Curse of Crossing Chapter 6

Curse of Crossing

Chapter 6

Elizabeth

“Wow Lizzy! I can’t believe you found all of this documentation about our family in the old Crossings house.” Dad is still pouring over all of the papers that Ben and I found in the secret room in the cellar of his family’s home. “What were you doing up there anyway?”

“Mother is trying to sell that house. Maybe you have heard that there was a strange car found there recently? It belonged to Benjamin and Marilyn Crossing from Ohio. Anyway, their son wanted to come up and see the house where his parent’s car was found to see if there is any information about what happened to his parents. Mother was busy today, so I took Ben up there. We found all of these papers about our family in the cellar.” I decide to leave out the detail about the ghosts Ben and I saw while explaining this all to my dad.

“Did you notice anything strange while you two were there?”

“Strange?” Yeah, if you consider I saw a ghost of myself strange, I think to myself!

“Well, the old stories and rumors that float around this town have always maintained that the Crossing House is haunted.” Dad tries to make his voice sound scary when he says haunted.

“Uh, well, no, not really. I just got this really weird vibe being there. It was probably just a lifetime of hearing all those old ghost stories. Besides, the Johnsons didn’t seem to have any problems all the years that they lived there.” I try to laugh it all off.

“No problems until that car crash that killed them.”

“Dad, you can’t seriously think that living in that house had anything to do with the wreck that killed that couple? Do you?”

“I couldn’t say for sure one way or the other Lizzy, but it is very consistent to the fate of all who have ever lived in the Crossing House.” I just roll my eyes at him. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. I remember the stories that my grandmother used to tell about the Crossings. She told of unexplained disappearances, mysterious deaths, and worse than bad luck to all the Crossings. She even believed that there was a connection between the Crossings and the Wrights. She said that when she married Grandfather Richard, that his mother, Josephine told her of the family’s curse. She said that Josephine was told that your Great-Great-Great Grandmother Elizabeth, who you are named after of course, was desperately in love with Benjamin Eugene Crossing, and he was equally in love with her. The two had planned their wedding and on the night before they were to marry, Benjamin’s mother and father abruptly called off the wedding. They refused to let Benjamin marry Elizabeth. It seems that they had secretly arranged a marriage for their eldest son to a young lady from New York whose family had considerably more money than the Wrights. It is believed that Elizabeth was so distraught and overcome with grief over the loss of the relationship that she supposedly cursed Benjamin and all of the Crossing men. The curse was said to happen to all Crossing men when they were of marrying age, who either lived in or came to Crossing, they would suffer a most gruesome death. This curse is supposed to last until such a time that a Crossing man is truly loved by and also saved by a Wright woman.”

Holy cow! A curse? Really? I grab my phone and quickly dial Ben. “I’m calling Ben. He is at that house alone.” I don’t really believe in this story that my dad has just told me, but I have a bad feeling about Ben all the same. It just sends me straight to voicemail. “It goes straight to voicemail.” I hit end on my cell and look up at my dad in frustration. “I have to go back out there and make sure Ben is okay. I’ll call you later.” I start toward the door before I finish telling him where I’m going.

“Wait! Lizzy, you can’t go out there by yourself.” Dad gets up from the table and comes after me.

“I will be alright dad. I have to make sure Ben is okay. I’ll call you soon, I promise.” I run out of the front door and quickly get in the car. As I start the engine I look up to see dad watching from the front door. I wave at him and speed out of the driveway.

“Please let Ben be okay.” I keep saying out loud over and over as I make the five minute ride to the Crossing House. If anything has happened to him I will never forgive myself. It is just starting to get dark as I pull down the lane. The gate is unlocked and Ben’s car is still in the driveway. I feel it as soon as I get out of the car. There is a heavy, weighted feel to the air around the house. Something is very, very wrong here. My own fear and panic threaten to keep me from moving but I fight through it and run into the house.

“Ben! Ben where are you?” I shout as I run through the sitting room, looking around frantically for Ben. I run back down the hallway toward the cellar door that Ben and I went through earlier and pull it open. “Ben! Ben are you down here?” Oh please tell me he didn’t go back down here! My keys are still in my hand so I turn on my keychain light and start down the stairs. It does not feel as cold down here as it did when Ben and I were here earlier. I go over to the square in the floor that Ben lifted earlier. Oh goodness! I can’t believe I’m really going to stick my hand in this dark hole! I get a grip on my panic again and pull the latch in the floor. The doorway to the secret room starts to open. “Ben!” I shine my light around the room. He is not here. I don’t waste any time turning and running as fast as I can back up the stairs and back to the sitting room.

