Halloween haunting, a story by greg(reader's discretion is strongly advice)+15

THE WATKINS RESIDENCE
WEST HILLIARD, 2005
HALLOWEEN
Five students stepped out of a white minivan, as
did their driver and teacher, Mr. Vincent, and
walked up towards the large house on Amity
Road. They walked up the remainder of the
gravel driveway, holding their notebooks and
pencils.
One of the students carried a voice recorder and
another carried the school-issue video camera.
They were doing a project this Halloween – an
interview that Mr. Vincent had been trying to
secure since he started teaching at Darby High
School four years earlier. It was an interview
with Seth and Elizabeth Watkins, the elderly
couple who lived in the big house on Amity Road
with their caretaker, Valerie.
The property on which they lived was the
backdrop to a triple homicide the day before they
were supposed to move into the house back in
October of 1980. When the police arrived at the
property that next morning, Jefferson Collins was
still there and confessed to killing his three other
crewmembers. Although a solid motive was
never exposed, sources said that Jefferson heard
voices on the property – voices telling him to
protect the land and kill those men. He told
police that the grounds were home to a witch
named Raven who once lived there. Jefferson
was arrested and locked up in a
maximumsecurity prison two hours north of
Columbus, Ohio. Despite the brutal crimes, Seth
and Elizabeth moved in as soon as they could,
and had made it their permanent residence.......



