Bo Whitley's Manor

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Bo Whitley has always been a strange little girl. If you had also been her neighbor I'm afraid you would say the same.

She has bright red hair, eyes like green marbles,and freckles dotted upon her nose. She never leaves the house without her basket all worn out from the seasons which passed so rapidly that it had beaten down on the color of the ribbons which hung on its handle. It was filled with daisies that she picked from a garden in front of a huge abandoned house that at a distance resembled a face of a wise old man staring up at the sky. Bo's pale face was always covered in dirt since she loved playing in the fields. Being a daughter of a shepherd, she was always used to having sheep around her since her father owned more than 700 of them. And every day she would visit them, counting each and every one of them and when she's done she would drag her old wicker basket to the weather beaten house to pick daisies from it's garden which strangely never runs out of them. Her room which was in an attic was filled with these daisies. They even hung from the ceiling all withered and dry. She even kept the creatures she found resting upon the petals of each flower in a large jar which had holes on the cover. But she was most fond of the lady bug which she would find on the middle of the flower. She had 24 of them concealed in a frame that hung above her bed. At night, before going to bed, she would look out her stained-glass window and stare at the old house wondering if anyone had ever lived there. She loved looking at the house especially in the wintertime when the snow covers it and the figure of the house looks even more like a human face all wise and covered in snow which looks like grey hair upon an old man. She was very curious about what it would look like inside the mysterious house.

Chapter 1

I never spoke to Bo in person, but since I've been watching her all these years I could say that I know her pretty well. My name is Thomas Grey or Tom for short. I've been her neighbor for many years now. My father bought this house 12 years ago. I was 10 and Bo was only 7. Our parents got along quite well and Mr. and Mrs. Whitley always came by our house every Saturday to have dinner, but Bo was never with them when they visited, for she could never be contained. She was always out in the fields, wandering about, breathing the fresh air. While I, confined to a wheelchair, was always indoors afraid to step out the house and feel the sunlight hit my eyes. I have spent nearly my whole life not knowing what I was missing outside. I had an accident 13 years ago. I was on the balcony of our old house when I saw a Karner butterfly. It's wings were of the darkest shade of blue and flew effortlessly as it danced around the balcony. So, being a foolish kid, I tried to catch it not realizing that I was already standing on the balustrade. When the butterfly was already out of reach, It was too late, I lost balance, and fell. I underwent therapy to help me walk again. The treatment helped a bit but I could only stand for a short while. It would hurt a lot whenever I would try to walk, so I just stuck to my wheelchair and lost all hope that I would ever walk or run again. My parents decided to move, thinking that life away from the city would help me. Not knowing that 10 years later, something would change me and this dreary town.

Chapter 2

It was spring, and Bo seems exactly the same when I first saw her, even when she turned 16 she was still obsessed with the old house. She even found the courage to break the lock of the house and go in. Since then she spent most of her days in the old house. I now work with my father in his repair shop, he said it would help keep me busy. I would work for hours in the garage, repairing the neighbor's tractors and vehicles. One cold evening as I was looking through my window, I saw a bright light coming from the windows of the old house so I opened my window to get a closer look. The strange light suddenly stopped. The next day, Bo went to the barn as always to check on the sheep, then an earsplitting shriek echoed around the farm, followed by a deafening silence. So my dad went out to check what had happened. He cautiously opened the door with a shotgun in his hand. As he walked in he saw Bo standing in one corner, shocked from the sight of her sheep or what's left of them. At first my father thought that wolves attacked them but when he inspected the sheep they had burns around their wounds. And it could not have possibly been wolves because there hadn't been any since the farm was protected by a wire fence. Then Bo had an idea that maybe these things were in connection with the strange lights that came from the old house. Reports of livestock and even children disappearing spread all over the town. My father went back home and told us what happened. He then got a suitcase beneath his bed and opened it. It was filled with miscellaneous weapons. He took out a loaded pistol and a box filled with ammo. "I need to put an end to this, otherwise, the whole town would be deserted" my father said as he loaded the shotgun. I then had a feeling that I had enough courage to go with him so I hesitantly told my father that I would come along. With a smile on his face, he nodded assuringly, and gave me the pistol. So with nothing but my wheelchair, a hint of courage, and the sound of my heartbeat, I then, for the first time in 13 years, stepped out of the house.