Kenneth Manor (Haunted)

Prolouge

(1976)

I went there for one thing and one thing only: the truth. I had to find out what really happened, and the only way I could do that was if I return to my childhood home. Was I afraid? Yes. In fact, I was terrified for what would happen to me, but I was willing to make the sacrifice. For my mother, my father, my whole family. I owed them that much.

As the taxi drove away, I turned to face the house I grew up in for the first fifteen years of my life. I hadn’t been there since I graduated high school. I hadn’t been there since that night with my parents….

Stop, you’re redeeming yourself now. I had thought. There is no need to dwell on the past. You need to concentrate.

It was a large Victorian-looking house. I had never been familiar with the type of houses that were out there. It had two floors, a basement, and an attic. Moss and vines covered the entire house and it had looked like it needed some repairs. Nothing too drastic…

By pure luck, I won the lottery and was then able to move back to my childhood home, fix any damages the house required, and purchased any groceries that I would need later. I won about 1.2 million dollars so technically I was a millionaire, and now can live my life in luxury and relaxation. That wasn’t the case. I may have lived in luxury, but that didn’t mean I was living in relaxation. Especially because I had a lot of things on my mind lately...

I opened the front door and immediately a strong, putrid odor hit my nostrils. It smelled like a family of skunks that rolled in a garbage, crawled in a window, and died all at once. Knowing I probably shouldn’t put my bags inside, I had left my luggage outside, and stepped into the house.

It wasn’t that dirty. In fact, besides all of the dust, the house was relatively clean. The dishes were still in our kitchen cabinets, and the furniture was exactly the way I remember it, even if it was a little dirty. I toured the kitchen and then the den. Vivid memories of my brother and sister, James and Bella, hit me the most when I looked around the kitchen….

“James, it’s your turn to wash the dishes!” Bella yelled.

“No, I did it yesterday; it’s your turn,” he yelled back.

“Bella! James! Stop arguing, or I will make the both of you clean the entire kitchen!” my mom yelled, her patience dwindling.

“No need, Mom, I think I’ll just do the dishes, there are just some battles you can’t win,” I told her, already walking toward the sink.

“Thanks, Amy, you’re a lifesaver.”

James and Bella were still arguing over whose turn it was to do the dishes. Eventually, after both sides had called each other several insults, threatened to tell either mom or dad what the other said, they called it a stalemate.

“Whatever, I’ll just do it tomorrow,” James said. “But don’t expect me to do this again to you. I know it was your turn to the kitchen chores.”

“Would you both be quiet?” I asked them, irritation creeping into my tone. “You should both be thankful that I decided to try to end your bickering and do it for you.”

“Which is why we asked Mom and Dad for the extra child; just so that we could have someone do all the dirty work for us,” Bella said.

A dinner plate flew toward her head, narrowly missing it, and the voices of my shocked parents in the background were all I could hear....

 

A squirrel that scratched the window drew me back to reality, momentarily making me confused as to how I had traveled from the kitchen to the bathroom. Exiting from the bathroom, I continued down memory lane in the living room. The only prominent memories of when I was younger was my father watching baseball games with James. They would always talk sports, and Bella and I could never understand them, ignoring the two until they addressed us by name. Which was usually to ask if we could get them snacks.