We all piled up in the back of the van. Windy relinquished his seat so that Tysan could guide Howie on how to get from the beach to the manor at the center of the island. I sat on top of my luggage behind Howie's seat facing back at everyone else, my back up against the driver's seat. Brandon was cradling the CB in the middle next to me and Hünter who was seated on the other side on top of our bucket of moonshine. Boner and Lily were seated in the middle of everyone on top of everyone's bags. Ermey and Windy were in the very back, seated in the opposite corners on top of the scuba tanks. We'd brought so much stuff with us that everyone was barely not touching the ceiling of the van, so every bump in the road was a near miss on getting a concussion.
“Hey, Howie!? Hey, Windy!? How about next time you two install a luggage rack on this thing!?” Complained Hünter.
“We thought about it but it'd ruin the resale value…” said Windy from his back corner. He sounded like a modern day Gomer Pyle whenever he spoke I swear.
It was only a 5-10 minutes to get through the woods on a narrow walking path from the shore to the grounds of the manor. It'd have been a lot shorter if the road had been wide, paved, and flatter.
We'd pulled up to a large tall stone walled gate. Over it we could see through the windshield a single tall spire that reached high into the air. It sort of resembled a lighthouse. The entrance of the Wall's gate had a cast iron archway over it with a strange stylized emblem over it. It was kind of a weird gargoyle look to it with a crest and a big old English styled “W” at the center. Atop the stone wall were ornate metal spikes.
The entrance and archway were more than tall enough to drive under but it was barely a handful of inches wider than the van. Howie has to collapse the rearview mirrors to fit through.
“That was a tight squeeze… I hope we didn't scratch the paint!?” He said as he made sure the back bumper was well past the wall.
“What can I say? It was built back in a time of horse drawn carriages.” I said to him over my shoulder.
He pulled the van up the long snaking drive through a handful more of those freaking weird willow trees till we got to the front steps. He parked and we all filed out and stood back and took in the surroundings.
It was a huge place. And more like a medieval castle from the 15-1600s than a plantation style home of the 1800s. It was over 4 stories tall at some points, had large ornate stained glass windows in places, the single super tall spire was situated in the very center of the complex, six shorter spires encircled it, and it was in fact a working vintage lighthouse. The roof was shingles made from black tar covered wooden or clay tiles laid out in a fish scale pattern. The stone work was odd as all the stones were pitch black. Like solid black. Like they absorbed all light around it. It was also dark black you couldn't see the individual stones that made up it. It was like a castle shaped dark void in our vision.
The front doors in front of us were hovering above a set of steps and were inset into the building so that a small awning hung over it. There were signs that there was once a fabric part to the awning but they'd partially decayed away over the years. Standing guard there were also 2 statues of the peculiar gargoyles like the one on the gate arch. What was really odd was there was no garden or plants near the building itself so the place still seemed brand new.
“Wow! This is very different from what the records showed!” Said a shocked Lily. She was digging through her book bag she'd brought with her out of the van.
“Yeah!? Didn't the pictures we get from the library and city hall show a white marble building?” Said Neveah petting her squirming pup.
“White marble!?” Asked Ermey looking confused. “This place has been black as long as I can remember!?”
“Yeah, it's been this way since I first came here with my dad and grandpa as a lil toy.” Added Tysan.
“But, I got photos from the 1910s, 40s, 50s, and a bunch from the 80s because of the survey that showed this place was once solid white!” she said, fumbling around and finally pulling out a few pieces of paper. She handed them to us and we all looked and passed them around.
The first one I saw was one of the ones from the 50s and it was a Xerox copy of a faded Polaroid of the mansion while a work crew was doing some kind of maintenance on the roof, but sure enough as Lily said it was still the exact same building but instead of black stone it was made of white marble stone. The next picture I received was an old black and white one I'm guessing was the 1910s one and this one was a newspaper print of our great grand aunt in front of the door way in which we now stood. She was every bit of what we were told. The newspaper was a singles advertisement where she was looking for a husband. My guess from the fact we're here only living descents means that didn't work out for her.
The last page I got before I stopped looking and just passed the pages along to the next person was a collage of images from the 80s survey. It had a lot of images of guys in orange reflector construction style vests and hard hats all over the place with random candid photos of the house in the background and again of course the house appears to be white marble then. The thing that caught my eye more was our aunt was in one of them and she basically looked the same as her dating advert from the 10s.
“Yeah… that is a weird one… well, are we going to stay out here all night or are we going to go inside!?” Said Howie lifting a fistful of luggage in each hand and headed up the steps.
“Iffen y'all don't mind I'm going to stay out here in your van for the night…” said Brandon stepping away from the building.
“Suit yourself, but I'm keeping the keys with me so you won't have AC or radio!” Howie yelled back as he used his last 2 free fingers to rattle the doorknobs and swing open the 2 large front doors.
That was kind of unsettling to me as seeing that old photo only a moment ago of our great grand aunt in front of these doors she was to scale with those doors making them look normal sized but seeing Howie in front of them and that he was barely half their height.
Everyone gathered their stuff and followed Howie inside. I was 3rd to last inside with Ermey forcing Brandon inside behind me. Inside was a large foyer with a tall ceiling that went 3 stories high. There were 5 large doors that branched off from the foyer; two on each side and one at the very back at the end of a long hall. By my judgement based on the layout I saw outside I figured that the door at the end of the hall had to lead to the lighthouse spire at the center of the building. It was surprisingly cool inside, there was no mildew smell like you'd expect in a place like this, and the air was dry unlike the humidity that was outside. Now that I thought about it the humidity wasn’t that bad outside. It was only bad just before we finally got on to the island.
“Ok, Brandon is it? You’re the only one of us who’s been here before! Where is eveything?” asked Boner his arm around Lily’s shoulder.
“I… I think there’s a kitchen through the 2nd door on the le… right!?” he said pointing to the door.
“Lead the way!” Ermey shoves him forward.
With great resistance he then walked ahead of the group to the door, opened it, and allowed us to enter ahead of him. In this room we found it to be a large dining hall with a great table with only one lonely chair with a place setting made up in front of it. The place looked as if it’d been cleaned recently.
There was another door on the opposite wall behind the chair. Bran led us to it and through it we found the kitchen. This room I’d expected to find desiccated, but it too looked to have been recently decontaminated. I was expecting to find years old food, unwashed dishes, and an infestation of insects and rodents. But, it looked almost like a restaurant’s ready and waiting to reopen. There was a massive full range gas stove, a giant walk in cooler and freezer, a walk in pantry, an industrial dishwasher, a sink large enough to use as a bathtub, an antique china cabinet full of some fancy custom dish and silverware sets, and finally a hanging rack full of pots and pans. I think if I could just sell half this stuff I could live comfortably for a few years.
