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What was up with that blonde girl? I couldn't shake it from my head as I made my way to the closest exit. Why did she care so much about reputation? I could understand it if it was her own reputation in jeopardy, typical "peaked in highschool" popular kid stuff. But this? She was concerned about the town and theories, not herself. Maybe she was more than some random mean girl, I wasn't sure, though I didn't really care at the moment.
I walked out the same double doors that I did the day before. It was raining pretty hard, but luckily for me, I stood safely sheltered underneath a little roof. I was thinking about calling my mom to come and pick me up instead of walking home, but my focus was pulled elsewhere when I heard the doors click open behind me.
"Hey Emmy!" Cameron said, quite loudly, as it was hard to hear over the pouring rain.
"Oh, uh, hey." I said, a little confused, "How did you know I was out here?"
He shrugged, "I was down one of these halls and Veronica's monster heels can be heard from a mile away, no pounding rain on a roof can change that. I looked down the hall and saw you go outside, so I was curious... I also leave out these doors anyway, so, I guess that's an explanation that makes more sense." He looked up at the sky, "Are you really gonna walk home in this?"
"Well, I was thinking about calling my mom. Don't get me wrong I love the rain, but I'm not crazy." I said as I looked to the pavement of a parking lot, water splashing aggressively against it.
"Hm. How about you come and hangout with Dominik and me?" He suggested, "My mom should be here any minute, and she wouldn't care, she's super chill, we just gotta wait for–"
The sound of the door opened loudly, "I'm late! Don't leave without me!"
"Dominik!" Cameron said, finishing his sentence. “Do I have perfect timing or what?” He said while nudging me with his elbow.
"Hey Cam, what's Emmy doing here?"
“I’m here because I’m trying to go home, but a deadly downpour is preventing me from doing so.”
"Oh, can we take her home with us? Please?" Cameron asked, joking.
"I'm not a dog," I said with a slight roll to my eyes. "And sure, if my parents allow me to. I mean, I just met you guys yesterday." I began dialing her number, then the phone rang.
We had a short conversation, and then I hung up. “I’m good to go,” I said. "Or at least I think," I joked. "It's kinda hard to understand someone on the phone, especially when the weather is trying to get revenge on mother nature."
"Hm, well then!" Cameron said, putting his hands on both of our shoulders the best he could, as he was a bit shorter than us, "An adventure awaits!"
"Adventure?" I said, "I wouldn't say going down a few streets is an adventure."
"Well, the start of an adventure, anyway!" He said, and spoke with confident assurance, "We're all gonna figure this out by the time Junior year is over. I'm sure of it. That is the adventure!"
Cameron’s mom arrived shortly after I hung up the phone for my my own. She texted Cameron that she arrived, and us three ran around the building to the parking lot, where we jumped into the car. Despite our rush, we still got soaked in the downpour.
"Hey mom!" Cameron said as he shut the car after hopping in after Dominik, "This is Emmy, she's coming with us!"
"Hi!" I said, as I shut my door, quite suprised that he can just invite a random girl into his mom's car before even letting her know. "Hope I'm allowed to come along!"
"Oh! No, you're fine!" She said, and proceeded to welcome me to the town apon discovering I'm new. She said she's not surprised we became friends so quickly, due to the three of us and our social, outgoing personalities.
The three of them then talked about where they lived, and where they lived was an apartment building down that road I saw the day before. They both met each other there when they were young, and also became friends in school. They saw each other everyday. We arrived at the building and I observed it.
It was a rather big building that lay at the end of a little street in the woods, seeming very out of place. There were a few houses around, but not too much. I noticed while driving there was an entrance to an abandoned looking nature trail and park. The building looked to be on its last legs, and it wasn't exactly the nicest, but hey, it was still standing, which I guess counts for something.
"Don't judge a book by its cover, Emmy." Cameron said to me as he and Dominik pushed open the doors, "This place might not look too nice, but boy oh boy, do I get some good activity here! Do you know how many people have died in this building? Spoiler alert, It’s a whole lot, and that makes it a spirit gold mine!"
"Oh, Cameron," His mom said, "I don't want to hear anymore about these ghosts, especially with your new friend here! It just drives me crazy, and I’m sure this nice girl doesn’t wanna hear it, either."
