Max_Writer

Fuller tried the roll-top and it closed and opened easily with a rattle. He remembered that Atkinson said he had put some books and manuscripts in the house. He wondered why they were not in the study and looked over the books in the bookshelf but didn’t see anything like what Atkinson had described.

Examining the ledgers proved them simple accounting books. However, the 1915 book, which lay by itself, showed a change in mortgage payments and an influx of money, as if the owner had sold something expensive. He sat down to examine the book more carefully as McAfee lit another cigarette. When Fuller turned one of the pages in the month of May, he saw that, instead of numbers, someone had written in it like a journal. The entries read:


Tuesday, May 4, 1915 – I must write down what I have seen since I moved into this house
yesterday. This was the only paper I could find conveniently and I’ll be damned if I won’t
use it. Something is stalking the house. I feel sure of it. I cannot get out of my mind that
someone … or something … is watching me constantly. I wish I was not alone here. It is
terrible to be alone. Was buying this house a bad idea? It came so cheap. Perhaps it was
a mistake.

Wednesday, May 5, 1915 – There is much more here than meets the eye. I can hear someone
in the house when I am very quiet. Right now, it sounds like someone is shuffling around
upstairs, yet when I hear these noises and investigate, I find nothing. The house is locked and
safe. Even that door to the dining room that has no key. It is impossible that anyone is in the
house. Isn’t it? Thank God I have a pistol. I keep it by my side always now.

Friday, May 7, 1915 – The eyes. I saw the eyes. They are out there in the woods. They are
watching. It’s getting into the house somehow, I don’t know how, but it is. I keep the bedroom
door locked at night but will it be enough? What is it?

Sunday, May 9, 1915 – This house has a sinister reputation. I finally devoted the time to research
this place and between the stories I’ve heard and things I’ve been able to learn in Lenoir, I now
know there is something terribly wrong here. People die here for no apparent reason. William
Campbell died the year they constructed the church. His son, Sean Campbell, who some say was
a witch, was said to have been torn apart by … no one knows what. I heard a story from one old
man that Matthew Wagner was found frozen to death on the roof of the house in the dead of winter.
What was he doing there? What was he trying to escape? The daughter of another owner, Robert
Bell, sickened and died before his eyes in the house. Others fled the place in terror. Some
disappeared. And the story that Dr. Tatum told me in Edgemont about the Union soldiers froze
my blood. Something sick and unhealthy and horrible is here.

Monday, May 10, 1915 – I saw it! I saw it!!! It is horrible! Horrible! I cannot stay here another
night. My God! It’s at the window!!!


“Lots of numbers, huh Mr. Fuller?” McAfee said.

“To a certain point,” Fuller replied. “Then you have ... somebody having a mental breakdown and talking about things that could get in the house and were out in the woods stalking the house.”

“What?” the other man said. “Somebody else went crazy up here?”

“Apparently,” Fuller said.

McAfee shook his head.

“This gets worse and worse,” he said.

“Yes,” Fuller said. “I will be very glad to see the farmer in the morning.”

“Yeah,” McAfee agreed, looking nervous.

They headed upstairs next. A wide landing with a fireplace stood at the top of the stairs near a hallway. A grate in the floor matched a grate in the ceiling in the living room below. Examining the second floor proved that it was filled with bedrooms. There was a storage room as well, and a larger master bedroom at the end of the hall. One door off the landing held a steep set of unfinished stairs.

Only one room held anything out of the ordinary. In the north room next to the master bedroom were several pieces of modern luggage. There were five varied suitcases, a medical bag, two small book boxes, and an adding machine and carrying case. All of the items were very dusty, as if they’d been there for some time.

After they finished exploring the second floor, both of the nervous men lit cigarettes. Then Fuller went through the luggage more carefully. In one suitcase, he found women’s clothing and in another was another ledger, this one with an accounting of furniture and goods that Fuller realized included everything in the house.

He went into the master bedroom and he and McAfee searched it more carefully. In the desk, Fuller found a sheet of paper with handwriting on it that read:


June 16th, 1925, AM
I seem to be either going crazy or seeing what my now-deceased cousin once saw
before his death. I don’t think that I want to stay here any longer. To hell with this
God-forsaken place, let it burn for all I care.


He tucked it into his pocket.

“More craziness,” he said to McAfee, who shook his head and looked worried. “How are you doing?”

McAfee said he felt better though his hands were a little sore. He stated again he didn’t know what happened though he was worried about it.

They decided to head to the attic after that but, as they walked down the hall, Fuller thought sure he heard footsteps coming from above them.

“Did you hear that?” Fuller said.

McAfee stopped and listened but the house was quiet.

“Hear what?” the other man asked.

“Thought I heard something,” Fuller said. “Sounded like someone walking upstairs.”

McAfee listened again but all was quiet.

“Nerves possibly,” Fuller muttered. “Whatever the other people heard.”

McAfee didn’t look like he liked that. He took out his pistol and pulled back the hammer. Then he opened the door that led to the attic, putting the lantern down while he did so. He picked the lantern back up.

“If anybody’s up there, this is the police!” he shouted up the stairs.

Then he started to climb the stairs, Fuller close behind him and glancing furtively behind, hoping he wouldn’t see anything coming from the rear. At the top was an unfinished attic that held a broken ladder-backed chair and a couple of trunks filled with clothing. The lone, gabled window was open and there were leaves on the floor. The wall under the window was water-damaged. The room smelled of wood smoke and they could see a little smoke hanging in the air.

