When You Hear the Knell of a Requiem Bell by Flashbeagle
Chapter Three
Disclaimer: See Ch. 1
As I follow Mr. Gracey through the Manor, I can't help but looking everywhere. This is a really big place, and a really elaborate one.
"So, um," I start. "How old is this place?"
"Built in the 1810s," he responded quickly. "By Ambrose Gracey, a sea captain."
"An ancestor of yours?" I asked.
Mr. Gracey raised an eyebrow at me, just like Ramsley did. (RAMSLEY! Yay! I remembered it!) "Yes."
"Has your family always owned the house?" And the award for Stupidest Question Ever goes to...me!
I got another strange look. He nodded.
"Um, why does the house have 999 ghosts? I mean, that's kind of an ambitious number, isn't it?"
"Miss Fox, has anyone ever told you that you ask a lot of questions?" Mr. Gracey questioned me.
"Um, yeah. I'm a journalist. I get paid for it."
"Why did you decide to become a journalist?" he asked me.
"Um, I like to write, and um, I like to travel. And I like to talk and ask questions. Was kind of the perfect choice. I mean, can you picture me as a doctor?" Uh oh. Babbling again.
He turned completely around and stared at me, examining me up and down, slightly smiling.
"You're a very fascinating young woman, Miss Fox." Mr. Gracey said slowly.
"Um, thank you?" I offered.
When we arrived at the attic, Mr. Gracey showed me how to open the door.
"But be careful," he advised me. "The ghost of Emily Gracey haunts the attic."
I rolled my eyes. "Who's Emily Gracey?"
"You shall find out soon enough. Do you believe in ghosts, Miss Fox?"
"No." I responded.
Mr. Gracey gave me a very mysterious smile, and his eyes flashed. "I think you may be surprised."
And with that strange remark, he walked off. I shivered and walked into the attic. What is it about him that creeps me out so much?
Of course Mr. Gracey thinks I'll be surprised by a ghost. He has to believe his house is haunted; it's his claim to fame.
There's a stack of books on top of a giant trunk, so I figure that's where I'll start my research. I open up the backpack that my stuff is in, take out a notebook, a sparkly green pen, my flashlight, and get cracking.
Like Mr. Gracey said, the house was built in the 1810s by Ambrose Gracey. Well, Ambrose didn't build it himself, but yeah, you get the idea. He had the house built with many secret passageways that led to a graveyard out behind the house. (A graveyard? Who the hell would want, or need, a secret passageway to a graveyard? I know this is New Orleans, but still....ew!)
Anyway, on a trip to England, Ambrose met a pretty Frenchwoman named Juliet, whom he married and brought to the U.S. They started to have really great parties, and were "the toast of New Orleans society". (The book's words, not mine.)
Ambrose and Juliet had four kids, the oldest of whom was George Gracey. George married a rich woman named Mary de Valle, and they had three children, two of whom died in childhood. After the death of her children, Mrs. Gracey fell into despair and died.
Overcome with grief, George Gracey lavished his last son, and squandered a lot of money on the supernatural, and even moved a psychic named Madame Leota into the house, and she ended up falling in love with George.
George, who was desperate to get more money, proposed marriage to his sixteen year old distant cousin, Emily Westin, who was some sort of millionaire heiress. On their wedding night, Emily was exploring the attic. Jealous Leota followed her up there, and locked her in a trunk. Still in her wedding dress, the bride suffocated. (When I read that, I looked suspiciously at the trunk where the books had been resting.) George found out about it, and he threatened to kill Leota. She tried to cast a spell on him, but it backfired, and she was trapped in her crystal ball.
Well, that's quite a story. After I read that, I looked through the other books, but all I got was the same story, plus some really old pictures of George and Mary Gracey, and Emily Westin Gracey, who was a curly haired blonde (or redhead, not sure with these old black and white photos from the 1800s) with big eyes. I did some more poking around the attic, but all I found was some antiques, and this old locked journal that no matter how hard I tried, I could not get to open. Well, at least I didn't see the ghost of a bride locked in a trunk walking around...that made the experience slightly more pleasant. But then I felt lightheaded again, and I got wracked by a chill. I reached out my hands in front of me, and saw I was dressed very old fashioned.
