Note from the author: Gettin' into a spoopy mood and decided to spin a tale for ya'll. What you are about to read has SOME truth but is a highly embellished tale. That being said, have a spooky ride and let me know what you think in the comments below. I want to thank the incredible turn out I got with our last tale
RITA if you haven't gotten a chance to read it yet? Please do! I think you'll really enjoy this tale if you read them in order. Looking forward to sharing the next part of the story! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The images provided are mostly not my own and are only there for visual stimulation. :)
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THE BRADFORDS
“No-no-no you have it all wrong. It’s a banquet of self-aware intellectuals who come together to pool money for a specific cause Margret. It’s really quite noble, and feels freeing in a way.” Olivia Bradford chattered away every Sunday in the same fashion with different wealthy women from different circles. Old money, new money, it didn’t matter to her. The goal, in the end, was always the same. She had garnered a reputation almost as a salesperson for any particular cause she backed at the moment and was just as pushy as one if she wanted to be. With her thin frame and broad shoulders, and her giant lips that never stopped flapping--she seemed to manage to pull someone from the crowd each day to sign up for this or that cause.
Today, was no different than any other day; she sat on her high-horse around a table of women who normally used this time to gossip--to preach about this cause or that one. Today, she had managed to snag the attention and money of one of the other women at the table so they had spent a little extra time at the restaurant having tea than the rest of the women did. “Yes, I’m telling you...the town doesn’t put nearly enough funding into the fostering programs and it is a weak link. Something I am hoping Mayor Johanson changes after he is elected for this coming term.” After she had gotten a signature to a couple of things, and a check, she had made her way out of the restaurant feeling quite accomplished for the day.
Her husband, Chadwick, who wanted no part in any of what she was doing, had stayed behind in the car to handle business from his various pieces of tech. He was a stout man with reddish hair that receded to the top of his head, what was left of it anyway, and he worked so often that he rarely watched the world pass by. When Olivia had slid into the seat beside him, he didn’t even look up from the blue glow of the Ipad he was working on intently with a stylo that he kept biting the end he didn’t need of. “How’d it go dear?”
“Wonderful sweetheart.” It was spoken flatly, there was not an ounce of actual care in her heart for all the “good” she was doing by collecting money for these causes. “I wish we wouldn’t have to beg for hand-me-outs every weekend but…” she pulled out a compact mirror and began to fix her lipstick as the driver drove them back to their estate. “...it is what it is….”
“Yes well…you’re good at it.” Chad replied off-handed as he finally put his Ipad away where it belonged in his suitcase, and then rubbed his tired eyes.
“Ha-ha.” Olivia replied with a roll of her eyes, “Lucky I’m doing anything at all--or this family would be in shambles already.”
Nothing else was said on the remote drive to their very large estate at the end of a long and winding road OR when they had finally arrived. Olivia merely waited for the driver to open her door, and then excused herself the way she normally did into the home so she could enjoy a bubble bath and some privacy.
The Bradfords were old money, both Olivia and Chadwick’s families went back a long bloodline--but they didn’t own a mansion. They owned a relatively large mini-mansion they’d had built from the ground up once upon a time. On the outside, it housed ornate moldings and windows that tinted when the sun hit them. It sported a small fountain where the cars were parked on the side, and the yard was a great place to entertain parties--which they did often. But the Bradford’s and the minimansion housed an awful secret--from the entire town. There was a reason, they had purchased land so far out in the middle of nowhere.
To Olivia’s annoyance upon arrival, she entered the home and pulled the gloves from her hands as she walked over to the staircase with her nose upturned. She was greeted by wailing from upstairs, and footsteps of the only other person that worked for the family. “Georgia what’s going on? Can’t you control that noise?” Oliva snapped at the older woman who bowed graciously and apologized.
“So sorry ma’am he started up again but I didn’t know what to do. I’ve been following the list you made for us but I couldn’t get him to calm…I’m sorry ma’am so so sorry..” The woman, dressed in a classic maids attire, bowed and shook her hands in frustration. “He is a big boy he is…”
“Big boy.” Olivia said flatly as she rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air exasperated, “Yes that’s the problem isn’t it!” She stalked off down the hallway to the flight of stairs that led to the attic of their home. It was one boxed room at the top of their estate, and it was never allowed electricity. So she turned on the light for the staircase leading to the attic, and started up the stairs. “MAXWELL!” She called as she started up the flight of stairs, “Do not make me climb these stairs! I swear to you, you will regret it!” As she threatened the wailing got a bit quiet, and then would die off--but a few moments later it started up again.
