Gifts of the Ghost

Incredibly, all the boxes were neatly labeled. Everything was organized for us to find things without searching through everything. Well, I’d had plenty of chances but never any inclination before now.

“Should I open the box labeled family heirlooms?” I pointed the camera to another box. “Or the one labeled legal documents?”

The resounding answer was the legal documents.

I chuckled and nodded. “You got it.” I pulled the box out of the stack and leaned my camera phone on another stack of boxes. From there, my viewing audience could see what I found while not being able to read the words on the papers in case there was something super sensitive… like an address or something else reasonably private.

“Let’s see.” I pulled a huge stack of papers out of the box. “Wow. There’s a lot here.”

I started rifling through the pile. “Here’s the deed for the house.” It was old and interesting, but nothing on it they couldn’t see, so I held it up and focused the camera. “Pretty cool. Especially with the old-fashioned seal here.” Setting it aside, I looked through the next several pages. “Some stuff that goes with the family’s shop, kind of boring.” I set those aside and paused, staring down at the next two papers.

“My parents' death certificates,” I remarked quietly. “Even with as long as they’ve been gone, it’s still hard to look at this.” I didn’t want to start crying on a live video, so I set the certificates aside to go over later, privately. After clearing my throat, I glanced at the next page and brightened. “Oh, nice. Easily the most interesting one so far. It’s a blueprint of the house.”

I held it up so the viewers could see it. “It shows two stories, plus the attic, but this house doesn’t have a basement.” Setting the phone against a box so I could look closer, I spoke the question I was thinking out loud. “Why would it have a basement listed?”

Another question popped up, drawing my attention. I read it aloud for the viewers. “What if it isn’t a basement? Instead, what if it could be tunnels underneath the house?”

I stared at myself in the phone and shrugged. “Could be.” Squinting, I held the paper closer to my face, trying to decipher the complicated plans. “Oh, look.” I angled it so they could, hopefully, see as well. “It says the entrance is in the pantry, behind the shelves.”

Furrowing my brow, I looked directly at the camera. I pointed at the spot that specified the entrance. “Now that can't be labeled correctly. No one has ever mentioned tunnels or anything else below this house. Ever. There’s a pantry, but there wasn’t another doorway in that room.”

With a shrug, I set the blueprints aside and began to search through some of the other documents. “Maybe there’s something else here that will explain the discrepancies in the blueprints.”

After a few moments of not finding anything of interest in the box, I checked the comments.

“Go see if the door is still there,” CassieOwensGirlMom urged.

“We need to know if there are tunnels,” Huggyjo pleaded.

“We’re dying here!” KaraLoki93 was obviously invested.

When there were over forty comments, I finally gave in to their pleas to explore.

“Okay, okay. Let’s go exploring to see if that door is actually there.” Laughing, blueprints in hand, I descended the stairs slowly.

Not only because I was still a bit worried about the rickety-factor but going too fast would have been nausea-inducing on the video. When we reached the lowest level of the house—floor level, I hurried toward the pantry. Once there, I moved the camera so viewers could see the burned-out pantry was a large room with no other entrances leading out of it.

“See? There’s no tunnel entrance.” I turned the camera to my face and shrugged wryly at them.

“Break down the wall,” CassieOwensGirlMom suggested.

Oh, no. Bad idea. “Break it down? We’re already sitting here in a burned-out husk of a structure, and you want me breaking walls? No thank you. I’m not really the adventurous type. I’m not Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. I won’t find any treasure by breaking walls apart.” I laughed at the idea because it was so far out of my comfort zone. “I don’t think so.”

Huggyjo commented again. “Maybe you could knock on them to see if they sound hollow. Do all the walls sound like the other walls?”

“I like how you think, Huggyjo.” It couldn’t hurt to knock.

I tried the first wall and then moved on to the others. I returned to the first wall, and my test knock gave off a different sound than the other walls. I tried again, quickly going from one wall to another. Sure enough, one of them sounded hollow.