My hands flew up to my mouth, and I could hear the pounding of a heart. Too surreal to have been my own, but...Another chill, and I snapped out of it.
Weird. I wonder what that was all about.
The attic was getting kind of stuffy, so I decided to go out and look for information elsewhere in the house. Grimey- uh, or was it Flaherty?- and Mr. Gracey weren't around, and I didn't want to go looking for them, so I took a turn to the left and just walked down.
I found myself in a seemingly endless hallway, and it took forever for me to walk across it. At the end of the hall was a dark foyer covered by a gauzy curtain and it was illuminated by a candelabra. I pushed my way past the curtain, and ....OH MY GOD.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
OH MY GOD!!!
My jaw hit the floor. Oh my God.
It's...me!
Oh my God!
I'm staring right at myself. A giant oil painting picture of a young woman, with a far off look on her face, in an old fashioned white dress, is hanging on the wall. But it's me! It's a painting of me!
Everything about the girl is me! The eyes, the pale skin, the lips, same body type, same dark hair, same ears, the same nose, well, my hair has highlights now, but still!
I'm suddenly cold. VERY cold. My pulse quickened. My heart is pounding. My breathing sounded funny. It was hard to breathe. There's a pounding in my ears. I can't breathe.
A clock chimed. I jumped and ran out of there as fast as I could.
As I'm about to open the door, I hear Mr. Gracey's voice, seemingly from nowhere.
"Miss Fox? Leaving so soon?"
"Um, yeah, I have to meet my colleague for lunch." I said really quickly
"What a shame." He said from right behind me.
I jumped again. How did he get there so fast? "Yeah, um, I'll be back tomorrow. Bye Mr. Gracey.". I'm trying to make a quick escape and Mr. Gracey wants to chit-chat. That's just great.
"Goodbye, Miss Fox. I'll see you soon." He smiled at me, but before I could slip through the doors, he grabbed my hand and held it for a moment before he kissed it.
"Call me Edward." He said.
Oh my God. As if he didn't creep me out enough...
"I gotta go!" I said, dashing to my car.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could still see him watching me.
I was so eager to get away from the Manor that I floored the car once I got into it. I wasn't worried about getting busted by the police...I doubted that anyone ever came out here anyway. Once I was far away enough from the Manor, I slowed down and picked up my cell phone and dialed a familiar number.
"Hel-lo?"
"Ben? You busy?"
"Kim? Shouldn't you be working?"
"I've had way too much of Gracey Manor for one day."
"No, um, I was just gonna go to lunch right now."
"Where?"
"Kim, are you alright?"
"Not really."
"Well, what's wrong?"
"Not exactly something that I can say over a cell phone."
"Ok, well, I'll be at Taco Bell at the mall."
"Taco Bell at the mall? How original." I said dryly.
"Yeah, well, I have a craving for an Enchurito."
"Ok, see you there." I said, hanging up quickly.
I was there at the mall before Ben, probably because I was still speeding, but when we got there he kept bugging me to tell him what I was so off the wall about, but I refused until we had our food and I had some caffeine in my system.
"Ok, Kim, what's wrong? You're acting way more spastic than normal."
I took a deep breath. "After I finished some research, I left the attic and was walking down this really long hallway. Then, I saw this foyer, covered by a curtain and next to this candelabra. So I walked over there, and I saw this portrait." I took a bite of my burrito.
"And?" Ben asked.
"It was me! It was this giant oil painting of me!" I said.
Ben rolled his eyes. "Ki-im."
"I'm serious, Ben! Everything about the girl in the picture was me! The hair, the eyes, the nose! She had my nose, Ben! The same too straight nose! And the same ears!"
Normally, Ben would've made a sarcastic remark about how I'm too touchy, but he didn't.
"Were you scared?" he asked me.
"Ben, I was terrified! I couldn't breathe, and my heart was pounding. I ran out of the place, but the owner stopped me."
"Why?"
