Nightmare Ink Presents Issue 10

Welcome to Nightmare Ink Presents!

Here is this week’s chapter of our serialized story, a chapter where all the storylines come together in a way.

If everything goes according to plan there are only two more chapters to this story so let’s see what the future brings.

And so, without further ado, dive in into our story!

The Haunting of Blackwood Manor Chapter XI: Nightmares Unveiled

Emily looked at the xeroxed page her brother had given her a few moments before.

Alex had barged into her room, closing the door behind him as fast as he had opened it. She was starting to protest but then saw his face and reconsidered. He had sat on her bed and handed her the piece of paper. She looked at him but he motioned for her to read before saying anything else.

And now she was looking at him inquisitively.

“So?” he asked of her.

“What do you want me to say, Alex? It’s a page from an old journal, well, a copy of one,” she looked at her brother. “A diary of a woman who probably was under post-partum depression. It’s not unusual, and it usually went undiagnosed in the earlier decades of the last century,” she couldn’t get her head around why this had left her brother so on edge. “What’s the matter, Alex? You know you can talk to me.”

“I’ve been having dreams, Em. But they feel too real,” he paused.

“Are they about…” she didn’t want to bring Addie up, she had been her friend too and she was still scared by what had happened, but it had been harder for Alex who had been talking to her the whole time, even as he ran down the street to her house.

“No, well, I had one but… that’s not what’s important now. Em… I’ve seen someone in my room,” he saw the look on his sister's face. “I know what you’re thinking. I rationalized everything the best I could. It’s not “new house jitters” and it’s not the “refraction of the light” or whatever you might think of. I’ve seen her through the corner of my eyes. I felt the weight as she sat on my bed. Em…”

“Her?” his sister interrupted him.

“Yeah, it’s a woman. I’ve seen her flowing nightgown the first night here, at my room door. And she spoke too.”

This seemed to have perked Emily’s curiosity.

“Sure it wasn’t mom?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. She said something about babies and another time she said son. And when have you seen mom wear a nightgown?”

Emily stared at him, not saying a word. In her mind, all the noises she had heard since coming to the manor, the rippling paper, and the overall uneasiness she felt came over her as a wave. She had always tried to play them down as stress from moving and because the setting of the manor was ripe for an imagination like hers, one filled with horror tropes, to play with. But now her brother was revealing to her similar experiences.

“So,” she said after a long pause. “You think that the woman in the paper is the one you’ve been seeing?”

Her brother nodded.

“I do. Don’t ask me why but I do.”

“You know what you’re saying right?” Her face was serious, her brother nodded once again. “You are, as a fact, saying that the house, this house we are now living in, is… haunted?”

After the conversation in Emily’s room, the twins got ready and after a quick breakfast were out of the house, having asked their father for the car to go meet their friends in town.

They drove in silence, each one pondering what the other sibling had told them. Emily had come clean about what she had been experiencing, down to the nightmare, or maybe the not-so-nightmare, of the scraps of paper coming out of the wall. There was much they didn’t know yet, blanks on the story that the little paper their father had been sent couldn’t answer. But that paper gave them an answer to one question. The question of who could help them find out more, who could have the solution to whatever was happening. The man they had met last time they were in town. Dr. Morrison.

They had been knocking for a while at the Cedar Books & Curios door to no avail, they knew that no one was inside so they had decided to leave when suddenly Emily turned away from the direction of the car and into ComicScape.

Pete was behind the counter organizing some long boxes and smiled as he saw Emily coming in.

“Em, wasn’t expecting a visit today. What brings you to my humble abode? Missed me?”

“Careful, Pete. Her brother’s here too,” Alex said as he entered the comic book shop. “And I hope you have a real house and that you don’t sleep here,” Alex smiled at him.

“Guess both Smiths missed me! What a lucky guy I am!” The three teenagers laughed. “Now, what brings you to town today? I might have some stuff you’ll probably like.”