Howie out of pure curiosity looked inside the cooler and found it empty, but still operating somehow. “We’ve still got power!?” he shouted from within the giant metal box.
“I don’t know how!?” replied Tysan. “Miss. Wellers was never able to get a power or phone line built to reach out this way so she had the place wired for generators and solar panels, but none of that should still be working!? No one’s been out here since the cleanup after her death…”
“Must be on some sort of stand by lower power mode that’s barely still running? We’ll have to check the generators, wherever they are, tomorrow morning.” said Windy.
“Well, since it’s all working we can put the food we brought in here to keep. Hell, we can put that alcohol Hünter bought in there so we’ll have cold drinks later!” I added.
“You said she never had a phone here… So, how did she call out for stuff in town or get a boat ride to the mainland?” asked Lily.
“She used a CB radio to call the office at the docks or the police on rare occasions. It’d be somewhere on one of the top floors I’d believe to get a wide signal. Maybe in her master bedroom?” answered Tysan.
After we unpacked what we needed to in the kitchen we had Brandon lead us from the kitchen to the washroom with its hospital or prison style industrial washing machine and dryer to another hallway that led to the other (west) wing of the house. It was a large library, study, den, and smoking room. The Library was as tall as the foyer with shelves upon shelves of books, most of which I’m sure had to be one of a kind antiques and first editions. There was a spiral staircase that led to balconies every 8-10 feet with those ladders with rollers and casters like you’d seen in movies on each level. The study was just a small offshoot room of the library with a single ornate hand carved writing desk with an old oil lantern and a high back matching chair. It looked like it hadn’t been used in decades. The den was like something out of an old adventure movie with old mounted animal heads, a few animal pelts as carpet, a full stocked liquor cabinet, another cabinet filled with different types drinking glasses, a wooden bar with 3 stools, a large mirror mounted behind it, a humongous fireplace with a couple of cushioned chairs in front of it. The oddest thing about this room was of all the mounted animal trophies here the prized piece above the mantle of the fireplace was a full body taxidermied great white shark done up like how one would do a small mouth bass. The Smoking room was much like the den but much smaller with a rack of cigar boxes. Anything in them is probably too old to still be any good now, but the boxes might still be worth some money as a novelty antique.
“This room stinks!” whined Neveah.
“Smells good to me! I could go for a smoke!” said Hünter. “But, I’ll wait till later!” he winked at Howie and me.
After the smoking room we came to a living room or dayroom as the old timers would’ve called it back in this place’s heyday. It was another beautiful Victorian relic. It had several large bay windows that faced West. There were 4 huge couches that were too big to fit in any living room let alone any house I’ve ever lived in. In the middle of the room was a fancy ornate coffee table on top of an intricately woven carpet. In each corner of the room between the couches were old suits of armor; a medieval French knight, a dark ages Viking’s man-at-arms armor, an ancient Roman’s centurion armor, and finally a feudal Japanese Samurai’s armor. All of them even had a sword and shield of their respected culture placed in their hands.
After the living room we came back into the foyer out of the left side front door. I guessed the 2nd door must lead upstairs or was some other room connected to the west wing.
“Where do these other doors lead?” I asked.
“I don't really know but I think that one…” Bran pointed towards the right hand front door, “...is like a coat closet!? I think I accidentally ran into it when I was trying to escape…” he turned boiled lobster red saying that last part. The girls all giggled.
“What's that one at the back?” Asked Boner trying to break up the moment.
“Ummm… I think that is the main tower!? I only opened that door once before and looked in… it's just a giant swirling staircase leading up. Now that door over there is to the upstairs where poor ole Miss. Wellers’s bedroom and bathroom are!”
“Should? Should we go up there?” Asked Cæla looking towards Lily. “We might find out more about your ancestry if we look through your aunt's… things!?”
“Yeah, we should, but maybe in the morning for the rest of today and tonight let's just find someplace for us all to put up our bags, maybe find a bathroom, figure out something to eat, and figure out where we're all gonna sleep.” Lily said as she held up a finger to emphasize each point.
“I hope your creepy ancestors had multiple guest rooms! Because I ain't sharing a room with any of you pendejos!” Said Neveah pointing to Hünter, Howie, Windy, and me. She was kind enough to not include our reluctant guests and tour guides.
“Judging by the size of this place I'm sure there's gotta be more rooms than that on the 2nd floor… hell based on what I've seen so far there should be a 3rd and possibly 4th floor not counting the tower!” Said Howie.
We all entered the door and indeed it was a stairway and a gentle one at that with nice wide sloping steps. The walls were lined with painting, portraits, and old photography of who I think must have been members of my ancestral family. At the top of the stairs was an open walkway to another large hallway with a single large window with a balcony at the end. On both sides of the hall were a couple doors.
Each of these doors were easily identified with a simple plaque on the outside of them. The one closest to us on the left was embossed with the image of a baby's crib telling us it was once a nursery. The next closest one to the right was marked with a stylish EW for East Wing meaning it led somehow to the other side of the building. The rear 2 doors were branded with an image of a bed on the right side and a bathtub on the left.
“Ok, sooo… we got at least 2 rooms on this side at least? Maybe the men in one and ladies in the other?” Cæla asked cautiously.
“Maybe? But let's see what is on the East side 2nd floor.” Lily said, pushing her way over to the EW door.
Through it we came to another shorter hall that turned right with yet another oversized door at its end. Opening it it was back into the foyer, but 10-15 feet up the Westside wall. There in front of us was a metal walkway across to the other side. It was suspended from the ceiling by thick and heavy chains that were intricately carved with fleur-de-lis patterns. The door on the other side was already open and waiting for us.
After everyone hurried over with almost everybody here having some form of fear of heights or vertigo. I was one of them that ran the gauntlet within a few quick strides.
The doorway on the East side led to another hallway of doors. But, this time they were marked differently. There were only three this time. One was marked with an image of a stage with curtains. Must have been some kind of entertainment room or at home theater. The others were again desecrated as another restroom and the last were yet another flight of stairs.
“Should we continue on?” Asked someone I don't remember.
“Yeah, let's keep going, we need to see what all rooms we got to choose from!” I think it was Cæla.