Georgia approached finally, out of breath, holding a flashlight for the lady of the house, “For you Mrs…” She panted as she cowered behind and left to do her daily work and chores.
Olivia took the flashlight from the old crone and when her husband came up the stairs he would give her a look, “I wish you wouldn’t do this…” He said the words but didn’t stop his wife from walking up the flight of stairs. Instead, he merely ignored it and went past to his study to have a cigar for the evening.
Olivia climbed further, took a key out from around her neck, and started to unlock the few locks on the door. The cat door at the bottom was locked now, but Georgia had tried to shove food through it earlier, there was still evidence of that all over the floor and against the door itself.
Sighing, Olivia opened the door and clicked on the flashlight. She stepped inside the room and shined the light right on the huge mass of a human that she’d birthed twenty-seven years prior. “Lookit you.” She spat knives, her voice full of disgust, “A monster. Grubby. Disgusting. Living on….” She would kick a dead half-eaten rat and shake her head. “FIlth and vermin!” This was The Bradford’s biggest secret, and Olivia planned to die before the world knew about the shame she bared.
“That’s why I lock you in here. Do you think society would want you? The way you are? The nuisance you have always been, and are becoming more of every day?” She raised the flashlight and used the long handle to strike him, which made him yelp and cower, “YOU! My greatest burden!?” Laughing she would shake her head as the boy, with the deformed features stared at her through his raised arms begging her for mercy through his eyes half-blind eyes,
“No….” she would wave her finger from side to side as she shook her head still and added, “No. Society doesn’t have a place for creatures like you.” She said it with confidence, “You are the product of a family curse that will always haunt us….if it wasn’t for me, this family would be in shambles ages ago!” She reached out and slapped his face. “Now stop this infernal racket!” she pointed at him with the end of the heavy-duty flashlight and stared at him sternly, “DO not make me come up these stairs again or you will not get off so easily.” As she backed out of the room she was quick to lock the door back up, god forbid the monster inside realize his own strength one day and try to stop her frail form from locking him in. For now though, she figured she at least had broken his spirit enough to keep him in line.
Whimpering could be heard from the boy, as she walked away, but at least that was at a manageable noise level so she left him alone for the evening, and eventually, he went completely quiet--she assumed, he had fallen asleep and went about her nightly activities.
She didn’t speak with her husband again until later that evening when they were joined by each other in bed. She had a book propped up, and her reading glasses on, and he was watching the news. After hearing a story about three missing teenagers that could have been abducted, Chadwick muted the television and took a breath before asking, “Do you ever think--that the curse is just something we bring on ourselves?”
“By ourselves?” She would ask him in a tone of absolute shock and a bit defensive as she scoffed and removed her reading glasses, “And how exactly would we be bringing it on ourselves as you say Chad hmm? All the charity work I do for this town?”
“I just mean…” He would sigh and unmute the television again, “Nevermind forget it.”
“That’s right forget it.” Olivia said with a nod of her head confidently because she didn’t think she was doing anything to incur something as badly as what they were going through. “I mean, if it wasn’t for our constant charity involvement we may have lost the house….the money….all of it by now….we’re basically teetering on the edge of that now as it is. You better pray Johanson makes it into the office and that’s not just MORE money we’re flushing down the drain!”
“Okay okay...yeah. You’re right.” Chad relented but he didn’t necessarily believe her. Or in any curse for that matter. He just thought he had a pretentious wife who wasn’t as good with money as she thought she was. “Anyway, I meet with the accountant tomorrow.” He said casually.
“Mmm…” she mused as she had replaced her reading glasses and stared tersely at the page she was reading a few moments prior. “Tell Marion I said hello.”
“Yes dear,” Chadwick replied softly as he turned the volume up on the television.
The whimpering had stopped but the hulking creature in the attic room above the house still stirred. For a while, he wondered what he had done wrong to deserve this life, and then something inside of him clicked as he was staring out his window.
They could lock him in this room forever, but he had a shot at freedom long ago that he hadn’t even considered until now. Walking slowly to the panes he reached up with his enormous hands and unlocked the window, sliding it up he squeezed his long lean form out and grasped the sill within to get a grip on how far up he was. It sure was a long way down, he got a little woozy for a second just looking at it. But with the house silent, and this was his only shot. He felt the risk of falling was worth it to see the world.
