[MUSIC ABOVE ^]
Yeah, the storm cellar. It's a wonder, I didn't discover this piece of my property until about midweek following.
"But you didn't see the MacLean sisters until later that week?" the interviewer questioned.
Cole just sighed, shaking his head with a slight pout – I found out something really weird in that cellar. Let me just tell you, it's kind of a long story. Y-You're filming still, right?
The interviewer nodded, and Cole continued.
I found tapes down there. They had to have been 15 or 20 years old tops. I was nervous even going down into the cellar. There was a ladder leading down to the floor, and I climbed down slowly. I was cautious. Anything could have been down there. Turns out, I was right. I put on my flashlight and saw things laying around. Belongings. It was like someone had lived underneath my nose, or the noses of previous inhabitants. It chilled me to the bone.
One of the first things I noticed, aside from a dusty cot and old TV set was a set of tapes. I was curious, so...I naturally took the top 3 tapes laying on top of the box of other ones back into my house and took them to my TV. A VHS is unheard of, but....it was there when I moved in.
The first video I saw was really creepy and made no sense. It was, uh, frightful panting...and a guy with a pig head chasing after whoever filmed the tape. It looked like one of those creepy Youtube videos someone put up for fun to scare others. The camera also was shaky, which added to the creepy level. Scarier than Sarah, I'd say.
Next video I popped into the VHS player startled me the minute it played. I paused it, gasping to see a middle-aged man, probably in his late-50s with no hair and a long, matted, messy beard. Then I remember that the surroundings in the video were the same as what I saw in the cellar. The quality was horrible, but at the same time, I could make out what he was saying. I sat down, cracked open my soda, and listened as I took a sip.
"I am not what I am. This is not what I envisioned when I first came here, but there are forces that will not let me sleep."
The man's voice sounded crazed. He clearly wasn't sane in any way.
"They keep coming to me, showing me horrible things, escalating every night, until it got physical." Then I watched, in the video, he was taking down his shirt collar. "Look, look. Here's what they did to me!" I nearly had soda down the wrong pipe, watching as he showed deep scarring around his neck while frantically panting. My eyes widened, staying that way for the duration of his next sentence.
"I'm too afraid to go back into that house now. I fear that whatever malevolent force is there intends to kill me! S-So I'm living here in the cellar. It's-it's cold. It's smelly, a-and despite appearances, I am not crazy!"
Sure, sure you aren't, pal...well, then he got into, you know, who he was, exactly. It was a relief to know, but it was still...ugh, unsettling!
"I am an academic. I am an author," he said in the video. Keep in mind, he still sounded crazed. "Okay, from the beginning. Today is October 11, 2005. This recording will be my last testament."
So...this man is dead? That was my first thought, obviously.
"Um, I want to tell the truth, as much as I know of it. Fact: my name is Dr. Elias Cunningham. I am a professor at Bradley University," he described. "Fact: I came here two months ago to begin research on my new book about the Roanoke Colony disappearance of 1590. I was staying with my colleague, Professor Lawrence MacLean."
I paused it. Lawrence MacLean? I immediately put two and two together. Barbi and Sarah...they were his daughters, maybe? Definitely related, I know that.
"He is now dead, but he has two daughters. Both with bright red hair. You couldn't miss them." Yup, I got my answer. I continued to watch, listening carefully. This man was clearly NOT stupid. Just really crazy, it seems.
"They just moved out of this house three days ago. The two girls are orphaned now and live with their uncle. Before moving here, this house had previously been unoccupied for 15 years. The family before them included a father, a mother, two daughters. Had lived in the house only for a brief time before they suddenly vacated. They left all their possessions behind. They left no forwarding address. Just like the two girls taken in by their uncle. No one knows where they live now. They could be in the woods in a shack."
I paused it again, thinking to myself...why Sarah had stopped me in the middle of the road, woods all around us...just to get out with Barbi. It all seemed to be coming together. I continued to listen. I knew this had to do with those two girls.
"Fact: October 2, 2005, just a couple days ago, police were called by one of the little girls, frantic and crying, saying her parents were dead." Oh dear Lord...I...I knew that must have been a horrible experience...those poor girls, I thought at the time.
"I remember being called back here, I was staying here. I was out for the evening and left the girls alone. Thinking their parents would naturally take care of them. I c-come back, I see both bodies, of Lawrence and his wife, Kelly, b-being dragged out. T-They were struggling to put the bodies in bags to be taken away. I saw Lawrence was heavily butchered."
