The Mysterious Happenings of Horne Mansion

14-December-1924

I was at my desk in my apartment in London when I heard a knock at the door, I was not expecting any visitors and, as tempted as I was to pretend I was not at home, I answered it, “Is this the apartment home of Julius Priest?”

“Yes.”

“Well sir, I was sent by a relative of yours to give this here le’er to you.” Perplexed, I accepted the letter and he went on his way.

I waited until later that night to open it. I sat in my bed and put on my reading glasses, I saw that the letter had been mailed from Exeter. I opened the letter and noticed that the paper had ink stained finger prints here and there. After pulling it out, I unfolded the piece of paper and began reading,

“Dear cousin Julius,

Come at once. Urgent.

Isaac Horne.”

I was confused, but Isaac had always been a strange one. I thought for a moment before deciding that I should pay him a visit.

The next morning was cold and foggy. The train station was near empty save for two families and one darkly fellow who seemed particularly interesting. After boarding the train I seated myself in my compartment. An hour into the train ride I got up to smoke in the hall only to find the darkly fellow from earlier already doing just that. Curious, I decided to join him.

“What’re you heading to Exeter for?” He asked, his voice was soft but gravely,

“Visiting a relative.”

“Family reunions are always fun,” he said unenthusiastically.

I nodded in agreement.

After arriving at the train station I had set out to find means of transportation when I overheard the darkly fellow say he was heading to a “Mr.Horne.”

This being pure happenstance between myself and the fellow from the train seeming unlikely, I walked over and asked him if he was heading to the same Mr.Horne I was making my way to and it turns out he was, in fact, and invited me to ride along.

When we arrived at the Horne Estate we were greeted by a man called Dr.Phelps who then escorted us into the foyer, telling us to wait there while he informed Mr.Horne of our arrival.

“So, Mr.Horne is the relative?” The darkly fellow asked,

“Yes, it appears so.” We paused a moment, “You know, I never got your name.”

“Sebastian Alder.”

“Julius Priest.” We shook hands.

The doctor returned soon after, “Mr.Horne will have you now.” He turned on his heel and led us up the stairs to a dark, musty bedroom.

“I only want to speak with Julius.“ came a frail voice.

The doctor stopped outside the room with Mr.Alder. Mr. Horne beckoned me over with a fragile hand, and when I was close enough he whispered “I will be dying here very shortly. I’ve written that I want everything to go to you.”

In all honesty I expected this, as his last living relative, but I was still in shock when I heard him say it. Before he could say more he began coughing horribly, causing the doctor to enter and begin tending to him.

That night, in my room I heard footsteps pacing back and forth down the hall, and I assumed it was the doctor or Sebastian and thought nothing of it, so I went back to bed and fell asleep soon after. At three in the morn I was awoken by something scratching the corridor walls, I did not want to investigate but I did anyways. Grabbing a flashlight I opened the door slowly and shined the light down the hall. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and the scratching stopped but then I heard this galloping noise coming closer to me from down the hall, I jumped back and slammed my door shut and whatever was running down the hall slammed into my door. Needless to say I spent the rest of the night like a scared little boy. In the early morning the doctor knocked on my door, “Mr.Priest, are you up?” I opened the door, “I never really slept.” I replied sarcastically,

“I apologize.” He seemed to know why I had poor rest, “Mr.Horne has passed.”

“How long ago?”

“An hour.” He handed me a black book, “and he wanted me to give this to you after he was gone.” He turned and headed downstairs. Mr.Alder came out of his bedroom which was beside my own, and I walked over to him, asking if he heard or saw anything from last night as well, “You mean that ungodly scratching noise?”

“Yes!”

“Uh, yeah, I heard it. Didn’t sleep a wink because of it.”

“Nor did I.” We ended it there and went down for breakfast. The doctor and Mr.Alder were deep in conversation when I excused myself. I went to my room and opened the book, I did not want to wait till nightfall to read it, whatever was written inside. The first few pages were rather normal, but by the eighth page his writing style changed, becoming sharper, quicker. He spoke of a creature that lived in the walls and under the main floor, by the twentieth page he repeated the large, sketched words “Stop him.” Which were accompanied by drawings of a dark figure. My heart felt as if it were about to burst out of my chest and my imagination got the better of me when a loud knocking at the door made me jump, clenching at my heart, I let out a deep breath, “Who is it?”

“It’s Sebastian, can I come in?”

“Uh, yes.” When he came in he left the door ajar, “The lawyer is coming in the morning, and the doctor is directing some men in the removal of Mr.Horne’s body, oh, and he’s leaving right after.”