"I don't know. All I was thinking is why the hell is he trying to make chit chat when it's obvious that I've been scared out of my wits, and then he kisses my hand and tells me to call him Edward. Oh, and before, he tells me that I'm a very fascinating person or something like that and..."
"Whoa, Kim, calm down!" Ben exclaimed.
I took a deep breath. "Scared the shit out of me."
"What's so scary about the fact that the guy's obviously hitting on you?"
"It's all about the way he looks at me. He just stares at me! It creeps me out."
"Kim, everything always creeps you out."
"I know, I know. But this is too weird."
"Is he old or something?"
"I think he's in his thirties."
"Married?"
"I don't think so. I really think the butler would've mentioned a Mrs. Gracey, but then again he could just be a two-timing bastard."
"Is he ugly or something?"
"No, he's actually pretty good looking, but scary. And he has these weird eyebrows..."
"Kim, I have never known you to ever be afraid of anyone you think is hot."
"I never said hot." I muttered. "You can't think someone is hot if they scare you."
"Why? Why does he scare you?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. His butler scares me too, for some reason."
"Maybe they're cursed pirates who turn into skeletons when moonlight hits them." Ben said wryly.
Ben had to leave soon after, to get back to his article on overpriced hotels, so I just kind of lingered around the mall. Not a good idea, see, I'm kind of a shopaholic, and when I go to the mall, I always over do it. Always.
And that's just what I did. My God, I'm pathetic. I spent fifty dollars at the Disney Store! And the only reason I even went in there was to look at the stuffed animals, but then I saw the DVD rack, and I suddenly remembered that I never bought The Lion King, and they had the CUTEST stuffed animals from Finding Nemo...Not to mention the $200 dollars worth of clothes I bought, plus a new pair of Nikes, and some new CDs, and a pretty bracelet for my mom, and a magnet for my dad, and something for my friend Tracy...
When I left the mall, I was as happy as a clam. I hopped into the rental car, blasted my new music on the stereo, and I was all singing along and happy when I remembered what had gone on at Gracey Manor. Suddenly, I really wasn't in the mood for any of that.
Chapter Three
Disclaimer: See Ch. 1
As I follow Mr. Gracey through the Manor, I can't help but looking everywhere. This is a really big place, and a really elaborate one.
"So, um," I start. "How old is this place?"
"Built in the 1810s," he responded quickly. "By Ambrose Gracey, a sea captain."
"An ancestor of yours?" I asked.
Mr. Gracey raised an eyebrow at me, just like Ramsley did. (RAMSLEY! Yay! I remembered it!) "Yes."
"Has your family always owned the house?" And the award for Stupidest Question Ever goes to...me!
I got another strange look. He nodded.
"Um, why does the house have 999 ghosts? I mean, that's kind of an ambitious number, isn't it?"
"Miss Fox, has anyone ever told you that you ask a lot of questions?" Mr. Gracey questioned me.
"Um, yeah. I'm a journalist. I get paid for it."
"Why did you decide to become a journalist?" he asked me.
"Um, I like to write, and um, I like to travel. And I like to talk and ask questions. Was kind of the perfect choice. I mean, can you picture me as a doctor?" Uh oh. Babbling again.
He turned completely around and stared at me, examining me up and down, slightly smiling.
"You're a very fascinating young woman, Miss Fox." Mr. Gracey said slowly.
"Um, thank you?" I offered.
When we arrived at the attic, Mr. Gracey showed me how to open the door.
"But be careful," he advised me. "The ghost of Emily Gracey haunts the attic."
I rolled my eyes. "Who's Emily Gracey?"
"You shall find out soon enough. Do you believe in ghosts, Miss Fox?"
"No." I responded.
Mr. Gracey gave me a very mysterious smile, and his eyes flashed. "I think you may be surprised."
And with that strange remark, he walked off. I shivered and walked into the attic. What is it about him that creeps me out so much?
Of course Mr. Gracey thinks I'll be surprised by a ghost. He has to believe his house is haunted; it's his claim to fame.