One foot at a time, one hand in front of the other, he crawled across the slanted roofing to the chimney, and using the stack and bricks sticking out, he slowly made his way out of the room he had known for so long. Looking around the yard was all he could do at first, but then he darted across the moonlit lawn towards the road. He very badly wanted to see what it was like. For a moment he wondered if there were more people in the world than the ones he’d heard his mother and father speak of or to.
During parties, he was kept gagged and muzzled, and not many people were allowed in the house. There were usually outhouses set up at those events for that reason. Not many knew the insides of the Bradfords home. Even fewer knew Maxwell existed. He stared in awe in the middle of the great lawn up at the vast spread of stars in the sky. Then he sprinted again towards the end of the driveway, it was his time to finally shine.
It took him a few hours to reach the downtown area, having passed most of the sleeping town on the way through the strangely quiet suburbs. The closer he got the brighter it got, and the louder it got. He heard music he’d never heard before booming from a club and followed it there but hung out away from the door in the shadows so he didn’t have to talk to anyone. He hated talking. It was a chore because he hadn’t finished his schooling--a punishment his mother had decided to inflict on him.
“Hey, there buddy you got a smoke?” The voice came from behind him and for a moment Maxwell merely froze and shook his head. The kid who had asked as a punk, who wore leather and an earring in his ear. He made a face and scrunched his nose, “Eghhh gross...nevermind freak.” He hissed as he put his arm around his girlfriend and started for the club door.
“Don’t call him that Johnny...it’s not nice…” His blond, long-lashed girlfriend said softly, but loud enough for Maxwell to have caught what she’d said. “Ever learn to not judge a book by it’s cover?”
“Yeah-yeah whatever. Why don’t you take him into the club with you.” The boy laughed and his friend who was right behind them joined in the laughter and mocking but Maxwell couldn’t hear them now that they were far away.
Their words had hurt him most, the girl had made him feel better though, and the rage he felt when his mother abused him slipped away as he thought of how beautiful and soft looking she was. He slinked away from the club to a restaurant nearby, the smell of food had caught his nostrils so he made his way toward it. When he found the restaurants were closed he went out back to where the smell had come from and ate his own filling supper for the first time in his life--out of the dumpsters.
He stayed quiet when the cops came by, but that was only because they had bright lights and seemed to be looking for something. He stayed pinned against the dumpster walls with his heart racing at those moments. And when the police were done patrolling the alleyway he was in, he’d leave again and wind up at the same parking lot for the club he’d seen the girl at earlier.
Crouching in the shadows by a wall he watched the doorway for the club and waited for her to come out. After a while, when the club and lot had started to thin out, he thought that his waiting was pointless. At one point he even forgot why he was waiting, he had been waiting so long. Just when he decided to leave, the moment he was waiting for happened, and the girl of his dreams was walked to her car by club security and her asshole boyfriend from before.
He watched as she wrapped her arms around the Johnny boy’s neck, pulled him close and kissed him goodbye against her car, Maxwell blushed because for a moment he had wished he was so lucky. Closing his eyes he imagined the girl’s lips against his, and the touched his lips softly as he fantasized. When she drove off, and everyone else left he started for home unnoticed. This was the best night of his life, and the sun was coming up, he had to hurry back so he could climb the chimney to his room again--before his mother tried to shove his breakfast scraps through the cat door and found out he wasn’t there at all.
Georgia watched the young mistreated master cross the lawn early that morning, and she never told a soul. Instead, she pretended as if nothing had changed and she went throughout the home doing her menial daily tasks. Maxwell made it into his room without a bother, and his mother didn’t come to feed him until two hours later--after she herself had eaten. He was left with scraps of bacon bits, some egg, and a piece of stale bread, but he ate every drop, with a huge grin on his lopsided face because he had a secret of his own.
A few weeks had passed with Maxwell sneaking out to find the girl of his dreams. He’d followed her car around town and was able to figure out where she worked. It had been easy to trace her car because it was his favorite color, red--like her lips, and he had a knack for remembering numbers. So when he’d read the numbers on her plate the first few times he was sure it was her. He made sure he always stuck to the shadows, but he was close enough sometimes to hear her talk.