“Matter of fact, we came to go to Dr. Morrison's shop, but it’s closed. So, we came to say hi, before heading home.”

“Yeah, he told me he would be out for a couple of days. Should be back tomorrow. I’m glad you did come by. You can go for so much time without visiting.”

“Sorry to interrupt your mating dance, man, but maybe you can help us with something.”

Emily looked inquisitively at her brother.

“Shot.”

“You know the Manor, right?” Pete nodded at him. “And remember what you said when we first met? You were amazed we were living there and that you were the right person to tell us all about it. So, I’m putting you up to bat. Tell us all the juicy bits as you put it.”

As Pete was starting to speak the door opened and a familiar face came in.

“Lily, just in time! I was going to start telling our friends everything about their new home.”

“All his going to tell you are campfire stories,” she sighed. “But those are fun,” she sat herself on the counter, which made Pete frown at her. “Go on master storyteller, spin your tales.”

Alex and Emily discussed what they had learned as they drove back home. From what they gathered from Pete, the house had been a who’s who of supernatural phenomena. There had been witchcraft, demons, and human sacrifices at the plot where the manor now stood, all of which led the owners of the manor to go crazy and do all kinds of crazy stuff themselves. That was probably the campfire part that Lily had been referring to, but he also told them of the triple murder/suicide that took place some time ago. A family, the Holloways, had been found dead, husband, wife, and baby and no one could find out why. At least that was the way in Pete's story, in which he said the deaths were probably a demon wanting the innocent soul of the baby and ending up taking the whole family.

What they were certain of was that there had been a family with a baby in the house. The diary page told them so, and Pete’s story confirmed it. They couldn’t be sure of anything else, even of the deaths, but the pieces they had seemed to be getting into place.

They just had to go through the night.

She was next to his bed again; Alex knew that for sure. He had heard the creaking of the floorboards at the entrance of the room as she made her way to him. Only this time Alex didn’t resist the temptation, he opened his eyes and looked up. He saw his mother in her grey pajamas, “as it been her the all-time” he thought, but he saw something else. Not really behind her or atop her, more like occupying the same space her mother did. A woman with curled hair in a flowy gown. The woman lifted her arms and so did his mother, a pillow in both the women’s hands.

“Don’t worry baby, mama knows how to stop your crying,” was the last thing he heard before darkness overtook him.

Mark was awakened by a muffled scream and the creaking noise of a mattress springs. He rolled over but then he heard a scream. He jumped out of bed and ran to the door. He saw Emily standing in front of her brother’s room, panic on her face, behind her stood the ominous form of Silas Holloway.

“I told you it would happen. You didn’t listen,” the man said to him.

Entering the room, he saw Sarah leaning over Alex, a pillow in her hands. The boy was jerking, his legs trashing under the now loose blankets.

Mark neared his wife calling her name, but she didn’t seem to listen.

“Sarah! Stop! What are you doing?” he screamed at her, grabbing her wrist, and trying to make her lose the hold on the pillow. She was too strong, where did she get that strength? She looked at him, a mixture of Sarah and the other woman he had seen. She ignored him and returned to the task at hand.

Mark was getting desperate. He felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked and saw Silas leaning into his ear. The ghostly man whispered a word.

He ignored him and kept on calling for his wife. The trashing on the bed had almost subsided.

Mark took a deep breath.

“LAVINIA! STOP!” he screamed.

The woman looked at him, releasing the pillow.

“Wha…”

She was Sarah again. She looked around, confused, wondering how she had gotten here, before falling to the floor.

Here is another week of storytelling.

I decided to include something in this end-of-chapter ramble that I thought might be interesting. It’s the page I’ve been mentioning in the past chapters and that revealed a bit to the Smiths, at least to three of them, about the occurrences in the Manor. If at least it had come to the hands of Sarah right?

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I’ll be waiting for your feedback on the story!

See you next week,