“You guys…” I propped the phone up on one of the blackened shelves of the pantry and pulled out the blueprints. “They show a closet next to the pantry.”

Looking back at the phone, I nodded at the suggestion that I push on the walls. It didn’t take much to move the obstruction. With a slight shove, the wall gave slightly. As I used more force, it moved even more.

“Oh, my gosh, y’all!” I exclaimed. “Are you guys seeing this?”

The corner where the walls should have met was a cracked seam, but the other corners of the room were smooth. Oh, man. Oh, man. My mouth dried, and I studied the ceiling, hoping what was left of it wouldn’t come crashing down on me. I was about to knock down a wall in a burned-out house… at the urging of social media. I smoothed my hand over my forehead. Was I really going to knock down the wall? I grinned. Of course I am.

My camera needed to be settled in the best spot to show me as I tried to open the fake wall. I fiddled with the camera spot and ignored the increasing number of comments begging me to knock it down already. I had hundreds watching my escapades in real-time. Maybe even close to a thousand by now.

When I was happy with the camera placement, I turned to the wall. I rubbed my hands together. Then I used my nails to slide the crack open a little more. When I pried harder, it moved.

Shocked, I turned, but the wall came with me. It was surprisingly light, and I leaned it against one of the sturdy pantry walls. A draft blew up toward me, bringing a musty smell with it.

Behind the wall was an empty space, leading down. A staircase was there as if it was beckoning me to explore.

I gasped and tried to contain my excitement as I read the comments flooding the live stream. I flashed two thumbs up. “Well, looks like the blueprints were right after all. Good call on knocking, Huggyjo.”

I checked the screen. Yep. A few thousand people were now watching, and some of them complained about how dark everything was. That was an easy fix.

“I need another flashlight,” I updated everyone as the stairs led into total darkness. “I can’t see much of anything.”

There should’ve been a flashlight in the hall closet. It had been there for every power outage there’d ever been through my growing-up years. “Hang on, I’ll be right back.”

Hurrying out to the hall, I sifted through all the ash and soot before I discovered one at the bottom. It was in pretty good shape, despite being surrounded by burned house. It was a little ironic I had to dig for what I needed to find more clues.

I wanted to rush back, but I needed to catch my breath and keep calm. Plus, the open passageway would build suspense and get more people into the live. This was going to be huge, regardless of what I found. I walked quickly back to the pantry, grabbed the phone, and turned it around toward my face, grinning at the thousands of people waiting to see what happened. “Okay, here we go. Y’all better have my back if this goes sideways.”

I turned on the flashlight and pointed the camera down, descending slowly into the cool underground stairwell. “Isn’t this amazing?” I crooned, and my voice echoed up and down the narrow tunnel.

At the end of the stairs was another door. “Okay. We’ve got another door.”

A question from ReptileWoman popped up asking if I really didn’t know about any of this hidden stuff or if I was faking it.

“I swear, I had no idea any of this existed. This isn’t some stunt. I’m as stunned as you guys are. Hold on while I try to open this so we can keep going.”

I sat the phone and flashlight on the stairs behind me, so it could keep filming as I tried to open the next door. Both hands went around the knob as I placed a foot at the base of the door frame.

After a few good tugs, I jerked backward, and the door came free from the frame. The momentum sent me flying back, and I landed smack on my rear. When I looked up, a man dressed in Victorian attire stood there on the other side of the doorway, staring at me in shock.

I let out a scream as my flashlight died, the phone fell over, and everything plunged into darkness.

9

The echo of my scream reverberated in the sudden darkness. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, and I could feel my veins pulsing in my fight or flight terror.

With my eyes finally starting to adjust to the dark, I scanned the space for my phone; after all, there should be some sort of light coming from it or something. The harder I looked, the more frantic I became. I needed to be able to get back up the stairs without dying, and if I couldn’t find my phone, I’d have to find the flashlight and pray it would work.

