S T R A N G E  O C C U L T

A loud bang shook the house.

"The second floor," Sally remarked, and instantly we were at the stairs again, this time racing down to the floor below.

Once again we were greeted with the same decaying smell, a stench that definitely hadn't been there moments before. The two of us split as we ran through the rooms again, but other than the smell, I found nothing had changed since our last search. As we came together again, we shook our heads negative. Neither of us had seen anything.

Right then, another bang sounded, this time from the other side of the house.

Just as we were about to run to check it out, another bang from somewhere else stopped us in our tracks.

We paused, stilling our breath as we trained our ears for other noises. Another bang, two rooms down.

And then another bang, this time from the bedroom right next to us. "It's coming closer-" Sally hissed

Her last word was clipped when the door to the room we stood in slammed shut.

When nothing else happened, the two of us lunged for the door. Just as Sally's hand wrapped around the handle, a scream ripped through the air.

"That sounded like a young girl," Sally gasped as the house settled back into a still silence.

I bounced impatiently as Sally struggled with the doorknob. Finally it gave in, and Sally yanked the door open. We poured into the hallway.

But throughout the entire house, we found no sign of a young girl.

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Short update sorry 

Anyways enjoy 

 

So I'm finally revealing the name of the older sister 

Another long update Enjoy my fellow lovely readers 

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~ Sally's pov ~

By the time the sun sank below the horizon, the two of us gave up our search inside the house. Kathryn suggested going through the outbuildings next, and I was forced to agree, even though the temperature was starting to dip from its already cold starting point.

We climbed back out of the window that lead to the back of the house. I eyed the small building stood right behind the house, almost butted up against the house itself. The only thing separating the brick structure from the house was a narrow back porch. It seemed curious to me, though admittedly I didn't know much about 19th century estates. Maybe it was used as a kitchen or for meat storage.

I was too busy wondering about the building, which stood to my right, to notice Kathryn had fixed her attention to our left. "Oh, no," Kathryn muttered angrily. I whirled around and saw the flashing blue and red of a police car. "He better not touch my car," Kathryn added with a growl.

When my older sister started stomping her way back down the driveway, I quickly caught up and followed behind her. In the failing light, I could barely make out the form of an officer standing by the two cars, obviously waiting for us.

"Anything I can help you with, ladies?" he asked gruffly once we were within hearing distance.

Kat quickly stuck out a hand. "Good evening, officer," she greeted cheerfully, shaking the reluctant man's hand. "My name is Jessica Martin, and this is my co-worker, Lisa Philips." With a swift, practiced movement, she pulled something small and white from her shirt pocket and handed it to the officer. "I'm a real estate agent, here to assess the property. Just transferred a week ago," Kat replied without missing a beat.

I watched, forcing myself into a relaxed stance, as the officer read the business card. "You're out here awfully late, aren't you?" the cop remarked.

"Time got ahead of us," Kat explained with an easy chuckle. "We couldn't get here until late this afternoon, but the owner demanded we put this up on the market ASAP, so…" She threw up her arms in a helpless, what-can-you-do shrug.

I kept calm as the cop looked between the two of us. "So Ol' Miss Solons finally caved in, eh?" he finally asked, and I let out an imperceptible breath.

"Yes, she sure did," Kathryn agreed. "Needs some money so she can spend her golden years in comfort."

The officer let out a half laugh, half sigh. "Damn, what a relief. She's had us patrol this road since before I became a cop, just to kick out occasional high-schoolers or sightseers." He shook his head at the thought. "So, how much is that trash heap worth?"

"Well, obviously, it needs major renovation, but when you add in factors such as the acreage and the historic age of the place, it should fetch Miss Solons a pretty penny, at least." I nodded along with Kat's assessment, relieved it didn't sound too half-assed. "I'll have to figure everything out at the office, but you should see the listing."

"All right," the cop said. "Well, it is getting dark, so I'll have to ask you to leave the premises. I'm sure you guys understand."

"Oh, of course, Officer," I replied smoothly. "We were just leaving anyway." There. I could lie just as easily. The two of us parted with the officer, who ambled back to his cruiser.

 

Sorry, I didn't update today, I was at fundraiser for brain cancer, we had to dress as zombies and walk around the city ahaha, I'll update later of tomorrow

 

"So I guess we're not leaving tomorrow, are we?" I said as we climbed back into the Colorado.

When it was apparent the policeman was waiting for us to leave first, Kat pulled out into the road, turning back towards town.

Once she was on the road, she glanced over at me. "Well now, you have an equal say. What do you want to do?"

I sighed, slumping against my seat. Of course Kat would leave it up to me. It wasn't thoughtfulness, it was a dare. I glowered, knowing Kat was gambling that she wouldn't want to leave an open case. As sorely tempted she was to prove me wrong, I was torn.

"Lisa Philips?" I finally asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kat smirked. "You haven't gone through the all those ID's I gave you?" I rolled my eyes.

As we lapsed into silence, I replayed the factors in my head. That mansion was definitely haunted - we witnessed that first-hand - and possibly dangerous.

But since winter was rolling in, what were the chances of somebody trespassing on the grounds to explore or hang out?

Even if they did, fatal encounters seemed to be few and far between. But what if Kat and I did leave, and some hapless person is killed?

Kat spoke up suddenly. "Hey, did you know this town still has a drive-in movie theater? My baby would feel right at home," she said, patting the dashboard of her '78 Colorado. "Maybe we should relax, check out a movie…"

I snorted. "Sorry, Kat, but I just don't like you like that."

Kat grinned back at me. "Thank God. So then, no movie?"

"Don't we have research to do? I want to get this thing over with," I replied, and Kat's grin grew wider.