“Alright, Mandy I have to head out.” Sylvie, a small and extremely awkward goth girl who worked with the girl of Max’s desires, offered a hug to the blond bombshell and then gave her finger guns and a wink. “I’ll see ya tomorrow right? 4-11?”
“You got it Sylv--” Mandy put her cigarette out and exhaled a plume of smoke as she watched her friend and coworker drive off.
On a whim, now that she was alone, Maxwell made his way over to her, his hands stuffed in his pockets. Licking his lips he wasn’t sure what he would say to her so he froze when he walked up to her initially. “Uhhh…”
Mandy looked up from where her hand was poised on her car door and recognized Maxwell from the club. She glanced around and noted that no one was around but them, but tried to remain calm and unjudgemental while he found his words, “Oh heeyyy….” she said in a friendly manner, but it was clear, her tone was a little unsure. “You’re that boy from the club….hi….sorry about Johnny he’s a total dick when he drinks.”
“Ohhh uhhhh yeahhh uhhh its not a problem.” Maxwell could feel his cheeks getting hot, his whole body was feeling strange and he didn’t know how to get a grip on it; it made him mad to know he could not control it. He felt stupid like she was silently mocking him. “Hi….” he didn’t know what else to say. Human interaction was not something he was used to, and she had mentioned a hello earlier so he hoped that wasn’t too bad.
“What're you doin’ out so late?” She asked curiously, a little weary as she clutched her bag. “Just ditch last call?”
Maxwell Bradford stared at the girl without an answer; he was sweating profusely, and he reached a hand out to touch her arm. “I just….” he told her softly, “Want to thank you….” he stepped closer but she flinched backward and looked frightened, which also upset him--because his mother had been right. Society always would look at him like this, even her. He wrapped his arms around her and she went to scream so he covered her mouth with his large hand and whispered. “Shhhh I just want to kiss you the way you kiss him.”
This, of course, escalated into something terrifying quickly. Mandy struggled against him and couldn’t breathe right after his hand had covered her mouth, and she had continued to scream. It was no use though as he dragged her further away from her car, and she got tunnel vision. That would be the last time she’d ever see another day.
Maxwell didn’t panic at first, he thought she was sleeping and carried her home this way. He figured he could keep her quiet like this, every time his mother was around if he needed to. That way, he could keep her. There wasn’t much more thought into this plan as he climbed the chimney with her in one arm against his body.
When he got her inside, he hid her in a pile of old stuffed animals he didn’t use anymore; there were other things in it too--rotted food and mice droppings, but the animals were what stuck out most. He propped her body in them and kissed her face and hands. He used her hands to touch his own face after that.
It was still dark outside, so he had ample time to explore her body--it wasn’t until the morning a few hours later that he started to comprehend the fact that she was not going to wake up again. After he realized she wasn’t going to wake up he got upset and hit her. She didn’t respond so he knew she wouldn’t wake up, and the bruise on her skin would always remain. It enraged him, so he covered her stomach again with her shirt and retired to his bed distraught. He didn’t want to make too much noise though, because his mother would find out and then he would NEVER get to keep her. As long as she remained quiet, and just like this, he figured he could keep her without anyone knowing. So that’s what he did.
Three days started to pass, with Maxwell ‘playing’ with his new toy, until it started to stink and get soft. Another three started to pass and his parents were knocking on the door. Maxwell, hid the girl properly in some toys, but his hand went through her torso and he screamed; he screamed for a number of reasons. His frustration with the situation, his life in general, and the fact that he couldn’t fix this.
His screaming garnered more attention from his parents, who now were unlocking the lock’s to see what was happening in there. Olivia had made Chadwick follow her up there with the flashlight to check on what on Earth the smell coming from the attic was. It had gotten so terrible it was beginning to fill the walls and ceilings of the floor below it, and they knew it couldn’t be ignored any longer.
With his hand behind his back, Maxwell stood quickly to greet his mother who eyed him suspiciously. She poked him hard in the chest and looked him in the eyes, “What on EARTH is that stench Maxwell?” She almost felt as though she could wretch the smell was so great. “Did you catch another rat? Something bigger?”
While Olivia was interrogating their son, Chad had made his way passed her around the room. He pulled the cloth tucked into his jacket out and covered his nose because as he got closer to the animals, he could smell it getting stronger. Almost hesitantly he bent to move some of the stuffed animals, and as he pried a few away, and a few more rolled out of their perfectly stacked positions, he revealed the very dead half-rotted face of a girl he saw from a recent broadcast. “Oh-my-word….” He stumbled back and turned around wide-eyed to the scene before him. “Olivia step away from it!”
