The Cottage

I grab my mop, bucket, and broom and head into my grandparents’ old house. I inherited their old house in Maine in the middle of nowhere. My mom told me (her dad) my grandpa wanted me to have it. I thought it was odd as I am not really someone who loves the outdoors. I packed my car and headed up on Thursday to beat the Boston traffic. The house was more of a cottage, more like a summer getaway camp. It reminded me of some place the frat boys would hang out on a long fall weekend. It was all mine, mine to manage and maintain. There was this part of me that wanted nothing to do with it, I wanted to sell it and just collect the money. I just couldn’t do it, I really wanted to, but I didn’t have it in me to abandonee it. It really was charming and cute. The little cottage is a two bedroom with an open floor plan and sunroom that looked out into the woods. The woods are my least favorite, I always felt watched when I would visit my grandparents, I even feel like I am being watched now. My grandpa was an odd man that loved space, aliens, and the paranormal. Their little cottage was filled with all kinds of weird books and cut out articles my grandfather found interesting. My grandmother just went with all his crazy collecting and stories, she kept the cottage in pretty good shape. After her death my grandfather just kind of hung out in his room and the kitchen. I was prepared to dust and declutter. Once I got to the house, I walked around to assess the mess. It was not too bad, so I grabbed my mop, bucket, and broom and headed for my grandpa’s bedroom first. His room was the worst of all. He had stacks of books and old newspapers dated to the 1950s. I took a deep breath and headed on in.

For the next several hours I dusted, moped, and swept. I organized and threw stuff away. It was just me doing this myself. I asked for no help as I needed to do a little growing. I needed to find myself. I was going through a bad breakup and needed the head space. The man I had been dating for six months wanted to marry me and start a family. I am only 23 with my young life ahead of me, I was not ready to settle into married life. I wanted to travel, live a little and then settle down. I expressed this to my now ex-boyfriend, and he told me that I missed my shot, and he was done. I didn’t have a chance to love him I was just getting to know him. I was not exactly ready to break up either. It was a messy break up because we were with each other almost every day. Missing my shot? Was I missing something? What kind of idiot says that to someone he “loves and wants to marry”? I shut myself off from him to collect myself and my actual feelings, a part of me wondered if I loved the idea of him, not sure I was falling IN LOVE with him. I was really feeling confused and kind of lost, I wouldn’t say sad really- but more perplexed with the entire situation. Was I fine being alone, was I more comfortable in my own skin then I realized? I got offered this opportunity for solidarity and I took it. Could I handle this new single life just fine? Cleaning is the best therapy for somebody like me, busy hands busy mind. I had a list of things to do and getting this place some WIFI was on the second to do line. As I am looking through some old boxes, I hear a radio turn on in the kitchen. I froze, as I am alone in practically the middle of no place. I grab my broom and slightly lean around the door and peer into the kitchen. Nothing, not a soul, nothing is out of place. I take a few steps closer to the entry way of the kitchen and walk around the island to hesitantly turn the radio off. The radio was playing very old music by Frank Sinatra. I did it my way was belting out of that old radio so loud. All the hairs on my neck and arms were standing on edge, my stomach was in knots. The next thing I did was call my mother to tell her what I just experienced. I was so shaken up because I was alone.

After I got off the phone with mother she offered to come up for the weekend and help me clean the place up, but I told her I was fine. Just really rattled. After a few laughs she assured me, the house was not haunted but old. I didn’t fully believe her, but I convinced myself she was right, and it was just a wiring thing. I finished my grandpa’s room and decided that I would pick up where I left off in the morning. I was getting tired, and it was getting late. I didn’t want to sleep on my grandpa’s bed so I figured I would check out the spear room. The spear room was just in need of some dusting and some fresh new sheets. I made my bed and settled in for the night, I grabbed one of the old articles my grandpa had and skimmed through it until I fell asleep. The night alone in this cottage was a little creepy. I thought I could hear pacing and muttering in my grandpa’s room, but I was so freaked out from the radio incident I chalked it up to my mind playing tricks on me. I tossed and turned all night with wild dreams. Around 6 a.m. I got up and started my day.