I know he has to be here. His car is still here, so he has to be here somewhere. “Ben! Ben where are you?” I shout once again. When there is still no answer, I start to pace around the sitting room. Where could he be? He’s not in the cellar or the secret room. He said he wanted to check out all of the rooms in the house. If he were in rooms on this level, surely he would have heard me shouting or running. He must be upstairs somewhere.

As I approach the stairs it is now completely dark outside and inside. The only light is coming from the tiny light in my hand. I shine my little light up the stairs and even though it isn’t terribly bright, it still shows footprints in the dust leading up the stairs. I gather up my faltering courage and quickly make my way up the steps. “Ben! Are you up here?” I shout when I get to the landing at the top of the stairs. There are several rooms up here, so which one do I start in? I shine my light around the floor to see if I can still see any footprints. Just as I notice that the footprints lead off to a room to my left I see something move. “Ben?” My voice is starting to get shaky now and the temperature has dropped about twenty degrees in the last couple of seconds. When I look up, I see me. Well my ghost twin. She is looking right at me with a look of concern on her face. We stand there and stare at each other for a moment. Then she turns and glides into the room that the footprints go into. I follow.

When I go in the room, I shine my light around and see a large four poster bed and a huge fireplace. My ghost twin glides over toward the end of the bed and points at something. Then she turns and disappears through the fireplace. Okay, the last time she did that she led me to the papers in the cellar, so I am guessing that I am supposed to follow her again. I take a few steps toward the bed and see something lying on top of the duvet. I reach down and grab the roll of parchment. I unroll it, flatten it out on the bed, and shine my light on it to see better. It looks to be a drawing of some type, like a floor plan layout of the house. I see these kind of drawings at my mother’s office all of the time. I find the stairs on the drawing and follow them until I find the room that I am in right now. Something looks strange about this room on the drawing though. The drawing shows that the room takes up the whole width of the house, but the fireplace is not on the back wall of the house, it is actually several feet away from the back wall. There is a room behind that fireplace. There were no other doors on that side when I was out in the hallway, so there has to be a secret panel somewhere.

I leave the parchment lying on the bed and make my way over to the fireplace. My ghost twin went through this thing for a reason, so once again, against my better judgment, I will trust her and follow where she wants me to go. I shine my light around the fireplace’s opening to see if I can find the latch. That’s when I notice a missing brick near the opening. I move the light over more and see the missing brick in the fireplace. I reach down and tug on the brick but it doesn’t budge, so I push on it. The brick sinks in, there is a click and the sound of an air lock opening, as the whole back of the fireplace moves out of the way.

“Ben? Are you in there?”

Curse of Crossing Chapter 5

Curse of Crossing

Chapter 5

Ben

As I drive away and head back to the house there is a part of me that doesn’t want to leave Lizzy. I’ve never had this kind of feeling for a girl before and certainly not for one I just met. I’m sure it’s because we have just been through something really strange, not real feelings. Okay refocus Ben! I came here to find my parents. Hopefully the papers I found at my family’s old house will give me some clues to where they are. Crap! I hit my hand to my head at my stupidity. Just as I get close to the gate I realize I forgot the keys to get back in. So I turn around in the driveway and go back to Lizzy’s mom’s office. I hope she is still there because I have no idea where her father’s house is. Luckily it’s a short drive back to the office where I see Lizzy walking from the office to her car. I pull back into the spot in front of Lizzy’s car.

When I get out of the car she smiles a beautiful smile that makes me glad I forgot the house keys. “Did you miss me already?” She giggles and winks as she goes to the trunk of her car.

“I did and I forgot the keys to the house.” I walk to the back of her car and stand next to her.

She holds her finger up, runs into the office, and runs back out with the keys. “I’m so sorry. My mind is still in the basement of that house.” She hands me the keys and our hands touch. There is a slight shock. “Did you just feel that?” She’s looking at me with wide eyes. Then she shrugs her shoulders, “Hmph, must have been the metal or something.”

“No Lizzy. For the first time in my life I am not going to be the skeptic. There is a connection between us. I don’t know why, but I know when I drove away I really did miss you.” I step closer to Lizzy.

