The Woman in White

At the top of a hill that overlooked a tiny town in Maryland, sat an older house. It sat tall at the top of this hill white pillars holding up the roof in the front, it was gothic in structure adding to the ominous feel of it all. Many of the townspeople dared not venture to this house as it came with an urban legend of a mother who haunted the place. Legend has it that she was a single mother wrought with hatred over her ex who cheated on her, this hatred then boiled over to the children as she took their lives. The guilt of doing so then caused her to take her own life in the pond right outside of the house. Some say they see her as a beautiful young woman crying off to the side of the road, presumably mourning her lost children. Due to this, no one ever had dared step foot up the hill anywhere near that haunted house.

Still, the house sat on the market for a long time up until one outsider named Dean Miller strode into town. He was a writer from Boston that wanted to move somewhere smaller, and quieter so this house seemed to fit what he was looking for. He had a reputable career and was a bit of a star in his field for crafting engaging horror stories, but he just wanted to be.

“Anything I should know about his place?” Dean asked as he ran his hand through his short brown hair. The place was old and filled with cobwebs. He kept running his hand through his hair worried there may be spiders laying eggs in his hair. The house was a relic, he kept expecting to find a bookshelf that would open up a secret part of the house that would be housing the Batman.

“There are a few things that have definitely scared off prospective buyers…” The real estate agent trailed off and looked away from her client. Dean peered into her eyes looking for an answer and shrugged. “Well, the locals seem to believe it is haunted. I have never seen such things that could lead me to believe such, but it has scared off people. A woman that lived here long ago took her life as well as her children.” She explained.

“Ah, I understand. Doesn’t scare me though. Maybe it’ll help me with my next great big horror story…” He smiled faintly as he continued to look around. The place needed some love, as well as a thorough cleaning, none of which bothered him. “So no one really visits or comes up here I take it?” He asked.

“Nope. The people here don’t venture up really. Maybe kids around Halloween, but even then, it is really quiet up here.” The real estate agent explained.

“Perfect. I’ll take it.”

Dean didn’t take into consideration much else, as the solitude seemed like a nice change up for him. Not only would it afford him the ability to write in peace, it would also allow him to work through his own demons as well. He signed off on the house and made his payments, within the month he would be fully moved in. He hired a company to help him move in his furniture, as well as fix up the place to be a bit more suitable for his liking. Mostly, he just wanted it cleaned up, lord knows he hates spiders. Just on sight of one he would become terrified, thinking it would grow in size and eat him whole. A lovely curse of having an overactive imagination.

Fall turned to winter and Dean had settled in nicely into his new home. Gone were the cobwebs and the putrid smell. As a whole, the once terrifying home had now been less of a pig sty. He enjoyed the silence, although silence and solitude come with its drawbacks. His previous life before the move wasn’t all sunshine and butterflies. That previous life that he tried to distance himself from still found itself in the darkest corners of the house, seemingly haunting him. The monsters inside of his head gave way to his livelihood, allowing him to write such horrible tragedies and monsters in his book. In the living room, he had a desk in front of a window outlooking the front yard of his home. At this desk is where he usually did most of his writing, it seemed appropriate after all. Halfway down off to the side of his driveway he could see a pond that due to the cold weather, was now frozen. It stood out to him during the night as it seemed to radiate a bright light, sometimes he even felt as if he had seen someone walking around the pond and assumed it was just children checking out to see if any of the urban legend was true. This time it seemed as if someone was there by the pond.

“Get outta here!” Dean yelled as he opened his window.

The figure standing by the pond didn’t move or react to his words. It stood still, completely unfazed by his yelling. All the sound around Dean seemed to drone out into silence. For a moment he thought to himself he was in the middle of a scene he had written in one of his books. The silence was quickly replaced by the sounds of a woman crying in the distance. He seemed to believe the crying was coming from the figure at the pond. Dean stood up from his desk, grabbed himself a coat to battle the cold and investigate the distressed figure.

“Who is there? Do you need help?” Dean asked as his yell became softer.

The cries only managed to get louder and as he got closer the figure looked more like a woman in white. The white dress she wore seemed to radiate bright in the darkness almost as if it was drawing Dean into its presence. The woman’s face was shrouded, but he continued to slowly walk closer and closer to her.

“Should I call the police? Are you okay?” Dean continued to prod, but still received no answer. He was nervous to keep getting close, but his instincts told him to help this person.

Dean was now side by side with the wailing woman in white and struggled to summon up the courage to continuously ask if she was alright. Instead, he reached for her shoulder to turn her toward him. The woman never broke stride from crying nor would she take her eyes off of the frozen pond in front of her. After Dean tugged on her shoulder with a bit more force, she finally turned to him revealing a ghastly face and he was also met with a terrifying inhuman scream. The scream was scary enough in itself, but the woman lacked any distinguishing features. Her eyes were missing and it seemed as if her skin was melting away. In his fright, Dean fell down to the ground and was quickly finding himself out of breath.

“It is your fault! You drove me to this! Look at them!” The woman continued to yell and step closer to the retreating Dean. She pointed in the direction of the pond. Dean looked in the direction she was pointing only to find something equally terrifying. Underneath the frozen surface of the pond, laid two children. Without thinking, he instinctively tried to free them by breaking the ice. He laid to the side of the pond pounding repeatedly on the ice with his weight, eventually it began to break and he reached for the children only to see they had vanished. He rolled over to the side, shaking his head in disbelief. None of this made any sense.

“This cannot be real, I must be dreaming...I am too engaged in my work, this cannot be real.” He muttered to himself as he covered his face with his hands and tried to calm down.

“You cheated on me. You pig. You left me and the kids.” The woman in white once again began to berate Dean as she stood tall over him.

“I don’t even know you!” He yelled, tired of the charade and or dream.

“Am I not familiar to you? Have I been forgotten already by that younger model as I’m not good enough for you? I know you have your demons but this is low.” The woman continued once more.

The ghastly face of the woman began to no longer frighten Dean. Her words cut deep as it made him remember the true reason why he left Boston. It wasn’t because he wanted solitude or to be just another person. He was escaping his greatest failure. His guilt. His guilt of being an absent father and husband.

“You are not her…” Dean’s voice broke as memories of his wife, Kat and son Sean came to the forefront. He looked back at the woman in white and no longer saw a ghastly face. He saw his wife and son by her side. Tears streamed down his face and kneeled down in front of them both. He reached out just to touch them, hold them once more. “I failed them. I wasn’t there. I was stupid. I was selfish. I am so sorry, you both deserved so much better. It should’ve been me that died.”

After Dean’s confession, the woman in white vanished in his arms. He fell down to the ground and her cries that he once heard were now replaced by that of his own. He groaned in pain as all of his memories of his beautiful wife and son flooded his mind. His cries could be heard all the way down to the town below the hill. He was alone, just like he wanted, but his demons would continue to haunt him. The legend of the woman in white would take upon a new spin.