Episode 1

 Mr. Vincent led his five students to the front
door of the Watkins home and knocked gently.
The door opened a moment later and a woman in
her mid-thirties answered. She greeted them
with a smile and introduced herself as Valerie
Warner.
“Good afternoon, Valerie. My name is Mr.
Vincent; you can call me Steven though.
These are my students from Darby High: Ava,
Mason, John, Melissa and Corey.
We‟d like to thank you and Mr. and Mrs. Watkins
for letting us stop by for an interview.”
“It‟s no problem, Mr. Vincent,” Valerie said,
“please, come in.” Valerie let the six of them into
the house. It was a large house – a lot of open
room and old antique furniture. A grand piano sat
in the far corner of the living room covered by a
white sheet. The furniture was old, but looked
brand new – it was barely used. An old
chandelier hung from the ceiling. “If you all will
wait a moment, I‟ll go get Mr. and Mrs. Watkins,”
Valerie said as she left the living room,
disappearing into the house. “Any place with a
white sheet-covered piano is already creepy in
my book,” Mason, a senior, joked. He got a
chuckle out of his classmates. Ava, another
senior with her long blonde hair pulled back into
a ponytail, walked over to the staircase that led
upstairs and put her hand on the rickety old
railing.
She looked upstairs and then stepped back. “It
sure is dark up there.” “Okay everyone, stay
together,” Mr. Vincent said. “Mr. and Mrs.
Watkins are finally letting us into their home for
the interview, and I don‟t want them to regret
their decision by seeing everyone walking around
getting into stuff.” The five students gathered
around together and waited for the caretaker to
bring the hosts into the room. Ava looked to the
right, where Valerie had exited the room, and
then to the left where there were two large
windows covered by black curtains. She walked
over to the curtains and pulled them back to
reveal the windows were painted black; you
couldn‟t see in or out of them. “Hm,” Ava said, “I
wonder why -” “Please don‟t touch anything,
young lady,” an older woman spoke. Everyone‟s
attention turned back to the right where Valerie
brought Elizabeth Watkins in, in her wheelchair.
“Those curtains are very old and I don‟t want you
to rip them.” “Sorry, ma‟am,” Ava said, re-joining
the rest of her classmates in the center of the
living room. Behind Valerie and Elizabeth, Seth
Watkins was walked in slowly, trying to balance
with his walker. He was obviously suffering from
Parkinson‟s disease with his uncontrollable
shaking, but still managed to sneak out a smile
to everyone...
"Mr. and Mrs. Watkins,” Mr. Vincent began,
“thank you both for letting us into your lovely
home. We really appreciate your time.” “Well,
you‟ve been asking long enough,” Elizabeth said
in her shaky old voice. Valerie helped Seth sit
down on the couch, and wheeled his wife right
up next to him. Seth reached his fragile hand out
and rested it on his wife‟s lap. The students
each sat down in whatever seat they could find,
and Mr. Vincent took center stage. “Well, let‟s
begin so we can let you two enjoy the rest of
your Halloween evening. I‟m sure you‟re
expecting a bunch of trick or treaters tonight,”
Mr. Vincent said with a smile. “We don‟t get a
whole lot of that nonsense out here,” Elizabeth
said. She looked up at Valerie who stood next to
her. “You can leave us be, darling. I‟ll ring the
bell if I need you.” “Certainly,” Valerie said. She
smiled at the guests and then left the room. Mr.
Vincent looked to John, who was holding the
voice recorder, and gave him the OK to hit the
little red button. On that mark, Corey, the only
freshman in the group, lifted the video camera,
aimed it at the old couple, and began
rolling.........
Mr. Vincent continued, “Well, I‟ve been trying to
do this interview for almost four years now,
because I think it‟s a big part of Hilliard‟s
history. Three people were murdered on your
property the day before you were supposed to
move in. Now, there is a lot of mystery that
surrounds this crime.” “Indeed there is,”
Elizabeth said. “First of all, I‟d just like to know
in general, why move in after something so
horrific happened?” “It was our dream home. We
put a lot of time and money into getting this
home built. We weren‟t going to just abandon it.”
Mr. Vincent scribbled down in his notepad, as did
the students. “My next question, do you think
this was an act of cold-blooded murder? Or do
you believe the spirit of a witch named Raven
really could have spoken to Jefferson Collins?”
Elizabeth pointed to the wall with the windows
that were painted black. “There‟s nothing
supernatural about this property or the cornfields
out there.” Ava noticed which wall she was
pointing too. On the other side of those windows
was the cornfield. Did the Watkins‟ not want to
see what was out there? Or did they not want
something to see inside? Elizabeth continued,
“That man, Jefferson Collins, was mentally
insane. He took the box cutter from his toolbox
and slit those poor men‟s throats. There was
nothing supernatural about that at all.” The old
woman was starting to get visibly frustrated.
Seth just sat on the couch, not saying a word to
anyone. Mr. Vincent, slightly put off, continued
anyway: “Over the past few decades, especially
the last couple of years, there have been strange
occurrences out here on Amity Road and the
surrounding country roads. Strange howls in the
night, reports of mysterious fires in the middle of
the cornfields - some people tell stories about
their pets going missing around here and never
turning up again.” “Mr. Vincent,” Elizabeth said,
“I‟m not long for this world. Seth and I are
knocking on death‟s door. The only reason I
agreed to do this God forsaken interview was to
set the record straight. There was never a witch
named Raven and there is no haunted cornfield.
Seth and I have lived here for twenty-five years,
and not once have we been spooked by
anything!” The five students set their pencils
down and felt nervous by Elizabeth‟s shouting.
“Mrs. Watkins, I apologize for any -” Mr. Vincent
began but was then interrupted by Elizabeth
picking up the bell that Valerie had sat next to
her and frantically ringing it. “What about the
black paint on the windows?” Ava called out,
silencing the ringing bell.....
Elizabeth looked directly at Ava, as the room
grew silent. “What did you say, young lady?” “The
cornfield is on that side of the house,” Ava said,
pointing behind her. “The same side that you
have the windows blacked out on. Why are they
blacked out, Mrs. Watkins? Is there something
you don‟t want to see out there in the cornfield?
Maybe you saw something that frightened you?
Maybe you didn‟t want someone, or something,
to be looking inside the house?” Elizabeth snarled
and started ringing the bell again, faster this
time. “Alright,” Mr. Vincent said to his class, “it‟s
over. Turn the camera and recorder off.” John
and Corey shut their equipment off and abruptly,
all the lights in the room shut off. The students
all screamed. “It‟s just a power surge, guys.” Mr.
Vincent tried to calm his students. Elizabeth
shed a sinister smile. “Is it?” The house slowly
began to darken into murky shadows, and the
students panicked. Melissa dropped her notebook
and ran towards the front door, but by the time
she got there, the house had already surrendered
to unnatural darkness. Nobody could see
anything. There was a loud hiss that emerged
from the darkness, and then an even louder
shriek from Melissa........
The light bulbs on the chandelier above flickered
on and off and everyone saw quick, terrifying
glimpses of Melissa‟s bloody body hanging from
it. The flickering lights went out for good and the
screaming came to an abrupt end, leaving only
echoes lingering in the hauntingly dark
house.......