The Writer's Voice
The World's Favourite Literary Website
Redfield's Mansion
by
Jonathan Isenor
Dedicated to my loving girlfriend Tara
for all her support,
And to my best friend Scott for his very helpful writing advice.
Eric Mason is almost your typical man; he's a doctor of the Pilt Hospital. Every day he deals with sick patients. Today is irregular; patients have been flowing in by the dozen. Stretcher after stretcher of sick people have been arriving at Pilt Hospital. Only two doctors are on call Doctor. Mason and Doctor Hasburg. A nurse ran up to Doctor Mason with a worried facial expression as she confronted him about a patient. Doctor Mason never even bothered looking into the nurse's concern about the patient instead he just waved her away.
"Doctor Mason, to room three-seventeen." The loud speaker boomed.
Doctor Mason finally decided to look into the patient's condition and ran down to room three-seventeen. A young man lay on a stretcher; nurses surrounded him trying to hook him up to various machines. The Doctor went right to work trying to clear the man's clogged throat. After trying a couple of tests, Eric gave up and walked away. He went about his regular duties not caring about the loss of the patient. Patients continued to flow in and more Doctors reluctantly came into the hospital.
After a long two hours, Eric took his break in the hospital cafeteria, where he met up with fellow co-worker Denise. Denise was pretty and most men at the hospital lusted after her; she was a new nurse who graduated from a very expensive college. She was the talk of the building for quite a while - her long brown hair reached just an inch past her shoulders, her deep blue eyes were vibrant with life. She was about five foot six and didn't weigh too much. Her figure was nice though; she wasn't so skinny that she looked sick, she was the perfect weight.
Eric walked up grabbed a bag of chips and sat down at one of the many free cafeteria tables. Then what every man in Pilt hospital dreamed about happened, Denise walked over to Eric's table. His heart jumped into his throat, as she stood across from him at his table.
" May I sit here?" she asked in a cheery tone.
Eric got up, rushed over to the side of the table she was standing beside and pulled out a chair for her. Denise giggled at his gentlemenly approach and took the seat.
" So, Doctor Eric correct?"
Eric returned to his seat and locked eyes with Denise.
" Yes that's correct." He replied.
She gave him a flirty little girl smile.
"Do you like me?"
Eric bit his lip, his stomach twisted and turned as he pondered the question. The answer came quickly to him though; he decided to be honest.
"Yes, I like you, Denise I find you very attractive," he replied courageously.
Denise got up from the table, she looked quite angered and stared down at Eric as if he was a tiny bug she was about to squash.
"Well too bad."
She turned her back to him, and walked over to another free table and sat herself down. Eric was embarrassed, but he was used to it, women always snubbed him. After finishing his quick fix of chips, he got in the elevator and made his back to his office. The halls seemed still quite crowded with patients, but he still had twenty minutes left on his break, and he wasn't about to go back to work early. It didn't matter if a patient was dying, Eric Mason would not go back to work early, no way no how.
Upon entering his small office, he found a yellow note on his desk, from his sister. Eric's only living relative had called for him, Eric didn't care though, he crumpled up the note and threw it in his garbage bin.
His secretary Claire then entered his office without knocking and slammed ten lime colored folders onto Eric's desk. Claire was always a very upfront woman; she was forty, short and was constantly dying her hair to cover the gray spots.
"The board wants you to review these patients."
Eric was angry from the cafeteria incident and this little outburst from his secretary that was enough to make him snap. He stood up and pointed to the door.
"Get out! Now!" he yelled at Claire.
"Crab." She shot back before leaving his office.
Eric waited the twenty minutes of his break before reviewing the patients. After all his reviews were done and left nicely in his out box, Eric took a glance at his watch, it was quarter after nine. Time to go home, he thought to himself. With that very thought, he did just that, he left his office, punched out at the main desk and left. His shift was supposed to be over at nine so really he did fifteen minutes of overtime. He used the elevator, went to the underground parking lot, found his car and started his venture home.
