The House in Stone Tree Hollow
“There’s no need for that.”
It was the
first and last thing Mr. Puddlefell said, smacking the squirt-bottle out of Eleanor’s
hand.
“But what
if there are ghosts?” To Eleanor, this was a singularly reasonable question but
Mr. Puddlefell scoffed and turned towards the door. The car rumbled through the
high mountains of north Victrain, and
after many pit stops for Mr. Puddlefell to fill up his travel mug with N-er-G Zingerz,
the car screeched to a stop at the edge of the forest. Eleanor looked at her
brother and clutched her suitcase tighter to her chest. Sebastian, her brother,
had been sleeping, and awoke because the inertia, meaning an extremely short
stop that left the edge of his seatbelt digging into Sebastian’s neck, threw
him forward. Sebastian wiped a dribble of drool from his chin and tried using
the front of his shirt to clean more drool off of the stitchery in his
suitcase. As he rubbed it, one thread broke and their last name, Gaunt, lost
the cross on the t. They were now the Gaunl’s.
Mr.
Puddlefell spoke for the first time since he had snatched Eleanor’s solution of
Ghost-be-Gone and chucked it out of the third story hotel room and onto the
head of a startled and now dead pigeon.
“You will
have to walk from here. It is just up the road and through the field. You
cannot miss it.” The doors on either side of the children sprung open, and they
heard the thump of Eleanor’s bag hit the ground after being ejected from the
trunk. Eleanor hopped out of the car and rushed towards her bag and where
Pawper, her stuffed dog had fallen. She cradled Pawper’s one button eye, picked
up her bag and ran back towards the car. Sebastian stood just outside it,
listening at the driver’s window.
Eleanor arrived just in time to hear Mr. Puddlefell give a curt,
“Good
day.” Before he hit the gas and zoomed back through the trees in reverse.
Eleanor turned to Sebastian.
“What did
Mr. Puddlefell say?” Eleanor said.
“’You
cannot get rid of ghosts. Kindly learn to cope, and don’t call me.’ He is quite
the lamprey, isn’t he?”
By this, Sebastian, of course,
meant that Mr. Puddlefell was a self absorbed, man out for himself, not an
actual lamprey, which is a jawless vampire fish with a spiraling sucker mouth
filled with hundreds of teeth.
“He’s only
here to place us with Granny Gertrude.”
“We aren’t
at Granny Gertrude’s yet are we?” Sebastian said, hoisting his suitcase over
his shoulder and trudging out through the trees.
Where the trees broke an ocean
of prickly patchy grass extended for miles in every direction. A ring of dark
coniferous trees, as in trees that look like Christmas trees without the
garlands, bulbs or lights but just as sticky with sap and pine needles, circled
the plain, rising higher and higher with the surrounding mountains. In the very
center, almost too far away to see, was an off-white speck. It was so small
that with his full arm extended, the speck was not even the size of Sebastian’s
pinky nail.
“That must
be it.” Eleanor said. “We had better start moving – they sun is starting to
set.”
The
children walked for two hours. As they approached the white speck grew bigger,
then grew a circular tower, then a large oval window in the center, then some
spiraling railings on every level of the building until the house was right in
front of them and enormous. Nearby a gravestone crumbled under the branches of
a leafy oak tree – the only tree for miles inside the circle of the plain.
“I miss
mom.” Sebastian said, his wide eyes darting from dark window to dank door way
and back. Eleanor started marching
towards the front porch, where a lonely swing whistled with each creak of the
wind. Sebastian fell in step behind her. As they walked, exposed in the open
field, Sebastian felt as if something or someone was tapping him on the
shoulder – but when he looked—there was nothing behind him except a small red
maple leaf on the ground.
The porch
complained when they stepped on it, creaking and cracking under their weight.
Eleanor stepped on a rotted board, which crumbled, beneath her foot.
“Granny
Gertrude must have very thin bones to walk around out here without falling
through the wood.” Eleanor said, pulling her sock back through the hole. She
took the great knocker in her hand and clanged it against the door four times.
