Dream for the Dead (Completed/Editing)

7

After eating, I checked the room Elias had retreated into, only to find it empty still.
"There's an explanation," I told myself as I ran back up to my bedroom. I wondered if I should tell mum about Elias letting himself into the house and ask if she thought he had something to do with the intruders the other night, but decided I would wait until I'd read the whole history. Though I was sceptical about the situation, everything so far led to one very unrealistic conclusion: this was actually, genuinely a paranormal experience. I didn't want to believe it,  but if the story held true, I would be forced to.
I opened up my laptop and began to read:
In 1930, Elizabeth's sister moved into the house, but moved out in 1931 as she claimed her sister was haunting her. She'd claimed Elizabeth had asked if the sister - Emily - had seen her husband on her way to 'visit'. Emily had also seen Elizabeth frantically searching through drawers in the house, whilst muttering 'who is the witch woman?' over and over. Emily couldn't handle it, and - taking advice from a friend who said it clearly wasn't healthy for her to live in the home her sister had committed suicide in - left. Her friend, Benjamin Eccles, had suggested she sell the house to him, and he would prove to her by living there that the home was not haunted by Elizabeth. She sold the house to him in 1931, believing it to be a good idea that she knew the person taking care of her sister's home and - as she believed - Elizabeth's spirit, and Benjamin lived there seemingly rather peacefully for 20 years before moving out to live in a small cottage in the country. He revealed only then to Emily through various letters that she had been correct about the haunting, and that there were even more people there, too. He told her he was tired of trying to help the people in the home, explaining that his real reason for moving into the manor was because he had a gift which allowed him to communicate with the dead, one that could also help them find peace and leave purgatory. This was the only time, he claimed, that he had never been able to release a spirit back to their rightful place.
The home was left unoccupied for the next 33 years, before being bought by a historian and his family in 1984. He had purchased the mansion with the intention of transforming half of it into a museum, with the main artefacts being: the gun used by Elizabeth to kill herself; Peter's work table (it had remained in the basement that whole time); the letters from Benjamin to Emily, and (most importantly) Doctor Carver's tools - the very ones he had used to crack open his own wife's skull. He also wanted to create a tour to reveal the different rooms where gruesome events had taken place, and he planned to talk people through the history of the house in horrific detail. His family was made up of himself, his wife, and his two children: one a boy age seventeen, and a daughter, age twelve. The historian's name was Alexander Crosby, his wife was Abigail and his children were Seth and Kimberly. However, Alexander never got the chance to create his museum, as he recorded a video tape three months after moving into the manor, showing him talking about how a man had spoken to him numerous times telling him the only way he could keep his family with him was to kill and preserve them. The man told Alexander that his family had plans to leave, even telling him that his family despised him, and Alexander said that the only thing he could do now was take the man's advice and murder his family. The second half of the video - recorded onto a different tape - shows Alexander setting up the camera in what appears to be a very dark environment, then moving away from the camera to reveal his wife and children with bags over their heads, tied to chairs and lined up, right on the spot in the basement where Peter's table had once been. The table, it is said, is visible in the background, and popular rumours suggest that if you look closely enough, you can see the fuzzy outline of a man leaning against the table, watching Alexander's unholy actions. In the next part of the video, Alexander takes the bag off of each person's head in turn, rips their gags from their mouths and asks what their last words will be. They reply in screams and begs, and he proceeds to slit their throats.
Alexander was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
The first half of the video was available on the website, but it was explained that the second half cannot be found anywhere and it is said that it is still buried somewhere in the basement of the mansion. The detailed description of the second half of the footage came directly from an interview with Alexander in his cell.
I watched the first half of the video, and throughout the duration of the film, shivers danced up and down my spine and I felt increasingly unsafe. I began to notice that as I learned more about the history of the manor, I became less and less sceptical about the idea of paranormal activity - it sounded as though Peter had spoken to Alexander to cause him to take the course of action he did. As soon as the video ended, I scrolled down the page so that it was out of sight, and moved on to the next portion of the story:
The house was left empty for another 12 years, before a family of three moved in. However, the little family soon became a family of just two when the man of the house left, causing his wife of 20 years - Samantha Greene - to become severely depressed. After one year of refusing help for her depression, Samantha told her 16-year-old son that they were going to take a holiday, as she hadn't left the home for months and needed a getaway to get her head straight. She claimed to have booked a hotel room for the weekend in a small Welsh village, before driving both herself and her son, Elias-
Elias.
Elias.
Elias.
I read over the word a few times, my mouth agape, my eyes open wide in shock, my heart pounding against my chest. 
No, it had to be a weird coincidence.
It had to be.
I continued:
-to a local lake she used to visit regularly as a child, situated on the outskirts of Goldstein Village. She locked the car doors before driving directly into the lake, where she and Elias both drowned in 1997.
I hastily opened up a new tab, and - fingers shaking - searched up: 'Elias Greene, Goldstein Manor'. Hesitantly, I clicked onto 'images'.
All of the images showed the right Elias.
My Elias.