Eric got home at about nine thirty, a long day of work. When he pulled into his driveway, he glanced over at his neighbor's place to see all the lights off, but their car was in the driveway. This somewhat concerned Eric - his neighbors were night owls and they never went to bed early, it just wasn't their thing. He unlocked his front door, stepped inside his house, walked over to the kitchen, reached in the freezer, took out a TV dinner and threw it in the microwave. After cooking and eating his supper, Eric looked up his neighbor's phone number in the phone book, and called over to their home. The phone rang a good twenty times before he hung up. Eric figured that they must be out and thought nothing of it.
He climbed into the blankets of his comfy double sized bed and drifted off to sleep. The next morning he awoke to the sound of his alarm clock beeping rapidly. He showered, ate breakfast and went back to the hospital for another long shift of work. The shift didn't last nearly as long as he thought it would, and before he knew it, he was back at his driveway. Out of curiosity he glanced over to his neighbor's home again. The same as last night, there were no lights on and the car was still parked in the driveway.
This time an idea dawned on Eric; he would go into the home and look to see if everything was alright. But first he'd call the cops and get them to help him investigate. Although usually a rude man, Eric did care about people; he just had trouble showing it.
The police arrived at the home about forty minutes later, it was ten twenty. After the police went in and surveyed the home, they found it unlocked with no clue to were the people went. This baffled Eric, so he decided to do some investigating of his own. He walked over to a chubby police officer and tapped him on the shoulder. The man turned around and smiled at Eric. His big brown eyes made him appear friendly, as did his smile.
"How may I help you, sir?" the cop asked in a polite tone.
"I'm Eric Mason, the man who called in the disappearance - do you have any clue where my neighbors went?"
The officer looked over a file he was holding, and flipped a few pages backward then forward before tackling Eric's question.
"We don't have a clue where they've gone. You say you reported them missing correct?"
Eric nodded his head. "Yes, I was the one who reported them missing. I noticed the past two days when I've come home from work I've noticed that their lights have been off, but their car is in the driveway. I got scared that something might have happened so I called you guys in."
The policeman wrote down Eric's statement on the file he was holding.
" Eric what's your phone number? We need it in case we have to question you more."
"It's five, five, five, zero, zero, eight, eight. You can reach me at nights, or at the hospital; I'm a doctor there."
The officer continued to scribble down Eric's information.
"Thank you, Eric. We may be in touch with you soon."
With that said Eric went back into his home and relaxed for a while. He waited until all of the cops left and then decided it was time for some investigating of his own to commence. He found an old pair of gloves and left his home. He ventured over to the neighbor's place where he used the back door, which thankfully was unlocked. He slid into their kitchen and started examining everything closely. The kitchen was fine; something about the house was different though, a thick fog seemed to coat the stairs and everything else, objects seemed like little blurs.
After going up the stairs, he found his way to the bedrooms; of course first he went in the master bedroom. He searched the dressers and found no clothes, then he searched the closets and still found no clothing, he searched the other bedrooms and found nothing. Then he returned to the master bedroom, and searched for a note, maybe they were away on vacation and there was a note sitting around that would confirm this. He looked everywhere, but he found no note.
Out of curiosity, Eric turned the knob to their TV. Oddly enough, the TV would not turn on; there seemed to be no power supplied to it. He tried a lamp by the queen-sized bed. No power; it would not turn on either.
It wasn't just one room though; the other bedrooms did not have power - Eric tried them before venturing back down the stairs. The house still seemed to be shrouded in the weird fog. This boggled Eric. Why fog would be in a home? First they disappear, then the house has a lot of fog in the inside, and no power. What was the connection? He asked himself over and over again. He entered the kitchen cautiously and rummaged through the cupboards; he found nothing. There was no dishes, no cups, nothing. Not even a spec of food in the fridge. Not only was there no power, no clothing and no note, there also was no food. It was like they completely disappeared into thin air.
