The Demon of Mansfeld Manor Read online

  “Fell apart?” I asked. “Wasn't keeping it together Sam’s focus?”

  “Well, you can’t always get what you want.” David laughed at his own statement.

  “You’re right up to a point,” Linda explained. “The problem was that each of the Lords needed to have an heir willing to take the reins of an organization they had no involvement in. This proved to be far more difficult than simply having a child. Samuel himself did eventually get his son. Sadly, he was less than a suitable heir. He ended up spending the second half of his life committed to a sanitarium. The story of the other Lords wasn’t much different.”

  “Today we know nothing of their leadership,” David said. “We do know there are plenty of knights sworn to protect.”

  “Protect what?” I asked.

  “We don’t know. Some assume massive caches of gold. Others assume nothing more than the sheer secret of their existence. Point is, that they’re out there.”

  “Okay, but how does that play into me?” I asked.

  “We don’t know if it does or if it ever will. This is more of a warning. History tells us that it’s a group that lets nothing stand in the way of their objectives. This estate was owned and fought for by one of their final leaders. It only stands to reason that there is the potential of there being something there of interest to the Knights.”

  “Yeah well, they had, what, eighty years to go in there and take whatever they wanted. I’ll take your warning, but forgive me if I don’t seem too concerned.”

  “James, tell me, has anyone approached you about the estate?” Linda asked, refusing to acknowledge my sarcasm. “An odd phone call? A stranger lurking in the shadows?”

  “Nah, not really,” I said. I looked over at Kat whose eyes were wide. Then I remembered talking to my mother. “Wait! I haven’t, but when I told my mom about the estate, she kinda freaked out. She told me about someone calling her after I was born. Whoever it was told her that this inheritance would be coming, and she needed to make sure I didn’t accept it. But jeez, that was right after I was born.”

  “That was them! It doesn’t confirm that they are looking for you now, but there is something with that house worthy of their interest.”

  “Look the point is we don’t know to what extent any of this matters,” David warned. “Just be careful and be vigilant. I am especially concerned with my knowledge of how many of these protection spells work. See, Ida’s parlor was protected for everyone but you. It is very plausible that you, being the heir, broke the spell. I don’t know for sure, but I think it is best that we assume that Ida’s parlor now sits unprotected.”

  We wrapped up the conversation and were saying our goodbyes when David asked if he could speak with me in his office for a minute. I followed him to the small dingy room.

  “Listen, remember when I was at the house, and I asked you to go into that room alone?” he asked.

  “Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that.”

  “Okay, do it soon. We know Ida is there, and I have a feeling she will show you something if you do. If my hunch is right on this, we could learn exactly what we need to do to reclaim your home.”

  “Alright, I will do it as soon as we get back. I have to go out there anyway to apologize personally to the work crew.”

  We said our goodbyes, and Kat and I got in the truck. As I started driving out, she had a confused look.

  “This whole thing confuses me” she said. “I don’t even know what to think.”

  I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

  “That whole thing with Linda speaking about Edgar’s connection was hard to follow,” she admitted. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it in hers. “I thought she was talking about my connection to him, but then it sounded more like his involvement with Sam.”

  “Well, he did end up raising Sam’s child, so maybe there was some confrontation that took place around that… So do you believe everything they said?”

  “I’m not sure. I would have bought into everything she said one hundred percent if she was able to call out that little secret. But I’m the one that blurted out that my bloodline goes back to Sam. Still, she was able to see a lot. I kinda want to play this out and see what else we can learn. I want to know more about Edgar. I feel like there is something missing in all of this.”

  “Well if there’s one thing I’m completely sure of, there is a whole shit ton of stuff that we’re missing. All of this, combined with the research and everything else I learned, is clearly only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what all happened there.”

  After a long drive, we finally arrived back home. I dropped Kat off at her mom’s and took a nice long nap. When I awoke, I realized that I needed to tend to everything that happened while I was in Tennessee. I needed to get to the house, and I needed to meet with the foreman.

  I felt driven to first go to the hospital and speak with the man who was attacked. It was odd. I didn’t know the man. I’d probably never even seen him. Still, speaking with him was my first priority. With only his name and the hospital, I began to question this decision. Part of it felt wrong, like I was invading a personal space I had no business in. But that feeling didn’t overcome the need I felt. I needed to look him in the eyes. I needed to hear his story in his words.

  I arrived at the hospital and was directed to the proper section. There, a nurse greeted me and informed me that the man had been released from Intensive Care a day ago. She directed me to his room. Inside, a large man sat in bed changing the channels on the TV. He had bandages on every part of his body. I took a deep breath and knocked on the open door as I stepped in.

  “Hi, look you don’t know me personally, but I wanted to come here and apologize in person for what happened. I’m Jim. It was my property you were working on.”

  The man set down the remote control and stared at me intently.

  “You’re James,” he stated curtly.

  “Yeah, call me Jim…again I cannot tell you how sorry I am that this happened.”

  “Look, if you are here expecting some sort of thank you for the medical bills, you can leave now. I am not taking a dime from you. I want to be as far away from you and that property as possible!” His eyes narrowed as he stared me down.

