Wow! There are so many reviews! Thank you so much guys! I read every single one of them and they made my day! Glad to hear you like the story so far! I will definitely continue it! Leave me feedback for this chapter and tell me what you think! Love you all! I am currently working on the next chapter so stay tuned! I think I'll post it this weekend, sorry for the wait. :\ I just have tons of reports for school that I'm putting off by writing this chapter, so I have to do those first…anyway sorry this intro is so long again, but I promise I'll work on the next chapter soon and have it out by the weekend sometime or maybe before! Also, next chapter they get a visitor…DUN DUN DUN! I'll try to make it a fantastic chapter! Enjoy!

The tide was out. I couldn't have been more relieved. Being stuck in the house was not a good feeling. I felt trapped. I was going into town to find an office so that I could start working. I hoped that not everyone would come off as hostile, like the Inn keeper had.

Eliza said she would bring Sarah and come into town with me. She said she needed to get groceries but I'm pretty positive that she was too scared to stay alone in the house until the tide was once again out.

We left the house, following the long path towards the marsh where my buggy was. We passed a graveyard which I had failed to notice before because it was hidden by the trees. It gave the already creepy house an even more eerie feel. How had the bank failed to mention that before selling us this house? I was starting to understand my wife's distress.

I pulled away from the house, driving quickly through the mud. As we drove away I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched. It was a disturbing feeling. We passed the wooden cross that somehow managed to stay sturdy in the wet marsh.

Arriving back into town we were greeted by the same amount of hospitality as we had when we first showed up, just as I had feared. While we drove through the village I observed that there were no other clinics. That meant that there were no doctors. I dropped off Eliza and Sarah at the small building with a sign reading:

GROCER AND TELEGRAPH

Then I went to the constable's office to see if there were any empty buildings in town for sale that I could start an office at. The constable was a grumpy looking man with gray hair. Upon my entering he looked up from some papers and frowned in my direction.

"Excuse me, constable, I'm sorry to trouble you but I'm looking for a commercial building I could rent out for a while? I'm a doctor you see, and I was hoping to set up an office in town."

The constable eyed me closely then pulled out a brown folder which he quickly shuffled through.

"No, I'm sorry sir. There are no buildings available at this time."

"No buildings available? There must be at least one."

"No. Not one. I think you're better off leaving town and finding a better place to set up an office."

"Leaving town? I just moved here with my wife and daughter. I live just over the hill at Eel Marsh House. Please constable, I need a place to work."

"I'm sorry sir; there are no buildings available at this time."

I walked out, deeply upset. There had to have been a building available. Half of the places in the village had looked empty and deserted. He was hiding something. He didn't want me to work, he even suggested that I leave town! What was going on?

I thought about my office problem on the way to pick up Eliza and Sarah and came to a solution. I figured that if I cleaned up the study at our house that I could pass it off as an office. It was a little out of the way for the village residents, but it would have to make do. There was no other place for me to work from and the people of the village didn't have a doctor. After I picked up my family I stopped at the general store and grabbed a few things. I made a couple signs and hung them around the town, hoping people would notice them. It was rather silly that I was advertising my own doctor's office. I later realized how ridiculous the idea of an at-home clinic was.

Luckily, the tide had just gone out when I finished with my business in town and drove home. As we neared our house I saw the wooden cross again and an idea struck me.

When I pulled up at the bottom of the hill leading to our house Eliza grabbed Sarah and I took the bags from the back. Before I took them inside I grabbed my last sign and walked out onto the path through the marsh. For being under the water for part of the day it was actually quite solid. The mud around the path didn't look the same though. It was dreadfully foggy and I could hardly see anything more than a few feet away. I made my way to the wooden cross and pulled the sign out from under my arm. Juggling the bags, I tacked the sign to the old wooden post.

I took a few steps back and looked at the sign. It read:

James Berkley, MD

I was finally open for business. I didn't feel very professional but I got the job done.

I maneuvered my way through the fog back to where my car stood. I carried the bags up the hill pausing to peek at the graveyard. It was just a small clearing with uneven gravestones covered in moss, but a single gravestone caught my eye. It was taller than the rest because it had an angel statue on the top. It was old and slightly worn away. All that I could make out was:

Here lies Jennet…may she…with…only son…

The wind whistled around me. I admit then that even though I was not exactly scared, at that point the idea of having dead people buried on my property, so close to my house freaked me out a bit.

"He is mine."

The whisper hit me like a slap in the face. I dropped the bags I was carrying and they hit the ground with a thud. I turned around, looking for whoever had spoken to me. After searching my surroundings and finding no one I convinced myself that it was just the wind. I was not entirely convinced though. I felt Goosebumps on the back of my neck.

"James? What's taking so long? Are you alright out there?" I heard Eliza call from the front door.

I picked up the bags, trying to process what I had just heard.

"Yes, of course," I responded trying to keep my voice calm so that I would not alarm her.

I turned to walk away but I saw something. Upon lifting my foot from the soil above Jennet's grave I realized that my shoe had left an imprint. These graves looked rather old, which meant that whoever was buried here had been under the ground for a long time. Yet, this soil was fresh.

That was when I realized that there was something wrong with the house, something terribly wrong. I quickly walked away, almost tripping on an outstretched tree branch in my path. I did not, however, walk away fast enough to miss the shadow that moved behind a tree merely a few feet away from where I had just been standing. I had the horrible feeling that I was being watched.