There's a stack of books on top of a giant trunk, so I figure that's where I'll start my research. I open up the backpack that my stuff is in, take out a notebook, a sparkly green pen, my flashlight, and get cracking.
Like Mr. Gracey said, the house was built in the 1810s by Ambrose Gracey. Well, Ambrose didn't build it himself, but yeah, you get the idea. He had the house built with many secret passageways that led to a graveyard out behind the house. (A graveyard? Who the hell would want, or need, a secret passageway to a graveyard? I know this is New Orleans, but still....ew!)
Anyway, on a trip to England, Ambrose met a pretty Frenchwoman named Juliet, whom he married and brought to the U.S. They started to have really great parties, and were "the toast of New Orleans society". (The book's words, not mine.)
Ambrose and Juliet had four kids, the oldest of whom was George Gracey. George married a rich woman named Mary de Valle, and they had three children, two of whom died in childhood. After the death of her children, Mrs. Gracey fell into despair and died.
Overcome with grief, George Gracey lavished his last son, and squandered a lot of money on the supernatural, and even moved a psychic named Madame Leota into the house, and she ended up falling in love with George.
George, who was desperate to get more money, proposed marriage to his sixteen year old distant cousin, Emily Westin, who was some sort of millionaire heiress. On their wedding night, Emily was exploring the attic. Jealous Leota followed her up there, and locked her in a trunk. Still in her wedding dress, the bride suffocated. (When I read that, I looked suspiciously at the trunk where the books had been resting.) George found out about it, and he threatened to kill Leota. She tried to cast a spell on him, but it backfired, and she was trapped in her crystal ball.
Well, that's quite a story. After I read that, I looked through the other books, but all I got was the same story, plus some really old pictures of George and Mary Gracey, and Emily Westin Gracey, who was a curly haired blonde (or redhead, not sure with these old black and white photos from the 1800s) with big eyes. I did some more poking around the attic, but all I found was some antiques, and this old locked journal that no matter how hard I tried, I could not get to open. Well, at least I didn't see the ghost of a bride locked in a trunk walking around...that made the experience slightly more pleasant. But then I felt lightheaded again, and I got wracked by a chill. I reached out my hands in front of me, and saw I was dressed very old fashioned.
My hands flew up to my mouth, and I could hear the pounding of a heart. Too surreal to have been my own, but...Another chill, and I snapped out of it.
Weird. I wonder what that was all about.
The attic was getting kind of stuffy, so I decided to go out and look for information elsewhere in the house. Grimey- uh, or was it Flaherty?- and Mr. Gracey weren't around, and I didn't want to go looking for them, so I took a turn to the left and just walked down.
I found myself in a seemingly endless hallway, and it took forever for me to walk across it. At the end of the hall was a dark foyer covered by a gauzy curtain and it was illuminated by a candelabra. I pushed my way past the curtain, and ....OH MY GOD.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
OH MY GOD!!!
My jaw hit the floor. Oh my God.
It's...me!
Oh my God!
I'm staring right at myself. A giant oil painting picture of a young woman, with a far off look on her face, in an old fashioned white dress, is hanging on the wall. But it's me! It's a painting of me!
Everything about the girl is me! The eyes, the pale skin, the lips, same body type, same dark hair, same ears, the same nose, well, my hair has highlights now, but still!
I'm suddenly cold. VERY cold. My pulse quickened. My heart is pounding. My breathing sounded funny. It was hard to breathe. There's a pounding in my ears. I can't breathe.
A clock chimed. I jumped and ran out of there as fast as I could.
As I'm about to open the door, I hear Mr. Gracey's voice, seemingly from nowhere.
"Miss Fox? Leaving so soon?"
"Um, yeah, I have to meet my colleague for lunch." I said really quickly
"What a shame." He said from right behind me.
I jumped again. How did he get there so fast? "Yeah, um, I'll be back tomorrow. Bye Mr. Gracey.". I'm trying to make a quick escape and Mr. Gracey wants to chit-chat. That's just great.
"Goodbye, Miss Fox. I'll see you soon." He smiled at me, but before I could slip through the doors, he grabbed my hand and held it for a moment before he kissed it.