  I was completely taken back. “Please, I mean no harm. I see it as only right, considering that wolf was on my property.”

  “Wolf?” he snarled. “You think this was a wolf? What I saw only looked like a wolf. I have just one thing to say to you and then I beg you to stay the fuck away from me.”

  “What is it?”

  “I was given a message for you, a message from the so-called wolf. Bring me what I need or this is only the beginning!” The man’s face was so still it looked like it was etched in stone.

  “I’m sorry,” I replied bewildered. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “That’s the message I was given. Now I’ve passed it on. Please leave.” He picked up the remote tethered to the bed and pressed a button, his eyes never breaking their stare on me.

  I was frozen. I knew I had to leave, but I felt I needed to say something else. As I struggled to find my words, the man reached to the IV tube in his arm and ripped it out in one swift motion. Blood oozed to the surface of his arm and started to spurt out. In a matter of moments, blood was running down his arm. Just then, a nurse walked in. She saw the blood and immediately pushed me out of the room.

  I staggered out of the hospital in a daze. I’d never seen anything like that and couldn’t even comprehend it all. I decided to head to the house, hoping to have better luck talking to the foreman.

  I didn’t have to look hard to find him. As my truck pulled to the top of the driveway, he immediately stepped out of the tent set up outside the house and approached my truck.

  After a hearty handshake and an exchange of greetings, he looked at me with a worried expression on his face.

  “Jim, take a walk with me please.” He paused looking over his shoulders at his busy cr
ew. “I need to talk to you privately.”

  He led me down south of the house towards the pond. He didn’t say a word. As we approached the pond, he turned and headed towards the forest that encroached on the west side of the pond.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  He stopped dead in his tracks.

  “Look, you gave me a hell of a job here with this house. I mean, it’s enough work to keep my crew going for a month of solid work, and you have been very generous. You asked me to look after the place a bit and… well… I may have taken that a little far.”

  “And as I mentioned, I will pay you whatever you feel fair for that. I appreciate that more than you know.”

  He held up his hand telling me to stop talking. “Randy wasn’t just a guy I hired. He was a friend. I’ve worked with him side by side for twenty years now. So, after what happened, I figured I knew one thing to lift his spirits and hopefully break him out of the shock of it all. I have hunted with Randy every year. So, I figured now I needed to hunt down that wolf and give him its pelt. Look, I know it ain’t exactly legal, but I had to do it.”

  I took a deep breath, relaxing a bit. “I get it. No worries. As long as you don’t get yourself busted, I really don’t care.”

  “It isn’t that. I can handle my own shit. Hell, I didn’t really intend to tell you about that, but things kinda changed a bit.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Animals are pretty easy to track when you know what to look for. They leave a path everywhere. From footprints to scat. I’ve searched every damn inch of that forest there and haven’t found the slightest hint of a wolf. That is odd, but what concerns me more is not what I didn’t find, but what I did find.

  “Just tell me. You can give me the backstory afterward.”

  He looked at me as he scratched his scraggly beard. “Tell you what, I’ll do you one better and just show you. Here, follow me.”

  He walked closer to the wall of the forest. Barely even visible to my eye was what looked like a path into the forest. We entered and were immediately enveloped by the canopy of the trees. I could see the small path winding deeper into the woods.

  “It’s just up here.” He grabbed my shoulder, stopping me. “Look, before we head in there… this is… well… pretty fucked up. Take that as my warning.”

  17

  The trail led to a clearing a few feet deeper into the woods. It was a circle about fifteen feet in diameter with nothing; no grass, no weeds and no trees. It was barren earth. As my eyes scanned the clearing, I realized it wasn’t just barren, it was scorched. In the center, the ground was blackened as if there had been a massive bonfire there recently. The trees that surrounded the circle were also charred.

  “What the hell is this?” I asked.

  He looked at me and pointed to the far side of the circle. A beaten, yellow-handled shovel lay there. “I could offer some theories, but you better see for yourself first. I couldn’t figure it out. The burn is fresh, but a fire this size could never be contained with all these trees around it. The flames would have been high enough for someone to notice, even way out here. With no ideas of my own, I decided to dig up some of the soil. Here, I covered it up now, but take a look.” He approached a small area where I could see freshly disturbed dirt.

  I picked up the shovel and started to remove the dirt. After the loose soil on the top was removed, I heard the tip of the shovel hit something solid. I knelt down next to the hole and brushed away the remaining loose soil with my hand.

  I saw what looked like a blackened tree branch. I grabbed it pulling it out of the hole. I realized it wasn’t a branch but a bone. Startled, I threw it back into the hole and jumped up.

  “To answer your next question, that isn’t from a deer.”

  “You sure?” I asked, trying to compose myself.

  “Jim, it isn’t just one bone. You’re standing on a fucking graveyard. It’s like something out of a movie. Look around. I must’ve dug about fifty damn holes here. Every one of them was the same. I’d guess there are at least twenty to thirty bodies buried here… all human, all charred.”

