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WHAT MIGHT COME BACK
By Sheila M. Curtin
If you're someone
who loves scary places and haunted houses then enter the WNX Most
Haunted Houses competition for a chance to win ten thousand dollars.
The
advertisement continued in much smaller print near the bottom of the
page, you and your family must remain within said premises one entire
night (sundown to sun up) to be eligible to win.
Verdin turned
the magazine over again to the cover, looking for that love story she'd
wanted to read next, How I Finally Got My Man To Look Up and Notice
Me, page 69. I must learn your secret she thought sardonically to
herself as she flipped through the pages, coming once again upon the
same advertisement, scrawled across the top of a glossy bright page in
dripping bloody red letters. It was a come-on for contestants to vie for
a spot on WNX's new Friday night fright show, Most Haunted Houses On
Earth. Just for the hell of it Verdin filled out the coupon and
dropped it into the mailbox on her way off to school. She'd completely
forgotten about it when a month later she received an invitation from
the show's producers for her and her family to come to WNX's New York
City studios for a screening.
Not one member of the Paulson family was impressed with
the studio's invitation at first, perhaps its reception would have been
warmer had it been a round trip all expenses paid, but Verdin was
hooked on the studio's response and the possibility of winning ten
grand. She certainly wasn't afraid of any haunted houses, the only
spirits she believed in were Smirnoff's and Jack Daniels, and win, lose
or draw, if they were selected, they'd be on TV. So she pressed her
point to her father, inevitable decision maker and final arbiter of all
disputes.
Daddy, she continued as she sat at the table playing guilt over mind
games, causing the man's dinner to remain suspended in his throat,
think of it as a graduation present, and you did promise me a
car. Ted Paulson just gave his daughter a vacuous, mindless stare,
oblivious to her ritual histrionics, all the while thinking no way
Jose was he going to sink his hard earned vacation money on a trip
to the Big Apple. Big Rotten Apple as he remembered it. A warning
regarding his daughter's power of persuasion ran through his mind like a
red flag running up a pole, however, it was too little too late to be of
any defense against his daughter's well-planned semantics. But Daddy,
she continued, sweet and soft as freshly weaved cotton candy until
she had him nodding his head in agreement, we really could use ten
thousand dollars, you know, it could pay for my college education, and
besides, you promised me a car for my graduation, this is a whole lot
cheaper, Daddy. Once she had him in her power and agreeing to one
thing, she just worked her daughterly wiles until he acquiesced and gave
her the graduation present she so ardently desired.
The actual decision to go brought a party-like
atmosphere to the Paulson's house, and within the week, the entire
family had gotten caught up in Verdin's euphoria and were just as
excited as she was about going to New York and the possibility of being
on TV. They were having fun with the idea of staying the night in a
haunted house, comparing it to the funhouse at Pirates Cove, the theme
park they'd go to in the summer and fall. Verdin worked the idea till
she had everybody believing they would be selected and would
be featured on the show.
She told everybody she met on her way between school
and home, the bus drivers, old ladies with shopping bags, the guys down
at her father's machine shop. By the time they were ready to take off,
just about everybody in the tiny community of Hunter's Point knew the
Paulson's were going to be contestants on Most Haunted Houses on
Earth, just about everybody promised to tune in and watch the show,
and just about everybody wished them luck as they were off, that is,
everybody save Mrs. Grier, Hunter's Point's most vocal naysayer and
consummate know it all.
Mrs. Grier's advice to Doris Paulson was more dire than
usual, and Doris thought to herself, well the old biddy's finally
lost it, but she stood there politely as the old woman wagged a
crooked finger under her nose and went on, be careful, there are all
types of spirits that haunt, watch that you don't bring something more
than that ten thousand back with you. Mrs. Paulson smiled graciously
and thanked Mrs. Grier both for her advice and her well wishes, slid
into the front seat of the Volvo beside her husband and began to think
of all the shopping she'd do during their stay in New York.
