The Haunted Mansion

THE HAUNTED MANSION
BY Ravinder Assi


There it stood, as black as night,
Howling of the wind, that gives you a fright,
Everywhere is quiet and no-ones in sight.
High walls surrounding, this unusual place
And trees so scary, your heart will pace
Unlocked gates, that squeaks and clang
Now we enter a mansion, where the doors go BANG
Tiptoe we go, in a house so cold
Evil silence and a smell of mould,
Don't look back things might just unfold.
Hearing of voices, so low and clear
Outside? Inside? But no-one is here?
Upstairs we go, to look around
Still I hear that weird sound
Escape quick! Now we are falling under ground.
By Marie Ferry








PROLOGUE

1932

Lightning struck across the dark black sky, above the huge dark mansion, it had been raining heavy non-stop for four hours now. The storm was getting worse by the minute, and most of the lights were out due to the unexpected storm. The mansion became colder and darker by the hour, as well as creepier by the minute. Sam ran along the cold dark corridor, her bare-feet echoing around the mansion as she ran into the master bedroom, Sam slammed the door shut and fumbled for the key in the darkness, then finally with frustration hit the light switch hoping it would come on, and managed to lock the door.
Her heart was beating frantically, and she was shaking as if she was standing naked outside in the cold icy storm. A loud bang came from somewhere down the stairs as if someone had slammed the door shut. A persistent pounding sound came again this time from the kitchen; it was deep and dull like an ache in a bone. Someone with heavy footsteps was coming slowly up the staircase. Sam frantically searched for a place to hide in the bedroom, she ran straight towards the brown wardrobe, and hid there in utter silence behind her clothes. Sam feared for her life.
The bedroom door was forced opened braking the lock on the door, the footsteps became louder and louder until they stopped outside the wardrobe. The mansion was silent and almost preternaturally still for what seemed like forever, but was only a few microseconds. Sam could hear him breathing very fast and heavy.
'Where are you hiding bitch? You can't hide from me forever; you'll have to show you're repulsive face soon, and when you do, you're all mine.' Edward Said angrily. There was a crack in the wardrobe, Sam held her breath, and peered through the crack, she could see the monster lurking in her room as he was searching under her bed. He walked towards the wardrobe and put his bloody hands on the gold rose doorknobs; he turned the doorknobs round and opened the doors abruptly. Sam quickly closed her eyes and held her breath praying he would leave her alone. The moon's light shone in Sam's face, blinding her for a spilt second, as she opened her eyes she felt his bloody hands on her wrists tightly as he pulled her out of there. Sam couldn't bring herself to look at his grotesque face. He looked up at her and smiled woodenly.
'Look at you; you look like a pathetic wimp, look at me when I'm talking to you.' Edward demanded. Sam couldn't move, she felt paralysed from the waist down and couldn't stop quivering. She slowly glanced at him and saw that Edward had an evil smirk on his slim, dirty, unshaven face; her eyes were fixed unwaveringly on his. He pushed her so abruptly on the floor that she bumped her head on the wooden leg of the bed, nearly knocking herself unconscious.
Edward crouched down alongside her, laughing at her badly battered black-and-blue face; he slapped her hard with his bloody hand across her face, leaving a small-blooded handprint on her left cheek. Sam's cheek felt warm and was bright red; it was so painful that she couldn't contain her tears. She stared at him speculatively as if wondering whether he was going to kill her, or just torment her forever.
'Please stop, you're hurting me.' Sam whispered, as she had difficulty talking.
'What did you say?' Edward chuckled. 'You're begging me to stop?'
Sam muttered something but Edward couldn't understand what she had said.
'Speak up bitch, beg some more, I want you to beg like a dog, now speak up.' Edward shouted.
'Please stop.' Sam cried she was terrified of him. 'Please stop I'm begging you to stop hurting me.' Sam pleaded. Sam couldn't control her tears and couldn't stop shaking; it was like she just had a cold bath. Edward laughed at her face; she could smell his disgusting alcoholic breath on her. 'No way, I'm having too much fun to stop now.' Edward Amused. Sam shuddered desperately trying to think of a way to escape; Edward took out a craving knife from his black, leather jacket pocket. Sam was crying uncontrollably, and started shaking violently as she saw the knife in his hands; the knife was razor sharp with a black handle. Edward brought the knife up and waved it slowly and closely across her face, as he grabbed her left wrist with his other hand.
'Please don't.' Sam cried out. 'Please don't.' Sam was so frightened; she saw that his eyes were bright with merriment; she closed her eyes as he struck her wrist with the knife, quickly and deeply. The pain was so excruciating, Sam couldn't contain her screams, and she knew no one would come to her rescue, or hear her cries for plea. Edward was laughing like a mad maniac; he was about to strike her again with the knife when he heard the doorbell ringing.
'Dam; just when I was beginning to enjoy this, don't go anywhere I'll be right back.'
Edward left the room laughing at her as he closed the door behind him. Sam looked at her wrist, there was a deep cut, and the blood was pouring out. Sam tore off some cloth off the bed sheet and wrapped it around her open wound. She stood up, and hobbled in front of the mirror as she had sprained her ankle, her face was badly beaten-up. She couldn't recognize herself in the mirror; her whole body ached all over, she could just about see through her left eye as it was bruised up, her bottom lip was cut, blood was trickling down slowly. She dried away the tears, and decided that this was the only chance she will have to escape from Edward while he was busy outside.
Sam grabbed the suitcase from under the bed and started throwing some clothes in. Five minutes later she was ready to leave, the hard part was actually leaving the mansion undetected. She would never step foot in this mansion again, not after what had happened here. All those horrible memories came flooding back; she felt the sting of impending tears.
The first year was great like with all married couples, first the sweet talk, the romance, the dinner, buying expensive jewellery, after that it all suddenly went wrong in the second year. It all started with little things at first like the jealousy, the slapping, pushing, punching after that came the stabbing, rapping, and then the threats about sleeping with other men. She couldn't understand why Edward was being so vindictive, and why he was hurting her so much she hadn't done anything wrong. She shuddered, grabbed the suitcase, and opened the bedroom door carefully, she walked up to the banister, and looked down, and there was no sign of Edward he must have gone out. Her arm was throbbing in pain but reluctantly she carried on going down the staircase. Occasionally she would look over her shoulders to see if anyone was following her, even though she knew no one else was in the mansion. She couldn't believe her eyes; she had made it to the French double brown doors. Sam knew that she was a free woman now. Sam opened the door and was about to take the first step of freedom when, Edward appeared up in front of her from the other side of the door.