  I just stood with my mouth agape, looking at the blackened bone sitting in that hole.

  “I know this isn’t you,” he said. “I mean these are old, and you just got this place. I get it. I’m not gonna tell anyone. Christ, the last thing I need is to be interviewed by some cop asking me questions about what I was doing out here in the first place.”

  “Fuck me!” I yelled. “I need a drink!”

  “Now that, I can help with.” He pulled out a shiny flask from his pocket and handed it to me. “Keep it. You need it more than I do.”

  I unscrewed the cap and took a long swallow. “What the hell am I supposed to do now? How does one even call the police station and say ‘Oh, by the way I have like 30 bodies buried on my property.’”

  “You want my advice?” He grabbed the flask from my hand and took a sip before handing it back to me. “You better be ready when you make that call.”

  “What do you mean? I’m pretty fucking sure I will never be ready.”

  “Look, first off you need to have a really good story about how this was found that doesn’t include me hunting out here. Also, know what you are getting into. Your little restoration project here will likely be halted for at least a year while they investigate all this. It’s gonna be one hell of a mess. And there is more.”

  “You just told me there are 30 human bodies here, and that you don’t want me to report it, and there is more?”

  “What you want to do with the cops is up to you. I don’t want to be involved. But look, these are fucking old, so all I am saying is there is no urgency here.”

  He paused to grab the flask and take another sip.

  “I’ll be straight with you. There’s something messed up here. Messed up in a way I don’t even understand. Randy… look, he went a bit off the rails after the attack. I just assumed he was in shock or some shit. But now…well, I think he was telling the truth.”

  “Telling the truth about what? What’s going on? You know, I visited him in the hospital today. He ripped his goddamn IV out of his arm for no other reason than to ensure that I had to leave. I assume you know why he was so freaked out?”

  “Oh hell, I wish you hadn’t gone there. Listen, Randy can be a bit dramatic for sure, but something here spooked him good. I don’t think it was a wolf. When I first saw him after the attack, it was obvious that he had been injured by an animal. The wounds were very consistent with that. The first word he said was ‘wolf’ as he pointed towards this path.” He stopped and took a deep breath as if he was unsure of continuing. “Look, I don’t know you. I don’t know if you believe in things that go beyond the norm.” He looked around nervously.

  “Just please continue,” I pleaded. “If this house has taught me one thing, it’s that there is a whole world beyond the normal.”

  “Well, as I sat with him, holding his wounds, waiting for help… he started talking about some strange shit. He said that the wolf was a man. That a man did this! He talked about him being the man’s messenger. It was all fucked up. Like I said, I thought he was just in shock.”

  “And now you think it is more than that?” I asked.

  “I’m a very logical man. Take this pile of bones out of the equation for a second. Wolves don’t just attack like that. Not here. Sure, there is enough untouched land that it’s possible, but I’m one hell of a tracker. I spent the better part of two days in this woods and haven’t seen any indication that a wolf or anything else lives here.”

  By the time I left, I was in a state of shock of my own. Everything was taking its toll on me. This house which started out as a great windfall and direction in my life. It quickly spiraled into a curse. For every piece of the puzzle I seemed to fit together, another entire realm of unanswered questions opened up. Initially I wanted to simply call the police and let them handle it. As I thought back to my conversation with Randy, I realized I
wasn’t ready for this. There was so much going on with David and clearly the demon of Sam was tied in. Right now I was not ready to make that call. I was tired of thinking about it. I needed to step back.

  I decided to do just that… run away. For a few weeks, I avoided the house and any conversation about it. David kept calling me. Telling me I had to return to the house, to Ida’s room. But I just ignored his pleas. I never got too far away. As hard as I tried, the house seemed to keep trying to draw me in. The more I resisted, the worse it became. My mind would show me scenes of the house. Scenes that included everything from Ida to the graveyard in the woods. Then my next dream came.

  When I opened my eyes, I was alone in the gardens of the estate. The air was cold. I walked directly to the pond. Everything was silent and still. I walked at a very fast pace. When I turned the corner between the shrubs and the pond, I saw the wolf. It was standing behind the granite bench on the far side of the pond. It stood motionless, staring at me with its cold calculating eyes.

  I stood there silently, unable to divert my eyes from it. My breath created a fog as it hit the cold air. As the fog quickly dissipated, the wolf was gone and in its place was a man. The light was dim, but there was no mistaking it was Samuel. But what was he doing? I held myself back from approaching him. I wanted to observe as long as I could. As I watched him, the hair on my neck stood up. I was overcome with a chill. Everything around me started to swirl.

  It was as if I had been drugged. I squeezed my eyes closed, hoping I could reset my vision. When I opened them again, I could see clearly. Samuel was standing there, and he was talking. Talking to others. The sight almost knocked me off my feet. There were four other men, wearing black cloaks, surrounding him, two on each side. Two red candles, on either side of the bench, flickered in the breeze.

  Then, a voice echoed as if through loudspeakers.

  “What are you waiting for? I am glad you could make it in time, James. I was beginning to think that you didn’t receive my little message.”