Drowning Utopia

Chapter 13: Private Showing

"Why, what happened?" Lonny asked.

"A terrible cry came from the graveyard! Spooked the horses so bad that they bolted. Nearly overturned the wagon!" the coachman grimaced.

"Graveyard?" Tessa asked, making a connection in her mind, "Do you mean the old Yager Estate?"

"The very same." the man nodded, "I won't go anywhere near that haunted crypt!"

"Haunted?" Lonny asked, intrigued.

"The supernatural?" Donny inquired simultaneously as his sister.

"As in ghosts?" Marcus huffed.

"You haven't heard the stories?" the wagoner sounded august.

"Oh tosh, the supernatural? Really?" Tessa glowered at the twins, "You don't really believe in ghosts, do you?"

"Not necessarily," Lonny said, "but they always make for a good story."

"This one is real, I tell you!" The coachmen said, spreading his arms wide, "I've seen em myself, with me own eyes."

"Really?" Marcus asked, looking as skeptical as Tessa, "What did it look like?"

"Like moonlight- them ghostly figures wandering the grounds, with red eyes! Terrible red eyes!"

"This smells of superstitious mysticism and nonsense if you ask me. More likely, this is all a prank of some sort," Marcus scrunched his face.

But the coachman leaned down, lowering his voice as if telling a secret, "Dering them Liberation Wars, the colonial nobles were all killed— may the divine Goddess take them to her rest," he made a gesture with his hand over his head, "The Yager family, they were no exception, but the enslaved natives made a special example of em on account of their exceptional cruelty."

"Why? What did they do to them?" Lonny asked conspiratorially, egging the man on.

Tessa restrained from rolling her eyes as the man slid off the carriage and explained, more animated than before, "Them natives, they defiled and cursed the Yagers with their witchcraft as punishment; that they should never find rest 'til they've atoned for their transgressions. And so, they wonder their old property to this day, haunting the grounds that so many have been laid to rest on."

"Truly? What a fascinating story," Lonny said, a wide grin on her face.

"Riveting." Tessa hummed, "But what happened to the passengers you mentioned earlier? Did this Burt fellow report them missing?"

"Don't know." the driver admitted, "And for that matter, don't much care. Burt tried to warn them, he did, but none listens to us cart men. No sir."

Put off by the man and his insistence on the reality of ghosts, Tessa grabbed Lonny and Donny and began to pull them away, saying, "Well, we have somewhere to be, and if you are not taking us up there, then we must find someone else to do so—

"Even after all that I told you?" the carriage driver asked.

"You, my good Sir, may believe in ghosts, but we do not. Magic, the supernatural, it's all poppycock. Now either you take us up there, and we'll pay you for your fare, or we'll go and find someone else."

"Fine. I'll take you as far as the lane, but no further." the carriage driver said as he opened the door to his carriage for them.

After they piled in and the carriage started rolling down the street, Lonny chided, "Tut, tut, Tess, you shouldn't insult the man for his beliefs."

"Well, his beliefs are wrong. Honestly, the fact that anyone still believes in those old superstitions about magic and ghost is beyond me." She frowned as she considered, "If anything, I'm more concerned at the fact that there were people that went up there before us and then disappeared."