She doesn’t move away. I put my hand up to the side of her face and feel the shock again. I lean down and softly kiss her lips. There is another shock, but one that sends chills down my entire body. I put my other hand on the other side of her face and press harder. Lizzy wraps her arms around my waist and we deepen the kiss. This is getting intense. I break away for a breath. We stare into each others eyes for a moment. Yeah, it’s time to go before I decide to never leave her. I give her a quick kiss and practically sprint for my car. Parents first, exploring this crazy connection with Lizzy later. After I pull out and u-turn, I slow to wave at her before I go back to the Crossing house. She is still standing there looking a little confused. She gives a little wave back, but no smile. Yep, I ruined it by kissing her. It was too forward especially since we just met. I just couldn’t resist anymore. For some reason it was kiss her now or never. Man, I hope she was okay with that kiss. Lizzy didn’t push away. She actually pulled me in. I’ll call her later.

When I pull into the Crossing house driveway, the gate is open. We were so freaked out when we left, we forgot to lock it. I wonder how my parents got in if the gate stays locked all of them time? The old couple must have been alive when my parents were here. Lizzy’s mom said she didn’t know anything about my parents so it couldn’t have been her. Great! That’s another thing to add to my parent’s mysterious disappearance.

I park beside the house, get out, and go to the front door. When I get up to it and insert the key I feel that chill again. Yeah, I’m a bit freaked out too, but didn’t want to look girly in front of Lizzy. I have to push through this so I open the front door and walk in. All of this may be getting to me, but there is still a feeling of being at home in this big old house. I go straight to the couch and remember that Lizzy took all of the papers with her that we found in the hidden room in the basement. There are more papers down there, but I really don’t want to go down by myself. I sit down on the couch, rub my face with my hands, and contemplate what to do. When I lean back to just relax a minute I hear a crunch. I get up and pull the seat cushion away from the couch. When I do I notice a rolled up parchment. It looks really old so I put it on the small wooden coffee table in front of the couch and carefully roll it out. It’s a sketch of the house. I haven’t been through the entire house yet so I’m not sure what or where all of the rooms are. This will help me to find my way around. I immediately check out the cellar that’s on the sketch. It shows the hidden room. Then on this floor I see the room I’m in, a couple of other rooms like this one, and a kitchen. I follow the staircase upstairs on the sketch and see about six possible bedrooms and three bathrooms. There is one room that is larger than the rest so I’m assuming it’s the master bedroom. Some of the lines have faded a bit so I’m really not sure about its accuracy. As I’m looking closer in the master room I see a fireplace, but there is another room behind the fireplace. That’s odd for the time when this house was built or maybe it wasn’t. I know very little about the time period. If my family was into trading that could have been built to keep some trades hidden. Okay, now I’m just letting my imagination get away from me. I decide it’s time to take a look at that secret room. Carefully, I roll the house sketch back up and decide it might be wise to take it with me.

I’m glad it’s still light out because I have no idea where all of the power switches and lamps are in this place. Guess I better find them soon if I plan to stay here tonight. I get to the stairs and take the first step up and it creeks as all the steps do as I go up. When I get to the top I unroll the parchment again to see where the master bedroom is. It’s to the left of the stairs. When I open the door and walk in, the room is ice cold. That’s really strange since the rest of the house is pretty warm. There is a huge, oak four poster bed in front of the fireplace. I walk over to the fireplace and look for some hidden latch, but don’t find one. So I push on the wall where the hidden room should be, but it doesn’t budge. Well now, where is my twin ghost when you need him! I walk over to the window to look at the sketch again. That’s when I notice the brick fireplace hearth. There’s one brick missing to the right of the fireplace opening. It’s the one right above the hearth. I look at the actual fireplace and the brick is there. I go over and try to pull it out, but it doesn’t budge. So I do the next logical thing and push on it. Yep that worked and now I’m officially creeped out. The fireplace opens up in the back. There is a strange suction sound as it opens, like it was sealed or something. I get on my knees to look in and get a whiff of the most horrible smell I have ever smelled. I’m not sure I want to go in there. It smells like a bunch of dead animals got trapped in there. I stand to really think this over. Maybe I should call Lizzy and let her know what I found. No, she’s busy with her own family papers. I’m about to leave the room when my twin ghost comes floating into the room and goes right through the fireplace into the secret room. Okay then, I guess I’m going in. He led me to the secret room in the cellar where Lizzy and I found this sketch among the other papers. Guess now is the time to start believing in signs, and ghosts for that matter. It’s time to crawl into the dark creepy fireplace into an unknown room. I roll the parchment back up and lay it on the bed so it doesn’t get ruined while I’m trying to crawl in. Then, I get on my hands and knees and crawl through. Ugh, the smell gets worse, but the air from the bedroom is helping to air it out a little. I don’t see any light in the other room. Now is the time I wish I had Lizzy’s handy LED light from her keychain. I’m sure there will be something in the room. When I get through the fireplace I know I can stand because the sketch showed it to be a larger room. I walk two steps and ram my thighs into a table. I feel around and come across what feels like another candelabrum like the one in the cellar. Right beside it is a box of matches. I have to say they did keep things handy in these secret rooms. I light the four candles. It illuminates the whole room. There are no windows. I look to the left and see a bunch of paintings and more old parchments. Well if this is truly my family home I will have some fun going through all of this. Guess I was right about this being a hiding room for some so-called trades. I start to turn around and notice this room was definitely sealed. Everything is very well preserved including the paintings. I do almost a full circle and notice something on the other side of the room. It’s dark on the other side so I grab the candelabrum and start to walk over. Everything illuminates. NO! I shakily drop to my knees. There are two skeletons sitting against the wall. It can’t be! Tears start flowing when I look down at their hands joined together. It’s my mother’s wedding ring. Then I look over to see my father’s wedding band and his cell phone in the same hand. They can’t be dead. No, this is not them. I refuse to believe this! I grab my cell, but see there is no signal in here. It’s time to call Lizzy and get the police out here. I turn to crawl back out. The opening is shutting.

