The Haunting Of Bechdel Mansion (4 page)

She then had a sudden vision of a large hall
with open windows thin white curtains blowing in the wind. A
distant voice called to her from darkness at the end of the hall
where she could see the faint glow of red eyes. Her heart seized
and she couldn’t move. She snapped out of it, clutching her chest
with a gasp

“
What is it?” Curtis asked, looking
over with concern.

“
Nothing…” she said, rubbing her head.
“I was… just thinking about that boy. How terrible it would’ve
been.”

Curtis took her hand again and
squeezed.
“No need to worry. I wouldn’t have let
anything happen to him.” He tapped his steering wheel. “You’re
looking at the model of a safe driver here.”

Mary smiled even though she still
didn
’t feel right. The closer they got to the mansion,
the worse she began to feel. She squeezed her forehead again while
holding Curtis’s hand. She felt dizzy, frightened even. Curtis must
have noticed something in her fading color or nodding
forward.

“
Mary? Mary!”

Before she knew it, her head dropped
down and hit the dashboard without a moment
’s notice.
She was out cold.

Chapter Five

Homestead

Mary woke up, reclined in chair inside
mansion near a living room window with an icepack over her
forehead. She had no idea how long she had been out for. The sun
was still out and she could hear movement all around her. Curtis
was nowhere to be seen. She rose up from the chair with a sore neck
and scanned the empty room where boxes were strewn across the
floor. A large water bottle had been placed at her feet. She
grabbed the bottle and took a long swig from it, immediately
subsiding her thirst. She looked around the room, getting her first
glimpse inside of the mansion with no idea how she had even got
there.

She left the living room and walked
through the two large double doors were propped open, revealing the
busy courtyard outside. She briefly covered her eyes as she walked
down the steps into the courtyard where a barrage of people and
unfamiliar faces moved around in a dizzying bustle. She turned to
face the mansion as it towered over her. It
’s faded
gray walls were covered in winding vines green brush growing spread
on all sides. Its windows were thick with grime and dust. Its
arching roof top was covered in leaves and debris, gutters full. An
elegant center deck on the second floor looked out into the entire
property.

An empty fountain sat in the middle of the
courtyard filled to the brim with branches and dead leaves. She
turned back to the mansion, taking its looming sight in. This was
it. This was where they were going to live. It didn’t look nearly
as dilapidated as it had appeared in her dreams.

Curtis had hired renovation team weeks
ahead. There were several landscapers on site, eradicating decades
of foliage growth with electric trimmers and mowers. Men with
pressure washer hoses sprayed the front of house, turning the hard
exterior surface from gray to white. There were also painters on
site, janitorial services, carpenters, and other renovation teams.
Mary lost count of them all. She shuddered to think of the
cost.

The reality was that both she and Curtis had
dipped into their savings to pay for it all. For the life of her,
she hoped that it would be worth it. Their moving truck was parked
next to the courtyard fountain, backed in hear the front door.
Curtis at the rear directing the movers as they unloaded their
living room set, placing different pieces of furniture around the
court yard. Mary felt strangely detached, and she couldn’t pinpoint
why

The sun was temporarily concealed by passing
clouds, providing some much needed shade. She looked to the
driveway circling the courtyard where a line of vans and trucks
were parked. Even with all the busy work going on, there was still
a lot of work to do. The thought of the cobwebs and rodents alone
made Mary queasy. Despite her lingering apprehension, she couldn’t
help but feel the excitement in the air. They actually owned a
mansion. Everything that had brought them to this moment seemed
unreal.

She walked along pebbled ground toward the
moving truck to talk to Curtis. She had seen pictures of the
mansion before, but within its presence she felt as though she had
walked the same path many times before. She stopped beside the
moving truck and looked up to the center balcony where a white
curtain flowed into the air from an open window, it fabric
torn.

A pest control van drove pulled up next to
her, out of nowhere, and parked behind the long line of vehicles.
She took in the disorienting sounds of the pressure washers,
gas-powered hedge trimmers, and lawn mowers around her. There was
so much activity going on, she didn’t know what she could do, if
anything, to lend a hand. Everything had already been set in
motion. Curtis had seen to that. What could she do, if anything,
but accept their brash relocation?

She approached Curtis as he directed the
movers from the rear of the truck. “What happened? How did I get
inside?” she asked, startling him.

He turned around, head sweating with
stains showing through his white polo shirt. Mary was wearing blue
jeans and blue drape halter top that exposed her shoulders. There
wasn
’t a bead of sweat on her, and she felt guilty
having passed out with so much work to be done.

“
You gave us quite scare,” he said.
“That’s what happened.”

“
Yes. But how did I?” she said,
struggling to form the very question at hand.

“
Get inside?” Curtis answered with a
shrug. “We carried you in there. You just passed out. Your head hit
the dashboard, and you were out cold. I pulled over and tried to
wake you.”

“
I don’t understand,” she said,
confused.

Curtis turned away from the movers and
placed his hands over her shoulders.
“I’m just glad
you’re okay. Maybe it’s the heat. I called an ambulance about ten
minutes ago, but look at where we are.” He spread his arms out
wide, indicating just how isolated they were. She said nothing as
he looked into her eyes with genuine concern. “How do you feel
now?”

“
Better,” she said with a faint
smile.

He then turned to her side and held
his arm out.
“Well then. Would you like a personal
tour of the premises now, Mrs. Malone?”

“
A tour would be great.”

She put her arm around his as they walked
off together, past the courtyard toward the marble steps leading
inside. As the hired workers moved around them, Mary felt
invisible. They ascended the front steps, arm in arm, leading to
the large double-door entrance. The more she saw of the mansion,
the more she felt at home.

