Curse of the Blackwell Manor (TITNID)

Chapter 3

I could barely go back to sleep last night after the nightmare I had involving the mansion and the boy I was dancing with. I told my parents about it while we were having breakfast, but of course, they didn't believe me. Instead, they thought my nightmare was just a reaction to my horror novel that I've been reading or that I could have been reading scary stories on the Internet again. I should have figured they wouldn't believe me, but how was I the only one who's seen things happening around this mansion? We're all staying here, so why don't my parents look like they've seen scary things around here since we've settled in? I guess I won't figure that part out easily.

Deciding not to tell my parents anything else that I might see for the sake of saving them trouble, I took a blank journal I had saved for recording memories of this manor to instead write down whatever I remembered seeing and experiencing while in this mansion so I wouldn't forget and try to understand better what the hell was happening. It took up about 10-15 pages of what I could recall from seeing the boy in the mirror to seeing him again more vividly in my dream along with seeing figures dancing in Victorian clothing before things went wrong and I woke up. If there was some connection to us and this house, this notes might help me figure out what it is.

While my parents went out to look around the town and find new places for us to shop and visit, I took the opportunity while I was here alone to explore the mansion a little more and see if anything might help me answer questions that's been buzzing in my head. I headed outside near my neighbor's home and investigate what she said to me the other day about leaving the mansion for my safety. This time as I approached her front door, I knocked politely and waited a moment before she finally opened the door and was surprised to see me again.

"Hello", she greeted me in a slightly welcoming tone, "What brings you here today?" I was a bit hesitant to say so before I built up the courage to say to her, "I wanted to know more about this manor and why you advised for me to leave." She raised her brows and nodded in understanding before she invited me inside and offered for me to sit at her table in the kitchen. The house she lived in seemed old, but all these ageless trinkets and framed photos held a thousand memories she must have captured throughout her entire life.

After she made some cocoa for both of us and we formally introduced ourselves, I asked her, "Miss Rowena, may I ask why you were warning me and my family to leave the mansion?" She seemed skeptical to explain and I was starting to think this may have not been a good idea, but then she took a long sip of her cocoa and exhaled before answering my question. Let's just say the answer was not what I was expecting.

"I once lived in that house when I was only a few years older than you. Wanted a vacation from the busy life of the city and school, so this manor seemed like the perfect place. But what no one will believe if they don't know me is that the real estate agent who rented me the home...is the same woman who loaned it to your family."

After seeing my look of shock, she continued. "That house is not natural. It is alive with the spirits of its original owners haunting whoever dares to stay in there. I started having vivid nightmares and flashbacks of events that didn't belong to me and the horrific things I saw must have been actual occurrences to happen while the house was still young."

"It is best you come up with any excuse you can possibly use to leave this cursed place with your family before bad things start to happen. I only stayed here close to the house but never step into it to warn others that it isn't safe to be here, especially with the ghost of the same woman who keeps dealing this house to strangers. Have you started seeing things too, in dreams or while awake?"

Scared, I was honest, "Both, actually." She looked more scared than me and it worried me, "So soon? This isn't normal." I asked her what she might know about the original owners of the manor, and she told me, "Not much, I'm afraid. The Blackwell brothers - three of them - were powerful people of their home in their time and were people of high standards, hence the mansion and its royal standing."

"There's more to tell, but it was only a theory from what I've seen", she said to me, I pressed on hoping for something, "Tell me, please. I need to know more to know why it could be haunted." Though unsure, she told me the rest of what she might know, "Well, initially it was because your real estate agent never seemed to age, but after the nightmares and visions occurred, I was given new maids and servants who never seemed to retire or leave the house." "Our maids", I asked, "You mean like-" "Shy and Larisa? I remember those two male vividly because they were killed by the hands of two of the Blackwell brothers."

"I didn't understand how they could still be around if I saw them dead, but then it struck an idea in my mind that seemed crazy even for me." I pressed a little further, "What idea was that?" She looked me dead in the eyes as she spoke her theory to me, "That Shy and Larisa must be undead beings still living day-to-day in that manor and that their killers - the Blackwell family and original owners of the manor - were vampiric monsters."