I immediately thought of that woman in colonial clothing. Could it have been her, somehow? It didn't seem to make a ton of sense to me.
"I couldn't even recognize his face. I ran to the little girls. The youngest one cried her eyes out, and the older one had completely flat affect. No emotions, consoling her sister in her arms. Before I knew it, I was out here, and they were gone. The house was put up for sale. They tried to make it presentable. They put in new carpeting, repainted all the walls. But it does no good. Strange things still happen. That house is now vacant. I haven't set foot in that house in days, but I'm going back in there. I don't know if I will survive, but I have to see exactly what it is."
I paused the tape and looked down at my jeans...I couldn't believe it. Barbi and Sarah BOTH lived in this same house I now own? And now they could have been living god-knows-where nearby. I asked myself 'Cole, you sure they're not the ones causin' trouble?'
"Did you think they were, Mr. Paterson?" the interviewer questioned. Cole just looked down and sighed, his face neutral to the question.
Well, I think it was a bit ridiculous, if that were the case. Like if they were watching me, or...like how would that idea explain Barbi being upset about her uncle's disappearance?
I didn't see them until later than expected, later that week, as I just said. They were too preoccupied with the disappearance of Martin. A few days passed, still no sign of him. I remember even driving to and from work at the lumber mill, seeing posters of his face posted up on trees and light posts, however many were in the area near my house.
They ended up finding him by Saturday. That was when I saw Barbi again. Seeing those tapes and seeing her, how beautiful she was, I actually started to feel terrible for her. I pitied her. Both of them, actually, even though Sarah was always there scaring me. There had been a knock on my door. I rushed to it, I remember it was Saturday afternoon. Before I could tell who it was, I felt small arms tightly hugging me. The first giveaway was the red hair. It was Barbi.
"T-They found him..." she whined, sobbing into my shirt.
"Martin?" I asked, putting my arms just on the sides of her sleeves.
"Yes... h-he was butchered..." Barbi's tears just kept falling. The entire situation was so strange, yet so stressful. I pitied her even more. "W-What I...w-we saw, was real!"
"I know that, but," I pulled her off me and looked down at her, raising her chin up with my hand so we could make eye contact. Those dark eyes just sucked me right in. "Are the cops out there?"
She nodded – "t-they should be here any minute."
My heart skipped a beat. "Why? I-I have nothing to do with this." I sounded like a cold bastard at that moment, and felt absolutely terrible. But what she said next chilled me to the bone.
"S-Something...i-is in the barn..."
"What barn?"
"You have a barn...on your property..." she said. I didn't even know this, but this alone confirmed Professor Cunningham's final testament in the tape I found and watched.
I honestly felt like an idiot to not know all 10 acres of my new property front to back. I mean, 10 acres is a LOT of land for one man. I've only seen a fraction of it, the smallest of it being my own house. Barbi turned around, and a cop, different from ones I have seen since moving to Roanoke, stood in the doorway.
"Are you Collin Paterson?" he asked me.
I nodded.
"Yeah?"
"And you own this property, right?"
I nodded again. "Yes?"
"We need you to come to the station," he told me. My heart skipped a beat again, but I ignored it in favor of the hard comfort of Barbi's hand clenching mine into hers. I also could tell she was just as nervous. But why? She hadn't done anything wrong.
Well...so I thought.
Sarah was already in a cruiser. Barbi and I joined her in the same one, taken to the station. None of us were under arrest, but I was told personally, upon entering the police station, that they needed help identifying 2 people who had been occupying the barn on my property. I hadn't even known there was a barn up until now. I felt like an idiot, again, BUT also, 10 acres is a lot for one man who was always working and making his living despite all the crap going on.
I was called in to identify these two, well, what looked to be young men, or teenagers. I don't even know. I couldn't tell because they both were covered in FILTH, their hair was matted, and their faces contorted like...like demons. They had been given clothes to wear by the police officers, and I saw they were handcuffed in the front, moving their hands as though they were mentally retarded. They...they belonged in a ward, in strait jackets. All I heard was loud moans or, whatever sound being made, from them, as they were kept behind a glass windowed room.
It was disturbing to say the very least. But deep down, I was scared.
I seemed they only knew one word. Someone was in there with them, a shrink or something.