So we took the stairs and like the ones before they were comfortably placed, not like the emergency fire escape stairs like one might find in modern appointment buildings. Even more paintings this time but these were of landscapes and strange ocean creatures. I did take note these all had the same signature in the top right hand corners. Master Nimrod Olmstead Wellers the 2nd. One of my great grand uncles maybe?
The next floor was smaller than the previous with a shorter hall that ran parallel to the front wall of the building. So to our left was nothing but large stained glass windows with only the one in the middle being able to open into a balcony overlooking the front yard. To our right were two more doors each marked. One as yet another restroom and the other as some sort of art studio with a plaque showing an art easel, musical notes, and a sewing needle and thread. Must have been a very classically trained family.
Again the hall terminated into another door label as WW for West Wing. We debated again on if we should continue and we again soldiered on. This time instead of a suspension bridge to the other side it was more a fancy catwalk with a window overlooking the foyer and one could look down over it and see the 2nd floor bridge or look straight out to the large pearl cover chandelier that hung from the ceiling. That's got to be worth an easy couple million in modern day money I thought.
The door at the end of the catwalk that opened onto the West Wing 3rd floor showed a lot more wear and tear than any of the others. This must have been the floor our aunt lived in. We open it to find a mirrored layout to the one on the East side. But with three final doors. Two more bedrooms separated by another bathroom.
“Bingo! We found our rooms for the night!” Said Boner as he pulled Lily in closer to him.
“Is that the bathroom you found her in?” I asked Brandon.
“Ye… yeah… please don't ask me to go in there!” He begged quietly.
“Wasn't planning on it just making sure I don't stay on the possibly haunted floor or use the cursed toilet.” I said, slapping him on his back. Dude was built like a brick house.
“Okay, so you two take that room and I say our guests can have the other room? Me and the guys can sleep down stairs in the living room. Those couches looked comfy. The girls can take the 2nd floor bedrooms? Sounds good to everyone?” Asked Howie, trying to be diplomatic and gentleman-like.
“I guess that sounds good to me.” Said Windy looking anxiously out one of the windows. “I'm not the biggest fan of sleeping in high places.”
“Yeah, I guess…” I said feeling only slightly slighted. I was the oldest and majority owner of this place and am still relegated to sleeping on a couch. My lot in life.
“We can share a room if someone wants to stay in the nursery or maternity room?” Said Cæla taking Neveah's hand like a big sister to her bratty sibling.
“I’ll take it!” Said Ermey before I had time to process the invitation. But I figured it was probably more proper for all the girls to have a floor to themselves.
“Bran and I can use this top floor bedroom to see if we can get a CB radio signal out and get a hold of someone that can get my dad out here with his portable welder so we can fix up our boat. We got some tools but I would be happier to get it done properly and not risk damaging it any more than it already has been.” Tysan said, taking the CB radio from Brandon's death grip on it.
“Okay it's settled! Everyone put your bags in your assigned rooms and we'll meet down stairs for dinner and I can show you all what I found in the town records.” Said Lily clapped her hands like a giddy child.
Howie, Hünter, Windy, and I made our way back down the gauntlet to the ground level and set up our little camp in the living room. My first order of business after we sell off all the most valuable items in this place is if we choose to keep the house and property is to gut the building and place in more convenient stairs. I'm not a fan of having to cross an open walkway 20 or more feet in the air. Guard rails be damned.
Windy and Howie unloaded all of their stuff from the van and had it laid out on the coffee table inspecting it. They had the rented scuba gear, Windy's guns, body armor, camouflage, and Howie's laptop and recording equipment. He brought it along mostly to make YouTube videos with his friends and Vlog the trip but now I think he was planning something else.
“Dammit! They were right, this place is a dead zone.” Wined Howie tried and failed to get his laptop to connect to his mobile service.
“I told you you should have bought a signal booster or got one of those Starlink routers!” Yelled Hünter as he was rolling out a sleeping bag over his designated couch.
“I didn't want to waste the money! Besides, don't you hate Elon Musk or something?”
“Yeah, but the guy makes great shit!” He retorted now pulling out the baggie of pot we got from the crazy old cracker from town.
He started grinding it with his own little portable “cigarette” making kit. He even had one of those machines that packs and rolls the “tobacco “ and papers for you. He ended up making like 8-10 joints all with the same love and care.
“Hünter!? What the heck do you think you're doing!?” Shouted Windy once he looked up from checking the sights on his AK. “You know I don't like it when you smoke that stuff around me! And, if we get caught while I'm carrying it's a major felony!”
“We ain't gonna get caught, dude! No one is going to call the cops on us here. And, I think weed should be illegal at this point! It's no fuckin, worse than beer and I got 5 gallons of moonshine in the cooler right now! If that tickles your fancy?”
“You know I don't drink either!” Windy scoffed.
They went on like this until Lily and her girlfriends came down to get us to help in the kitchen. We followed them back to the kitchen where Ermey and Boner, who’d changed into fresh clothes since his little swim in the swamp, were already going through cupboards and cabinets trying to find what they thought we might need to cook with.
Windy had brought with him and Howie several military grade MREs and some of those buckets of Doomsday perpers foodstuffs. Luckily Lily and Cæla did bring some fresh vegetables, fruit, a couple dozen eggs, some cake and cookie mixes, a few loaves of bread, peanut butter, jams, butter, a bunch of bags of chips, and seasoning. Between all that and my almost autistic level of cooking knowledge I gained from watching Food Network and YouTube cooking channels we were able to cobble together an edible meal. Hünter made some space cakes with one of the brownie mixes the girls bought and some of the remainder of his crazy old man purchase.
“Where’s your friends at? They don’t want to help cook their meal?” asked Neveah to Ermey while she was assisting Hünter with his baking.
“They’re probably trying to get the CB radios working to try and get some help by tomorrow morning!” she said ignoring Neveah’s sass.
“Neveah! Be nice!” shouted Lily while cutting up veggies for the stew I was making.
We ended up making a gumbo style dish using the freeze dried meats and rice from Windy's MREs and survival buckets, and the fresh vegetables and spices from Cæla. It was adequate to Ermey’s local taste.
About the time we finished cooking and setting everything up at the dinner table and found stuff to use as chairs Brandon and Tysan came down to join us. By the looks on their faces I could tell they were successful in their endeavors.
“So, did y'all reach the mainland?” Asked Ermey as she took a seat on top of some old shipping crates we found in the walk-in pantry. She sat between the two of them at the farthest end of the table.
