Rose Creek: A Collection of Short Horror Stories

I: Mrs. Grey

Rose Creek

By Riley Vanderlip

Photo by Herm from Pixabay

I. "Mrs. Grey"

Orford Township

Jonathon Bates - 2019

It was nearing Christmas, and everyone in my university was packing up to go home for a few weeks to spend the holidays with their families; I was doing the same. I go to school in Peterborough, Ontario. I love it here, it was peaceful, it sat on a river and there was an abundance of nature, it reminded me of my home, Rose Creek.

Technically, I lived in a place called Orford Township. However, a little while before I was born, the province made all the townships amalgamate. No point in having hundreds, maybe thousands of little towns scatter the province with their own by-laws, police forces, etc. So for practicality, all small townships across the province merged into bigger municipalities. And all of the surrounding townships in my area, including Orford, merged into one big place known as Rose Creek.

I had my own car, so once I had everything I'd need for my two-week break, I drove off. I smugly cackled to myself as I drove by the masses of university students waiting at the bus station; sucks for them. I had a long drive ahead of me, about four hours if I didn't count stops for gas and food; because of the long drive, I rarely went home, and only visited family on occasions such as Christmas. I was excited to see them; I hadn't seen them since I left for my senior year back in September. Mom was probably already prepping for our big Christmas, family reunion, while my father was probably busy working on his model car in the garage. My older sister, Melanie, was scheduled to come home from her job in the United States today as well, we'd probably be getting home around the same time.

The drive home wasn't bad at all, I was surprised since I left right during rush hour. The sun started to set as I drove past a big, beat up sign that read, "Welcome to Rose Creek!". I drove for about ten more minutes until I entered my township, and an even more beat-up sign that read "Orford", greeted me. I drove slowly through the sleepy town, not a single soul was outside. I wasn't surprised, the entire town probably only had about three hundred people in it, and about ninety percent of them were all past the age of sixty. To get to my house, I had to pass my old school. Orford Elementary School, or OES, for short. When I drove by, I saw a class of children playing in the front yard, with a middle-aged-looking woman, presumably the teacher, standing with her arms crossed, watching them. That was odd, I remember thinking to myself, it was pretty late for school to still be in session. The teacher started waving at me as I passed, and all of the kids quickly followed. I smiled and waved back, and then kept on driving. I was surprised the school hadn't been shut down yet, I had heard talks of the school closing shortly before I left for university. The school was dying, not that many kids left to attend it, but I was happy to find out it was still alive and well.

I finally pulled into my driveway, and my parents and my sister were all at the door to greet me. It was a nice feeling; the entire evening was full of smiles, and best of all, dad jokes. Mom had a great dinner prepared for everyone; she even got my dad out of the garage for a few hours to help. We all sat around the dinner table and caught up with each other, I talked about university life, which was going well for me, then my father asked how the drive home was.

"It was good, actually," I spoke, "It's nice to be back, I see Orford hasn't changed much."

"It hasn't changed in the past twenty years." My father joked.

"Even the school," I said cheerfully, "Old OES is still open I see?"

There was a brief silence at the table, and my mother and father exchanged confused looks.