Welcome to WNX, a little pixie of a girl
held out her hand in greeting as the family arrived in the lobby of
Thirty Rockefeller Plaza for their screening. My name is Heather and
I'll be your escort during your stay here at WNX. How are you all today
she inquired, and without waiting for a response, continued with her
monologue, please, this way to Mr. McMurray's office.
Mr. McMurray's office was a suite taking up just
about the entire forty-ninth floor, and the Mr. McMurray wasn't
there in person, of course, one of his assistant producers met them in
his office and conducted their interview, Mr. Denke, or as Verdin
remarked to her sister Liz, Boris Karloff's long lost twin. His
canned personality was just as artificially flavored as Heather's was.
After administering the Idiot Test to the entire family, they
finally got down to business.
Do you believe in ghosts... have you ever
had a paranormal experience... After determining to his satisfaction
that the family didn't consist entirely of a bunch of nuts or morons, he
invited them back for a second interview and then a third and final
interview with Mr. McMurray himself, who would make the final decision
as to whether they would be on his show. Verdin was sprawled across the
bed in her hotel room dreaming of winning the money when the studio
called with the news they'd be featured on the very next episode, to be
taped the following night at the Maagsten House, a turn of the
century manor sitting in the center of a sprawling hilltop estate
overlooking the Hudson River. Its reputation was as sordid as its
neighbors were distant, the nearest living souls being at least five
miles in any direction, and for all
intent and purposes, the house was smack dab in the middle of nowhere.
The studio's lawyers arrived early the next morning, laden with
contracts and clauses, the gist of them being that the studio could not
be held liable if anything untoward occurred overnight during their
stay amongst the spirits, and the absolute nonnegotiable requirement
that they'd have to remain within the premises for the entire night in
order to win the ten thousand dollars. Mrs. Doris Paulson, tried and
true nonbeliever of things that go bump in the night, watched as her
husband signed off on the papers and wondered silently to herself what
could possibly be the catch.
The studio sent a limousine to pick up the Paulson
family at six that evening, and as the vehicle rolled up, so did a
sudden overwhelming sense of dread and desperation, feelings that became
more palpable as the family took their seats in the back of the limo and
made off towards the Maagsten House. Doris found herself unable
to shake the feeling of anxiety that surrounded her now, the little
voice in the back of her mind warning there was still time to change her
mind, insisting that she take her family and run quickly in the opposite
direction, as far from the Maagsten Estate as she could possibly
get. These feelings grew stronger as they rounded a turn in the road and
the house came into view, and as they began to ascend the hill toward
the gate, the children began to voice second thoughts about their
venture, especially Verdin, the mastermind, who insisted that it felt as
if they were being watched by someone in the house as they made their
way up the driveway.
There was nothing beauteous about the Maagsten
Estate, not in the green of its landscaped gardens or in the
quaintness of its architecture. The house itself was a brooding,
scowling malevolent entity, its entranceway transforming into a fetid
grin as it swallowed the Paulsons and camera crew whole and live. They
were met in the foyer by Wendall the Warlock, the TV personality,
decked out in full warlock regalia for the advancing cameras. Doris
exhaled an audible sigh of relief upon seeing the actor standing there,
relaxing with the thought that it was all just an act, a good show, high
theatrics for high network ratings. There were no such things as
spirits, ghosts. Wendall began his spiel concerning the history of the
house and began to light several candles as he explained how they were
disturbing the malevolent spirits and needed protection from the
benevolent spirits before the crew departed and they were left alone
within the confines of the manor for the night. But first, he insisted,
a tour of the house before the darkness became more pronounced and
enveloped the manor completely.
As they traveled from room to room, Wendall related the
history of Maagsten House, how the ground it was built on had
been swindled from a family of former slaves, a family that had escaped
the horrors of the south only to be falsely accused of witchcraft and
then burned at the stake, each of them including their two year old
daughter, to ensure possession of the land by Henri and Marta Maagsten.
