The Demon of Mansfeld Manor Read online

  At this point, Linda and David still did not know the details, but Ida was forced to conceive children. She was subdued via black magic and raped by Sam. Additionally, Sam, enraged by her conception of Sam Jr., put a curse on her and her home. He made her life a living hell, until she finally conceived a son for him. Shortly following that, she devoted all of her energy to doing everything she could to separate herself from Sam and keep the house from falling into his possession or even into the possession of her own children. She fled the country. Upon returning, she used witchcraft of her own to fight back. Ultimately, that house had become a battleground for the supernatural.

  “Which brings me to Katherine,” she finally said.

  I felt my fists clench beneath the table when she said this. She looked directly at Kat with a very emotionless stare. It unsettled me a lot. I wanted to jump from my seat and just walk out with Kat. Yet, a part of me also really wanted to hear what she had to say.

  “While I can say for certain there is a lot of energy around you in relation to this house, I cannot place it. Your great-great-grandfather, the butler… well he was in love with Ida. From what I can tell, that love lasted all of his life. Despite that, his role in the elements that plague the estate today seems to be minor. I believe he was both aware and understood what was happening and did everything he could to assist Ida in her activities. Yet, these curses are really between Ida and Sam.”

  I could see Kat smirk. I was impressed that Linda could indeed pick up on the fact that there is more then what was on the surface. At the same time I was hesitant to buy into everything. After-all we knew that Kat was really a descendant of Sam’s, a point Linda could not see.

  “The curses are certainly between Ida and Sam,” she repeated, “but you are far more than a bystander. I wish I had a clearer understanding of how or why, but right now, I really do not.”

  Kat looked like she was about to speak and spill her little piece of news on this when the ever-eager David jumped in.

  “There is one more thing I discovered,” David said.

  His voice hung in the air. I felt as though I was going to be dealt a crushing blow.

  “One thing we have not been able to understand as of yet is the question of why you,” he said staring down at me. “Obviously there is a lot of supernatural activity, leaving many possibilities. Yet, as of now, we have not been able to see anything that directly addresses this question. We know Ida was hell-bent on making sure Sam would not get the house. But why you?”

  “Well, I guess that is the ten-thousand dollar question,” I replied.

  “Right, but then while Linda was going over the letter you brought, something caught my eye. The combination to the safe.”

  “What, you think there is a clue in there?” I asked.

  “No, probably not. I am not concerned with the safe, more the combination. Well, that combined with her cryptic words saying the numbers should mean something to you.”

  “I’m not really following. Why would any of this shit make sense to me?”

  “Read me the combination!” he demanded.

  I pulled the folder open and retrieved the letter.

  “2, 27, 4,” I said, still confused.

  David followed by writing the combination on the whiteboard. Then underneath he rewrote it. ‘02/27/04’. Underneath he wrote February 27, 1904.

  “That is the birthdate of Samuel Leopold… eh we’ll just call him Sam Jr.,” he said.

  “Okay, isn’t that how people make combinations, important dates?” I asked.

  “Yes, of course! But people don’t expect those dates to make sense to other people. Random people decades later. Not to mention it is the birth date of her child, the one child conceived by someone other than Sam. The one child conceived out of love. The one child she would wish to leave her estate to!”

  “So, you are telling me I am her love child?” I asked.

  “No. I mean you have a mom, a dad, a lineage of your own at least in the physical sense,” he said. “Right now, this is just something to look into. I find it odd, to say the least.”

  I sat there shocked. I really didn’t know what to say.

  “Look, it is just something to look into,” he repeated.

  I noticed Kat wearing a troubled expression. I knew what she was thinking, and I knew it was about to shake up this whole conversation.

  “So tell me, in all that you have seen, were you able to tell that I have no blood connection to the butler?” she asked.

  Both David and Linda stared at her.

  “What do you mean?” David asked. “You told me…. The letter, the penny…”

  “Yes, he raised my great-grandmother and was a father to her, but my bloodline is through Samuel!” she yelled.

  Silence hung in the air. I couldn’t help but smile. Kat had taken the ‘Fuck you’ attitude and just dropped an atom bomb on the room.

  “I have a letter,” she said. “Apparently, Sam raped some poor maid at the estate. Edgar was asked by Ida to adopt the child and raise her as his own. Which he did.”

  David’s' eyes were wild. Linda sat silently looking at us. After a few moments, Linda stood up slamming her hands on the table.

  “Of course!” she yelled. “This explains everything!”

  “What exactly does this explain?” I asked.

  “This is why you have such a confusing presence in relation to the house. After holding the penny, I saw Edgar, who seemingly plays a minor role in all of this. Yet to you, both David and I felt an incredibly strong connection! You may be the key that unlocks this whole story! Tell me, do you have anything else personal from Edgar beyond the penny?”

  “Uh… well, I have the letter he wrote explaining that we are of Samuel’s blood,” she said.

  “I will need to see that. That will help me connect with Edgar but also hopefully fill in the missing pieces with Samuel.”