I remember her saying in that heavy Southern drawl, with pieces of candy in her hand, "I'll give ya more if ya tell me yer names."
One word was said by the two: "CROATOAN! CROATOAN!"
Barbi and Sarah joined me in the identification room, and I looked to see the flat affect on the eldest sister. Barbi, however was gripping the green stone hanging from her neck. She was closing her eyes, and I could see her taking a few breaths before opening them back up, still holding the pendant.
I had no clue what "Croatoan" meant. It was Pig Latin to me. Well, at the time.
We had been taken back to the farmhouse by the officers about two hours later. The police had gone entirely. They were done investigating. There was nothing else to see. Sarah had gone entirely to God only knew where, while Barbi stuck around with me. She sat on my front porch's steps, sighing and holding the green stone on her neck. I stood in front of her, hands on my hips and sighing. It was that moment, I brought up the word the two mentally retarded boys were saying.
"Barbi," I said.
She looked up at me, her beautiful face just sucking me in, but I knew she had explaining to do. "Mhm?"
"What does 'Croatoan' mean?" I questioned, moving a bit closer.
After a brief silence, she told me: "that's what those boys were saying."
"I know that," I told her. "But I ain't stupid."
She just looked at me as though I slapped her in the face. I just continued.
"You know more than you want others to believe. I ain't blind to it anymore. No more games. Tell me."
"Tell you what?" Barbi questioned.
"Don't play dumb," I told her a bit more forcefully. I never was like this, especially with women. I sat next to her, and she inched away, knowing I wasn't really happy with her and her secrets. "I know you know what that godforsaken word meant!"
"D-Don't be like this," Barbi replied.
"Then tell me!" I exclaimed, trying to tone my voice down with her. "Please..."
I saw Barbi hold her pendant, looking down at it. She fixed the skirt of her dress, a gauzy fabric with light-colored embroidery on the front and bottom of the skirt. She was wearing tights and worn-out boots, and her lowr lip just trembled as I heard words come from her.
"This is gonna sound stupid, maybe you won't believe in it," she told me, stammering nervously, "but...C-'Croatoan' is a...a word to...make the evil spirits go away."
I just looked at her. I didn't say anything. I just listened. I didn't want to be unfair and draw conclusions or read into things that weren't there. I saw her sniffle a bit.
"Cole...w-when you moved in...and my sister and...uncle and I, came here to welcome you," she told me, "and...those teeth fell...it's not anything new..." She inhaled sharply through her nose. "My sister and I...used to see it...all the time...and...that word...was the only word to make it all go away."
"I don't understand," I finally said, still trying my best to understand her. It was all nonsense to me, but after living in that house for close to two weeks at that point, and everything happening, it was no shock to me.
"M-My dad was a professor of history at a college about 45 minutes away from here," she continued. "H-He had done research with a colleague of his...about the disappearance of all those people...all those years ago. And...'Croatoan' was...something my dad discovered..." She looked down at the necklace around her neck. "This necklace he got for my mother to further protect her. She loved that stuff." Then she paused again. "Y-You're gonna think I'm crazy!"
"I'm listening," I told her. "What else do you have to tell me. I know there's more."
"There is, I'm getting to it," Barbi said reluctantly. "Well...aside from my dad knowing the word from his research, he didn't know...it was actually a warning."
"A warning?" I was intrigued, for sure.
"Yeah...m-my mom was a believer in all that...paranormal stuff..." Barbi sighed and massaged the stone on her neck with her thumb. "She called a medium...he came to the house. He was from New Orleans. His name was Cricket. He...I don't know if he's still practicing and helping people...but...I remember my dad turned him away...he was mad at my mom for paying him...whatever amount of money she did...called him a con-artist, and he ran...h-he never ended up helping us...he came...briefly for a consultation, and...he first said that word. My dad just brushed it off as hogwash, but...I remember...every time I would whisper the word...or think it...I'd feel better. Like something was lifted...d-do you understand?"
Reminded me of the feeling I got saying my prayers at night. Nothing more. I clasped my hands together and nodded, trying to piece together what she had to say to me.
"There was truth there, in what he said. I do believe him...I was, I think, 8 or 9 when he came to...this house...we lived here," she confessed finally.
"So...you do know what goes on around here?" I asked. I felt like a smart-Alec but...I just listened. Regardless.