More lives and backs were broken in the building of the manor, many
caused by the calumny of the Maagsten's, in construction accidents
avoidable had the owners used proper tools and materials. These
unfortunate souls were buried in shallow unmarked graves within the
estate's borders, and were said to be both seen and heard in the
evenings if one dared to walk in the gardens or upon the grounds. But
these pitiable reflections of former lives were not what made
Maagsten unfit for human habitation, even so much as for one night,
it was what had been invited to take up residence through the debauchery
that the Maagsten's had practiced in the seclusion of the manor, through
their orgies and rapes, bestiality, child murders, human sacrifices.
What had taken up residence within the manor itself had never been
human. That which walked those corridors upon nightfall had come
straight from the bowels of hell.
The tale itself was compelling but Wendall's theatrical
way of telling it struck Verdin as funny and she nervously burst out
laughing. She contained herself with a no-nonsense glare from her father
and the group continued on with their tour. Different sighting of
different entities in the various rooms and corridors, the Nursery, The
Crying Room, The Pink Bedroom, the cellar corridor. The Crying Room
seemed the most haunted to Verdin, if there was such a thing, with a
horrible smell and freezing temperature that no one else in the group
seemed to notice, except her mother. Ted, what is that horrible
smell, Doris turned to her husband gagging, it's making me
nauseous. Wendall turned and explained that it was part of the
phenomena associated with an evil haunt. Ted nodded as if he understood
completely, even though he didn't smell a thing, and noticed no drop in
temperature, and didn't believe for a moment in evil haunts. But he
couldn't bring himself to enter the cellar corridor. Wendall agreed, it
was the one place within the manor that no person could enter, not even
the work crews, and so it remained untended, full of fog and cobwebs,
and whatever haunted there haunted alone.
After the tour, the entire group of visitors congealed
on the ground floor near the entranceway, and Mr. Denke, one of the
show's producers, began to go over emergency procedures with the
Paulson's, explaining that he was leaving them not only with cell phones
and land lines, but also with a CB radio that could communicate with
passing truckers on the nearby interstate, should all other means fail
and they find themselves in need of assistance. He stressed again that
the entire family must remain inside the manor for the entire night,
that any paranormal events were without the control of the network or
its producers la la la, and if they had changed their minds after
touring the manor, it was understandable and they could back out now,
last chance. He explained that several cameras were strategically placed
within the various rooms to capture any paranormal activity, but once
the camera crews left they would be on their own for the night.
That voice inside Doris' head began screaming to her
get out leave now this is for real, but she pinched herself
thinking, Doris for Heaven's sake you're a grown woman, and
extended her hand for the keys to the front door. As Mr. Denke dropped
the keys into her outstretched hand, a loud crash was heard from the
floor above, in the vicinity of the Pink Bedroom. Wendall shook his head
sadly and said seems the night starts early, turned and walked
out the front door to the limo waiting in the driveway. The Paulson's
looked to the ceiling above, wondering among themselves what exactly had
fallen and crashed, better still, just what had knocked it over. Mr.
Denke extended his hand to Ted Paulson, shook it vigorously and said,
I wish you luck, and hope to find you all in good health in the morning.
Ted wished the man a good night, and locked the
door behind him. The house was quiet and warm and Ted was confident that
as long as everybody stuck together, there would be no problems
encountered during their night in the house. The girls were excited
about being on TV, chattering between themselves of how jealous this one
and that one would be when the show was aired. They wanted to go and
explore the house on their own, but Ted thought it would be best if they
explored it as a family, just in case the producers had installed any
tricks or phony phantoms in any of the rooms to make them leave both the
house and the ten thousand dollar prize behind. He heard Doris' stomach
growl, and thought poor woman, she's had nothing to eat all evening, so
he declared first let's eat and then we'll explore this place on our
own. He took out a little map of the house from his shirt pocket,
decided which was the quickest way to the dining room and then directed
everybody to follow him. The house seemed to get colder as they ventured
deeper inside, and both girls were shaking from the cold when they
finally found the dining room. Doris hugged the girls close saying she'd
warm everybody up with some hot chocolate, and put some water on the
stove to boil.
