They hadn't been home in over a month.. closer to two months, and one of their neighbors told Roy's Mom that he'd run off one particular guy from up there 3 times... the last time being at gunpoint. Apparantly this guy was trying to get in the front door, and then last, the garage. He must have wanted in there badly to have been chased away on three different occasions.
After Christmas dinner, we were sitting around the table talking about it, and I told Sarah we should ride up there and see if anything was missing. She, Bonnie, Roy and I loaded up and went. Of course it was very dark by then.
We stopped at Dianne's to ask her to call Sarah's neighbors to let them know it was us up there so he didn't come out with his faithful shotgun, as we were in Bonnie's car and he wouldn't recognize it.. and when Roy went in to ask her to phone him, we ladies waited in the car. Roy's window was down just a little where he'd been sitting and all of a sudden the most awful piercing scream came from the mountain behind Dianne's house. It was probably a panther or a bobcat.. it sounded like a woman being tortured and maimed. I leaned up, asked what the hell that was.. and it screamed again, this time from the mountain across the road from Dianne's house. Two panthers calling out to each other most likely, but it set the mood for the rest of the excursion. Can we say 'fear'?
Before I could turn my head towards the direction of the 2nd scream, the horses came charging out of Dianne's barn, neighing, running like wildfire through the field, something spooked them. They musta thought the panthers were coming for them. Bon turned the car and aimed the lights at the barn and the other horses came flying out, they looked so wild eyed! We got out then, Dianne and Roy came outside to see what on earth was going on, and we walked over to look in the field by the fence.. the horses came over to us and stood, they let Dianne pet them, they were calming down. We saw they were okay, so we went on up to Sarah's house.
Have you ever felt a feeling of total terror, desolation, and hopelessness? I stood outside in the driveway and watched Roy push his door open.. they said it had previously been locked and deadbolted, but now it wasn't even pulled tightly shut. I stood there in the dark, the porch light wasn't on, and I was suddenly too afraid to move. I wasn't afraid of something like a 'ghost', moreso, I felt like some very real danger, a very real threat to our safety was very close to us, and I just couldn't get my feet to follow the kids into their house. I had to chide myself to finally go inside behind them.. Those are your kids for heaven's sakes, they could get shot in there, or worse, get your ass in gear! Finally my feet took to moving, with Bonnie right behind me.
We got inside and I was just overwhelmed with uneasy hopelessness and I was so scared. I couldn't tell what the hell was wrong, only that something was.. I'm thinking now that someone had been in there and hadn't been gone long. I don't know why.. Sarah said that things were moved around, the heat was on and turned up and she said she'd had it off.. the onions in the cabinet in the kitchen which had the door open, didn't look almost 2 months old to me, just it didn't seem to be empty... though it appeared to be.
There were no unexplained noises, nothing to outright prove something or someone was in there, nothing was missing. We looked around, then we headed for the basement, to see if her Tanning bed was still there. The basement door wasn't locked either, and it was opened a few inches. Anything or anyone could have gone in there.
Roy went first, and put a light bulb in the socket, it came on, and Sarah started in. I was right behind her, but chide myself as I may, my feet refused, just refused to cross that thresh hold into their basement. Bonnie wouldn't even get out of the car at the basement door, she begged me not to either, but I did anyway. Sarah suddenly grabbed Roy and said NO.. come out, NOW.. he started to turn off the light and she pulled him back by his arm, said, NO, leave it, let's go.. and she pulled him out of the basement, he shut the door and she was still dragging him to the car.
She said, Mom, I dont' know what on earth it was, but suddenly I knew if I didn't get out of there, if I didn't get him out of there something horrible was going to happen. I knew we had to leave and leave now, there wasn't time to let him turn off the light.
I knew what she meant because I felt it too. So did Bonnie. We weren't safe, something was wrong and we knew it.
We got the hell out of dodge.
Now isn't that strange, that I was afraid wasn't too odd, but for Sarah and Roy to be so scared that they wouldn't go into their own basement? I'd love to know what was in that house Christmas night. I'm glad they didn't go on into that basement. Ugh. I hope they decide to sell that place. From the day they moved into it not one good thing has happened to them, aside from Maegan being born.
Posted by juel at December 27, 2006 10:33 AM