The Boogeyman

Chapter 1: The Hanging Bride.

It was the fall of nineteen forty in Southern Georgia. The air was crisp and cool, and the temperature had dropped by nearly twenty degrees in just a few days. Beautifully colored leaves floated down from the trees and decorated the ground. Seasonal crops were ready to be harvested. Wheat fields were about to get planted and Halloween was fast approaching. This was the perfect weather for Edgar Blackwell to wed his longtime partner, Joesphine. The pair had been together for nearly four years before they decided on marriage. Edgar was a very wealthy businessman. He sold and shipped Tabacco products to other parts of the world. He also had his own factory for making Coffee and Tea. In all honesty that's how he and his bride to be met. She was a factory worker. She came from a poor family and had worked most of her Life. They both said sparks flew when they met. The day of October thirteenth they finally said I do and were united together forever. Edgar wanted to give his new bride everything he could in life. And the first Step was a brand-new home. He had been secretly working on constructing their dream home for a while now. It wouldn't be complete for another few months, so he and Joesphine would be staying at his current place for the time being. Life carried on and in February of the following year the home was complete. The property was in a rich community, known for having the largest and fanciest homes. And their new home was just that. It was a large home that had five bedrooms, 2 baths, a kitchen, living room, parlor, and a home office. As well as a basement and attic. It sat on almost five hundred acres, most of which was fields and orchards. A large red barn sat a couple hundred feet from the house as well as a smaller building that would house slaves. Edgar had purchased eight African American workers to help him maintain the property. Sukey, Ethel and Rosa would be inside cleaning and taking care of the house, while Jerimah, Elijah, Tyrell, Jamal and Percy would tend to the fields and harvest the crop from the orchards. Josephine would be a stay-at-home wife and seamstress. Edgar would continue his business work as usual. Life seemed to really be looking great for them. Josephine was excited to start her new life in her new home. She picked one of the spare rooms to be her workspace. Her talent was sewing clothes and fabrics. This could be anything from hats to gloves and scarfs and even quilts and teddy bears. She someday dreamed of owning a little shop in town where she could sell her creations. But for now, they were going to the poor folks around town. She even made sure the workers had gloves and such as the needed them. Her work even included dresses and aprons for the lovely women who worked in her house. They were all treated very well by Mrs. Blackwell. In fact, there were several instances where she called them her family. She made sure they ate well and had plenty of water. Edgar was absolutely furious when he found out how his wife had been treating the help. He tore into her and yelled and screamed about how she shouldn't treat them like humans and that they should be treated like animals. He made disgusting comments about the color of their skin and the things he thought they deserved. Josephine was heartbroken to find this was the man she had married. She never knew how cold hearted he could be. He even tried to make her feel bad about her donations to the poor. Her view of them was very different from his. Whie he only saw them as the help, she saw them as people. And unlike her husband she didn't pay attention to their color, she saw past that into their personalities. One of them even stood up for her Sukey was that person. After witnessing the way Edgar had blown up on her that day sukey came and comforted her. Josephine was determined to not let her husband stop her from what she felt was right. She continued her sewing and gifting just as she had been. She even took a couple aprons around town with her to see if anybody was interested in buying them. And she sold all four of them before she made it home. She was eager to share the news with her husband. He didn't seem interested in what she was telling him. He just got up and walked out of the room, she was beginning to feel like he was losing interest in her. So, she decided to ignore him for the time being and continue on with her work. As the days passed and turned into weeks her sales increased. She was strolling through town one day in late march and a woman approached her. The woman's name was Delia she owned the department store on the corner. Delia told Josephine that she was interested in selling some of her work in her store. Josephine was over the moon with excitement and immediately said yes. When she got home a little later, she told Sukey all about her day. The two hugged and were excited to share the experience with one another. Sukey told Josephine that she had some news of her own. One of the plowboys had a liking to Josephine and wanted to talk to her alone. As she found out it was Elijah. He was about five and a half years younger than her and much younger than her husband. She was somewhat intrigued by the idea and decided to at least go and talk with him. Out at the barn she wandered around trying to find him. It took a few minutes, but she spotted him near the apple trees. She walked down the path to where he was standing and approached him with a simple hello. He turned quickly as if he had been startled. She giggled at that and that made him smile. He then greeted her with a hello and the two walked off through the orchard to talk. The sun was just setting when she got back up to the house. She was worried that they might tell her husband about the activity with the plowboy. So, it was decided it would be a secret only she and sukey would know. Things never got any better