  After a bit more conversation, we decided to end the day’s session and meet up again the next morning. Kat and I headed back to the hotel and clean up before going to dinner. Once we got there, she went to take a shower, and I laid on the bed. I grabbed my phone and started looking at the missed emails and calls from the day. There was one from the foundation contractor that caught my eye.

  “Call me!” the text read.

  I immediately dialed his number.

  “Hey, this is Jim. What’s going on?”

  “For starters, one of my guys is in the hospital, barely clinging to life!”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Randy was attacked by a wolf on your property is what fucking happened. I heard the scream. By the time I got there, the wolf was gone. Randy was lying there in a pool of his own blood, babbling nonsense.”

  “I’m sorry. What can I do?”

  “I dunno. Sorry, I’m just pretty shaken up by it. I don’t mean to take it out on you. Randy will be alright according to the doctors. He might look a little worse, but he got lucky.”

  “I get it. If you are calling me to tell me you guys are done there, I completely understand given this all.”

  “Fuck no we aren’t leaving. When my crew signs up for a job, we finish it.”

  “Well at the same time, if there is anything else I can do, just say the word.”

  “On that note, you mind giving me a heads up when you send other crews out to this place? When we rolled up this morning, there was another crew here working on the interior.”

  “That’s impossible. The only other one I’ve even contracted is the roof and windows, but they are not coming out until you are done. Who was it?”

  “I have no idea. Never seen them before. There were names on the trucks. I asked to speak to their foreman, and a guy named Fred came out. He said you hired him, and they needed to start working on the rooms.”

  “I have no idea who that could be. Certainly no one I hired.”

  “I told him to leave until I have word from you. He was pissed, but they cleared out.”
r />   “Shit man, I don’t have any clue.”

  “Hopefully it was just some eager crew you started talking to that got the wrong idea.”

  “Listen, I’m in Tennessee. I’ll be back on Monday. I know you guys aren’t working tomorrow, but is there any chance you could keep an eye on the place for me? I’ll make it worth your time.”

  We talked for a few more minutes. We agreed to an amount I would pay him for keeping an eye on things. I also agreed to cover any of Randy’s medical expenses that the insurance didn’t cover. I felt horrible about the accident and wanted to do anything I could to help.

  I hung up the phone. There was a terrible feeling in my gut. I felt responsible for having someone hurt there, hurt by a wolf which matched every one of those damn stories. The rogue crew that showed up concerned me just as much. I knew damn well that I hadn’t hired anyone else. I couldn’t even imagine what crew would even want to go out there. Just then, Kat came out of the bathroom. She looked at me and immediately could tell something was bothering me.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. “You okay?”

  “I don’t know where to start. I just talked to the foreman of the crew at the house. One of his guys got torn up by a wolf while out there. On top of that, some other crew showed up today, saying I hired them to work on the interiors. Thing is, I haven’t hired anyone else.”

  Her face went blank. She just stared at me for a second with a look of shock.

  “A wolf, like those stories you were telling me about?”

  “Yeah, same damn place on the property too. I mean, I guess it doesn’t have to be supernatural. There’s a lot of forest. It could be a real wolf protecting its home.”

  “Hold up. You had a crew there? I mean, I didn’t know you hired anyone.”

  “That happened while… well you know,” I stammered. “Anyway, yeah, I hired a couple crews. Right now, a crew is working on the foundation, which should be complete soon. Then, the roof and window people. But that’s all I’ve hired so far. Certainly, no one for the interiors, because the foundation needed to be secured and finished first in case anything shifted.”

  She was pacing in the hotel room. “So, who was it? What were they doing there?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. It sounds like my foundation guys ran them out pretty quick. It’s just weird. I never even thought about security at that place in the shape it is now. Beyond that, do I call animal control? There aren’t exterminators for wolves that I know of.”

  I started realizing how odd it was that her focus was more on the work crew than the guy that almost got killed by a wolf. I was about to mention it when I looked at her pacing the room in her towel with her long, wet hair. I became completely distracted from the conversation. I walked up behind her and put my arms around her, kissing her wet shoulder. It was only a few moments before any thought of the house disappeared.

  16

  The next morning, we arrived at the office feeling much more relaxed. Everything between Kat and I seemed to have taken a light-hearted direction. David and Linda, on the other hand, did not seem to be sharing this light-heartedness. Linda, especially, looked as serious as ever. We took our seats. Instead of waiting for her to speak, I took the lead.

  “Listen, I know we are supposed to go through what Linda saw yesterday. But before we do, I need to bring something up.”

  “What is it?” David asked.

  “So, I did some research on my own before reaching out to you. Everything I came across talked about a wolf on the property. I got a call last night from my foreman telling me one of his guys at the house was attacked by a wolf. Before we go any further, is this all natural? Some wolf that has a den or whatever in the woods there, or is this related to all this crap?”

  David silently looked at Linda. A few moments later, he nodded to her and turned his eyes to us.