“I’m okay,” I whispered to myself. Even as a grown adult, it was hard not to be afraid of the dark when the dark was in a creepy secret tunnel under a burned-out house. I took a deep breath of air and slowly released it, trying to slow the pounding of my heart. I smoothed my hand over the ground until my hand closed around my phone.

Louder, I repeated, “I’m okay! The flashlight died as I opened the door, and I landed on my rear. I’ll have to go back upstairs and calm my nerves for a bit. Maybe get a more reliable flashlight. Don’t worry, I’ll update you all later. Probably on YouTube, rather than trying to go live again. Nobody call the cops. I am okay, and it’s still just me. Stay tuned for the next update, stay safe and burn bright.”

With that, I ended the live stream. How was that for a cliffhanger? I collapsed on the ground and shook my head. I took another deep breath. That was a mistake, because it was filled with dirt and dust from the door being opened so abruptly.

I turned on the phone’s flashlight, and its paltry light flooded the darkness with enough light…for now.

Where did the man in the doorway go?

A pitter-patter sounded on the stairs, and I glanced up to see Shadow coming down the steps toward me. I climbed to my feet. “Fancy meeting you here. Do you know the guy in the suit?”

She meowed at me and then didn’t hesitate to enter the dark tunnel leading into the unknown, so I followed her. Why not? The corridor emptied into a large room. Or what seemed to be a large room, the best I could tell with my phone flashlight.

In the first corner, a rock alcove had been built into the wall.

Shadow jaunted around the room as though she still had no fear of this place or what might lurk around the corner. I spun slowly, trying to hit as much of the space with my light as possible.

That was when I saw him. Again. He was on the opposite side of the room from the alcove.

“Hello there. I didn’t mean to scare you,” the man said, giving a slight bow from the waist. “I’m Viscount William Howe the Seventh.”

The Seventh… Had he said the Seventh? My breath came in short bursts as questions flew through my mind. My thoughts spun.

“How long have you been down here?” I finally blurted out.

He pursed his lips and clasped his hands behind his back. “The year eighteen seventy, I believe. That was the year I came to the Americas from England.” He gave a weary sigh. “It has been so very long since I have spoken to anyone.”

“Why are you still down here?” I tried not to squeal, but I’m pretty sure I did. Gesturing around me, I tried to take surreptitious glances around. “Why are you still down here?” I repeated in a whisper this time.

He shrugged elegantly. “I didn’t fulfill my purpose.”

Aunt Linda’s voice echoed faintly from somewhere above me. I smiled tentatively at the…Viscount? “Listen, I’ve got to go find my aunt. She’s upstairs. Can you, I mean, are you able to come with me?” I hated to leave him down here alone after he’d just found me.

“I will wait for you to return.” He nodded stiffly. “I’m unable to leave this portion of the dwelling. My body is buried here, and I’m connected to it.”

Aunt Linda called for me again. “Mags?”

I had to run, so I raised a finger. “Wait here. I’ll be right back. I promise.”

“I hadn’t planned to go anywhere,” he answered with a frown.

Thankfully, the light increased as I made my way up the disused stairs and found Aunt Linda at the base of the attic.

“Where on earth were you, Mags?” She sounded exasperated and her face matched her voice. She frowned at me. “You’re filthy. Have you been rolling in… dust… and, and cobwebs? And I thought you were checking the attic?” She plucked a cobweb from my hair and tried to toss it aside, but it stuck to her until she wiped it on her pant leg.

Without answering her question, I asked one of my own. “I found blueprints for the house up there. Did you know about the tunnels under the house?”

Her bracelets rattled as she waved her hand and laughed. “It sounds like something out of your mystery novels.”

I ignored her dismissal. “Exactly what I thought until I found the tunnel listed on the blueprint.” I grabbed her hand and dragged her to the pantry.

At the pantry, her mouth fell open when she saw the removed wall with a stairway leading down. “You weren’t joking.”

