Family Secrets

Evelyn looked down at the piece of paper she was holding, checking the address. Yep, this was it. This was her new home in all its glory. Figuring she had nothing to lose, she climbed the ancient steps, taking care not to fall through the crumbling wood.

Evelyn had to throw all her weight behind the key. The damned thing wouldn't turn in the lock. Finally, with a screeching of metal and a shower of rust, the key slowly rotated in the lock. Evie breathed a sigh of relief as she pushed the old door open and stepped into the pitch-black entranceway.

She reached out for the light switch she knew must be around somewhere. Finally finding it, she flicked it on. Nothing happened. Damnit, the lawyers had promised the power would be on. She didn’t relish spending a night here in the pitch black. Sighing to herself she pulled out her phone and turned on the torch app. The feeble light it produced illuminated the bleak scene in front of her.

The hallway was ancient. Thick dust covered what she suspected was 60’s era furniture, the faint glint of cobwebs glittering from the high ceilings and corners. Nobody had been here in years that much was clear. Just how long had this place been sitting empty?

Holding her phone out like a lifeline and slinging her bag over her shoulder, she moved slowly through the hallway, trying not to get caught in the cobwebs that stretched across the narrow space. Yuck. She hated spiders. Their beady little eyes gave her the creeps. A shudder ran down her spine, like cold fingers slowly twining down her back. This place needed a serious clean, like now.

She stuck her head into the first door she came across, using her phone to locate the light switch. Sure enough, this one wasn’t working either. So much for the dream home. Sighing to herself yet again she held her makeshift torch up and tried to illuminate her surroundings.

The room was filled with furniture covered by large white dust sheets. As she moved further into what was obviously a lounge, Evie’s foot caught on a floorboard that was partially sticking up from the ground. Just saving herself from hitting the ground face first, she got her bearings and shone her light down at the ground. Great. Just bloody great. This place was falling apart at the seams. She didn’t want to deal with this right now. Taking care to step over the raised board she walked back out of the room and went in search of a bedroom. She would deal with the state of the building in the morning.

*

Daylight didn’t bring a lot of clarity. The old house was still a wreck and the electricity still wasn’t working. She wasn’t usually one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but right now she didn’t have any money for renovations. Sure, she had inherited the house at a time when she needed it most, but if she were being perfectly honest, she was broke. She couldn't afford to fix any of the problems that the old place now presented her with. Well, at least it was a roof over her head, even if it was probably leaky and full of holes.

When the lawyers had contacted her telling her that she was the recipient of an inheritance, she had laughed. Her family wasn’t wealthy. Who could afford to leave her a house? The lawyers had told her it had been left by a deceased uncle but she had no idea who they were talking about. She’d never even heard of the man who had apparently disappeared ten years ago. Now, after seeing the place in all its glory she thought that perhaps she was the butt of an unintended joke. The house definitely looked like it had been locked up for ten years, that was sure.

Evelyn had explored the house in the cold morning light and it was grimmer than she’d expected. Floorboards were rotting away, making the threat of falling through the floor a real fear. Old floral wallpaper was peeling back from the walls, reminiscent of bark peeling away from the drying trunk of a dead tree.

The furniture was moth-eaten but salvageable. Gingerly lowering herself down onto a couch so she didn’t fall through it, Evelyn pulled out her phone and dialled the lawyers' office. She needed more information. Help. Anything. The line rang. And rang. Damn. Ending the call Evie threw her phone down onto the couch next to her, throwing up a little cloud of dust at the impact.

She leaned forward, her head in her hands, thinking about her next steps. That was when she saw the loose floorboard she had tripped on last night. She could deal with the small issue of a loose floorboard, at the very least. Getting up from the couch she walked over and knelt down. Yes, she should be able to push it back into place without too much effort. Using both hands she leaned down attempting to force the board back into line with the others. It didn’t budge an inch. Everything in this house seemed to be stuck.

Figuring she had nothing to lose she got up and using her foot, put all her weight onto the board. It still didn’t move. Taking careful aim she jumped on top of the board hoping to force it back into place. A loud crack rang out and the floorboard gave out beneath her boot. Her foot plunged through the board, the jagged splinters of wood ripping through her jeans into her shin where her leg stopped when it hit solid ground.