  “Based upon everything we know about the property now, it would be foolish to assume this is a natural occurrence,” David said. “Look, we have plenty to talk about in regards to this today, but I will cut to the chase for you here. Remember when I was out there and described the darkness of the property in contrast to the light of the house? We are certain that you have a couple entities at this place. There is Ida, protecting the house. But the outside… that seems to be occupied by a demon. I am certain that the demon is our friend Sam. And if you would do your research on demons, you would know they can take many forms, including one of a wolf.”

  “Wonderful!” I replied “This is just getting better and better.”

  “Wait a second,” Kat interjected. “How are you referring to Sam as a demon? I thought demons were separate entities from people.”

  “Traditionally, you are correct. But do you know much about the concept of a Faustian Bargain? Essentially a deal with the devil. You know Robert Johnson, Ralph Machio, going to the crossroads and all that?”

  “Yeah, but aren’t those deals just getting what you want on earth before burning in hell?” Kat asked.

  “Yes, again in the traditional lore anyway. However traditional lore only introduces the subject in broad strokes. Based upon what I understand of Samuel’s role in the KGC, I wouldn’t hesitate to believe he’d struck his own accord with the devil. I think it goes beyond that. I feel that he didn’t simply strike a deal to get what he wanted in life. His bargain involved doing the devil’s bidding in life and in return he would be stripped of his humanity and be able to take the role of a true demon.”

  “I feel like we are fighting over titles here,” I said, trying to break up David’s lesson in demonology. “Ghost, demon, hexes, curses, whatever… I am less concerned about what we call it than how we end it all.”

  “Jim, this is only the beginning. I fear the powers at your home are far stronger than we can comprehend at this point. Let’s have Linda explain what she was able to see.”

  She began to explain her visions more in-depth. Yesterday, we heard about the basics. The who and what of everything. Today, it was clearly going deeper than that.

  “There are many types of spells one can cast. I believe here we have a combination of protective spells and curses. Anyone who casts spells is equally schooled in both of these sides. One who casts curses must also cast protection spells to preserve themselves. We know curses were cast on both Ida and the property by Sam. Additionally, Ida cast spells of her own to protect herself and her home.

  “So, can’t all spells be reversed?” I asked.

  “Well, yes and no. Many can be, but they require knowledge of the spell. Others, while they cannot be reversed, can theoretically be overpowered by a more powerful protection spell.”

  “But they are all dead,” I pointed out. “Isn’t there like a statute of limitations on this shit, or at least an open door to make casting a protection spell easier?”

  Linda didn’t respond. She and David just looked at each other. I could tell what came next was not going to be good news.

  “James, these curses and spells, well they are just part of what is at play. If we walked into the estate in 1929, they would all work no differently than they do today. But now, in addition to these spells and curses, there is more.”

  “Okay, I’m listening,” I said. “What else is going on?”

  “This brings us back to our lesson in demonology,” David said, “where Samuel’s presence, which has taken the form of a demon, comes in.”

  “So, my house is cursed ten times over, and it is haunted?” I asked.

  “Well, to put it bluntly, yes,” David said.

  The two then went on to explain how, they believe certain aspects of the house to be haunted. In short, it was going to be nothing short of a miracle to make the house peaceful. Honestly, they were beginning to make it sound like the estate sat at the center of Hell City, Hell.

  “But we have an advantage here,” Linda said.

  “Really, what’s that?” I asked. “Because it’s sounding pretty damn bleak to me.”

  She looked
over at Kat.

  “Katherine is our advantage,” she said.

  “Hold up, I understand that you think I can help because of my bloodline, but what does that really mean?” Kat asked.

  “My dear, you have a connection to Edgar and the blood of Samuel,” Linda explained. “Both of those things give us the upper hand.”

  “Well, at least I got something going for me,” Kat replied, “but that doesn’t help me understand.”

  “It isn’t just that. The connection with Edgar to this property is especially intimate. He was far more than a hired hand. He is directly involved in all of this. Yesterday I spoke of his connection with Ida. There is an incredible softness in Edgar when it comes to Ida. But there is also a definite connection when it comes to the demonic side of Samuel. With Samuel, his connection is dark. I feel he was more on the front line of fighting Samuel than anyone knows.

  “With you having the connection to Sam, he may respond differently to you. Just like Ida’s protection spells. You both mentioned how it appeared that someone had tried unsuccessfully to enter Ida’s parlor. For James though, the door opened freely. Ida responds to James. In that same way, it is possible that Sam will respond differently to you.”

  “I fear there is one more thing we need to talk about,” David said cautiously.

  “Okay,” I replied nervously, not sure if I was able to tolerate more bad news.

  “So you understand, a lot of what we know about the history here comes from extensive research Linda and I have put into the KGC,” David declared. “So, while all of this happened in the past, the KGC is very much an ongoing living breathing entity,”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “We don’t have a clue where they are, who they are, or how powerful they may be, but we know they are here. Many knights passed down their knighthood from generation to generation. They have been able to maintain an underground existence. But go poking around, and you will find them.”

  “Most people assumed they disappeared or disbanded,” Linda added. “Our experience has taught us otherwise. One thing we think is that it’s an unorganized group. The Sovereign Lords fell apart, leaving the knights little objective.”