Creeping anticipation for what lay behind
each room increased with each step. Water mist from the pressure
washer fell onto her arm from afar. Much of the grim and buildup on
the right side of the house had already been removed. They reached
the top step and Mary could see a darkened foyer ahead.

“
Oh,” Curtis said. “Still trying to
get the power on out here.” She followed him inside and could see
rays of light hitting dusty hardwood floors from the open windows.
“Got the water turned on though,” he added with pride.

“
So… No power?” Mary asked.

Curtis let out a nervous laugh. “Trying to
get ’em out here today, but it’s not looking good.”

Mary thought to herself for a moment. “Maybe
we should just find a hotel for the time being.”

“
Nonsense,” Curtis said with a squeeze
around her waist. “It’s our first night. We have to
stay.”

“
But there’s no power,” Mary said.
“And this place is a dust bowel.”

She looked down the vast empty foyer and
observed its cobweb-covered chandeliers, hanging from the high
ceiling above. Ahead of them was a long, winding staircase leading
to the second floor. There were halls at both ends of the foyer,
leading to a variety of different rooms—seven rooms on the first,
eight on the second. Though there was plenty to explore, she felt a
strange knowledge of the layout without even looking.

Curtis leaned over and kissed her on
the head.
“Shall we continue the tour?”

She turned her head slightly,
smiling.
“I wouldn’t even know where to
start.”

Curtis released her and backed away,
pulling a folded paper from his pocket.
“I’ve got a
layout here.” He unfolded the paper as Mary looked to down the dark
hall to their left. Nothing immediately grabbed her
interest.

Curtis pulled a mini flash light from his
pocket and shined a light on the map. The endless symphony of
pressure washers, hedge trimmers, and leaf blowers continued
outside, unabated. Mary walked in the center of the foyer. Her soft
shoes barely made a sound on the dusty hardwood floors. She looked
to her right toward an adjacent room that could very well be
considered an extension of the foyer, though she found something
peculiar about it.

“
The lounge…” she said softly. “Is
this where it happened?”

“
Sorry?” Curtis said, holding the
layout under his mini flashlight.

“
Nothing,” Mary said. “How big is the
kitchen?”

Curtis scanned around the layout,
trying to answer.
“Kitchen?”

Mary turned to her right and began
walking.

“
Yeah, that way,” he said, looking up.
He hurried to catch up with her as she continued down the dark
hall. Mary stopped in her tracks and looked up as Curtis stopped
beside her.

“
You okay?” he asked.

“
Yeah…” she said in a distant tone.
She closed her eyes and touched her forehead, sighing.

“
What is it, honey?” he
asked.

“
Nothing,” she said, lowering her
hand, eyes open. “I’m fine.”

He caressed her shoulder with
concern.
“Maybe you should lie down. I don’t want to
you to another… incident.”

“
I’m fine. Let’s see the kitchen,” she
said, walking ahead. She looked up to where the ledge of the second
floor ended and stopped again.

Curtis halted as his shoes squeaked
against the floor.
“Now what is it?”

Mary scanned the area in deep
concentration.
“How much do you know about the
Bechdels?”

“
Who?” Curtis asked, clutching the
layout.

“
The Bechdels,” Mary repeated. “The
family who were murdered here.

Curtis dropped his arms to the side. “Honey,
that forty years ago. We’ve been through this. I didn’t know you
were so superstitious.”

“
As home owners we have a right to
know exactly what happened here.”

Curtis turned around, unsure of what
to say. A smile hit his face as a thought sprung to mind.
“How about we go to town tomorrow. They have this quaint
library, you’d love it. And I’m sure they have plenty of crime
books if you’re into that kind of thing.”

Mary nodded with a blank stare, seeming
neither taken with or against the idea. She continued down the hall
and entered a long, empty room with two windows on both sides—caked
with enough dirt and grime to block the sunlight from entering.

“
I believe this is, or was, the dining
room,” Curtis said, shining his flashlight around.

Mary looked around in awe. “Enormous…”

The air was stuffy and smelled of old
wood. Curtis went to the first window at his right and tried to
open it, but it wouldn
’t budge. He handed the map and
flashlight to Mary and turned back to the window, pushing up
against it. “This is ridiculous,” he said grunting. “We need to get
all the windows of this place opened, and air this place
out.”

Suddenly, the front doors swung open
down the hall at the foyer. Two well-built men wearing white pants
and shirts with a moving business logo entered. Curtis turned
toward the foyer and signaled to Mary.
“I gotta keep
things moving, babe.”

Mary nodded. With Curtis gone to help
the movers, she felt free to explore. She approached the window he
couldn’t open and ran her hands down the warm glass, trailing lines
of dust. Now that they had started, she felt the urge
to explore every room in the house, top to bottom. She
approached a set of double doors at the end of the dining room,
eager to see the kitchen beyond its simple amenities.

She turned both knobs and pulled the heavy
oak doors open as dank, musty air hit her senses. Like the rest of
the house so far, all the windows were closed and caked with dirt
and mildew buildup over the years. She entered the kitchen,
fearless, and turned on the mini flashlight. Dust rained down as
she moved the light through the darkened room. There were several
counter tops and cabinets that reached the ceiling. The kitchen
looked as though it could have been considered at one time the
height of elegance.

There as a large industrial-sized antique
over in the corner. She wondered if it was still operational. To
her immediate right was a sink the size of a bathtub along flat,
dusty countertops that stretched the entire length the room with
more cabinets overhead than she knew what to do with.

She walked along the tiled floor past
the thick, granite counter tops where she came upon a vast pantry
with dozens of shelves bolted to plaster walls.
There
was energy in the room that she couldn’t quite pinpoint.