Out of the corner of his eye Sebastian saw something shimmer by the porch
swing. The door wafted open, even though the air was stale and unmoving in the
valley. Eleanor stepped inside. It smelled of water pipes and tea.
“Is it any safer in there?”
Sebastian asked. He had felt the tap on his shoulder again.
“Um. Well. Yes, the floor seems to
be secure.”
“But?” said Sebastian.
“But…” said Eleanor.
“What?” said Sebastian.
“Just come in and take a look.”
Said Eleanor.
Sebastian peered into the dark
sphere of the entrance hall. Two staircases circled upward, meeting in the
middle. Doors jutted out at random parts of the staircase, sometimes taking up
a few steps with their hearth. Oil paintings and photography and uncomfortable
modern art adorned the walls. Eyes, so many eyes, peered out from each frame.
Too many eyes in fact, as the chandelier, a dark and dismal thing, seemed made
up of many eyelet beads. It took Sebastian a full minute to notice where is
sister stood, backed away from the nearest staircase and staring at the see
through girl standing on them.
Their shoes scuffed the wood
beneath their feet as they stumbled back, frosting the floor with desert dust.
The girl waved and she smiled so big that her teeth tumbled out of her mouth
and onto the floor. She waved off the teeth and smiled smaller. They reappeared
in her mouth.
“Eleanor?” asked Sebastian with a
trembling voice. “I think this girl may need a dentist.”
But Eleanor was not watching as the
girl tossed her intestines around her neck like a stylish scarf.
“Dear Brother,” Eleanor said,
watching three paws, watching six claws, extend from behind the front hall
doorframe. “There are red eyes watching us. What do you think they may want?”
It was only when Sebastian turned
to look at the instant coffee pot, and saw the great red eyes watching him back
from the sludgy dregs that he finally lost his cool.
“Eleanor, remember how I said I
needed the restroom?”
“I do, Sebastian,” Eleanor said, as
two dark circles floated towards her.
“If we do not run, this instant, I
will not need the restroom any longer.”
“Shall we?” asked Eleanor.
“We shall.” Said Sebastian.
As the walls loomed higher and the
shadows crept closer, the twins turned in opposite directions shouting, “RUN!”
Eleanor slid beneath a banister and
Sebastian busted up the stairs. From the halls and closets claws burst forth,
sometimes attached to a hand with three fingers, or eleven or sometimes not
even hands at all but hooves. Under a sign, which had not been dusted in a
while, ran Sebastian. To his dismay he found no maze of corridors to lead him
away from the ghouls he had seen, only a long and uneven stairwell – it twisted
and turned and felt longer than possible. Finally, after dodging mice and more
eyes, he saw the warm hearth of the tower room fire. When he reached the inside
he slammed the door shut behind him. He knew little of where he was and less of
where his sister could be. But, there was a handsome footstool huddled in front
of the fire and Sebastian went to sit on it and catch his breath. Little did he
see of the finger shadows three. The flames against the wall revealed what
Sebastian’s vision could not yield: there crouched a man (or so called man, for
what else could we call him) with willow lean fingers and nails like sharp
moldy cheese stroking the child’s head fondly.
Eleanor was still downstairs,
though trapped farther than she’d thought. Because she had taken off her shoes,
as all well-behaved children must, when she dove out of sight to the strange
girl’s delight, her slippery socks moved quickly. She slid like a baseball
player straight into the kitchen. The stovetop sputtered and growled and glowed
red. Flames licked the edges of the burner but Eleanor slid right past. On the
wall she spied a little dark box and just before she crawled inside she grabbed
a tub of salt that had sat upon the counter. She had little time to spare for
she had become well aware that a thumping and thudding was following her.
Something greater than a ghost girl approached.
“The dumbwaiter!” She cried.
Eleanor climbed inside and felt the
little box sway on its rope. What Eleanor had not noticed when she had first
climbed in was the two dark circles and the tiny cute grin hovering right over
her shoulder – but as she slipped the lid down to hide herself she heard a
crash strike the cover of the dumbwaiter. Eleanor waited a minute, clutching
her tub of salt as the door shook, banged, rattled and clattered.
