Shire Bottom Chronicles

Chapter One

A/N: This story is a co-write between my niece @Llcatz and I.  We are four years apart and have been writing together since we were kids. The way we approach POV is a little different than most. Sort of a Third Person Omniscient, as some scenes require we get into more than one character's head.

Rose's heart raced as she tried to focus her eyes on the trees surrounding her, and not on the shadows that the branches and moon created on the forest floor. The narrow dirt road shrank into the darkness behind her. She silently cursed herself for agreeing to her friend's stupid dare. Everyone knew the stories of the Hellborne house were just a myth, but it was more interesting to imagine something supernatural could happen in the boring town of Shire Bottom.

She couldn't even remember how her stupid friends talked her into this childish game of Truth or Dare. All she had to do was take a selfie next to the ten-foot tall cross that was erected in the yard by the townspeople to honor the tragedy. Rose pulled her jacket tighter as the night grew colder. She tried to block out the howling wind that sounded like someone screaming in the distance.

"It's only your imagination," she muttered to herself.

Rose approached the outskirts of the property and squinted into the blackness. A twig snapped. Her breath quickened as she recalled the terrifying story she heard as a child.

The Kaliwse family lived on the outside of town deep in these woods around 1930. The father, Giovanni, owned a well-known factory. His wife Elizabeth doted on their sons Henry and Jack, aged nine and seventeen. Their only daughter, twenty-seven-year-old Catherine, was recently widowed and had moved back home.

One day in late summer, a hunter and longtime friend of Giovanni heard screams coming from the woods and followed the noise back to the Kaliwse mansion...

Rose traveled in the same direction now. She wished she had brought a friend with her. Nobody but her was crazy enough to venture out here alone in the dead of night. Her stomach churned. What if she got lost and no one found her? What if a bear attacked her? The possibilities swirled in Rose's head as she walked toward the infamous landmark.

The usually locked wrought-iron gates had been thrown open and a trail of blood led to the body of Giovanni, a chunk of flesh torn from his neck and a pistol held limply in his hand.

Cautiously, the hunter continued toward the house, rifle held at the ready. He believed a wild animal may have made it onto the property. The screams he heard earlier had stopped. He entered the house and choked back vomit at the bloodbath inside. Entrails, from what he assumed was the body of Elizabeth, were strung across the room and up the stairs.

As he walked upstairs, he heard maniacal laughter. He pushed open the door to Jack's bedroom and saw an unbelievably gruesome sight. Catherine sat in a puddle of blood, holding the detached head of her younger brother Jack with a demonic grin on her face. Logs crackled in the fireplace. Strange for such a warm day.

Catherine's eyes turned from their natural green to pitch-black, and she threw Jack's severed head into the roaring fire. A child's scream pierced the air. That's when the hunter noticed the thick smoke billowing down the hallway.

Flames crept along the ceiling and walls, inching closer. The hunter realized Catherine had set Henry's bedroom ablaze. Sweat dripped into his eyes, the heat rising. He coughed, fumbled blindly in his pocket for a kerchief. He pressed it against his mouth and stumbled through the other rooms, calling Henry's name. No answer.

Overwhelmed by the heat and smoke, the hunter ran from the home to get help. By the time they returned, the fire raged beyond control, the house a complete loss. The nine-year-old was never found, but people claimed to have seen him wandering the woods, warding people away from the house.

Jolted back to reality by the pungent smell of smoke, Rose looked around. Someone must have built a campfire nearby. She envisioned the inferno that burned through the once-stately mansion and felt gooseflesh creep up her arms.

The rumors flew after that terrible day. Some people thought that Catherine went crazy after the suicide of her husband, or she killed her family because they kept her trapped inside the house against her will. However, others claimed Catherine was not Giovanni's child, but an ancient evil summoned by him to save his business during the Great Depression. These stories earned the home the name 'Hellborne House'.

While it all made a good story, authorities had no proof a murder occurred in the old burnt-out house. Rose had read the official report in the historical society archives last year. It said the home likely caught fire due to unsafe electrical wiring, killing all five members of the family.

Rose shivered as she neared the fence. A "no trespassing" sign gleamed in the waning moonlight. She believed that a distant family member still owned the land. In recent years, they hired a security company to patrol the grounds and arrest anyone they caught on the property. That, however, did not stop "truth seekers" and "stupid kids" from trying to visit the house.

People constantly tried to impress their friends by proving they weren't afraid of Henry's ghost, or the demon Catherine. These attempts usually ended with the person getting injured while trying to search the crumbling remains for valuables and keepsakes.

"Rosalia, you shouldn't be out here alone. You could get hurt," a voice from behind Rose caused her to jump, heart leaping into her throat as she spun to face the source of the noise.

She released the breath she didn't know she was holding as her eyes fell upon her roommate and best friend, Cat.

"Jesus, you scared the shit out of me," Rose growled, shoving her friend backward. "How did you even know where I was?"

"Allie told me they dared you to go into the woods and take a picture of the 'Hellborne House', and, unless you're a moron and went through the woods alone, there is really only one way to get there from her house." Cat grinned and gestured to the dirt road in front of them. "You realize how stupid it is to go there, right? Ignoring the stupid rumors surrounding that place, there's also a barbed-wire fence up now, and the rent-a-cop dicks patrolling every night ."

"I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Plus, I don't have to get all the way to the house. I just have to get to the cross outside the fence," Rose grumbled before Cat grabbed her shoulder and turned Rose to face her.

"You're twenty-seven and playing Truth or Dare with Allie Spring and her group of morons, is that really worth going to jail over if you get caught?" Cat continued, tightening her grip on Rose's shoulder.

"I'm not going to get caught. You know as well as I do those stupid rent-a-cops are sleeping in their cars at this time of night. Why do you care so much?" Rose questioned.

She pulled out of Cat's grip and headed back down the road.

"There are better ways for you to spend your time other than getting drunk and pulling reckless stunts. Don't say I didn't warn you," Cat's voice hissed from behind her.

Rose turned around to confront her friend, but screamed when she saw Cat's face. Her eyes glowed red. Shadows from the trees danced across her unnaturally pale face. Rose sprinted down the path but tripped over a rock. Her phone hit the ground, and the screen shattered. She rolled over, bracing herself for whatever was coming. The figure chasing her had vanished. Her eyes darted around, searching for any sign of Cat.

Rose froze as she spotted a little boy edging over to her from behind a nearby tree. She shook her head, trying to convince herself this wasn't real. "You need to leave. She'll be back. I know she'll be back. Please leave," he pleaded quietly and vanished into the darkness.

She grabbed her phone, scrambled to her feet, and raced toward town. Screw Allie and her stupid dare! There was a loud, unholy screech behind her. She tried to ignore the sound, but something shoved her forward. Rose felt her head collide with a hard surface; stars exploded in her vision, and everything went black.