Read The Haunting of Pitmon House Online
Authors: Michael Richan
The Haunting of Pitmon House
The Haunting of Pitmon House
By Michael Richan
By the author:
The River
series:
A Christmas Haunting at Point No Point
The Downwinders
series
:
The Dark River series:
All three series are part of
The
River Universe,
and there is crossover of some characters and plots. For a
suggested reading order, see the
Author’s Website
.
Copyright 2016 by Michael Richan
All Rights Reserved.
All
characters appearing in this work are fictitious.
Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A print
version of this book is available at most online retailers.
ASIN:
B01G91QD7W
Published by Dantull (
149816178A)
◊
March, 1998
Eliza let her elbows fall to the stand, and she lowered her
face into her hands, resting. Her long, straight hair fell forward over her
face. It was a slow day, and no one had appeared to buy tickets or tokens for
the last ten minutes.
Off season,
she thought.
It’s always slow during the spring.
Through the large windows of the complex she could see dark
clouds roiling over the Wisconsin countryside. Another March storm was coming.
A group of teenagers appeared from around the building
entrance walls, walking toward her. Instantly she was pissed.
“Shane!” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“My friends wanted to come,” he replied, smiling at her,
knowing he was in trouble.
“It’s a school day,” Eliza said. “Shouldn’t you all be there?”
A girl spoke up. “It’s a field trip!” This caused the other
three girls in the group to giggle.
“Field trip my ass!” Eliza said. “Shane?”
“Seriously, be cool,” Shane replied. “I told them you could
get us a discount.”
Now she was fuming. Her younger brother was only fourteen; he
had no business skipping school. Ever since their father died a couple of years
ago, Eliza had taken it upon herself to try and keep the kid on the straight
and narrow, but the older he got, the harder the task had become.
“Seriously,” said another boy in the group who was wearing a
Korn t-shirt. “It was a half-day today. Parent-teacher conferences. We’re not
skipping.”
Eliza eyed the boy, trying to judge if he was being honest.
“I wouldn’t have brought them all here to play hooky,” Shane
said. “Why would I do that, knowing you’d be here? They wanted to see it, and I
told them you could probably get us in for free.”
“Not for free,” Eliza replied, softening. “No one gets in for
free. I can give you student discounts though.”
Each of the kids approached the counter, handing Eliza cash.
She distributed tickets and dispensed four tokens to each of them.
“Oh, what the hell,” she said, passing them a handful of
tokens. “You’re with my little brother, have some extra!” The teenagers of the
group smiled as they divided up the additional tokens.
“Thanks, sis,” Shane said.
“Listen,” Eliza said. “No messing around in there, OK? If
security kicks you out, there’s nothing I can do to get you back in. The
security guys won’t care that you’re my brother. It’ll just cause problems for
me.”
“No, we won’t,” one of the girls replied, causing another
round of snickering.
“OK then,” Eliza said. “Enjoy. Oh, and make sure you hit
section three by four o’clock. We close up at five this time of the year, and
you won’t have time to see section three if you don’t leave yourself an hour.”
“Thanks,” Shane said again. “Hit three by four, got it!”
More snickering.
The group moved down the hall and into the first section of The
House on the Rock. The chatting and giggling slowly diminished as the distance
grew, and Eliza found herself alone once again at the podium.
He might be lying about school,
she thought.
I’ll have to check
on that.
It had been hard since their father died. Shane was only
twelve at the time, and although Eliza had already graduated from college and
was living in Madison, she decided to move back to their small country home
outside of Spring Green and make sure Shane survived high school. Her other
sister, Janie, was attending college in Boston on a scholarship, and although
they had talked about her moving back as well, Eliza had been insistent that
Janie not squander her opportunity; Eliza would come home and finish raising
Shane. Once Shane was ready to leave, they’d consider what to do with the
house.
But that didn’t mean it was exciting. Not exciting like
Madison, where most of her college friends still lived. Spring Green was quiet,
and nothing much happened except the tourism; Taliesin was nearby, drawing
thousands of people every year. And then there was her employer, the place
where she’d worked as a teenager all through high school — The House on the
Rock. Whereas Taliesin was the headquarters of famous architect Frank Lloyd
Wright, The House on the Rock was another matter altogether. They were just ten
miles from each other, but at opposite ends of the spectrum. Taliesin was highbrow,
whereas House on the Rock was an indescribable collection that was so bizarre
and extensive it was almost impossible to explain.
She had taken up her old job at The House on the Rock when
she returned from Madison. Fred, Connie, and the others were still there
running the place, and they begged her to return. She knew they liked that she
was punctual and dedicated, qualities that made managing things easier for
them.
She rotated every other week between the front concession
desk and the gift shop, dealing with tourists, answering questions, making
change. It didn’t pay a lot, but they owned their house free and clear thanks
to her father’s life insurance policy, and Eliza’s only debt was a student
loan. It was enough to get by.
But it wasn’t very fulfilling.
More tourists appeared from around the corner, and soon she
was engaged with explaining the house and the exhibits, giving her prepared,
canned answers in a vain attempt to convey what they were about to see, and why
tickets could be purchased for one, two, or all three sections.
The day rambled on, and she wondered how Shane and his
friends were doing inside the tour.
If he damages anything, I’ll kill him!
she thought, knowing her brother was often susceptible to accidents. It was a
few minutes later when she heard the crackle of the radio, coming from the
office behind her.
“Code 99! Mikado Room! Code 99!”