McAfee looked carefully around the entire attic but found nothing.

“Smoky up here,” he said.

Fuller took a piece off the broken chair and tapped on the chimney, looking for where the smoke might be escaping. The chimney was about two and a half feet wide and he could see smoke seeping out from an area that appeared to be almost square. He found a hidden place in the brick where he could insert his fingers. It felt like two handles at waist height.

“This part of the chimney, the brick moves,” Fuller said.

“Like a secret door?” McAfee said.

“Something like that, yeah, I imagine,” Fuller said.

“Okay,” McAfee said.

They discussed how it would open and McAfee moved to Fuller’s left so he could face the opening. He put his lantern down and aimed his pistol at the chimney. Just as Fuller started to pull open the door, a banging came from below. It sounded like someone was banging on the front door. McAfee gasped and Fuller pushed the secret door closed again. The two men headed down the stairs in panic, guns in their hands. They heard a woman’s voice.

“Hello?” Fuller called.

“Is this the house that I’m supposed to be at?” the woman called.

“Is that you Nancy?” McAfee said.

“Yeah,” the woman said.

“That’s Nurse Brannigan,” McAfee said. “I told you about her.”

He opened the door. Standing on the front porch with her medical bag and luggage was tall, unattractive woman in a nurse’s uniform.

* * *

Nurse Nancy Brannigan had a professional relationship with Officer McAfee and he’d invited her to come on the trip to North Carolina, but she had missed the train she was supposed to meet him on. Catching a later train, she had made her way to Lenoir but then ended up in Edgemont and had to return after an hour to Mortimer. She learned of the two men who had gotten off and went to the Hardy house, talking to Annette Hardy and learning she’d just missed the men. She decided to walk down the road to the Campbell House. She had passed a wagon going back to town but missed the lane to the Campbell House and had to backtrack.

She didn’t arrive at the Campbell House until well after dark and could see lamplight coming from the windows downstairs. Frustrated, she had knocked on the door but when there was no answer, she pounded on the wood for entrance. The door itself sprung ajar and she called out but there was no answer. She had gotten unnerved, being alone in the dark, and felt like someone was watching her.

She was relieved when the two men answered.

* * *

Nurse Brannigan was a little surprised to see that Bill McAfee had a gun in his hand. Both of the men carried camp lanterns and stank of wood smoke. There was a small fire in the hearth but the smoky smell was strongest near the men.

McAfee pocketed his revolver and moved the chair for her so they could get her luggage into the house. Then he closed the door and pushed the chair back in front of it. Both men looked nervous and she noticed that McAfee had blemishes all over his hands and face. She didn’t recall seeing them on the man when she’d talked to him a few days before. They almost looked like healed second-degree burns, but it would have taken them months to get the way they were.

“Is there a reason there is no knob on this door?” she asked.

“Apparently a while back, some people broke in,” Fuller said.

“And we just haven’t fixed it yet?” she replied.

“It’s not our house,” Fuller said. “I’m investigating it for a client who requested that I check on it. We came to investigate, mainly to see how intact everything is and whatnot, and heard a lot of interesting stories.”

“Not to mention the ones that were in the newspaper,” McAfee mumbled, lighting another cigarette.

“There were papers, clippings,” Fuller said. “I’ll show you what we’ve got so far.”

He handed her a manila folder.

“Just to give you a heads up as to what you’ve tagged along for,” Fuller said.

“Well, I’m ready for an adventure,” she said with a smile.

She started looking through the manila folder but then asked McAfee if she could see his hands. When he hesitantly held them out, she looked them over.

“That’s remarkable!” she said. “Did you get burned recently?”

“I don’t know what happened,” he replied. “When we were outside the house, there was just pain. Pain throughout my whole body. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t see anything. I had all these blisters all over my face and my hands. It was just awful – the worst pain I’ve ever felt.”

“Have you been around any toxic fumes?” she asked.

“No, we were standing outside,” McAfee said.

“I was right beside him,” Fuller said. “We headed towards the house to come in and all of the sudden ...”

“It was awful,” McAfee said. “Less than a minute later, I could see again and Mr. Fuller helped me get into the house. But then it just kind of stopped after, what? Fifteen minutes. I felt fine after. I feel fine now. They don’t hurt that bad, it’s like blisters.”

“Let me put some ointment on it anyway,” Nurse Brannigan said.

She tended to the damaged skin, using some bandages and ointment. She found it fascinating as it looked like an old wound that had healed long before. She wrote down what she observed, noting that the lesions seemed to have healed very quickly and had come from nowhere.

“Where exactly did this happen?” she asked. “What part of the house?”

“We were standing out front,” McAfee said. “About 25 feet from the house.”

She wanted to see the spot and headed out of the house. The two men followed her and showed her the place on the other side of the picket fence about where they had been standing. McAfee noted that when he bent down to light the lantern, the fit had come upon him. He described it as “like a heart attack.” When she asked, both men told her that he had not gotten the lantern lit.

McAfee took out another cigarette and lit it up, tossing the spent match aside. She noticed both of the men looked shaken and nervous. Fuller mentioned to the woman that when the farmer left, he had mentioned returning to them in the morning.