I got dressed and headed into town to get some breakfast, there was nothing in the house but maybe expired seasonings. I found a cute little breakfast place that had WIFI so I was able to fire-up my laptop and figure out where the nearest telephone company was so I could update the house with internet. I am a freelance writer, and my sole income is writing and blogging, I mostly wright about places I have traveled to, and I blog about my interesting life as a thriftier and making a dollar go a long way. I was able to locate a company not too far from the breakfast shop. I was able to make an appointment for same day set up, which was excellent. I was told they would be arriving at my place by 5p.m. I figured I would run to the town grocery store to pick up a few things for my weeks stay. I wanted to be home by 2pm so I could finish my cleaning and setting up. The little town I was going to be calling home for weeks at a time was pretty and quaint. I really could see my writing career taking off and maybe I could get over my fear of the woods and set up a camera out there to capture the wildlife. I could pursue my dreams of being a photographer. I love to work for myself and was always coming up with something new. My drive home was uneventful, but my thoughts were all over the place with ideas and future endeavors. I was still feeling a little uneasy after the radio incident and the weird night I experienced. I just felt like I was being watched and I didn’t love that. I pulled into the driveway and just sat in my car for a few minutes to collect myself and center my thoughts. If I was going into the house scared, then every noise I heard would just make it that much more unsettling. Suddenly the corner of my eye caught something in my rearview mirror and my thoughts are now racing worse than before. I need to stop this and get my mind on track; I am not opposed to the house being haunted but I don’t want to be afraid to be there. Now was my chance to prove I could do this. I take a deep breath, open my car door slowly, put one foot on the ground and pull myself out of my car. Nothing, there was nothing outside or around my car. The woods had me so spooked. I need to get my wits together; There is nothing to be afraid of. I grab my bags and dignity out of the trunk and march inside.

I finish my cleaning and putting things away with no further issue. Before I knew it the cable men were here and started setting up. Nothing odd or scary happens, the men setting up my WIFI were fabulous. All systems were a go, and my laptop was working, and I was getting all my notifications. It was turning out to be a decent little get away with a great view and plenty of thinking space. I figured I would start to plan my day for tomorrow. My plan would be to spend half the day writing and half the day exploring my new soundings. If I liked it enough maybe I would just move here, take it all over. I could sell my condo and just live up here and write, and blog, and work. I felt like I couldn’t leave this place for no more than a month. It had only been 24 hours, but I could see why my grandparents loved it. It was as if this house owned them - this was their dream retirement place. A cottage in the wood’s year-round. These woods, these woods were filled with something unsettling, and I never liked looking at them for too long. Now, as if overnight I don’t care about the woods, I would burn the woods down if it meant I would love the cottage more. I have never loved anything this much before. I sat down at my little coffee table and began to blog my day and upload pictures from the beautiful mountain scenery I had captured. Before I know it, I am falling asleep in front of my laptop, the dream I have is so vivid I could hear people taking and I could smell perfume. I could almost feel human touch, it was the most amazing dream I have ever had. I am living in this wonderment when suddenly, I hear a big, huge bang on the glass door. I can’t wake up, then I feel someone behind me, the next thing I know my eyes are being help open by something while invisible hands bang on my glass door, and all I can see is white pointy teeth poking out of the darkness. I am screaming and wake up in my bed drenched in sweat. How did I get in here? Did I sleepwalk? I have no relocation of relocating to the spear bedroom.

My morning is a fumbled mess, and I can’t write anything if I tried. I was up at 6 A.M. and it was now noon. I needed to get out of the house so I could think, I felt like someone was whispering in my ears all day. I go to the local coffee shop, and I google my address because I have no information on my land. As soon as I google my address an article pops up about a dispute my grandparents had with a local coven. It talked about how there was some confusion with some property lines and the coven took it a little too far with some threats and vandalism. There were even some rumors of animal sacrifices, but nobody had solid evidence. I spent hours online looking and writing things down and then wondering why on earth my grandparents would give me this house. I was angrier than anything, why me? Why not my bum cousins that lived in Texas? My phone started going off, it scared the living shit out of me. It was my ex-boyfriend asking if we could talk. All I could think about was “you had your shot”. YUCK. You can wait and live with your decision. I had to figure out what my next move is going to be because I was possibly living in a cursed house. My plan of action would be to go for a walk in the woods I hated so much. I would do it bright and early tomorrow morning so that way it wouldn’t be so intimidating. By the time I was done constructing my plan of action it was already 5p.m. I collected all my stuff and headed home for the night. I grabbed a pizza on the way so I could try and relax and watch a movie. I pulled into the driveway to discover almost every light was on in the house. It looked like someone was in my kitchen, it looked like my grandmother who has been dead for 10 years. I had enough, a moment of bravery washed over me, and I jumped out of my car and walked up to my door, unlocked it, and walked in. No lights were on besides the one over the kitchen stove. The hell with this, I grabbed my weekend bag and headed to the nearest hotel. Not today, not today, I have not slept in two days I needed this.