“Yes, we used both our radio and ole Miss. Wellers in her bedroom and we got a hold of Mr. Esaias at the docks before he left for the night and my dad at the house before he got too drunk. They're gonna send out a boat first thing in the morning with what we need to fix the Grin-N-Ber-it properly. They’s even agreed to send y'all some cans of propane for the stoves, gas for the generators, and some fresh solar batteries for the electrical. Y'all just need to pay a bit extra on our fees!” Tysan said as he helped himself to a bowl of rice and the gumbo stew concoction.
“No problem, just charge it to our card we left with them at the docks as collateral.” Said Windy. He was a lot more useful than I thought he'd be on this adventure.
“Let us celebrate the good news!” Said Hünter pouring everyone a champagne glass full of the moonshine swill.
“Hey! Hey, no! No! No! Nooo!” Ie said, stammering over myself as I stood up. He was about to pass some glasses down to Ermey, Tysan and Brandon. “How old are they!? I'm the oldest one here, so I'm the one that gets in the deep shit if we give alcohol to minors!”
“Dude, relax no one is going to get into any ‘deep shit’ here! I'm sure this isn't their first rodeo and they've earned it after the day they're having! Besides, if anything y'all can blame it all on me as the 2nd oldest one here!” He said giving me the biggest shit-eating-grin he could muster.
“Fine! Fine whatever!” I said taking my seat of stacked milk crates.
Before we could all start to eat, Windy insisted we say grace. So, he led us all in a quick prayer before we were all seated again. He was really quick to thank God for us surviving our strange series of wrecks along the way here and Tysan and his friends for helping us along our journey this far. It was actually quite nice.
Lily and Boner had taken to sitting in the large master chair that sat at the head of the table that once belonged to our aunt. She must have had a huge ass to have needed a chair wide enough to function as a loveseat. We all ate our slop from antique fine china bowls from the 1800s and ornately designed real silver spoons worth more than I could make in a year at any of my past jobs. We all felt a bit like royalty.
While we were still eating is when Lily began her ramblings on what she'd found in the city records about this place. Mostly the government surveys findings.
“Turns out this island might not be a completely natural geographical feature! The surveyors that came out here 35-40 years ago think the bulk of it might've been a meteorite that struck this area thousands of not millions of years ago! Isn't that awesome!?” She squeed.
“Yes, awesome.” I said eating myself another helping.
“And, there's this weird phenomenon they discovered is the island seems to be growing! But, it's such a minute amount that no one would have noticed if they hadn't had records of the island's measurements from when our ancestors purchased it! They calculated it gains about a quarter of an inch in width every year! Also, in height! You see the island itself seems to always stay above the water level no matter how high the waters rise! Even during flood season! They think that it might have something to do with the caves that are under the land! That instead of eroding away at the bedrock it's just pushing it further up and out! That's why they think that our ancestor, Master Nimrod Olmstead Wellers’s, sugarcane crops always failed! The little bit of actual soil on the island surface wasn't enough to sustain it!”
“But, if there's not enough soil on the island to sustain crops, how come there are trees on here and that thick grass along the shore?” Ask a curious Windy. “Surely he at some point tried to import topsoil from off the island at some point? They knew about that kind of farming back then…”
“Yes!? That's explained by the fact that the trees and grass here have adapted to live here like trees in higher elevations on snowy mountains! As for topsoil transportation it never seemed to work! There's records of him having thousands of pounds of soil shipped in from all over the United States and even Mexico, but none of it would work here! I think it might be some kind of microscopic life in the soil that kills all non native flora!? Cæla agreed to help me test for that later, but first I want to find out more on my family tree from here! Also, please don't call me Shirley!” She said deadpan at him.
Windy stared at her dumbfounded for a full minute I swear before shaking his head and going back to his food. If he'd only drank his wine flute of sugary hillbilly piss he might've found her humor as fun as I do.
“Speaking of… I found out we had three great grand uncles and two aunts not counting Dominica! She was the youngest, but not the last born as it said that her father mentioned a few other kids born after her but didn't live long enough to be given names…”
“Well, that's… horrible and sad…” said Ermey. “Why did they give them names?”
“It was pretty common back then with high infant mortality rates to not give a child a name till they made it to their first birthday! That's why it used to be called name day! Well, she… our great grand aunt was the last survivor! Her brothers all lived to be in their teens the records say but nothing says how or when they died or even their names outside one… Master Nimrod Olmstead Wellers Jr. He lived to be at least 18-20 years old before he disappeared from recorded history!”
That's when I spoke up, “Yeah, I think I saw his name signed into some paintings in one of the halls upstairs earlier. He was a pretty good artist! I think he's where we got some of our talents!”
“Yes, indeed!” She said dismissing me. “Our great grandmother was the only one, it showed, to have survived and left here! And, as I suspected, she was pretty old already when she did so! And she seemed to have been a strange case herself! According to my… our ancestry report she didn't die till the 1950s! And, even then it wasn't of old age but a car wreck! She had our grandma with her husband in the 30s, and Grandma had mom sometime in the 60s before dying from Tropical Storm Delia in 1973 before any of us were born. Are you starting to see a pattern?”
Hünter couldn't help himself but to struggle not to giggle. I choose to blame the shine and the awkwardness of the conversation for this. As ridiculous as this all sounds this was the way things were in our family. It could've been worse. We could be talking about our dad's side of the family.
“Finally, we get to our mom… she died only like 10 years ago from…” she started to tear up and cry. Howie has to slap Boner on the back of the head so he'd try to comfort her.
Howie sighed and continued on for her, “Our mom died from a terrible accident when we were still in primary school. She was struck by an out of control eighteen wheeler while out in the front yard.”
“Yes, it was a truly shocking series of unfortunate events!” I added hoping to break up the gloomy mood. I'd already made my peace with this years ago and didn't want to regress now. Therapy sucked and good therapy is expensive. “So, we are absolutely the only surviving members of the Weller's family I take it? Mom had no siblings, Grandma was an only child, and none of our great grandmother’s siblings left here?!”
Lily had had time to recompose herself and took a few gulps from her glass. “Ummm, yes… yes, that's correct! None of the records have an exact date of death for any of them, but our great grand aunt did a census sometime in the 50s and she wrote all of her brothers and sisters were dead by then.”
“Maybe if we check around this place we can find out more? Like maybe somebody kept a diary or journal? Maybe like my family back home they got a family Bible with a record of your family tree?” Said Windy.
“There's a huge library here after all! Also, your aunt's bedroom seemed to still have all her stuff still in it!” Said Tysan trying to be part of the conversation.