Olivia was used to her husband trying to defend their son, so in all honesty, she had been caught completely off guard by this. Backing away one step she would turn, quizzically toward her husband and asked, “What are you on abou-?” Just as Maxwell reached out to fit his large hand firmly around her throat. Her half-choked fear rattled cries didn’t last long, because it only took a few times of shaking her to get her to be quiet. With her body limp in his hands, he threw it on the ground and looked at his father who was backing towards the door ready to run.
“Now Maxwell….” Chad started as he backed down the stairs a little and tried to pull the door closed behind him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough because Max put his hand out to stop it from shutting. Then nearly ripped the door off the hinges flipping back open, “Stay!” Chad told the boy in a firm tone, the way a pet owner would command a dog, with his hand out, “You don’t know what you’re doing Max….it doesn’t have to be like this….” Suddenly he wondered if all these years his wife hadn’t been as crazy as he had thought but no sooner had the thought come, did it pass again because Max was only a few steps away.
Turning to run down the stairs and out of the house, Chad didn’t get very far as his son had managed to catch up and pull him by the jacket. They struggled for a bit until Chad was picked up by his son and dangled over the great banister, then as his body ripped free of his jacket, he fell the large drop below into the table and ornate vase that was there for show. He laid a still crumpled mess at the bottom of the stairs, blood coming out of his mouth or head--Maxwell wasn’t sure.
Now he knew he couldn’t go back. His ‘girlfriend’ was dead, his parents were dead, and he was pretty sure the police would come for him soon. Without looking back, he grabbed the necklace off of Mandy’s corpse, climbed out the window, down the chimney, and onto the grounds. When he got to the edge of the property line, where the woods started--he glanced back while he stood in the shadows. His mother was right. Society wasn’t the place for him, he needed to go away, so he figured the woods was a good place to start. Better than jail. Or worse. Like a frightened child, Maxwell fled for his own life, and never looked back at the house that was his former prison, again.
The sounds of hospital machines woke Chadwick, which was oddly soothing; hospital machines meant two things. Either he hallucinated the horror show that took place in his home, or that he was at least safe from his son who could not hurt him here. Opening his eyes slowly, he squinted against the bright lights and tried to ease himself back into the world around him. Glancing to his left he noticed he had flowers on the table, to his right he noticed an empty chair. In a daze, he located the button and called the nurse. There was something he had to know.
Poking her head into the room after the light went off, Madison looked the patient that she’d gotten used to being asleep since he’d arrived. The doctor had said he might wake any time now, and to page him as soon as he did because the police wanted the man for questioning, but beyond that Madison didn’t know what was up. She could only feel the presence of spirits. Not talk to them. And seeing as she was still in nursing school, she didn’t really need that added pressure anyhow. But Mr. Bradford wasn’t a spirit, she had to remind herself, and he could talk to her.
“Hi there sugar! Welcome back to the waking world! My name’s Maddie and I’ll be your nurse for tonight okay? Lemme just page the doctor and you hang tight, alright? In the meantime is there anything I can get you?”
Chad stared at her for a moment and then shook his head, “No visitors…” He said after a moment, “No one.” He didn’t want his son getting him somehow, and felt that there was a very big possibility that he might be out there somewhere, just waiting to finish him off.
“Okay, Mr. Bradford. No visitors…gotchya. Just the doctor...and then you two can hash it out from there. Alright?” She adjusted his bed and disappeared for a moment, but after a few seconds, she came back with a cup of ice water and a straw. “Alright hun...be right back…” She honestly didn’t know what happened to this man, but she knew whatever it was almost killed him. There was no way in hell she was going to risk upsetting him after what he may have been through, the doctor could be the one to bring up the police as far as she was concerned.
Laying back, after sipping some water, Chad would close his eyes and try to relax. He slipped into a half-awake half-asleep state. Looking out the door he thought he saw his son walking up to the counter to ask for him, the woman pointed and smiled at his room and then Max turned and started walking slowly toward him. His head started to swim and he felt dizzy and hot. He was going to scream but when he opened his mouth nothing came out, and then his eyes opened and he was safe in his hospital bed with no visitors as he had requested, he started to sob silently in his hospital bed.
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