Kenneth Manor (Haunted)

Chapter Twelve

After everyone was settled, I sneaked outside to see who this mystery person was in my backyard.

“I hope my daughter hasn’t caused you any trouble,” the man said.

“Well, who is your daughter?” I asked.

“She’s Amy,” he said. “I believe you two have met before.”

“Yes, we have. Wait,” I said suddenly realizing who this man was, “you’re Amy’s father?”

“Yes, I am. Amy and I used to be really close before she became drunk with her own power. I recently became aware of my daughter’s activities, and saw her turn into ash on the other side of this forest here. It’s not a pretty sight to see, watching your daughter disintegrate before your eyes, but I guess after all the suffering she’s put people through, I guess she deserves it.”

“I feel really bad for how her life turned out.”

“Yes, but as a child she just never was a social girl. Though she and her sister, Bella, were really close, she wasn’t a very talkative person. She would always be quiet during dinner, and whenever we asked her about something, she would shrug. I guess in a way she wanted to be alone, but if she wanted to form a close bond with her family, she should have just talked to us.”

I know how that feels sometimes, I thought.

“I should be going,” Amy’s father said. “I feel my energy draining.”

“Farewell,” I said.

“You know, if you and Amy were alive in the same time period, maybe you two could have been friends.”

“I never thought about it like that. No offense, but I can’t picture your daughter without seeing an evil thing.”

“None taken,” he laughed.

And with that, he disappeared from sight.

All was well, except there was one thing I needed to take care of.

My mother asked me to see Xavier and Charlie to the door. While the rest of my family was putting away the dishes, I saw both men to the door.

The silence was extremely uncomfortable. It was like you were in a room filled with people you know, but have nothing in common so there’s nothing to talk about. I knew what I had to do, but, I guess, after knowing you were the one at fault, it’s harder to apologize.

“I’m sorry for what I said to you at Oak Park earlier,” I said. “I really did think you were the bad guys.”

“I’m sorry too, for bringing you here,” he said. “I wanted to fix the problem using your powers, but in a way, I guess I am no better than my father.”

“No,” I said, “I am wrong because I should have listened to your side of the story before I jumped to my own conclusions. I didn’t want to listen to your story because I was only thinking about what I thought of you and Charlie. I never thought about what you two had to say.”

“We understand,” replied Charlie. “We shouldn’t hold you accountable for what you did. Any other reasonable person would do the exact same thing.”

“What we both had planned was that you would use your powers against Amy, eliminating her army before she becomes too powerful,” Xavier said. “Ghosts are easily distracted and persuaded so controlling them would have been the easy part. Maintaining your focus and control on them is harder. Even Amy lost her concentration at times while she was controlling her ghosts. You just took advantage of it.”

“You did wonderfully,” Charlie commented.

“So what happens to Amy?” I wondered. “Is she gone forever, or will she come back?”

“It gets a little complicated,” Xavier said. “What my father and I have researched over the years was that ghosts, or, more specifically, the evil ones, stick to the shadows. Which is why in every haunted house movie that involves ghosts, many of the ghosts are shown as shadows; Amy and her army live and thrive in shadows, whereas the good spirits rely on their energy on sunlight. Evil spirits are at their strongest at midnight, and the good ones are at their strongest at noon.”

I thought back to when I visited Amy’s father. The sun was still barely up, which must explain why he hadn’t stayed long. I also remembered how Amy and her army dissolved into nothing as the first sun rays touched them. What he was saying makes sense.

“For Amy, a powerful being she had became, she will still live on as a spirit, unfortunately. However, because, as an evil soul, she was in the sunlight, she is not as powerful as she once was. You may still see her around the house at night, but she shouldn’t cause any harm to you and your family,” Xavier said.

“Will she be able to regain her powers?” I asked.

“No,” Charlie said. “It is highly unlikely that she will. Once an evil spirit has been touched by the sun, and if they survive, it will carry with them like a disability. She can never achieve that magnitude of power in her condition.”

A silence filled the space among the three of us.

“Thank you again for all of your help,” I told them. “And I’m sorry.”

They simply nodded and headed out the door.

 

I really wish I could say that I never saw Amy ever again. I really did. However, I continued to sense her presence, especially upstairs, and occasionally, at night, I could hear someone walking up and down the hallways. I also wish I could say that didn’t creep me out. But because I’m only human, it did.

My family and I stayed in Casbury, Maine, but we never stayed in that house. Xavier helped us find a smaller house in a different part of town (even though it was still bigger than our old house in LA), and the best part is, Trevor’s house is two blocks from where I live now. I don’t see Xavier anymore at my school. I used to for a couple of weeks, but he told me one day at school that he was going to work at a different job in a town ten minutes outside of Casbury. I missed him a lot. He’s become like an uncle to me now.

I hope the story of Amy and her family becomes well known. I also hope this story will get out to the public as soon as possible. Everyone needs to know about this. For me and my family, we can start anew. But for another poor family who unfortunately purchased Kenneth Manor, I hope this story gets to them soon. They’ll need it.

So you have been warned about the dangers of Kenneth Manor. Take my word for it. Don’t go near the house under any circumstances.

Or you’ll be next...