Biting back a curse of pain Evelyn tried not to move. Her leg was surrounded by sharp little wooden stakes that were digging into the gash that was seeping blood even as she looked. Evie leaned down and began to gingerly break off the little stakes that were surrounding her leg. Finally, after minutes of agony, she was able to pull her leg and boot out of the hole in the floor without puncturing herself further.

Great. Just what she needed. Now she was probably going to die of infection on top of everything else. Evelyn carefully rolled up the leg of her jeans to inspect the damage. It wasn’t as bad as she had expected, just a couple of deep scratches. She would still need to clean and disinfect it though, there was no knowing what kind of diseases this old house was carrying. And to top things off, now she had a great big hole in the middle of the floor. So much for fixing the problem.

She went to get up when she noticed something weird. There was something in the hole. Probably a dead animal knowing her luck. But no, she could see the corner of what appeared to be paper. Not thinking about what she was doing Evelyn reached into the hole and felt around. Sure enough, her hand encountered something small and rectangular. Gripping it by the edge she pulled it out of the hole. It was a little black book, weathered with age, the edge of the papers starting to brown. Reaching back into the small hole she felt around and encountered material. Gripping it carefully she withdrew a small cloth bag that was knotted at the neck.

What the hell were these doing under the floorboards? Sitting up she leaned back against the couch, stretching her injured leg out in front of her. She would clean and bandage it soon. First, she wanted to look at what she had found.

*

Evelyn couldn’t believe it. She just couldn’t believe what the little black book contained. Secrets and horrors and she didn’t know what to do about it. She didn’t even know if she believed the information she had just read. She was tempted to walk right out of the house this very second and not look back. What she had thought was a blessing in disguise was quickly turning into her worst nightmare.

She opened the little book again and pulled out the photographs. They were old Polaroids, brown at the edges from the time they had spent under the floor. They were still crystal clear though. Evelyn felt sick as she looked at the photo of a dead man sprawled on the ground. He had a gunshot wound to the chest and she knew that there was no way he could have survived. She also recognised the background. The man was lying in the very room she was currently sitting in; she could see the couch in the back of the photo. God, what kind of house had she inherited?

She picked up the next Polaroid. Another man. Similar wounds to his chest. He was propped in a chair at the kitchen table, in a grotesque parody of a family meal. She flicked to the next photo. A young man lying in the hallway. Blood splattered up the walls. There were more. Too many. She threw the photos down, unable to continue. She was sitting in a murder house. And she had a sinking feeling that no one but her knew it. It would have been pulled to bits had anyone had even the slightest clue of what had taken place here. Of the lives that had been lost here.

But there was something else. The little black book was a diary of sorts. The faded ink rationalising why the killer had done what he thought necessary. The entries were disturbing, but it was the last entry that made Evelyn’s skin absolutely crawl.

I have ended lives for many reasons. Revenge. Pleasure. Necessity. Financial gain. Enjoyment. I have gone undetected for years - who would suspect me, an upstanding doctor in the community? But I fear that my game is coming to an end. The police are catching up to me and if I am not careful they will uncover my...trophies. It is time I take a long holiday. I have withdrawn my savings and intend on disappearing soon. Who knows, perhaps I will be able to continue my game somewhere else, where I am not so well known.

The lawyers had told her that her uncle had disappeared one day. They had waited ten years before legally declaring him dead and reading his will. She wished they hadn’t.

She looked over at the bag. Taking a deep breath she untied the cords around the neck of the cloth sack and reached inside. Her fingers encountered wads of paper. Slowly, not believing what her hands knew, she withdrew one of the bundles of paper. It was money. She pulled out the next bundle. And the next. She was holding a small fortune in her hands. There must be ten, no twenty thousand dollars at least just sitting in her lap. Twenty thousand dollars of blood money.

She pulled her phone out to dial 911. She needed to report this. Plugging the numbers in, she went to hit dial and hesitated. For just a moment she hesitated. She was holding her future in her hands. She was also holding the evidence to a number of gruesome crimes. Ethically and legally she needed to ring the cops right this very instant. But she couldn’t bring herself to complete the call. The Polaroids and little black book were enough to get the house torn down around her in the search for evidence.

Sitting on the couch with thousands of dollars sitting in her lap and the evidence of multiple gruesome murders next to her Evelyn didn’t know what to do. She was torn. Her injured leg forgotten, Evelyn looked at the three numbers on her phone screen. 911. Sighing internally, Evelyn made her decision.