Jeffery is at an awkward age for boys. His feet are a little big for his body and his face is somewhere between boy and man, mostly boy. Not ugly but not the darling little boy anymore. He has played soccer since he was six years old, so he’s fairly fit. He’s confident but not a smart aleck.
Sophie is changing rapidly from girl to young lady and is still a little awkward about it. She’s more athletic than glamorous and plays field hockey on her school team. She has lots of friends and really enjoys Jeffery. They seem to get along really well together.
This little escapade was unusual for them, not something they’d ever tried before. It sort of developed as a mutual dare after they ran into each other at the mall that afternoon. Jeffery suggested it as a way to get a head start on Halloween. He started the idea by saying, “Wouldn’t it be neat to just sneak out one night?” They certainly knew the area well enough but being out there late at night would be different and fun. Maybe Jeffery was setting things up for later intrigues; maybe Sophie was feeling a little adventurous and ready to do something exciting and different. It quickly resolved down to—tonight, at midnight.
It was the middle of October; the night was clear and there was a bright full moon. The two of them quietly snuck out and met each other on Aiken Road right behind their houses. They started walking in the moonlight, chatting and not paying much attention to where they were going. They found themselves at the entrance gate to the old house. It was open so they started down the lane.
It is known as the house with six chimneys and nobody has lived there for years. You can barely see it from the road because it sets back, way back. It is back so far that you must look for it from the Beckley Station Road intersection where the ground is higher and even then there’s a big field in between so it seems far away.
There is a dead tree among the tall trees along the lane and just as they walked past it an owl screeched loudly from its branches and frightened them. They laughed and began to run. Since the owl was between them and the gate, they ran towards the house. They could easily make out the ruts of the lane in the light of the moon. When they got near the front steps and the porch, the door creaked open. Someone, or something, inside was slowly opening it.
They were a little afraid now, but when the owl screeched again from right behind them, they bolted up the steps and stopped just before going through the door. But it was too late, the door suddenly opened and a net on a large hoop, like one that a dogcatcher uses, swung over them and they were trapped. They thrashed around wildly trying to get out of it but every time they pushed or pulled at it, it gave way without tearing. The more they struggled the more tangled they became. Jeffery and Sophie sat on the floor of the porch, exhausted and out of breath. They were in a real mess, snared in a dogcatcher’s net on the front porch of a deserted house. Now the door opened even wider and all they could see was the black void of the inside of the house. It was even blacker due to the brightness of the moon and they were scared stiff.
They saw the eerie whiteness of a bony hand in the doorway and then another just as eerie. Their eyes followed up what would have been the arms and to their horror; a ghostly skull with empty eye sockets was grinning down at them. It was almost covered by the hood of a long black robe that hid the rest of the apparition, making it almost invisible. Now they were terrified. Was it a mask or a real skeleton that had them trapped? They were losing their hold on reality.
Slowly the hands gathered the net and dragged them across the threshold into the blackness of the house. As they slid across the floor they noticed a terrible smell, sort of like when you’re out walking and you notice this smell. You can’t see anything, yet you know that it’s something dead. It’s the smell of decay and it added to their dread.
It was Jeffery who was taken first. He didn’t have time to react when all of a sudden a white cloth covered his nose and mouth. He inhaled deeply to yell but instead of air he inhaled a gas that choked him at first, then he was out. Sophie reacted but before she could scream, the hand did the same thing to her and she was also out. With both of them knocked out, the apparition stood up. A man took off the black robe and the mask.
He knew he had some time before they would awaken, so he walked out of the front room into the kitchen where he lit a Coleman lantern for light. He was tall, skinny, and unshaven, with wispy, reddish gray hair. He was so gaunt that his neck muscles were easy to see, as were the veins in his neck, arms, and hands. He had several teeth missing and those that he had were all yellow and gnarly. His mean eyes seemed to glow red, and he looked like he hadn’t smiled for a long time. He sat down at the table and shook out a cigarette. He was thinking about what he would do with the two trespassers who were lying on the floor in the other room. What he didn’t do was tie them up and we don’t know why not.
As the man sat there, Jeffery came out of his gas-induced sleep. First he opened one eye just a little to see if the apparition was still standing over them. Then he saw the light in the other room and the back of a man sitting at the table smoking, he didn’t know that this was who had trapped them on the front porch. He almost cried out to get his help, but just then he felt the robe lying on the floor next to him and he realized that the skinny man in the checkered flannel shirt and suspenders was the living skeleton that they’d met in the dark.
He reached out and poked Sophie to see if she was awake. She jumped, not up but reacting to being poked in the ribs. Now she was awake. Jeffery signaled her to be quiet and pointed to the doorway and the man sitting there. Jeffery looked around and saw the open door to the outside and the moonlit lane leading back to Aiken Road. He tapped Sophie on the shoulder and with the same finger pointed to the doorway. She understood right away what he meant and they both got up and very quietly tiptoed across the room towards the open front door and freedom.
Just then, Sophie stepped on a loose board in the floor and there was a loud squeak. They froze in their tracks. They could hear the chair scraping across the kitchen floor as the man shoved it back to get up. He came swiftly towards them but not quite fast enough.
