Sitting in the car looking out the window, she already dreaded her new lifestyle. Her favorite stores were all 10 minutes away, and she went to them almost everyday. Some may call her a shopaholic, others a teenage girl. She spent six bucks on her favorite drink quite often, and loved to bake in the warm weather. Never would she have thought that the creeks of an old house were going to become normal background noise, or that she would have to say goodbye to her beautiful tan and say hello to snow. She was also not used to having more than a patio as a backyard, since the neighbors were right on top of each other, but this is her new life. All the stores that she loved were either gone or 30 minutes away. Same goes for never seeing the neighbors. Her shoes became dirty and her hands callused as she got used to her new normal.

The house was over 50 years old with lots of secrets that anyone has yet to discover. She has seen the house once before and it is nothing like she remembered. It seemed darker, creepier, and more abandoned than before. The ominous stairs leading to the front door mock her as she tries to get up the courage to go into her new home. The mildew smells more prominent now, the house is going to need to be aired out and in desperate need of a deep clean. The house is completely frozen in time; it's like the family got up and left one day. All their stuff is still occupying the space. It’s sat with no one to fill it with love for 60 years. 

For the house having such a harsh mildew smell, everything is still intact, just covered with layers of dust. There are two grand staircases in the front room, one on each side. They both lead you to the hallway upstairs where you can find the bedrooms. She roams through the hallway trying to determine which room stands out to her. As she is passing by other rooms she notices the ancient photos of the family that lived in this house before her. One of the boys in the picture, around her age, looks so familiar it stops her in her tracks and sends violent chills down her spine. In her fright she quickly rips the photo of the wall and chucks it over the balcony only for her to then hear it shatter on the rotting wooden floor beneath her. Calming her speeding heartbeat, she takes a deep breath and continues her exploration of the upstairs. Arriving at the last door of the hallway on the left she stops and peers in revealing a second master bedroom with a on-suite bath and a walk-in closet. She tentatively walks into the room and is delighted to see three stately windows. The warm light flooding through the windows immediately envelopes her, instantly washing away the cold feeling that has settled in the pit of her stomach, after first seeing the rest of the house. Taking a better look of the room, she notices the delicate white metal bed frame in the center, with a straight view of the closet filled to the brim with luxurious men’s suits. Coaxing her out of her daydream is the sound of her mom screaming downstairs. Jolting into action, she tumbles down the stairs to find her mom standing over the broken picture.

 “OMG Mom are you ok?” 

“Mackenzi clean up this f-ing mess right now! I’m done with your nonsense, I know you didn’t want to move here but this is my last straw.” 

Rolling her eyes at the task she cautiously picks up the shards of glass. In doing so, a gust of  bitter wind blows through the ajar front door to flip over and unveil the back of the now loose photo. 

Monday, September 3, 1962 

Vincent Edward Richardson, 17 

Happy birthday Vinny!

Kneeling on the floor distracted by the photo, she doesn’t notice her brother, Lincoln, sneak up behind her. 

“RAWRRRRR” 

Jumping out of her skin from the shock of her brother she swiftly turns around to yell at him. 

“You prick, don’t you have a room to be unpacking?”

Lincoln proceeds to stick out his tongue and wiggle his fingers by his ears in a taunting manner before darting off in the direction of his new room. She hastily finishes picking up the glass then stuffs the picture in the back jean pocket. 

Tossing and turning in bed she realizes that there is no hope for getting any sleep tonight between the annoyingly steady drip of the faucet in the room next door and the loud banging and shuttering of the wind against the giant vintage windows. She heaves a deep irritated sigh and grabs the pillow from behind her head, forces it down beside her ears in a rainbow shape, to block the noise. Determining that she can not keep this position all night, she drags her sleep-deprived body out of her down comforter and the 60 year old pillow top mattress to turn on the always flickering light; thinking to herself she will have to fix that later. She moves over to the closet to work on clearing some of the clothing out. Sifting through the suits, she comes across a dingy looking flannel stuffed at the very back of the closet. On it is the inscription:

V. E. R. 

The initials reminded her of the name she saw earlier that afternoon in the foyer on the erie picture of the young man. Suddenly she felt a ghostly presence urge her over to her discarded jeans on the floor by her bed. When she stepped on an unsteady floor board, twisted her ankle and without realizing it set the floorboard agape. Crawling on her knees over to her jeans, she pulls the picture. Turning back to the closet for the flannel, she spies the off-set floorboard that she had tripped on. Lifting it up like the boy in past had done a million times before, she finds a medium sized Banister dress shoe box. Intrigued after unearthing the box she moves to pull it out. Blowing the dust off that had gathered the last 60 years she continued to take a closer look. Knowing she shouldn’t, she decided to go through the contents of the box. Inside is a small pocket watch and two small pieces of paper folded neatly into squares. With curiosity getting the best of her she starts with one of the bigger folded pieces of paper. Delicately unfolding the aged paper to disclose an identity. 