Then a full minute of complete
silence.
A small beam of light sprayed from
a hole in the box, and, curious, Eleanor, and the unseen guest on her shoulder,
peered through the tiny pinprick.
The iris was huge and the pupil
engulfing on the bloodshot eyeball just on the other side of the hole. The purple ring was tinged with scarlet and a
hefty, angry eyebrow glared at Eleanor. Pulling the tab on the salt, Eleanor
dabbed just a pinch on her hand. She held her hand to her lips and lightly blew
– and the sand flew – and smacked the great big eye straight in the pupil. As
the crashing noises cascaded outside, Eleanor said, “I need a better place to
hide.”
Out of the corner of her sight she
saw a little ghost nodding and chirping in awe. Eleanor looked to the hatch,
still rocking and shaking, and looked back to the ghost with her tight little
smile. Eleanor gulped and ignored it and tugged on the rope. The dumbwaiter
rose like an elevator into the ceiling.
Back in the attic Sebastian’s brain
was becoming fuzzy so he wandered the halls with a confused lope. As he walked,
with two shadows behind, he was surprised that no ghosts did he find though the
buzzing of “Screekshadow” filled his brain. He did not see the blue boy hiding
in the tub, nor the ghoul and her wife nervously peaking from under the bed or
even the kitchen cook cowering in the closet
(he was very much dead from a flying knife when his pot-roast blew up in
the stove). But he heard them all whistle “Screekshadow” under their breath. It
was only then, when he looked in the mirror, that he saw, with dread, what had
made the dead fear him. It wasn’t that Sebastian was so brave now or tall, but
really the shadow next to his own at the end of the hall. From where the light
played on that wall on this night, the figure could be seen with his teeth
bared and touching the nape of Sebastian’s neck. It was with this trickle of
fear that Sebastian felt a prick and a breath on his ear. And so Sebastian fled
down a distant hall not knowing if he could escape this shadow at all.
Down the stairs he flew and on each
different landing he saw yetis and goblins and monsters all standing – they
stared at him and dove for windows as the shadow behind him followed close on
his toes. Even when he fell in the underground lake a tentacle plucked him out
safe and placed him haphazardly back on the shelf before diving down deep to
barricade itself from the Screekshadow.
On the second floor the little
ghosties ran, but from a different tyrant. With the smiling ghosty wagging its
tail behind her, Eleanor was scaring off spooks left and right. In the second
floor kitchen she’d found a spoon, a block, and a rubber band and with some finagling
created a salt shooter. She was done getting scared and thought, “Better
prepare” so she created a slick weapons belt. In one hand the shooter, in the
other her pup Pawper, and on her hip loop a dust devil. This time when she
looked down the hall at the great furry claws and the tongues and the teeth she
was ready to meet them.
“Sebastian look out, Grannie we’re
here—here’s to hoping this wont take all year.” Eleanor sang, weapons locked
and loaded. She charged and the monster’s screamed in fear.
Even in the basement Sebastian
could hear the screams of the spooks. And, not knowing where to go or how to
hide from the Screekshadow, he walked swiftly away from the screaming sounds
where his sister was mowing monsters down- right into the shadowy claws of the
beast. Sebastian had no way of knowing where he was going because he had not
known where he’d been. There were stairs that he took, and a hall to a nook and
somehow back to the room in the tower. The Screekshadow’s room. Sebastian knew
it was there. It was not that he no longer cared; he just knew that he could
run no more. At least not till he knew which door was safe from the spindly
fingers of the monster. So he calmly sat on the ataman fat when suddenly he
heard shuffling coming from a closed closet door. The footsteps were muffled
and mild and kind and instantly he knew where to find dear grannie who’d been
lost all by herself.
What he did not see, which is as
clear to you as to me, was the claws beak and jaws of the Screekshadow phasing
off of the wall. Sebastian was very frightened of this lamprey. And this time
he did mean a bloodsucking fiend with thousands of teeth baring down upon him
that very instant.
