Patapsco River Horror Story

Chapter 6

Neil was deep in thought when he walked through the doors of the Courthouse Tavern. Before he realized it, everyone in the bar was staring at him. He slowed his pace as he walked by the staring crowd. Neil walked to the back of the tavern to the men’s room. He leaned on the sink with his elbows locked as the door slammed behind him. Looking in the mirror he knew what they all were staring at.

Waking up after his nap, Neil showered and tried to make himself presentable for his night out with his friends. Now he looks in the mirror and saw dirt and dust in his hair and mud on his pants and shoes.

“I look a mess” Neil said to himself.

“No wonder they were all staring at me.” He said as he stairs into the mirror.

As he looked in the mirror, Neil tried to brush the dirt out of his hair with his hand; he was frustrated because he can’t find his comb. Then Neil worked on the dirt on his pants and shoes. He got what dirt he could off his pants, and then stood up looked into mirror and tried to fix his hair then he turned on the water in the sink, he wets his hand to put some water on his hair. The water ran off his hair and onto his collar. Frustrated, Neil bowls his head as he leaned on the sink.

“I can’t get anything right today.” Neil said as he shook his head.

He opened the restroom door and heads back out into the bar. Neil noticed all his friends sitting at a table whispering, when they saw him they stopped. He knew what they were whispering about. It was his appearance. Neil tried to ignore it as he sat down at the table next to Kevin. Sitting on the other side of Neil was Sue Becker; Sue worked in the admin department at the mill. She already had a few drinks by the time Neil arrived.

Neil was the last to show up so he ordered a round for everyone at the table. Kevin asked him about the dirt on his clothes. Neil did not know what to tell him. Kevin did not believe what Neil told him earlier that day.

“Why would he believe me now?” Neil asked himself.

“Don’t ask, you would not believe me, Kevin.” Neil said.

“Well, I may not believe you Neil, but the story should to be good anyway.” Kevin said as he laughed.

“Yea, I know you think most of my stories are funny, even the ones that aren’t meant to be funny.” Neil said with a sigh.

“What did you see this time?” Kevin said more seriously.

Neil, who was staring at his beer, said “It’s hard to describe.”

Neil went on to tell everyone at the table the whole story of the foot with the boot under the building by the foot bridge. Most everyone at the table thought it was a joke. Kevin asked if Neil had a few drinks before he left home. Everyone at the table laughed everyone but Sue. She kept silent as everyone else laughed.

Sue did not say much to Neil throughout the evening. Neil mostly drank and talked with Kevin and some of the others at the table. As the night came to an end and some had started to leave, Sue got up and went to the ladies room. It was after one o’clock in the morning. The bartender just announced “last call” Neil thought it was a good time to call it a night. He said good bye to Kevin and everyone else at the table. Then noticed that Sue was gone, he assumed she left without him noticing.

Neil Stumbled into to the men’s room. He needed to relieve himself badly. Neil noticed that someone was in one of the stalls, he could see military boots at the bottom of the stall next to the one he was about to enter, they were tan in color. He had to go so badly he thought nothing of it. When he was finished Neil exited the stall and stood in front of the mirror as he washed his hands. Then he heard the stall door slam, Neil looked up into the mirror so he could see whose reflection would show up in the mirror and if he knew the person.

A second or two later he heard the rest room door close. There had been no reflection in the mirror; Neil could not understand how he missed the person in the mirror. He quickly grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. The bar had empted out while Neil was in the rest room. He scanned the bar for any clue of the man in the rest room. He found no one but Ted the bartender. Neil stumbled up to the bar half out of breath.

“Did you see who it was that just came out of the men’s room?” Neil asked Ted.

“YES, you!” Ted said as he laughed.

“No the guy before me,” Neil said.

“No one came out of the men’s room before you Neil,” Ted replied.

Ted shook his head and laughed as he watched Neil run out the door of the bar. Neil ran out of the bar and stopped on the sidewalk in front of the Courthouse Tavern. He looked up and down Main St but the street and sidewalk was empty. Neil stood out on the sidewalk in front of the tavern thinking about what he just saw. He knew no one would believe what he saw and he had no way to prove he saw it. He decided to head back to his truck and go home.

“Could it have been the alcohol or the cigarette smoke in his eyes,” Neil said to himself as he headed down the sidewalk.

Neil stopped at the cross walk at the corner of Main St and Old Columbia Pike. The “do not walk sign” was flashing. He was still thinking about what just happened when the sign changes to “walk”. Neil crosses “The Pike” to the east side of Main St and heads down towards Maryland Ave. He heard the sound of someone running behind him. He then looked behind him to see who it is but he saw no one around. Neil assumed it was someone running down Old Columbia Pike. He picked up his pace a little.

His mind wandered back to the incident in the bar. Neil was startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder to see Sue behind him.