Full Name of Child: Vincent Edward James 
Sex: Male
Race or color: White (Italian)
Date of Birth: September 3rd, 1945 
Place of Birth: Pine Mountain, Georgia 
Full Name of Mother: Amelia C. Richardson
(Maiden Name) Amelia C. Huxley

Full Name of Father: Elijah F. James 
Fathers occupation: Gardener

Signature of Medical Attendant: Dr Elednhfid eoughrjr

Along with the birth certificate was a handwritten note that stated:

Dear my beloved son Vinny, 

Happy 17th birthday! I am so sorry that we have to hide 

our relationship, but I hope someday we can get to know 

each other better. I love you.

-your loving father, 

Elijah James

Lastly, a pocket watch with the engraving “I love you my dear son - Herald Richardson” and a photo on the inside. After reading what she had in her hand she felt a 

strong sense that there was more to the story than what at first mets the

eye about the boy that occupied the room before her, but she assumes 

she will never know. Overcome with a nauseating feeling she decides 

to put the box back under the floorboard, while doing so she realizes 

that the carpet in the closet had come up a bit. Scooching over to lay back down the carpet, she caught a glimpse of a stain on the wood. Moving back the carpet ruther now, to get a better look, the stain is red. Dark red. Feeling this is something it is best to not discover, she puts down the carpet and goes back to emptying out the closet just trying to forget about the whole thing. 

60 Years Prior:

“Gardener! You messed my hedge again, can’t you see its slanted you son of a b-”

“You know what Herald, I’m tired of you treating me like poop on the bottom of your shoe, you think you got everything figured out, the perfect wife, the perfect kids, but your eldest son you’ve been raising is not actually your blood.”

“You scumbag, get out of here! You're fired!” 

Dear Diary,                                   Feb. 9, 2022

I’ve only been at my new house for a night and I already found some scary stuff with this house. I want to go home. I moved into the last room in the hallway since it is another master room. It’s the only plus in moving, I get a big room with huge windows, my own bathroom, and a whole walk-in closet. Except I found this box of stuff in the floorboard which is nothing weird, most kids hide stuff. But when I was putting it back the carpet was up and there was a stain, it looked like a bloodstain. I know it’s probably just me being scared moving into a new house but the story is the family just got up and left one day but with this stain I think it’s something else. 

A crippled man that looks like he is just about on his deathbed hobbles up the driveway and it catches her attention. She decides since she doesn’t have anything better to do, she might as well go outside with her parents and talk to him. “Hi, my name is Elijah James. I'm your next-door neighbor. I was a gardener of the family who owned this house before you 60 years ago. Truly sad what happened to the Ritchersons. Too bad there is no one left to tell the story.” As the old man walked off towards his home next door he looked back and winked at me before continuing on.

2 Months Later

Dear Mackenzi, 

I know you aren’t expecting this and it might be a little hard to read and gruesome but I’ve been getting sicker so this letter will either get to you before or after I’m gone and either way so be it. I have to get this off my chest and I have a feeling you have found some of it out by moving into Vinny’s room. I was the gardener of the Richardsons like I told you before. Herald was the dad and he married Amelia. I feel for Amelia pretty hard but I never did anything about it, one day she did. She got pregnant with Vinny but Herald was rich and I was not so she stayed with him and I continued to work for them so I could watch Vinny grow up. Herald always ripped into me about messing up the shrubs or trees, one day I got fed up and didn’t bite my tongue. I told him that his oldest boy was not really his blood. He fires me but he has done that multiple times, so the next morning I still show up for work. I hear gunshots. Worried what I said made him figure out that Vinny was Amelia and I’s son, I rushed inside to find Herald in a bloodbath of all their bodies. He must have thought that the two youngest weren’t his either or he just completely lost it I don’t know. Either way I killed him, he didn’t know I was inside all I had to do was shoot him. Realizing that it would look like I killed the whole family and not just Herald, I hid all the bodies. I continued my work after that and for the next few days. When people finally realized they were gone, everyone just assumed Herald got into some bad business at work and they fled. It really is a shame. Anyways do what you want with this information, I’m probably already dead. 

Best of wishes in the new house, hope you don’t freak out too much. 

-Elijah James