“No. Definitely not joking.” I bounced in place. “I was doing a live stream and inspecting the walls. This one moved. I pulled it out and found the staircase.”

The phone’s flashlight turned on with the flick of my finger.

“That’s not all I found. There’s a…” Before the rest of the sentence could leave my lips, Viscount William stood in the doorway looking at us.

“Aunt Linda, may I present Viscount William Howe the Seventh.” I hoped I remembered that correctly. “William, this is my Aunt Linda McAllister.”

He nodded formally. “Please to meet you.”

“Why are you hanging around down there?” Aunt Linda questioned.

I hurried to explain. “He was telling me that his body is down there. He’s not allowed to leave it.”

William rushed forward, causing Linda to stiffen. Though, she wasn’t likely scared at this point. We both had too much experience with ghosts for fright.

“It was many years ago,” he explained. “My brother murdered me and left my body in the tunnels to rot.” His voice filled with sadness.

The thought of someone being murdered below the house horrified me.

“I am a descendant of General William Howe,” he continued. “His journal turned up, and I wanted a chance to dig into his secrets.” The ghost ignored the shocked looks on our faces.

“We-we’ve uncovered a few secrets ourselves,” I said in a near-stammer. “In fact, we recently turned all the papers we’d found on General William Howe over to a historical museum to preserve them.” The possibility of learning more about what happened during his life was rather exciting.

“Yes, I heard you ladies talking about them, but those were pieces of his professional life,” he explained when I gave him a confused look. “The journal is about his personal life and will change the lives of many people. It’s filled with violent confessions, and I came here to make things right.”

We followed the specter as we listened in fascination to his story. “My first stop was here, where my brother killed me. I was trying to set things right with Maggie McAllister’s family. I know who killed her. It’s in the journal. You’ll have to dig it up.”

He moved toward the corner close to where he appeared earlier and pointed to a pile of rocks. “It’s here.”

Aunt Linda and I moved the rocks quickly, and within a few minutes, we uncovered the journal. In pristine condition.

I lifted it out of its shallow grave and ran a gentle finger over the cover. “This is so incredible for it to be unharmed.”

“I have protected it through the years. As I must now protect someone else.” He disappeared.

My curiosity got the better of me as I wandered around looking for any signs of him.

“Do you think he’s moved on?” I asked Aunt Linda. “He said he couldn’t leave his body, which is presumably here somewhere.”

“That’s more than likely it. He finished his purpose. Now he can find peace.” She nodded at me. “Now let’s see what else is down here.”

Our phone lights illuminated more tunnels with antiques and other family relics peppered here and there. Candlesticks and antique guns lined the walls.

I looked around in awe. “You’re certain that you’ve never heard of the tunnels before?”

“No.” Aunt Linda shook her head. “If I had, then we would have cleared everything out. This isn’t my idea of a safe space to store antiques.”

I chuckled and studied the historical treasures. What a remarkable find.

10

As the new week started, I found myself unable to focus on TikTok videos, candle making, or even the upcoming closing statements at court. The journal called to me, distracting me every moment of every day.

This journal held clues to Maggie’s death. Social media would have to wait. Chills ran down my spine as I read through the entries. Several dull stories or self-important bragging filled the pages before I found one entry that turned my stomach.

While on an assignment near Indian Territory, I had to kill my ranking officer. The late Colonel Jessup. It was really quite unavoidable. The red savages of the land will of course take the blame for his demise.

Further down, another mention of his victim.

They buried Jessup today. It was a lovely service. More than he deserved. As expected, the story about an Indian ambush was sufficient. Scouts even confirmed recent Shawnee raiding parties. My heroics during the encounter have impressed my superiors. There is talk of a promotion.

I bristled at the words and had to place the book aside until I calmed down. The general was a snake.

I turned on my phone and filmed a series of three-minute candle dipping videos for uploading while I calmed down. My meditation as I tried to block out all that—No. Unwilling to get riled up again, I shoved the journal out of my mind.