I crawl as fast as I can, look under to the other side, and start screaming, “I’m in here! Don’t close it!”

No one hears me because there is no one on the other side. The opening fully closes, reseals, and the candles go out. I’m in the dark and will soon be just like my parents. My only hope now is Lizzy.

Curse Of Crossing Chapter 4

Curse of Crossing

Chapter 4

Elizabeth

I cannot believe what I’m seeing! I hold on to Ben’s hand and his arm as tight as I can. I do not know what he is seeing, but I am seeing almost a mirror image of myself. Only she is wearing a long, straight, grey, wool-looking skirt with a white, long sleeved blouse with a tall collar and a bow in front. She has on black stockings and boot like shoes. Her dark hair is pinned up in an intricate chignon at the base of her head. Her whole appearance reminds me of pictures I have seen of people from around the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. She looks very regal and she is looking right at me like she knows me. The biggest problem that I have right now, I can see through her! She is not actually walking on the ground. It looks as if she is floating above it.

By the way Ben is acting; he is seeing something very similar. We are both staring at the wall with the shelves. My see through twin walks over toward the wall. She stands there for a moment, still looking at me, as something clicks behind the shelves. The shelves start to swing out slightly revealing a hidden room in the cellar. Then the lady smiles, holds up her hand in a small wave, turns and walks into the hidden room. The shelf wall, door, or whatever it is closes behind her.

I stand there for a moment totally dumbfounded. I don’t know what to say or how to react. Ben must be feeling the same thing because when I look at him, he is staring blankly at the shelf wall with his mouth slightly open.

“Did you just see what I saw?” I finally croak out as I’m tapping Ben on the arm over and over.

“Depends on what you saw.” He finally blinks and looks down at me.

“I saw a woman that looked exactly like me, but she was wearing clothes from the early 1900’s. I could see through her, she floated as she moved, then there was a clicking sound, the wall swung out, and she just disappeared into a room behind that shelf.” I point a very shaky hand toward the shelf wall.

“Okay, not exactly what I saw, but close. I saw a man that I could see through too. He was wearing a three-piece wool suit, with a black tie. He looked just like me except for the clothes. He walked over to the shelf, took that little broom off of the shelf, dusted one of the squares on the floor, just in front of the shelf, pull up the panel, pull something inside of it, then the click, and he walked through the opening after the shelf wall swung out.”

We both stand there and stare at each other with very wide eyes and complete ‘holy crap’ looks on our faces.

“Should we follow them?” Oh how I hope and pray he says no.

“I will do anything to find my parents. I’m still not sure what I really saw.” He doesn’t sound very convinced though. “I’m up for it you are.”

“Yeah, sure.” I wonder if my voice sounded as shaky to him as it did to me just now.

“Okay, we’ll flip the latch to open the wall, but we’ll pull something into the opening to keep it from closing. If anything feels the least little bit weird, we’ll get out of there immediately.”

“Deal.” I hold on to his hand a little bit tighter. Now I’ve got a white knuckle grip on him.

Together we walk toward the shelf. Ben stoops down in front of it and I stoop down with him.

“Wait, are you sure about this?”

“It’s the only lead we have right now. Maybe we both saw what we did for a reason.”

“Okay, go ahead.” I push the button on the small LED light on my key chain and shine it over toward the shelf. Ben just looks at me and smiles.

