Flickering Out Part III

Flickering Out Part III

‘Ugh,’ Jeff grimaced, coughing up some of the pungent water. Stringy pieces of saliva mixed with blood dripped from the corner of his mouth and into the swamp water. Billy crouched holding his chin.

‘What the hell happened?’ Jeff's voice was rough.

‘You tripped over one of those shoots when you looked back at me. You fell pretty hard. You're forehead is cut.’ She wiped blood away from the blooming welt, causing Jeff to wince in pain.

‘My head hurts and I'm soaked. Lets get out of this damn swamp.’

Billie helped him up. ‘Careful. You don’t want to pass out.’

Jeff tried to stand, but looked like he was going to collapse. With Billie’s help he wobbled through the last soggy bit of vegetation and mud and they made their way out of the shallow water onto dry grass where he flopped down. He wiped the blood and grime away from his mouth and forehead, running a finger over the welt.

‘Let me help you,’ Billie said, wiping grime from his face with her shirt. She held it on the wound.

‘Ouch. It's painful even without you touching it. There's a bandanna in my backpack. See if you can grab it.' Jeff grunted pulling his backpack off. Billie opened the pack and reached in. She felt past some rope and a lantern and found the bandanna.

‘Is the lantern dry?’

‘Feels like it is.’

‘Good. I don't want to walk around that old place without it.’

Billie shuddered at the thought. She looked at Jeff for a moment. 'You're injured Jeff. We need go back to have somebody take look.' She touched the welt lightly with the bandanna. He twitched from the pain.

‘Easy, Class.'

‘Sorry. Do you know what you hit you forehead on?’

‘I think... a rock below the surface I guess. I don't know. I blacked out for a second. Look, let’s not let this change anything. The lantern is dry. I’ll be fixed up here in a few minutes and we can be on our way.'

Billie glanced up, noticing a few stars in the darkening sky. Soon it would be difficult to see and the shadows would become black voids concealing any sort of nasty creature. The thought of exploring the mansion with Jeff injured and on the verge of another black out didn’t exactly seem appealing. And they still had to hike out. This gives me the creeps. She definitely wouldn't be staying the night if that's what Jeff was thinking.

They rested in the dry grass for a while. The crickets were chanting now. Every once in a while mosquitoes annoyed them. One left a huge lump on Billie’s arm after helping itself to a body full of her blood.

‘We should get out of here,' Classia said, smashing a mosquito. It’s been fun, but if we leave now we can get to the forest edge not much after dark. How do you feel? Think you can get up?’

‘Sure, but I’m not that bad. He pulled the towel away and ran his hand across the welt. There wasn’t any blood now. He pushed himself up. ‘Good as new,’ he said, wobbling. it was obvious he was anything but good as new, though within a few minutes he seemed to have overcome it.

It was nearly twilight when they decided to make it to the estate, look around a little and head back. Billie was furious at Jeff for wanting to continue. The eerie feeling she noticed earlier bothered her too. She realized, however, at least part of her anger was due to her own fear. 'All right,' she said finally, but she couldn't help thinking she was rolling his dice.

‘Geez Billie, we don't have to rush.' Jeff was keeping up, but Billie had taken the lead in the last few minutes.

‘You walk too slow.’ Billy said.

'Oh yeah, well for your information I'm injured.'

‘A minute ago you were okay, tough guy.’

A distinct crack as if someone hit a tree hard with an ax caused Billie to hesitate. She looked toward the shadowed ridge line. Purple-yellow light reflected behind the trees there. She could still smell the scent of swamp water and it was pretty dark where they were. Nothing natural could explain that noise.

‘Did you hear that?’

‘Yeah. There’s an moose or something up there ramming his head against a tree,’ Jeff said. ‘It’s typical.’

Billie wondered if Jeff was as sure about that as he sounded and she shot him an incredulous look. 'By the sound of it, your moose is gonna have a splitting headache.'

Jeff adjusted his trousers, didn’t appear worried at all. 'I know how it feels.'

'Idiot.'

It was odd though, that noise. Distinct. Different. Billie thought the sound broke the evening in two. She couldn’t help thinking someone was watching them. It was eerie. ‘Who would hang out here in the forest at night Jeff?’

‘Well, now that you mention it-'

'Besides us Jeff.'

'It was a moose or something, Class. I swear. Don’t worry about it. I hiked down this mountain in the middle of the night once with nothing but the moonlight. Everything freaked me out. There were sounds all around me. Moose were grazing in the meadows on either side of the trail, that’s all. Forget about it. We're fine.' He paused for a moment. 'That was an experience though, hiking down so late without a flashlight.’

Billie turned toward Jeff. ‘I’ll take your word on it. This place is giving me the creeps at the moment. What were you doing up here that late after dark anyway?

‘Had a lot of thinking to do.' Jeff slid his backpack down in front of him and fidgeted inside for the light. He switched it on, held it up to illuminate the trail in front of them. ‘Come on we’re about there.'

