uncle. the couple's home was one of the last places the girl was known to have visited before disappearing. she was always talking about being a movie star and, in those days, young girls were always running off to the glamour of hollywood, new york and other places. she was well developed for her age and could have easily passed for older. she told dad the man buried her under the main part of the house after she became a victim to his unusual advances. that sent shivers up my spine. I played under the main house for years as it was the only cool spot during those long hot days of summer. thinking back, it was real cool, to the point of being cold. my younger brothers and sisters also played under the house for the same reason.

two of the young girl's brothers still lived in town and i found it hard to talk to them because i knew what happened to their sister and it is still a mystery to them. i have even heard them talk about it on occasion and had to bite my tongue to keep from spitting it all out. the man that killed them is still alive and living alone in a retirement community. i had seen him several times and even talked to him before i knew about his killing of the girls and the young woman. more recently, i have seen him eating in restaurants, walking at the mall, and a few times, at church. he was always alone. i wonder if he feels any remorse about killing the girls and if there are other victims buried under other houses that he lived in. did his wife end up being another one of his victims?

it has been heavy on my mind and i am now carrying the guilt that my dad had for not reporting his find. i wondered if the spirits of the three women were bothering the people now living in the house. i went there on the pretense of visiting the old home place. i was hoping they might possibly ask me if we were bothered by something while living there, then i would know. they didn't say anything about the spirits. maybe we were the only ones that saw them since it may have been dad that released the spirits. when getting back in my car to leave, i did not see, but felt the presence of one of the spirits as the temperature dropped in seconds. the sound was whispery and sounded like a girl saying the words, "tell before it's too late." I took that to mean before the man dies.

A couple of months later when coming back from visiting my cousin, i passed the end of our old lane and saw a girl standing there with a suitcase in her hand, waving for me to stop. when i slowed and looked back through my mirror, i saw no one. the girl appeared to be in her twenties wearing old style clothes. again my car turned cold, but this time, i saw the woman sitting next to me and again the whispery voice said, "tell before it is too late." then, the woman disappeared.

i don't know what to do. i especially feel bad about the missing sister. the family has always felt that she met with foul play, but i know they would be surprised at whose hand. the man's niece's disappearance was never questioned. the teacher's was, and like the local girl's family, the teacher's family probably still think and talk about her disappearance. i wrote a letter to send to the authorities telling where the bodies could be found and who killed them. then again, with it being so long, and the man is now so old, in a couple of years, it won't make much difference. why am i holding onto the secret that has kept the spirits from finding eternal peace? what am i to do?