with Edgar and she had other things to put her mind on. Only a week after their first talk her and Elijah began having an affair. They would sneak off whenever they could, and pretty quickly she was hooked on him. Life was about to deal her a cruel twist of fate though. Just weeks into their torrid affair she began to feel unwell and went to the doctor only to find she was pregnant and about a month along. She was absolutely devastated. The baby couldn't be her husbands, they hadn't slept together in months. Her brain filled with so many thoughts she could barely think straight. Going through with the pregnancy wasn't an option because when the baby was born her husband would know what she had done. So, she went home and told her best friend about everything. Sukey tried to comfort her, saying that she would raise the baby as her own and that she shouldn't worry. Josephine knew she couldn't live with the guilt over what had been done. No one was prepared for what happened next. A few days later and it was Saturday. Edgar had already left for work that morning as Rosa finished making breakfast. She was setting the table when she heard a scream come from upstairs. It scared her so badly she threw the plate, and it shattered as it hit the floor. She ran up the stairs as fast as possible. Once at the top of the landing Sukey ran toward her from Josephine's room screaming and crying hysterically. Rosa ran down to the room and flung open the door. There hanging from the bed post was Josephine. Her lifeless body a color of pale white, her auburn hair floated around her head like a halo. And on the floor beneath her feet was a single piece of paper. The paper had a note written on. Rosa lifted the bottom of her legs while sukey stood in a chair and cut the rope. The limp body falling to the floor made a sudden thud and knocked rosa over. The two women took a sheet from the bed and covered the body. They placed the letter next to her and closed the door. Back downstairs the two women paced down the halls trying to understand what they had just seen. Rosa asked sukey to go out and ask two of the men to go to town and get Edgar. And after she was back inside, they sat down at the table and cried and held each other. A half hour later Edgar was pulling up the driveway. He raced inside and they escorted him to the room. He walked into the room, lifted the sheet for a brief moment and laid it back down and walked out of the room. Rosa hurried after him and told him the coroner was already on his way. Mr. Blackwell emotionless turned and walked down the stairs and out the front door. He simply got into his car and left. The two women stood there staring at each other in complete shock. He didn't seem to have any reaction to his wife's death. Sometime later the coroner arrived and went upstairs and got started. After he gathered all the information he needed, he came down to the kitchen and asked for help getting the body to his car. They agreed and after everything was said and done that night the two women stayed in the house until morning. Both awoke in the middle of the night. The images from earlier in the day haunting their dreams. A few weeks passed and the death was ruled as a suicide, the funeral came and went and then the burial. She was laid to rest on the hill beside the apple orchard. As for the letter it wasn't left for her husband, it was left for her lover Elijah. Sukey made sure the letter got to him, and he was obviously devastated. After two weeks he hadn't been seen he had run away in the middle of the night. He never was seen after that. Edgar wasn't seen for several days and nights. Upon his return he cleared out all of Josephines belongings and tossed them in the car. He took the bed out of that room as well as the carpet and tapestry from the wall. He scrubbed the floors and walls and was acting like a mad man. After hours of the craziness, he packed a suitcase and told them he had a business trip out of town he needed to attend to. And with that he was gone into the night. Rosa and sukey thought that Edgar's reaction to his wife's death was strange. They talked about the possibility that he had something to do with it. Why else would he be in such a hurry to clean everything out of the room and pretend like nothing happened. Sadly, her death would always remain a mystery that would never be solved. Edgar eventually locked that room up and seemed to forget or block out what had happened. He carried on as normal, going to work and on business trips once in a while. When he was home, he kept to himself. The only time he spoke was to ask one of the maids something or to give direction to the plowboys. He never questioned why Ellijah had disappeared. Nor did he seem to care that his wife had left a suicide note for another man. Edgar just seemed like he had no emotion at all. One day Sukey did overhear him talking to someone and the conversation was rather unusual. He seemed to be discussing something about a coverup. She didn't listen for long, but her blood ran cold when she heard him say he had gotten away with murder. She ran to find Rosa and share the news. The two women sat at the table with a cup of hot tea and discussed it. They agreed to keep it between themselves. And it was never spoken of again. About six months after the incident Edgar started bringing around his new business partner. The two had met on a business trip and Edgar had offered him a job. His name was Michael Rose. Michael seemed kind of odd from the beginning. His behaviors were strange. He acted as if he were always drunk or high. He usually brought his young daughter t the house with him. Her name was Ophelia Rose. And Edgar took a liking to her real quick. She was only twenty-one and he was already in his late forties. That didn't matter though he knew he could win her over. It was only a matter of time before she would fall into his trap.