The Manor

2. What Goes Bump In The Night

I woke from a dreamless sleep to the sound of people talking next to my bed. To tired to attempt being awake, and too startled to open my eyes, I pretended to be asleep while I listened to them talk.

"She's pretty," a male voice whispered, "Why is she in my room?"

"It's not yours anymore," a female voice replied, "They live here now and we have to respect that."

"Or we could have a little fun," a third voice, this one also male, said, "I get so bored hanging around here. I want to do something fun for a change."

"No," the female hissed, "We can't risk the Mother finding out. You know what happens when we upset her. We should just try our best to not make ourselves known."

"You were always a bore, Vikki," the second male complained, "You never let us have any fun. You are just like the Mother."

"Sorry if I'm trying to save our souls," She snapped, "I'm trying not to be the dumb ass who hung themselves from the stairs. Unlike you, Will."

"I didn't hang myself," Will growled, "I was murdered!"

"Will you two shut up?" The first guy said with a sigh, "I'm tired of hearing the eternal bickering. It's wearing me out. You two never stop, and I'm fucking sick of it. So do every soul in this house a favor, and zip it."

"I thought you were supposed to be the nice twin," Will said after a shocked pause.

There was a low growl followed by the sound of my bedroom door closing. I waited, keeping my breathing even, and I didn't dare to open my eyes. A good fifteen minutes must have passed before I felt like it might have been safe to open my eyes. Just before I did, I felt a gentle touch on my cheek.

"You really are beautiful," the first voice whispered to me. His voice was smooth, beautiful, with the slightest hint of an Irish accent, "I will speak with you soon enough."

Terrified, I played asleep. Somewhere in my acting, I actually fell back asleep.

***

My eyes opened to find light streaming into my room through the window. I sighed and rolled over onto my side to find a single white rose resting on the pillow next to me. Curiosity, and a feeling of exposure rushed through my body as I eyed the flower. The thorns had been cut off, so I picked it up and held it under my nose. It smelled beautiful.

"Where did you come from?" I whispered as I turned back over and placed the rose on my night stand.

With a sigh, I sat up and slid out of bed and over to my giant closet. I pulled a black, knee length dress on and my combat boots before tromping down the stairs, my hair still a tangled mess. My mom had already left for work, so I was home alone for the first time. I wanted to explore the house that was now my own.

I started at the bottom of the stairs and found my way around our two living rooms, foyer, kitchen, two downstairs bathrooms, and a bedroom. There was nothing interesting. I already had the upstairs mentally mapped out, and I was becoming bored with wandering around the house. I wanted to go peek in at the cemetery in the back, it made me curious.

The back door opened silently to the yard beyond. I took a deep breath before beginning my adventure to the far back of the property. I enjoyed how far away it was from everything else, but at the same time, it freaked me out. The cemetery was surrounded by an old black iron fence, and was oddly large. There was a rusted sign on it that said "Never Enter Or You Shall Re-" The rest of the words were rusted away. The rope ties that held the sign to the fence, is also basically locked it shut. I wanted to go in without getting hurt on the fence, so I began to fiddle with the rope. After a while, and chipping off a piece of my finger nail, I got it loose, and the sign dropped to the ground.

The gate opened with a loud creek, and I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched. I scanned my surroundings, but sure enough there was nobody else there. Creepy as hell. Instead of focusing on what creeped me out, I focused on what interested me, the headstones. They all had names carved into them and a number. I eyed them curiously as I walked between the haphazardly places headstones. Some were nicer looking than others.

One thing I noticed was that the higher the number was, the newer the headstone looked. I wondered if it was to mark the number of people in the cemetery. But, after a good half hour of searching, I realized that a few of the numbers were missing. They meant something else, but what they meant, I had no idea. None of them ever repeated. It started at 1 and skipped around to 27. Three or four of the numbers, however were missing. And some of the headstones didn't have numbers or names, they just had years. 1943... 2001.. 1872... it was random. But it did look like years, at least to me.

Two names in particular caught my eye. Vikki-19 and Will-13. I remembered last night when I woke and head the three people talking. I wondered where the third person was, but he could have been any of the names and numbers in this place, I could never find him without a name or a number.

Something, it sounded like a twig, snapped, causing me to jump. I looked around wildly for the source of the sound, but again, I found nothing. Goosebumps and the hair on my skin rose as an even more eerie feeling settled over the cemetery. I shivered a little, and decided I was done exploring for now. I wanted to go back into the house where it felt... safer. Movement about ten feet to the right out of the corner of my eye startled me. I panicked and began to run. My feet tripped over the uneven ground as I hurried to get out of the cemetery.

I thought I could hear foot steps begin to follow me. Adrenaline surged through my veins as I broke into a jog, and then into a sprint when I heard the foot steps speed up as well. I didn't dare to look behind me in fear of what I might see, or that I would fall and whatever, whoever, was chasing me would catch me. I wanted to scream as I raced for the iron fence, as if being beyond it would make me safer than it was in the cemetery.

I stumbled over the last headstone before tripping over the sign I'd cut down earlier. The foot steps ceased. I ran a little further before slowing down enough for me to peek behind me. I looked just in time to see some sort of shadow duck behind a larger headstone.