I woke up the next day well rested and ready to take on whatever the house wanted to throw at me. I didn’t work, I didn’t blog, I didn’t do any social media posts. I got down to business and tossed my hair in a bun and threw on my sneakers. I was going into the woods and searching for answers. I had no idea what I was going to be getting into, I didn’t even think to tell anyone what I would be doing. It never crossed my mind how dangerous this adventure was. I heard all kinds of things about the woods, from it being haunted to people who escaped prison and were hiding and living in there. At the time I thought it was rubbish and just stories but now, who knows. I could have a group of angry witches looking to take over my house and land. I figured if I kept my mind focused on my purpose then I would have no room for distraction. I checked out of the little hotel and headed to the mouth of the woods. I was convinced that if I parked in the driveway my bravery would disappear. I feel like the house was watching me and making plans on what its next move would be. I was going to be documenting my journey into the woods as well. Who needs to write about today’s fashion or best new restaurant in town when you were living in a real-life ghost story? I had a plan to drive to the mouth of the woods which is in the way back of the house’s property. I don’t think the house knows I know that way into the woods. As soon as I hit the dirt road my phone lost signal, which I knew was going to happen. I had a recorder and an old-fashioned polaroid camera in my backpack along with water and snacks. Any feeling of fear I had drifted away along with the urge to runway and never look back. I wanted answers to the crazy house my grandparents left me. I really did like it and I didn’t want to give it up, I wanted to find a resolution and make peace to whatever or whoever was so angry. I tossed my backpack over my shoulder and went into the woods. Woods was an understatement it was more like a forest with thick canopy of trees and huge bushes. The trees looked like they were going to swallow me up, some were very unfriendly looking twisted up and dead. Roots uprooted and limbs stretched out. The deeper I got the quieter it got. Not a sound, not a bird, not a frog, not even the sound of waterfalls. It was just dead silence. My thoughts were running wild, I was getting ready to hall ass out of there when I heard it. My name being called, it was like a whisper. Emma, again, Emma. Then a loud EMMA! I froze, standing still. All my hairs were standing on end, I couldn’t move. I wanted to, I had to. The impending fear of doom was hitting me hard. I took a deep breath and walked further into the woods. With every step I am shaking but I keep going, I start to scream I AM HERE! The more I yell the louder the whispering in my ear gets. I can’t make out what it is saying but I keep yelling. I want to let whoever or whatever know I am not afraid. I feel like my bold move may have unearthed something sinter because I hear a huge roar from behind me. I take off sprinting deeper into the woods.

As I am running, I come to a clearing with a well. A well, you must be kidding. I stop and kind of lean over into the well. It smells, like really smells like something died down there. Did something die, was there a body or bodies down there?! My heart is racing, really racing fast. I fumble for my phone to see if I have any kind of service. As I look to the right of me, I see it. I see a circle with symbols and a pentagram. My heart sinks, I didn’t want the property line theory to be true. I take my camera out and start snapping photos of the well and the circle. I can feel something watching me, I can hear something breathing heavy behind me. I ignore the entire thing and begin to pray softly under my breath as I make my way out of the forest. I noticed on my way back to the mouth of the forest all the sounds that were absent are back. I could hear a river, some crickets, and some birds chirping. I could feel the warm summer air on my skin. I felt like I was gone for hours and hours when I had only been gone for a total of two hours. The trees were not twisted and there were no roots uplifting, the canopy I thought I saw was now thin. The mouth of the woods looked different; they didn’t look so creepy after all. I get to my car and hop in, as I am backing up, I see it. I see this tall, muscular, grayish/blue figure, with yellow glowing eyes just standing at the mouth of the forest. He is holding what appears to be a stick with just a cloth over his bottom half. I peeled out of there so fast and back to my cottage. Whatever I saw was not human, and the idea of a demon in the woods terrified me. I needed to go into my grandpa’s room and see if he had any notes or anything related to this war that was going on. I pull into the front of the house and hall ass inside. I grab my backpack and take out the pictures I have snapped. They either didn’t develop or were blurry. There was one that kind of came out, it looked like was a mist over part of the well. I had to figure out if I was going to risk spending the night or get another hotel for the night. I thought about it for a while and decided to just stay. I would spend the rest of the night on my laptop researching land, demons, and aliens. The night was mostly still and quiet with a few creeks and taps to interrupt my searching. I ignored it, and nothing else beyond those things happened.

