The Dardens

Borley Rectory.

Chapter two, Borley Rectory.

Borley Rectory built in 1863 in the region of Essex, in England.  Some people say it was constructed in the property of an old monastery supposedly built in 1362.

There were always rumours of ghosts hunting the place. The daughters of the Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull, the builder of the mansion, stated they had seen a nun who disappeared like a ghost when she got closer to them. Many other odd facts happened in that house during several years but it was in 1927, when the reverend and his family moved in, paranormal activities became frequent in the mansion. Ring bells and broken glass sounds could be heard and lights in the windows could be seen between many other mysterious facts.

The years passed and several families became victims of this odd house which kept making weird noises and scary demonstrations of ghosts. One woman was even thrown into her bed by a “killer poltergeist”.

In 1938, forty-eight students were invited to document the paranormal activity of the house. Glanville Helen was one of those students and she confirmed she had spoken with two spirits: one of them was the ghost of a young nun who had been murdered there. She also stated she had abandoned her religious order to marry in England and her husband was the owner of the old property where the Borley Rectory had been built.

The second ghost told Glanville he was the responsible for most of the poltergeist activities of the house. But she never forgot what he said next, the spirit added the house would be consumed by a fire and bones from a murdered person would appear. He was right.

Later, in 1939, the mansion was destroyed by a fire when the new owner who was unpacking few boxes, toppled a lamp. The fire spread easily ruining the whole building. The last thing found there were the bones of a young woman who had been murdered.

The Borley Rectory became known over the years as the most haunted place in England. After a few reconstructions, this famous mansion became my home. And I’ve never been so happy to live in an old house.

It was an isolated house with a big garden full of red roses, sculptures and fountains. Lilith loved stone sculptures so she built several figures. One of them was like our portrait in stone. I was four years old and I had curly brown hair with two laces holding it. I wore a summer dress and I had the biggest smile on my face indicating I had killed someone few minutes before the sculpture was made. And my mom, she was beautiful. Mother was holding my hand looking at me with a lovely smile. She wore a plain dress and she almost looked like a maid but Lillith was more than that. She was the queen of her own kingdom; she was the greatest female murderer; she was the mistress of Borley Rectory. And, most important, she was my mother.

That’s why I loved that sculpture. With a simple gesture we could tell the whole story of our family and we could also say we didn’t need to wear great clothes or have great cars because we already were a family with great power. And no one could take us that away.

By the time we moved to the Borley mansion my father was already known as one of the greatest business men ever. He had a company of lawyers and it was the most famous corporation of England. My uncle Jack otherwise worked in the police department and he was very influent so he could always cover up our murders. Me and Derek, we were in high school spreading the horror among every single teenager in that school. Ironically, we were the most popular students. Our grades were the highest and we were the prettiest.

Everything was perfect in the Darden family, nevertheless if we want a plan to succeed then we can be everything but perfect. That’s why we fought occasionally or had some strange behaviour. Well, in fact our behaviour was quite normal for an English family and that was ideal for no one to distrust us. It was really a flawless plan. A great family who pretended to do something for the world’s wellness was in fact a secret society for murderers. What a great life, wasn’t it?

The 5th July was a particular special day. As I told you before it was my birthday and I had planned a big day. My schedule was tight, I had five victims and ten hours to accomplish since my mom decided to throw me the greatest birthday party ever and I needed to be home at seven o’clock. I decided to start playing with my birthday present, the possibility to murder five people in only one day. I loved it. So, I mentally checked my list of victims and smiled, little Nancy was my first.

I left the house at exactly eight o’clock in the morning saying goodbye to everyone, except one. I had to go with Derek because I couldn’t drive.

“You know I don’t like to be your motorist.” He said as he sat in the car with a grumpy expression on his face. I chuckled and put my sunglasses on. It was actually sunny on that exacting day; it was almost like the sun was wishing me good luck and a happy birthday.

“Yes, I do know that, dear cousin.” I looked at him smiling. “But I certainly don’t care.” Derek growled like a dog and I couldn’t hold a laugh. “Now Joe, take me to Nancy’s house!” Joe was the name I used to call Derek when I wanted to pretend he was my employee. He hated it, so that was the main reason that make me use that nickname, to make him mad. He roared again and I turned on the radio. Some metal music station started to play making me smile instantly as I heard the beginning of ‘A little Piece of Heaven’ from Avenged Sevenfold. My favourite song, it always calmed me down when I was upset and it actually worked!

Our way to Nancy’s house wasn’t too long but we still had to drive for about fifteen minutes to get to the city. I looked out the window watching a wide field full of colourful flowers extending by my right side, on the left side there was a cultivated area with. I liked flowers especially red roses, they’re fragile but beautiful. Besides it looks like they painted themselves of blood. The asphalt of the road was black and the sun seemed to like it very much because its heat was pulled by the asphalt. This made the horizon seem like it was drowning in the warm of the road.

The song ended and soon another began to play, this time it was ‘Psychosocial’ from Slipknot. You can call me crazy but when I listened to that song I always felt like dancing and killing at the same time. It was fun. Corey Taylor’s voice was amazingly beautiful and even though I didn’t like their masks I loved their songs. I couldn’t like someone who hid himself behind a creepy mask. Hiding is synonym for cowardice and weakness and I didn’t like that at all. I always let my victims see my face before letting them die. I loved the fact I could be the last person they would look at in their lives and their terrified expressions when they realized it were hilarious.

We were almost arriving when I saw a florist with red poppies outside. You know poppy is a funeral flower which symbolizes the eternal sleep? She would sleep forever, so it was the perfect final gift.  I told Derek to stop and I got out of the car to buy some for my sweet almost dead friend Nancy. I got back to the car and my cousin looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“A final gift?” He asked me guessing my intentions.

“You know I don’t like to be rude, the least I can do when I visit my victims is to leave them a gif.” Derek chuckled. When he smiled a little dimpled formed on his cheek making his smile even more adorable. I know he was my cousin and it was wrong to look at him that way but he was gorgeous and I had eyes on my face. I couldn’t just pretend he was horribly bad looking because he wasn’t.

Forgetting about all of the normal teenager useless thoughts I focused on my mission. I looked at the white poppies on my hands and I instantly smiled. Nancy didn’t even know that would be the last day of her life and she couldn’t do nothing to avoid it.