“Oh,” I rubbed my eyes, “thank you.”

“What do you have there?”

“Uh, something left behind by Isaac.” I handed it to him and he began reading, “What does all of this mean?” He sat down beside me on the bed, I shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know. Apparently he wanted me to have it” We both sat there for some time before heading down the stairs. The doctor had already left. That night we talked over dinner, “So, now that Mr.Horne has passed, are you the last living heir to his money?” Sebastian inquired,

“It appears so, but I guess we’ll find out tomorrow when the lawyer gets here.”

Just then something broke upstairs, we ran up to investigate. At the end of the hall a picture had fallen from the wall and broke upon impact. We tentatively approached the picture, walking down the dimly lit corridor. Sebastian picked it up, “Those are my parents.” I pointed at where they stood, it looked to be a family portrait that included my parents, aunts and uncles, as well as Mr.Horne and his family, ,

“Look there,” Sebastian nodded, “Mr.Horne is holding that black book.” We heard something shuffle within the walls, “come with me.” We both went into my room, the black book still sat on my bed, “Close the door behind you.” Sebastian did as I asked. I sat on my bed and lay the picture and the black book out in front of me, Sebastian sat in a chair beside the bed, “Everyone in this picture is dead.” I said matter of factly,

“I know.”

“You know?”

Sebastian cleared his throat, “I’m a private investigator.” He sat back in a relaxed manner with one hand in his pocket, “Mr.Horne hired me to investigate his strange mansions. The poor man had been scared out of his wits.”

“Why didn’t he just leave then?”

“Not sure. Maybe he wanted to die here.” We heard more shuffling in the corridor, I got up from my bed and we both faced the door and got ready for a fight, but nothing came through. Sebastian continued with his story, “Mr.Horne also found the strange and unexplained deaths that went on in the family particularly concerning.” I sat back down on my bed and Sebastian sat back in his chair,

“Your parents for instance,” I tried not to seem uncomfortable when he brought them up but I failed miserably, “poisoned, shot, and set in a tub of water.”

“They never caught the killer.”

“And your aunts, uncles, cousins; all killed in a similar manner.” He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees, “but you were never harmed.”

I looked at him with disbelief, “you don’t- you don’t seriously think I’m the killer?”

“No, not anymore, that is.” The power in the house went out, we turned on our flashlights and stood close together, listening for any disturbance, “I have a feeling the thing living in the house is tied to your families deaths.” The door burst open and something came charging at us, he knocked Sebastian down and then tackled me to the floor, I felt the thing stab me in the side , my arms were free so I groped around in the darkness, trying to find anything to fight back with and grabbed hold of a candlestick, I swung and hit the thing off of me, I assumed I had hit it in the head because it didn’t seem to move for a short while and when I did finally hear it move I could tell it was unstable. By now I figured we were not dealing with a supernatural being but with a human. Sebastian had regained himself and grabbed his flashlight, he directed the light in the direction the person fell when the power came back on; in the middle of the floor sat a man, covered in soot, bleeding from the head. With a little wrestling we were able to get the man seated in the chair Sebastian had sat in previously and handcuffed him there with handcuffs Sebastian brought along with him, “Identify yourself,” Sebastian demanded, but the man stayed silent, looking rather annoyed, actually, “Identify yourself, sir,” Sebastian repeated, but still no answer. I left Sebastian there for a moment to tend to my wounds and to dampen a cloth in the washroom, everything was the same when I returned to the room; I began wiping the soot from the mans face with the dampened cloth, “are you by any chance in relation to Isaac Horne?” I inquired,

“I was about to say the same thing.”

“You look almost identical to him.”

“Son maybe?”

“Younger brother?” Sebastian shook his head “Maybe not, they’d have to be a good 50 years apart.”

“That’s true.” I agreed, the man let his head hang for a moment before looking us in the eyes, “I’m Jack Horne, Isaac Horne’s fifth son.” We both were in disbelief, “but all of Isaac Hornes children were murdered.”

“Who do you think killed them?” Jack smiled. We stayed up the rest of the night watching him, and when the lawyer got there at around nine in the morning we were able to send his driver away to get the police. While we waited the lawyer sorted everything out with us. The lawyer made it clear that Isaac intended for me to inherit everything: his sixty million in gold and his mansion. Later that day the driver returned with the police behind him. Jack Horne was tried for the murder of the Horne and Priest families and sentenced to death as one of the most wanted serial killers at the time. All of my money problems went away, and Sebastian and I remained good friends till the end of our days.