Marionette Of Sorrows Chater 4

“Hi, I’m your neighbor Jade.” The woman in the doorway bearing a plate of warm delectable chocolate chip cookies introduced herself. “Connor.” He said briefly stating his name watching her discreetly glance over his shoulder, the breeze in the air blowing loose tendrils of hair across her face. Meeting his eyes she smoothed her hair back with her free hand. “I live over there across the way.” She then said motioning to a house in the distance. “Would you like to come in?” Connor asked pushing the door wide open. “Sure, for a moment I thought you weren’t going to ask.” Jade replied looking around while she followed him into the house. Connor headed toward the couch , the effects of hitting a brick wall with sledge hammer slowly began to wear on his body.

Noticing Jade still curiously looking around Connor picked up his warm beer and took a swig. Grimacing he said “I know it’s not much to look at right now but I plan on restoring this house back to its former glory.” Realizing that he had noticed her ogling his house she felt her face warm as she blushed. “You know I didn’t exactly come here on the premises of being of good neighbor with a dish of cookies.” She admitted before continuing on “I’ve always wanted to see the inside of this house. Growing up I always wondered what it looked like.” Connor’s eyes settled on her curiously his dream flashed before him, the awareness of the marionette in the basement and the journal on the table roused him out of any residual tiredness that was left over from his brief nap. “Why is that?” He asked casually as he stood up scooping up the journal from the table.

Not hearing an answer from Jade yet he crossed the living room and placed the journal on the bookshelf, then he turned to her asking again rephrasing is question “So why is it that you’ve always have wanted to see the inside of here?” Looking sheepishly at him she nervously began to twirl her dark hair between her fingers while not exactly meeting his eyes. “Well you know every town has one. That sort of house that is abandoned and every neighborhood kid think is haunted. With every passing year the stories about the house grow.” She explained setting down the plate of cookies on his coffee table

“So I guess you grew up around here then? Believing in all of the scary stories? Let me guess a witch lived here?” Connor asked teasingly while settling down on the couch. Perched on the other end of his couch she scoffed at Connor’s last remark “No, we didn’t think that a witch lived here.” She said defensively with a smile and a small roll of the eyes. “So what were the stories?” Connor asked now his curiosity piqued. Laughing quietly to herself Jade looked down and began to fiddle with the bottom of her shirt. “Well there was something with the original owner that built this house. Supposedly he went insane after his wife died, although many believe his decent into madness happened right before she died since his two servants just suddenly disappeared. There were talks of trunks of their belongings being found in the attic when the next owner, his brother inherited the house. How ever true that might be no one knows. I don’t know exactly what happened to the following owners except for one.”

Jade explained picking up one of the cookies and took a bite. “Oh I hope you don’t mind, I have a weakness for sweets.” She said feeling slightly embarrassed at eating one of the cookies that she had brought over. “Don’t worry about it, crap I didn’t even offer you something to drink while I was drinking” Connor said assuringly while grabbing up his empty bottle from the table. “So would you like a drink?” he asked as he walked into the kitchen. “Sure what do you have?” Jade called back to him. “I’ve got beer, milk, beer aaannnd more beer.” He answered his voice echoing through the slightly empty house. “I guess I’ll be having a beer.” She replied settling further back into the armchair before continuing on “So I take it you’re a bachelor?” Jade asked jokingly as Connor returned with two beers. Snickering he handing her a beer before replying “I guess it’s that apparent. So what did happen to the previous owner?”

Later on that night Connor tossed and turned in his bed rehashing what Jade had told him about the previous owner. Pulling the sheets closer up to him, he shifted in bed sighing restlessly yet again. He could almost hear Jade’s voice as if she was recanting what she had told him earlier. You really want to know what happen? There was a sudden creak as if someone had stepped on the base step of the stairwell. Conner lied there tensely listening carefully. Well there was a family that lived here, a man, his wife, and their young daughter. Then there was another creak sounding like someone beginning to walk up the stairs making

Connor sit straight up in his bed, his eyes looking disoriented around in the unfamiliar darkroom with its walls stripped of their wall paper. Luckily the daughter was over my mother’s house when it happened. My grandmother became concerned when no one came to fetch her so she sent my grandfather down to here. A soft thudding sound of someone walking up the stairs steadily cut through the silence of the night. Grabbing the sheets Connor quickly threw them to the side of the bed and planted his feet on the cold stripped down wooden floor before getting up. Then it stopped at the top of the stairs as if it was pausing before continuing to walk towards the master bedroom door.

What he found here he never forgot until the day he passed. At first they had thought that she was attacked by an animal since there was so much blood and what looked like a big struggle. Connor walked quickly and as quietly towards the door. It stopped right outside the door as Connor gripped the cold metal handle of the door. Turning it he pulled the door open to find nothing there. Later husband was found floating face down in the lake out back not even 30 feet away.