'No! This can't be happening.' Sam whispered to herself, she was sure that she heard him leaving the mansion. He was standing there with an evil grin on his face.
'Going somewhere bitch?' Edward said sounding disappointed. Sam abruptly froze, she was in shock, she couldn't move, and she could barely get the words out of her mouth. 'N- n- no.'
Edward stepped inside the mansion, locking the door behind him. Sam was exhilarated by his shocked expression; she knew that he was very angry with her; his look was more sinister than before. 'I said going somewhere you whore?' Edward was really furious now.
'I-I-I was I-I was.' Sam was getting very nervous; 'I was just going to throw some old clothes out that don't fit me anymore.' She said frantically, hoping he would buy her excuse. Edward slowly took a step forward; Sam dropped the suitcase on the floor and started moving backwards slowly. Then she froze; she stopped backing away from him even though he continued to approach her. She was fed-up of running away from him; this time she wasn't going to, she had had enough of his torments.
'You lying bitch,' Edward grabbed her right arm forcefully. 'You were planning on leaving me.'
'No, I wouldn't do that, I love you.' She said desperately trying not to cry as he held her arm with such force.
'No! You don't love me.' Edward moved an inch closer to her almost breathing on her face. 'Who the hell is this man?' Edward threw some photos' at Sam's face; Sam flinched as the photos made a slight cut on her left cheek. Sam looked at them; it was a photo of her and her friend. Sam didn't know what to say, her heart was pounding even louder than before.
'Coincidentally, I found him outside waiting for you in his car and I'm going to make sure he doesn't live to see tomorrow, and then I'll do the same to you.' Edward Shouted.
Over the years Sam's friend had rescued her on numerous occasions from Edward; slowly they became close friends and eventually started falling in love with each other, as she fell out of love with Edward. Her friend had promised her that they would leave tonight and never return to this mansion again, he had promised to protect her from Edward as long as he was alive, but something went horribly wrong, how did Edward find out about them? Who had told him about them? They were so careful not to get caught by anyone. Sam started walking backwards as Edward was moving towards her slowly. Sam stumbled over something and bumped into the banister hitting her head hard, there was nowhere she could run.
Edward pulled out a long beige rope, which was inside his jacket pocket, he twisted the rope around his hands, and he quickly rapped it around Sam's neck and started strangling her. She didn't know what had gotten into him; it was as if he was possessed by a primitive rage. Sam couldn't breath, she was gasping for air, her whole life was flashing before her eyes, and she felt so defenceless to do anything then, darkness clouded her and she dropped her hands beside her. Edward untangled the rope around her neck and dragged her by her arms up the stairs to their bedroom.
Sam struggled to come awake, a pulsating stag of pain bond her head, when Sam finally regained consciousness she found herself tied to the bedpost naked. Sam looked around the room; all she could see was the huge double beige wardrobe and the beige bedside table, with a small white and gold lamp sitting on top. Her clothes were scattered everywhere on the light blue carpet. The room was getting darker as the moon was slowly moving away from the window, a light breeze was blowing from somewhere around the room that made Sam shiver all over. Edward came in with a steel glass and placed it on the bedside table, he too was naked. Edward climbed on top of Sam and spread her legs wide open; his penis was ready, hard, and hot. He pushed himself in hard moving slowly at first back and forth then, going faster harder, and harder hurting her more. He moved his hands slowly onto her large breast squeezing them hard, Sam let out a cry as she was in pain. Edward covered his mouth over her lips kissing her, forcing his tongue into her mouth.
He moved his lips over to her neck kissing it ruthlessly moving down to her breast, he covered his mouth over them kissing her nipples and sucking them, which he enjoyed very much. Sam suddenly felt a sharp pain in her left breast, Edward was biting her nipple hard, he bit her so hard that he ripped her nipple off and saw his mouth was covered in blood, her blood. Sam was in agony, she was screaming and crying in pain, Edward was just laughing furthermore enjoying it. She was powerless against him, he was strong, well built and was heavy. He kissed her other breast and bit that nipple off too and spat the nipple out, it landed next to Sam's head. The pain was so excruciating that she nearly passed out from the pain. Edward climbed off Sam and untied her wrists; Sam rubbed her red wrists as she sat up crying at the edge of the bed. He threw a white see-through cotton dress at her.
'Put this on now.' He demand; Sam did as she was told as she was scared stiff of him. The blood came pouring through the dress, Edward grabbed her hand and led her to the window he was ready again. He lifted her dress up pushing her breasts against the window, and pushed his penis in her bum, he moved in and out of her until he exploded with delight, after that Edward got dressed and walked over to the bedside table. Sam was in pain as she walked to sit at the edge of the bed. Edward picked up the glass and passed it to Sam to drink.
'Drink this; it will make the pain go away.'
Sam was feeling very suspicious of Edward, it had been a long time since he gave her anything and now he was giving her a drink, she was too scared to ask him what it was, so she just took the glass and started sipping it slowly, she realized that it was warm milk; Edward was watching her closely making sure she drank it all. When she finished the milk Sam passed the glass back to him. Edward placed the glass back on the bedside table, he was about to walk out of the room when he turned around and said to her with a smirk on his face.
'Did you like it?'
'Y-y-yes.' Sam said as she sat further back on the bed, her legs felt like jelly and she couldn't stop trembling her aching body.
'Good, I'm glad you did, before I leave you I had forgotten to mention that I had poured some poison in the milk, enjoy your painful death.' Edward came close almost pressing his face against hers; Sam was stunned she didn't know what to say or how to feel.
'Don't worry it won't hurt for long, no-one makes a fool out of me.' Edward was laughing at her as he left the room, slamming the bedroom door behind him. His laughter was echoing around the mansion as he was descending down the staircase. Sam sat there in disbelieve, she couldn't believe that Edward had just given her poison to drink, she was dying and her friend was already dead, she didn't care anymore, Sam walked to the beige three drawer bedside table and opened the first drawer.
Sam fumbled around in the drawer, there were so many dead roses she had hidden in there over the past year as her friend gave it to her, she didn't want Edward finding out but, now it was too late for that. She took out her black leather diary, she wrote down everything that had happened to her over the past year. Sam new that Edward would get away with this, and do the same thing to another poor, helpless woman so, she decided to put a curse on him forever. She had to get her revenge with him for all the pain she had to endure, it was pay back time and merely time will tell if the curse will take effect. Sam wrote down the curse.

