Everyone avoided the big, old mansion. It was believed to have the ghosts of Lord and Lady Gray. I didn't believe one bit of this.
Hi, my name is Jamie Smith and I am currently a college junior at Alleghany and Meadville's largest non-believer in anything superstitious and most definitely not in the paranormal. Yes I know what you are thinking, everyone believes in at least on superstition and most believe in the paranormal. Wrong! Alex and Grace both believe in one superstition but they are both in agreement with me about the paranormal. They are also my two best friends and will stick by me no matter what crazy thing I say, and that is why I love them.
One day I decided to buy the old mansion, drag Alex and Grace with me, and prove that under no circumstances are the ghost of Lord and Lady Gray, nor any other ghosts for that matter are haunting this mansion. When I told them, I got a "Cool" from Alex and a "This should be fun" from Grace, so the next day we moved.
As we were moving in, a group of boys no more than 15 or 16 came running up to us saying we are crazy and after a week we will be running out crying mommy. They then tried to tell us stories of the previous owners. One supposedly got pushed off the third story balcony by a spirit, another died in their sleep "strangled" to death and the most recent owner went missing and was never found. We pretended to be scared so they would leave us alone. But it didn't work so while they were telling us about another supposed haunting, they didn't notice Alex sneak away and with a simple "Boo!" the teenagers ran screaming for their mommies while Alex, Grace and I stood there attempting not to keel over and die because we were laughing so hard.
After three more hours of back-breaking work and gallons upon gallons of sweat, the three of us were completely moved in and ready to relax. Before any of us had a chance to sit down, there was a knock at our door, but the knock didn't come from the front door, it came from our back door which faces a completely fenced in back yard. I stood up and walked to the back door followed by my two very confused best friends. I opened the back door and there stood a man, much taller than I at a petite 5' 2", he appeared to be about 6 feet tall, if not taller, wearing suspenders, tan pants, a plaid camp shirt and a hat.
"May I help you?" I said.
He said, "Yes, you see I have been taking care of these grounds since I was a little boy, and when I heard that three college students had bought this place I figured that I would just come by and see if you needed any help with anything and to offer my assistance with the yard work, since ya'll will be juggling school work, classes and taking care of this place."
Alex chimed in, "that would be nice Mister…."
"Mr. Williams"
"Mr. Williams, ah yes just one question, why didn't you just knock on our front door?"
He replied with, "Oh, because you see, I live right behind this place, so it's just easier to knock on your back door and you see that tree back there? There is a loose board in the fence behind that tree that I walk through. Well it's been nice meeting you three, but I'm expecting you have some things you need to take care of so I'll best be going now."
With that he tipped his hat and walked away. When he reached the fence, we expected him to move the loose board and walk through as he had stated, but instead he walked right through the fence.
"Well that was a weird encounter", Alex said as Grace and I walked away scratching our heads.
We ate dinner, and amidst our conversation about which professor gave the most work, we heard an eerie, but subtle creek above us.
"What was that?" we all asked confused.
"Let me go look", I said.
As I walked up the stairs I could hear someone walking around.
"Is anyone up here?" No answer. "Hello?" Still no answer, this is weird, I thought.
I walked to the area where the noise was coming from, but there was nobody there, just one lone flower.
"Well?" they asked in unison when I got back downstairs.
"Nobody was there, but this flower was sitting in the middle of the room, even though I distinctly remember putting it on the windowsill. Did either of you move it?" I asked.
"No" they both chimed with a hint of confusion in their voices.
We finished our dinner in silence, completed our school work and proceeded to bed. As I fell asleep, I saw out of the corner of my eye this figure, just sitting at my desk staring menacingly at me, burning holes into the side of my head. When I turned on the light, there was nobody there. As I lay in bed thinking about ways to debunk everything that happened today from the noises upstairs to the flower moving to the figure I just thought I saw, I blacked out and that was all I saw of that night.
When I woke up the next morning I found myself somewhere I had never seen before. I knew that I must not be in the mansion anymore because I had searched the place from top to bottom and found no place as dark and putrid as this.
"Where am I?" I stuttered as if someone could hear me.
Just as I finished saying I, a man stepped out from the corner. He looked about 20 or 21 years of age, wore a Pittsburg Steelers t-shirt, blue jeans and black skater shoes. I thought I recognized him, but I couldn't figure out where I had seen him before, maybe on campus since he did look about my age. Just as I was about to ask him if he was a student at Alleghany College, he spoke.
"Why you are just beyond the garden outside that house you and those other two live in, and might I say it is a beautiful house at that. In fact, I might just bring them down here, just so you have someone to talk to as I contemplate how you will die, maybe starvation, maybe a nice slice to the throat, or maybe a nice old fashion hanging like they did to my great-grandmother. She was a great role model. Nice lady too. She tried to help free the slaves. She was successful, that is until some people decided that she was getting in the way of the slave trade. They threw her in jail and a week later her execution date was set, she was hung. My point to all this is she was Lady Gray, Lady Vanessa Gray and you, those two friends of yours and those other three have come in, disturbing her house and her morals. For that all who walk through here must be executed, executed for their wrong doing. Any last words before I dispose of you forever?" he said cracking an evil smile.
I said more annoyed than fearful, "Yes I do have a few, I came here to settle the controversy about whether your great grandmother, if that is really who she was, was still around. I never meant to harm any of her things. What you do is cruel and unjust and---"
Just as I started to talk, I watched him pull out a knife and swing it swiftly through the air; he connected with and slashed my throat in one hit. As his knife connected with my throat, Alex and Grace ran down the stairs to the left of where I was, although I did not notice these before now, he took one swipe at them as Alex stepped onto the same ground we were standing on and as they saw me they moved out of the way leaving them unharmed and him on the floor.
"Jamie" they cried "are you hurt?"
Then they saw my neck.
"How did you guys find me?"
"Well, we noticed that you hadn't come down for breakfast, so we went up to your room and found your bed empty and a hidden door in your wall. We opened the door since it was slightly ajar and followed the passageway here."
Just as they were finishing their explanation, he started to come after them again. Alex took the knife that the man had dropped when he fell and stabbed him right in the heart, he died with more pain than he caused me and I died in Grace's arms shortly after. I never got the chance to tell him the biggest secret of all; I was his sister, his twin, his other half and the real reason I was there, to negotiate with my great-grandparents' "sprit" and to figure out why all these casualties have taken place.