Sensing no need to stay in the house, Eric left and found his way back into his home where he went to his bedroom and sat down. Many thoughts ran through his head, about his neighbors disappearing, if they'll turn up soon. This all seemed like a sudden mystery that came out of the blue. Eric went to his fridge, grabbed a cold glass of pop, went back to his bedroom, set the pop on his nightstand and laid down. He fell in and out of sleep thinking about this sudden mystery. Nothing ever happened in Pilt - that is until now anyways. He'd expect a call from the police tomorrow, maybe even a questioning down at the station.
Sleep did not come easy, but it did come. Only a few hours though, before the alarm clock went off. Eric turned off the alarm clock, got dressed and ate his breakfast like normal. But while eating his breakfast he noticed something was wrong, something was very wrong. The McKenzie's house, behind Eric, seemed quite vacant recently. Their kids were usually out, running around and making noise. He was often annoyed and couldn't sleep because of this distraction. Their kids hadn't been out in days; this was weird and freaking Eric out.
He looked for the McKenzie's number in the phone book, found it, and called it. Much like his other neighbors no one answered.'
Yet again, he called the police in. The police arrived at the house quite quickly, Eric couldn't stay though, he had work to attend at the hospital. He would call the police station after his shift was over and see what was going on; it seemed like things were getting awfully weird around Pilt. This was turning into one freaky occurrence after another and Eric didn't like it, not one bit. His shift at the hospital started off slow but then gradually picked up. The patients were actually in a good mood, which was nice for a change. The day seemed to be going slow, when things got even stranger.
Herald, a local just down the street from Eric, didn't show up for his appointment. Claire called Herald's home but received no answer. This was strange, and boggled Eric, he and Herald seemed to be on good terms. Claire called Herald's relatives to see if they knew why he hadn't shown up for his appointment; even his mother didn't know where he was. Claire asked her to go check Herald's house, and so she did. She called back in a big panic. Herald wasn't at home, his clothes were gone, there was no power in his home, and all the food was taken according to his mother.
The police were also called over to Herald's; when Eric arrived home he called the police station and asked them about the disappearances. The officers would not comment on the situation. Before Eric could even mutter a word they hung up on him. The police had a telephone that the person calling came up on, they knew it was Eric and would not comment to him. Although he was the only witness to the start of this drama.
Then his next plan came into view; he'd go over to the police station and order the answers to his questions. He deserved them after all. Eric got in his car and drove to the police station; he rushed in hoping to hear what they could tell him.
Eric rushed over the same cop he had seen yesterday and tapped his shoulder. The officer turned around and smiled.
"Why, hello, Eric, how are you today?" the cop asked.
"What's going on here? Why are people disappearing? Why isn't anyone talking around here?"
The officer frowned at Eric upon hearing his panicked questions.
"I cannot comment on the town's situation at this time."
Eric ran past the cop and to a door and without reading it he barged in. A fat man sat behind a long wooden desk, wearing brown suspenders and a white shirt. The last of his hair wrapped around the back of his head.
"Who are you?" the man asked.
"I'm Eric Mason, I reported the first cases of disappearances here in Pilt."
The man sat up in his chair and smiled.
"So, Eric how can I help you?"
Eric sat down in a chair in front of the man's desk.
"What's going on? Why are people disappearing?"
The man got up from his chair, grabbed Eric by the back of his shirt and threw him out into the hallway of the police station.
"I have no comment. Men, show Eric to the door."
Two officers grabbed Eric by his left and right arm, and dragged him to the front door where they pushed him out. Feeling distraught, he got back in his car and drove back home. Eric went straight home and to bed. Before jumping into his bed he noticed that the fog from inside his neighbor's home, seemed to be outside, floating around multiple homes. He couldn't do anything about the mysterious fog though, the police wouldn't help him. He tucked himself into bed and slept the whole night with not one bit of restlessness.