The voice was unusually high, and for a moment she wasn’t
sure if it was Randy or not.
If that’s him,
she thought,
he’s amped
up!
She left the podium and walked back into the office, picking
up the radio. “What’s going on, Randy?” she asked.
“Code 99! Right now! Call 911! I’ve got kids fighting.
They’re holding down the perpetrator, but he’s freaking out. Get the cops
here!”
Kids fighting?
she thought.
It better not be Shane!
She replaced the radio and made the call to 911. Once police
were on their way, she placed a placard on her podium and walked to Alice, who
was seated behind the upstairs gift shop on the other side of the lobby. “I
need to go down to building four,” she said. “You’ve got ticket sales until I
get back?”
“Sure thing,” Alice replied, her jowly face rocking back and
forth as she spoke, and her tone belying her lack of enthusiasm for the
assignment.
While guests followed an established path through the house
and the large buildings that accommodated the exhibits, Eliza could take the
employee shortcuts, and although she didn’t have much occasion to visit the
outlying buildings that comprised the second and third sections of the tour,
she did know how to get to them quickly. She used her employee key to unlock a
security door and was inside the dimly-lit building within minutes.
She let her eyes adjust to the darkness. She had entered at
the “Music of Yesterday” section, where room after room offered gigantic
machines designed to present short musical numbers by automation. As she gained
her bearings, she could see the exhibits ahead, and knew she’d need to maneuver
through three or four dark exhibit spaces before she reached The Mikado Room.
She walked quickly, not wanting to appear panicked. There was no one there to
observe her if she decided to run; the rooms were empty, except for the
mannequins and automatons behind the glass displays, waiting to come to life
when someone dropped a token into their respective machines.
She could hear the creepy, galloping music from The Mikado Room
well before she reached it. The sound of the slightly out-of-tune organ and the
pounding of the drums were unmistakable. Someone had dropped a token just
recently; it would only play for a couple of minutes.
She rounded the corner and saw Shane on the floor. Each of
his limbs were being held down by one of his friends. Randy was standing over
them.
“Don’t let him up!” Randy yelled, ensuring he could be heard
over the cacophony of the animation behind him. “Don’t get off him until the
cops get here!”
“What’s going on?” Eliza said, running up to Randy, looking
down at Shane. Her brother was twisting, trying to break free.
“He attacked that one, over there!” Randy said, pointing
across the room. As the loud organ screeched on, Eliza turned to see one of
Shane’s friends standing beside The Mikado display. Behind him Asian automatons
beat on drums while hammers hit the tiles of a large xylophone, the room
temporarily bathed in red light as the wall-sized music machine pounded out its
pre-programmed performance. There was blood running down the boy’s shirt, and
another girl was next to him, comforting him.
She turned back to Shane, pissed.
Some stupid little
fight!
she thought. “What, you couldn’t take it outside?” she yelled down
at him.
Shane snarled, twisting back and forth. He wasn’t just angry,
he was furious — altered by rage to a state where he seemed completely out of
control. She looked at him, slowly becoming aware that something was wrong.
This wasn’t just a fight. She’d seen her brother angry before; this was
different. He was snapping his teeth like a rabid dog, and spittle had formed
around his mouth.
“What’s wrong with him?” she muttered to Randy.
“That your brother?” Randy asked.
“Yes.”
“We’ll, he’s gone crazy!” Randy replied, raising his voice
above the din of the musical performance. “He won’t calm down! We’ve got to
keep him pinned. Are the cops coming?”
“Yeah, I called them,” she replied, now worried what would
happen to Shane. “I’ve never seen him like this.”
“Kids,” Randy replied. “Drugs.”
“He’s never done drugs,” Eliza said.
“That you know of,” Randy replied.
Eliza gave Randy a defensive, angry look.
“Hormones then,” Randy replied, not wanting to get into a
disagreement with his co-worker. “Who knows.”
She knelt down next to her brother. A girl from his group of
friends was holding down his right arm by sitting on it. The girl smiled weakly
at her as she approached. Eliza could see fear in her eyes.
“What happened?” she asked the girl, then turned to look down
at Shane’s face.
“He just freaked out,” the girl replied. “Started swinging at
John. Knocked him down and just kept hitting him!”
“The two of them were fighting about something?” Eliza asked.
“Must be,” the girl answered.
“Do you know over what?” Eliza asked, watching as Shane
twisted his head back and forth, trying to resist.
“No idea,” she replied. “It was like, one minute everything
was fine, the next, he’s jumping him!”
“Shane!” Eliza said, trying to get her brother’s attention.
“Calm down! Stop! You’re just making it worse!”
Shane continued to twist and turn, trying to dislodge his
holders. He didn’t seem to hear or register what she was saying.
Behind her, she could hear Randy turning to deal with the
arriving authorities. Within seconds she found herself being asked to step
aside, and two uniformed police officers descended on Shane, wrestling a pair
of handcuffs onto him. Shane continued to resist, fighting the cops, raising
his feet to kick at them.
Eliza stepped back, horrified. Shane was no angel, but she’d
never seen him react like this. It was as though he was a completely different
person, possessed. The cops were ordering others to step aside as they began to
haul Shane from the room, turning to Randy for directions. Shane began
spitting, which brought quick rebukes from the officers, who held his head down
as they exited.
The automated music screeched to a halt as Eliza found herself
standing in The Mikado Room with the other kids, wondering what had just
happened.