The hunt was on.

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Sorry, short update

 

As soon as we came back to our hotel room, I quickly set up my laptop and within minutes was logged into the hotel's wireless connection. Kat dropped onto the edge of the bed closest to the desk where I was seated so she could look over my shoulder.

"All right, since the local paper isn't archived past 1987, we'll have to try other sources," I commented as I started typing away.

"At least now we have a last name," Kat added, and I nodded distractedly as I raked my eyes over the search engine results.

"Damn. Nothing," I muttered a few moments later.

I went back to the websites dedicated to the mansion, hoping to find something we might have overlooked. Unfortunately, I didn't, and I was quickly reminded why I had been so skeptical in the first place.

Somewhere along the line, someone attached a Bloody Mary to the property, but no one said why. The only information the different pages listed were rumors of a neighborhood boy disappearing back in the sixties (a slight detail Kat had remembered wrong), and the death of Georgia Menders back in 1991 and Cheryl Steadman in 1998, both of which I verified in the newspaper archives. A woman on one of the websites also claimed that back in the eighties, two of her high school friends committed suicide a week after visiting the mansion.

And that was it. No background, no history. No mentions of anybody named Menders, nothing about a girl dying.

I suddenly leaned forward and began typing again. "That girl we heard scream…She was probably under twelve, you think?"

"Yeah, I'd say so," Kat replied.

"According to the cemetery records, there are 32 people with the last name Menders buried in this county."

"And are any of them young girls?" Kat asked, catching on.

I was already checking. Running through the list of names, I quickly subtracted the birth year from the death year to get the age for every female. By the time I reached the end, I had found only one girl that fit. "Here we are," I announced, taping the monitor to show Kathryn. "Lisa Menders, died May 8, 1925 at age ten."

Frowning thoughtfully, Kat leaned forward to read the screen. "Same day as Georgia," she announced.

"Huh?" I asked, startled. My eyes immediately went to that entry. Georgia Menders, April 3, 1912 - May 8, 1925. Intrigued, I ran down the list again, this time searching for matching death dates.

"Annie, Henry and Henry junior also died on that day." Kat and myself exchanged looks. "A family massacre?"

Kat cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I doubt a house is haunted because a bunch of people died from typhoid."

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Sorry late update

 

~ Kathryn's pov ~

Sally and I stood side by side on the doorstep, a position Sally was quickly becoming familiar with again since she joined myself a month and a half ago.

Eventually, the door swung open, and a man not much older than myself looked at us from behind a screen door. "Hello?" he greeted, bewildered.

"Hello, Mr…Johnson?" I returned politely. "Hi, my name is Jessica Martin and this is Lisa Philips. I'm really sorry to bother you so early, but we're real estate agents, and we'd like to ask you a few questions about the, uh, the clay mansion? I know it's a strange request, but believe me, we'd really appreciate it if you could help us out. It'll only take a few minutes, and then we'll be out of your hair."

Sally recognized her tactic instantly - take a friendly tone, catch the subject off guard, and while he's still surprised, bombard him with smooth, aw-shucks talking until he agrees to help before he has a chance to think it through. And it worked. The guy opened his screen door and let them inside.

"The clay mansion? I don't know how I can help you," Jack Johnson told us.

"Well, you see, before we're allowed to list a house, we have to disclose any deaths that occurred at the property." At that, Jack's eyes widened and his expression cleared as the confusion disappeared from his face. His shoulders stiffened as I continued.

"Now, as I understand it, you were there when Henry Jacobs fell. I'm sorry I have to ask this, but we're required to designate each death as either an accident or a homicide." As he spoke, he managed to sound both regretful and sympathetic. "Unfortunately, all we've been told is that he fell, and the police-well, they're too busy with more important things to talk to us."

"Oh, it was…it was an accident, I guess," Jack replied with a sigh. Sally sagged with relief that she apparently bought my story.

"Are you sure? I mean, can you tell us what happened?" I pressed. "I'd really hate to get sued down the line if it turns out he was murdered.

Jack raked a hand through his golden hair and fixed his gaze on the wall. "Don't you guys have to report if it's haunted, too?"

Sally and I glanced at each other, feeling a little bit of triumph. "Well, yes, actually, we do," Sally stepped in. "Why do you say it's haunted?"

A few moments passed before Jack swallowed heavily. "Back in high school, we went out to the mansion because we heard all these stories about it. So we - Me, Henry, and this girl, Merna - decided to check it out. It, you know, gave us something to do, someplace to hang out and drink without getting caught. Anyway, we snuck inside, and we started to drink in like, the living room or something on the middle floor. But we only had a six pack between the three of us, so it wasn't like we were actually drunk. We weren't drunk," he repeated, staring at me levelly. I shrugged and nodded for him to continue.

"Anyway, Henry decides he wants to explore, but me and Merna stay behind. And we hear him wandering around up there and everything, making fun of him because we were in high school and stupid. And then all of the sudden-" Jack's tongue flicked out to wet his lips. "-Henry screams."

"We just thought he was joking, you know, pulling a prank on us. And we hear him running towards the stairs, and we get up and go to there, see what the hell he was doing.

"And then all of the sudden, he was at the railing at the top of the stairs. Only-only it looked like he was trying to get to the stairs, but something was stopping him. And his face was just-I don't know. We didn't know what was going on. And then, suddenly, his body just…flew off over the railing." As he said that, he illustrated the movement with his hand. "First his head slammed into the wall, and then it just toppled down the rest of the stairs." Jack's gaze flicked between the two brothers. "It was like…I swear somebody threw him."

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Sorry it took a while to update  enjoy

 

Ahahahaha  ye, sorry, I just got caught up with the moment and wrote brothers  they are girls