Steam began to rise from the kettle along with its
whistle, rising to the ceiling where it seemed to etch words as if
written by an unseen hand. Unwelcome here tonight was what Doris
could have sworn was written in vapor letters on the ceiling above the
stove. That voice began to nag her again, too late Doris you've lost
your chance, but again she pushed it to the back of her mind,
attributing it once again to an overactive imagination. She placed four
cups of hot chocolate on the table along with the Kentucky Fried Chicken
she'd brought along and invited her family to the table.
Ted and the girls ate as if they'd been starving, and
Doris plugged in the little hand-held TV she sometimes took with her to
work. She was watching Wheel of Fortune and guessing the phrases, much
better than the contestants, and didn't notice the girls slip from the
dining room and proceed up the stairs.
What do you want to see first, Liz asked
Verdin, who answered promptly the Crying Room, and both girls
took off down the corridor determined to examine the room and discover
what could possibly make a room cry. The closer they got to the end of
the corridor, the colder it felt and the more noticeable the odor became
to Verdin. She stood outside the Crying Room, unable still to enter both
from the odor and the freezing temperature. She saw her words appear as
steam in the freezing air as she spoke them, wondering what possibly
could be making the place so cold. Liz stood behind her, laughing,
telling her that she couldn't believe those producers could be so stupid
as to pay them ten thousand dollars just to spend one night. Verdin
agreed, saying the place wasn't nasty at all, some of the bedrooms
looked quite comfortable, and just as they were about to turn around and
go back down the stairs, she heard a sound like dripping water coming
from the room.
Liz stared at her for a moment inquiring, what's
that Vee, and before Verdin could put her hand out to stop her,
she'd turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. The room was indeed
crying, tears of blood, falling from the ceiling to the floor, dripping
down the walls. Both girls felt as if they were being pushed from
behind, towards the room. They looked from one to the other and then
took off in the other direction, trying to get back down the corridor
and down the stairs to their mother sitting in the kitchen. The walls of
the corridor began to bleed now also, forming words in great red letters
along the wall to their right, kill you all now they read, and
their hearts began to race as their fear began to mount. Something gray
and spiky had come out of the Pink Bedroom and was now standing at the
end of the corridor, blocking the stairs. Verdin ignored it and tried to
run past but it seemed to reach for her as she passed, and suddenly she
felt a sharp pain as if something had bitten her. They kept on going,
both girls now screaming in fear. Their father met them as they got
halfway down the stairs.
Didn't I tell you girls to wait he
scolded, still unaware of what they'd seen and experienced. Suddenly, he
noticed blood dripping from Verdin's arm. See now, you've cut
yourself he said, leading them back to their mother in the dining
room. She was the first to notice the tear in Verdin's shirt. What
happened, she demanded, pulling the arm of the shirt up to reveal
torn flesh. It appeared as if something had taken an enormous bite
out of Verdin's arm.
Crashing noises and vile obscene phrases could now be
heard from the various rooms, and objects began to fly from shelves and
walls, striking the family as they ducked for cover. Strange grey shapes
began to take form in their midst, surrounding the family and trapping
them inside the room. Whatever evil lurked within the Maagsten House
began to attack them in earnest, biting and pinching the girls as their
mother and father tried to protect the children against the spectral
menace. Suddenly something grabbed Doris by her hair and slammed her
head against the table, knocking the woman unconscious.
Ted stood by helplessly, held at bay by two of the gray
specters as the attack continued against his wife and daughters. He
began to pray for God to give him the strength to help them before they
were torn to pieces. As he began to recite the Our Father, the attack
diminished in scope, and Ted was finally able to grab his wife and
daughters and race for the door. It was locked, and only too late did he
realize he'd left the keys on the dining room table. Again the specters
had the family trapped, and again focused on the girls, pinching and
biting and tearing at the girls as Ted tried to ward them off. It was
impossible. He huddled them against the door and instructed them to
pray. Only their prayers kept the malevolent spirits at bay. They spent
the next few hours praying for deliverance from the hellish forces that
had surrounded them, begging for God to intercede and protect them. Mr.