"Sure, mom." He said, and mouthed, "Non-believer." to me, and smiled a bit.
We walked up the stairs to the third floor, Cameron's room number was 26, down near the end of the hallway. We all went inside, and it looked just about how I expected it to. You walk right into the living room, and there's a small hallway straight ahead.
"The bathroom is the door right next to the couch." Cameron's mom explained, "The kitchen area is through the doors to the left, and our rooms are down the hall to the right."
"Thank you, Mrs...."
"Mrs. Johnson." She said, smiling.
"Right, thank you, Mrs. Johnson!" I said, and followed Cameron and Dominik into a room, which was his, shutting it behind myself.
The walls and ceiling of his room were painted like a dark night-sky, with shades of blue and black. He had star, moon, and planet stickers covering every surface, and as I looked closer, I saw that there were some streams of spray on glitter to add to the atmospheric aesthetic. He had supernatural themed posters of ghosts, aliens, and cryptids, paper ghosts were hanging from the ceiling, bookshelves filled with books on conspiracies, a blow-up alien, and even a full plastic skeleton by his bed! He turned off the lights, and all the stickers lit up, they glowed in the dark. He then went and turned on a ghost lamp. Domink turned the lights back on.
"Pretty cool, right?" Cameron said.
"Hell yeah," I said. "Aesthetic on point, dude. I just have one question."
"Ask away!"
"Don't you rent this place?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Then how are your walls painted?"
"Oh!" Cameron scoffed, "Lou doesn't care, that's why! They're the landlord. They're super chill and let us do whatever."
"Ah, I see. One more question, though. Why is there a random apartment building at the end of a dead-end street in the woods?"
Dominik fell back onto a green beanbag chair and said, "We're not sure. We think there might've been another town here a while ago, or something, and this is a really old building. That's just a theory, though. It is really odd." He agreed.
"I've also always thought that this building was weirldly really fucking big." Cameron said, "Like, this place has seven floors!"
"Technically, though, it only has three." Dominik said, "The basement, attic, and lobby are their own thing, and the fourth floor is off limits. We never got told why. It's only these three floors that people live on."
"There's a total of 45 rooms that can be lived in, but from what I know, only 11 are inhabited at the moment, so it's pretty fucking empty." Cameron said while digging for something under his bed. “So basically this building is like, almost abandoned.”
"Mr. Marshall is the only adult in this town that believes in the paranormal stuff going on. We made up the history club so we could all try and figure it out together. I mean, Cam and I were his favorite students last year, weren't we, Cam?"
"Mmhm!" He said, mouth now full of cheddar chips he pulled from under his bed, "Mr. Marshall's been here his whole life, he knows there's some freaky shit goin' on, as does everyone who’s been livin' here for at least a week, I bet you." He shoved another handful of chips in his mouth, "The adults in this town are just… the worst case of skeptics I’ve ever seen. Most of ‘em think the whole Margret killed her family thing is BS. Mr. Marshall’s grandfather personally knew the Humphreys, Gregory Humphrey and him were real close."
"Anyways, let's get down to business," Dominik said, pushing Cameron off his bed, then lifting up the mattress. There was a whole ass conspiracy board under that thing. I thought that only existed in movies and cartoons! It was confirmed, I love these guys. So extra, and for what? Love it!
Cameron got up and slapped the mattress, "This sweet info right here will be able to be moved to a more professional place our first meeting. You wanna hear what we have?"
"Uh, duh!" I said.
"This is a picture of the Humphrey mansion." Dominik said, pointing to the first picture. "It is absolutely forbidden to trespass, but people still do it anyway, but of course you would know that, as you still trespassed, even if it wasn’t past the gates. Teens have come running out of that place with horror stories they can't tell because of legal trouble with the local police. They always come to us, because we're trusted."
Cameron grabbed a folder that was underneath the mattress, "This right here is a collection of all the stories we were told, but our personal favorite is the one by Abigail Gordon, the girl who started it all. An absolute legend who kickstarted the discovery of truth, who inspired others to follow in her footsteps, quite literally!"
Dominik went on, "In 2013 Abigail Gordon, along with her group of friends, snuck into the mansion’s backyard. They searched around for a while and managed to break into the house. They were actually the first ever people to get inside! They were the first of a movement, and many followed them in suit, but nothing has ever compared to this first encounter, at least in our opinion."
