Curse of Crossing Chapter 3

Curse of Crossing

Chapter 3

Ben

This is unreal!! How can my family own a town and my dad and I not know it? Or did dad know and not say anything to me? There are way too many questions in my head right now. I normally like doing things on my own like I have for the last year, but I like Lizzy. She seems to calm me with one touch. Not sure how she does that. She’s nice to look at too. I’ve got to get my head on straight!

“Here we are Ben.”

“Why did we drive if it was just down the street?” I furrow my brows in a bit of confusion.

Lizzy is on a side street with the car still in drive. “Oh, we are not there yet.” She giggles a little, “Besides, I just like driving my new car. My dad just bought it for my graduation present. It’s just perfect for me!” She shrugs her shoulders and pulls into a very long driveway.

There are oaks lining the gravel drive. I can’t see the house yet, but the land is really nice.

“It’s beautiful here during the fall. These old red oaks turn orange and red. I would love to live in this old house. I’ve had this weird connection to it ever since I first visited. It’s been a while since I have been here, but it still feels all warm and cozy today.” Lizzy puts her window all the way down and takes a deep breath.

“It does feel really comfortable here. Weird, in the diner I got this feeling I was at home here.” I put down my window and take a deep breath in.

“Well, according to what I have found so far, you are home Ben. Ya know, I’ve heard of people walking into their old ancestral homes and knowing exactly where everything is and even felt like they had lived there before. Maybe you will get that feeling and find some answers.”

“Mmmm, maybe.” I just agreed, but really don’t believe in that kind of stuff.

“Skeptic!” She just called me out.

I look over and smile at her. She gives me a wink and then looks ahead to a very large black iron gate. It’s linked to a brick four foot wall surrounding a very large red brick house. It’s huge!

The car stops and I look over in shock at Lizzy. “So apparently my ancestors had money?”

“You my friend are from some really old money. I have no idea where it came from, but rumors were your family were traders back in the day.” She puts the car in park, turns it off, and gets out.

I follow her lead and get out too. She goes over to the gate, takes out a key from her purse, but it’s not a regular key. It looks like a very old key; long, brass, tree catches at the squared end. It’s like one of those keys to a secret garden or something from a movie. Still can’t believe this is happening to me. Other than my parents disappearing I lived a totally normal life. Now it’s been turned upside down.

She unlocks the gate, pushes it open, and motions me in. Guess it’s time to see if that voodoo magic works for me after I enter the house. Yeah right! As I enter the gate I look up to see about three stories of windows and red brick. There are two chimneys sticking out of the top along with a white fence running along the top. I’m assuming there is an entrance to the roof. That’s pretty cool. The house looks squared with a porch that wraps all the way around. It doesn’t look over one hundred and fifty years old. Maybe that old couple did some work to it.

We get to the front steps and walk up on the front porch. It feels pretty sturdy. Lizzy opens a large six panel wooden door that has two long windows on both sides of it. When we enter I feel this rush of air. It feels like it forces its way right through my entire body; I lose my breath for a short time.

I take a deep inhale. It smells like pipe tobacco. “Lizzy, did the old man smoke a pipe?”

“Well that would be a better smell. All I’m getting is a musty smell.” She pinches her nose. “I don’t think I ever saw him with a pipe while he was out around town.”

“Hmph, that’s strange.” I look over at her and she is wiggling her eyebrows. “No, I do not have that déjà vu feeling right now.” I roll my eyes and look around.

There is an open foyer with wood steps going up to the second floor. To the left is a room so I walk in it. There is a lot of old furniture and looks like it was used as a formal living room or what would have been a sitting room. There are a lot of antiques in this room including an old piano. There’s another opening on the other side of the room so I walk through and I feel Lizzy behind me. We walk into a hallway where there is a door in front of us and one at the end of the hall. It’s dark and I don’t see a light to the far door, but I feel this need to go to it.

I turn around to Lizzy, “You can stay here if you would like while I go see what’s on the other side of that door.” I point to the far door.

“Not a chance! I want to see everything.” She grabs onto my shirt as I start walking down into the darkness.

I open the door to find a wooden staircase that leads down into a basement or old cellar. When I look up there is a string hanging in front of me. I pull and finally a light. The stairs do not look sturdy. Lizzy pushes me a little and grabs my hand as I step onto the first step. It creeks, but feels like it will hold so I continue down. All of the stairs creek as we walk down. When we get to the bottom it’s a dirt floor so it must have been an old cellar. I see another string and pull so we have more light. When I look around there are a lot of old shelves. The shelves have old mason jars full of what were probably once fruit and vegetables. I see old metal pails, milk canisters, and decaying wood tables. I doubt there will be anything down here so I turn to start my way back upstairs. I put my foot on the first step and a cold chill goes through me.

“What was that?” Lizzy squeezes my hand.

I step down and turn to look at her, “Did you feel the cold air too?” She nods yes and her eyes are wide staring at me. “Lizzy, it’s an old cellar. I’m sure it was just a draft. Come on, we’ll go back up.” We both feel the chill again as my foot hits the first step again.

I take my foot off of the step and my body warms. Okay this is getting creepy now. I close my eyes and take another deep breath to regain some composure and sanity. That’s when the crazy starts. I immediately smell pipe tobacco and when I open my eyes I see a man that looks just like me, but a little older. He walks down the stairs and goes thru me. I follow where he goes with Lizzy’s hand still in mine. Her touch is what is keeping me sane right now.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I whisper to her afraid I will disturb the man or ghost or whatever I’m seeing.

She gets really close to me and grabs onto my bicep with her other hand. “If you are seeing a lady that looks just like me then, yes.”

“No, I’m seeing a man that looks just like me.” We look at each other at the same time.

Lizzy and I look back at our images. I see the man walk over to the far side of the cellar, take a little broom from one of the shelves, squat down, and dust off a little piece of the floor right beside the bottom shelf. He lifts up a small wooden panel under all of the dirt, reaches in and pulls up some kind of lever. The wall with the shelves and jars beside the man opens up. I hear Lizzy gasp. The man disappears behind the wall and judging by Lizzy’s reaction, so does the woman!