Denke found them that way in the morning, huddled together against the
door, bleeding and terrified for their lives.
Verdin was still shaking uncontrollably when they
finally pulled up in front of the house, unable to come to terms with
the events of the night before. Her mind was still reeling from the
experience, it was all so implausible, so impossible, there was no
such thing as ghosts, but there on her arm was the evidence,
indisputable, the bite mark she'd received from those unseen teeth. The
mark was still bloody, black and blue, the imprint of the teeth still
clearly visible. The horror of the night before came flashing back in
vivid detail, and she could do nothing but stare straight ahead with her
eyes wide open, unable to see anything before her save the visions of
what she'd seen in the Maagsten House. Doris prodded her gently,
taking her hand and whispering come on sweetie, let me get you inside
and into bed. She looked at her husband questioningly, wondering if
what they'd experienced the night before really happened the way she
remembered. It was all so horrible. The marks on her children and
husband assured her they were.
A month had passed since their episode at Maagsten
House, and it seemed that the family had finally put the events of
that night behind them, everyone back to
their own routines, back to some semblance of normality. Even Verdin,
the most effected of the group, seemed to have shaken the horror of that
night from her memory, chatting excitedly with her family about all the
different ways they could spend the ten thousand dollars they'd won.
Doris had just finished tidying up and was on her way upstairs to retire
for the evening when she began to notice a strong odor, sickening,
making her stomach churn and causing her to put her hand to her mouth in
an attempt not to vomit. The odor was familiar, similar to that which
she'd encountered at the Maagsten House as she was standing just
outside the Crying Room. The hair on the back of her neck began to stand
up as she saw a dark shadow move silently along the wall, just ahead of
her, disappearing into her bedroom through the closed door. She followed
in its wake, disbelieving her own eyes. She turned the knob on the door
and opened it thinking oh God, please no, and was relieved to see
her husband lying fast asleep, dreaming peacefully upon the bed. For a
moment, Doris thought her imagination had just been running wild. She
saw something move in the corner of the room, and screamed as she saw
the shadow begin to advance toward her. Ted woke from her scream and
jumped out of bed to see what had upset his wife, but was knocked to the
floor by the force of the specter as it turned its attention from his
wife to him.
As he lay prone upon the floor, he began to feel
something heavy walking on his chest, crushing him, pushing the air from
his lungs and suffocating him. His wife was crying and pleading with it
as it stomped back and forth upon him, please please stop, please
leave him be, for God's sake leave him be. Verdin stood in the
doorway, watching the horror unfold before her, her face ashen and gray,
her mouth and eyes wide open. Ted began to cry that it was burning him
as it strode back and forth upon his chest, and was becoming exhausted
from its weight and from trying to sit up and get it off. When he was
finally allowed to sit up and breathe, he pulled up his shirt to find
the imprint of hoof marks burned into his chest. Doris ran to her
husband to try to help him to his feet, only to hear her youngest
daughter, Liz, begin to scream in the girls' bedroom across the hall.
Ted was in agony, unable to allow anything to touch his
chest, the print of hoofs beginning to blister and run. He was barely
able to sit up, but he realized his daughter was alone and in danger,
and begged Doris to go and check on the child. She reached the door just
in time to see a glass vase being flung by invisible hands against the
headboard right next to Liz's head. The glass shattered and struck the
child's face and arm, cutting her and leaving little slivers imbedded in
her skin. Doris ran across the room and snatched her daughter from the
bed, running with her back to her own bedroom where she found Ted
sitting in a half-upright position, still crying from the burns that had
been inflicted upon him. It was all too much, too much to believe, too
much to bear. Mrs. Grier's dire warning of some weeks ago came rushing
to the fore of Doris' mind, be careful that you don't bring back
something more than that ten thousand dollars.