“Jesus Sue! You scared the hell out of me,” Neil said in relief.

“Sorry Neil, I did not mean to scare you,” she said with a bit of a laugh.

“That’s ok, I have just been a little up tight lately,” he replied.

Sue Halligan is a very cute woman, about the same age as Neil. She has green eyes waive reddish blonde hair that almost touched her shoulders. She’s wearing blue jeans, a green blouse and a brown leather jacket. Her husband Don had died in an accident about two years ago. He was remodeling an old house in Oella when the scaffolding he was up on collapsed.

“I was thinking about the story you told tonight, Neil.”

“Really,” he replied, surprised.

“I can -,” she paused for a moment.

“I can relate to it, I think,” she said confusingly.

“Really!” he said again, even more surprised.

“I had a similar strange experience about a month age,” She said as she made eye contact with Neil.

At first Neil was not sure if she was making a joke. Then when he looked in her eyes, he felt she was being truthful with him. He could think of nothing else to say but “really”. She gave out a small laugh at his reply but then she got a serious look on her face. She started to tell her story of the experience she had as they walked down Main St.

“I had been working late one night. I was supposed to meet some friends down here,’” She was referring to Ellicott City.

Sue continued on with her story as she walked with Neil down Main St towards The Patapsco River and the railroad museum.

“I was on Frederick road near the old flour mill when my car died. It was only a short distance to the bridge over the Patapsco, the weather was not too bad, so I thought I would walk,” she said as she stared at the sidewalk.

Sue stopped abruptly turn to Neil and she said, “As I approached the bridge the sky lit up like lighting. Their was a loud buzzing sound in my ears, it got louder and louder every time the sky lit up. I stopped on the bridge and looked up at the station, when the buzzing and flashing stopped. I heard the sound of a train whistle and the roar of a train approaching. Then an old steam train came rolling up to the station from the south. Something just did not look right. The sky was a strange orange color, the buzzing and the electricity in the air. I had seen old steam trains before at the station, mostly on special occasions or ceremonies.”

She paused for a minute then looked down Main St towards the station and the river. Her hand was perched under her chin as if she was concentrating hard on something. Then she turned back to Neil and continued on with her story.

“The train looked too dirty, too used and too weather beaten to be from a museum. I could see people milling about on the platform and around the train. I walked crossed the bridge and under the train bridge. I walked up Maryland Ave. Past the front of the station. Before I could get to the platform, the lighting and the buzzing started again, and then the sky turned back to its usual blue. When I got to the platform the train and all the people were gone.”

Neil stood their on the sidewalk staring at her in disbelief. He was not sure how to reply. A million thoughts went through his mind as she told her story. He felt a little relieved to know that someone else was having strange experiences just like he was. He was relieved but he was also even more confused and frustrated, Neil wanted to know why this was happening.

Neil and Sue walked down the sidewalk towards the station in silence, both in deep thought. They stopped as they came upon the foot bridge to their right that leads over the Tiber. With out hesitation Sue walked up on the bridge and leaned on the railing and stared down into the clear running water, Neil followed her.

“So this is where you saw it?” She said as she peered under the building that was build over the Tiber.

Neil did not answer right away. His mind had drifted back to what he had witnessed earlier in the evening. Then he finally replied flatly. “Yea, this is the place.”

“Did you get a good look at it?” She asked with concern in her voice.

“No” is all he said as he stared down at the Tiber flowing by.

Sue slowly walked back out onto the sidewalk. She stared down the street towards the coffee shop.

“Do you think it’s still in there,” She said in a hushed tone.

“I really don’t know,” Neil said, still staring at the water.

“You know I -,” He stopped before he completed the sentence, to decide if he should finish his thought.

Then he started again. “You know I think it went into the coffee shop, what uses to be Eaton’s Funeral Home.”

Neil looked up from the Tiber, Sue had started walking down the sidewalk. He followed after her; she stopped in front of the coffee shop. She looked up over the door of the coffee shop and stared at the old cement Eaton sign that was apart of the building. Neil watched as she peered through the window into the coffee shop. He remembers himself doing the same thing just a few hours before.

She stepped back from the window, and then she studied the building for a moment. Neil watched her with great interest. It was really starting to sink in; Neil felt Sue was in this with him. She understood what he was talking about unlike Kevin and the rest of his friends. She had experienced something.

Watching her Neil tried to imagine what was going on in her head. “Was she trying to find a way in to the building?” he said to himself. It seemed like she was trying to help him. It also seemed she was trying to find out what was going on. He was not sure if he should say or do anything at this point.

After she examined the building for a moment, she turned to Neil and looked him in the eyes. He could tell a question was on her lips. For some reason the anticipation of the question made Neil nervous. He put his hands in his pockets and nervously fumbled with his keys. He saw a look of intrigue and fear in her eyes which he most likely had in his eyes when he followed after the foot he saw under the building earlier in the evening.

