PS Home Horror Stories 1: Cutteridge.

By C.Ri.M.

Robin leaned against the police car and pulled the small gray blanket they had given her tighter around her shoulders. She looked to the ground and her bare feet. Her dress, torn, dangled beside them. It was covered in blood.

An officer approached her and asked her what had happened. At first she didn’t respond. Then she looked up and saw the estate casting its shadow over her. The memories of the horrid events flooded and overwhelmed her. The realization that both her boyfriend and best friend were dead came to her like a wave of heat and then calmly passed away. In her mind she rationalized she was dreaming.

“I’m in a dream.” She said. “I can’t seem to wake up.”

“It was a couple of days ago,” she began, “that my best friend, Jolie, was asked on a date. It was her first date in a while and I thought she’d feel more comfortable if I went with her. So, we decided on doing a double date.

It started out as a typical date. We met up, went to eat dinner, went to a movie and then the guys wanted to get some beer. It was my boyfriend who decided to come here, to Cutteridge Estate.” She spat the name out with contempt. A slight breeze blew tickling the leaves and it seemed the old house moaned in defiance.

“You know, it’s a place teens go to have fun, party…scare each other. Mark, Jolie’s date, didn’t want to go at first but Jolie insisted. I guess he thought he’d get lucky.

When we got here it was raining, which seemed strange because it wasn’t raining anywhere else. My boyfriend said it’s probably because of it being close to the ocean. We all ran, covering our heads, to the front porch, where we found the front door unlocked. The air was stale, but the rooms were clean and appeared to be up kept for an abandoned house. We walked around the house checking everything out and my boyfriend decided that we should go upstairs to one of the bedrooms and leave the new couple alone. As we headed upstairs, Mark stopped us in a panic.

‘You can’t go upstairs! She lives up there.’ He said grasping the banister. He pointed to a portrait of Lady Elisabeth Cutteridge. ‘Shortly after the Civil War The Colonel and Mrs. Cutteridge had this house built. Before the builders of the house could begin, they had to load the dead Union and Confederate soldiers onto carts and wheel them to a makeshift cemetery where they buried them in unmarked graves.

During the construction there were numerous ill-fated accidents like workers losing arms or legs. One drowned in the swampy lake and two flung themselves off the cliff in the back. Everyone just dismissed the events as drunken or incompetent workers and construction of the house continued.

Eventually the house was built and the Colonel, Elisabeth and their newly born twins, a boy named Elijah and a girl named Emily moved in. For five years they lived happily content and without any misfortunes.

Then, almost suddenly, the Colonel became distant. He began not caring or showing any attention to his children. He started sleeping in his library more. He was almost unapproachable except for a young maid they had recently hired. She took care of his every whim including those that were meant for his wife.

Annabelle, the young maid, grew closer and closer to the Colonel until it became obvious, even to the people in town that something was going on. The hold she had over him seemed magical.

Distraught, Elisabeth dug up information about the maid and found that her fiance was killed by the Colonel during the war and his body was believed to lie in an unmarked grave on her property. After his death it was believed that Annabelle had taken up witchcraft trying to bring back her love with the help of a Necronomicon.

Elisabeth finally got enough nerve to confront the maid who struck out at her violently. They fought across the dining room.  Coming out of a drunken stupor the Colonel yelled at the two to stop and he grabbed Annabelle’s shoulder. She spun around and spit out some different language and a green blast of energy shot from her hands, it hit the Colonel and sent him flying through a window. He landed in the swamp outside.

Elijah, who had been playing with his ball outside heard the commotion and came running in. ‘Mommy?’ he yelled and the witch responded by zapping him with the same green energy. It left nothing but the little yellow ball he was playing with which bounced back outside.

Annabelle looked down at Elizabeth. ‘I will ruin you the way I was ruined.’ She said and turned towards the stairs. She knew Emily was playing in her room upstairs. She had something special planned for her.

She opened the child’s door and walked in as if nothing was wrong. Emily laid on her bed playing with a couple of dolls. ‘Hi, Emily, do you enjoy playing with those dolls?’ She asked and Emily shook her head and smiled totally oblivious. ‘Are those the one’s your father bought you when he was in New York City?’

‘You leave my daughter alone!’ Elizabeth yelled from the doorway. Annabelle spun around and hissed. Elizabeth held up the Necronomicon. ‘Is this your power? Is this how you’re doing all of this? If I destroy it you will stop and everything will be normal again?’ With that she pulled out a butcher’s knife and stabbed it through the center of the book.

A horrible moan echoed and a green ooze bled from it. ‘No!’ Screamed Annabelle as the door to Emily’s room shut and locked. Elizabeth dropped the book and frantically tried to open the door as she could hear Emily’s scream become more faint and distant. The door swelled as if it would blow open from the pressure. It banged and bumped. Then suddenly it stopped and there was a deafening silence.

She tugged on the door again but it was shut tight. Something, someone touched her shoulder. She turned around to see her husband, the Colonel, standing there. His flesh had become like leather and there was straw sticking out here and there as if he had been turned into a scarecrow. Elizabeth fainted from the shock and fell over the railing. Her neck snapped as she landed on the wooden floor below.’

That’s the story he told us.” Robin finished, still looking down at her bare feet.

The police officer smirked. “That’s a good lesson in history, but doesn't explain what happened to your friends, ma’am.”

“We went upstairs. We went into her room” She said, as she finally looked up into his eyes. He stepped back as her eyes glowed a deathly shade of green.