“I'm still curious who was our great, great grandmother! She's never mentioned outside being Master Wellers's wife and the mother of his kids!” Said Howie. “I liked your theory earlier that she might've been a native first Nation woman he found still living on this island after all the others died off or fled!”
We'd finished our late dinner and retired to the living room. We decided to continue our little party there. Hünter had passed out his space cakes as party starter dessert. It wasn't bad, but if I'd done it you'd not known they were spiked. He'd broken out his professionally rolled joints and we passed the first one around and continued to refill our glasses from the bucket of shine till we all had a good high and buzz going. Except for Windy who tried to remain sober but Hünter closed up all the doors in the room hoping to hotbox him into a good time.
To start off the evening's events we all took turns telling scary stories. It was the best we could do seeing as we didn't have Internet or cell service to play music or videos. And, nobody wanted to risk killing what little battery was left on their devices till we figured out how to restore full power to the house. We only had lights on this side of the house thanks to it still having kerosene lanterns mounted on the walls.
Hünter told an old classic urban legend about the hook hand killer on the loose with his added twist of using characters from Peter Pan. He has a way with words and public domain characters.
Howie told us the story of Lovecraft’s Dagon. One of my favorites. It was a classic in my book.
Windy told the story of the Not Deer. An old native American legend of monsters that pretended to be deer to hunt humans.
Cæla went next and told a story about a family who went into the woods and was attacked by a band of escaped Army psychiatric patients who'd been subjected to violent, hellish, torturous behavior-modification experiments. It seems they escaped from the metal boxes the Army kept them in, found a family in the woods, fell upon them, slaughtered them and ate them. Now that was a story.
Ermey told us about the goat man or at least the version of him that was popular locally. This one was a mimic that liked to insert itself into groups and pick people off one by one like it was John Carpenter's the Thing.
It was my turn and I told one of my all time favorite folklore stories about the Nuckelavee from Scotland.
After me came Tysan who, like he promised me on the boat ride here, regaled us with the story of the Kuukuh Náttih.
“My old Grand-mère used to tell us this story about this here island!” he began.I'm
“You mean Granny Laveau?” asked Brandon, obviously having had too much to drink.
“No, the other one! Grand-mère Natchitoche! On my momma’s side!” Tysan angrily corrected him. “She was Indian!”
“Oh, my bad, Bear Joe!” Brand said setting up right and suddenly taking the story seriously.
“Y’all see the indian tribe that use to live here on this island were called Awant Impa Luksi Shukʋtti Nʋni Sinti aka the Those who Dine with Turtle, Frog and Eel Eaters! You might’ve been told by those that don’t know the old languages that they were called the ‘Turtle, Frog and Eel Eaters’ but that was a mistaken early translation! You see they were said to be human men married to the Kuukuh Náttih, the Mockmaids! They’re basically swamp mermaids! From what little I know of them they're what their names implies, a fake or imitation of a woman! They look like whatever you find most attractive in a lover, but they are always just a little off in a way that isn't bad enough to be a deal breaker! They will lead you along until they can get you into the water where their true nature is revealed!
“As the story goes there were these 13 lost braves from a long lost tribe. They were the last remaining survivors of a warband that were driven into the swamp to die. Their chief led them deeper into the bayou hoping they could find their way out the other side. That’s when they came upon the island out in the middle of the swamp. At the time the waters were lower and you could cross the water a lot easier than you can today. It was barely chest high at the deepest and they all crossed over. Once they got here they started making camp.
“That fight night the chief left his twelfth strongest of his warriors to watch over the others while they slept. The next morning they woke to find him missing and all that remained of him was his weapons and footprints in the sand leading to the water’s edge.
“They looked all over and found no other signs of him. That night the chief had his tenth and eleventh strongest warriors stay up and watch while the others slept. And, again the next morning both warriors were gone except for their weapons and footprints leading into the water. Again they searched the whole island and found nothing else.
“On the third night the chief left his seventh, eighth, and ninth strongest warriors to watch over the others while they slept and again the next morning they were gone leaving only their weapons and footprints leading to the water's edge. The chief was now enraged he'd lost half of his brave warriors. So, he decided that night he and his last six warriors would stay up that night and see what had taken their brothers.
“The final six warriors all took turns watching over the others while they slept,but the chief never slept. At around midnight he and the only one of his braves that were awake heard the voice of a young woman chanting and singing off in the distance. The chief was old and halfway deaf and couldn't understand what she was saying but his young brave could and he ignored his chief’s commands.
“The young brave stuck his weapons on the ground and headed to the water. The chief followed closely behind him trying to ask him what he was hearing. But, the brave warrior didn't answer.
“At the water's edge the brave was met by a beautiful woman that emerged from the water. She was the most beautiful squaw the chief had ever seen. He was almost tempted to go after her himself when he noticed she wasn't…. Right!?
“She didn't look human from the back. I do not know how but he just knew she wasn't right. He shouted and called for his young brave to no avail. So, in a last effort to save his brave he grabbed his spear and flung it with all his might and struck the young Kuukuh Náttih. She screamed a hundred screams and vanished back into the water, but not before grabbing the young brave and taking him with her into the swamp’s depths.
“The other braves came running with weapons at the ready but it was too late there was nothing they could do. The chief sat watch over the braves all the rest of the night.
“The next day the chief told his remaining warriors he and his bravest warrior were going to capture the Kuukuh Náttih. They both would stand watch while the others would pretend to sleep. They all stuffed tallow, animal fat wax, into their ears to partially deafen themselves like their chief.
“That night again around midnight the singing and chanting began again. The chief and his bravest warrior went to the water's edge and sure enough there she was again beckoning them to come with her into the water. The chief agreed to go to her but stopped just short of stepping foot into the water. He beckoned her to come closer to him telling her he's too old to swim. She came closer to the shore.
“When she was but a few steps away from the old Chief his bravest warrior gave a mighty whoop and holler and the remaining warriors sprang out and fired a volley of arrows and spears. They struck the Kuukuh Náttih dead and drug her into the shore.
“She was both human and animal in equal parts. Beautiful and terrifying at the same time. They thought they had killed the monster and would be safe now, but the next morning they found the body of the Kuukuh Náttih had disappeared along with their weapons.
“That next night the bravest warrior went to the shore himself and waited for the Kuukuh Náttih to come and this time he went into the water to greet her and allowed himself to be taken by her into the water. But, unknown to the Kuukuh Náttih he'd tied a long length of rope made from cattails. The other warriors and the chief waited till the morning and followed the rope and found it led to a cave under the island.