Classia tried to look past the light from the lantern, but could only make out clumps of trees and the trail ahead of her. ‘It’s getting kind of dark.’

‘Yeah. It’s the same old forest. It just looks different at night. Once we get to the meadow we’ll be able to see more.'

Attempting to ease her nerves she asked, ‘you know what happened to the old gambler once he retired out here?’ Almost immediately she realized that wasn't the best question. I'm not sure I want to know the answer.

‘I know a little from a book I read about him. It’s rumored he died alone after going really crazy. It’s been almost two hundred years though. That’s a lot of time for speculation and if he died alone, nobody would know it. I’m surprised the place isn’t leveled by now. Nobody’s bothered it much, though. Year after year, it just crumbles away out here.

‘What do you mean when you say really crazy?’ Billie asked.

‘Well, the guy was probably crazy anyway given his line of work. But, something happened to him out here. You’d think the solitude’d be good for his mind, but something wasn’t right with him. The group he brought out to build the place was supposedly the size of a small army. He drove them hard to finish construction. Maybe too hard. They scattered like birds after it was done. He could only convince two of them to stay on as caretakers. Those two and his slaves.’

'Back then a land owner probably would have slaves,' Billie said.

‘All rich people had slaves back then. He had five men and two women. According to the book, he treated them evenly, until he caught two trying to escape. He hanged the presumptuous woman slave from the rafters. There wasn't much exposition in the book about what he did to the man, but an explicit illustration revealed the punishment was both brutal and final.’

'God. If hanging from the rafters was wasn't brutal and final enough, what is?'

'Indeed.'

They approached a crest in the trail and the trees thinned out, allowing more twilight in. Jeff switched hands holding the lantern. Billie noticed the trail wound down into a meadow of tall grass and thick vegetation. There were some clumps of oak brush and lots of closing wildflowers. On the far side of the meadow was a huge timber, brick and rock structure. It was much larger than she imagined.

‘That’s got to be it,' Billie said.

‘Yeah. Just about ten minutes walk across. It’s kind of gloomy perched back there, isn’t it?’ It was still twilight in the meadow. Jeff switched the lantern off and it flickered out. We should be able to make it across without it. Save power.’

Billie wished for the light anyway.

Covered by grass in places, the trail snaked back and forth. The meadow was surrounded by shadowed trees almost like sentries ringing what remained of the dark gray bricked structure ahead.

‘It looks like there isn’t a roof on the right side anymore and that brick tower must be the remains of a chimney,’ Billie said.

‘Once you get closer, you can see that the pitched roof is open to the sky. The windows are long gone too. Some are shut up with rotting plywood. The place has seen better days for sure, but the brick and rock walls are still intact, mostly. The door leading downstairs is rusty and super heavy. The wooden staircase beyond creaks and bends a lot.’

'I’m not going into the basement of some rusty old house in the woods if that's what you think. Are you trying to scare me?’

‘It’s not too bad Class, you’ll see.’ It was then that Jeff reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his dice. He closed his had around them and shook his hand, taking a quick peak at them before letting them roll back into his pocket. He looked at Billy.

'Really Jeff?'

Jeff replied with a cough.

They walked along, studying their destination mostly. Billie thought the broken down house, with its dark windows for eyes, looked like an evil beast. It seemed to gaze back at her, waiting. She shuddered.

‘The grass and the flowers make the evening air smell nice. I can imagine the old smuggler looking across this meadow, thinking he’d found the perfect spot. It’s kind of odd to see it crumbling away like it is. I'm sure it was magnificent when it was new.' Billie was trying to be positive in an attempt to hide the fear already coloring her thoughts.

‘Strange things happened not long after old Bart turned the first shovel of dirt. According to the book, his eyes became cloudy and black. Some say it was the lack of ocean air. Others say it was the drink. Whatever it was, he became terribly dark and paranoid. He’d tie his laborers up against a pole as punishment if he thought they weren’t working hard enough. Bart strung one worker up by a leg and made him hang upside down from a tree for three days. The man died like that. Bart thought the worker was plotting to kill him and steal his treasure. Then the accident happened.' Jeff slid his eyes over to Billie.

They were about half way across the meadow. Billie could see part of the timbers framing the open roof. ‘The accident?'

‘They were building a wall. It wasn't shored up properly and fell on some workers. It was heavy and they were crushed. Bart ordered the broken wall cleaned up and the pieces reused immediately. It’s rumored that in the rush to follow orders, body parts made it into the new wall.’

‘Are you joking? The man was a sicko.'

‘Maybe. Who knows what the truth is. I think you have to view the story through a skeptic’s prism. Anyway, now you know some of the story. The wall is still intact so I doubt we’ll find any bones. It's worth mentioning, though, that some believe they've seen things.'

'What do you mean seen things?'

Jeff pulled the dice out of his pocket and looked at them, only to replace them in his pocket.