It was a chilly October evening as an SUV pulled up the winding, tree-lined driveway. A rough wooden sign proclaimed the words “Murky Shallows,” in painted white letters. Gravel crunched underneath the tires of the vehicle as it pulled to a stop. In the distance a mourning dove cooed for its lost mate as it nestled hidden somewhere among the orange and brown leaves that still clung heavily to the trees in the woods.
Two girls stepped out of the car and walked slowing towards their destination: a dilapidated old Victorian. There was something about the air of the house that not only drew the two intruders to the place, but also somewhat repelled them, or at least, this was what Chloe was thinking as she approached the old mansion. She placed one foot upon the shale stone step that led up to the house, and held on to the rickety wooden banister with one hand. With the other hand she brushed one of her curly brown ringlets out of her face as a temperamental wind blew it out of place. “What do you think of this place?” she asked, turning to her friend, Amy.
Amy was taller than Chloe and also was of a slightly stockier build. She always liked to refer to herself as being in shape, but admitted that that shape was a circle. Nevertheless, she was beautiful with a long main of wavy auburn hair; not red, but auburn. “I think it’s perfect,” she said with a smile as she gazed up at the four story mansion. “How about you? You seem a little tense.”
Chloe shrugged, trying not to appear apprehensive. “I’m fine. This place will be perfect for the dinner theatre…” her voice trailed off as she turned around to take a panoramic view of her surroundings.
“But?” Amy prompted.
“But, I just get a strange feeling about this place.”
“Oh, you and your ‘feelings’ Amy scoffed. “You always get those strange premonitions, but they never amount to anything. You’re just nervous, which is good, considering that we’re going to need this for a Halloween dinner theatre.”
Chloe knew Amy was right. They had made an arrangement with the owner of the house to allow their theatre company, “The Middleville Players” to put on a Halloween dinner theatre in order to raise money for future performances. Every year they put on different dinner theatres. This year, they decided that the best way to draw a crowd was by reenacting the over a hundred-year-old town folktale of the Vampire of Middleville. From the very start, Chloe hadn’t been very supportive of the idea. She had lived in Middleville all of her life and had grown up hearing the stories of the Vampire and his doomed bride. Even though she knew it was all just folklore, she couldn’t help but feel a little apprehensive at now being at the very place where the story was said to have happened, at the old Murky Shallows Manor. This wasn’t the only reason for her apprehension, however. Something more tugged at her brain. She had this insistent feeling that she, of all people in Middleville, should not be there, as if something in that house threatened her well-being.
Of course, she couldn’t express all of this to Amy. She would never understand. Amy was a good friend of hers, but Chloe had yet to meet any friend who believed in her “premonitions.” She really couldn’t blame Amy, however. She barely believed them herself. The premonitions weren’t exactly visions or voices in her head telling her what to do, but rather were feelings that guided her actions. Often she discovered that they were something useful, and she tried to abide by them, chalking them up to “women’s intuition.” Whether this was the answer or not, she couldn’t brush them away, and this instant wasn’t any different. Part of her wanted to proceed, mostly because of curiosity, but another part of her wanted to run and hide in the SUV.
“Hmm, the doorbell doesn’t work.” Amy said, snapping Chloe’s thoughts back to the present moment. “I guess I’ll just knock.”
The two girls waited for what felt like several minutes before the door slowly creaked open on rusty hinges. “Good day, ladies,” a voice resonated from the dark doorway. Chloe felt her breath catch in her throat as she started to gasp. She got no further however, because of Amy’s sharp elbow to her side.