“They went into the cave with no weapons ready to kill the Kuukuh Náttih with their bare hands. When they found their bravest brother there, they were still alive. He'd managed to survive the night by subduing the Kuukuh Náttih. The Kuukuh Náttih wasn't alone, it was one of many. They were so impressed by the strength and bravery of the warriors and their chief they wanted to marry them instead of drowning and eat them
“And, this the tribe of Awant Impa Luksi Shukʋtti Nʋni Sinti was founded. And, the legend of the Kuukuh Náttih was spread.” Tysan finished with a dance almost like bow arms out.
“Woah— Then they were all killed off by their enemies some years later?” Asked Cæla with wide open dilated bloodshot eyes.
“That's what they say officially, but my Grand-mère Natchitoche told me that after they married into the Kuukuh Náttih and became the Awant Impa Luksi Shukʋtti Nʋni Sinti no one would set foot near them even in a time of war. But they did vanish one day and a group of warriors did travel to the island and found it completely deserted. They do say those warriors that went there came back a little less than what originally went!” He said doing scary hands at Brandon who was now shaking scared in his seat.
“That makes me think that the… Kuukuh Náttih!?” Said Lily trying to think through the marijuana haze.
“You can call them MockMaids!” Said Tysan.
“But, what if they're not female!?” She spurted out.
“MockMan for males and MockFolks for general…” he rambled out a stream of thought. “But, I've only heard of them being female!”
“I don't believe they're a mythical all female swamp monster race, but rather a group of natives that lived out here so long they've adapted to living in the swamp. Like a North American version of the Bajau of Southeast Asia. They're those people that live their whole lives on the water and have adapted to hold their breath for longer than any other human.
“Sama-Bajau are noted for their exceptional abilities in free-diving. Divers work long days with greater than 5 hours per day submerged. Some Bajau intentionally rupture their eardrums at an early age to facilitate diving and hunting at sea. Many older Sama-Bajau are therefore hard of hearing. Which I find fascinating since you said the old Chief that founded this island was hard of hearing.
“More than a thousand years of subsistence freediving associated with their life on the sea appear to have endowed the Bajau with several genetic adaptations to facilitate their lifestyle. A 2018 study showed that Bajau spleens are about 50 percent larger than those of neighbouring land-based groups, letting them store more haemoglobin-rich blood, which is expelled into the bloodstream when the spleen contracts at depth, allowing breath-holding dives of longer duration. Members have been found to have better underwater vision than Europeans, although it is not known if this trait has a genetic basis. They've also started to develop webbing between their fingers and toes.” She said somehow conjuring up info like Google. I heard of these people before from watching Discovery channel and YouTube videos but she must have researched them at some point recently.
“I don't know about all that stuff but what I've been told is that the Kuukuh Náttih… MockMaids aren't human at all, but they can breed with us but they'd much rather feed on us.” He said taking his seat to Brandon on the couch he was sharing with Ermey.
“So? They might have been cannibals too…. Wouldn't be much more of a shock to me!” She pouted.
To ease the mood by changing the subject Boner stood up and told his story next. It wasn't as good as the others but it eased the room and got the highest of us to start laughing in hysterics. Even though I don't think it was meant to be funny. I did start to get a bit of a headache at this point.
Brandon offered to let Neveah go next but she didn't want to and continued to play with her dog on the couch she sat with Cæla. Lily was still too busy talking to herself about her thoughts and finds on our ancestry. So, he told his story of the Letiche and its more regional retelling that tied more into the local mythology. I really couldn’t pay it that much attention as my headache was starting to get worse. I left the room briefly to get a drink that wasn’t alcoholic and take some ibuprofen before returning to the party.
“The Letiche are still said to roam this swamp to this day!” Brandon finished up as I retook my seat and resting my head on a throw pillow.
“You ok, dude?” asked someone I think was Hünter or maybe Windy.
“Not really, I think I’ve had too much. It’s been a few years since I’ve done anything like this.” I said rubbing my eyes and temples.
“Hey, maybe we should take this upstairs and let’m sleep it off?” Said Lily as she stood and walked over to the door to the foyer.
“Awww… do we have to!?” Moaned Neveah.
“Yes, because this is where we agreed to sleep tonight and if you want to trade y'all's rooms for ours we can!” Said Howie standing up for me. He's a good little bro.
She groaned and got up with her little Princess and headed out the door followed closely behind by the others. All except for Howie who hung back and said, “Don't worry we'll be back to check on you after a bit. Hell, Eli might be back down here to join you before too long. He's such a lightweight when it comes to pot and alcohol!”
“Who!?” I asked through the growing fog building up in my brain.
“Windagoober! That's his real name, dude! You didn't really think that was his actual name?”
“No! I thought it was actually Windy… like his parents were hippies that named their kids shit like Leaf, Branch, or River… dumb shit like that!” I said giggling a bit. The weed's effects still give me that much at least.
“Ha! No, no, but that is funny! I'll have to tell him you thought that he'll get a kick out of it! Especially as much contact high he's got right now!” He said giggling himself as he helped me lay down on my designated couch and tucked me in for the night.
I was already asleep before he got out of the dimming lantern lit room. All I can remember after that was a clock somewhere in the house chiming midnight, and a strange psychedelic dream I had.
I was flouting I thought at first, but after a while I realized I was actually swimming. It was quite nice, it felt so freeing and relaxing. Not a single care in the world. I forgot all about how I was broke, jobless, single, lonely, and on the brink of possibly being homeless.
Then suddenly I came upon a shore of a beach somewhere. It looked familiar like I had seen it before. And, I had. It was the shore where the M.F. Grin-N-Ber-it ferry was partially beaches by the pier. The only difference now was it was pitch black dark out, but somehow I could see everything just fine. There was also someone softly singing somewhere off in the distance, but they stopped once I had climbed out of the water.
After studying the wreckage I followed our tracks from the pier and up the overgrown trail leading to the manor. Once I reached the walled gate with the iron archway I for some reason climbed up over it instead of crossing through.
I was in the courtyard where the van was now sitting parked and empty in the driveway just outside the front doors. I looked up at the canopy and reached up and took hold of it and pulled myself onto it and began to wall crawl like I was Spider-Man or like a gecko.