I wake up on the couch around 5am. I start my coffee and rejoice that I had no dreams, no night terrors or anything odd happen. I make a bowl of oatmeal and sit in the sunroom, the sunroom that looked out to the woods. I could feel I was being watched but I sat there and watched back. I sat in my chair and wanted something to happen, I needed something to happen. Nothing. No demon with yellow eyes, no feelings of dread. I made the decision to go back in the woods that afternoon. I was armed with knowledge and a feeling of fearlessness, nothing was going to hurt me, and nothing was going to run me off this land. I finished up my breakfast, did a quick blog post, and checked my email for any possible freelance gigs. I didn’t have much in the way of work, so my day was going to be a little more freed up. I was walking past my grandfather’s room when I stopped at the door. I looked at the one pile of stuff in the corner that I didn’t get to. I decided I was going to go through it and see if there was anything of value I could find. As I am moving the pile, I catch my foot on a looped string. It was a pull string; I move all the stacked-up trash to the side, and I discovered a hidden door in the floor. I needed to call my mom. There was no way she didn’t know that this little cottage had a hidden room. We were always going up in the summer and as us kids got older, she would sneak away up here to get away from the sounds of the city and to spend time with her parents. My call went unanswered, I had a decision to make. Do I open the door that leads to who knows what or do I wait for my mom to call me back? I go against the voice in my head that says to stop and wait and open the hidden floor door. Dust fly’s up in my face and stairs unfold to a dingy dungeon. I slowly make my way to the dwelling, it’s small- but big enough to fit a bedroom down there. It smells like must and mold, something above me brushes against my head, I look up to find a string attached to a light. I am thankful. I pull on the string and light engulfs the room. What I see in front of me answers most questions that I had or never even thought to ask. A small alter sits in the corner of the room, candles look like they may have been lit hours ago. My phone rings breaking the noise in my head, it was my mother. Before she can even say you called? I blurt out what I have found, she is quiet for a minute and says “Emma, your grandfather was into some weird stuff, and I wanted to tell you, but I was not allowed to.” My blood runs cold. I have no words to say. I listen to her tell me that my grandfather had an affair with a coven witch and had a baby with her. He was taking no reasonability for the child which caused some issues between the coven and my grandparents. My grandmother knew about the affair, so she took matters into her own hands and met with the coven witch. They both decided revenge was going to be on the menu.

My grandmother knew about the small space in the floor, and it was her alter where she would perform spells and summon demons. She kept feeding the creatures in the forest she created and kept making my grandfather think he was going insane. The witches in the woods, yes there was some truth to that, but everything was happing because my grandmother died and stopped feeding the creatures she created in the woods. The well I found with the foul smell was in fact animals that were being eaten by the demon. My grandmother fell ill with dementia, and after a 4-year battle with it she passed away. The property line was a ruse so my grandfather would be none the wiser about the plan her and the coven Witch hatched. My mother said she knew her half sibling very well, that my grandmother would take her to see her sister on Saturdays. I learned in the matter of 30 minutes that I had an aunt and maybe some cousins, my grandmother was insane, and I had to figure out how to close a portal. My grandfather had no idea what he gave me because he didn’t know my grandmother was so diabolical. I get my mother to give me my aunts name and phone number. I had a phone call to make and some things to sort out with her family. I am not the type to shy from a challenge, I wanted this to be MY HOUSE. My mother apologies and we get off the phone. Right as I am about to turn to get up the stairs the door slams shut. You have got to be kidding me! I can hear feet above me dragging across the floor. I still have light and my cell phone, so I am not completely in the dark, then I hear “I did it my way” by Fran Sinatra blaring from the kitchen. I am shaking and trying to diel 911. The noise is so loud above me that I can hardly hear the dispatch and she can hardly hear me, then my phone just goes dead. I am crying and screaming for whoever it is to let me out. I am pleading and crying to just let out and they can have the cottage, I was done. I wanted to be in my little condo in the city with all the nose and all the air pollution. All I can hear is laughter and the radio somehow gets louder to drown out my pleas for help. Then the absolute worst thing happens, the light goes out and I am left in darkness. I feel like I have been down in this makeshift basement for hours, the only thing I can hear is that song, and then I smell fire. I figured this is how I die, then as if some divine power could feel me giving in to death the door opens, and two police officers are getting me out of the dungeon I was almost calling my tomb. They looked so confused as I crumbled into a puddle on the floor crying and asking then if they caught whoever it was in my cottage. They told me nobody was there but me and nobody was playing music. I was dumb founded, I thanked them for their help and then I packed my bags and headed for home. I was no longer safe there and I needed to go home. Maybe the forest won, maybe the cottage won, maybe my dead grandmother won. Who knows, all I know is my life is more important than any cottage in the woods.