"Call me Edward." He said.
Oh my God. As if he didn't creep me out enough...
"I gotta go!" I said, dashing to my car.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could still see him watching me.
I was so eager to get away from the Manor that I floored the car once I got into it. I wasn't worried about getting busted by the police...I doubted that anyone ever came out here anyway. Once I was far away enough from the Manor, I slowed down and picked up my cell phone and dialed a familiar number.
"Hel-lo?"
"Ben? You busy?"
"Kim? Shouldn't you be working?"
"I've had way too much of Gracey Manor for one day."
"No, um, I was just gonna go to lunch right now."
"Where?"
"Kim, are you alright?"
"Not really."
"Well, what's wrong?"
"Not exactly something that I can say over a cell phone."
"Ok, well, I'll be at Taco Bell at the mall."
"Taco Bell at the mall? How original." I said dryly.
"Yeah, well, I have a craving for an Enchurito."
"Ok, see you there." I said, hanging up quickly.
I was there at the mall before Ben, probably because I was still speeding, but when we got there he kept bugging me to tell him what I was so off the wall about, but I refused until we had our food and I had some caffeine in my system.
"Ok, Kim, what's wrong? You're acting way more spastic than normal."
I took a deep breath. "After I finished some research, I left the attic and was walking down this really long hallway. Then, I saw this foyer, covered by a curtain and next to this candelabra. So I walked over there, and I saw this portrait." I took a bite of my burrito.
"And?" Ben asked.
"It was me! It was this giant oil painting of me!" I said.
Ben rolled his eyes. "Ki-im."
"I'm serious, Ben! Everything about the girl in the picture was me! The hair, the eyes, the nose! She had my nose, Ben! The same too straight nose! And the same ears!"
Normally, Ben would've made a sarcastic remark about how I'm too touchy, but he didn't.
"Were you scared?" he asked me.
"Ben, I was terrified! I couldn't breathe, and my heart was pounding. I ran out of the place, but the owner stopped me."
"Why?"
"I don't know. All I was thinking is why the hell is he trying to make chit chat when it's obvious that I've been scared out of my wits, and then he kisses my hand and tells me to call him Edward. Oh, and before, he tells me that I'm a very fascinating person or something like that and..."
"Whoa, Kim, calm down!" Ben exclaimed.
I took a deep breath. "Scared the shit out of me."
"What's so scary about the fact that the guy's obviously hitting on you?"
"It's all about the way he looks at me. He just stares at me! It creeps me out."
"Kim, everything always creeps you out."
"I know, I know. But this is too weird."
"Is he old or something?"
"I think he's in his thirties."
"Married?"
"I don't think so. I really think the butler would've mentioned a Mrs. Gracey, but then again he could just be a two-timing bastard."
"Is he ugly or something?"
"No, he's actually pretty good looking, but scary. And he has these weird eyebrows..."
"Kim, I have never known you to ever be afraid of anyone you think is hot."
"I never said hot." I muttered. "You can't think someone is hot if they scare you."
"Why? Why does he scare you?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. His butler scares me too, for some reason."
"Maybe they're cursed pirates who turn into skeletons when moonlight hits them." Ben said wryly.
Ben had to leave soon after, to get back to his article on overpriced hotels, so I just kind of lingered around the mall. Not a good idea, see, I'm kind of a shopaholic, and when I go to the mall, I always over do it. Always.
And that's just what I did. My God, I'm pathetic. I spent fifty dollars at the Disney Store! And the only reason I even went in there was to look at the stuffed animals, but then I saw the DVD rack, and I suddenly remembered that I never bought The Lion King, and they had the CUTEST stuffed animals from Finding Nemo...Not to mention the $200 dollars worth of clothes I bought, plus a new pair of Nikes, and some new CDs, and a pretty bracelet for my mom, and a magnet for my dad, and something for my friend Tracy...
When I left the mall, I was as happy as a clam. I hopped into the rental car, blasted my new music on the stereo, and I was all singing along and happy when I remembered what had gone on at Gracey Manor. Suddenly, I really wasn't in the mood for any of that.