'I Sam Atkinson place a curse on you Edward Johnson, may you live in utter misery and pain. May your death be slow and agonising, your skin slowly and painfully melt away, disfiguring your face, your soul be tortured and you go to hell with eternity of pain, where no one will ever love you again, you will have no mercy for you in death or alive. This is the only way I can escape the perpetual misery that you have giving me. One-day people will find out what you did to me, and why you murdered those innocent people in the basement.'

Sam closed her diary and placed it back in the first drawer, she took a rose out and gently kissed it by the petals, tears came streaming down her cheeks as she held the rose close to her bleeding chest. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably as she placed the rose back inside the drawer and locked it. Frustrated with the situation that she was in, Sam spotted the small kitchen knife that Edward had left on the floor; she bent over the bed and picked it up by the handle, which was covered in blood, her blood.
Exhausted with the way her life was at the present along with Edward beating her all the time she lay down on the bed. Sam didn't have the strength to fight anymore or wait for her friend to come and rescue her, as she knew Edward murdered him. No one was coming to help her, if there was a place called hell, she was living there, for Edward had proved to her that living with him and being married to him was pure hell itself.
Sam's hands were shaking as she raised the bloody knife high up, tears came streaming down her face she was about to commit a crime that even god would not forgive her for, but she had no choice. Sam didn't want to wait for the poison to kick in; she felt a little trickle of blood coming out the side of her mouth, with the knife raised up in her hands she held it tight, and with one quick strike Sam stabbed herself in the stomach. Soon darkness clouded her eyes, as she lay there still, in the darkness, alone on the bed, in the cold empty room.