Chapter Seventy Four

Bella

I was awakened by the bumpy road surface and looking round I saw we were no longer on the highway, now we were on a track leading to what looked like a derelict farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. I sat up interested now, were we finally here? I turned to look at The Major but his eyes were fixed on the track ahead although he was aware I was staring at him.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"About nine hours give or take. I put my foot down overnight, it can't be comfortable trying to sleep in this truck."

"Thank you for that but it's not that bad. Is this our destination?"

He shook his head,

"Nope although it looks deserted enough."

"No one lives here anymore by the look of things. Is this your family home?"

He ignored me pulling up at the front of the sagging porch, tattered curtains flapping out of broken windows, red paint daubed on the door and rubbish blown up against its threshold.

I got out looking about me but there was no sign of life not even a bird over head, it was as if this place were in mourning, still peopled by the ghosts of those who had died here. In the center of the front yard was an old tree and hanging from its lower branches, still a good fifteen feet from the ground hung a series of nooses. I stepped back straight into him and he turned to look,

"So someone still visits."

"It must be kids, Halloween tricks, its the sort of place teenagers might come for a Halloween party, does it have a bad reputation?"

He didn't answer me just walked up the porch steps that creaked loudly under his weight and pushed open the door disappearing inside. A sudden shiver ran through me and I hastened to join him.

The Major

So the old house was still unoccupied and still held its horror close, even down to nooses on the tree but I wouldn't think about that, I couldn't, it hurt too much. I followed the hall down to the end, to the room I shared with my brothers, the furniture had long gone as had the rest probably the ashes in the grate were all that was left of it, keeping a group of brave or curious teenagers warm on a winters night.

Turning I thought just for a second I saw my little sister Amy standing in the doorway looking at me but I blinked and she was gone. Then I heard Bella,

"This was your home wasn't it? What happened Major? Why is it still unoccupied? Surely it would have been sold off if your family died? Or did they move out for some reason?"

I took her hand and pulled her outside, up the slight incline to the place where they lay buried, the crude markers I had put up long gone and only a slight mound in the earth showed their final resting place.

"This is where my family went. They never left the farm."

"All of them?"

"Yes and before you ask no, I didn't kill them although I feel responsible."

"Were you here? Could you have stopped what happened?"

"No, I was too late."

As I said that I thought of my brother, of Samuel, and cut that thought off dragging her a little too roughly away from their resting place and back to the truck. She didn't say anything although I must have hurt her wrist because when I let go she rubbed it wincing.

"Get in, we're leaving."

"Leaving? I thought we were staying here."

"Well you were wrong, we're going into town, get some supplies."

"You really don't know why no one lives here?"

I turned on her snapping in my anger,

"I told you I didn't."

Bella

There was something about this place, something that was eating him alive, I could see it in his eyes, the way his shoulders slumped. A tragedy happened here and if he wouldn't tell me about it then I'd find someone who would, perhaps in town. He drove the distance in silence and when he pulled up outside the store he handed me more money.

"Get what you need for a week. I'm trusting you not to try contacting anyone. If you do I'll kill everyone in this town and believe me I could, I've done it before and I have no love for the townsfolk here."

Before I could ask why or point out these people hadn't even been born when the tragedy struck his family he was gone, I didn't see where but from the sun on the side walk I assumed somewhere more shady.

I went inside the store and grabbed a basket then started looking down the aisles making a mental list and crossing it off as I went. At the far end stood an elderly man trying without success to reach a can on the top shelf so I helped him out and he thanked me with a smile,

"That's OK."

"You're new around here, I ain't see'd ya afore."

"No, I'm here with a...friend. We just came from the abandoned farm."

"You mean the Whitlock place? Ain't nothin' there no more just ghosts so they say. Did ya friend tell ya the story?"

"No, do you know it?"

"Everyone around here does, its famous. Ya wanna hear it?"

"Please."

He sat himself down on the edge of the freezer with a groan then started to talk,

"Twer the end o' the war, the civil war mind ya, there were lots a crazy ex soldiers round. Folks came up missin' or dead all round'. Sheriff's men found the Whitlock family all carved up, limbs missin' all sorts an they thinked it were some of them soldiers. Then word got round it were down ta the youngest son, queer in the head he were and a friend of the family from the next farm the Jenkins boy. Then his family came up missin'.They never found Peter Jenkins but the Whitlock boy got hisself caught. They hung him from the tree in the yard. I guess kids still put nooses up on Halloween, ain't been out there in years myself. A course, the older boy he was a war hero, they said he went loco too, hunting them men that killed his mammy and pappy, siblin's too."

I thanked him and finished my shopping quickly, feeling sick to my stomach, I could see the reason The Major became the monster he did. Coming home having survived the war only to find his family wiped out and his younger brother accused of the murders along with a friend...a friend called Peter. Was that the same Peter who was with Charlotte?

If so then The Major must be sure he hadn't been involved in the murders or he would have killed Peter himself. Or was the name just a coincidence? I didn't know but I now had some idea of what the man had endured that turned him into The Major. How he became a vampire was still a mystery to me but I hoped in time I might find out. As I left the store I saw the phone just inside the door but I never even hesitated and there he was waiting for me and took the bags loading them into the trunk before opening the door for me.

"Get all you wanted?"

"Yes thank you. I did as a matter of fact."

He looked at me quizzically but I wasn't ready to tell him what I'd learned, not yet.

I thought we were going back to the farm but instead he drove the truck as far as he could up an ever narrowing track then helped me out and I let him as if it were quite natural.

"Its not far just follow the trail I'll be behind you with the bags."

I went on careful where I walked, I didn't want to find myself sprawling in the dust head first. His presence behind me was comforting in a strange way and then suddenly I stopped, the tiny track had petered out. He stepped past me and knelt down pushing vegetation apart until I saw an old wooden trapdoor and stepped back my hands held out in horror.

"No, no way am I going down there."

"Suit yourself but it'll be dark soon."

He grabbed the bags then disappeared into the darkness as if the ground had swallowed him up, I looked around then cursing followed him down.