I climbed up to the 2nd floor on the West Wing side. I looked through one of the stained glass windows and saw nothing but an empty bedroom with some open luggage sitting on a bed meant for a small child. There was an empty baby bed in one corner with an antique mobile depicting the cutest sea creatures hanging over it. And a toy box with vintage Teddy Bears and porcelain dolls. An old wooden rocking horse set motionless. The walls were painted to show an almost cartoonist depiction of a sunny beach with golden sand and crystal blue water. Best I could tell this had to be Neveah's chosen room.
I shuffled sideways to the next window over to see the bathroom which was itself empty except for an ornate lion's paw bathtub with an old overhead shower head and a crescent bent rod with a fabric privacy curtain still hanging from silver rings. A chain pull commode and wall mounted sink with mirror were on the opposing wall. The bathroom too had a New England oceanfront theme to its decor.
I again scuttled sideways around the corner to the side wall and back to the back half of the building and peered through the windows of the master bedroom and it took was vacant except for a large king sized bed with opened luggage same as the baby's room but this one had more of the contents pulled out and laying out on the still made bed. The room didn't have much in it except for a couple nightstands with a lamp on them. There was an open closet with nothing inside it but old wire hangers and garment bags.
I looked up and saw light emanating from a balcony above. I climbed up slowly and circled around the balcony and climbed up into the roof just over the balcony. Slowly I looked down over the roof’s ledge and peered in and saw my siblings and all their friends laying and setting on top of a huge bed. It had to be an Alaskan King size bed. Like 9 feet by 9 feet so there was plenty of room for nearly everyone to at least set it somewhere. Besides the humongous bed there was a large wardrobe, 2 nightstands with lamps, a writing desk with a high back wing chair in front of it, an open wooden cabinet with what looked like radio equipment inside, and finally a walk-in closet with twin bi-fold doors. It all looked as if they'd rummaged through all the stuff in them.
I looked away and looked over to the next window over and it was the one to the master bathroom. The one our great grand aunt died in. The windows were still missing and so was most of the framing. Old sun bleached caution tape still hung from it and danced in the night air. I crawled over to it and swung myself over into the room from the roof but remained suspended from the ceiling.
The bathroom was a marvelous spectacle. It was styled like an ancient Roman or Greek bathhouse with marble making up nearly every surface. All four corners of the room had statues acting as pillars holding up the ceiling. They were of beautiful mermaids, nymphs, Gorgons, and one was a near perfect replica of the Ephesian Artemis. Even the toilet in this room was a work of art as it had to have been custom built as it was made for a giant to use. 2 full-grown adults could sit side-by-side on it easily. It was made to resemble a sea monster like those seen on old maps. Its wide scream or howling maw being the bowl, its tongue acting as the seat, its top jaw the seat cover. It even had a built-in bidet as the creature’s blowhole. The sink next to it was made to look like a giant clamshell with a full length mirror behind it framed with golden filigree.
I caught only a quick glance of myself in the mirror. I couldn't tell much outside that I was very tall and nearly completely transparent. The closest comparison I can think of is the Predator when using his cloaking camouflage technology.
I slid across the smooth ceiling on my stomach like a soldier under barbed wire. I came to the door that led out into the hallway. The door reaches from floor to ceiling without any threshold or door frame so I was able to slither out while keeping myself flat against the ceiling. In the hall the ceiling was smooth hardwood so it was just as slick as the marble of the bathroom.
The door into the master bedroom of the 3rd floor was luckily wide open. A steady stream of smoke and incense wanted from within. It smelled strongly of skunky herbals and artificial fruits. Like bad cheap knockoff Front Loops. Speaking of which, I was famished.
I continued to belly crawl into the room. The ceiling of this room was gabled so it slanted up with exposed rafters. I climbed up and hid in between a set of rafters and listened in on what was being said below me. The room was tall enough to make up 2 floors with at its lowest point the ceiling was 10 feet off the floor and 20 at its tallest. No one noticed me. I was completely invisible to everyone in the lowlights of the lantern lights they were using. Any noise I made was easily blamed on the house settling or the wind rattling the roof. The only one that noticed me was that damned dog of Neveah’s. It couldn’t see me but it could definitely sense my presence and was looking up where I was and was yapping and growling. I hated that fucking mut.
They were still telling their stories and Neveah was finishing up her half-hearted retelling of the story of La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman, when she scolded her dog, “Princess! ¡No, niña mala! ¡Mamá está intentando hablar! ¡Tranquilo! ¿¡Por favor!?”
Cæla reached over and tried petting her to calm her down, but she was nearly bitten by the panicking animal. “Woah! Calm down, Daisy! It’s just me! Your Auntie!”
Windy or Eli or whatever his name was tried to help Cæla out by trying to distract the dog by coming up from the other side. The dog turned and snapped at him as well. Its tiny black eyes darted back and forth between them and me up on the ceiling.
“The smoke must be getting to her! Maybe we should put her out for a bit?” said Lily, looking at Neveah who was digging in her travel dog carrier. “Maybe put her down in your room, maybe?”
“Put her down!? Can do!” yelled Hünter, jokingly grabbing a letter opener from off of a nightstand and miming a stabbing motion. Tysan, Brandon, Howie, and Boner started giggling and snickering.
“Not funny, retrasado gordo!!!” yelled back Neveah, pulling out a bright pink retractable dog leash from her bag. She was able to clip the carabiner of the leash onto Princess Daisy’s collar and quickly led the dog out and into the hallway.
“Who pissed in her Cheerios?” asked Boner.
“She’s very protective of her baby! Princess Daisy was a gift from her Abuela for graduating highschool and being the first in her family to get into college.” said Cæla trying to scold Bone and them, but failing.
Neveah came back after a few moments. “I put her in the bathroom for now. I’ll check on her after a bit. If she’s still upset I might just take her and go to bed. Sorry girls… and culos.”
“Don’t worry about it sweetie!” said Lily standing up from the massive bed. “You weren’t the first tonight that calls it quits early.” She was talking about me? Traitor.
“Ok, it’s my turn now to tell a story!” Lily said, putting on her best carnival barker act. “This is a story I read while researching this place today! It’s a forgotten tale of greed, an attempted kidnapping, and possibly murder!?" She has always been very theatrical.
She went on to describe a story of how a cirque in the 1900’s had come to town. And, when the owner heard of the Olmstead Wellers clan and their history of being strange and reclusive he decided to pay the island a little visit. No one knows what he discussed with whomever was living there at the time, but he left disappointed.
When he'd return to his camp and told his troupe he told them of something he wanted that was on the island and he'd pay handsomely for it. Several of his workers, performers, and even a few of his freaks from the sideshow volunteered.