He awoke the next day to the ever-familiar sound of his alarm clock beeping. He rolled over and shut it off, then he got up from his bed and stumbled over to his TV. He clicked the knob to the right, and with a fuzzy sound the television came on. Eric looked at the receiver and noticed it was still on channel four, the news channel. Eric didn't pay too much attention to the news; he was more focused on getting ready for work. He scurried about gathering his clothes and other various items.
Once he was ready for work, he sat on his bed watching the news. The news anchor was going over local news, which didn't matter to Eric he was never too into his community. Then something caught his attention.
"Pilt's disappearances have been traced to one location, the old Redfield Mansion. Police officers have been investigating and they've found several bodies in the lobby of the mansion. Police officers tried to enter the mansion but oddly enough they spontaneously combusted. The remaining officers had to use a robot camera to go inside and find the bodies. They have come to the conclusion the bodies in the mansion appear charred as if they too combusted, much like the officers. The one question left is why do people feel drawn to this old mansion?"
Eric walked over to his TV and clicked it off. The news he had just heard was disturbing, but at the same time answered his question about the disappearances. The phone then rang causing Eric to jump; he grabbed the phone and listened eagerly for the voice on the other line to say something.
"Is this Eric Mason?" the voice asked.
"Yes it is." He replied.
"I'm officer Turner, I heard you were the first person to notice the disappearances. We would like to know if you would assist us in exploring the old Redfield Mansion, and when you are available to do so?"
Eric was curious about the disappearances, and what part the old mansion played in it all. He wondered about the spontaneous combustions as well. He had to go though, not just for the police, but also for the questions he found himself asking over and over, while lying in bed at night. His shift would be over at nine and then he would go.
"I'll go, but I'm not available until nine tonight. I work at the hospital, I'm a Doctor."
"Nine is fine, I'll be waiting at the front doors of the hospital to pick you up. Thank you for your time, and see you later tonight." The officer replied.
"Bye."
Eric hung up the phone, and walked out of his house to his car. He got in the car and started on his way to work. The car was cold, as he didn't have any time to heat it up before leaving. It was early, with the sun emitting only a small glow in the eastern sky. He drove into the parking lot, got out of his car and made sure all the doors were locked. He walked inside the hospital and began his shift.
Before he knew it nine had come, and he found himself waiting outside the hospital for the officer. The sky was black with a few gray clouds rolling past the white moonlight; it was cold. At exactly one after nine the police car pulled up to the doors. Eric ran over to the passenger's side and climbed in. The officer sitting in the driver's seat wore a complete navy blue uniform, his eyes were green, and he had only an inch of brown hair on his head. He waited until they were out of the hospital parking lot before he said anything.
"Eric, what can you tell me about the disappearances?" he asked.
Eric sat back in the leather car seat, trying to make himself comfortable.
"All I know is that my neighbors went missing, and other people went missing and until now I had no clue what was happening. But now after seeing the news, I'm still unsure of what's happening."
The officer kept his eyes steady on the road only making a couple of right turns.
"We're all unsure of what's going on here. We've found the exact amount of bodies in the lobby, which have gone missing, we can't go inside though, the whole mansion is like one huge heat box. Officers have already died due to spontaneous combustion, which is how we believe the others died."
The rest of the trip was silent. Eric
watched the pavement roll past the headlights. Then he saw it the gates to the
mansion. The gates were black with bars going across, the bars pointed at the
top. The gates opened automatically to the car, only to show the long driveway
that led up to the mansion.
The mansion itself was huge; it looked to be a few stories in height and the
width looked to be about three houses combined. The shutters beside the windows
were quite beat up; some of the windows even appeared smashed with jagged glass
still hanging in the frames. Moss was growing up one side of the mansion;
shingles were missing from various places in the roof, the mansion looked to
have two tall towers - one of the left and one on the right. The door to the
right tower looked to be only hanging on by a hinge; the mansion appeared to be
constructed of a very poor stone type brick.
