The bottom of Grave's Hill was as far as the Taxi driver was willing to go.
"Can't go no further, love," The Man had said, "I'd be trespassing."
It was a lie. The actual land of the Manor didn't begin until the gates, which were still a good half a mile away, and whilst the grounds were technically still private land, it was open knowledge that no one took responsibility for it. Despite all this, Maggie knew there was no argument.
Everybody knew there was something wrong with the manor; they all told their kids not to play there and told the same stories down the pub or in their houses.
But no, Maggie was crazy. You see, Maggie talked about all that ghost stuff like it was real. We all know it's just good fun, but Maggie actually believes it.
And yet, 23 years later, Maggie was the only one who seemed willing to go anywhere near the Manor.
In theory, anyway. She had hoped that getting herself this far would make it impossible to turn back. Now that she was faced with getting out of the taxi, she found this conviction was less than solid.
In all these years, she had avoided even looking at the Manor, and now it was closer than ever. She could almost feel it hanging over her, as if it had arms to stretch out and grab her. Every time she did as much as reach for the handle, she felt a desperate urge to beg the driver to take her home.
But every time she was about to open her mouth, she would think of Ben and Sara. They might not have come here. They might have just wandered around the village and headed back to her house. They might even be there now.
Or they might not. And if they weren't and she didn't check, would she ever be able to forgive herself?
"Listen, love," said the Taxi driver, "are you getting out or what?"
Maggie looked at the driver and felt a revulsion rise in her. If there was any doubt about asking him to take her back, it was settled.
"Yes," said Maggie, "I am going, thank you."
Maggie opened the door and stepped out of the Taxi.
"And you can be sure that I will never be..."
The driver didn't even wait for her to close the door. As soon as her body had left Taxi, it sped off back towards the village. Maggie was left all alone on Grave's hill.
She didn't do anything for a moment. She just stood there, overwhelmed by it all. Even before that night, the Manor had been an intimidating sight, but now, she knew better than to consider it a dead husk. It had a dark life to it. A true malevolent presence that spread its shadowy wings over Winter's Green. Maggie could feel it now, even as she saw its empty facade.
Now that she knew the truth, the quiet of the Manor was all the more disconcerting. Maggie was under no illusion that the house was in any way dormant or even that it may have been in some kind of rest. No, the house was as aware of her as it had ever been, but it was simply lying in wait for the moment its prey came too close.
The Manor seemed to grow before her on the hillside till it was all she could see. It felt stupid to move because the Manor was clearly coming to her. It would soon descend from its perch atop Grave's hill and pluck her from the earth, never to be seen again. Maggie was saved from the urge to run away only by the fear of moving at all.
To her shame, Maggie had to put in a great effort to bring Sara and Ben back to her mind. All other lines of reasoning which suggested they might not be at the Manor fell quiet as she did so. Here and now, looking up at the haunting structure, it was impossible not to feel that her niece and nephew had indeed fallen into its trap.
With this knowledge implanted firmly in her mind, Maggie was able to begin the walk up the hill. She had expected it to be difficult, but Maggie found herself carried towards the Manor in a strange sort of haze. It was as if her body had somehow separated from her mind and could just go through these motions without extending the conscious effort. This was good because her mind was little more than panicked screams begging her to turn around.
Her body refused to listen, however, and before she had really prepared herself, Maggie was standing at the gate.
Whilst Maggie was well aware that over two decades had passed since she had last seen these grounds, it was not something she had ever been able to fully acknowledge. Maggie had been effectively homeschooled for her final year at secondary school, and her exams had been sat alone with the invigilator, the only other person in the room. After that, she had done little of anything until, with supportive yet persistent encouragement from her parents, she found her job in the fraud department of the bank. That was her life from then on. She would log on and work through claims on the bank's system from 9 to 5, spend the evening watching TV with her family and then sleep. Then Mama died, Ricki left, and then, only three months later, her papa was gone as well. That was eighteen years ago, and the time since has been a haze of uninterested work and lonely sleep.
Looking at the Manor's grounds, however, brought all that time into sharp focus. It had been a jungle when she had last seen it, but that seemed tame compared to now. There was no need to worry about the gate. It had rusted off and left nothing but a strange opening in the wall. The grass had overgrown even the largest of the statues, and all that was left was the odd glimpse that did little but startle Maggie as they crossed her vision.
Maggie cursed as she realised she didn't have a torch, then cursed again as she realised that, of course, she did have a torch. She pulled out her phone and switched on the torch function. Just another reminder that it was no longer 1995.
It did not take long for Maggie to become disheartened. She had begun to search the grounds, but it quickly became obvious that Ben and Sara weren't there. The place might have been overgrown, but the tallest of the grass only came to Maggie's waist. Unless they were actively hiding from her, she would have at least been able to see whatever light they were using.
There was, of course, the possibility that they were nowhere near the manor, but as the night had worn on, this felt more and more like wishful thinking. The alternative, though, was more than Maggie was comfortably willing to engage with just yet.
"Sara," Maggie's shaky voice called out, "Ben!"
Nothing but silence. Maggie's desperation grew even further.
"Sara," She called again, "Ben."
She continued to call out as she made her way through the grounds, all the time becoming increasingly anxious about who, or what, else might hear her.
As she got further into the grounds, Maggie became aware of a new sound coming from somewhere near the far side of the Manor. She stopped dead and listened out. It was a voice; she was fairly sure about that, but anything else was impossible to gather at this point.
"Sara," She called, a little quieter now that there could be someone out there, "Ben."
Maggie crept as close as she dared, all the while trying to keep her light as low as possible to maintain some kind of stealth. As she neared the source of the sound, it became clear that it was, in fact, two voices. One was a teenage girl and a young boy. Excitement overtook Maggie and it was all she could do to stop herself running straight towards the voices.
She tried her niece and nephew's names a few more times. As she did so, she not only recognised their voices but could hear exactly what they were saying.
"Aunt Maggie," They were calling. First one, then the other.
Maggie couldn't help it. She ran around the corner, screaming their names. As she did so, she could see that there was no one there. But the voices were still calling out.
Maggie looked around and found where they were coming from. At the side of the manor was what appeared to be an entrance down into the cellar that was currently closed, though not locked. Maggie approached it cautiously. Sara and Ben's cries seemed to grow more and more frantic from within as the doors began to rattle as if they were pounding against them.
She was suspicious, of course, she was, but it was their voices, and they were screaming for help. Presented with these same circumstances in the full light of day, she might have more seriously considered if it was a trap, but in the here and now, Maggie couldn't do that.
Those screams for help caught at her heart. The images they made in her mind of Sara and Ben desperate and scared. It was too much to ignore. The closer she got, the louder and more chaotic they became.
They overwhelmed her. Bombarded her and made her desperate.
Maggie reached out and flung the doors open.
All at once, the screaming and pounding ceased. Maggie was left with a staircase that descended into perfect darkness. Beyond it, she could see nothing until she saw the light of two fiery green eyes.
"Hello Marguerite," An all too familiar voice said.
Before Maggie could even scream, the darkness took her.
The door to the cellar closed shut. Silence fell over the grounds once again.