Cameron spoke, "Once she and her three accounting friends made it inside, they noticed the silence, but it was a silence followed by the slightest tap, over and over again in repetition! They couldn't figure out where the source was, though. It seemed to be in the top floors of the house.”
The way they told the story engaged me. They were obviously incredibly fascinated and intrigued by this.
Dominik continued, "They assumed that it was just an old house noise, as anyone would typically. They explored the house but didn't really find anything interesting. That is until they finally discovered what the source of the tapping was. Now, you probably think someone was in the house, but that assumption would be wrong… At least in the way you’re probably thinking."
Cameron could barely contain his excitement, and went on like he was making a profound statement. "They go up the stairs to where Grand old Mrs. Margret Clarabelle Humphrey was hanging by a noose! The wind of the open window, knocking her corpse against the wall! They bolted out of that shit faster than diarrhea shoots out my ass!"
"Okay Cam, that's enough." Dominik said.
"Do not silence me, I'm hilarious. Anyway, she and her friends were pretty much scarred after that. They never told the local police as they didn't feel it was necessary, and they would also get into loads of legal trouble for trespassing. Abigail did eventually come to us though, obviously. The old lady had been dead for 100s of years, her corpse was barely even a body, just a rotten heap of bones that was still somehow held together. They said there wasn't really a bad odor, but she's been there for a while, and I assume that window had always been open, so the odor must've escaped that way. No one else would've smelt it, it was too far from other homes."
"Wow, you either talk like you have no idea what pronunciation and grammar are, or like you're an English major... But anyway, wasn't there a police investigation? You said this woman killed her family, wouldn't they look for and find her body?"
"First of all I can talk right when I wanna, talking right is too much work. Second of all, No one actually knows if she killed her family, it’s all jus' speculation by a small number of people, us included. The whole history of this town is really complex, but we do have a book that might be helpful to catch ya up to speed." Dominik must've known what he was talking about, because he immediately got up to search Cameron’s shelves for it.
"We usually try to keep our bookshelves organized, but they've gotten out of hand recently... found it!" He said as he then pulled a large hardcover book off the shelf. He brushed it off and presented it to me.
"Voilà!" He said, and I took the book from him, "The complete story of this town, its founders, and the infamous Humphrey family murder tragedy."
I opened the book carefully. It had pictures and other sorts of stuff in papers. It was a mess of organized chaos.
"It was written by a man named Robert J. Wright," Dominik said, "he practically disappeared off the face of the Earth right after he wrote this, but we managed to get our hands on this book. It was in the back section of the town’s library and seemed to be hidden away. Don't tell anyone, but we stole it. Well, Kimi stole it. If they even noticed it was gone, they wouldn't know who took it."
"I know that she told you and all, but how did you find out about Abigail's story? You said this was in 2013."
"Yes, it was." Cameron said, "She was a sophomore at the time that happened, we were in the 7th grade. When we were freshmen, she was a senior. Dom and I made our fascination for the family commonly known, and we gained a reputation around the school rather quickly. Once word got around, she trusted her story to us. She was the first person to come forward about their illegal findings. After she came out, other people began coming to us, too. Most would simply type it anonymously and leave it inside our lockers. We started keeping all the papers in a folder, and wrote down the ones that were told to us verbally. I know it might seem like a weird and pointless obsession, but it's much deeper than what it seems on the surface. This book right here will tell you it all."
"So, do I like, get to keep this, or do I read it now?"
Dominik shrugged, "That's up to you. You could chill out and read it now, or you could sneak it home. If you do the ladder, however, do not let that book get ruined, misplaced, or anything of that nature. This is a pure made book, written with pen and ink. It's one of a kind. Kai and Kimi would also kill you if that happened." He thought for a second, "You know, we actually contributed to a large section of this book."
"Huh? Really? How?"
Cameron explained, "So there was this real tiny ad in the back of a newspaper two years ago with an email attached to it. It said he needed any information anyone had on the Humphrey family, as he was gatherin' it all up to analyze. He was the only adult I ever heard belivin' this stuff at the time. So anyways we asked everyone who came forward if we could submit excerpts of their stories and we did. We sent 'em anonymously, and then the beiginin' a last year we nearly done shat our pants. Okay so we were in the local library and in the very back corner Kimi found a handwritten book that he wrote and we were like holy SHIT that was FAST! We sent that shit in near the end of freshman year and found it the beginning of Sophomore this dude is an analyzing and writing God to me I tell you. That man must have super powers over the summer or some shit."