That night the small army of carnies descended on the island to raid and rob the Wellers's mansion. They succeeded in reaching the house and breaching the door, but once they were inside nobody knew what happened next.
The next day only one of the members returned to the circus. A mentally challenged man that was deaf and dumb. Completely mute and illiterate so he wasn't able to describe what had happened. He did bring a letter that was addressed to the ringmaster. No one knows what it said, but later that day he returned to the island after telling his surviving troupe members to leave ahead of him to their next stop.
It was believed he was trying to negotiate for the return of his people, but that was merely hearsay. All that was for sure known was he was found a week later flouting in the swamp with a look of pure terror frozen on his face. As for the rest of his carnival, they never made it to their next stop. Their caravan was found wrecked the night after their leader left for the island. Even the animals were missing.
Again only the same lone survivor and an elderly member of the freak show were left. The only thing they both have in common is a lack of hearing and the other being morbidly obese to the point of needing to be pushed in a wheelchair. Neither of the two again could be questioned on what happened.
Some thought it was robbers or roadside bandits got them all, but what would they do with the lions, tigers, and bears oh my! Also, a few elephants, monkeys, performing dogs, horses, a camel, and a handful of deformed animals from the sideshow. Most think if it was highway robbery that they must have killed everyone and dumped their bodies into the swamps for the gators to dispose of. But a minority believed it was a member of the Olmstead Wellers clan that sought out revenge for the raid on their island.
“Ok, I've lived here my whole life and never heard of anything like this!” Pipes in Ermey, crossing her arms and looking directly at Lily.
“Oh, it's real! It really happened!” She held up a piece of photocopier paper. “I found it deep in the town's archives today! I think it's all BS myself but when none of y'all said anything about it I thought I'd give my creative writing lessons a shot!”
Tysan took the page from Lily and read over it real quick before passing it over to Ermey to read herself. “It's just an old Newspaper article about a traveling carnival that came to town and was robbed shortly after leaving! With one quick mention of them meeting with one of the owners of the island. And the body of the owner was found in the swamp leading the police to think that's where the robbers dumped all the bodies.”
“Yes, but that's where I used my imagination to fill in all the blanks. It just came to me while I was reading through my findings on the way here!” She said with a cute little innocent smile. Makes me wonder.
Neveah and Cæla broke up the brewing argument by suggesting a new old way to spend the night, Truth-or-Dare. Hünter decided to make it even more interesting by adding in a 3rd option of shotgun a beer. He'd brought a 36 pack case of beer with him upstairs.
Everyone accepted his challenge and the game began. I sat and watched them as they partied into the night. Slowly as they got drunk(er) they began to depart. I noticed that Neveah had gotten so drunk from refusing to disclose anything or so anything humiliating that Cæla and Ermey had to almost carry her back down to the 2nd floor where her assigned room was. They had forgotten about her dog which had yapped itself to sleep in the bathroom I’d entered through.
So, after the last of the group left the room leaving just Boner, my sister, and me alone I made my move to slink back out before they sealed the room’s door.
Back in the hallway I saw Brandon and Tysan going into their room. Both of them were too drunk and high they wouldn't be of any use till at least noon.
The bathroom door had been closed so I somehow with my invisible hand reached down from the high ceiling down to the doorknob and opened it and army-crawled in before kicking the door back shut.
Inside the bathroom is when this dream really shook me. As once I was in there Princess Daisy awoke and started her fit again and in a panic I dropped down onto her. I don't recall much of what happened but I swear I could feel her small body pop under me like a water balloon but with the added snapping sounds like wet twigs.
The thought and horror of this snapped me awake again. I was back down in the living room again lying on a couch by myself. Well, Howie, Hünter, and Windy were all laid out on their couches now. They were all sleeping or trying to. Howie seemed out like a light, Windy was mumbling and twitching in his sleep, and Hünter was gasping, wheezing, and snoring almost comically. But, I seriously think he needs a sleep apnea machine. If not for his own good but for mine as I doubted I was going to be able to fall back asleep with his noises and my still throbbing headache. I checked my cellphone to see what time it was. It was 5:55 am. The sun would be rising in about an hour.
After about an hour of tossing and turning I managed to finally fall back asleep and this time no strange dreams. Just a good old fashioned nightmare of getting into a fight and not being able to fight back, losing all of my teeth, and being late for a class in highschool even though I am in my 30s.
I was awakened in panic by the girls around 1:11 in the afternoon. My head is still hurting but not as bad as the night before but still a constant annoyance in the back of my head and eyes. They were all freaking out and wanted me to help with something. Apparently while I slept a whole lot of things went to shit on us.
First of all Ermey said that Tysan and Brandon had got up early at like 7:30 to go meet Tysan’s dad at the pier, but he never showed up. So, to see if they could boost their CB signal they went and found the generators and got them going so we could have better electricity. And, they got a hold of the docks and they said Tysan's dad has left there bright and early and should have been here by now. Also, that there's an emergency weather alert in effect a freak storm is heading this way and should hit by tonight. So, she wants me to go help them search the shoreline for him.
Neveah was in tears and freaking out as she couldn't find Princess Daisy after leaving her tied up all night in the upstairs bathroom. All they found was her leash. And they're afraid she might have slipped it off and jumped out the busted out bathroom window or some sort of predator has got ahold of her. She wants me to help her look for her around the premises.
Cæla and Lily are worried about Howie, Windy, Bone, and Hünter as they got together and decided to explore around the island and took the scuba gear out to see if they could find the underwear caves that the island is supposed to have. I didn't even know Boner Boy even knew how to swim. They both want me to help them find and bring them back to help Tysan find his dad and Neveah find her dog.
“Ok! Ok! Okay, I will see what I can do, but first you said that they got the generators going? That means we should have hot running water? I'm going to get a quick hot shower because I feel grungy and I hope it'll help with my hangover! I'll then go see what I can do!” I said, shaking as I stood up. My legs and back were stiff and sore, and I was starting to itch all over.
They all whined, cried, and bitched me out and called me everything under the sun. So, nothing new. I walked across the house, up the stairs, and went to the 2nd floor bathroom. And to my shock and wonder it was exactly how it was in my dreams from last night. I ignored that and found myself a clean towel, some soap, shampoo and conditioner, and climbed into the tub.
I nearly scolded myself. The old hot water heater was one of those without a temperature regulator on it as it had gotten hot enough to melt skin off of bone. I should warn others about this.
While showing I noticed something odd. My old surgical scars were all inflamed and itchy, and I had a sore spot on my upper back that was directly in...