“If it’s still in there I can’t see it,” she said as she turned back towards the building.

“Yeah, that’s what I think too, it’s still in there,” Neil said with a bit of nervousness in his voice.

“My mother knew one of the Eaton daughters, their were many generations of them that ran the funeral home, you know,” Sue said.

“My dad was an accountant, I have boxes of his files in my basement, I am going to go through them and see if he did any work for them, to see what I can find out about the Eaton Funeral Home.” Neil said as he looked up at the Eaton Sign.

“Well, if you need any help, I can certainly lend a hand. I have not been able to sleep much at night since this happened. I would really like to know what’s going on.” She replied.

Neil told her he was going to take a look at them in the next day or two and told her she could help if she wanted. He offered a ride back to her car which was parked in the lot behind the old Post Office. Sue accepted Neil’s offer. They walked east towards the train station; they walked without saying a word to each other. When they got to Neil’s truck, Neil unlocked and open the door for her.

Neil got in the truck; put the key in the ignition, turned the key once it would not start, turned it twice nothing, the third time it coughed and sputtered to life. Sue just stared at him with an amused look on her face. She could tell by the look on his face that he was frustrated with the truck. She said nothing, turned and stared out the side window. They drove down Maryland Ave, up Main and into the parking lot behind the old Post Office.

Sue fumbled with the truck door handle for a few seconds, before she got it to open, the door creaked and squealed loudly as it swung open. Neil was afraid it would come off in her hand it sounded so decrepit. When she got out, she dug through her handbag for a few seconds. She pulled out a pen and an old receipt and wrote on the back of the receipt.

“Here’s my number, call me when you start going through your father’s files.” She handed Neil the paper as she was speaking.

Neil folded the paper and put it in the pocket of his shirt. “Sure, I will do that.”

“Then I will talk to you soon.” Sue said as she dug through her handbag again this time looking for her car keys.

She slowly shut the truck door; it creaked and squealed once again. Neil watched as she unlocked the door to her late 90's Mustang and got in. She started it up and drove out of the parking lot. It was late so Neil put the truck in drive and headed for home.

As quietly as possible Neil opened the kitchen door, the house was quiet and still. He slowly walked down the hallway. Debbie’s door was partially open. He peered in and saw she was sound a sleep. Continuing down the hallway Neil enters his bedroom, without turning on the light he undresses and got into bed. He lies wide awake in the darkness.

The night’s events racing through his mind, the experience Sue had on the bridge kept going through his mind over and over again like a rerun of a show on TV. He could not get it out of his head. Neil looked at the clock on the nightstand, 3:30 a.m.; he had been staring at the ceiling for almost an hour. When he was younger too many beers and he would pass out or fall asleep. Now his body seems to be uses to it. He rarely passes out or falls asleep anymore.

Except for last night, when he fell asleep in his truck. He was drinking tequila and too much tequila at that. Then his father’s files came into his mind. Neil sat up in bed, he was not sleeping, and he thought he may as well go down stairs and start going through his father’s paperwork. Grabbing his pants and T-shirt off the floor, he put them on as he was walking down the hall. The door to the basement was at the end of the hallway. He remembered it made a loud squeal if he opens it to fast.

He opened the door slowly, because he did not want to wake Debbie up. He flipped on the light and started down the stairs. When he hit the fourth step it creaked but the sound was muffled by the carpeting on the steps. He slowed his pace down the steps. Neil stopped at the bottom of the stairs and scanned the room.

This was the house he grows up in. The house he returned to after his mother died almost two years ago. Neil’s father had passed away three years before that, at the time Neil was going through his divorce with Joy. He remembers the television always being on down here as a child, the laughter of birthday and family parties. He also recalls the fun and all the good times he had down here with his cousin Tommy Halligan.

Tommy went in to the marines at age eighteen and was killed in the Persian Gulf War. He was only twenty five when he died. Tommy’s death affected Neil. He never got over it. Tommy was on Neil’s mind a lot.

The basement was quite now, the television was off. The sounds of laughter were fading into Neil’s memory. He turn to the right walked down a short hallway and slowly opened the door to the laundry room. The laundry room was where Neil kept the boxes of his father’s paper work. Their were about a dozen boxes.

Next to his father’s boxes off in another corner were boxes of family thing his mother kept; photos, old newspaper clippings and other mementos his mother saved up over the years. These five or six boxes looked as though they had been opens recently. He decided to look through those after going through his father’s boxes first. After picking up a box, Neil headed out in to the other room and sat down on the couch. He flicked on the television and turn down the sound.

Neil found nothing of interest in the first box. Just financial statement of people his father had done taxes for. Most of the paperwork was from the early 1970’s. It was almost 4 o’clock in the morning and Neil had fallen asleep on the couch as the television flashed a blanket of blue light on him.