Witches, Ghosts & Other Haunts

𝕮𝖆𝖙𝖘 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕮𝖗𝖆𝖉𝖑𝖊

     Once, long ago, sometime back near eighteen sixty-five, there was a respectable, wealthy family by the name of Bennington. There were the parents, four girls, and three boys. They lived in a large house on a huge piece of land. Eventually, the elderly parents died and they left the land to be split between their seven children. Eventually, all living heirs to the land and the house passed away and the land became government property...

     Somewhere, in a time much later, the land was auctioned off and a man by the name of Smith bought the land and he built a small town on it. This town centered around the old house, which nobody had ever seen anyone live in. So soon after, there became rumors and legends and of course, the occasional ghost story.

     Years later, a small family moved into the old deserted house. They were surprised that they could afford it, for it was at a remarkably low price. The family was named Reece and they were made up of Jeanette, who was the mother, Allen, who was the father, their little girl, whose name was Becky, and a baby boy on the way. Three months later, the baby boy arrived and Allen and Jeanette brought him home as the newest member of the family as soon as the hospital released Jeanette.

     Allen and Jeanette loved their son very much. But tragedy would soon strike the family. Sadly, baby James only lasted for five months. Jeanette went in to check on him one morning and he was dead.

     "I just don't understand it!" cried Jeanette as she sobbed. The family was sitting around the kitchen table on a beautiful spring day. It was the kind of day that lifted your mood, no matter what happened. But there was nothing happy about this day.
     "How could this have happened?" wondered Allen out loud.

     Many months later, the Reece family was blessed with another baby whom they named, Jessica. The very same thing happened to her. The phenomenon baffled the family and the hospital both, for there was no logical reason for the babies to have died. They were soon to find out what had happened, much sooner than they expected.

     One night, Jeanette awoke to the sound of Becky's screams. She woke up her husband and he grabbed his shotgun out of the closet. He ran to Becky's room and was shocked by what he found. The room was filled with cats! Dozens and dozens of cats! They were climbing in through Becky's open window. Allen saw that they were on his daughter's bed and he began shooting at them. Most of them had gotten away but Allen had left his mark. Forty-three cats lay dead or dying on the floor in a stinking mess of fur and blood. Allen scooped his sobbing daughter up and carried her to his room. She slept there for the rest of the night. Sometime during the night however, the cats had gotten to Becky. She was dead when her parents awoke. They decided right then and there that they were going to move out.

     On the train back to their hometown, the couple shared a car with an old man they had often spotted gazing up at the old house and shaking his head. The car was empty except for Allen, Jeanette, the old man, and the woman who was keeping him company.

     "Ah, look Mary Ann. There are survivors this time," said the funny old man.
     "And what exactly do you mean by that?" asked Allen in a gruff voice.
     "Ah," said the man. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is William Bennington. This is my sister, Mary Ann. We came here to warn you about the house you were living in. But as it turns out, we were too late." Allen and Jeanette were terribly confused by the man's words and they were furthermore disturbed by the man's presence. "Nobody has lived in that house for well over a hundred years. Each time somebody decides to move into that accursed place, my sister and I are summoned to warn them of the misfortune that is due to follow. That place is evil! It killed us all and should never have been auctioned off. It should have been burned to the ground the moment all the heirs were deceased!" continued William Bennington. Now Allen and Jeanette were getting to be very frightened of this man, for he wasn't making any sense. They began to assume that he had escaped somehow from a mental institution.

     "Wait a minute," Allen suddenly declared. "That's absolutely impossible! The Bennington twins have been dead for nearly eighty-seven years! There are no living relatives to the Benningtons!" he protested.
     "Really?" asked Mary Ann suddenly. "Eighty-seven years you say?" Then she turned to William and said, "We should probably be going now. Our work here is finished. Come William," and suddenly, Allen and Jeanette found that they were alone in the train car, staring at the empty seat William and Mary Ann had occupied just moments before.

     Several Years later, Jeanette gave birth to twins. They decided to name them William and Mary Ann, to honor the spirits who had come from beyond the grave to try and warn them of the evil lurking in their former home.

     One day, after the twins had celebrated their seventh birthday, Mary Ann was swinging on the swing her father had made for her. She saw a path leading into a wild meadow with a forest beyond. On this path, she spotted a shadowy movement coming towards her. She squinted her eyes and tried to get a better look at the elusive shadow. "Mommy! Daddy! Come here and tell me what that is!" she shouted to her parents. Allen and Jeanette came running out of the house and they looked in the direction that their daughter was pointing.They too squinted and shielded their eyes from the warm summer sun with their hands. Coming down the path, was the largest black cat the family had ever seen.