"Look, it's not that simple...w-when my parents, well...they died...and...our father's brother took us in. Less than ideal situation, but...we still have a place," she told me. "H-He was...always hunting or...doing something. We didn't have much from that point on...but now..."
My eyes widened in horror. Barbi and her sister were living poor, and right under my nose, too. And in those WOODS, mind you! I shook my head in disbelief. Women, by definition, are weaker than they think they are...they need a provider. If that meant me, then...Uncle Charlie's reason for giving me his assets was prophetic.
"No more," I told her. I inched closer to her and spoke. I felt like a man for the first time in my life. "You and your sister are getting out of wherever you been living all this time. You're both living with me."
Barbi's eyes widened in horror, tears filled them quickly: "no, no, I can't."
"You will," I told her with a bit more force. I could tell I was scaring her, but I couldn't just let 2 women, even if one creeped me out, live on their own. It was un-Christian of me. "You're staying here. I'm sending a UHAUL truck to you two right now, and we are moving you here."
"I can't!" Barbi whined. "Sarah wouldn't be happy!"
"She ain't gonna be much happier staying wherever you've been staying," I told her.
There was no further protest from her. So...I was led, by Barbi, to where she'd been all this time. I was quite shocked to realize how deep in the woods they were, in the midst of all the danger that had gone on. Laying my eyes on it, I was shocked even more. I felt like I was looking at a large scale model of a Lincoln Log cabin. It was so simple, it nearly turned my stomach. Damn, I wasn't totally rich growing up, but my sister and mother back at home lived in something a bit better than that. I was a bit run down and too rustic even for a Southern country boy's liking. I don't even think the scum of white trash would be caught dead in this little house. I questioned myself so hard...how the hell could they have lived this way?
"Did you see the girl's sister in there?" the interviewer asked, jotting notes down.
Oh, yeah. We did. She wasn't happy either. She looked like she was gonna kill me. Barbi invited me in, and in the entire place, it was one-room and Sarah was cutting vegetables for what looked to be their dinner. Ugh...whatever it was.
"You dumb bitch!" Sarah exclaimed, wide-eyed at me as she yelled at her sister. "He ain't supposed to be here!"
She was literally waving the knife in front of her face. It was a big cleaver, like you'd use for meat. Weird, how she used that for vegetables. I felt like she was going to take that and cleave my skull in half.
"Sarah," Barbi said, going to her sister. "Please! He got a point! We can't be out here anymore! It's not safe! Our old house is better than-"
"WE ARE SAFE!" Sarah had saliva droplets coming through her gritted teeth. "I keep us safe!" She looked at me and shook her head, the cleaver still in her hand. "We don't need a man to keep us safe!"
It was that moment, she hacked up some spit and spewed it on the floor in front of me. The biggest insult ever. From anybody. If I do say so myself.
I had to think fast. I may not have wanted Sarah with me in the same house, but I wanted Barbi, cared for her more than her sister. I need to do something. So I did. I took Barbi into my arms from behind, and she didn't even flinch, either, which shocked me.
"Okay, have it your way, then," I said, trying to stay calm. "I'll leave you here, but make sure Barbi comes with me."
Sarah's eyes widened, and I felt Barbi's breathing grow heavier, her heart beating under my wrists.
I whispered in her ear, holding her: "you can have anything, and I mean ANYTHING your heart desires. I can provide for you. I'll do anything...I'll get you new clothes, I'll do anything...just...I'll do anything for you except let you live here in harm's way."
Sarah just shook her head, looking at me. She was clearly jealous that someone was there for her sister aside from her. That bothered her, genuinely. I could tell. She was jealous as all hell, looking at her sister like a jealous boyfriend would do to his girl.
I softened her up real fast: "Sarah...y-you, too."
Barbi's breathing and heart rate went back to normal. She wasn't happy now, either. Guess you can't please everyone.
"What the hell could I want from you?" the older sister asked disrespectfully.
"Anything like your sister would want. Comfort, clothes, jewelry..." I offered. No way in hell. I was like a mouse trap waiting to catch this rat. "Just...I can't let you live in harm's way."
Sarah said nothing, putting the meat cleaver down. Barbi turned around and I loosened my arms around her to let her face me.
"Cole," she said. "One condition. You'll do anything."
I held her hand: "YES. Anything. What is it you want me to do for you?'
It was unthinkable – "I want to find out if Cricket is still practicing. That house needs to be cleansed. I won't settle for anything less."