The front steps were coated in a thick fog
as if trying to hide the entrance of the haunted mansion. As we approached, I
noticed several other police cars in the driveway and yellow tape trying to cut
the area off from the public and reporters. The officer parked the car, Eric got
out and followed him up the front steps where a huddle of police officers stood,
each in their navy blue uniform. As Eric approached they all stared
suspiciously. The officer that drove him up walked up the front step and slapped
him on the back.
"So should I tell
what we want him to do now, boys?"
The officer's all laughed. Eric didn't find any of this funny, as he stood confused to what the officer meant.
"Yeah tell him." One officer said, laughing.
" Eric..." a voice whispered in the wind.
At first he thought he as hearing things, but then he heard it again.
"Eric, come inside..." the voice whispered again.
Eric grabbed the door knob to the front door and began to pull, but one of the cops grabbed his arm and pulled him back. It was the same cop that had driven him up to the mansion.
"Listen, we were going to ask you to go in, but you'll need this first." The cop began.
Eric looked down to see a double barrel pump action shotgun.
"You'll also need this," the policeman said, handing Eric a flashlight.
"If you start to feel hot, get out." The cop finished.
Eric took the shotgun and flashlight, and opened the door to the old creepy mansion. As he stepped inside he didn't feel anything, he felt no heat. But what lay before him was the most disgusting sight of all, about a hundred or more bodies all charred and decaying. Each corpse was laying half on top of the other; the smell made Eric gag instantly but he held it in. There were no lights except a few odd candles lit in the hallway.
He took out his flashlight and flicked it
on. With more light, Eric saw how much worse everything looked - he could see
the details of the bodies. Some had eyes ripped out, but a majority of them were
black from the spontaneous combustion that supposedly occurred. The mansion was
scary feeling to Eric with no lights
besides the few odd candles and his flashlight. There were stairs on the left
and right side of the lobby. Which set to take confused him, and then he heard
it again.
"Eric... take the right staircase," the voice hissed.
Not thinking against the voice for one second he obeyed and walked slowly to the right staircase, making sure he didn't step on any corpses. The staircase was made of wood and led upward; there appeared to be ten small steps crowded into a narrow hallway that spiraled upward.
Eric carefully walked up the creaking,
cracked steps. He also noticed that the stairs were weak, possibly from
the old age of the house. It was silent, almost too silent. Then with a
crunching sound the walls of the narrow hallway began to
close in. Thinking quickly, Eric put his shotgun up between the walls and ran up
the remainder of stairs. He made it, but with an even louder crunching sound,
his shotgun broke in half and the hallway that had lead him up was completely
closed off. Now he had no weapon and no way out of the mansion.
This was a scary fact to Eric, but
nonetheless he took a deep breath and pressed on
further into the mansion . The room he was closed off in was a
library; he was lucky he still had his flashlight. Old book shelves on the right
and left walls hosted many dusty books, and a large wooden table coated in dust
sat in
the middle of the room. The air was thick with dust, making it hard on Eric's
lungs. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the library so he searched for an
exit, but the only exit he found was a hallway that sloped up on an angle, which
lead into another room.
Cautiously he walked up the sloped hallway noticing, the air grew thicker as he proceed upward more and more. The hallway itself was short only about twenty feet long. The right side of the hallway was lined with papers scattered all over it and smeared with a thick red substance that looked like blood. Eric ignored this and pressed on, the mansion seemed haunting, but he kept going not knowing what he'd find.
The hallway finally stopped as he walked into another room that appeared to be a bedroom after shining his flashlight . A queen sized bed sat up against the left wall and blue curtains hung on the window that was on the right wall. Rain pinged off the window as Eric walked up to the window. Peering out, he couldn't see anything, even if he yelled the police wouldn't be able to hear him. He was trapped inside the mansion with nowhere to go. When he first had approached the mansion it wasn't raining but oddly enough it was starting to rain quite hard. This bothered Eric and made him feel very uneasy.