It starting to crawl
to where Seb sat.
teeth bared.
Seb, unprepared.
He looked up.
The purple eye stared.
It smiled.
“Go back to hell!”
Eleanor bellowed from the doorway, snapping the band and letting her salt
contraption fly. Little it did and the Screekshadow smiled to her then turned
back to its meal. As he got closer and closer Sebastian smelled breath get
grosser and grosser. But Eleanor snapped – she couldn’t lose Seb, and she
hurled her toy Pawper at the Screekshadow instead. Bright eyes in shock, the
Screekshadow went flying away – well his head, anyway, and its body melted into
the floor. A puddle of goo, and an angry head that had flew made a mess on the timber
wood floor.
All around
the room the monsters appeared, with their talons and organs dragging across
the floor, with their too many eyes or not enough teeth they approached Eleanor
and her brother till the two children were surrounded in the center of the
room. Poor Eleanor lifted her salt thrower with the last ounce of salt and grasped
Sebastian’s hand. They stood together, prepared to die, and all those red eyes
closed in on them. Eleanor passed Sebastian the dust devil. She squeezed his
hand, he squeezed it back. One of them said I love you and the other said it
back. They scrunched their eyes shut together.
Then
suddenly the ghouls began to make noises – some of them loud or sounding like
farts, or that tinkled like bells or rang like gongs. Some made noises only
describable with things: one sounded like a flip flop on the first warm day of
spring – another like a perfectly toasted bagel. One even sounded like seeing
your best friend on accident halfway around the world.
“They’re
cheering…” Sebastian said, stunned. One by one the ghouls came to give Eleanor
a hug – they shook her hand and patted her back and then turned to Sebastian to
meet him too – till a door opened and an older voice declared, “Move it! I’m
coming through!”
And so
granny appeared, the Screekshadows head under her arm. She looked proud and
dazzled, unfazed and unharmed. “Thank you children,” She said, “For saving me.
Now put down those weapons – these ghosts are family.”
“But
Grannie, look at them!” Eleanor cried. “We should fight them off – they’ve got
claws and sharp teeth. Their red eyes are menacing, their fur thick and course,
and many are dead – DEAD Grannie—they must be out for our brains.”
“But
Grannie, we should run!” Sebastian cried. “Get out while we can and while we’re
alive. It’s not safe in here – there are monsters and beasts. We should go now
– outside – where it’s safer to hide.”
“Are there
not bears in the woods?” Grannie said. “They could hurt you just as well. Now
come here and listen good.” She turned to Eleanor and stared at her hard.
“Protecting yourself is healthy and fair, but you look like a fool, throwing
salt at things that have done you no harm. The Screekshadow deserves the
bodiless life that he gets” The Screekshadow rolled its eyes. “But believe me
you’ll know when it’s the right time to fight. That was right now, but not all
tonight.”
“And you,”
Grannie turned on the boy. “Running around with no place to go. Running won’t
save you, it just lets your ignorance show. Like with the fighting you’ll know
when to run, but ignoring problems will only double them later.”
Both
Sebastian and Eleanor looked sheepish and nodded. Eleanor apologized to the
crowd and Sebastian followed. A little girl came from their midst – It was the
girl from the stairs who’d lost all of her teeth. She hugged them both and gave
Sebastian a kiss on the cheek. The children felt less scared, less doomed, more
aware. A squid in the crowd shouted, “Guys, the feast is prepared!”
As everyone began filing out through
vents and through stairs, the children turned to Grannie.
“Grannie,
how did you know that these ghosts wouldn’t turn us to hamburgers, eat our guts
or put our brains in a stew?”
“Well,”
Grannie said, “I’ve been a live longer than you.” The children smiled and
turned to leave. “Well that,” Grannie said, “And…“
“I’m a Ghosty,
too.”
The children did not weep or run or
blast their grandma with salt. They took her in, accepted it, and walked calmly
down the stairs to the dining room where they ate the best five course meal
they had ever had.
The End
©2014 Lex Vex
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