Get the kids, Ted begged her, get them and bring
them here, we better stay together, all together in one room. Verdin
and Liz sat on the floor of their parents' room, speechless and
motionless, paralyzed by fear of what had invaded their home. Doris
began to recite the rosary, begging God to intercede and protect them
from this malevolent force. For a few hours it seemed to work, for a
while the house was quiet. The children began to finally doze off. Ted
and Doris sat there on the side of the bed, talking quietly between
themselves as to what could be done. Doris suggested they speak with
their priest as soon as it was morning.
Father Breckindale, the priest over at Sacred Heart had
married Ted and Doris, and had also baptized both of their daughters. He
thought of the Paulson's as a well-grounded family, not overly
religious, and not prone to fantasy, and so was more than a little
surprised with the story the couple told him as they sat in his office,
tightly holding hands and looking as if they'd been crying for most of
the night.
Ted insisted he had proof of the malevolent attack, and
as he lifted his shirt, the priest saw with horror the hoof prints
burned into Ted's chest. Oh my God, was all the cleric could say,
over and over again. Ted flinched from the pain as the priest attempted
to touch them, begging him not to, the pain was still too great. The
priest agreed to come and hold a mass in their home that evening, and
advised them not to return to the home until the mass had been said. The
family met him in the front of their home at five o'clock that evening.
As the priest began the mass, he heard the most vile
and vulgar language coming from the corner of the room, cursing the name
of God, and describing every vile act imaginable, and could just make
out a presence, gray and formless, which seemed to hover there. He
ignored it and urged the family to participate in the mass with him.
When he raised the chalice above his head, the noise grew louder and
fouler, accompanied by a sickening fetid odor. It took all of the
priest's strength and concentration to continue to the end, but finally
it grew quiet and slunk from the room, dissipating as it entered the
hallway.
The mass seemed to have worked, at first, the house was
quiet and the family was left unmolested. A little over a month had
passed and they were all aching to spend some of the ten thousand
dollars, the girls on clothes, Doris on new furniture, Ted on fixing up
his boat.
They sat in the living room sharing their dreams and
hopes as Doris prepared dinner in the kitchen, lasagna with sweet and
hot sausages, just the way Ted liked it. As Doris attempted to remove
the tray from the oven, she felt a force push her from behind, almost
knocking her face down onto the roasting hot inside of the oven door.
Whatever had followed them from the Maagsten House had not left
completely, it had returned, with a vengeance. Doris ran screaming from
the kitchen into the arms of her husband. They could take no more,
decided on the spot they'd have to move.
He spoke to his boss about his family's ordeal in the
morning, who was looking for a buyer and wanting both a smaller place
and to leave behind memories of an unhappy marriage.
Ted decided the place would be perfect for his family,
bright and airy and close to the shore. The girls would certainly love
it, he felt assured. Leave the spirits in the old place, since that
seemed to be what they wanted. He couldn't have been more wrong. Within
a week of moving in, the torture began anew, worse than before. There
seemed to be no escape from the demons of the Maagsten House. He
told Doris that evening they would leave quietly in the morning, and
this time, they would leave everything behind. At seven in the morning,
he took Liz to school and left out for work, to the foul spectral
screeches and abuse, as usual.
Nothing had worked, not the prayers, not the mass, not
even moving to a different house. Doris held Verdin's hand as she looked
about her, all those things she'd bought over the years, her treasured
possessions, her jewelry and clothes, the furniture and dishes she'd
bought when she'd first married Ted, the kids' first outfits and photos,
all they'd bought with their ten thousand dollars. She placed the
breakfast on the table as she heard the now all too familiar slamming
and crashing coming from the floor above her. With their coats still
hanging in the closet, they went out as if going to get the paper from
the front lawn, leaving the door unlocked and they kept going down the
street, with just the clothes on their backs. Trick that which had
followed them into thinking they were coming right back. It was the only
way. |