As I am pulling out of the driveway, I see an old truck parked at the end of it. I really was so burnt out that I didn’t even stop. If that was the person that locked me away and played music so loud, then they could have the cottage. I didn’t care. I didn’t even look their way; they started beeping and following me. I did the stupidest thing and pulled over, I let them come to my half-cracked window. A woman with long black hair and snow-white skin approaches me. Her eyes pierce though my soul. She introduces herself as Rose and that she wanted to help me, she said my mother called her when she could no longer get ahold of me. She told me she was my dad’s daughter making her my aunt. She was on her way to the cottage when she saw police fly by her. She told me that while she was going to come and introduce herself, she saw the demon creature bolt into the woods. She knew what it was and how to get rid of it. Rose remembers my grandmother well. She used to call her Aunt P. I was so shocked about all this information; how could my mother keep this from me?! Rose told me that she was the one going into the cottage, lighting the candles, and doing the rituals to keep the thing in the woods at bay. Since I came up here and started cleaning the place up, she was unable to get into the house, and because of the family secret she couldn’t just show up without any explanation as to why she was there. I felt a lot of things come crashing into my world. Once we got caught up and acquainted- I went back to the cottage with her.

We pulled into the front of the house, and all the lights were on, and it looked like my grandmother was washing dishes at the sink. Rose told me it was not real and the thing in the woods wanted me to feel comfortable so he could take my soul. She told me that she would go in the house first and down to the alter. Once she told me it was safe, I went inside. I stood by the door the entire time with my car keys in my hand just in case things went sideways. Rose came trotting up the stairs and told me we had to go into the woods. I didn’t want to go into the woods again, but I went anyway. She told me to look forward and not around at anything whatsoever. She told me we needed to get to the well and close it off. She took my hand and off into the woods we went. Again, the woods took a dark turn, they were angrier then ever. I could hear my named being called and laughing, evil laughter. A root from one of the trees grabbed my ankle and tried to drag me into the darkness. Rose helped me up and we ran faster deeper into the woods. We get to the well and she stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes are darting all over, she puts a finger to her lips and looks at me. Once I see what she is looking at I must cover my mouth not to scream. It was my dead grandmother crawling out of the well, she was moving in slow monition over to Rose. Rose motions to me to grab her bag that was placed by her feet. I grab the bag slowly and Rose took something out of it. It looked like a stick with flowers and sage. My grandmother makes her way over to Rose and Rose hands her the stick looking thing. My grandmother lets out this blood curdling scream and slithers back to the well. I am shaking with fear and almost throw up from what I have just experienced. Then the monster that I had seen comes out of no place and flashes bright white teeth at both of us and tries to attack us but can’t seem to reach us. I didn’t notice that Rose had put a circle of salt around us. She starts chanting something and the beast becomes angrier, then suddenly there is three more people with us. They were in the circle with the pentagram, they were chanting along with Rose. I just sit there with my mouth open and processing what I was seeing. All I could think was witches in the woods are real!

Once the chanting ends, one of the women with a hood on says something in another language holds up a doll and the beast that was just in front of us disappears. Rose walks over to the well and says something over it and seals it with a rubber looking top. Rose tells me we are all safe now and go back to the house. The women that came out of no place seem to leave as quickly as they came. The forest is different, as soon as that demon or creature left, and the well was sealed up the forest became the most beautiful peaceful place. We walked in silence back to the cottage. I had this urge to give her the cottage. I didn’t want it, she deserved to be there more than me. When we walk into the house, it even feels different. It feels lighter and brighter. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was magical. I looked at Rose and Rose looked at me and just said it’s yours. I gave her the keys to the little cottage by the woods. She thanked me but told me I didn’t have to do that, but I did. I asked her what happened to my grandmother, and she told me that when you play with magic, and you don’t know what you are doing you pay the price. She said that her soul was living in the well and the demon creature was getting tired of her and needed a new soul. I asked her if she would be going to Hell, and all Rose said was she didn’t know. She said her soul should have been set free when they put the demon in the doll they had made. We talked a little more about each other and made plans to meet up with my mom and her three kids. I hugged her and I thanked her for all her help. I could have sworn her smile touched her ears when I left, but I handed her my keys and off I went.

I called my mother on my way home and told her about the events that took place that day in the woods, I left the part about my grandmother out. She really didn’t need to know that her mother’s soul could be burring in hell. All I could think about was the story I was going to be writing when I got home. I was going to blog my little heart out and hope that maybe this story would kick off my writing career. Who really needed a place up in the middle of no place where all the scary things live? A part of me was sad I would not be calling that home; at the same time, I was thrilled. I got into my condo, put my things down and was grateful that I was home safe and sound. I fell sound asleep and dreamt of nothing, although I thought I heard “I did it my way” ring though my neighbor’s house.

The End.