He walked away from the window and shone
his flashlight on the northern wall of the bedroom. Eric felt relief as he saw a
twenty-two rifle sitting up against the wall; he ran to it, picked it up and
made sure it was loaded. Any weapon at that point was a good weapon to him.
Thunder began to crackle in the background,
giving Eric a chill down his spine, then his flashlight began to flicker off.
Eric smacked the flashlight but it wouldn't come back on. Then he heard another
sound.
"Eric! Prepare to die!" the voice yelled.
Eric began to panic and then he saw the most horrifying thing he could imagine. A flash of lighting revealed to him a tall figure wearing a black trench coat - it's hands were long claws, and the face was not visible.
Someone or something was in the same room with him. Eric aimed his twenty-two and let off five shots. Each shot tore into the creature, the monster howled with small puddles of it's blood falling from it. Then the lighting flashed again as Eric stood breathing heavily, with his heart in his throat. He stepped forward quietly, taking notice of anything and everything.
Then he heard it behind him, two large thumps. He took off running up hallway after hallway until finally he had reached a kitchen where he hid behind a counter. Eric sat trying to figure out what was after him, but he had no clue. Something was watching him and he had to get out of there as soon as possible. He looked out from the counter only to see a little bit of light coming through a window that led down into a room he had run through. He still had his rifle, which was somewhat of a comfort to him.
Then he heard it again, calling him from
the darkness.
" Eric..." the voice hissed softly.
Eric looked around the kitchen trying to find where the voice was coming from, but he found no source. Knives littered the counters that were attached to the cupboards. The kitchen had very little light and was hard to navigate around.
"What do you want with me?" Eric stammered.
"I want you dead!" the voice yelled.
Eric then looked to his left where he saw another large form that seemed haunting to him. This time he saw no details - just a tall shadowy figure. Eric ran again, only this time he kept running through each hallway and through each room in the darkness. He stopped when he finally had made it to a door that read ' Roof.' Surely if he went outside the police would see him and get him out of there. This all seemed like one long nightmare that just dragged on and on.
But he had to try the door, it was his only hope. The mysterious of the mansion could be solved another day, but not today - this was getting to creepy for him. Eric grabbed the metal door and swung it open. He walked out onto the roof of the mansion, but something was wrong, the monster he had seen in the mansion earlier stood with it's back turned to Eric. Rain fell gently from the sky, as the creature sensed Eric's presence.
It knew he was there, and Eric froze upon sight of noticing the monster. This was the final scene that he hoped wouldn't happen. Then it turned around and smiled at him with large silver teeth. One of it's eyes was red and the other was white. It's face looked to have been ripped apart several times and then stitched back together. Then it ran and swiped at Eric with it's large claws. Eric jumped back, avoiding the massive claws, then he aimed his twenty-two and began letting off shots at the creature.
The monster howled as it reached back and swiped again, only this time catching Eric's face and leaving a giant red gash on it. Eric fell to the ground holding his face; the monster approached him and picked him up by the throat. He was defenseless. The monster began squeezing and squeezing until Eric felt woozy and then he put his rifle to the red eye of the monster and let off one of his last shots. The creature screamed and howled as Eric shot again, this time at it's feet. It was only five feet from the ledge when he shot again.
Only this time after firing his shot, he ran forward and shoved the monster off the roof. He watched as the creature fell farther and farther until he could no longer see him in the fog. His nightmare seemed over. Shortly after using the various roofs of the mansion Eric managed to find a way to get to a decent height and then the police brought a rescue sheet so he could jump down.
The disappearances were recorded to be spontaneous combustions, but the monster and the voice in the mansion were never solved. This was the mystery of Redfield's Mansion.
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