They ran for it! Across the room, out the open door, across the porch, they jumped down all the steps at once to the ground. The man was right behind them and caught Sophie by the back of her shirt. Jeffery was running and didn’t know she was caught until he heard her scream. The man had her; she was screaming and struggling for all she was worth but the man was too strong for her. He had her up in the air, dodging her hands and feet as she tried to hit him and kick him to get away. Up the steps and back into the house, she was fighting, and kicking, and screaming all the way.
Jeffery stopped and turned when he heard her scream. He knew that the man was too big and strong for him. So instead of running straight back to the house along the lane, he dodged to one side and ran back along the tree line where he could not be seen. He got to the house just after the man disappeared inside with Sophie. Jeffery could hear Sophie yelling at the man to put her down but of course he wouldn’t let her go.
Once in the house, the man grabbed the cloth and knocked her out again. Only this time he found some rope and tied her hands and feet so she couldn’t move. She was on her stomach with her wrists tied behind her back with her knees bent, her feet were tied not only together but also to her hands. She couldn’t even roll over.
The man went back outside to see if he could recapture Jeffery. He walked out onto the porch and down the steps. As he did so, Jeffery slipped into the dark house, unseen. He had been hiding behind a two large clay flowerpots on the porch. Once inside, Jeffery called softly to Sophie to keep from giving himself away. He heard no reply and realized that she must be unconscious. He almost panicked when he heard footsteps on the front porch because he knew they wouldn’t escape a second time if he got caught. As he groped around, he felt the robe lying on the floor. He quickly pulled it over himself and disappeared into the blackness of the room.
The man came back into the house but he didn’t see Jeffery. He went over to Sophie and snorted a guttural laugh as he pushed at her with his foot. “Your little friend took off on you,” he sneered. She didn’t stir; she was still out.
The man went back into the kitchen. Jeffery heard him pressing buttons on a cell phone and then one side of the conversation: “Yeah, it’s me. I got some company tonight, a couple of kids. One got away but the other one isn’t going anywhere. It shouldn’t make any difference; come on ahead.”
Pause.
“Yeah, I just wanted you to know.”
Pause.
“As you come in, keep an eye peeled for a boy about thirteen or so.”
Pause.
“No, just come on, we can still load everything and get out of here before daylight.”
Pause.
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll take care of it somehow.”
Pause.
“Yeah, ok.” And he pressed end.
When Jeffery heard this, he knew he had to free Sophie and the two of them had to get out of there fast. He kept the black robe over himself and crawled over to Sophie, who was just coming to. He whispered to her to be quiet as he felt the ropes with his fingers, then he got busy on the knot. He had to free her before the man came back to check on her. This was their chance, the man was busy with something else; it sounded like he was stacking crates on the back porch. Sophie was still a little groggy but quickly realized that she had to get herself together and go with Jeffery.
Finally, the knots loosened, she pulled free and threw the rope aside; they ran out of there as fast as they could, not even worrying about noise. Once again they jumped all the way down the front steps but this time, instead of running down the lane, they ran to the field beside the lane, into the tall corn that had been left to dry on the stalks for feed. It was stiff and scratchy but it didn’t bother them as they ran for their lives through the rows. They didn’t know what was going on at the house. Had the man noticed that Sophie was gone?
When they got to the fence corner at the far, upper end of the field, across from Beckley Station Road, they stayed down in the cover for what seemed like a long time. Sure enough, headlights came out of the lane and a pickup truck sped up Aiken Road towards them, past them, and on towards Old Henry Road. They stayed in the cover. They heard the screeching of tires; then headlights lit the pavement in front of them and came speeding back, it passed them again going the other way, on down Aiken Road, past the entrance, speeding on towards the new bridge. This time Jeffery and Sophie came out of the field, through the fence, and across the road. They ran as fast as they could to Sophie’s house.
The sky was just starting to turn to that inky twilight of the pre-dawn. Sophie eased open the front door of her house and slipped inside. The lights snapped on and there stood her mother with her hands on her hips. “Young lady, where in the world have you been?” Sophie ran to her and hugged her tightly. “Oh momma, I love you so much, I’m just happy to be here!” Then came the questions that Sophie was expected to answer. Jeffery didn’t stick around for questions but went quietly back to his own house where he slipped back into his bedroom without being heard. Both of them knew that they’d had a close call. They didn’t want to think of what would have happened to them if they didn’t get away.
Meanwhile, the pickup truck came back to the entrance, drove all the way in behind the house and the lights went out. A few minutes later, the headlights of a car lighted the lane; it too went behind the house and turned off its lights, only moonlight lit the scene. Two voices could be heard.
“Hey.”
“Hiya, let’s get this revolting stuff out of here. The boys’ll be waiting for it. Where’s that kid you told me about?”
“I don’t know; she got away. Probably had help from the boy.”
“We’d better make it snappy. No one else knows we’re here and if we get out of here fast enough, no one else’ll ever know.” The two of them worked quickly to load the crates in the truck and into the trunk of the car.
“We’ve got to deliver it all to Bardstown before seven-thirty; so let’s get going”
Later, in the afternoon, Jeffery went back to the house. It was empty and wide open; no smell and no sign of anything, except a black robe lying in the middle of the front room floor and a long piece of clothesline next to it.
He never said anything about what happened that night and neither did Sophie. No matter how many questions she was asked, she never admitted that she was at the house with six chimneys. They didn’t see each other for more than a week. And when they did, they didn’t talk about it. They simply understood that they were two lucky kids.
End
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