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The letter arrived in the mail just like any other letter on a cold October day with a grey sky and fall leaves floating down from the trees. Opening it Sarah’s hands shook and reading it she could scarce believe her eyes. The letter was from a lawyer wanting her to come to the office and sign papers on a property that Sarah’s cousin Joan had apparently left her.
The property was in Cedar Mills, Colorado and in order to inherit Sarah would have to live there one year. The lawyer’s office was in Cedar Mills and so Sarah quietly texted her boss at the Chicken Hutt that she quit and got in the car. It would be an eight hour drive but the chance to escape a lifetime of retail service jobs was a dream come true.
The drive was long and utterly boring and Sarah couldn’t help but look in the mirror. Her blond hair and grey eyes looked dull and dingy from lack of sleep and her working so many horrible hours.
Pulling into the town of Cedar Mills the sun was setting and the small town church steeple was dominating the sky. The lawyer’s office was just next to the only store in town and up three stone stairs. A red brick building and there was a frosted glass door with the lawyer’s name etched on the door. Dawson and Dawson attorney’s at law.
Mr. Dawson sat across the table from Sarah and explained quickly.
“You are to reside at the residence for one year and afterwards will receive a salary of 1500 thousand a month to upkeep the residence. Prior to the one year you shall receive an allowance paid directly to upkeep the house and a monthly allotment at the local grocery of 600 a month. Should you sell the property post one year you forfeit the 1500 a month and shall owe 80% of the sale to the estate which shall then revert to the county humane society. Do you understand Sarah Winthrope?”
“Yes I do understand.” Sarah said as she signed document after document. The key to the old house was on a metal keychain. Accepting the keys into her hand Sarah stood up and shook Mr. Dawson’s hand.
The house was up on a hill and the overcast sky began to cloud up. Swiftly Sarah hopped into her car and began to drive up to the house. Past a copse of trees up the winding road until she stopped at the front of the house. Thick wooden doors made out of cedar and the house loomed over her. The grey stones of the house added a dimension of darkness to the house. Opening the door Sarah walked inside and found the house dark and the furniture covered in sheets. Switching the lights on the house didn’t seem so bad but it was still a dark spooky house and she was alone in it. Outside the sky opened up and the rain began to pour down in great sheets of rain.
Ripping the sheets off the furniture was very satisfying and unveiling a living room decorated in the modern style of the 90s. At least the house wasn’t decorated in 80s modern Sarah murmured to herself. The house was alright when Sarah uncovered a living room, one bedroom, and a kitchen.
Outside was a different looking out the window of the one bedroom that Sarah had decided to stay in Sarah had the misfortune to see a graveyard. It was surrounded by a four foot metal fence and the graves looked old and worn down by time.
“Nobody said anything about that.” Sarah said as she looked outside. The graveyard had not been mentioned by Mr. Dawson and none of the papers mentioned it either.
The storm was wild and made a terrible howling noise that chilled Sarah to the bone with fear. Closing the drapes Sarah turned away from the graveyard and went back to what was now her bed. There was a beautiful little vanity and chair in the room and Sarah felt inexplicably drawn to sit in the chair. Sitting on the chair she began to use a beautiful old brush to brush her blond hair. Looking into the mirror Sarah at first saw herself but then a grey smoke began to form in the background. She couldn’t look away from the swirling smoke in the mirror and the images of graves began to form in the mirror. Lost in the mirror Sarah felt like she was falling into the mirror with its hypnotic grey smoke and looming large graves towering above her like mountains. Finally she closed her eyes and the images vanished and Sarah was sitting in front of the mirror with only her reflection for company.
Shakily Sarah stood up and got into the bed and finally fell asleep. The morning sun was a welcome sight and Sarah decided to go to the store. She’d made a list of things and at the back of her mind Sarah decided to ask around about getting a roommate. Loneliness and isolation drives people insane and another person around might help.
So Sarah went to HyLo Market and placed an ad for a roommate with an emphasis on free room and board in exchange for helping with upkeep. Unfortunately the store manager flat out told her nobody would want to stay in that house. So Sarah put it on her instagram page that any of her friends would be welcome to stay rent free.
Leslie Townsend, her old friend who also had the misfortune to work at the Chicken Hutt replied that she’d had all she could stand of working there and would drive up ASAP. Leslie arrived the following day and both women hugged and then Leslie looked up at the old house and said, “Dear God Sarah how did you inherit this?”
“I know I know it looks like a mausoleum and the worst thing is that there’s a graveyard on the property.”
“Oh no Sarah, I just don’t know if I can stay when it has this vibe.”
“Les we don’t have a future and Chicken Hutt is a gonowhere job.”
“Ok look we need to come up with a plan and figure out what we are going to do.” Leslie said, looking up with trepidation at the dark stone house. This was not going to be the freeride she’d envisioned.
Opening the door they went inside and up the stairs to the bedrooms where Leslie picked out a room. Carefully they worked to clean up a room for Leslie to stay in and neither was prepared when a crash of thunder startled them and plunged them into darkness.
The flashlights Sarah had picked up at the HyLo worked and that was one blessing but neither one could shake the prickly feelings they felt in the darkened house. After much debate neither women felt like braving going to bed and so the Living room it was and they managed to build a fire in the fireplace. It almost felt cozy but for the big black shadow filled windows that were barely kept at bay by the fire. The darkness outside was almost like a living breathing thing waiting for both women to make a misstep.
All night the women sat and finally the night faded into a gray dawn.
From the time they woke up to the time they slept both Leslie and Sarah worked to make the house clean and liveable. The furniture was unveiled, the old decrepit things unceremoniously tossed. Sarah told herself the house just needed to be cleaned up and refreshed.
Leslie, despite her trepidation stayed and yet couldn’t shake the awful feeling that the house was waiting patiently. During the day the women looked for the graveyard that they both saw from the upstairs windows at night but neither one of them could seem to find it. Out the windows it was there but when they walked and walked and walked to find it it seemingly vanished.
A graveyard full of large graves couldn’t just up and vanish. Sarah muttered to herself and the lawyer was no help at all telling her there was no record of any such place. The house began to feel more like home and the creepy eerie feelings began to subside for both Leslie and Sarah.
Sarah and Leslie both decided after much discussion to only use the downstairs bedrooms with no view of the graveyard. The upstairs consisted of three bedrooms and the downstairs of two bedrooms plus the parlor, living room, kitchen, dining room and a tiny sewing nook.
When Mr. Dawson came to visit one cold December day Sarah asked him if he would like a tour of the house. They walked all over the downstairs through room after room and then Sarah asked him if he would like to see the upstairs and possibly see the graveyard.
Mr Dawson very much puzzled then replied, ” Why Sarah there’s not been an upstairs in 150 years as it burned down exactly 150 years ago today and everyone that was trapped up there died. It’s why the stairs are walled up.”
Sarah and Leslie looked at each other in shock and then their eyes wandered to where just prior to his visit the stairs had been. Yet true to the lawyer’s word there were no stairs and there sat before them a large brick wall.
That very day Sarah put the house up for sale and neither woman set foot back in the house at Cedar Mills.
As for the graveyard it was found a few years later filled almost and oddly enough with two graves left empty and open as if waiting for two more souls from the fire 150 years before.
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