I watch as Ben reaches down to a pull up the panel in the floor. He looks down into the panel, reaches in and feels around for a moment, then pulls on something. I hear that same click as before, and the wall swings out wide.

Ben stands up and looks down at me. He tries to smile a reassuring smile but even as cute as he is, the reassurance stuff is not working. He lets go of my hand and pulls a heavy crate over to the opening so we can hold the door open.

“Okay, let’s do this.” He says as he motions for me to step into the room.

“Yeah, let’s do this.” I grab hold of his hand again and step into the room. Ben pulls the crate with us until it sets firmly in the opening. I shine my little light around.

The room is about the same size as the other part of the cellar that we just came from. There is a huge, old, cherry dining table in there. It takes up almost the entire length of the room. There are lots of papers piled upon it and a large, silver candelabrum with three white candles sitting right in the middle of it.

Ben lets go of my hand as he walks further into the room and around the table.

“Sweet!” He shouts from across the room.

“What’s sweet?”

“I found a box of matches. Hang on.” I hear him strike a match and see a little flame jump to life in his hands. He holds the match over to the candles and lights each one of them. “Now, that’s a little better.”

The room glows a brilliant yellow from the flickering candles, but we can see a little better now. I shove my keys into my pocket. Can’t lose those. Ben and I start to rummage around through the papers on the table.

“Wright family tree?” Ben says as he holds up a large piece of paper that looks to me like an old brown paper bag.

“Wright family? Could that be my Wright family?” I move around to stand beside of Ben and look at the paper he’s holding. Some of the names look familiar to me, then I spot my grandmother’s name. “That’s my dad’s mom, Evangeline.” I tell him pointing at her name.

“Why would your family’s family tree be in a hidden room of the cellar of a house that is supposed to be owned by my family?”

“I have no idea.” I tell him as I continue to look around at some of the other papers on the table. “Look there’s more. Looks like letters addressed to a Miss Josephine Wright. I can’t tell who they’re from though.” Ben moves around to look over my shoulder.

As we are standing there looking through the papers I find more letters to Josephine. There is also a leather bound book that looks to be a journal that was Josephine’s as well. The longer I stay here and look at all of these things though, the more I feel a deep, deep sense of dread come upon me.

“Um, Ben, I’ve got a bad feeling about staying here any longer. Can we just take all of these papers back up stairs and get out of this creepiness?”

“I was just thinking the exact same thing.” Ben grins slightly as he starts gathering up some of the papers.

I work quickly and grab as much as I can. We walk back out of the hidden room, pull the crate out of the way, and watch as the wall slides shut again. We walk up the stairs into the hallway and then out into the sitting room we came through first. I lay all the papers I am carrying down on the sofa, and even though I am wearing a sweater, I cross my arms over and start rubbing my upper arms with my hands.

Ben lays his arm load of papers down on the sofa beside mine. He comes around in front of me and places his hands on my arms and starts rubbing them too. “Look, I want to stay here and look around longer. I know this place is freaking you out a little bit, so why don’t you take me back to my car. I’ll come back here and do some more digging around. And you can take all of those papers we found back to your mom’s office. That way you can dig through them where it’s not so weird.”

“Ben I don’t like the thoughts of you being here alone. We already know the place is haunted. We are both getting weird vibes from just being here. What if something happens while you’re here alone?”

He pulls his cell phone out of his back pocket, waves it in front of me, and smiles. “I have this. I’ll be ok. Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

I wish I could be as optimistic as he seems to be, but I have a funny feeling about letting him come back here alone. Of course, I have an even funnier feeling about staying here any longer myself. And the funny is not the funny ha-ha kind either. Reluctantly I nod my head at him. We gather up all of the papers that we found in the cellar, put them in the trunk of my car, and head back into town. I pull up in front of my mom’s office, right behind Ben’s car.

“Be careful, ok?” I plead with him. “If you need anything, call me. I will either be here or at my dad’s. Since most of the paperwork is from his family, I may take it to him to see if he can make any sense of it. Either way, I’ll have my cell with me and can be to you in just a couple of minutes.”

“I’ll be fine. You’ll see.” Ben smiles as he gets out of my car. He turns around just before he closes the door. “I’ll call if I find anything.” I smile back at him as he closes the door and walks to his car.

He gets in, makes a U-turn and drives back in the direction that we just came from. As he passes me he waves. I wave back and try to muster a little grin. As I watch his car go out of sight, I can’t help but wonder why I have this sinking feeling like I’m never going to see him again.

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!