He thought surely he would burn for this and so fled into the dead of night, and left Mary waiting.
How ironic it was that the one thing he regretted most would be the final nail in his coffin.
But what actually happened was worse: Nobody ever knew.
Now, people pass by decaying house and might spare a thought as to why it was abandoned. Most often, nobody wondered at all. Few even remember the legend of Dr. Jonathon Tolbert.
Dr. Tolbert had moved in, almost a century prior, with his quiet wife Mary.
Many people rode up to the doctor's door, none of them recognized by the locals, who began to wonder why nobody was ever seen leaving.
At first, they thought perhaps the visitors were colleagues of some sort, here for an extended stay. The home certainly had enough room to accommodate many more people than just Dr. Tolbert and Mary.
Added to the curiosity were the noises. Round the clock sawing and drilling, but what on the property possibly needed so much construction?
As more time passed and no visitor ever left, the whole town became wary. Some said they heard screaming from inside the house at night, but nobody could prove such a rumor. Being a practical town that respected privacy, nothing was done.
It remained that way until several local children never came home.
The townspeople formed a posse the same night that Mary lay on Dr. Tolbert's operating table. He worked for hours, eventually abandoning hope of preserving the infant-like creature inside her in favor of saving his beloved.
But he was too late. For all the life he'd been able to create, he and Mary could not have a natural child. He thought giving her the experience of child-birthing was the right thing to do, but now he would give anything just to have his wife alive again.
As the townspeople began their siege, Dr. Tolbert fled into the night. He told Mary he would come back, and left the remains of his wife and the infant-thing hidden inside a secret passage he had constructed.
The townspeople never found anything but strange medical equipment inside the house and had it boarded up. Dr. Tolbert was never seen again. The missing children never came home.
Now all that is left is the passing curiosity of the abandoned old house. Whatever people thought may have happened inside, the real story is so much worse.
He left Mary waiting.