"But why was it in the library? Why was it handwritten?" I asked.
"Lol dude we have no idea, it confuses us, too. Kimi was the one who found and stole this bad bitch and I thank the little brat for doin' so."
I decided I would take the book home, as I was wanting to get to know them more. They gave me a case to put it in to protect it, and put it in my bookbag. Even though it was new and in good condition, they wanted to make sure it stayed that way. They marked a small excerpt for me to read, the very beginning section. They said it was the most important for a simple introduction.
While I was there, we helped each other with our leftover schoolwork, and talked. They were both really smart, even if Cameron didn't really seem it on the surface. My mom came and picked me up around seven, as she said it was too dark for me to walk home alone.
Once the door to the car spammed shut, I didn't even let my mom get out a single word, "Did you know there was a murder in that old mansion on the hill?"
"Jeez, Emmy, I leave you with friends for a few hours and you're already talking about murder! There was no murder there, I did an extensive background check!"
"But it's not a conspiracy, it actually happened! The only conspiracy about the murder is how they died."
"I've seen nothing of the sorts, don't be silly." She said, and I could practically hear the eyeroll in her voice.
"But it's a fact."
"If those boys got this drilled in your head I won't let you continue hanging out with them. For God's sake Emmy you've been going to school for two days!"
It was apparent to me now that the whole case must've been covered up online and whatnot. They must not want anyone to know, but that makes sense. Who would willingly move into a town where people were murdered? I probably shouldn't say anything else, but I did assume that she would have at least heard about it. I was incorrect, though.
When I got home I had dinner, and then changed into pajamas. I went and read the excerpt they sectioned before going to sleep.
The History of Melbrew
A book by Robert J. Wright
The town of Melbrew was founded by Viktor and Alexander Melbrew, two brothers, in the year 1872. Once the 1880s came around, the town was bustling, but with a class divide. A rich family with the last name of Humphrey lived in the town. A mansion was built atop the hill just for them. They were the town's wealth, its income. Viktor and Alexander loved them for that. The family helped the little town tremendously.
The family consisted of the father, Gregory; the mother, Margret; and their two kids. A 9 year old boy named Kimpton, and a 6 year old girl named Stella. In the 1890s, however, the Humphreys stopped showing their faces in the public eye. People were getting concerned, but gave the rich family their privacy. After a few weeks, though, people started to interfere.
The local police were trying to get their attention, knocking on the gates and shouting, attempting to get a response. After some time with no signs of life, they broke open the doors, and were greeted with a horrific scene. The now 10 year old Kimpton lay dead on the floor, his arms torn from his body, axe scars chopped into his skin. They searched around furthermore and found the young little Stella, still clutching her bear, her body cut in half. Then they found the father Gregory laying on a bedroom floor, the lower half of his body missing.
They searched more, but couldn't find the mother. They decided that her body was destroyed entirely, or she had fled, or been hidden. The news got put out almost immediately, and the town was put into a panic. It lost its wealth and a lot of people moved out after that due to fear. As the years went on, the town became what it is today, but people aren't so sure that the mother was completely missing.
Speculation started that she might've been the one to kill her own family, and she ran away from the law. She always seemed off to a lot of people, especially to those who knew her personally. A story was brought to my attention anonymously about a group of people who snuck into the mansion. They reported in their letter that they found the mother's body hanging by a noose, completely decayed. This leads me and a few rare others to believe that after she killed her family, she killed herself as well.
The person who murdered them obviously had a favorite method, noting the missing of the limbs and chopping of the body. If she was also killed like the rest of her family, why would she be hanged? And why hidden in the attic? Could the killer have perhaps wanted to make it look like she did it, to avoid the blame on themselves? If so, it's a clever tactic, but if so, how? And why is it that the police didn't find her body upon investigation? Is this story just a lie, or could they have possibly seen the ghost of Margret Clarabelle Humphrey?
My name is Robert J. Wright, and this is my analysis.
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