Echo Ridge Manor

Chapter 11 Charley

My car skids to a stop just beside and old beater of a car. The paint is pealing, rust spots cover the bumper. The whole front of the car looks to be sagging. There is a crack in the back window, and it's missing a headlight. To be honest, I don't even know how it was able to make the drive here.

Skirting the car, I trip over the pebbles in the drive. The wind lashes out at my soaking clothes. A shiver runs up my spine due to the chill, but I ignore it. My shoes slip on wet steps leading up to the door, where I find another  small puddle of blood.

I feel the color drain from my faces. She is still bleeding. Shouldn't she have stopped by now? How bad off is she if she is still spilling blood up to the manor?

I can't tell if it's the thunder that wracks the house or the blood pumping in my ears that is making all the noise. Adrenaline pumps through my veins and I nearly pull the door off it's hinges.

I remember coming in here with her this morning. It was a different feel then. She was safe and I was with her. I can still feel that heavy oppressive essence that seems to encompass the manor, like the whole thing is a living being. But whatever that essence is, it is not living. 

The only light in the entryway comes from the windows that somehow feel like they are watching me. A tingling sensation like spiders  crawling over my body, gives me an ominous impression of impending doom. Urgency pushes my legs into action.

I make it to the center of the ballroom and look around.  Where would they take her?

Suddenly I hear raised voices coming from a darkened hallway. Gotcha! I sprint across the room and listen.

A deep  man's voice mentions something about  his little  brother chasing Emily and her husband the night of the party. But the husband started to fight back and he had to be knocked out to keep them here. " He didn't have a choice. They would have gotten away and someone would have found them! They would have sent the cops after all of us!" the man sputters.

A woman's voice angrily mentions how hey all died before they could get their hands on the will. "That wasn't part of the plan! We would have all gotten part of the money if we could have kept them alive long enough to get the information out of them! Why didn't he just lock them up? Why did he have to hit them over the head?" She yells.

I creep closer to the voices, but stay back enough they won't be able to see or hear me.

"We don't even know if Hannah knows where the will is! She was a baby, and she hasn't seen Sylvia since she was 5. There is no way of knowing if she has any clue where it is! But without her around we will still get all the inheritance!" the continues.

"What are we going to do now?" the male whines. "We've got the girl, but what if she won't cooperate with us? What then? Maybe we should have just let her be..."

I check around the corner, and seeing it's clear, continue following the arguing couple.

"We stick to the plan!" growls the woman.

"What about the will?" the man asks.

"What about the will? Once we take care of her, the fortune will be ours!" shout the woman.

"Someone is gonna come looking for her! That PI has probably already figured out she is gone and probably out looking for her right now! What if he catches us?" the man panics.

"Well, we will just have to take care of her sooner rather than later. Then we can dump the body and no one can prove we had anything to do with it. The PI will have been the last to see her alive and will be blamed for her disappearance. We'll be in the clear!" insists the woman.

My heart stumbles a few beats. I don't like the implications of them taking care of her.

"Hold on, Hannah. I'm almost there," I whisper.

"It looked like she was planning on staying-"

"It doesn't matter," The woman cut off her companion. "She was in our home for years. We have the right to claim everything!" 

"We still have to find the will to claim it!" argues the male.

I can see the door around the corner. I'm almost there!

"Maybe we get her to help us find it, kill her, and claim it was an accident," the woman speaks nonchalant. 

Boiling rage lit my blood as I reach for my gun. They are not going to touch her.

The man yanks the door open and the woman pulls out a pair of knives.

"Hello Hannah," the woman coos.

The couple enter the dark room.

"No! Rose! No, don't!" Hannah's high pitch screech pierces my heart.

A heavy rumble rolls through the very walls of the manor. A sickly darkness seeps from every shadow and corner, converging right by the doorway. The dark shadows form into the figure of a man and he follows the man and woman into the room.